Uploaded January 2017 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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This is a lesson from the course Character Design For Animation in Illustrator.
Ok. Let’s get started. The first thing I want to talk about is Shapes and Meaning.
Shapes can represent attitude and personality.
Let’s take the basic shapes: Triangle, Circle and Square
Triangle (or pointy features): Use for edgy, even evil characters. Characters who misbehave, have evil thoughts or just don’t mind breaking the rules. They don’t have to be evil, but they do tend to get what they want without minding the consequences. They are usually troublemakers.
Circle (or circular features): Friendly, flexible, kind. Characters who are easy going, don’t really like to create conflict, and if they do, it was not their intention. They even apologize a lot when they accidentally offend some one.
Think of Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch). You can see that every goofy character has circular features.
Square (or sharp features): Strict, stubborn, not very adaptable or flexible. These characters can be very moody, easy to get angry. Think of Anger from Inside Out, or Carl from Up. They get angry when things don’t work the way they expect. They want their expectations fulfilled every time. And they expect everyone to obey their own personal rules.
From these shapes, you can create combinations to represent the personality you have built.
Whatever you choose, try to keep some consistency between your character and the shapes you use.
The best way to understand consistency is with some examples.
Let’s take the villain from the earlier example. That villain could work with sharp and pointy features (triangle), but probably not round parts, or at least, avoiding roundness as much as possible.
Because that could imply that the character is friendly and kind.
Look for yourself.
This is the Villain with round features (Circle: Friendly, kind, not a threat)
You see. Even though he has an angry expression, he is still kind of cute. He can be at most, an angry character, but not a real threat, like the character Grumpy from Snow White. He is angry, but is not really mean. He’s just grumpy at most.
So for a villain, this drawing is not consistent with his personality. And so... this is the wrong design for this character.
This same villain would work a lot better if it had squared and pointy features (triangle)
This guy is clearly a threat, willing to break some rules, and even some bones, if you let him; you can clearly see it in the design (triangle, pointy features).
And you know he is the kind of guy who likes to be always right, because of the squared features (stubbornness).
And now that we understand a bit about shapes, let’s move on to the next lesson in which we will dive into the different Body Types you can use for your characters.
Get COMPLETE COURSE FOR FREE at tr4ckit.com/gna2
This is a lesson from the course Character Design For Animation in Illustrator.
Ok. Let’s get started. The first thing I want to talk about is Shapes and Meaning.
Shapes can represent attitude and personality.
Let’s take the basic shapes: Triangle, Circle and Square
Triangle (or pointy features): Use for edgy, even evil characters. Characters who misbehave, have evil thoughts or just don’t mind breaking the rules. They don’t have to be evil, but they do tend to get what they want without minding the consequences. They are usually troublemakers.
Circle (or circular features): Friendly, flexible, kind. Characters who are easy going, don’t really like to create conflict, and if they do, it was not their intention. They even apologize a lot when they accidentally offend some one.
Think of Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch). You can see that every goofy character has circular features.
Square (or sharp features): Strict, stubborn, not very adaptable or flexible. These characters can be very moody, easy to get angry. Think of Anger from Inside Out, or Carl from Up. They get angry when things don’t work the way they expect. They want their expectations fulfilled every time. And they expect everyone to obey their own personal rules.
From these shapes, you can create combinations to represent the personality you have built.
Whatever you choose, try to keep some consistency between your character and the shapes you use.
The best way to understand consistency is with some examples.
Let’s take the villain from the earlier example. That villain could work with sharp and pointy features (triangle), but probably not round parts, or at least, avoiding roundness as much as possible.
Because that could imply that the character is friendly and kind.
Look for yourself.
This is the Villain with round features (Circle: Friendly, kind, not a threat)
You see. Even though he has an angry expression, he is still kind of cute. He can be at most, an angry character, but not a real threat, like the character Grumpy from Snow White. He is angry, but is not really mean. He’s just grumpy at most.
So for a villain, this drawing is not consistent with his personality. And so... this is the wrong design for this character.
This same villain would work a lot better if it had squared and pointy features (triangle)
This guy is clearly a threat, willing to break some rules, and even some bones, if you let him; you can clearly see it in the design (triangle, pointy features).
And you know he is the kind of guy who likes to be always right, because of the squared features (stubbornness).
And now that we understand a bit about shapes, let’s move on to the next lesson in which we will dive into the different Body Types you can use for your characters.
