Character Design Tutorial - The Brave Viking

[Frankentoon Studio]

Hello there!

 

I just want to let you know that our latest tutorial is online now! Learn how to create a funny viking character in Affinity Designer. 

 

Plus, you can download the source .afdesign files, so you can take a closer look to our design process.

Please check it out if you have the time and let me know what you think.

 

Cheers!,

Enrique

 

[Alfred]

Yet another great tutorial, Enrique! I particularly like your wonderful trick for drawing those horns.

 

I have a quick question about the cartoony arms. Is there any particular reason why you prefer to subtract a shape from a full donut, instead of getting the final shape by setting the 'enclosed angle' to an appropriate value (which is the way I would usually do it)?

[Frankentoon Studio]

...Is there any particular reason why you prefer to subtract a shape from a full donut, instead of getting the final shape by setting the 'enclosed angle' to an appropriate value (which is the way I would usually do it)?

 

Thanks a lot for your comment Alfred!

That is a very, very good question. The reason? bad habits! I always forgot that Designer has more hidden functions than Illustrator. That means I'll be updating my tutorial ASAP! Thanks a lot for taking the time to point that useless workaround. My bad!

[retrograde]

I'm guilty of stuff like that too. Too many years of muscle memory working on tight deadlines... 

[Chris B]

I love your work Enrique, I'm going to have a go at this when we get some downtime  B)

[Alfred]

I always forgot that Designer has more hidden functions than Illustrator.

 

In my defence, I've never used Illustrator but I'm a long-time user of Serif DrawPlus. The latter has QuickShapes which work quite like the shapes in Affinity Designer, except that AD has some extra goodies like easily achieved horizontal, vertical or diagonal symmetry. Oh, and right angles!

[Frankentoon Studio]

I love your work Enrique, I'm going to have a go at this when we get some downtime  B)

 

Thanks a lot Chris, I'd love to know your feedback!  :D

[Frankentoon Studio]

In my defence, I've never used Illustrator but I'm a long-time user of Serif DrawPlus. The latter has QuickShapes which work quite like the shapes in Affinity Designer, except that AD has some extra goodies like easily achieved horizontal, vertical or diagonal symmetry. Oh, and right angles!

 

Thanks you Alfred... I've just updated the tut yesterday. You're a rockstar!  B)

[Alfred]

I've just updated the tut yesterday.

 

I saw that, Enrique. You were impressively quick off the mark!

[JonathanBall]

Great tutorial. It's very well presented and I learned a bunch of new things about AD. Thanks for sharing!

[Frankentoon Studio]

Great tutorial. It's very well presented and I learned a bunch of new things about AD. Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you Jonathan for taking the time to check it out! :D

[Dalia]

Ok, new to AP and AD - never really worked with vectors, nodes, pens....; I'm gonna give this a try - I enjoy challenges.   ;)

[Frankentoon Studio]

Ok, new to AP and AD - never really worked with vectors, nodes, pens....; I'm gonna give this a try - I enjoy challenges.   ;)

 

Hi Dalia, glad to hear that! Please do not hesitate to ask for help if you find any trouble following the tut, cheers!

[Dalia]

Enrique, it is finished. It is not perfect and its results are in no way indicative of your tutorial. It is an excellently written tutorial with accompanying step-by-step illustrations. Even for this newbie it was easy to follow. Since I'm not familiar with the pen and node tools, the horns were definitely a challenge but I, nevertheless, forged ahead and once they were done the rest was stress free.

Thank you so much for your work - it truly was a learning experience and a chance to get to know AD's many tools and what they do and how to use them.

I've never used flickr so don't know if this will work... huh, it worked! ;)

[Frankentoon Studio]

Enrique, it is finished. It is not perfect and its results are in no way indicative of your tutorial. It is an excellently written tutorial with accompanying step-by-step illustrations. Even for this newbie it was easy to follow...

 

Hi Dalia!

 

Wow that's a damn good result you got there, I'm very impressed! I'm so happy this tutorial has been helpful for you, thank you for taking the time to follow it! Please stay tuned for more content ;)

[Janno]

I enjoyed your tutorial. Learned a lot of it. Thanks for sharing. :)

[wordsberry]

Just found you Frankentoon!!! Hope you'll continue to provide more tutorials :) 

[Frankentoon Studio]

 

I enjoyed your tutorial. Learned a lot of it. Thanks for sharing. :)

 

This looks so damn good, 10 out of 10... love it!

[vishal]

Hey

I am loving your website. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Much appreciated!

Vishal

[Frankentoon Studio]

Hey

I am loving your website. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Much appreciated!

Vishal

 

Thanks to you Vishal, glad to help! :)

[Bri-Toon]

I know I'm late in responding to this, but you have a truly amazing style. I always just use the pen tool for the line work, but you proved that you can make great use out of shapes and the corner tool. You drew this character in a style I wouldn't have thought of. Great job!

[Frankentoon Studio]

I know I'm late in responding to this, but you have a truly amazing style. I always just use the pen tool for the line work, but you proved that you can make great use out of shapes and the corner tool. You drew this character in a style I wouldn't have thought of. Great job!

 

Thanks a lot for such a nice comment, I'm glad I could help! 

[Mironor]

Hi Frankentoon,

 

I was wondering how to add this "paper-like" texture to the illustration (basically, the difference between the final result in the tutorial and the first image in this topic), could you, please, explain it?

 

Thanks,

Alex

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, Alex. :)

 

Hi Frankentoon,

 

I was wondering how to add this "paper-like" texture to the illustration (basically, the difference between the final result in the tutorial and the first image in this topic), could you, please, explain it?

 

Thanks,

Alex

 

I'm not 'Frankentoon' (obviously!) but if you're referring to the noise that Enrique added to the fill, you need to go to the Opacity colour well at the bottom of the Colour panel. When you hover over it you should see a 'Switch to noise' tooltip (at least in AD 1.5.2.58 on Windows) and when you click it switches to the Noise control.

[StuartRc]

Hi Frankentoon

 

I just thought I would make an attempt at one of your fantastic tutorials from your excellent website....It took me a few hours! ...and I made a few changes as it evolved...

 

I really like the technique and I am I will use it again!

 

..with regards to the 'horns' however the process was excellent but the final path expansion created too many nodes even after deploying the smoothing tool.

 

So I opted for the of the 'Tear' Tool to solve the problem and simplify the process a bit 

 

Also created a textured version which I have uploaded aside the flat AD version...to compare and now  debating whether to convert some 'monsters' using your technique I think it would be fun :)