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How to Create a Minion Style Character in Illustrator

How to Create a Minion Style Character in Illustrator

Bapples and Bananas

Despicable Me introduced us all to minions, those hilarious small, yellow creatures whose impulsive actions and love of bananas have made them universally recognised and adored. Today I am going to show you how to create your very own minion style character in this Illustrator tutorial.

Create a minion style character in Illustrator Here is what we'll be making. I have opted for the use of flat colours to enhance the cartoon-like quality of the character. Create a minion style character in Illustrator body Let's start with the body of our minion style character. Open a new document in Illustrator and using a black stroke with no fill draw a 215px by 325px rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 215px. From the Effect menu choose Warp > Bulge, set the Vertical Bend to -20% and click OK. Expand the shape's appearance using the Object menu then return to the Effect menu and this time choose Warp > Shell Lower. Set the Horizontal Bend to -20% before clicking OK and expanding the shape's appearance once more. The outline of the body is now complete. Create a minion style character in Illustrator goggles We're going to create the face next, starting with the goggles. Draw a 200px by 20px rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 3px and a 200px by 2px normal rectangle and align them both horizontally and vertically to the centre of one another using the align palette. Draw a further 170px by 32px rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 5px and align it centrally with the other two, it may help you to give this shape a white fill for the moment so that you can easily distinguish between the layers. Create a minion style character in Illustrator goggles With the strap of the goggles finished we can move onto the eye pieces. Draw two 65px circles positioned side-by-side with a gap of roughly 12px between them. With both circles selected go to the Object menu and choose Path > Offset Path, set the offset to 12px and click OK. We want to subtract the inner circles from the outer ones next. To do this select both of the circles on the left and then choose the Minus Front button on the Pathfinder palette, repeat this process on the right. Finally, select both eyepieces and combine them using the Unite button before aligning them centrally with the strap (again it might help here to give them a white fill). Create a minion style character in Illustrator eyes To create the eyes draw another two 65px circles, again positioned side-by-side with a 12px gap, and with them both selected go to the Effect menu and choose Warp > Bulge. Set the Horizontal Bend to -20% and click OK before expanding the appearance of the circles. Draw a 25px circle for the iris and a 9px circle for the pupil and align them together centrally before positioning them within one of the eyes. Repeat this process for the other eye and then group all of the shapes together (CTRL+G, or CMD+G if you're using a Mac). All that's left to do is to align the eyes centrally within the goggles and position them on the minion's body, about 45px below the top of the head should do it. Create a minion style character in Illustrator smile Everyone knows that minions are happy little creatures, so let's give ours a smile. Draw a 75px by 1px line with a black stroke and no fill, then from the Effect menu choose Warp > Arc, set the Horizontal Bend to -20% and click OK before expanding its appearance. Using the Stroke palette give the line rounded caps and corner joins, this will make the edges of the smile softer. Place the smile centrally within the minion's body, about 25px below the bottom of the goggles. Create a minion style character in Illustrator hair Our minion is a bit on the follically challenged side at the moment, let's give him a bit of hair. Select the Pen Tool (P) and from the Stroke palette make sure the Cap and Corner options are set to Round. Create four curved lines on the top of the minion's head, one above the other, getting a bit longer each time. Once you're happy group the hairs and then reflect them vertically by right-clicking and selecting Transform > Reflect from the pop-up menu. Position the copy beside the original with a roughly 10px gap between them. Create a minion style character in Illustrator dungarees Minions need clothes, and their default outfit tends to be blue denim dungarees, which we will create for our minion now. Make a copy of the body (CTRL+C, CTRL+F) and then draw a 210px by 70px rectangle. Using the Align palette align the rectangle centrally with the bottom of the body copy then pull it down by roughly 5px. Select the rectangle and from the Effect menu choose Warp > Arc Upper, set the Horizontal Bend to -15% and click OK before expanding the rectangle's appearance. With both the body and the rectangle selected choose the Pathfinder's Intersect button and then position the resulting shape so that it sits on the bottom of the minion. Create a minion style character in Illustrator dungarees Let's make the front of the dungarees next. Repeat the first few steps used in the previous stage but this time use a 210px by 125px rectangle and set the Horizontal Bend to -10% when applying the Arc Upper effect. Before you position the new shape on your minion draw a 40px by 105px rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 40px. Create a copy of the rounded rectangle and pull it to the right by 175px. Group the two shapes together and align them centrally with the bottom of the dungarees before pulling them up by 30px and subtracting them using the Pathfinder's Minus Front button. You can now place the front of the dungarees on your minion. Create a minion style character in Illustrator pocket We're now ready to create the front pocket and Gru's emblem. Draw a 55px by 70px rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 25px and then using the Direct Selection Tool delete its top two anchor points. With the shape still selected right-click and choose Join from the pop-up menu to close the path. Using the Effect menu choose Warp > Arc Upper and set the Horizontal Bend to -10% before expanding the pocket's appearance. We're ready to move onto the emblem. Create a minion style character in Illustrator emblem Draw a 30px circle, 20px square and a further 10px circle. Rotate the square by 45° by right-clicking and selecting Transform > Rotate from the pop-up menu and align all three shapes to the centre. Subtract the smaller circle from the square using the Pathfinder's Minus Front button. Next draw an 11px by 2px rectangle and align it horizontally to the right and vertically to the centre of the square (ALT-click the square once both shapes are selected, a thick blue line will appear indicating that it has become the point of alignment). Make a copy of the rectangle before subtracting it from the square and pasting it back in place. Move the newly pasted rectangle 2px downwards and 3px to the left then combine it with the square using the Unite button. Create a minion style character in Illustrator emblem Now that the emblem is complete group the shapes together and align them centrally with the pocket. Position the