STORY TELLING
Costume and wardrobe can be a really effective way of adding layers and meaning to the telling of a story
Costume is such a big part of what helps give personality to a character. What a person wears and how they wear it gives us an instant feeling about who they are and what they're like. It's especially powerful because we aren't always aware that we're even making those kind of judgements.
Great artists will use the clothes as an extension of the character's personality. Always avoid giving your characters bland and nondescript wardrobes. Be specific!
Adversaries that represent different ideals should have costumes that represent who they are and contrast with what their nemesis wears.
- Mark Kennedy Using Costume to tell a Story
Scottie Young
Clothing can convey quite a bit of conscious and unconscious information to the reader, but it should never be doing 100% of the legwork. Body language, shape and overall behavior all come into play when building a character, and the trick is to figure out what clothing can do that these other elements can’t.
SHAPE- Every character, no matter how complex, should be designed around an overall unique visual shape. This theme should not repeat in any other character. This shape should be readable enough that if you were to shrink all your characters into a super-simplified cartoony state, they should still be distinguishable. Core shapes and patterns should repeat on the outfit.
Enrique Fernandez
DETAIL - Character designs follow a hierarchy: you grab the reader’s attention with the most essential information and then invite them to investigate the details. If important elements of your design are only evident in the details, then it needs to be reworked. If your character is not completely distinguishable in silhouette, it needs to be reworked. Detail should always radiate from the core theme.
Nico Marlet
UNIFORM - What does your character do? In what way would their clothing reasonably convey how they spend their time? What is their job? social status? personality?
Peter De Seve
Scottie Yound
ATTITUDE - how does your character move? What are their default postures and body language? A good outfit should accentuate the body movements that you deem most important. If a character stoops and hunches a lot, their clothes can augment that behavior.
- Aaron Diaz Tips on character and Costume Design
Enrique Fernandez
