Character design theory

Character Design Theory
Manami Ishimura

Character? Story?
1. Character as functions
2. Character targeted at different age
3. Character with humanity

1. Characters as Functions
Vladimir Propp (1895-1970)
was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who
analyzed the basic structural elements of
Russian folk tales to identify their simplest
irreducible structural units
Book: Morphology of the Falktale

7 Common Character Types
1. Hero-unrecognized, arrives home or in another country
2. Villain- Causes disruption
3. Donor- Enables the hero on their quest
4. Helper – Helps the hero on their quest and gives items to help
5. Princess/Prince – The hero’s prize
6. False Hero- Presents unfounded claims taking the hero’s prize
7. Dispatcher – Sends the hero on their quest

Characters as units
Morphology =
Simplifying or categorizing materials/elements in the object into units
and identifying the structure/ form of the object.
Pictograph
Montage

Pictograph/ Hieroglyphic
For instance, Chinese characters consist of signs to mean a metaphorical object. Combining these signs generates a new meaning.

Chinese Character 聞 Listening
Emblem of door
Emblem of ear

月moon= a metaphor of Organ
Dark / Light
Moon / Sun
Organ / Body
Women / Men

Emblem of field
Emblem of
Moon=organ
X mark as a sign of
ominous
Emblem of
Moon=organ
Line holding the
ominous
Image of arising
the sun
Emblem of
Moon=organ
Quiz

Helper
Social Circulation
Hero
Donor
Villain
Helper
Pincess
Prince
False
Hero
Dispatcher
Myth=Pictograph of
Social Environment
Myths are designed for a healthy social
environment incorporating multi-
character as elements of society.

Sign: Character consists of signs
Character itself is a pictographic object.
Characters usually are drawn in the same style.
To identify themselves, characters have accessories.
These characters are all look the same, but they have
different extra ears that symbolize each characters (sign)

Sign: Scar = a Sign of the True Hero
Often heroes have a scar, as a sign of the true hero
Propp describes the hero gets injured in fighting. And when the hero comes back there is another guy who claims the
hero’s prize is his. The scar identifies a sign of the true hero.
This strategy is often used in manga as well. Ex. Naruto’s belly magic sign/ the mark on Luffy’s crew members arms…
When you make your own character, be aware of what elements they have to identify themselves.

Workshop 1 - Elements and Character
As a group activity, students create a character throwing dice to determine segmental
elements of character following the instructions below;
1. Throw eight-sided dice or lottery with 1-8 number three times.
2. If the first number is even number, go upper block of the chart. If odd number, go to
lower half of the chart. *Chart is on the next slide
3. The other two throws, Decide the combination of vertical and horizontal key words on
the chart
4. Choose one of the 7 types of character below
1. Hero-
2. Villain
3. Donor
4. Helper
5. Princess/Prince
6. False Hero-
7. Dispatcher
5. You may change the horizontal words before playing this activity.
6. Basic body can be human or any animal of your choice
Created by Eiji OOtsuka

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Cat Dog Wolf Dragon Horse Alligator Bug Bat
1 Head
2 Nose
3 Mouth
4 Ear
5 Eye
6 Hair
7 hand
8 Leg or Foot
1 Back
2 But
3 Arm
4 Upper Body
5 Lower Body
6 One Side of body
7 Full body
8 Chimera
Even
Odd
First Dice Third Dice
Secod Dice

Character Targeted at Different Age
The visual design of character is formed along with target age
Age Concept
0-3 years old Simple elements
3-6 years old Transitional Object
10-14 years old Attribute of the Word
Older Self-Consciousness

0-3 years old
Little blue and Little Yellow is a picture book for
children that have not recognized the concept
of color.
The book helps them to understand functions
of color using colors as a character/creature.

3-6 years old
Transitional Object
Most characters for this age range do not have a
mouth or simple face so that children imagine
their face case by case. The character is to
empathize with the children so faces must be
flexible for any situation of their emotion

Linus’s towel - Transitional Object
Linus’s towel is the transitional
object (sign). He acts like an
adult with the towel but when
he loses the towel he acts like a
baby

Transitional Object
Transitional Object is a term in psychoanalysis by the English
psychoanalyst Donald Woods Winnicott (1896-1971) to denote a
familiar object, such as the hem of a blanket, from which an infant
between 4 and 12 months old derives comfort, especially while failing
asleep, its significance sometimes re-emerging in later life, especially in
a period of depression. Winnicott considered it to lie “between the
thumb and the teddy bear inasmuch as it is almost inseparable from
the infant, like a thumb, yet in reality is an external object, like a teddy
bear.
*oxford dictionary

Transitional Object Character Example

Workshop –Transitional Object Character
Students create a transitional object character like linus’s towel or
Totoro following the directions below
1. Create a protagonist (main character *not transitional object) who
has trauma, anxiety, or immaturity. The character can be any age,
gender, and genre.
2. Design / Create a transitional object for the main character.
ex. Imaginary friend (like Totoro), item (Linus’s towel), costume,
etc….

6-10 years old -Attribute
Five Rangers
Each character is a metaphor of elements of the world
such as fire/water/ metal/ wind/ ground etc….
However, it is too symbolic for the target age to recognize
the concept. The color of each character helps to form
units categorizing them with symbolic colors
All series of TV shows of five rangers are wearing masks to
make easy to empathize.

10- 14 years old
Pokemon
Transitional object (monsters) evolve
in the game.
Through playing the game, children
reflect their growth.
Those objects are animalized
elements of the world. Children
trade these monsters as a
communication tool understanding
natural elements.

Five Elements of
Chinese Philosophy
Like Chinese philosophy. Chinese philosophy
also has five specific elements; water, wood,
fire, earth, and metal, their function is to
show the natural circulation of interactions.
These elements are just turning points of
phenomena. Also, the five elements of
Chinese philosophy are described in
relationship to other elements; wood makes
fire, fire makes earth (like magma), earth
makes metal (like gold), metal makes water,
water makes wood. Thus, Chinese philosophy,
when talking about the five elements, always
seeks the cycles of nature rather than specific
forms of the elements.

6-14 years old for girl
Transforming to a goddess/princess is another way to
reflect children’s growth.

Older age
Getting old, children become self-conscious.
The characters in manga are to picture their ideal figures or to empathize.

Workshop 3 – Attribute of Character
Students create two to three characters incorporating a specific
attribute of their choice such as, fire, water, moon, Mars, time,
sadness, happiness, etc…
Those characters must incorporate one theme. Ex. Emotion, Taste,
Types of planet, etc….

Reference
• Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Falktale
• Eiji Otsuka, キャラクターメーカー６つの理論とワークショップで
学ぶ作り方
• Eiji Otsuka, スートーリーメーカー

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