Hello everyone and welcome to my very first tutorial on the Clip Studio Paint website! ^^

Today, I'm going to show you how to create an anime character sheet, in other words, a concept art sheet for your own character. The core of this tutorial will focus on using the 3D model in detail, but explained simply, which will allow us to use it as a base for our character sheet. Let's go!

Sketching the Desired Pose

Generally, anime character sheets are presented in the following way: a full body drawing from the front, back, and side, to which we add some characteristic facial expressions of our character. The important thing is that thanks to it, we can grasp the appearance and character of the latter. It is therefore essential to have a well-developed character idea beforehand, in order to choose a pose that will perfectly suit them and expressions that will reflect the main emotions defining them.

Assuming you have your character in mind, we will start by drawing a rough sketch of the pose we want to give them. For this, simple construction lines are sufficient. Don't go into anatomical details, because the 3D model will guide us on that anyway.

Personally, I mainly use geometric shapes to represent limbs and their joints in a simple and concise way, but there are a whole host of techniques that I leave you to explore on your own (lines connected by points, circles, etc.) ;)

Choosing the 3D Model

Our draft is finished, so now we need to correct our character's anatomy: this is where the 3D model comes in! To select it, we need to go to Window > Material > Material (Character)

A window with different characters will then open before us.

Of course, we could use the simple default model, the one that doesn't have any accessories. However, I find it more interesting and especially faster for us to choose a preconceived model that already has the appearance and clothes of an anime character. It is through this one that I will explain how 3D models work.

The Poses

You'll notice that in the "Pose" tab, we have a whole host of pre-registered poses and body types that you can use as you wish for your model. There are also plenty of others on Assets, so have fun with them!

However, I'm going to teach you how to create a pose yourself from scratch, so you won't be caught off guard when you can't find a pose that suits you.

Using Tools Related to the 3D Model

So here's how our model looks. I chose this one because its hairstyle is somewhat similar to my character's, but let's move on ^^

Here I will only present the tools that will be useful for creating our pose.

Above, we notice tools at the top of the model. These are the tools we will use to position our model:

• The small yellow square is used to move the model in space. It's also interesting to note that the character's skirt moves when we move it with this tool, and that it freezes when we stop the movement. This is therefore very relevant if we want to adequately reproduce the movement of the skirt!

 

The tools to the right of the small square are also used to move the character in the considered space; I'll let you discover them ;) Be careful not to use them if you have already defined the position of your skirt: it will lose its movement and take on another depending on how you move the model!

Instead, use the tools to the left of the small square, which allow you to make equivalent movements but as if you were moving a camera.

As you can see above, at the bottom right of the model, there is a palette of tools that we will use to modify some traits of our character (the head, facial expression, accessories, etc.). Choose those that most closely resemble your character!

For my part, I chose cat ears, which are similar to my character's raccoon ears, and I also slightly modified her hairstyle.

Moving the 3D Model's Limbs

There you go, you now know how to move your model in space. But that's not all, now you need to give it a pose!

This is indeed the most important part here, so I'll show you all of it.

Touch your model wherever you want, and see what appears:

Here we are.

Here, the blue points we notice are those that allow us to move an entire part of the body in a single motion. So, if you move the one located at the hand, the entire arm will move and not just the hand: you can then bend and move it as you wish by following the axes of rotation symbolized by the colored arrows and circles.

Note that the entire body can also move to adapt to the position of the arm, for example: this gives us a natural pose, a crucial point to consider in our pose because we generally don't want impossible movements, unless your character and their universe lend themselves to it.

Finally, if you double-click on a specific area of the body, say the forearm or shoulder as above, you will see new axes appear for that limb. Their movement works in a similar way to what was presented just above, so don't worry and just follow the axes! You'll see that everything is very easy to master here, believe me :3

A small tip: place your model right next to your draft, not on top of it. Indeed, in my opinion, it's difficult to reproduce the pose correctly by lowering the model's opacity because you don't see all its details clearly enough. So, the only way for us to reproduce this pose while having it in front of our eyes is to position our model next to it, that's all.

