Designing Your Character - Game Character Development with Maya - page 19

FIGURE 1.4 Example of cartoon character proportions
Anatomy —A good knowledge of anatomy is essential when creating characters.
Understanding the basics of muscle and bone structure will help you shape your
figures, making them more realistic and correctly proportioned. Having a good se-
lection of anatomy topics to refer to is always a good idea.
Your Early Sketches
Using your style sheets, you can now begin to roughly sketch out some ideas. Take your
time if you have it, and spend a few days playing around with ideas. Figure 1.5 shows a
few early sketches I produced for Kila; you can probably see the progression of her design
and the deep contrast between the first idea and her eventual look.