Hi everyone, my name is Knight Zhang and I am  a freelance illustrator and character concept  

artist. Today I’d like to talk about  storytelling through costume design and  

offer you three ways to help you develop  visually interesting and meaningful characters.

Before we get started, I’d like to preface  with a general statement that this isn't  

technically about character design, but rather  a closer look at an aspect of character concept.

A good design is not defined by its  complexity, but its ability to tell  

the best story for the right character. My goal  with this video is not to instruct or instill  

a step-by-step process for you to  follow, but rather to encourage you  

to find the magic in delving deeper when it  comes to your character's costume design.

The way that you and I dress are choices  that we make day-to-day and as a designer,  

you have the opportunity to communicate the  most important parts of your character's lore  

with just the way they dress.

Whether simple or complex, the aim of a costume  will always be to highlight the key things you  

need to know about a character, namely their  purpose, their personality and their history.  

All of these things can combine to help  you define your character's archetype or  

exemplify their role within the story.

Overall, you can think of design like a spectrum.  I’ve personally always believed that there's  

no such thing as a bad design but rather a  design that falls short of its full potential  

for the person who's looking at it. Every designer  has their own solution for every creative problem  

and those differences are what defines the  philosophies of different visual aesthetics.

For the purposes of this video, I’m going to  pitch to you two different spectrums which can  

help you define your design philosophy: functional  versus fantasy and historical versus fictional.  

Functional versus fantasy is a way to describe the  technical aspect of your character's design code.  

Do you lean towards designs which  are purely realistic and have  

logical reasons behind its visual appearance?

- Knock it!

Or are you more interested in creating  graphically iconic and bombastic designs  

that have very little functionality to back it  up? Examples of functional designs are games  

such as Call of Duty and Uncharted, while media  with a little bit more of a fantastical approach  

may include games like Bayonetta,  World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy.

On the other hand, historical versus  fictional is a way to describe  

the visual aspects of your  character's design code...  

Are your designs grounded somewhere in  history or in a pre-existing culture or  

is it more ambiguous and an amalgamation of  different cultures and historical periods?  

Examples for a very historical design philosophy  would be Seven Samurai or Dunkirk, while  

maybe a more fictional approach would be games  like Horizon Zero Dawn or the 2006 movie The Fall.

Most designers will inevitably  fall somewhere in between the two  

sides of both spectrums, and where you  fall will inevitably decide what avenue  

and the process in which you proceed to  design the costumes for your characters.

Once you've kind of figured out the parameters  of your design code, now is the time to start  

figuring out the basics of your character.  Research first and foremost is probably one  

of the most important steps, especially if you're  doing a design that is predominantly historical  

or functional. Even if you're going for  something more avant-garde or bizarre,  

research can be a really valid way of pushing  you past your boundaries and helping you explore  

different solutions to complex creative problems.

So, I wanted to kind of go through some of my  

own examples of reference boards and  show you how I’ve done the process  

just so that you can see sort of a visual example  of all these things that I’m talking about.

This is for a project that I did back  in 2019. First thing I always do is I go  

on to Pinterest and I basically make  a whole board for the entire project  

and make sub boards within it just  so I can organize my thoughts.

In this, I’m trying to basically kind  of nail down a very specific aesthetic  

and I’m not thinking about actually using any  of these pictures in the final reference board,  

it's primarily just looking for images that evoke  the right feeling for me. I really loved the kind  

of bubble gum punk aesthetic and I wanted to  go with something kind of crazy, kind of wild.

Obviously, once you see the final image  she doesn't end up looking [Chuckles] too  

much like a lot of these images, but I  really just kind of wanted to set the tone  

for her at the start. And then, if we go to  what eventually became of the reference board,  

this is what I ended up making.  So, for this project in particular,  

I wanted to have the reference boards really  emulate the feeling of the character itself.

So, everything about the text, the color palette,  I wanted it to be very evocative of the feeling  

that I was going for. So, I have two different  divisions and I like doing this because it gives  

me kind of a concrete way of applying my research.  On one side I have the fashion, so this is very  

much real world applications of kind of what I’m  thinking of, maybe a little bit of the ensemble,  

maybe just a little bit of images that  evoke the right sort of feeling for me.

On the other side, the aesthetic part.  This is more focused on the kind of feeling  

that it gives me. So, I have obviously the  delinquents and the biker gangs but then also  

different forms of neon punk, very street,  very modern sort of aesthetics. I have a  

little blurb down here for the character  that I was pitching for this specific  

faction that I was making. And so, this is  what ended up being her reference board.

