Shape Theory

Shape theory is one of the fundamental parts of character design and is the concept of having parts of a character design conveyed in the shapes that they are created from, relying on Circles, Squares and Triangles. This project will cover how each of these are explored in shape theory, as said by the Walt Disney Family Museum.

Introduction of Concepts

Shape language is used in animation, art, and character design to display aspects of a design using shapes that we are familiar with. Using these shapes creates a response that allows the viewer to slightly understand the personality, story and even evoke an emotional response from the viewer without using any words. Each of the 3 primary shapes used in shape theory have different variations of these responses.

Shape 1: Circles

Circles usually represent life, softness, harmlessness, approachability, and changeability. Circles, Ovals, and other round shapes are usually used for characters that are regarded as friendly or give off a natural/organic feel. It can also be used to give a warm and welcoming feeling to a character or design. You can also create this feeling by simply rounding out edges, creating the same feeling, whilst retaining the shapes you want. It is important not to be too literal with circles in shape theory, and you should try to mix shapes too, so you don’t have an entire design purely based on circles. Here’s an example:

Shape 2: Squares

Squares represent sturdiness, strength, solidity, supportiveness, reliability and inflexibility. Squares are often used in big, well-built characters so that they appear strong and feel as though they’d be difficult to move. This can be accomplished by squaring off parts of the body like jaws, shoulders and hands, or even the body and feet. Using squares gives a sense of weight and how grounded or balanced it is supposed to be. Characters and shapes should be placed flat on the ground to help emphasize the feeling of sturdiness. When designing characters, you should avoid taking the idea of squares literally, and avoid having sharp edges, round them off whilst maintaining the shapes so it still looks somewhat natural. Here’s an example:

Shape 3: Triangles

Triangles represent sharpness, direction, danger, unpredictability, and dynamicity. Triangles are sharp, which can help exaggerate and transform how large, menacing and fear inducing a character is. For example, if a character has few, large triangles in there design, they’d be considered menacing, but if they had many, small triangles then they’d be considered dynamic. When using triangles, you should consider heavily where the points are in both direction and quantity, as that will suggest the functionality of the triangles in the design. However, you should also be aware that using too many triangles in a design can take away from what you’re trying to communicate. Here’s an example:

Exceptions

Of course, as with any set of rules, there are exceptions. Mainly in circles and triangles. In circles, there are cases where there are characters who are designed to look as though they are friendly but are evil or an antagonist. This is purposefully used to misguide an audience about what a character is. It can also be used to portray a weak villain, or simply just that they do not have to look dangerous to be dangerous. As for triangles, its not always them being dynamic or evil, it can also be used to show protection, such as spikes on armour, or points in their hair or face due to them being intellectually sharp.

Summary

Overall, shape theory is a very useful tool with character design, as it gives a sense of order and helps portray messages you are trying to convey through your character without even having to do anything other than design them, so it is a very useful tool for character designers to follow, though as mentioned under Exceptions, you should make sure that you don’t always stick to these 100%, as it could lead to some unoriginality and things being boring, but it’s also important that you stick to it somewhat, as otherwise your characters could end up all over the place.

Bibliography

Shape Language (No date) – By Walt Disney Family Museum – Accessed online at: https://www.waltdisney.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/T%26T_ShapeLang_v9.pdf on 026/02/22)