Create a Minion Character From the Despicable Me Movie - Tutorial

Aug 23, 2026

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Step-by-step creative tutorial for designing a cute Minion character from Despicable Me using Illustrator and Photoshop workflows. The guide walks through building the body and accessories with shape tools, pathfinder operations, warp effects, and anchor-point adjustments. It then covers hands, arms, shoes, shoulder straps, and facial features, emphasizing vector layer flexibility and smart-object usage to generate multiple Minions by varying key points.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages81

Reading Time3 h 24 min

AccessFree to download

Tutorial Details

Tutorial Assets

Step 1-Illustrator

Steps 3-4

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Create a "Minion" Character From the Despicable Me Movie Let’s face it, those minion characters from Despicable Me were pretty darned cute . In today’s tutorial, we will use Photoshop and Illustrator to create a cute minion character. Let’s get started! Tutorial Details Tutorial Assets The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial. Jeans Texture Iris Step 1-Illustrator Create an 800x600px document in Illustrator (Cmd/Ctrl + N) . Begin to draw the body. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool then as you drag the cursor, repeatedly press the up arrow key to change the radius of the corners until you get some like the image below. Step 3 Now copy the body (Cmd/Ctrl + C) and paste it in the same position (Cmd/Ctrl + F), move the original body away for now. With the Rectangle Tool (M) draw a rectangle like the image below, then in the Pathﬁnder panel press the Minus Front button to obtain the ﬁrst part of the shape. For the second one, draw another rectangle and on the Menu Bar select Effect > Warp > Bulge. Set Horizontal and Bend to-11%, leave the rest to 0, click Ok button to conﬁrm . Select the rectangle and in the Menu Bar let's click on Object > Expand Appearance . Now dispose the ﬁrst and the second part like image below, select them and in Pathﬁnder Panel click on Unite button. To make the shape more rounded use the Direct Selection Tool (A), then try to move the anchor point and handles . Step 4 With the Rectangle Tool (M) draw a square (hold down Shift while dragging) . Then use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select the two bottom points and press the Convert Button in the Option Bar. Adjust the handles until you get a result like the image below. (You don't need to do those shapes exactly as I do, because the aim of this tutorial is to create a pack of different minions, so follow my guidelines but try to customize your minion too) . Step 5 For the shoulder strap let's draw another rectangle. Then in the Menu Bar select Effect > Warp > Arc set Vertical; Bend to 11% and Vertical Distortion to 20% . Remember to Expand Appearance like before or when you will try to rotate or transform this object the effect will be re-applied with some unwanted results . With the Direct Selection Tool (A) round a little the top left corner. Let's add a circle with the Ellipse Tool (L) and dispose it like the image below. Then duplicate the shoulder strap and right click on the copy, select Transform > Reﬂect set the mode to Vertical and click Ok button . Step 6 Now let's draw the arm. Select the Pen Tool (P) and draw a shape like below. Then duplicate andreﬂect it. Step 7 To draw the hand we have to use the Pen Tool (P) . Let's draw something like the image below. When you're done, duplicate and reﬂect vertically the hand. This time you wont need to Expand Appearance because there's no effect applied to the path. Instead, if you select, by mistake, in the Menu Bar Object> Expand you will expand the stroke and the ﬁll (if some) of the path, getting a totally different result, so pay attention . Step 8 Do the same for the shoe. Draw it with the Pen Tool (P) . Create the curved line and then place it on the shoe. So, as usual, duplicate and reﬂect. If wanted, you can adjust the copied shoe as shown . Step 9 For the mouth draw a casual shape like below. The really nice thing about this tutorial is that we are working with vector layers (and smart objects in Photoshop) so you can make an inﬁnite number of minions simply by change some anchor point.

FAQs

Which software is used to create the Minion character in this tutorial?

The tutorial uses Photoshop and Illustrator to create the Minion character, with Illustrator steps focused on vector construction.

How does the tutorial create rounded body shapes in Illustrator?

It uses the Rounded Rectangle Tool while increasing corner radius with the arrow key, then combines rectangles using Pathﬁnder operations such as Minus Front and Unite.

How can you generate many different Minions from the same setup?

Because the workflow is based on vector layers (and smart objects in Photoshop), you can create variations by changing anchor points to produce an infinite number of Minions.

Aug 23, 2026

Upload by Sage