Creating characters - your way of doing it?

[Mirena]

I wholeheartedly agree that one-sided "bad" guys are no good. I refer to them as "bad" because I think it's a highly subjective term. For instance you have animal rights activists who oppose the hunting of certain animals - on the other hand people make their living by hunting those animals. Now who are the bad ones? Not the best example, I know, but I hope it gets the point across.

One of the most important parts when I make characters is their motivation. I try to come up with reasons for why they act as they do. Is it for their own sake, someone else, because of something that happened in the past? I think motive is a very important part for antagonizing characters as well. What are your thoughts on this?

[Coatl]

I wholeheartedly agree that one-sided "bad" guys are no good. I refer to them as "bad" because I think it's a highly subjective term. For instance you have animal rights activists who oppose the hunting of certain animals - on the other hand people make their living by hunting those animals. Now who are the bad ones? Not the best example, I know, but I hope it gets the point across.

One of the most important parts when I make characters is their motivation. I try to come up with reasons for why they act as they do. Is it for their own sake, someone else, because of something that happened in the past? I think motive is a very important part for antagonizing characters as well. What are your thoughts on this?

I wholeheartedly agree. Motivation is one of the things that makes character unique. Often times I can make a character believe in something that they believe is right. For example in Tsukihime, the antagonist Tohno SHIKI believed that he had the right to kill the main character Nanaya Shiki because

Eight years ago after SHIKI almost killed Nanaya, SHIKI was locked away and stripped of being the next head of the Tohno household, as well as losing his identity to Nanaya.

That was considered a great betrayal and his motiv for coming to get you.

Sometimes depending in the character, I often make their goals spontaneous. I can make them motivated to do one thing and then depending on any given information or sudden event, I can make them completely change their motives.