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thefloatingstone · 11 months

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How do I give my anime designs more character? I don’t want them to look bland, especially not the girls!

I had a whole different argument here and suddenly realised I was answering a question you didn't ask. I'm sick at the moment so my brain isn't working the best so forgive me if my answers seems a bit all over the place.

Most importantly, and something i think a LOT of modern anime does badly these days, is to not be afraid to PUSH the expressions of your anime girls.

if you'll forgive the mini-rant; modern anime has a really bad habit of not allowing female characters to have "ugly" expressions. Or when they do, they make them simplified emojis or make the one second of extreme emotion SO extreme it becomes completely off putting. Especially as there will be a tendency to only push an extreme expression in one single episode during a "dramatic scene".

This results in most girls in modern anime looking more like the limited expression range of a Vtuber than actual characters. There ARE exceptions, but this is a MASSIVE issue which was not the case in the 80s or 90s and only really started becoming more common around the mid 2000s.

Comparison examples! (you know I love those). I am using still images instead of gifs so the animation doesn't mask the drawing. But I'll show some animated gifs later in this ask

This extends beyond just facial expressions tho. Or rather... it doesn't.

Most modern anime shows will have the characters pull expressions in their face, but have their bodies relatively static, even in extreme emotions. If you compare the two screenshots above, the more modern example has a more extreme push to her eyes, but in the Dirty pair screenshot, not only is Kei's mouth open very wide, but her head is tilted backwards and to the side, her shoulders are drawn up, and she gives the impression even in a still image that she is in the middle of a physical reaction to something which annoyed her. Similarly, Yuri down there is also annoyed, and even though we only really see her eyes, you can tell she's hunched over and seething. In the modern anime screenshot she's just.... got the default "these are my angry eyes!" face with nothing really happening elsewhere.

Her shoulders I guess are kind of drawn up but so barely you wouldn't be blamed to think they always look like that.

And this comes to the second point.

DRAW FROM LIFE AND/OR PHOTOS.

There is NOTHING wrong using a pose doll to figure out a challenging pose. I have used pose dolls when I am unsure how a certain pose looks from a specific angle. But looking at real life, whether photos or if you can, life drawing, will be your biggest tool in figuring out how to breathe more life into your poses and art.

Now, to answer the ACTUAL question you asked about design;

I have to admit that character design is not a strength of mine. I have little to no practice with it myself and when I design OCs I end up not liking them or not enjoying their designs. I feel someone far more skilled at the design part of design might have better input, but I can tell you what I know just from observation;

The first BIG advice is; do not confuse interesting design with clutter.

This doesn't mean strip down your character design to look like a Y/N drawing, but more have every element you introduce into your design be there with some kind of thought in mind as to how it applies to the character and who they are as a person. This is a mistake I often see made with characters both OCs as well as professionally. Where character designers seem to think adding MORE to a design will make a character more interesting to look at. (PreCure has this problem a LOT)

Giving your character too many details without some kind of larger unification or idea, makes them harder to envision for people, because there's too much visual noise.

If I tell you to think of Link from Legend of Zelda, it doesn't matter WHICH Link you picture 9although at the moment it's most likely TotK or BotW Link), Link has unified design elements which means regardless of how detailed or cluttered his outfit becomes, we all know what Link looks like;

1: Blonde hair on the longer side usually, with fringe and side bangs 2: blue diamond shaped eyes, pointed ears, light skin 3: wears some variation of green. Can dress in other colours but Green is an identifying colour. Even in ToTK and BotW where he is most often shown in blue, Green is still the vast majority of the outfits and gear he will wear 4: boots and light coloured tights/pants 5: Twink

You don't need to look at a picture of Link to know this is what Link looks like. Other details like his earring, belts, gloves, bracers, undershirt etc are all there and enhance these elements and distinguish one Link from another exist, but they are not the unifying elements to Link's character design.

