With great power comes a great outfit!

When creating a superhero it is important to include a good outfit, something that matches not just their personality but also their powers and abilities.

 

Up next I will show you a few simple tips to create an outfit for your characters.

Tip 1: Gather Inspiration

It is a good idea to look at, not just the heroes you like, but also characters that you like and take what you like about them, then put them into your own character.

For example, my female character was inspired by four characters I like in particular: Wonder Woman (from DC comics), Starfire (from Teen Titans (2003)), Sakura Haruno (from Naruto: Shipudden), and Photon (from Marvel comics). All of these look both strong and feminine, which was something I wanted for my female character.

 

For this I took the following traits:

 

From Wonder Woman: thick arms, arm bands, and the skirt.

From Starfire: glowing eyes, alien biology, and skirt.

From Sakura: the hair color and gloves.

From Photon: hair texture, skin tone, and powers.

 

And in general I wanted to incorporate flight and super-strength.

Tip 2: Set up your 3D Model

Once you have a general idea of what traits you want in your character, it’s time to set up your model.

Open up the Sub Tool Detail tab by clicking in the two person icon on the far right of the menu below and go to 3D drawing figure.

Body shape also plays a part in what you want your character to portray.

 

In this case I want a character that looks feminine but not petite. I want her to have thick but round features, something that indicates strength but also softness.

 

So on the full body axis I will go up to 50 for muscle and 20 for roundness.

You can also select individual body parts to make them thicker or longer.

 

In this case I want her to have thicker arms.

Tip 3: Sketch Ideas

Sketch the type of outfit you want around your 3D model.

 

This is where you brainstorm any outfit ideas and make the changes you want. It’s also where you consider what your character’s outfit says about them.

For my female character, because she is the type of character who wants to serve as an inspiration for girls, I wanted something stylish and casual, to show that she can be both strong and feminine.

 

At first, I incorporated a sweater but it ended up looking too casual and didn’t show off her arms, which I had made a lot of emphasis on, so I left her without it and just a simple top. For the boots, I wanted them short and with a thick platform, because she can fly they are not impractical for walking but are practical for kicking. I also wanted her to have free movement with the skirt so I turned it into a skort. And I gave her fingerless combat gloves.

Tip 4: Consider What Colors Tell You

Outfit colors are important for superhero characters, they indicate personality and provide contrast.

 

For my female character, I wanted her outfit to be bright colors because she while she is strong and powerful, she is also a very bright and cheerful person. I also want her to stand out in this trio because she is someone who likes to be center stage, so her bright colors among the darker ones of her teammates put the attention on her.

For my blond OC you will notice very little color in his wardrobe. This is because he is an immortal who does not have any flashy powers, so he must be practical. The only splash of color is in his hair, this is because he comes from the Aztec civilization and his hair is meant to bring attention to his uniqueness. While blond hair in itself isn’t unique, it does stand out among the dark colors.

For my dark-haired OC, his outfit colors are completely dark because, opposite to my female OC, he does not want to stand out, he prefers keeping in the shadows and out of sight. But because he is actually quite dramatic and his powers are magic, he wears long dark hair and a coat which end up attracting attention.

Tip 5: Think of Fun Scenarios Relating to Appearance

Here’s where you can have fun incorporating personality into their characters by brainstorming how their outfits will interact with each other.

 

For example, as I mentioned, my female OC likes brighter colors while my dark-haired OC likes darker colors. This is to show how they come into conflict with each other, these two do not get along very well, so they’re constantly bumping heads, what better way to show how different they are than to give them opposing colors schemes. And because I like creating fun dynamics, they will be insulting their appearance a lot (he will refer to her as Princess Bubblegum and she will refer to him as Eric Draven).

 

Meanwhile, my blond OC doesn’t necessarily like dark colors, they are just more practical, and this comes into conflict with the other two, because their outfits are not practical at all (for her it’s the color, for him the type of clothing). Their lack of seriousness for their outfits is what differenciates the other two from him, as mentioned, he is an immortal, and thus has a very different mindset on what a superhero outfit should look like. This leads to scenarios where he complains about their lack of stealth and the other two calling him grandpa.

 

Create other scenarios like these to get an idea of how others will interact with or view their outfits. Eventually these scenarios may lead to going back and making changes to their appearance.

 

Keep going until your character’s outfit represents who they are.

Have fun!