Robert Huth
Mastering Character Design
Adobe Photoshop
Pencil/Paper
Beginner
Learn to create appealing characters with this 9 week online course. Starting with a foundation in basic draftsmanship and progressing to figure drawing, we will take a multi-week journey in exploring this discipline. Learn the fundamentals of character design and hear from the world’s top character designers at Disney Animation Studio.
Learn From The Best
Bobby is an artist at Disney Animation Studios and studied at Ringling College of Art & Design. He has a solid grasp on the highest standards of character design. This comprehensive course covers everything you need to know to master character design.
Interview series w/ Top Artists
We interviewed a series of Disney artists who gave their take on what makes good character design. Their insight is valuable for designers and animators a like. Including live drawing demo’s from a few of the artists.
Learn Solid Draftsmanship
This course includes a lot of drawing instruction. There is simply no way around the need for solid draftsmanship in a successful character design. Learning to draw is an important part of this process, and this course goes in depth to help you improve your drafting abilities.
Course content
What you'll learn from this workshop
We've broken this massive amount of information into a weekly schedule. Going over the fundamentals needed to master character design takes time. This course is not a live mentorship course, but rather an e-course which will guide you week by week.
Drawing Basics - week 1
Photoshop is a powerful tool for creating pixel-based artwork. This module will show you the fundamental processes you need to know including; Clipping Masks, Shape Layers & Texturing. Â
Intro To Figure Drawing - week 2
Adobe Illustrator is the standard in vector-based artwork. This module will cover tools available to you in creating original artwork. This will include a look at vector brushes, the grid tool and using gradients.Â
Refining Figure Drawing - week 3
Giving your work dimension and depth is an important part of being a motion designer. This module will cover the process in both photoshop and illustrator. Using perspective grids is a good way to block out shapes that maintain solid perspective.
Character Types and Shape Language - week 4
Adobe Photoshop is powerful, in part, because of the ability to combine photographs, vectors and pixel art into a single scene. This module is an overview of creating a mixed-media style frame. A step by step breakdown to help you create your own artwork.
Character Bio and Shape Explorations - week 5
This step by step tutorial will show you how to create a sense of scale in a 2d scene. We’ll touch on proper perspective and how to block out a scene to show a sense of scale. You’ll learn how to use gradients and shape layers to achieve this.Â
Refining Your Character Design - week 6
This step by step tutorial will show the process of creating a scene in Illustrator and Photoshop. We’ll start by sketching out the concepts, using layers in Illustrator and finishing the scene in Photoshop with some added, subtle textures.Â
Color & Turn-Arounds - week 7
This week we will focus on color and turn-arounds. We will also examine basic shading on our character while we work through the color and poses of our character.
Expression Boards - week 8
This week we will focus on expression boards. This process goes to the heart of your characters personality and shows them with different facial poses. This helps to build a character that can display a full range of emotion.
Personality Pose and Scene - week 9
This week we will focus on a personality pose and background. This process allows for a final shot of your character to be enhanced by adding a simple environment.
Course Preview
Sneak peek of the course
Doing a caricature is a great exercise for character designers. It gives you a human reference as a starting point from which you can exaggerate and emphasize features.
During the production of our interview series we put a few guys on the spot and had some fun. We asked Trent to caricature Bobby. He came up with a great first draft and dropped some great pointers along the way.
Trent’s example shows the need for both solid technical skills and design principles to create appealing designs. In this course, this will be our emphasis. On being solid with our technical skills and starting to master the principles of strong character design.
Testimonials
What do our students say?
This workshop has helped hundreds of motion designers improve as artists.
Mentor
Robert Huth
Artist & Animator - Walt Disney Animation Studio
Robert Huth is an animator and artist currently working at Disney Animation Studios in Burbank CA. He has animated on films such as Wreck It Ralph, Frozen and Moana. In addition to this, he’s had experience as an Animation Supervisor for Zootopia and Wreck It Ralph 2 working along-side the character design, modeling, and rigging team to produce many of Disney’s memorable characters. He has a BFA from Ringling School of Art & Design and has been working in full-time feature film production for the last 10 years.
Robert lives in Burbank with his wife Christal and their son Caleb. He is passionate about art and design and hopes this course can serve as a valuable resource for you.
Community
Join a supportive community
When the video training ends, the conversation continues on our Discord Server. This platform allows us to engage with you while you’re working throughout the workshop.
Bundled workshops
Save by grabbing our Character Bundle
Character Design & Animation Bundle
All the techniques, workflows and processes needed to start from the ideation of your original character, all the way through to a fully animated shot. We are combining two of our most popular workshops and offering this bundle at a discounted rate.
Henrique Barone’s traditionnal 2d animation course and Robert Huth’s character design course.
Buying each workshop would total $398, so we’re offering the two at a discounted rate of $279, for students who are interested in the design and animation process.
We hope these courses will help you create appealing characters and animations.
$398 $279
Pricing
Sign Up Any Time
Adobe Photoshop
Pencil/Paper
Beginner
4+ Hours
Highest Quality Training
Clean and concise training
In-depth lectures
Project case studies
Lifetime access
Supportive Community
Lifetime access to the Discord forum
Mastering Character Design with Robert Huth
A 9 Week Character Design Course With Bobby Huth At Disney Animation Studio.
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Fundamentals of Character Design
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Interviews with Disney Artists
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In-depth techniques review
F.A.Q
Have questions?
We’ve got you covered. Check out the answers below or visit the help center for anything else.
Why take Mastering Character Design?
This course serves as a roadmap for understanding the discipline of character design. Starting with a foundation in basic draftsmanship and progressing to figure drawing, we will take a multi-week journey in exploring how to create good character design. You will learn basic drawing techniques and hear from the world’s top character designers at Disney Animation Studios.
Is there homework?
Yes. Each week comes with a series of assignments or prompts. This is designed to put concepts into practice and give you experience with drawing, observation and design.
What will I know by the end?
The process of designing original characters and an understanding of how to improve your work over time. People spend a lifetime mastering this discipline, but starting with a focus on the proper techniques can dramatically improve your designs.
When does it start?
Right when you sign up! This is an e-course which sends you weekly training materials and assignments, every week, for 9 weeks. Working through each week is spaced out over 2.5 months to give you time to truly understand concepts in the proper order.
How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like – across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.
What level do I neeD?
This Mastering Character Design course is dedicated to beginners who want to learn the principles and techniques to create good character design.Â
You don’t need to have prior experience in the discipline to follow this course.
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiousity leads us down new paths.