On top of this, all of Link's character design make SENSE for his character, what he does, where he comes from etc.

He is a Hylian so he has pointed ears and is generally elf-like in appearance. He spends most of his time in European forests so he dresses in green. When he wears other colours it usually corresponds to where he is currently traveling. He carries a sword and shield so he has a belt with scabbard. He carries an entire pantry worth of food with him, so he has various satchels and bags on his person (but not too many or the design becomes cluttered). He wears light protective gear to show he gets into fights but they are usually not heavy in nature because Link is nimble and relies heavily on movement.

This doesn't tell us anything about his personality because Link doesn't really have one, but it's a very strong character design all the same and informs us what kind of character he is and what sort of life he leads as well as what sort of background he might have (He is a skilled adventurer. Not a rich sheltered boy who has never been outside of a city before or something of the like).

Now I'm gonna compare him to the character design of a Mass Effect character which I don't THINK you'd have played since your profile says you're a teen and the game is rated M 👀 (or you might have, idk I'm not your mom) but ANYWAY! Looking at a character design which tells us about their PERSONALITY as well as way of living.

I'm not going to use any of the aliens as examples because then you have to bring in the subject of alien species into the equation and how they stand apart from the various other members of their species and etc etc. So we'll talk about a human character.

So... this is Jack

Although you may think her tattoos make her design cluttered, they don't because you don't really need to know what every individual tattoo looks like. You just know "Jack is covered in Tattoos".

So just looking at her, you can pretty much instantly pin down her personality. That being; she will most likely fucking stab you if you say one thing to annoy her.

She's like a punk on steroids. Shaved head, heavy make up, COVERED in tattoos, both ears capped in some futuristic piercings, some or other heavy duty uniform except she decided she'd rather walk around fucking topless and boots that could crush a man's skull.

Everything about her design screams "don't fuck with me I am VERY unhinged and will kill a man for less than the $4 in his pocket".

Jacks' entire personality is on display in her design. And the design as a whole present a single concept of who she is as a person, while ALSO tying into her backstory and lifestyle. (escaped prisoner from high security facility, still wearing the prison uniform, has been in an unknown number of gangs, has an extremely casual approach to sex and sexuality, uses her intimidation as a first line of defense to prevent people from getting close to her indicating a painful past)

And then you compare her to her design in the following game

This is a great design because it not only informs you on Jack's personality, but also her GROWTH AS A CHARACTER.

Her design is, at least compared to her first appearance, softer. She's grown her hair long enough to tie it into a ponytail, making her appear more feminine. But she still shaves the sides so you know she can still shank you if she wants.

Her outfit is still VERY revealing but she's also dressed borderline decently. She is not as defensive any more and could probably even walk around in normal society without getting a ticket (and then shooting the cop in response).

However even covered up, she's wearing a leather studded jacket, and she is still displaying her tattoos on her chest and hands proudly. She's still the same person... just less likely to murder you (although the option is still there if needed).

Now compare these character designs to some others which I would count as being "too busy" and tell me if these designs tell you ANYTHING about what kind of personalities these characters might have, what kind of lifestyle to they live, what do their environments and world looks like, or what it says about them

Fun fact; that last one is NOT a magical girl, but is in fact an alchemist who is living in a slowly dying world whose resources are being depleted and the future looks grim and hopeless as humanity tries to navigate this slow apocalypse.

I have no idea if any of that made sense or is useful in any way, but hopefully you get what I mean?

Look at real life. Don't rely on just referencing other anime and pose dolls. Don't clutter a character design with details that don't mean anything. make the parts of your character design you use have meaning or purpose. Even if that purpose is just "to give them a silhouette different to the other characters so she's easy to identify by sight"

#C-Puff answers #long post

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buckttommy · 2 years

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Eddie wouldn’t even date or fuck around with anyone after Shannon left him, I don’t see him fucking around with anyone while he was still married

That's fair, and I totally respect your interpretation of his character, but Eddie is such a mixed and complicated bag, I wouldn't exclude the possibility of it.