Ultimately, with a bit of patience and some trial and error, we end up with the model in the desired pose!

Creating Multiple Poses from the Original Pose

Now that we have our final pose, we get rid of the draft made at the very beginning of the tutorial. You can hide it, or simply cut it if you are 100% sure you will no longer need it.

Before going any further, let's remember the purpose of this tutorial: to create a character sheet. As I mentioned at the beginning, the latter is composed of a front, back, and profile pose. We have our front pose here, we just need the other two.

Due to lack of space, I will omit the profile pose, but you are free to create it. The basic principle will be exactly the same as for the back pose we are going to make.

First, let's duplicate our model: there's no need to start from scratch again, unless you want to get another pose for the back view. If that's the case, simply start over by following the previous steps, but by placing your character with their back to the camera :)

To duplicate it, right-click on the mask containing the 3D model and choose "Duplicate Layer"

Once this is done, I rotate my model with the camera tool, taking care not to change the skirt's position again.

Now we have two different views of our model!

I will now proceed in the same way with my character's busts, which will be there to bring out the different emotions that best define my character: choose them well, and take the time to explore your character to do so. Your character sheet will only be more relevant 👍

And for this, you can pre-select emotions directly on the model as I explained above, so have fun ;)

Using the 3D Model for Character Sketching

Let's now proceed with sketching our character based on the pose provided by the 3D model we created here. This is an important step because it comes just before the final "line art" stage: so we'll need to pay some attention to it ;)

 

Let's start by transforming our layer into a "raster layer", which will allow us to lower the model's opacity so that we can draw over it, but also to lighten our drawing because a 3D model weighs more than anything else and can slow down your computer.

To do this, right-click on the layer > convert layer.

A window identical to the one below will then open:

Then choose "raster layer" mode in "Type" (I don't know what it's called in French but I think you'll understand haha)

You can now lower the model's opacity, which you will no longer be able to move in space since it is now considered a 2D image.

I generally set it to 50%, a sufficient percentage to see through without being too distracting.

On a new, classic layer this time, we are going to start our sketch with the help of the 3D model. For this, I use the "lighter pencil" tool, which allows for a light rendering unlike a pen.

Then I start by tracing the shapes of the 3D model, and doing so by hiding the details, because unless you want to draw exactly the same character, it will not be necessary to clutter yourself with all the small details of the latter. Especially since your drawing style is undoubtedly different and you will want to make changes to the sketch.

So roughly reproduce the face and its main elements, and the outline of the clothes and hair you will need (hence the importance of choosing your model carefully: some have skirts, others trousers, short sleeves, etc.)

By the way, I advise you not to reproduce the 3D model's hand identically: it is often too large compared to the rest of the body. Therefore, prefer to adapt it at an angle close to that of the original pose, or if you don't yet master drawing hands, trace the hand and then reduce it.

We finally arrive at the end of the first stage of this sketch. See the before/after result below:

Sketch Details

The last step of our draft: the details! These are important and must be worked on beforehand because they define your character. What are their tastes, their character, the universe they live in? The elements detailing your character's outfit should be able to open a window to the answers to these questions, which requires a little design work before tackling a character's character sheet.

I strongly advise you to delve into the subject, you will find many tutorials on the Clip Studio website, but also on other sites such as Pixiv and Deviantart, or in the very good to excellent tutorial books coming from Japan! (very easy to grasp the stakes even if you don't speak the language, the images speak for themselves)

Now let's assume you know where you're going and that you know your character well.

On another layer, depending on your drawing style, you will modify specific elements of the body. In my case, I adjusted the size of the head, the face, the hair, and the feet.

Remember to give movement to the hair and then to the clothes according to the direction of the skirt, for more dynamism in the pose!

