Nurbs at work

It has been a while since we have made a cute character post. This is because we are currently being bombarded with work lately and we already look like the face of the moon filled with craters. But we nurbers are strong and passionate so this is our attempt of pulling ourselves out of the rubble to give you one kick ass character design tutorial!

Today we are making “THE BIG CHEESE”, “THE DON of DONS”, “THE BRAIN”, yes you have guessed it. The minds behind the operations: the big boss! This character is usually made scary and “heavy” because they represent power and usually have henchmen doing their biddings so they do not have to. Rendering them becoming “heavy”.

Keeping info like that in mind. You can guess that he does not move much and probably eats or smokes a lot because they are constantly stressed with taking over the world. They usually do not carry weapons themselves but are always surrounded by their “Left-hand” which is usually the second in command when it comes to the pecking order. Someone or something that is trusted completely over the life of the big boss. This can also be a very deep character in itself, but today we are focussing on the prize.

First, gather all the information you have to gather about your character, think of the past (tough past with scars, etc.) Physical activity (Does the character move a lot?) Influence and job (A lot of henchmen or just one trusted sidekick?). Just sit back and think of everything before you get a pencil to draw.

During the making of this, do not really worry about techniques or things of that matter. Really try to achieve what you have in your head by just drawing or making art by the best of your abilities. Sometimes you would have to compensate, I mean we would all like to draw like Kerem beyit. But this is not the case. So broaden your horizons but do not let it get in the way of making your current art work.

Weather you want to make a really serious or cute character, it is really up to you. But we would like to stress the fact that you have to apply research to all your work. I do not means open a mafia book and see what you can get out of, but try to act the part of the big boss. Why does he do the things he does. Any villain you make should have a relating story so people can understand where they are coming from and why they feel a certain way.

Here is what we came up with.

Character breakdown:

• Pig escaped from Butcher facility
• Pig formed a profitable gang and is set out for revenge
• Pig has money, cause of the suit
• Pig has scars, meaning the butcher got a whack at him before he left
• Pig still has tag, could not take it away because it’s arms are too short
• Bad habit of smoking
• Gold tooth for fear factor
• Has a eye patch because of missing eye
• Has a lot of friends, because of the cellphone

So you see how such a simple character that was made in 30 minutes can have such a deep story to it? That is because the story elements took more time to create than the character and this is the most important part in character design. You could have the most beautiful character known to man, but without a story to relate it to, it will just NOT WORK!.

We hope that you have learned atleast a little something reading this tutorial.