Once I kind of figured that out, I went ahead  and started basically just ideating. So,  

I did a lot of sketches traditionally that  would eventually lead to finding that very  

specific feel that I was looking for. Exploring  different silhouettes, different body types too.

Writing is something that I kind  of started to do a lot more often,  

which is really great, I do recommend  it. I’m a terrible writer because  

I always think much faster than I  write and so, at some point I just get  

really like "Oh, I’ll just draw it out",  but then drawing also takes a long time.

So, it's sometimes tough to put all of your ideas  down because you feel like you can't express it  

properly but that's why ideating is a really  good process because you can just spend the  

time to really break down your concepts  and from putting things down on paper,  

it can also then grow and develop  even further than what you originally  

imagined and that's kind of the  benefit of the process itself.

I really like drawing girls and I really like  drawing super punky kind of outfits. And so,  

when I was drawing her it felt like I was right  at home [Chuckles], which is probably why she  

has probably some of the most sketches out  of any of the characters in this project. So,  

you can kind of see just trying out all  different types of things, all different types of  

ideating techniques; so, silhouettes, line  drawings, thumbnails, all that sort of stuff.

And so, this is kind of what happened at the end  of that first pass and I realized I really didn't  

like it. It felt really half-baked for what I  originally envisioned for her. And that's kind of  

what happens occasionally is that  you just might realize that what you  

tried to do, what you tried to  execute just didn't feel right.

And so, I gave it another shot. This was a  sketch inspired by a drawing that happened  

pretty early on. So this is one of the first  pages that I had ever did for this project and  

she ended up being the inspiration for the final  sketch. So, funny how that happens occasionally.

I wanted to emphasize this kind of really  out there, really spunky kind of roller derby  

athlete but I wanted to really emphasize the fact  that one of her biggest points was that she was  

like this runner, this skater, this outspoken  moving, constantly moving kind of a character.

So, having these really big legs that were almost  like rockets felt really appropriate for her. From  

there, I then started doing a lot more poses,  breaking down her personality... This kind of  

helped me figure out specifically how I’d want  her to pose, how I want her to move... Ways to  

just kind of show her personality while she's  being like kind of statuesque and stationary.

Final one which I did just recently... She's  moving a lot more because this is I think  

her best evolution yet. It I think fully  displays what I imagined her doing all the time,  

which is jumping and kicking and dancing and  just having like the best time of her life.

So this is how she kind of ended up, which  is really fun because in ways, this doesn't  

really share any of the traits or similar costume  designs to the original ref board, but it also  

still emulates kind of what I wanted for her  from the beginning and she's also grown a lot.

As a side note, it's important that we designers  have an inherent responsibility for the research  

that we do. It's crucial that we don't treat  these cultures as merely aesthetics but rather  

as key aspects which can mold and explain  the various infrastructures within our story.

Having strong and genuine reasons behind  each design choice you make for a character  

will not only solidify their design overall  

but also push you to find new and  interesting ways to implement your research.

The visual aesthetics within a given society are  almost always a reflection of their worldview,  

geological or mythical. And how you apply  these elements of design will showcase a  

true understanding of both your inspirations  and the scope of your character's world.

Now that you have some research to get  you started, it's time to think about  

the characters general ensemble. This is  literally just about what they are wearing;  

is it a single layered tunic or piles of  armor and fur? The seams on the shirt,  

types of shoes, hats, jackets... All  of these things can help inform the  

audience on how they choose to present  themselves to the outside world.

Regardless of how little or how much the  character wears, not only does this give the  

audience a quick read on their personality,  their job and their socioeconomic status  

but it also provides an opportunity to think about  some of the core principles of character design  

such as having a strong silhouette  read and interesting shapes.

Some things you can think about is having a varied  

spread of big medium and small  shapes and keeping an eye out  

for opportunities to showcase a character's  unique quirks through an item of clothing.

To further the impact of a character's  ensemble is to define the materials of  

their costume through the use of textiles  and surface texture. Patterning, color,  

metal grade and fabric types are great ways to  not only add visual interest within a character  

but it also offers an opportunity to delve  into more subtle displays of personality.

Just as you and I dress in different  clothes of different fabrics and materials,  

the make of a costume can help communicate a  character's preference in their day-to-day life.  

How you communicate texture and the way light  interacts with different thread counts and  

thicknesses such as silk versus wool in cloths,  rusted metals versus clean steel and so on,  

all of these things will greatly  enhance the authenticity of your design.

Additionally, color blocking is also a great  way to divide up your character's costume  

into shapes that add to the overall visual  interest. My general rule of thumb is to  

use different shades and saturations of one  primary color for 40 to 60% of the character.  

