To give appeal to character... How

[awalker]

It may sound obvious but I believe the most important thing is to design a character that appeals to you first and foremost. Creating a character from a list of bullet points of what you think other people like from different properties is a sure way to make a hollow character that in the end you won't care about. If you don't love your character its gonna be impossible to get other people to. I'm not saying don't use other properties to help influence your creation, a lot of famous animators have and still do it today (ex.. Bruce Timm used Max Fleischer Superman to help create the batman animated series & Genndy Tartakovsky style is influenced by both Hanna Barbera & Tex Avery cartoons). I think a persons art and writing skills a definitely important in shaping and molding your character/IP into something appealing but making something your passionate about is the biggest hurdle IMO.