character design: symmetrical or not?

#1

Hey all!

I’m a student and I was designing a new character. I didn’t like the idea of modelling half and then mirroring. Life just isn’t so symmetrical. True, “beautiful” people tend to be more symmetrical than the average person, but even then, it’s never exactly symmetrical.

BUT, since animation is basically an exaggeration of life, would a non-symmetrical character look ugly? Would the lack of symmetry stand out more in CG? When I draw, I like to make to make things have a little more “character” by making little things a little “off” - non-symetrical, but things may read differently on computer. Do you think perfect symmetry is actually bad?! What do you all do?

#2

you could always make the half character, then when ur done, mirror him and make adjustments to break the symmetry~good luck

#3

I’m not asking how to mirror, I’m asking which people think is better - perfectly symetrical or not - or if it really depends.

#4

tevih, you said it yourself in your 1st post - life just isn’t so symmetrical. So ideally you wouldn’t have a perfectly symmetrical character model. If you have time sure put in all the details to ensure a non-symmetrical result. The model would look less ‘mirrored’.
It’s also important to note that after you’ve finished your model, the final pose (be it animated or not) looks more natural when it’s non-symmetrical as well. I would say a symmetrical pose (one side’s body parts posed the same as the other) is much more obviously spotted than a symmetrical model.

#5

Good question…giving characters asymetrical features would make them more intersting but it would also pull them out of the handsome/ pretty stereotype that we tend to look for in our heroes and herroines. Now if thats good or bad depends on how you look at it. On one hand stories for movies and games portray good characters as pretty (symetrical features) and bad characters ugly (asymetrical) and thats how we’ve come to identify each.

On the other hand giving them asymetrical flaws could help to break the stereotype and possibly make the charachter more interesting; but could also alienate the audeince from the charcater, because we for some reason want to identify more with the attracitive characters.

When I was in school I had a teacher who would do the exact same thing you mentioned. After modeling one side he would mirror the model and make fine adjustments to the eyes, nose or mouth to give it asymetry. Nothing major just enough to make it intersting.

#6

depends on degree or severity of asymmetry… and your threshold/definition of ugly

In general I always break the symmetry by tweaking verts slightly and in texture ( I never mirror the front ofthe face in texture either)

raising an eyebrow ever so slightly… a slight varaiaton in eyelid… otherwise true symmetry sticks out to me as being odd

btw I wouldn’t call asymmetry “flaws” as in the above post … and I don’t think it particularly alienates the audience unless one nostril is in the forehead

#7

Adding symmetry doesn’t necessarily have to make the character ugly, it all depends on where you add it. Look at a lot of Square’s designs, like Tidus from Final Fantasy X:

Now there’s a pretty-boy if I ever saw one, but just the outfit sports some asymmetry which makes it a bit more interesting. (Okay, for all you Tidus-haters out there, even Cloud Strife sported assymetrical shoulder-armor! :slight_smile: )

Honestly, I think it depends on the character design itself. Some that I’ve done really lend themselves to symmetrical designs, others asymmetrical. Sometimes a reasonably symmetrical design can be improved with a touch of change, like a decal on the breast or shoulder that makes it look less symettrical.

But, imho, it’s silly not to mirror geometry: The alternative is to model essentially the same thing twice, which is too time-consuming. As souse and others have pointed out, you can always tweak it afterwards!

-mike

#8

when I said ugly I suppose I used too harsh of a word. I was thinking of more of a hollywood standared of pretty witch can be kind of harsh. Like tavih said in his first post no one person is completly symmetrical, and I don’t mean to say that asymmetry is a flaw. Small variations like you described probably would not alienate most people, but I was thinking of variations that are less subtle like an eye that is noticeably bigger or maybe a crooked jaw or broken nose. I really didn’t mean alienate in the sense that it would keep you from enjoying the movie or game, just that people tend to exept bigger flaws of that nature easier in supporting characters and villians than they do in the main protaganist.

I guess thats changing though because characters in appearence and nature are be coming more flawed and less perfect, Spawn and solid snake are good examples.

At any rate I think asymmetry is good for character design.

#9

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