Character Maker

A character maker turns a description into a picture. "Brave, messy brown hair, red jacket, always has a plaster on" becomes someone you can look at, and that makes them far easier to write, draw or play.

This one builds full body characters from parts. It needs no drawing skill and no account, and the result is yours to use in whatever you are making.

The roles every story needs

Characters are easier to design in relation to each other. Start from the role.

• Hero: open face, one bold color, practical clothes. Easy to like at first glance.
• Rival or villain: the hero's opposite in color and shape. Sharp eyes, darker palette.
• Sidekick: rounder, brighter and smaller in attitude. Happy closed eyes, a silly accessory.
• Mentor: calmer colors, glasses or a scar, tired or sleepy eyes.

Who uses a character maker

Writers use it for cast pages and to keep descriptions consistent across chapters. Game masters make a face for each non-player character. Teachers use character creation as a prompt for story writing: design the character first, then write about them. Comic makers use the pictures as model sheets before drawing in their own style.

From picture to character

A design becomes a character when it has answers to three questions: what do they want, what stands in the way, and what would they never do. Write those next to the picture. Then save the Copy link, so that when the story changes the character, you can update the picture to match.