When creating characters for animation in After Effects, the design and setup process in Illustrator is crucial to achieving the style and movement you want. The character’s look, movement, and even their relationship to the background can dramatically affect the overall feel of your animation. Whether you aim for a realistic, cartoonish, or robotic style, every choice matters. In this blog I’m going to guide you through how we set up characters and how these decisions can impact the final result.
Understanding Your Character’s Style
The first and most important decision in character creation is defining their style. Are you aiming for a realistic look, with smooth, natural movements? Or do you want something cartoonish, with exaggerated expressions and bouncy movements or slick and stylish? Each creates it’s own challenges in animating.
Take this video for the England rugby team with the iconic look created by the subtle grey or black line around the characters. The style of animation has been used before, though this has a modern elegance to it. But this style of cartoon is a quite complex when it comes to animating, with the additional movements in body compared to creating a motion graphic style character where only the arms and legs that move. Still looks good, but there’s a clear difference.
And then there’s the option of 2D or 3D, but we’re only going to be covering 2D.
- Realistic Characters: These tend to have more detailed features and movements that mimic real-life physics. So lines in eyebrows, wrinkles and warn, torn clothes. You’ll need to break down their limbs, joints and basically anything that moves carefully in Illustrator before import to after effects for more precise control. Think about adding separate layers for elbows, knees, and wrists to avoid stiff movements. You need everything to mimic real movements, so no bendly floppy arms.
- Cartoonish Characters: These are often more flexible and exaggerated. They can have features like larger heads, exaggerated facial expressions, and exaggerated proportions. With cartoon characters, you’re more likely to create fluid, bouncy movement, and you can get away with fewer detailed parts. If as an animator we make a mistake when keyframing movement, we’re more likely to get away with it and no one notice. Not that we want to.
- Motion Graphic (Robotic or Stiff Characters): These characters are often designed with sharp edges, minimal bending, and more rigid movements. For robotic characters, you may not need to break down arms and legs as much, but you’ll want to think about hinges or joints that move in angular ways. Sometimes these can actually be the hardest to get right because it can be easy to make the animation look really bad. Like an 80’s video that’s buffering really bad when watching. And no body likes that. But done right you’ll have a nice affordable video.
Your character’s style will not only define their appearance but also how they move. A cartoonish character might have floppy arms with more exaggerated, flowing movement, while a motion graphic style video might have more deliberate, stiff motions.
The Importance of Movement
Once you’ve established the character’s overall style, you need to think about how they will move.
- Smooth vs. Bouncy Movements: A realistic character might walk with smooth, subtle transitions between steps, while a cartoon character might have a bouncier walk, with exaggerated up-and-down motions. To achieve this, you’ll need to think about how their limbs are divided in Illustrator. For smooth movement, divide the legs into segments (thigh, shin, and foot), and the arms into upper arm and lower arm sections to allow for natural bending.
- Hands and Fingers: A small but significant detail is how you design your character’s hands. If you’re going for a Disney-like cartoon look, three fingers and a thumb might work perfectly and simplify animation. However, if realism is important, consider giving your characters full five-fingered hands. This adds complexity to your animation but also enhances the sense of realism.
Designing from Scratch vs. Using Stock Characters
A common question is whether to design characters from scratch or use stock assets from libraries like FreePik or Shutterstock. Both approaches have their pros and cons.
- Custom Characters: Designing characters from scratch gives you complete creative control. You can ensure that the character’s look, personality, and movement match your specific vision. However, it can be time-consuming, especially if you need to create multiple characters for a single project.
- Stock Characters: Using stock characters can save time and still provide flexibility. Many stock characters come in fully editable Illustrator files, allowing you to modify colours, body parts, or clothing to suit your needs. For example, FreePik offers a wide range of character designs that can be easily broken down into layers for animation in After Effects. You can also customise them to fit different scenes, such as changing their clothes or adjusting skin tone and hair colour to match your audience.
In some cases, you can reuse the same base character but modify their appearance for variety. This could mean changing their outfit, adjusting facial features, or altering skin tone and hairstyle. This is especially useful if you need a cast of characters but don’t have the time or budget to design each one from scratch. It’s also good if you have created a walk cycle template in After Effects and want to duplicate it with a new character. As long as you don’t alter the size and position of the character in the source file, you can change the colour and features to create a new character.
Matching Characters to the Background
A crucial consideration is how your character fits into the background. Does the character’s style complement the environment, or do they clash? A realistic character in a cartoonish background can look out of place, and vice versa. Consistency in the design of both the character and the background will help maintain a cohesive visual experience.
When creating character animations, I usually start by designing the character before the background. This allows me to match the environment to the character’s style rather than the other way around. I find it’s much easier to tailor the background to the character than trying to fit a character into an existing environment, but everyone has their own workflow preferences.
For example, if you have a more minimalistic or cartoonish character, the background should reflect that simplicity with clean, bold shapes and colours. On the other hand, if your character is highly detailed and realistic, your background will likely need to be more detailed as well, with complex textures and shadows. You can see the difference between the bright scene in Bluey compared to another England rugby video.
Relatability and Character Design
When designing characters, especially for specific audiences, relatability is key. For our projects, most of which are contractor induction videos for educational institutions clothing, appearance, and overall style are vital. We aim for characters that our audience can identify with. This includes designing characters with outfits that resemble real-world clothing and ensuring the character design reflects a diverse range of people, helping viewers see themselves in the animation.
This is another area where stock assets like FreePik or Shutterstock can be useful. You can start with a base character and adjust their features to create diversity. Change their clothes to match the profession or environment, and modify their facial features or skin tone to reflect the audience.
Final Thoughts: Start with Style, Plan for Movement
Setting up your characters in Illustrator for After Effects requires careful thought about style, movement, and how the character will interact with their environment. Whether you’re designing from scratch or using stock assets, consider how the character’s style influences their movement and overall look. By thinking about these elements in advance, you’ll be able to create animations that feel natural, cohesive, and relatable to your audience.
For me, the character’s design often comes first, as it’s easier to tailor the background to the character rather than the reverse. However, your workflow may differ depending on your style and project needs. Whatever approach you take, the key is to think ahead about how all the elements, character, movement, and background, work together to create a unified and compelling animation.