For Chris

Last week Chris asked how I got started making Amigurumi and for some advice about how to design your own and I thought some others might be interested too. I have a background in costume design, so when I decided to start creating my own patterns, I went at it in a very systematic way.

I had been crocheting for years, but I had only ever made two dimensional objects, afghans, doilies and the like. I had seen the Amigurumi on Craftster and, like many others, I fell deeply in love. The first one I made was the classic Amineko. I made two of them, one for each of my kids. It was a great way to get started thinking in three dimensions. When I finished with the first one I was able to look at it and see what I liked and what I didn’t and I made some changes to the second one to make it a little better proportioned to my eye.

Now I had some knowledge of some basic shapes. Circles for heads, pears for bodies, triangles for ears, long cylinders for legs and arms. What else could I make with these shapes? What if I moved the decreases and increases around to different places? What if I elongated the head or shortened the arms. What if I flattened a shape that was usually round? I found that once I new the basic shapes and the pattern formulas to make them, that I could just plug them into each other to make new creatures.

I looked at lots of pictures of other Amigurumi. There are lots of different patterns available for free online. If there was a pattern that had a shape I had not made yet, I went ahead and made the pattern to learn the new shape. I sketched. Part of my design process was to sit with a piece of paper and draw thumbnail sketches of Amigurumi I had seen and liked, ideas that popped into my head randomly, things I saw pictures of that I thought might make interesting creatures. I also had a notebook where I wrote down names of people or things that I thought of that I might like to try creating.

After all the sketching and designing, I found that simpler and smaller is better for Amigurumi. You aren’t going to be making a photo realistic representation of something, but a cartoon caricature. Picking 2 or 3 characteristics (or more for a more complicated creation) I broke the sketch I had drawn down into the basic component shapes I knew and began creating. I experimented with adding different stitches, like bobble stitches for fingers, to add more detail. I kept detailed notes of every stitch I made. When I wasn’t working on a specific project, I was experimenting with new shapes.

I sure hope this is helpfull in answering your questions. If you have more, please let me know!

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Christopher Says:

May 23, 2008 at 12:55 pm

Thank you so much, Amy! This does help, but it also confirmed my fears. There is no set, scienctific or mathematical way to do it. I have heard some of using graph paper and drawing it out to count stitches and stuff, but I could never see how that would work for anything 3-dimensional. This does help though. I didn’t even realize it, but I’ve done the same things. With the second one of your moogles that I made, I made the nose a bit smaller and more of a rounded triangle shape. (there are so many different moogle styles in the games!) I also embroidered different styles of facial features and such as well, adding a catlike mouth under the nose. I guess these are just the beginnings of it all. Thank you so much! I see now that I must experiment with more shapes (just like drawing, which is what I am having to learn for school; I’m in graphic design now, then transferring into Game Art and Design at the Art Institute).

Thank you again so much! I will keep playing around with more shapes, and I will try to share my patterns with you if you’d like! I’ll be making as many video game characters as possible. Happy Crafting!

Jacki Says:

May 24, 2008 at 2:58 am

Frankly, I just think it’s neat that the Art Institute (the one in Chicago?) is offering something called ‘Game Art and Design.’ How much fun would that be to study?

May 24, 2008 at 10:14 pm

It is called the art institute in pittsburg for the online division, but they have campuses everywhere in the country. The game art and design major is a lot more in-depth than you would think. You have to study physics pretty deeply (to know how things in the gaming environment react to each other). You have to take tons of drawing classes, and then you have to take classes on rendering your drawings in 3d and then animation stuff. theres a lot to it.