How to Build an OC with Friends!

You know what’s more fun than creating a character? Creating a character with friends! Whether you want to develop characters for the story you’re writing or maybe work to create a new collab world OC, it can be nice to work with your friends to create cool stories. But before we get started, if you’re looking for other OC ideas, there’s also articles on…

• Tips for Designing Secondary Outfits for Your OCs!
• How To Use MUSIC To Design An OC! 
• 5 Ways To Revive Your Old OCs!
• Tips on How To Make a Reference Sheet for Your OCs!

Now, back to collaborative character creations! Sometimes it’s nice to have help when creating characters or stories. Maybe you’re mainly a writer, while your best friend is mainly an artist, and you want to work with them to create a new character… or vice versa! So, how exactly do you design an OC with your friends? Let’s talk about it!

Start planning your OC with your friends!

First off, you need to come up with a plan! You’ll want to work with your friend to decide who will do what when creating the OC. You’ll want to consider potential ideas, and make sure you and your friends are on the same page! You and your friends will want to think about… 

• Will one of you do the majority of the drawing, or will you both work on art for the OC?
• Will one of you do the majority of the writing, or will you both work on writing for the OC?
• Do you have story ideas for the OC already? If so, what are they?
• Do you have design ideas for the OC already?
• Do you have relationship ideas for the OC already?
• If you and your friends have different ideas, can you find a middle ground that you all like?
• Is there anything you want to avoid when creating your OC?

Sometimes you and your friends might have ideas for the characters that conflict with one another…and that’s perfectly okay! You’ll just want to try and find a middle ground that works for everyone. It’s important that everyone gets to share their ideas, and that nobody feels left out of the creation process.

It’s definitely important to make sure that everyone is on the same page. Communication is key! Make sure you let your friends know your thoughts, ideas, or plans, and make sure you know theirs! Mistakes might happen as well, so it’s important to be patient and understanding as well.

If you’re working on creating characters with your friends, you might be considering roleplaying with the characters too. If you want some tips on roleplaying etiquette, check out this article here! 

Find inspiration for your OC with your friends!

Next up! Inspiration! Now that you and your friends have some brainstorming for your OC done, it’s time to work together to find inspiration! There’s lots of different ways you can look for inspiration, and plenty of options for collaboration too! 

You might put together a list of characters with personalities that inspire your OC, or you might pick some songs that match the vibe of your character! If you need some ideas on what you and your friends could look for, you could consider…

• A playlist for your OC
• A moodboard
• Inspiration from favorite character designs
• Weapon or prop inspiration from favorite shows
• Inspiring quotes from favorite media
• Pose ideas

There’s more than the above too! You could make a list with your friends of all the things that inspire you. Some sites have options for collaborations as well! If you want a collaborative moodboard, you might try using Pinterest. If you want to create a collaborative playlist, you might try Spotify! There’s plenty of ways you and your friends can combine your inspirations!

If you need more ideas on how to find character inspiration, my co-writer has an article about how to use things in your daily life for OC inspiration! Be sure to check it out!

Decide on the OC’s personality and story with your friends!

Now, it’s time to start working on your character with your friends! You might already have some story or personality ideas for your OC, so you’ll want to put those together and write them down! If you haven’t considered the personality or story of your OC yet, now’s a good time too! 

It’s fun to incorporate such details into the design of your character, so it can be a good idea to work with your friends to put together your OC’s personality before you start designing them. (That being said, the rule of cool when designing a character is perfectly fine too, so don’t stress too much!) If you need some ideas for where to start, here’s some questions for you and your friends to answer!

• Is the character an extrovert, introvert, or ambivert?
• Is the character shy or timid?
• Is the character loud or outgoing?
• Is the character humble, or prideful?
• Is the character good, evil, or morally grey?
• What are the character’s goals or motivations?
• What are the character’s fears?
• What will the character arc of the OC be?

How you work with your friends on the personality of your OC is up to you! One option is to divide the above questions up between you and your friends. You could also create your own questions! Or, if one of you prefers writing, they could handle the personality and story while the others focus on the design of the character. Do whatever works best for everyone!

If you need more ideas for developing your character, check out this article with 5 big questions to help develop your OCs!

Design your OC with your friends!

It’s time to get to designing your character with the help of your friends! There’s plenty of ways you and your friends can work together to come up with a design for the OC! You can all come up with design concepts, and maybe vote on your favorite one. Or, you might incorporate elements of all the concepts of the character into the finalized design! If you need some ideas for aspects of a design you could consider, you could all think about…

• What hairstyle will they have?
• What kind of top will they wear?
• What kind of pants or skirt will they wear?
• What kind of shoes or boots would they wear?
• Would they wear a dress or a one-piece outfit?
• Would they wear a jacket, coat, or cloak?
• Would they wear jewelry?
• Would they wear a hat, headband, or crown?
• Would they carry a bag or backpack?
• Would they carry a weapon or tool?

You can discuss with your friends what you want to do for the character’s design! Once you have an idea of what you all want to do, you can start concepting the character. You might work together to come up with different concepts, and then come up with new concepts combining the favorite aspects of the other ones!

How you settle on a final design is up to you and your friends! If you really like creating concepts while your friend prefers drawing illustrations, you might try creating the character concepts while your friend handles the illustrations of your character after!

If you and your friends are unsure where to start, you might consider using a specific aesthetic for your OC! If you want some ideas for how to pick an aesthetic for your OC’s design, check out this article here!

Create character dynamics for your OC with your friends!

Lastly, create some character dynamics for your OCs with your friends! This part is especially fun if you plan on creating multiple characters with your friends! You can work with your friends to come up with the relationships of your OC. If you need some ideas for who might be important to your OC, you can consider…

• The OC’s parents
• The OC’s siblings
• The OC’s friends
• The OC’s rival
• The OC’s love interest or significant other
• The OC’s coworkers or team members

Once you have an idea for the characters important to your character, you and your friends can decide on how the characters interact with each other! You could all write out ideas for the different character dynamics, or you might have a plan for your character’s relationships already!

One thing you can do to collaborate with your friends on character dynamics is by drawing out the interactions. You can both draw separate character interactions, or you might use a program that allows multiple people to draw on one canvas! Another option is to collaborate on a single drawing! You could start a drawing, leaving enough space for your friend to draw the other character!

Looking for more ideas for your OCs’ relationships? There’s an article on different types of relationships you can write for your OC stories! You can find it here!

Collab worlds for you and your friends to check out!

If you and your friends are looking for a collab world to create characters for, there’s plenty of cool communities to join here on Unvale! Be sure to check out…

• Space Dwellers, a collab world filled with different factions and space pirates!
• Raging Waters, a collab world featuring two rival pirate crews, one composed of humans and one of sirens!
• Makeshift Exorcist, a collab world where exorcists are working to defeat demons and protect their town from destruction!
• Long Lost World, a collab world where survivors are left to live on a post-apocalyptic planet! 
• Pretty Please With a Cherry on Top, a collab world with magical people based on snacks and treats! 

There’s lots more for you to discover as well, and you can find other collab world communities here! Also, if you want to share the OCs you’ve been working on developing with your friends, feel free to share them in the Unvale-Blog Community!

If you need other ideas for what to think about while creating an OC with your friends, you might consider giving the character a signature makeup look, a job, or a companion!