How to Come Up with Great 3D Characters for your Explainer Videos

3D Characters are the heart of the story. You can build a great story with the help of a 3D character, but a poorly made one has the potential to destroy the message behind the explainer.

They inspire. They connect. 3D characters establish a unique position in the minds of your target audience if they are well thought out and executed. Keeping that in mind, we are sharing some of the essentials of creating great 3D characters for an explainer video.

Customizing the 3D Characters

You must always keep your target audience in mind when designing 3D characters for an explainer video. When we talk about customizing characters, we mean mimicking your audience’s specific traits like how they look and behave, incorporating them into your design.

This is a surefire way to capture their emotions and connect with them with the 3D character. Achieving this is not so simple, however. It takes considerable effort to make the perfect character that matches your audience’s style and look. It’s even challenging to get it to appeal to them. Humanizing the explainer video also takes effort.

Coming up with the Characters

When it comes to creating the characters, it’s good to stick to a plan for the workflow. Here’s what you must do.

1.      Understand the Message and Formulate the 3D Character

While keeping the creative brief in front of you, make sure to review it and understand the message that needs to be delivered for maximum impact. This helps to drive away the clutter and makes it easy or you to come up with the character for the video. The brief gives a picture of what the target audience looks like and how they may act in certain situations.

It also helps in finding out what the main benefits of the product or service being marketed are. This helps come up with a story to go with the character.

2.      Find out About the Brand/Product Being Advertised

You may think you know about your brand, but it is important that you delve into what your identity is as a brand, and what your target values are. You need to know what sets you apart and what the aesthetics of your brand are that must be followed strictly. This helps you get a realistic feel for the brand and how it interacts with the audience currently.

You can use this information to find out where you’re lacking and highlight that aspect in your explainer through your 3D character.

3.      The First Draft

The main designer of the character receives all the information you researched on, and forms a draft 3D character with the information he has on the style, look, feel, aesthetics, demographic, nationality and references.

4.      Fine Tune

When the first sketch of the 3D characters (there may be more than one) is done, it goes through a rigorous fine tuning process to sharpen the edges to create a near ideal character that is required for the explainer.

5.      Breathe Life Into the Sketches with Animation

This is where the 3D element of the 3D characters is given to them. They’re transformed into what they will look like when aired on the TV or shared on the brand’s social media pages. They’re added to the story to create the explainer video, with narrations and effects.

If you need high quality 3D characters for your explainer, don’t hesitate to contact us at XYZ Creative Group.