Good Vs. Bad Character Design: What makes a character design bad?

Why is Character Design Important?

As storytellers and creators, we pay attention to our character designs for a few reasons. The first is that character design draws in an audience and sells them on a narrative. We’ve all seen examples of bad anime character design and the worst character design tropes, which we’ll get into. But most importantly, we know what works. We know that good character design is that initial hook that invites people to experience our stories.

A great example of this would be Spider-Man when he was first introduced into the comic book scene of the 1960s. His costume, designed by Steve Ditko, was so unlike traditional superhero costumes of the time. It was brilliantly designed and drew people to Spider-Man by combining the elements of bold primary colors and texture. This is in addition to unique traits such as a completely masked face with large, expressive eye shapes.

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Great character design, for example, can generate buzz around a project. It not only serves to introduce the audience to a story, but it helps your audience to sell your story to other people. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a manga and anime series filled with brilliant character design that works through unique fashion and brilliant posing, resulting in intriguing characters often shared in memes. A cool character design can go a long way toward creating a positive impression of your story or project, which can create fans who help spread the word about your work.

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Our last point regarding the value of good character design is that it also hooks an audience into sticking with a story, even during some of the rougher and slower establishing moments (when those happen). You can probably name any number of bad character design examples that may bring someone in for a laugh, but those designs don’t motivate readers to stick to a story or setting. Star Wars didn’t have trouble keeping the audience’s attention, but that was partially the result of the overwhelmingly powerful design choices that made up Darth Vader. Who wouldn’t want to see his story play out?

Good Character Design vs. Bad Character Design

Some of the worst character design tropes are easily avoided when you are aware of them. More often than not, however, their inclusions are a result of overlooking elements of the design process. The ultimate thing to remember when it comes to bad character design is that it is just temporary. A bad character design is just a character design that needs some refinement. In that case, I’d even be hesitant to label character designs as “bad” because you can always build on those foundations.

But, something else we need to consider is that a lot of what we read as good or bad character design is subjective. Taste, as much as some organizations and movements like to argue is universal, rarely actually is. We all have our preferences when it comes to character designs, and what may bother me, for example, may not be an issue for you. You may even think that the design choices I find offputting are great.

Ultimately, the reason designs can be seen as bad by many people is that those character designs are confusing. There are certain rules and consistencies in how we view the world, and character designs that violate or stray too far from expectations can end up confusing us and appear offputting. The trick to great character design is to know how to bend those rules without going too far and creating something that confuses viewers.

So, with that said, as we look at some common bad character design tropes, let’s keep in mind that tastes are subjective, and preferences are valid. With that said, there are technical issues that are frequently the cause of character designs looking off that we should be aware of as we work.

Worst Character Design Tropes Examples

Remember that we’re looking at common, technical issues in character design that often are seen as “bad.” And remember that bad, in this case, is just a design that can be updated. Let’s look at some infamous examples of bad character design.

Awkward Anatomy and Proportions

Bodies work a certain way. We expect that features are going to line up a certain way, even when exaggerated or simplified, which is the essence of cartooning. It’s why a simple smiley face or a stripped-down character such as Hubert works so well - the features line up and feel in proportion to what we might expect despite not being at all accurate to what we might consider a real human form.

So, here is my first example of bad character design where features fail to line up with what we would expect. This is Becky from the cartoon Tuff Puppy, and the design could use some serious help.

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Bad animal character design is an unfortunately common trope when it comes to awkward anatomy and proportions, usually, the result is trying to apply human proportions and features to creatures that do not share similar anatomy. As we can see, her mouth is put in a very, confusing and offputting place. The ears, separated from the head, aren’t an issue - they are more or less in the right spot, and we can buy the logic of the separation as part of a style. Certain stylizations can come off as interesting. But that mouth is the real problem here. 

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As you can see, simply moving the mouth can do a lot to make the design less off-putting. In some cases, a design might be fine as is, but the proportions are just handled poorly, which can result in something offputting. Take, for example, this production art of Lelouch from Code Geass, where there is an aesthetically pleasing outfit and cape, but one can’t help but end up distracted by just how thin those proportions are. Something is unsettling about how elongated elements of his design are.

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A simple tweak to the proportions and giving the character just a little more bulk would do wonders, here.

Confusing Designs

A lot of great character designs can be dragged down by issues of texture and overcomplication. One of my favorite examples of this is the protagonist of Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Luso Clemens. He is a great example of a needless complication that can result in bad anime character design.

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Luso’s proportions are generally fine, as he is a thin kid. The usage of bulky costuming makes sense to develop his silhouette as well. However, the problem is that his design is overcomplicated with features and textures. Just think of having to draw this design over, and over, and over in a comic book. Or, more terrifyingly, imagine animating it. A simple fix would be to reduce the complexity and streamline the silhouette a little. You can even keep the pizza-cutter sword as it catches attention.

Color Clashes

For most character designers, the last thing you would want to hear your character design described as is “garish,” but that is a fairly common issue when it comes to bad character design. Color choice matters immensely to how well a character goes over with an audience, and clashing color choices that result from inexperience or a lack of character can immediately tank the perception of a design.

If you’ve ever seen an OC with unnecessarily overwhelming neon color choices without contrast or balance, you know exactly what I mean. Bright, garish color choices can have their place, but they are best used sparingly and balanced by more neutral tones. Bad Sonic the Hedgehog fan characters tend to be culprits of overwhelming neon color choices. Speaking of which, check out my new OC, DarkNeon The GridHog.

