Board Thread:The Character Redesign Workshop/@comment-26102964-20150414184003/@comment-7270135-20150414191542

Honestly I think there should be some way to tie most if not all factors together. For number one, you can't really describe a personality in one word, or one sentence even. I've heard that it's best to have a character so elaborate, that you can't describe them in one sentence. To show this, it would be best to imagine what each character does in certain emotions. Angry and sad aren't character traits, just emotions. But when a character is angry, they can be aggressive, passive-aggressive, silent, violent, which are traits.

About number two, I think the best way to do this is fit their species with the concept, personality, or powers. Like if you want to make a character with fire powers, associate their species with that, like lions, dragons, snakes, desert animals, etc. Sometimes it's also fun to tie in their species with their personality as well. You want a friendly and outgoing character? Make them a dog. You want a timid and paranoid character? Make them a deer.

Powers, again, try to tie all this in as much as you can. Water powers are good for aquatic animals, or poison is good for snakes and lizards. Or if you want, you can tie it into mythology. Like giving a bird fire powers to allude to the Phoenix, or a cat shadow powers to refer to black magic and witchcraft. Also make sure the powers make sense, like it would be difficult to associate talking with animals while having the ability to burn whatever you touch. A good way to figure this out is to check that power on the Superpower wiki and check the powers related list.

As for drawing, yeah you can do whatever with that. Personally I like to associate it with the culture my characters are from, but you can chose something else to do with it. Though my best recommendation is to have their design be simple enough that it doesn't look weird, overdone, or confusing, but find a way to make it memorable. I would give examples, but I'd rather let people figure that out themselves.

As for story… eh, you really can do whatever. But my best suggestion is that they shouldn't always be the center of attention in a fanfiction, comic, script, etc. Also, they should be put into situations you may not imagine them in, so that you can figure out how they would react when thrown into those circumstances.