Using these references from Total Drama, I created three unique characters, one for each tutorial level.

Afterward, I received feedback from several professionals (teachers) and users (students) regarding the heavy black outlining. They mentioned that it didn’t match the colored outlining style of the background. For instance, Dirk suggested using darker shades of the fill color instead, to give the characters a more modern appearance.

I experimented with a combination of black and colored outlining to refine the design.

Almost everyone I consulted preferred the second variation, which featured black outlining for the facial features, including the iris, while keeping the rest outlined in color.

In the end, I decided to animate just one character and reuse the same animation with different color variations to save time. I chose the short-haired girl because her body parts (arm, forearm, hand, etc.) were well-defined, and she didn’t have long hair or loose clothing that would require more complex animations.