Research on how to design a character

I looked up websites and video tutorials on how to design characters, and found:

http://www.creativebloq.com/how-design-game-character

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EY8UNy4RQQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmbPoUdF-ik

https://blog.udemy.com/game-character/

From what I see, gathering reference is important, as well as having a clear idea of what I want to achieve, thinking about the genre my game character will fit within and therefore what he/she will be wearing and perhaps even about their general attitude/ personality. As well as having the foundations for a starting point down, doing many iterations and different quick designs is also important, so you can see what works well and what doesn't.

http://pixar-animation.weebly.com/character-design.html

In Pixar's post about character design they state:

"The process of designing a character stars with a character designer receiving script pages from the director. These script pages describe what the character is like. The artist then has to complete hundreds of drawing of what they believe the character would be like."

Again it seems there is emphasis on trying to capture the character's personality and even mannerisms.

Ultimately to create a decent character, I must have an interesting design that differs somewhat from existing characters, perhaps include exaggerated characteristics, convey personality, and use colour to aid the design.