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Other color choice issues may result in issues of values being too similar. I hate to pick on Final Fantasy again, but it can be a series full of highs and lows in character design. A great example of color choice being a real flaw in a character design is the case of Eiko from Final Fantasy IX. In this case, the body suit she wears has a similar value to her skin tone, resulting in a rather problematic design flaw where it looks like she may not be wearing anything under her strange open-crotch pants.

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Simply coloring that body suit red to match the nice, contrasting red sleeves would have easily corrected such a strange design oversight. When working on color choices for your OCs, always pay close attention to color theory.

No Personality

One of the key things that should come across in a character design is personality. A dull, flat character offers little excitement. Usually, great character design emphasizes exaggeration and strong poses to convey a character’s attitude and general vibe.

A great example of why this is important is to think of something like a T-pose versus something more exciting. Does a T-pose give you a general overview of a character’s designs and proportions? Absolutely! But is it a pose you should use when showing off the character? Does it reveal anything about their personality? Take, for example, Captain Falcon from the F-Zero series. Captain Falcon has a dynamic design and personality that is not shown off in this T-pose render.

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The T-pose does not do his design any favors. The lack of personality in the pose hurts the character design which is pretty fantastic otherwise. However, look at him in his more dynamic posing as seen in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

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Now that is some personality.

Putting My Designs on the Line

I’m not content to merely critique the works of others and snarkily punch down. Any character designer can improve, and any original character can be made more visually interesting to a broader audience.

To be fair, I will work out a character design throughout the rest of the article as I discuss different parts of the character design process. You’ll see an example of my bad character design and how I strive to improve it through the tips and tricks we’re covering.

So, let’s look at some core elements of character design and explore them through my character, Domingo Cruz. I developed this character a couple of years ago for a comic idea about a luchador who is abducted by aliens and forced to wrestle for a sinister intergalactic company. I did a rough pass at the design back then but have done little since. I should also mention some inspiration and design choices at the time from my good friend Ambrose. He helped come up with the character name, for example. He also contributed to the tattoo ideas on the design.

Looking at the design, I can’t say it is awful, but it definitely could use some work. There are elements I feel are missing, in addition to some unnecessary details. All in all, this is a character design that can use a lot of work, and I have had two years to sit on it. I think there is a lot to work with, though, and I am excited to share the process with you all.

Silhouette

One of the first steps I want to take when working on an updated character design for Domingo is to play with shapes. I want Domingo to come off as strong, but I also want his proportions to be a little more cartoony compared to that first draft. The other thing is figuring out if he will have a distinctive enough silhouette.

So, I figured that I would reference one of the greatest “strong guy” designs ever created: Mr. Incredible. Mr Incredible is based on triangular shapes, so I use that as my base for the attempt.

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There are elements of his initial design I liked and want to maintain as I develop the character. Specifically, he is muscular without appearing overly toned, which is a classic luchador look. I also want to maintain smaller legs in proportion to his torso, to play up a top-heavy look. However, I don’t necessarily want to stray too far into Mr. Incredible territory.

With this in mind, it is time to develop the design while maintaining those rough proportions. The triangular elements are still present, but he also appears a little boxier here because I wanted to lay out his proportions as clearly as possible. However, his general shape is still very much a larger upside-down triangle positioned above a smaller triangle.

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Posing

The next part of my design process is figuring out a pose. I am worried less about the silhouette overall in the earlier stage because posing is where you can develop far more interesting silhouettes.

Poses do a lot of heavy lifting in how a character comes off. Posing can convey energy and characteristics and go a long way to establishing a character’s personality. With the more dynamic posing in mind, I can also do additional work refining the design and proportions to figure out what elements need emphasis. In this case, I wanted to bulk him up and exaggerate his thick chest.

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With the pose locked in, I can then ink the art, but before I reveal the detailing in the next section, let's see how Domingo does with the silhouette test, one of the three fundamentals of good character design.

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Overall, I am happy enough with the silhouette, but I do recognize I could probably make it more dynamic with a little work. However, I at least recognize it is a striking improvement on the original drawing from a couple of years ago. So overall, the mission was successful.

Detail

While inking the character, my goal was to lock in some details that provide some interest to the design. I also wanted to make sure those details did not overwhelm the design either. It came down to an issue of balance.

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I wanted to add some toning to Domingo’s muscles without going overboard. Additionally, I liked the boxy piping along the legs of the original sketch and decided to keep that in, as it creates great contrast with the mostly textureless tights. Additionally, I added some trim to the boots to break them up further.

The most significant changes in the design, I’d argue, are the updates to the head. Domingo’s mask has been simplified. Additionally, I wanted to maintain a little more detail in his mouth and chin. While the goatee is simpler, I added a hint of cheekbones and kept the defined upper lip. This of course is contrasted by the more simple eyes.

I also ended up toning down the tattoos. Rather than keep some of the imagery on the old tattoos, I swapped to something that evokes the sun, for story purposes.

Color

Finally, I moved into coloring. Thankfully, I did a pretty good job selecting colors on the original sketch. However, with additional features, there are additional considerations. Color palettes can be powerful character design tools and can convey a lot of meaning. In the case of Domingo, I wanted to maintain a red and gold color scheme. 

Building Your Character Design Skills

If you want to build your character design skills and avoid bad character design tropes, you should be sharing your character designs and taking in feedback. Thankfully, CharacterHub has great character profiles that allow you to share your work and collect the thoughts of other OC creators, so you can assess what works with a design and what does not.

CharacteHub is also a great source of inspiration, as many talented creators post on the site and share their unique OC concepts that are well worth studying. One of the best ways to master the elements of good character design is exposure to great character design examples.

So, how do you feel about the topic of good character design vs. bad character design? Do you feel like you have a handle on what elements you need to focus on in your design work? Please be sure to share your character designs on CharacterHub so we can learn from your design choices as well.