Cartoon Character Design for Animation

Inkscape is the tool we'll be using to draw the game art and in this unit, you'll get familiar with the essentials of this amazing free, open source vector illustration software.

In this lesson you'll get familiar with the user interface of the program as well as learning how to handle yourself in the document.

Objects are one of the most important parts of vectorial illustration, in this lesson you're gonna learn what are they and how to use them.

Paths are the other half of vector illustration, in this lesson youre gonna learn how to use them to create your own custom shapes.

Before letting you go to the rest of the course, i want to share with you a few essential tips that i've gathered thru the years of working with Inkscape.

In this lesson you'll be able to download the resources and exercice files belonging to the Inkscape mini-course. As well as some interesting links to learn more about Inkscape.

Before starting to make the game art of our 2d platformer, there are a few things we need to know, a bit of theory and practical techniques that we are gonna be using all thru out the rest of the course.

Now that you know the basics of Inkscape, it's time for you to learn how to use the program to make actual illustrations. In the next few lessons, you'll learn the essential illustration techniques that you'll be using, not only in this course, but in pretty much any illustration you'll ever do. Starting with everything you need to know about boolean operations.

In this lesson we continue learning the essential Inkscape illustration techniques be learning how to handle complex objects.

We end the techniques lessons with the basics of illustrating light and shadow using Inkscape.

We'll start with the character by learning to draw and design attractive heads.

Learn to draw the most common type of eyes.

Even more types of eyes!.

Learn to draw the most common type of noses.

Learn to draw the most common type of ears.

Learn to draw the most commo type of mouths.

After you've learn the symbols that makes up a head, its time to learn to draw the actual head, and that's what you'll learn in this lesson.

The hair can be a complicated subject, but if you approach it the right way it doesn't have to be.

In this lesson i'll teach you the design methods that you can use to create nice looking heads.

Drawing the human body is a very difficult task. However cartoon bodies are considerable easier. In this unity you'll learn everything you need to draw any type of cartoon body.

In this quick anatomy lesson you'll learn the absolute essentials about anatomy that you need to draw well constructed cartoon bodies.

The hands and feet can be especially complicated, so in this lesson you'll learn the most common types of hands and feet shapes commonly used by cartoons.

In this lesson you'll learn the basic pillar of how to construct the body, using base guide shapes.

One you have the basic construction shapes, it's time to add the final line, and that's called the line art, so in this lesson you'll learn how to create appropiate line art.

In this lesson we'll start with the first of the five characters that we'll carry to completion. We'll apply everything you've learn about making bodies to draw the classic dad body that you see all the time in cartoon shows. In all of the five cases i'll be supplying the head so you don't have to worry about that and can focus in practicing the body.

In this lesson you'll be drawing the body of the classic archetype character of the tough guy.

Draw the body and line art of a attractive female character. We'll be creating a quick variation so you can see how easilly is to do that when you work with inkscape.

My original course on background design included two characters i placed there to better illustrate the final result, a lot of people seem to be more interested in the characters than in the backgrounds, and that inspired me to make this course, so in this lesson, you'll learn how to make the body of the kid character that originally appeared in the course "Learn to draw cartoon backgrounds for animation".

Draw the body of the other character, the midle aged man.

In this simplified style we are working, clothing is actually very easy and simply to do, and this is what this lesson is about.

Now it's time to make the characters pretty. Add nice looking lines, color and light and shadow. But for that you need to know a couple of things first. In this unit you'll learn the principles of rendering cartoons, and then you'll apply what you've learn to the five characters you started in the previous unit.

Learn the basics of how light and shadow work, so you can apply it characters.

Learn how to add color to the characters by using the tools in inkscape.

Learn how to create in Inkscape the type of double line finishing you see all the time in cartoon shows.

In the next lessons we'll finish the five characters that we started in the previous unit. You'll apply everything you've learned in this unit and create the finished character with well applied line, color and shadows. We'll start with the dad.

We continue rendering the characters, in this lesson we finish the tough guy.

In this lesson we'll create two finished versions of the female character. You'll learn how easily you can create a completelly different feeling character by just changing a few colors.

We finish the kid character, this time constructed in the best possible way.

We finish the middle aged man character, this time contructed in the best possible way.

Continue learning.

We are done with the course congratulations!. In this lesson we'll go over what should be your next step.

Unlock free Inkscape assets (facial features, backgrounds & more!)—plus a special offer to level up your skills. Download inside!