Character Design

character-design

Purpose

Make personality readable at a glance (silhouette first, then color, then detail) and produce the contracts 3D will obey: character sheets, creature spec sheets, reference boards, style rules.

Scope

D03 Character Concept [SIT], D04 Character Design [REQ], D05 Creature Design [SIT], D06 AI Concept [OPT], D07 Reference [REQ], D08 Character Sheets [SIT — required for any character], D138 Style Guides [SIT]. Does not model, sculpt, or rig.

Activation Conditions

• User asks to design a character or creature, silhouette, proportions, turnaround, expression sheet, style guide, or AI concepts
• Orchestrator fires design stages
• Use character-design

Non-Activation Conditions

• Modeling/sculpting execution (→ modeling / sculpting-anatomy)
• Acting/performance (→ animation)
• World visual build (→ environment)
• Pure story beats without a character (→ preproduction)

Instructions

1. Concept before drawing (D03): role, 3–5 adjectives, temperament, energy, physical capability, movement style, age, flaw. Personality must be readable in silhouette and motion.
2. Thumbnails: 10–20 black silhouettes. Pick 3–5. Blur test: if unrecognizable, silhouette fails. Never "fix it in 3D."
3. Shape language: round=soft/friendly, angular=aggressive, vertical=authority, horizontal=stability/weight.
4. Palette: 2–3 dominant + 1 accent; avoid equal-value colors.
5. Detail hierarchy: eye lands on face/hands/emblem.
6. Proportions (lock with Ch 16 numbers):
   • Realistic human ~7–8 heads; heroic 8–9; stylized 2–5; chibi 1–2.
7. Creature: fill templates/creature-spec.md. Real-world anchor ("it's like a ___ but ___"). Run the four believability checks. If no, fix design not animation.
8. Reference boards (D07) per asset: anatomy, material, lighting, motion, style. PureRef or image planes. Study ritual before modeling.
9. Character sheets (D08): turnaround (same height line), proportion grid, 6–12 expressions, hands/feet, scale vs env, material callouts.
10. AI (D06) is CONCEPT / REFERENCE / EXPLORATION only — never a production asset. Translate to a human-cleaned sheet before 3D. ControlNet for useful structure. See Depth 39.
11. Write style rules (D138) that lookdev, lighting, and animation must obey.
12. Lock design before blockout.

Procedures

Design → Shape language → Silhouette → Readability

Silhouette → value contrast → negative space → focal detail → hierarchy → color → texture callout → material plan. Proportions → head ratio → limb ratio → center of mass → posture → weight feel → motion implication.

Creature spec → downstream

Locomotion class drives D69–D73. Surface plan drives D32/D44/D45/Ch 17. Sensory plan drives head + D60. Functional extras get rigs.

AI-to-3D bridge (critical rule)

Choose best variant → redraw as clean sheet (D08) → resolve proportions/consistency → then D19/D20 modeling. Do not retopo an AI image and call it a character.

Decision Logic

• Style unset → decision 5.1, then lock.
• Creature vs character: if non-human anatomy, D05 is mandatory.
• AI optional; never a substitute for the sheet.
• Background characters: simpler sheets, still a silhouette and scale.

Inputs

• Story role, world constraints, style, medium
• Optional sketches or AI images

Outputs

• Concept sheet
• Approved silhouette + shape language + palette
• Character sheet (or creature spec)
• Reference board list
• Style rules (D138)
• Proportion numbers
• Shared state: characters[] / creatures[] / style_rules

Tools

Thumbnailing (any 2D), PureRef, Blender image planes, optional local SD/SDXL/ComfyUI (Depth 39). Ch 16 proportion tables.

Constraints

No front-only sheets. No designing the body before personality. No AI as final. No extra limbs the rig cannot support unless mechanical.

Edge Cases

• Hybrid humanoid-creature: both D04 and D05.
• Mechanical character: shape language still applies; surface is hard-surface (D18).
• Multi-character show: scale sheet is mandatory.

Failure Modes & Fixes

Dependencies

• Consumes preproduction world/story
• Drives modeling, sculpting-anatomy, lookdev, costume-groom, rigging, animation
• Delegates proportion numbers to sculpting-anatomy (Ch 16)
• Delegates AI toolkit depth to knowledge/depth/ch39-ai-concept.md

Related Skills

preproduction, sculpting-anatomy, modeling, lookdev, costume-groom, grease-pencil

Delegation Rules

• Anatomy tables / joint ranges → sculpting-anatomy
• "How do I model this sheet" → modeling
• Clothing as design intent stays here; construction → costume-groom
• Whole-film idea → bakg-orchestrator

Examples

• Chibi knight: 2 heads, round shapes, 2-color + gold accent, turnaround, 6 expressions, scale vs castle door.
• Six-legged crystal creature: spec locomotion multi-leg 6, mass medium, surface crystal (Ch 17 gems), cloak as costume not body, no fur.

Required Knowledge / Context

• knowledge/domains/ch01-preproduction.md (D03–D08)
• knowledge/system/02d-depth-supplements.md (S-01, S-02, S-03)
• knowledge/depth/ch16-anatomy-proportions.md
• knowledge/depth/ch39-ai-concept.md

References to Shared Resources

• templates/character-sheet.md
• templates/creature-spec.md
• examples/C-original-creature.md