Fair warning: this text post contains mentions of infidelity.

Go with me here.

You've got Eddie Diaz, this man who has lived and built his entire life around other people's expectations of him, spoken or unspoken, as well as around this specific sense of masculine honor. This is the same man who said he would "stick out" a loveless, unfulfilling relationship for the sake of his son, by the way, and though that's not exactly a good thing, Eddie's relationship with Ana does give insight into his interpretation of romantic relationships, as well as how he perceives his own role in his romantic relationships. Eddie views romantic relationships (at least, the ones he's been in thus far) as action based. Saying the right things, doing the right things, being the Right Thing, even if your heart isn't in it, is the totality of his role in his relationships. (This also translates to physical and sexual expression which we see more in his relationship with Ana, rather than his relationship with Shannon, see: here and my Eddie vs Consent tag).

Now, you've got this same honorable man who's spent his whole life suppressing and repressing significant parts of himself (parts, plural, because I'm not just talking about his sexuality here, but about the deep range of emotion he's learned to quell), and you take him and pluck him from this rigid existence he's molded himself around and drop him into an atmosphere that, though equally rigid, is still absent of the people and overarching mindsets that were instrumental in confining him in the first place. And when you do that, you ignite a match that leads to something of a minor... explosion.

Have you ever listened to a kid after they discover swearing? Once they drop their first F-bomb, there's no going back, and kids swear so embarrassingly badly. Every other word is a "fuck" or "shit" or "damn." But once they've tapped into that brand new freedom and allow themselves to say all the words they weren't allowed to say, they explore the reaches of that freedom, just to see what it tastes like. Eddie, in the service, was kind of like a kid who'd just learned how to swear. Absent of his father and mother, of Shannon, of Texas and their whole Guns and Jesus culture, he found himself in a brand new world of relatively attractive, attainable, and (to be completely honest), desperate men that aroused that part of him that had long been suppressed.

Note: This does not make him a bad person, by the way. It makes him human, and human beings are endlessly complicated, especially when you add trauma, upbringing, etc into the mix.

Moving on, infidelity is not brand new in the service. Men sleeping around with other men when they otherwise wouldn't is also not brand new in the service, or anywhere else. Humans are humans, and humans are pleasure seekers, even if the pleasure they're seeking isn't always in their best interests. This has nothing to do with sexuality, but simply to do with how humans function. To be completely crude but to the point: a warm mouth is still a warm mouth, regardless of who it is attached to. And Baby Eddie, having just been dropped into this new arena where he gets to poke around the edges of the box he's been confined in, celibate for months at a time? Yes, I can see him testing the limits a bit. Not having penetrative sex (even in his newfound freedom, he would've had hard limits), but a handjob/blowjob, or something else that could have easily been written off as him "letting off steam?" Absolutely.

Eddie's ability to compartmentalize is a survival tool that has kept him alive for years. Eddie's compartmentalization is the only thing that has allowed him to get this far, and though he's crumbling under the weight of that now, that does not change the fact that for years, this coping mechanism served him well. The same compartmentalization that turned him into an "acceptable" version of himself as a child, is the same compartmentalization that allowed himself to be able to pleasure-seek in the service, and allowed him to be able to go back home and slip right back into that box that he's grown used to occupying. That Box is second-nature to him; conforming to the edges and shape of that box is all Eddie knows. Does he still feel guilty for stepping out on his wife when he gets back home? Yes. Does he hate himself for violating his honor and his vows? Enormously. But his compartmentalization allows him to put those feelings away and resume that action-based role in his marriage which, to him, is the most important thing about his contribution to his marriage. The other thing is that Eddie's self-hatred is also second-nature because Eddie's self-hatred lines that Box he's lived in. Which means that after a while, it's fair to say that he long ago stopped distinguishing between which activities, behaviors, etc triggered his self-loathing because it all tasted and felt the same anyway. What's another thing to hate himself for in a long list of things to hate himself for?

