Tanti-Fanti
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2018
The main problem with pitches like these is that it tells us NOTHING about the characters. Not about who they are as people or what they're interested in. Not even about what common things that the audience knows of that might be considered unique to them. This isn't considered vital information to share...but their sexuality/gender is?
I'm not even saying that can't be important to that character within their own right. Of course it can, but that's for later storytelling opportunities further down the line. Right now, the characters should be able to stand on their own since the audience doesn't know much about them yet. If you were to remove their name, gender, interests, likes, etc...what are you showing to the audience about them that you can't say with words? That IS strong shape language, movement, flow, color palettes, etc! All of this is important for people to instantly gauge who your characters are as people and how we can (or can not) relate to them. This goes for villains, heroes, anti-heroes, and almost all characters alike. Not every character needs to be conventionally attractive, but they need some sort of appeal. Something to really draw the audience in.
Right now, I have a hard time telling who these characters are other than Tokens, sadly. The concept art is pretty alright telling us the character's actions, but they don't really show anything about who they are. Using shape language could really help with this, but what you do get is not distinct enough to stand out. Why does this MC wear a skirt when they have shorts over tights already? Shorts over tights is a cute style, but it just seems pointless when you have layers of fabric you need to consider now EVERY TIME you draw a character kicking or doing some tricks. You tend to keep those things simple because when you later animate them, you aren't having to deal with 100's of layers of frills and laces. Having patterned leggings underneath can already be a hassle to replicate without duplicating, but then shorts with a dress on top? It's not a bad thing in itself (it could show the character's quirkiness), but it seems like a lot of additional work that you don't need to create for yourself.
As for the other characters, they suffer from this color palette issue too. Notice the lack of Main Colors, Sub Colors and Accents. Just a blob of contrasting colors. Your eyes can't really focus on anything because there's nothing to focus on. It's a problem we've seen with some of the art in this thread. Having that lack of cohesion really throws off the visuals. I really don't get why so many of these types of artworks have this issue, but it's frankly jarring.
I'm not even saying that can't be important to that character within their own right. Of course it can, but that's for later storytelling opportunities further down the line. Right now, the characters should be able to stand on their own since the audience doesn't know much about them yet. If you were to remove their name, gender, interests, likes, etc...what are you showing to the audience about them that you can't say with words? That IS strong shape language, movement, flow, color palettes, etc! All of this is important for people to instantly gauge who your characters are as people and how we can (or can not) relate to them. This goes for villains, heroes, anti-heroes, and almost all characters alike. Not every character needs to be conventionally attractive, but they need some sort of appeal. Something to really draw the audience in.
Right now, I have a hard time telling who these characters are other than Tokens, sadly. The concept art is pretty alright telling us the character's actions, but they don't really show anything about who they are. Using shape language could really help with this, but what you do get is not distinct enough to stand out. Why does this MC wear a skirt when they have shorts over tights already? Shorts over tights is a cute style, but it just seems pointless when you have layers of fabric you need to consider now EVERY TIME you draw a character kicking or doing some tricks. You tend to keep those things simple because when you later animate them, you aren't having to deal with 100's of layers of frills and laces. Having patterned leggings underneath can already be a hassle to replicate without duplicating, but then shorts with a dress on top? It's not a bad thing in itself (it could show the character's quirkiness), but it seems like a lot of additional work that you don't need to create for yourself.
As for the other characters, they suffer from this color palette issue too. Notice the lack of Main Colors, Sub Colors and Accents. Just a blob of contrasting colors. Your eyes can't really focus on anything because there's nothing to focus on. It's a problem we've seen with some of the art in this thread. Having that lack of cohesion really throws off the visuals. I really don't get why so many of these types of artworks have this issue, but it's frankly jarring.
