#maybe I should follow the insektors tag

[almightyhamslice]

Insektors fan-character creation guide, please? 🤩🤩🤩

Ok honestly I'm not the absolute authority on Insektors OCs nor do I have a super strict method, BUT I will take you through my personal design process!!

So firstly, I decide on a species of bug. This is the foundation of the design, so it's pretty important! I often choose insect species that are personal to me in some way, but it's totally ok to pick a species just because it looks cool! I did that for Drako, Kurkulie, and Nokturno, lol.

Species also has somewhat of a bearing on personality, in many different ways. Makabris is super burly because stink bugs are a type of shield bug so he's very defensive, but he's also rather easily embarrassed due to his reflexive defensive chemical spray. Kachhua is prone to lying because the green tortoise beetle mimics the ladybug, pretending to be something it's not.

It can also be fun to invert species tropes when designing a character! Iridamorous is very gender non-conforming, while bagworms are extremely dimorphic IRL. He borrows traits from male and female bagworm moths, but is most easily distinguished as male because he flies. Rook is a water strider, but he has severe thalassophobia (or... hydrophobia, perhaps? which is funny since water strider legs are hydrophobic in a biological sense) and wears a coat that looks just like a life jacket.

Regarding species, there's also anatomy to think about.

I think generally when designing Insektors characters, it's completely acceptable to play fast & loose when it comes to bug anatomy. Generally characters will have less arms/legs than their IRL counterparts, and some can have very fantastical features (canonically: Krabouic & Kaboche have weird teeth, Synapse has a large crest instead of a long snout like Kretinus even though they're both weevils, and neither Aelia nor Pyro have proboscises)!

It's also okay if you pick a species that's kind of close to a canon character's species, and your fan character looks nothing like them. Like I said before, Synapse and Kretinus are both weevils and look nothing like each other! Iridamorous is a moth just like Pyro, but he doesn't look like him, and Makabris is a type of shield bug just like Krabouic and Kaboche (though, that's just my headcanon personally. They're really vaguely designed imo lol... but I guess that's more reason to get experimental with anatomy, right?) So really, I think nothing is off the table.

Generally most Insektors characters do have the same number of eyes as their IRL counterparts, but Prince Max and Queen Bakrakra do not. This could mean that 2 eyes is just the standard for all characters, but I don't think it's set in stone, hence why Zarojo has eyespots & goggles with 3 lenses, and Okagne has 6 eyes.

Stylistically, I try and stay as close as possible to the source material, though it's fun to break a few rules every now and then!

A lot of my characters are modeled after canon characters, having something of an amalgamation of multiple characters' features. I think Okagne is likely the least canon-compliant of the roster, since she has fuzz all over (which isn't exhibited on any of the characters), weird eyes, and extra arms that take on a weird shape. Fuzz in general may be non-canon-compliant because I imagine it'd be a pain to render using such old cgi technology, but I think it looks cute & it'd be weird for certain bugs not to have it (except Nokturno, Mayflies don't actually have fuzz at all- I just drew her with a fluffy collar because it made her look cooler LOL). Plus, the UK dub mentions that Pyro has dandruff... which you have to have hair in order for it to manifest!! So of course insektors characters can be fluffy!

Additionally, I don't really draw FCs with eyelashes, since no characters in the show have them. The exception to this would be Unity, because I wanted to think of a unique antenna placement for her that'd be different from all the other weevils. So generally I avoid eyelashes, but like a lot of other features, I'm sure they're possible! Also don't be afraid to give your characters more human-looking clothing. I personally like to skew towards more organic-looking outfit designs, but again Pyro proves to be a very helpful reference in this situation! He DEFINITELY wears clothes that are not made of exoskeleton material. Crosette wears actual clothing, and so does Kaliko. Okagne and Iridamorous are intentionally ambiguous, and Makabris and Kachhua's 'outfits' are definitely all just part of their bodies. Fun fact, Makabris' collar pattern (the part before the stripe at the end) is intended to look like a fading houndstooth pattern!

Lastly, character names!

I like giving my characters rather verbose names, though some of them (Drako & Rook) are rather brief. Most character names I decide on have some form of meaning behind them, and others are chosen just because I think they'd sound cool (like Kaliko lol). For more examples: Zarojo's name is pretty simple & just based on their maroon coloration ("za rojo"- the rojo- the red), Crosette is named after a type of firework (since she's a red cracker butterfly, it made me think of firecrackers), and Nokturno's name is derived from 'nocturnal' (since she's asleep when the Kruds are active... it's not a perfect description since she isn't really nocturnal, but it does sound cool LOL). I tend to think of names last, since it usually takes me ages to come up with them. Nokturno especially, I have files on my computer calling her 'Nokturna' and 'Nokturnus' because I couldn't decide at first. Also, I like to include 'K' in most of my kruds' names, to match the naming scheme used in the original version & NA dub of the show. This is DEFINITELY optional, and I don't follow it all the time.

So, that's about all I've got I think. I hope you found this helpful, and have fun drawing your character(s)! I'll have to check the Insektors tag more often, I'd love to see other people's characters! I think I've actually only met one other person who even HAS insektors fan characters, and that's @dnpanimationstudioclone lol! so, shoutout to her as well. (she also inspired me to call Lord Draco 'lord' instead of 'king' during a discussion we were having on discord)