It's all kind of sad when you think about it, but this is the nature of repression, specifically repression of a sexual nature. Humans are experts in self-flagellation, unfortunately. We will act outside of our best interests via multiple choices we make every day, and punish ourselves for it in the same breath. And unfortunately, when you combine abject self-loathing with pleasure-seeking, with repression, you get... well. You get what was likely a very young, very overwhelmed Eddie Diaz, sucking dick (or getting his dick sucked by a man) for the first time, drinking in that sick type of freedom that comes with an expiration date (which isn't really freedom at all, and is, instead, it's own kind of torture).

I know this was a lot but I hope this makes sense! I love Eddie so much; he's extremely complex and complicated and while I definitely think there's a strong argument for why he'd never step out on Shannon, I also think (as explained above) that there's a strong argument for why he could.

Feel free to ask more questions if you have any!

#(As an aside #I don't get the impression the Diaz family is big on divorce #which could either be good or bad #depending on the situation).#eddie (meta)#pre-canon eddie #jack answers mail #eddie vs consent #psychoanalyzing the trauma man #ana x eddie #eddie x shannon

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elliepensom · 3 years

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MD4316 - Final Assessment Performances

As we had already chosen our group prior to the assessment rehearsals beginning, it meant we were more prepared and had an advantage over our time limit. In the first rehearsal, we looked at the lyrics that Anya and Rose had collaboratively written. This meant me and Josh could really get a feel for both of the songs and start figuring out a structure and instrumentation.

4 years:

After looking at the lyrics to 4 years, it was clear to us all that a ballad style song in a minor key would suit what was written.

The total time we spent piecing this song together amounted to 2 full rehearsal sessions. We felt that although the writing process was quick, the song had really come together and from that point it was just a case of refining and practicing all of our parts until the day of the performance.

Lyrically the only thing that really changed in rehearsal was the ending verse (Outro). When reading the lyrics you can see the emotional journey that takes place. We wanted to bring this journey to a nice ending which contrasted the rest of the song, so we felt it had to be something more positive and hope inspiring.

Lyrics:

Instrumental roles:

Anya - Vocals & lyricist

Ellie - Violin & composer

Josh - Piano & composer

Rose - Vocals & lyricist

Anya suggested that a slower, expressive violin part would really suit this ballad style. I came up with the violin part by firstly just listening the song. I felt that with a ballad, harmonies can be a powerful way to emphasise different sections and compliment the vocals. By listening to Rose and Anya's vocal lines in the pre-chorus and chorus, I was able to find a subtle mid range harmony which worked well in thickening the vocal texture and didn't take over or drown out any of the lyrics.

After figuring out these parts, it created a natural dynamic build up which led really nicely into the solo section. Myself and Josh wanted this section to build up even more and have a main violin solo as well as a piano solo. The idea for a key change came about as we just wanted to make the piece more interesting for the listener.

The feedback we recieved in our rehearsal sessions made us overall feel really confident about performing this for the assessment. The only thing that concerned us about the song was that it sounded very theatrical, something you would hear in a west-end show. Although that isn't a bad thing, it wasn't what we had intended and we sought out a few different ways to counteract that feeling. One thing that made a huge difference was by cutting down the length of the solo section. Cutting the instrumental down meant that we prevented the piece from having that really dramatic build up which features in a lot of theatre pieces. It also reduced the time Rose and Anya had to wait for the outro verse and overall meant we had more time when performing to communicate with the audience and set up for our next song.

Chords:

Awkward Encounter:

Like our first song, the rehearsal process for this went just as quick. Rose and Anya both had the lyrics all done before we had even finished reahearsals on four years! Again this helped in saving a lot of time as we could really focus on creating and refining our other parts whilst we had these sessions altogether.

