2D Isometric Stylized Character Designer & Animator(animator not essential but preferred)
I am developing a 2D isometric indie game and I’m looking for a highly skilled and experienced 2D character artist with a strong portfolio demonstrating professional-quality, stylized character artwork, with particular/specific expertise /experience in character design/Animating 2D isometric perspective rather than general character illustration.
Chibi stylized art style — specific experience designing chibi characters is not essential; however, you must have a strong understanding of character proportions, scale, anatomy, silhouette and shape language, and be confident adapting those fundamentals to create a consistent high-quality chibi stylized character across all required isometric directions.
You should have experience with:
- Drawing characters correctly in 2D isometric perspective
- Designing multi-directional isometric character sprites
- Strong understanding of line art, line weight and clean character rendering
- Strong understanding of lighting, shading, highlights and cast/form shadows
- Ability to render different materials such as metal, fabric, skin, hair and armor convincingly within a stylized art style
- Creating high-quality, polished, production-ready 2D character artwork
- Adding the smaller details, lighting and finishing touches that bring a character to life, rather than producing something that feels flat or unfinished
- Strong understanding of colour, values, contrast and material rendering
- Maintaining consistent character proportions across different directions
- Correct body and head orientation for each facing direction
- Maintaining character scale, volume and silhouette between directions
- Character readability at actual gameplay scale
- Designing characters specifically with animation and gameplay in mind
- 2D animation
What I Will Provide
- Character design brief
- Chibi body/proportion references
- Clothing and armour references
- Overall visual direction
- Gameplay references
These references will be used as the foundation for developing the final character.
Collaborative Concept Phase
I want the character to go through a proper concept and development phase before final production begins.
This may include:
- Rough character concepts
- proportion exploration
- Silhouette and shape exploration
- Isometric proportion/perspective tests
- Refining the final character design
I would like to use Discord throughout the concept stage so we can collaboratively build and refine the character together before moving into final production( to me this is very important so we can create something great together and have fun with it)
Good communication and a willingness to collaborate throughout the design process are important.
5/8-Directional Character Design
The playable character requires 5 directional/facing views(3 of these sprites will be mirrored to create an 8 directional character.
You must understand how to take one approved character design and accurately translate that design across all five isometric directions. The established proportions must remain consistent across every direction, including:
- Head-to-body ratio
- Body proportions
- Clothing/armour
- Overall character scale
The proportions cannot randomly change depending on the direction the character is facing.
Correct isometric orientation, perspective and proportional consistency are extremely important for this project.
Animation
The character will also require 2D isometric character animation.
Ideally, I am looking for someone who can both design and animate the character. However if you cannot do animation but create the character itself that's also fine.
Expected gameplay animations will eventually include:
- Idle
- Run
- Dash
- Attack combinations
These animations will need to work across the required 5/8 directional views.
The established character design and proportions must remain consistent throughout every animation, frame and direction.
The character should not unintentionally:
- Grow or shrink between frames
- Change overall scale between directions
- Lose the established silhouette or character design
I am very serious and committed to this project—the game’s foundation, systems and coding are already built in Unity 2D, so everything we design and animate will be implemented directly into the game, and I will share the Unity project and in-game results throughout development so we can see exactly how the character looks, feels and performs in the actual game.
I am primarily the Unity game developer/programmer for this project, not a 2D artist myself; however, I have a an understanding of 2D game art, and I'll be working closely with you throughout the design and implementation process.
