9 Best Character Design Courses - Learn Character Designing Online
Highly curated Character Design classes for beginners. Start with the Character Design courses and learn Character Designing online as a beginner.
The Best Character Designing Courses for beginners to learn Character Designing in 2024.
Character Design, the name is pretty self-explanatory as it means designing or crafting a character from scratch for adding a visual element to your art. The character can be of any sort, it can be for a video game, movie, comics, etc.
A Character Design is more than face value, it envelops everything about design: the standards, the hypothesis, and the execution that takes things to another level which is not as easy as people make it out to be.
You need to make an engaging design, that not just addresses the client in that they can relate to it, yet that additionally makes the item valuable. This is an incredible test for any designer since you are not designing for yourself, but instead to satisfy a progression of necessities for both the item and the end crowd.
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Top Character Designing Courses List
1. The Ultimate Character Design School - Beginner to Advanced
Learn the concept of industries number on job skill.
In this course, you will learn how to:
- design unforgettable characters
- draw the character's body and poses
- draw different styles of characters
The course includes:
- Drawing fundamentals
- Storytelling
- Pencil control
- Dynamic poses
- Style development
- Body proportions
- Drawing body forms
- Drawing faces
- Drawing hands
- Foreshortening
- Gesture & Poses
- Facial expressions
- Hair & Costume
- Anime
- Disney animation
- Comic
- Pixar style
- Character design demo
Initially, you'll dive right into your first character drawings. You will get to draw a male and female character in this section. Next, you will be learning everything you need to know in order to build a strong foundation. You'll learn everything from the drawing hierarchy to how lines, shapes, and forms are used in stages to create character designs.
After that, you will go through exercises that will strengthen your drawing ability. This includes pencil control, muscle memory, speed control, and pressure control. All of which are extremely important to character design.
The next section will be on drawing the human body. You'll need the ability to draw the human form if you're going to create good character designs. Throughout this training, you will learn how to draw every individual part of the human body from different angles and in different poses.
This section breaks down the human body into simple to understand shapes and forms that you can replicate over and over again. And you'll learn how to draw the male and the female forms.
This section is all about how to pose that body that you're now an expert at drawing. In order to create exceptional character designs, you need to know how to draw poses that are dynamic and have an attitude.
You'll learn all the different ways to make a pose dynamic and how to express a character's attitude, and emotion, and just give them that appealing look. Next, you'll learn how to tell a story through your character's expression.
First, you need to know how to draw certain expressions. Once, you've mastered your character expressions you can start mixing and matching eye and mouth expressions to get a wide variety of emotions. Creating good expressions is the secret of the pros.
After this section, you'll learn all about hair & costume design. Hairstyles and costumes are really what make characters iconic and memorable. So you'll learn all about how to give your character their "Thing" that will distinguish them from other characters.
Here, you will acquire some practical knowledge and skills in drawing characters in different genres. Character design is broken up into different genres. You'll be taught in-depth how to draw anime, Disney animation, comics, and Pixar cartoon-styled characters over the course of 5 lectures.
Finally, the last section demonstrates a character being imagined and developed right before your eyes. There's no better way to learn than to watch others.
You can take The Ultimate Character Design School - Beginner to Advanced Certificate Course on Udemy.
- Course rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 ( 5130 Ratings total)
2. Character Design for Video Games
Learn Character Design for Video Games from the California Institute of the Arts.
In this course, you will learn:
- how to design characters for your video game.
- work in both 2D and 3D modes.
- create compelling, unique, and purposeful characters.
In this course, you will explore concepts and approaches involved in creating successful character designs that can be applied to video games. The course will take on different design challenges on the fly and address the various issues in designing characters for games, such as movement, expression, and technical limitations.
Initially, you will explore some of the major concepts involved in creating compelling, unique, and purposeful characters. Next, the course will discuss working in both 2D and 3D modes.
You can take Character Design for Video Games Certificate Course on Coursera.
- Course rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 (905 Ratings total)
3. The Ultimate 2D Game Character Design & Animation Course
Learn how to design and animate a character in Photoshop that can stand up as professional work.
In this course, you will learn how to:
- design your own character.
- build your character in Photoshop.
- animate your character for a 2D game.
The course includes:
- Photoshop basics
- The design process
- Building your character assets
- Sprite sheet creation
- Animation Cycles
- how to find jobs creating digital artwork
The Ultimate Character Design and Animation for 2D Games course will show you how to create high-quality stylized characters and animations for games that will stand up as professional work.
The course will equip you with the knowledge to create stunning designs and animations for 2d games. You’ll learn how to create professional digital backgrounds and also where you can find clients. It will show you where and how to find jobs creating digital artwork that you can do from anywhere in the world.
Initially, the course will walk you through the basic tools you will be using. Next, it will show you how to create my thumbnails and where should you go for inspiration.
Once you’ve chosen a thumbnail, you will design each individual aspect of the character through multiple sketches. At this point, you’ll be ready to dive right in and start building the individual components that will make up your character. Here, you will be creating two different characters and animating one of them!
You can take The Ultimate 2D Game Character Design & Animation Course Certificate Course on Udemy.
- Course rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 ( 1,797 Ratings total)
4. An Immortal Design: Character Design Theory and Development
Movies and video games are everywhere these days, and the field of Character Art is competitive. This course will give you the advantage by teaching you the power and process of original design, anatomy, line, shape, color, light, and personality.
