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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Character Design for Video Games by California Institute of the Arts

4.7
stars
962 ratings

About the Course

In this course you will explore concepts and approaches involved in creating successful character designs that can be applied to video games. Following a first week delving into some foundational concepts for successful character design, each of the remaining three weeks are structured as a master class where you will observe three professional character designers at work in the studio: Andy Ristaino (Adventure Time), Jacky Ke Jiang (Journey), and Robertryan Cory (SpongeBob SquarePants). Each designer will take on two different design challenges on the fly and address the various issues in designing characters for games, such as movement, expression, and technical limitations. At the end of each week you will have an opportunity to try out some of the concepts from that week's lesson on characters of your own design. This is a fun and engaging class especially useful for students interested in animation in film and TV as well as games, and is suitable for students of any drawing ability....

Top reviews

JM

Dec 21, 2016

As I said earlier, I recommend this course for everyone; doctors included (:

I like how this course was treated in a different way. We see people doing the job on there ground, that's interesting.

JJ

Jul 16, 2023

Concise coverage of fundamentals with great interviews and process from working artists. Could probably do with a little more about the application and styles in games but a great course nonetheless.

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26 - 50 of 254 Reviews for Character Design for Video Games

By brittany a

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Aug 31, 2018

There was an extensive flow of activities and assignments that really helped spark the creative process and essentials to brainstorming effective, eye catching characters. Each week I learned how to develop certain areas of the character's traits or story. I loved the community and the peer guidance. It was truly a place where criticism was welcomed, and ideas were shared, and displayed thoughtfully. If I could take this class again, I would. I absolutely enjoyed every minute!

By Hawra

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Oct 29, 2020

This course was different from the rest of the specialization. This course followed a character designer each week and we watched them complete a creative character drawing challenge while they gave us some tips or told us about their drawing style. The assignments were no joke, they required us to draw characters, but I was able to pass even with my bad drawing skills :P

I'm excited and nervous to complete this specialization with the final game design document course :D

By Carol B

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Jul 14, 2017

Very in depth, and it was indeed wonderful to draw my own characters for more of a defining purpose than just for fun! I really appreciated the time to truly figure out what, and who, the characters are. Not only that, but learning how to make them more interesting to someone who knows everything about them, and seem more human. Thanks, Coursera, for the best course ever! (Well, so far. I say that 'cause it has helped tremendously.)

By Kelly P

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Feb 26, 2016

This was a great course! It was cool to see the perspectives of different artists. I only wish there had been more of them, with more different styles (What about someone who is more realistic? What about someone who is super stylized in a different way?) Really delightful to have the opportunity to hear their perspective on things and have them describe how they think about what they're doing and to see their different processes.

By Naveen G Q

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Dec 29, 2022

This course is a fun and engaging class especially which is useful for beginners like me who are interested in animation in film and TV as well as games, and is suitable for students of any drawing ability. I learned many new things from the interviews of the professional character designers. I would like to thank our professor, Fran Krause, for making this course as a fun and engaging class.

By Breanne C

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Sep 7, 2018

Another fantastic course by Fran! He really shines as an instructor in this one, and makes the experience very enjoyable. I suspect he produced this Character Design course after the Game Design one, as all my complaints regarding the latter have been addressed here. I'd really love it if he went back and polished the Game Design one so that it would be on par with this. :)

By Mary A V

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Jul 11, 2020

I really enjoyed the Sample studies with Industry artists, and the assignments were well thought out and interesting to work on! The professor is also very fun and energetic to listen to, even if some of the guests were a little hard to follow along with - but hey, talking while in the middle of creative process is hard!

By Ekaterina S

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Feb 27, 2018

I loved this course and super recommend it to any one who wants to either boost his own characters designs or who wants to hear inspiring interviews from successful character designers! The course is full of valuable insights about the character design itself and hints on landing the jobs in this field.

By Mustafa A K

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Apr 11, 2018

Loved the way Fran taught and laid out this course! The assignments were top notch; really required some creative thinking. And I enjoyed all 3 of the interviews. It was great to see the different perspectives of professional artists.

I'd totally recommend this course to anyone! It was a lot of fun!

By Deleted A

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Feb 2, 2016

It's a great course I strongly recommend. Not only you are going to practise different character design through various exercises, but you are going to watch some great artist talking about their work while they are drawing. So interesting!

By Anush B

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Jun 6, 2020

Wonderful course! It really helps in understanding the foundation in character design and shows how the characters you love were created. I definitely feel a lot more confident in my ability to design characters after this course.

By Dilara

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Nov 16, 2020

I really liked this course, and I learned a lot of valuable information from the most idiomatic people on this job.Before the course, I wasn't very good at designing different characters, but thanks to this course, I got over it.

By Aimee H

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Feb 15, 2021

I really enjoyed this course! All the studio visits and lessons taught were really valuable to experience and learn from, every assignment given was exciting and fun to work toward and overall, I'm very happy I took this course.

By bruno m

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Sep 21, 2017

Excellent course! I just have no words to explain how much I've learned here. Of course it's just the beginning and we should keep practising a lot after this course, but it's definitely be kept as reference for future projects.

By Xavier E

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Apr 28, 2020

Brilliant course ! I really felt like I was actually visiting each designer's studio. Each of them were very inspiring, and the assignments were great fun ! Thanks CALART and especially Fran Krause for this wonderful course !

By Jairo A C M

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Dec 9, 2020

It was fun and productive course. Each lesson takes you to think about function and appealing in the process of character design. I spent a good time drawing and understanding what I do. Really productive and useful!

By Kim N D R

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Jun 16, 2020

This course was fun. I gained several new insights in designing a character, especially in the final week. Some things I kinda already had a grasp on, but this course really defined those things even more so.

By Elif S S

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Oct 20, 2022

Very effective course. Although peer graded reviews should be revised by a professional or altered completely, since there can be people just goofing around and demoralize and bring down your motivation.

By Bojan P

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Apr 13, 2016

This course was great, like other courses from this series. But this one was especially hard for me because it requires a lot of drawing, something I'm not so good at.

But anyway, great course, recommended!

By Taciane M

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Jun 24, 2019

I'm loving it, it's being awesome!

Each week's assignment is very cool and demands a different skill of us :D

I liked the topics very much, and I think it's great learning from other character designers!

By Melissa A

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Dec 28, 2015

I love the set up of this course - the fact that we get to sit in on artists as they draw and talk about the design/decision making process out loud. I wish the world design course was set up this way.

By J-Man

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Jul 17, 2023

Concise coverage of fundamentals with great interviews and process from working artists. Could probably do with a little more about the application and styles in games but a great course nonetheless.

By juan a c v

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Sep 24, 2020

It was very fun, accessible and made me learn a lot! It was also super relaxing and not stressful at all which I appreciate a lot of a course taken during college classes time. Highly recommend it!

By Alejandro M G M

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Nov 6, 2017

Fun and challenging to me. Is not easy to me to create new characters, but with this practice and professional examples, I feel more confident to just do and see what happens. Thank you, very much.

By Jazmine B

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Aug 4, 2016

Good course, especially since you have the option to take it for free. Nice assignments that gets you to think outside the box or challenge. Recommend it if you wanna keep yourself busy and learn.