ABSTRACT
To be able to tell a story with your character, he or she has to live in an environment of some kind. It may be extremely simple or complex, but without a feeling of “place,” your audience can't establish where your character is – and where he or she is going. Does the character come first, with the background designed around them or vice versa? I like to think of the entire scene I am trying to design, with the character(s) as just one of the elements of that design: the most important element, but part of the whole.
