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Character
TUTORIALS
17 OCTOBER 2011
40 COMMENTS
Well create the character from basic shapes to give a cute and friendly appearance
then well bring the character to life with gradient colours and a detailed fur effect.
The fantasy woodland monster well be creating is made up of lots of simple rounded
shapes to give the character a friendly appearance. The large eyes in relation to the
size of the body is the key ingredient to creating a cute and lovable character.
Selection tool then drag the lowermost point vetically upwards to flatten off the lower
edge.
Select the uppermost point and drag it vertically to create more of a pointed shape.
Inside the body area use the circle tool to draw the outlines of an eye. Copy (CMD+C)
and Paste in front (CMD+F) each new circle then scale it down while holding the Shift
with the body outline, then give the body outline a second click to set it as the key
basics of a mouth.
With the mouth selected, go to Object > Path > Offset path and enter 3mm in the
shape. Use this shape as a tool along with the Pathfinder palette to trim the teeth
shapes to size.
Group three ellipses to represent simple feet, then position them underneath the other
Draw a black circle elsewhere on the artboard then drag out the right-most point
horizontally. Use the Convert Anchor Point tool to create a sharp point, then press the
character.
Select one of the black brush shapes and go to Select > Same > Appearance, then go
Give the shape a brown fill, then add an Inner Glow effect using a slightly lighter brown
tone. Change the settings to Normal and adjust the size to suit.
Begin adding a range of gradient fills to the eye shapes. Use a subtle grey to white on
the outer shape, a bright series of colours for the iris and a black to dark grey for the
pupil.
Give the two extra white circles 70% opacity to help them give the impression of a
specular highlight.
Select just the outer shape from the eye group and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop
Shadow. Adjust the settings to 0 offset and 100% opacity. Adjust the size to around
5mm.
Fill the mouth shapes with the relevant colours, then add an Inner Glow effect to the lips
random colour to make them easy to identify. Draw rows of shapes until the whole body
shape is covered.
Select one of the new shapes then go to Select > Same > Appearance to select all the
One layer of hair shapes add some cool detail to the character, but two layers really add
an extra level of depth. Use the brush tool again to draw another series of brush
strokes.
Go to Select > Same > Appearance then click the Object > Expand Appearance option
these shapes it to begin with the main body then use the Select Next Object Above
command. Once selected, hit the CMD+Shift+] shortcut to send the objects to the top.
This leaves our cute little monster character complete. Despite being built from simple
shapes the gradients and fur effect really help bring the character to life.