The 6-Week Character Design Course at AKSOA is designed for beginners and aspiring artists who want to build a strong foundation in character creation for games, films, and animation. The program emphasizes anatomy basics, visual storytelling, and digital painting workflows, with a strong focus on matte painting techniques to quickly bring ideas to life. By the end of the course, students will have gained practical skills in figure drawing, proportion, mood building, and rendering, and will complete three original character concepts as their final output.
Course Structure
Introduction & Basic Anatomy
Students are introduced to the essentials of character design, starting with proportion, gesture, and simple anatomy breakdowns. The week emphasizes confidence in sketching the human figure and understanding how body language shapes personality.
Anatomy in Action
Building on the basics, students study muscle groups, facial features, and expressions in a simplified way that supports design rather than medical accuracy. By the end of the week, they can create quick, expressive figures ready to evolve into characters.
Concept Development
Students begin exploring archetypes and personality through design choices. They experiment with silhouettes, costumes, and props to communicate narrative identity. The first rough pass of an original character is developed during this stage.
Matte Painting for Characters
This week introduces digital tools and matte painting workflows. Students learn how to photo-bash, texture, and light their sketches to speed up the process of visualizing costumes and environments around their characters. The first concept is refined, and work begins on a second.
Rendering & Polish
Students push their concepts further by adding mood, color, and surface detail through matte painting techniques. They finalize their second character and begin their third, applying all previously learned skills to develop a more independent design flow.
Final Presentation
The course concludes with the completion of the third character. Students polish all three designs and assemble them into a mini-portfolio sheet. The week ends with feedback and a presentation session, preparing them to showcase their characters as professional-level concepts.
Pre-Requirement
Zeal for story telling and creating characters!
Access to photoshop/ Procreate/CSP, Graphic Tablet/Ipad.
Duration
6 weeks of intensive class (weekends)
Course Fee
USD $70 (5999 INR)
Student Per Course
6 students