Lyrics:

Instrumental Roles:

Anya - Vocals, drums & lyricist

Ellie - Violin & composer

Josh - Piano & composer

Rose - Vocals & lyricist

We wanted to make this track sound completley different to our other one. After reading the lyrics, we felt that a more soulful sound would fit. We looked at artists like Amy Winehouse and Alicia Keys and focused on the main instrumentation in most of their songs.

Like in Winehouse's 'Back to Black', we felt that a hard hitting, staccato, piano intro would really suit what we had written and contribute really well to our song plan.

Rehearsal audio:

Once we had the basic piano rhythm and structure down it was time to focus on the other instrumental parts.

As you can hear in the first audio clip, I originally thought about trying out some chord stabs on my violin as a way to tie-in and follow Josh's piano part. When hearing this back however, I didn't like the way it sounded. Sometimes there are timing delays between the keys and the violin as well as the general string scratches which come with the stabbing technique.

After hearing what we had got back, I felt like the song needed a full band set with some brass, bass and guitar. However, the performance date was drawing closer and seeing how busy everyone was in their own bands, we didn't want to hinder anyone by asking them to session on this track. This is when it was put forward, for me to play the bass for this song instead.

After some though about this concept, I thought that the violin would make this piece a little more original, as its generally not a common solo instrument within soul music. I also realised that Josh was also playing a bass part in his left hand on the piano. I felt that if I did play the bass, it wouldn't add anything to the song and would just be drowned out by Josh's part and the drums. I also had fears the song would be too bass heavy.

After playing it through with the violin we all agreed that some solo lines after the chorus could sound really good against the drum and piano parts.

Getting Anya on the drums was also another great decision for this song. It also put us a little closer to having that full band set-up, we thought would suit this song.

Again when playing through the whole piece, we felt that by keeping a thinner texture of only piano and vocals in the verse compared to all of us coming in on the chorus would allow us to build up the song really nicely and help Anya focus solely on singing in the verse and drums in the chorus. Keeping the piece fairly minimal in the verse sections also meant it would be more of a surprise when the violin and drums cut in.

Chords:

Final Performance Video:

Looking back through everything we had done for this assessment, as a group we worked very well together. Outside of rehearsals and lectures we managed to have frequent communication about what needed to be practiced, written and booked out. We tried taking rehearsal room bookings in turns, although sometimes there were issues with the actual booking site for some people. However, because of our communication we always managed to solve issues really easily.

Although we had talked about the ways we could perform both pieces, it wasn't until the soundcheck the day before everything really came together.

Similar to our self analysis task in our music and meaning lecture, we looked at our songs, heard the messages and moods they were portraying, then from this, planned how our performances for each song was going to go. We had planned where all our positins would be and where any props that we would need use would go so we had easy access to them.

For 4 years we really wanted to play on the theatrical/moody feel the song has. As I have found out from previous performances, sitting down when you play creates an entirely different atmosphere for the audience compared to when you stand. The decision to use bar stools/higher set chairs we felt played into this mood really well. Going from the stools in 4 years to standing in awkward encounter meant there had to be a change in the way we decided to perform. As awkward encounter is a high energy song, using the chairs would create the wrong atmosphere for the song, hence why we decided to stand up and get people dancing. This is the contrast we wanted to create between our songs. We wanted our audience to feel more emotional and solemn after listening to 4 years, then they could be hit by the energy and upbeat feel of Awkward encounter.

After our rehearsal process was so successful, I had set myself really high standards for this performance. Straight after the performance I wasn't very proud of how well I played as I know I can do better. Whether it was just down to tiredness or nerves, in my playing there are a fair few mistakes and places where my overall technique falters. I feel that for me this could just be a one-off instance and during my next performance I will really try to concentrate more on my technique. Watching our performance back, I feel like it wasn't the best run through we had done, but as a group we still played together pretty well.

Over this past semester I feel I have learnt a lot more about using imagery within songwriting and also lyric writing as part of a group.

#md4316

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