pocket so that it sits within the centre of the front of the dungarees and then pull it upwards by 10px. Again, at this stage it might be helpful to give the dungarees a white fill so that you can distinguish between the layers. Create a minion style character in Illustrator straps Let's make the dungaree straps next. To create the first strap draw a 60px by 15px rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 3px. We'll create the button that fastens the strap to the dungarees next. Draw a 10px circle and two 2px by 5px rounded rectangles with a 2px corner radius. Rotate one of the rounded rectangle by 45° then align it centrally with the other, you should be left with what looks like a plus sign. Combine the rectangles using the Unite button then centre them within the circle and group the shapes together. Create a minion style character in Illustrator straps Align the button centrally with the right edge of the strap and then pull it to the left by 3px or so, then group them both together. Rotate the strap by -40° then copy and paste it in place before pulling the copy to the right by about 160px (holding down the SHIFT key and using the right arrow on your keyboard will help speed this up a little.). Group both straps then align them centrally with the top of the front of the dungarees, again ALT-click on the front of the dungarees after it and the straps are selected to make it the shape to align to, before pulling the straps upwards until you're happy with their position. Create a minion style character in Illustrator straps We just need to trim the strap overlap now. If you have CS5 or above select the minion's body and the strap and then using the Shape Builder Tool (SHIFT+M) ALT-click on the left corner of the strap to remove it, you should see a little minus symbol appear beneath the cursor. Repeat this process on the right. If you don't have CS5 or above ungroup the strap elements then create a copy of the body. Paste the body in place then select the left strap and choose the Pathfinder's Intersect option before repeating the process on the right. The overlap has now been removed. Create a minion style character in Illustrator legs All that's left to do on the dungarees is to create the legs. Draw a 40px by 30px rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 5px then from the Effect menu choose Warp > Arch, set the Vertical Bend to -15%, the Horizontal Distortion to 10% and the Vertical Distortion to -20% and click OK. Expand the shape's appearance then copy, paste and reflect it before pulling the copy to the right by 50px. Group the legs together and align them centrally with the bottom of the minion's body before pulling them down slightly and sending them to the back of the document (SHIFT+CTRL+[). There, the dungarees are now complete! Create a minion style character in Illustrator shoes We'll create our minion's shoes next. Draw a 30px circle and a 20px rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 5px. Using the Direct Selection Tool, pull the circle's lower anchor point upwards by 5px then align it with the top right corner of the rounded rectangle. Pull the rounded rectangle to the right by about 5px then combine both shapes using the Unite button. Copy, paste and reflect the shoe then pull it to the right by around 55px before grouping it with the original. Position the shoes so that they sit beneath the dungaree trousers with a slight overlap and then send them to the back of the document. Create a minion style character in Illustrator arms Let's create the arms and hands next. Start by drawing a 20px by 100px rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 20px. Using the Effect menu choose Warp > Arc, set the Vertical Bend to 30% and click OK before expanding the shape's appearance. Rotate the shape by 5°, you've just created the minion's arm. Create a minion style character in Illustrator gloves To create the minion's gloves start by drawing a 25px by 15px rounded rectangle with a 3px corner radius, using the Direct Selection Tool pull the bottom left anchor points inwards by 2px then repeat the process on the right. Next we'll create the fingers. Draw a 15px by 30px rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 15px, then from the Effect menu choose Warp > Shell Lower and set the Horizontal Bend to 5% before clicking OK and expanding the shape's appearance. Copy and paste the finger then move the copy up by 15px and to the left by 5px before rotating it by -10°. Make a second copy of the original finger but this time move it to the up by 10px and to the right by 5px before rotating it by 60°. With the third finger still selected choose Warp > Arc Upper and set the Horizontal Bend to -15% before expanding its appearance. Create a minion style character in Illustrator gloves Combine all three fingers using the Pathfinder's Unite button and position them beneath the top of the glove. Reorder the layers so that the fingers sit beneath the glove top and then group the shapes together (CTRL+G). Place the glove so that it sits on the bottom of the arm (again giving the shapes a white fill may make it a bit easier to see what you're doing here), then copy, paste and reflect both the arm and the gloved hand before moving the copy roughly 180px to the right. Position the arms so that they sit centrally on the minion just beneath the top of the dungaree straps then bring the straps to the front of the document (SHIFT+CTRL+]). Our minion is complete, we just need to add a little colour! Create a minion style character in Illustrator colour Once you've added your chosen colours we need to give the dungarees a stitched effect. Select the dungaree straps, pocket, front, sides and legs (you may need to ungroup the elements so that you don't also select the buttons and the emblem) and then from the Object menu select Path > Offset Path. Set the Offset to -2px the Joins to Round and click OK. Give the offset a brown stroke with no fill then from the Stroke palette set the Cap and Corner to be rounded, tick the Dashed Line checkbox and enter 2pt in the dash and gap boxes. To finish off the stitched effect draw two dashed lines (a height of 25px should be fine) with a 5px space between them and align them centrally with the bottom of the dungarees before pulling them up by 5px. Create a minion style character in Illustrator detail The arms could do with being made more distinguishable from the body. Copy and paste the arms (excluding the gloves) in place and bring them to the front of the document then give them a brown stroke with no fill. Using the Direct Selection Tool remove the outer anchor points of the copy of the left arm until you are left with a single curve that runs along the inside of the arm. Select the Scissors Tool (C) and make a cut where you think the minion's armpit should be. Make a second cut just below the point at which the line touches the dungarees then delete out the excess top and bottom bits. Pull what's left of the line into the right by 1px and then reorder its layering so that it sits above the body but below the dungarees. Repeat this process on the right. Create a minion style character in Illustrator complete

Your minion style character is now complete! Why not reward yourself with a nice bapple?


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