Once this is done, pick another color on a new layer and add all the details, clothes, and accessories of your characters! At this stage, you can even add more along the way if an idea comes to you. Just make sure to keep everything consistent with the universe in which the character evolves, as well as with their tastes and personality.

If you need ideas, look at tutorials, references, or even video games which often have a wide range of outfits. Draw inspiration from them without moderation, but do not copy entirely! And also look at your wardrobe, put on an item of clothing and take a picture of yourself to study the folds. This is an interesting way to proceed, which has the advantage of moving away from internet references that are not always good to take to obtain a credible result. I do it often, and I can assure you that you learn a lot thanks to this technique :)

The color difference allows us to clearly distinguish between the added details and the basic body shape.

For example, my character here is a hybrid. Very attached to nature and passionate about medicine, she trains in crafting magical or plant-based remedies. She is very friendly, but always very focused and consequently sometimes detached. She lives in a world that is both modern and fantasy-based.

In my opinion, the accessories I have attributed to her are therefore justified. This is how you should proceed: take elements from your character's life and create an appropriate outfit for them based on this information.

Let's go back to our drawing.

So now we're going to erase the parts hidden by the details we added (hence the advantage of having 2 different layers!)

Once finished, we put everything in the same color and we end up with the final sketch before our eyes.

Line Art

We are almost there!

With this sketch in hand, we can now trace the line art.

For this, I just use a G-Pen brush of size 5.0 on a vector layer to correct my lines more easily.

This is not a line art tutorial so I won't go into details, refer to the many tutorials if you want to practice.

Just keep in mind that you need to increase the thickness of your lines at intersections, and that details will be represented by thinner strokes.

Coloring and Finishing Touches

We have now reached the final stage of our tutorial.

For coloring, as in actual anime character sheets, we will keep it very basic. This is not a coloring tutorial either, but feel free to add more details to the coloring according to your style :)

First, the choice of colors is essential. Be sure to select colors that harmonize both with each other and with the chosen character. Above all, don't choose too many different colors; instead, favor 3 to 4 similar colors if possible, so that the coloring is harmonious and doesn't make the drawing look messy. I advise you to look for color palettes that match each other online and choose a combination based on your character's traits, that way you limit mistakes ;)

As you can see, my choice mainly focused on green and brown, in reference to her affinity for nature.

We finish with the shadows and voilà!

As I mentioned above, preferably use photos of yourself if you don't yet master folds well, or if you just want to be sure of their positions.

Don't forget to practice with tutorials; shadows are very important for adequately representing character movements and the action they produce on fabrics!

You might notice that I only detailed the eyes, and that's because, in my opinion, eyes are the most captivating part ^^

Conclusion!

And there you have it, we're done with this first tutorial ^o^

This kind of concept art requires a lot of time, both upstream with the character creation process used, but also in this part dedicated to the character sheet which will demand thought and a good dose of patience.

 

Fortunately, 3D models facilitate this process and save us valuable time. This method is suitable for both beginners and experienced artists, but as a beginner, I can assure you that you won't always have to depend on 3D models. Indeed, by reproducing the model's poses, you gradually learn humanoid anatomy without even realizing it. Don't skimp on using tutorials and references in parallel either, because these are valuable resources that will give you advice, automatic responses, and techniques that make mastering anatomy easier!

 

I hope this tutorial has brought you help and inspiration in some way, and that you will enjoy playing with the tons of possibilities that 3D models offer as much as I do!

 

I sincerely hope you will follow this tutorial and let your overflowing imagination run wild to create fantastic characters. And I also hope that my tutorial is understandable for everyone!

 

If you have any questions or tutorial suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments ;)

 

And if you want to chat with me, come talk to me on Medibang Paint (now called Art Street) which is a drawing site a bit like Deviantart but more user-friendly :D

My name there is @Sorasama

 

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

https://medibang.com/author/1074025/