As Twitter becomes a more prominent part of online marketing, many merchants are choosing to customize their website’s Twitter link. One of the best ways to do this is with a custom Twitter bird character.
In this video tutorial, I will be showing you how develop a custom Twitter bird character in Adobe Illustrator CS4.
Good character design requires some forethought. It’s always a good idea to do some rough sketches of what you want your character to look like, and seeking out some online inspiration never hurts either.
To begin this tutorial, I’ll talk you through the thought process behind character design, and show you some good examples of Twitter birds in Google Images. I will also talk about the great site Brands of the World, where you can download quality vector logos from major brands.
After discussing how to get started with character design, I’ll show you how I designed my Twitter bird using (a) swatches pulled from the Twitter bird logo I downloaded from Brands of the World, and (b) simple shapes inside of Illustrator. I will also show you how you can take one completed character design and quickly modify it for multiple variations.
By the end of this tutorial, you should be well on your way to designing a Twitter bird character in Adobe Illustrator CS4. If you are interested in character design, be sure and watch, in the next few weeks, my upcoming tutorial series on advanced character design.