Secondary, parts of the clothing and medium shape  decor are somewhere in a similar hue family,  

such as deep blues with brighter greens  or warm reds with golds and purple.

Opposing pops of color are reserved  for accents and smaller details.  

You can obviously deviate from this, but I found  this process to be a good jumping off point,  

especially if you're someone like me who struggles  to envision or pick a good color palette early on.

The availability and accessibility to certain  fabrics and dyes can also serve as subtle  

ways to define a character's position in life.  Historically, access to dies of a certain exotic  

or expensive colored material would indicate  someone's wealth and social standing while the  

flora and fauna of a geographical location might  influence the style of one's costume; are certain  

common animals and plants considered spiritually  significant to the point of becoming a communal  

motif or perhaps naturally available materials  can define the style of a particular region.

A real world example of this is the unique  manufacturing process for the Oshima Tsumigi,  

one of Japan's most high-end kimonos. It's  distinguished for its luminous black color created  

through a process of washing the silk through  the iron-rich mud found on the island of Oshima.

This aspect alone sets it apart from  other similarly looking fabrics due to  

the geographical significance of the material.  And other real world applications such as this,  

can serve as inspiration for how you define  the cultures behind your character's costume.

The third and final way to sell a  character through their costume is  

through the props they carry with  them. Whether it's through a weapon,  

a piece of sentimental jewelry, the  overstuffed pack slung over shoulder,  

props can show what is so important that a  character would actively carry it on them.

How little or how much they carry can also  indicate where they are in their life or  

journey. Barren and devoid of ornamentation,  perhaps they're at the end of their rope and  

desperate or maybe they renounce material  things and live life in simplicity.

Encumbered by a weighty  collection of baubles and items,  

that could communicate a hoarder with  a penchant for over-indulgence or  

perhaps they wear their guilt on their  sleeve as penance for past crime.

There are a variety of ways to decorate your  character's costume which can help draw your  

viewers attention to specific places. Examples  being beaded necklaces, creating leading lines  

toward their face or dividing an empty space  on a shirt with a chest holster or maybe some  

enamel pins. It can even help define the big  medium and small shapes we discussed earlier.

The design and make of the prop itself  is also something worth considering;  

would your character be able to afford a  novelty knife made out of foreign steel?  

Or are they thrifty enough to DIY a crude but  deadly shiv from the materials at the bottom  

of the bag... Do they prefer flashy guns  with a custom skin or are they holding onto  

a broken and deteriorating sword hilt  because of its personal significance?

Questions like these can help build lore without  needing to directly describe it to an audience  

and makes for fun Easter Eggs if anyone cares  to look just a little bit deeper. It's through  

the exploration of a character's ensemble, the  details and its textiles and the props that they  

carry that helps designers convey a character's  personality, their purpose and their history.

Using different levels of  complexity within a design  

is essential to creating a balanced  and aesthetically pleasing character.  

At the end of the day, costume design is merely  a tool with which you can expand the lore of a  

character through visual communication, and it  can be really effective in pulling together the  

world building while also adding interesting  and unique flairs to the character cast.

How deeply you choose to develop an  aspect of a character's costume is  

really up to you. As long as the costume fulfills  its purpose of truly conveying your character.  

And again, it doesn't have to be this deep. If  you're feeling like a t-shirt and some dirty  

jeans are more than enough for your  character, that is a perfectly valid  

costume design. That's what's fun and exciting  about costume and character design in general.

Good designs are simply designs that give an  audience an accurate and quick read on the  

character and their purpose in the story. Costumes  are just one of the ways you can communicate those  

ideas. However, that manifest itself in your work  is as valid as the work of any other designer.

So, I hope this video can encourage you to explore  costume design as a form of communication in  

regards to building lore within a world or  adding context to a story. I know it can be  

kind of daunting to sort of approach it and it's  a very subjective field. But I think that's kind  

of what makes it interesting is that there are so  many different possibilities and endless different  

solutions essentially to how you can  approach designing a single given character.

If you are interested in asking me questions or  would just like to follow my art, you can follow  

me on any of my social media but additionally  to that, I also stream every Friday on Twitch  

at 7 PM pacific standard time. So, if you want  to watch me for a few hours every week, that's  

what I do. But yeah, thank you for the Proko  team for inviting me to talk about this kind of  

really niche subject but I think it's really  cool and maybe it got you excited about it.

So, regardless of you know, what  you took away from this video,  

I hope it was fun and I hope  it encourages you to kind of  

you know, delve deeper into the  possibilities of costume design as a whole.