What Makes a Character Likable?

hi there my name is Brooks from character design Forge I'm making new videos every day this month but you'll notice there was a few day gap where I didn't put anything out I got sick and had a few other freak occurrences happen usually I'd have a buffer in that place but because of the daily videos it's hard to find any kind of wiggle room in that but accountability is really important to me so I'm making a few extra videos this week well today we're talking about likability my friend Brent asked what makes a character likeable well this is definitely a loaded question and in its entirety likability is one of our ultimate goals in character design but we can try to break it down here likability comes down to two things honesty and loss honesty is involved on the part of the designer it means that a character needs to be designed from a genuine place an audience can easily discern if they are being pandered too if you can recall character designs from the 90s a lot of them are now lambasted for their adherence to traits like radical gnarly and edgy attitudes as that's what was trendy maybe a surfing sunglass wearing cool dude is all you need to sell a bottle of soda but trying to tell a story with that kind of character is impossible the purpose the designer was making a character was to sell a product and to appear cool to kids instead of trying to create something relatable imagine a character made now that listens to EDM and likes glowsticks and snapchat and Walkman while it may temporarily attract the shallow attention of a few that character is not laying the groundwork for a memorable or lasting character one that in a few years will be extremely unlikable so ask yourself a few questions why are you designing a character do you believe in the purpose that you're making them for are you thinking about the audience of intelligent people that will be observing your character characters aren't just unlikable because of corporate pandering though a lot of times amateur creators will make characters who are perfect in every single way sometimes their main characteristic is that this character is the cool one usually they are wishful projections of what the creator wishes to be in the writing world this character is called the Mary Sue not only are they ridiculed for their spotlessness they're extremely boring why that carries right into the second point about what makes a character likeable which is flaws think of your character like a rock wall that your audience has to climb by giving your character no flaws or personality deficiencies it's like coding that wall with Teflon but throw in some imperfections some areas in their personality that need improvement and now your wall has grips and hand holds why it makes the character not only interesting but human we latch on to the humanity and characters because we aren't perfect people and despite the opposite seeming to be true flaws and dearest to a character if every pork chop were perfect way dogs have you ever found yourself more invested in or even rooting for the villain in a given story it's likely that his motives and flaws were just more interesting than the heroes one character that seemed like she was going to fall in the category of unlikable characters was vanellope from wreck-it Ralph I remember watching the trailer and thinking great Sarah Silverman is voicing a smart-mouth pipsqueak that category of character that's typically annoying to watch yet that character is really endearing mostly through the fact that she doesn't fit in and it's because of that flaw in herself that she's unfairly ridiculed in fact every character in that film is likable the villain is at least funny and maniacal at times fix-it Felix the perfect hero laments that fixing everything you touch isn't always a good thing our general preoccupation with the antihero in recent years is proof positive enough that we are more intrigued by a flawed character it doesn't necessarily mean that we want to be them oftentimes we're learning lessons through the mistakes of others or at least watching the train wreck now when I say flaws it's really shorthand for saying that a character has a complex personality just remember when fleshing them out to add something negative to make them more relatable start with real people that you know well you no doubt have friends and family that you've recognized have really great qualities but perhaps a few you still love them despite that now visually a likable character needs a few things as well similar to the personality flaws asymmetrical design and non-ideal body types go a long way in subconsciously causing us to like a character more as we talked about with shape language round shapes are always something relatable if you do things right you're going to have people that don't like your characters the same as no one human is loved by everyone universally the worst thing that you could do though is try to design a character that everyone will love instead be genuine and honest know the audience and remember that a flawed character is always more likeable ultimately what we love most is watching a character's growth through a story that's it for me today I'm making new videos every day this month a character design Forge calm subscribing on YouTube will let you know when they're available as always I'd love to hear your comments and questions so leaving them in a comment or send me a message thank you for watching and have fun creating

Channel: Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge

Views: 130,630

Rating: 4.9585357 out of 5

Keywords: character design, characters, wreck it ralph, steven universe, art, learn art, education, Animation, Drawing, Artist

Id: Gd8LckXKC4g

Length: 5min 28sec (328 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 18 2015