Tips for Designing a TADC Fan OC!

As of writing this blog, I have yet to see the ending of TADC…I’m scared…

Welcome…to this week’s design tips article! Today we’re going to be talking about fan OC designs for…The Amazing Digital Circus! Before we get started, if you need some design tips for other types of characters, there’s articles for…

Now, back to TADC fan OCs! It can be fun to design your own characters for your favorite media. With the final episode of The Amazing Digital Circus releasing pretty soon, it’s the perfect time to develop some fan characters for the show.

What is The Amazing Digital Circus?

First off, we need to quickly talk about what The Amazing Digital Circus is! If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s an animated show hosted by Glitch Productions, and written by the talented Gooseworx. The show is about a group of people stuck within a digital, cartoon world hosted by an eccentric AI ringmaster.

The Amazing Digital Circus is free on YouTube, and you can watch it yourself here. (Though, a quick disclaimer: If you’re on the younger side, be sure to check with your guardian before watching it!) I personally really enjoyed the show thus far! Now…Let’s get this show on the road!

What kind of personality do you want your fan OC to have?

Now, I know I mention personality a lot with my design articles already, but I think it’s especially important for designing a fan character for TADC! The designs of the digital circus cast often tie to the characters’ personalities and character flaws.

You can give your fan OC design traits based upon their personality or maybe give them design traits based on their insecurities. If you need some ideas on how you could incorporate their personality into their design, you could try…

Animal symbolism that matches their personality
Toy pieces that reflect their character
A mask that shows off their emotional state
An outfit with color symbolism that fits their character
Accessories that have shape language that matches your character’s personality
Unique details that demonstrate the nature of your character

There are plenty of ways to demonstrate an OC’s personality through their design, and since the world of the digital circus is so fantastical, you can use cartoonish elements that don’t need to seem realistic in the way you might design a normal character!

Now, if you’re designing a TADC sona, you might give your OC characteristics similar to yourself rather than giving them different personality traits…so you’ll want to keep that in mind too!

Try adding a theme or motif to your fan OC’s design!

Next up, a motif could be a fun addition to your fan OCs design! A lot of the digital circus cast have a specific theme to their design. The designs of The Amazing Digital Circus are meant to look like cartoon characters, and they have themes based on animals, toys, and more!

There’s plenty of different motifs you could use for your fan OC’s design! Depending on the personality you decided to give your OC, you could pick something that matches that as well. If you need some ideas, here’s some that might inspire you!

A boardgame motif
A jester motif
A clown motif
A plushie motif
A stuffed animal motif
A doll motif
An action figure motif
A candy motif
A puppet motif
An animal figurine motif

Adding a motif or theme to your fan OC’s design can be a great way to start off with your OC’s design! There’s plenty of different things to choose from! You could pick a motif based on your favorite candy, or maybe you can base your OC on that plushie on your shelf!

If you need a little more inspiration, you might try adding an aesthetic to your OC’s design. If you need some more ideas, check out this article on picking an aesthetic for your OC!

What will you use as inspiration for your OC’s design? A board game? Your favorite doll? There’s lots to choose from!

Can you incorporate shape language into your fan OC’s design?

Now it’s time for…shape language! I think that shape language plays a really big part in the designs of the Digital Circus cast. All the character’s designs are composed of geometric shapes; they consist mainly of circles, squares, and triangles. The shape language of the characters help them appear more cartoonish. The shape language of the characters also gives the audience a glimpse into their personalities!

If you need an example, take a look at Bubble’s design! He mainly consists of two shapes: circles and triangles. Being a literal bubble, he’s mainly just a circle. It makes him seem goofy and silly…However, he also has sharp, triangle teeth. The triangles seem to reflect his more unpredictable nature! With that in mind, you can do something similar with the shape language of your own OCs! If you need a few ideas, here’s some to get you thinking!

Circle shape language for a friendly or silly character
Square shape language for a stagnant or resilient character
Triangle shape language for an active or unpredictable character
A combination to reflect the different aspects of the character’s personality

Utilizing shapes in a design can be a good way to demonstrate a character and how they might behave. It could also reflect aspects of the character that they try to keep more hidden. Shape language can apply to all characters too, not just a fan OC!

If you need more ideas for how to use shape language for your OCs, there’s an article on the topic you can find right here!

Try adding fun, unique elements to your fan OC’s design!

Lastly, why not add some extra elements to your character’s design? Whether it be floating eyes or detachable arms, a lot of the Digital Circus characters have some really cool details in their designs!

When choosing what kind of details you want to give your OC, you could incorporate the shape language you chose, as well as the motif! The details you choose could have functionality as well, like how Gangle’s comedy mask can break or how Zooble can swap out their limbs. If you need some ideas for what you could add to your OC, you could try…

Mismatched limbs
Asymmetrical eyes
Floating eyes
Floating limbs
A unique eye design
Extra eyes
A tail
Angel wings
Dragon wings
A color gradient on the character’s limbs
Horns
Animal ears

Depending on the kind of character you’re designing, you could use as many or as few extra details as you want! The rules of real life don’t apply to the wacky world of the Digital Circus, so have fun with it!

If you need more inspiration for how to choose unique details for all your OCs, there’s an article all about that! You can find it here if you’re interested!

Will you give your OC some unique features? Maybe they could have a button eye, or wings!

Cool TADC fan OCs from the awesome users on Unvale!

If you’re looking for cool Digital Circus fan OCs to inspire you, there’s plenty you can find here on Unvale! Be sure to check out…

There’s lots of awesome TADC fan OCs to find! If you plan on posting your own Digital Circus fan OC to Unvale, be sure to use the tags #TADC or #TheAmazingDigitalCircus! There’s also a cool fan community created by Ducky, that you can find here!