IDK if somebody already asked this but what's your thought process when making gijinkas? How do you decide stuff like their clothes, hair style, accessories and appearance? What aspects from the original design do you keep in mind when making them?
i'm glad u asked cause its a lot! I'll use my candle gijinka as an example to better explain and throw in some other stuff i've made :3
this is a more broader thing to consider when i make gijinkas, and thats tone! personally, I'd like to think of II as generally a little more grounded compared to something like bfdi, especially as time goes on. so, i try to make sure that when it comes to outfits and such, it looks like something that character would dress in on the regular
additionally (this tip is a little more ii specific), taking into account the time the character is introduced/which season im drawing the gijinka of is important to me. In candles instance, she was introduced in iii, which is more of a laid-back season and means she is more settled in her gimmick since she's new if that makes sense
compare this to someone like cheesy! early s2 cheesy is veryyyy gimmicky (bro was born like 4 days ago at the time), so his outfit is silly and surface level since it reflects the trope he's made from. but then in iv, his getup is more formal because he wants more people to take him seriously
i dont have any examples but this is especially true for s1 characters (as lightbulb puts it, they're not all there yet) so designs for that era are on the simpler side, and become more fleshed out over time
iv characters are a little tricky because of this since they are new (kinda), but generally are considerably more "normal" compared to the rest of the cast, so it depends on the character
lastly, i try not to go toooooo crazy with detail/have a version where they're simpler. it's a personal preference but also because of the medium being a tv show, so i like the designs being something that look like it could be animated regularly
up next is personality and habits! looking at candle, there's a few points about her that I'd like to keep in mind:
she's down-to-earth, calm, and spiritual
a skilled player in the game (and in people's hearts)
practical and strong (idk if that's the right word i'd use but she can hold her own is what i mean)
has a smooth and soft voice
these traits are things that I want to convey when you look at her! this can be shown in things like shape language, but luckily, objects usually already do this to an extent. so, I'll elaborate on how i added this to the gijinka in a later part
another thing i like to make sure of when making gijinkas is that i can imagine them with the voice of the character themselves (obv lol)! this is actually super important to me and i like to listen to clips of the show while imagining them as human just to make sure
an important part to also consider is habits! this can come down to a variety of things, like how active the character is, how preppy they are, profession, gender expression, etc.
for example, my old test tube design had bangs and long hair for a little bit. but seeing as she's a scientist and lots of hair in your face is a big nono, i ended up mostly removing the bangs and giving her a shorter cut for later in the show
when designing, i want to make sure that their look is related the actual object themselves!
some things to note about candle:
the top of her head is flat and slopes a bit because of the heat of her flame
she has a long wick on the top of her head
shes made of wax, so she has a smooth and kind of shiny texture
purple makes up the bulk of her body
the wax on her head is melted and covers her face a little
these pieces are important because while the personality + habit stuff is something that I want to convey, I also need to make sure that I can fit the forms from the original design as much as possible so it reads better
an artist i like that's especially good at incorporating the object shape/making gijinkas in general is WinceMedia, or WMashups on twt. he's on hiatus rn and currently privated, but i reallyyyyy like his stuff! here's some examples i have saved on my computer from a while ago:
notice how a lot of his designs incorporate the shapes of the objects into the design! like the cylinder shape of test tubes body being used for her lanky build and her locs, the bottom of fans hair resembling the paper folds, and jacks head resembling the face on the card! very fun stuff, details like that are things i want to remember
this can extent to other tidbits within the show as well, which makes spotting them out very fun! for example, lots of paper gijinkas will have lazy eyes and overbites in them (myself included) because of his early renders and the fact that EP has "crazy eyes"/later changed to a lazy eye in the remake
yeah! the personality & habits are put together with the shapes in her form to help with the actual design i want
personaility + habits: for candle, she does a lot of meditating, and like mentioned earlier, she can hold her own very well in challenges. furthermore, she's a character that's mystical, but humble about her abilities/not a divine person. because of this, I made her outfit consisting of shiny pieces like the fabric wrap belt thing (it's also flowy which helps with the calm demeanor) and gold jewelry, and casual/athletic yoga wear like the sweater & leggings + sports bra. her hair is short for added activeness and put in a headband wrap/scarf thing for more down-to-earth feel. i originally had her design without the wrap but added it to help with the flowiness and visual weight. her palette is warmer because of the flame stuff and summer vibes of iii, and has a soft face to match the smoothness of her voice
object + shape: the slope of the top of her head and the dent for the wick are reused to make an off-the-shoulder sweater + since the top of her head is melted, the sweater is soft, loose, and falling, adding to the "melted wax" stuff. this is used for the hair as well, since they fall over her face and are in thick drops. the slight shine of the wax is added to the leggings since both leggings and wax kinda fall into that "matte but vaguely shiny" category, and the gold parts help vary the value and colors while adding to the flame part of her character. they also bring a slight edge to her as she mostly consists of rounded forms
anddddd done! looking at other people's gijinkas are good to see how they went about a character as well and helps my process, especially with revisions. there are a lot of good designs out there and it's always fun to see other interpretations
but yeah i hope this suffices! sorry for the crazy ramble, i don't actually consider myself that good at character design, nor am i like. a pro by any means LOL so take my advice with a fat grain of salt haha i just really like talking about art process stuff :p
yousharknotpass
jacobvanloon
tangentwithtanner
