Combining Shape, Color and Postures for Ambiguous Character Roles

Abstract: This study explores how character design guidelines can be combined and remixed to create characters whose motivations are ambiguous to the viewer. I investigate some common guidelines that character artists generally follow when designing characters; summarized in a literature review, and then I test various applications of these guidelines through online surveys. I analyze the qualitative data from these surveys to answer the question of how flexible these guidelines are and how far they can be stretched. The study includes the design guidelines for color, shape and posture of the character, to see how each element is added to different kind of characters and how it affects the interpretation when changed. The final part of the study is done with a second online survey collecting qualitative data, including self-created characters built from the guidelines found for the protagonist or the antagonist and the results of the first survey. Two different designs are created and then changed to different versions, where the color scheme, shape or pose is reversed to the other’s role. The results collected from the online survey showed that by just changing color, shape and posture separately; the character is interpreted in new ways – which can be used when creating characters that are supposed to be hard to read. With the change of each separate element and by having the design elements counteract each other, the characters were read as good by about half the participants, while the other half interpreted it as evil. Depending on which design elements that were changed, opinions ranged between characters that are hiding their true nature, to characters that are trying to be good or a character that is supposed to betray the main character. By changing the two factors of color and shape at the same time, however, showed that the character was interpreted as almost strictly either good or evil.