Creating Characters with Personality: For Film, TV, Animation, Video Games, and Graphic Novels Paperback – Illustrated, 1 Feb. 2006

A really helpful guide to character design from a collection of amazing artists. It filled in a lot of the gaps that my university failed to mention and sparked a previously lacking enthusiasm. It is written in a very one-on-one talk kind of way that makes it feel like you're learning from an artist rather than just sitting reading a book. It also provides fun and educational exercises to keep you active - art is an active thing, after all!For all future character designers who are serious about perusing a career - read this book!

Good for characters. My child loves it. It is great for developing some drawing skills

This is a great book for aspiring animators and cartoonists, is very well illustrated and very informative and very useful.

The specific purpose of this book is to demonstrate how the use of different shapes and construction can produce characters with different personalities. To that end it is superb. Running alongside the chapters to do this (facial spacing, body shape etc) is an ongoing assignment given to cartoon professionals to produce a lead character with a specific personality. The results are interesting as each is very different yet displays the character traits specified. The book goes on to show the design process for the entire cast from sidekick, to sweetheart, to thug, to villain. The book hasn't improved my drawing (I think it assumes you have some talent already) but has highlighted why some of my computer characters look out of places alongside others.Overall delivers very well the narrow brief it describes.

Absolutely loved it.

It's not a bad book, the author really has a long career on the field of animation, that is why the book disappointed me a little. It covers everything superficially, and it feels like the content could be treated in more depth.I would recommend it for a quick overview about character design, but not if you are looking for something else

Had mixed thoughts about getting this book based on other reviews, but was pleasantly surprised. Yes, the book does go over basic drawing tips that are in practically every learn-to-draw book ever... But the author spends a lot of time talking about the little things which make a character shine. It makes you really think about the key features of your character designs and what can make them stand out. Things that you might otherwise forget about when jotting down a design quickly. This book is geared towards more traditional 2D animation, which may be a negative thing depending on how you draw. Although there are a few segments written by other artists, the book is very stylized. The examples don't encompass a very broad range of drawing styles, but it's a good starting point to move forward from.

Nice insights from the designer of many Disney characters. However a lot of the book is focused on creating cowboy characters. I get the idea, it's supposed to help you understand the process. I just think it could've been done in a more fun and interesting way.