The course includes:
- Collecting Reference for Original Design
- Concepting with Line and Shape
- A Winning Personality
- Avoiding Pitfalls in Character Design
- Building up the Beast
- Intro to Anatomical Sculpting & Methodology
- The Organic Machine: Constructing Muscle & Bone (Part 1)
- The Organic Machine: Constructing Muscle & Bone (Part 2)
- Employing Shape Language: Addition & Subtraction
- Kind Eyes: Personality & Facial Traits
- Adding Swag: Incorporating Unusual Anatomical Traits
- Making It Real
- Balancing the Complex
- Employing Shape Language (Part 2)
- The Balancing Act: Detail & Simplicity
- Maintaining a Visual Hierarchy
- Adding Age & Weight
- Creating Surface Detail & Tactile Engagement
- Intermission: Transitioning from High to Low Poly
- Intro: The Power of Textures
- The Exploration of Values
- The Balance of Color
- Getting Roughed up: Using Specular/Roughness to Enhance Sculpt Detail
- Drawing the Eye Using Gradients
In this course, An Immortal Design: Character Design Theory and Development, you will learn the foundation knowledge to level up your work in character art and beyond.
First, you will learn how to mine and blend original references to create characters that are striking and original as you move from concept, to sculpt, to the final textured asset. Next, you will discover how to bend lines, shapes, and anatomy to your advantage in ways that will make your work not simply realistic but iconic.
Finally, you will explore the elusive world of color and texture, and become versed in the concept of artistic control – which is the ultimate power of any artist in any field of art.
When you're finished with this course, you will have the skills and knowledge of not just a character artist, but you will also a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of art itself.
You can take An Immortal Design: Character Design Theory and Development Certificate Course on Pluralsight.
- Course rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 ( 58 Ratings total)
Jonah Lobe
5. Character Design for Beginners
Design Characters for Games, Comics, and illustration.
In this course, you will learn how to:
- generate ideas for Characters
- quickly create thumbnails
- understand methods to refine designs
- create turnarounds for presentation
- design Scifi and Fantasy Armor
- draw wrinkles and folds in clothing
- have a consistent workflow that will produce results in character design
In this course, you will learn how to create characters for video games and comics, and animation. Here, you will learn how to process and workflow for designing characters. This is not an illustration course although you will be drawing a lot.
You can take Character Design for Beginners Certificate Course on Udemy.
- Course rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 ( 597 Ratings total)
6. Adobe Illustrator Essentials for Character Design
Learn how to design & present your character in adobe illustrator essential tutorial from scratch. Enroll in our latest illustrator character design course now.
In this course, you will learn how to:
- understand all the basic interfaces, and navigations.
- use all the essential panels and drawing tools.
- understand what tools to use if you have a Wacom Tablet, or for those who don’t have a drawing tablet, then what tools to use when designing with a mouse.
- use all the basic drawing tools in detail.
- create a color palette.
- paint your work using the live paint feature.
- add shadows and highlights easily.
In this course, you will learn all the essentials to trace images, turn paper drawings into presentable products that you can sell, and do everything you need for character design.
You can take Adobe Illustrator Essentials for Character Design Certificate Course on Eduonix.
- Course rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 ( 698 Ratings total)
7. Character Painting: Design and Render Like a Pro
Learn Incredibly Cool Photoshop Painting Techniques to Create Professional-Level Character Art.
In this course, you will learn how to:
- design and paint amazing characters like a professional concept artist
Here, you will learn some professional-level techniques and tricks that will demystify the entire process of creating character art with Adobe Photoshop. In an easy-to-grasp, step-by-step approach, you’ll learn digital painting techniques.
The course teaches you everything you need to know to start thinking like a character concept designer. To tie it all together, it offers responsive support and loads of other course resources to make sure that every student can take their work to new heights.
You can take the Character Painting: Design and Render Like a Pro Certificate Course on Udemy.
- Course rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 ( 1,355 Ratings total)
8. Video Game Character Design - Online Course - FutureLearn
Learn the secrets behind video game character design and how to create and develop your own video game character with this online course from Abertay University.
In this course, you will learn how to:
- develop an appreciation of how studying human nature can inform how you can design characters that audiences will recognize and understand.
- assess how fundamental visual, narrative, and game design principles can inform the development of characters.
- develop skills in analyzing and prototyping character design concepts.
The course includes:
- Narrative theory for video game characters
- Gameplay design for video game characters
- Visual design principles
- Anatomical knowledge and physical cues
- Professional insights
Here, you will learn how gamers identify with the characters they control and interact with in-game worlds. You’ll explore anatomy, graphic design, narrative, and gameplay, to provide you with a broad knowledge and understanding of the field of video game character design.
Ultimately, you’ll discover how studying human nature can help you design characters that gamers will recognize and understand.
You can take Video Game Character Design - Online Course - FutureLearn Certificate Course on Futurelearn.
- Course rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 ( 36 Ratings total)
9. Character Design For Animation in Illustrator
Design Memorable Character With a Strong Personalities and Learn How to Prepare Them for Animation.
In this course, you will learn how to:
- create memorable characters.
- understand the theory behind character psychology.
- understand 4 Basic areas of personality that will make your character outstand all others.
- define attitude.
- understand the basics of concept art.
- understand shapes and meaning.
In this illustrator tutorial, you will learn how to use adobe illustrator to design memorable characters for animation. Next, you will learn the theory behind character psychology, and how to make characters with a soul, with personality.
You will also learn how to communicate all those feelings and emotions through your designs. After that, you will learn how to establish different attitudes by using different shapes, you will understand the meaning of having round features, or pointy features.
And then, after you know the theory, you will practice the whole process of putting the character you have in your mind into paper, by first establishing a strong pose that communicates your character’s personality.
You can take Character Design For Animation in Illustrator Certificate Course on Eduonix.
- Course rating: 3.2 out of 5.0 ( 715 Ratings total)
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