Lore/Backstory:

Before I got to design my character(s) I had to think of some backstory/lore as it would help me think about how to visualize the character, to think of how they would behave and therefore look. What I came up with is the following:

• Viking w/ Future Twist

Secret Viking clan that survived without contact on outside world and developed technologies themselves. > Black Panther Influence

• Victorian w/ Future Twist

Long line of Victorian family idealism in the future. > Idealism in the future

Another idea was to have a Victorian legend such as Jack The Ripper in a futuristic theme and see how the character could have been seen in the future in my opinion.

• Medieval Knight w/ Future Twist

Magically transported to the future. Knight has to adapt to new reality.

• Medieval Knight w/ Victorian Twist

Medieval knight wakes up in Victorian Era, adaptation to new era and becomes guard of palace.

• Viking w/ Medieval Knight Twist

Viking stumbles upon fallen knight, admires the armour and adopts some aspects of the medieval knights defensive and attack items. > Swords, chest armour, etc…

Concepts:

At first I started off doing what I had done with my hobby which was basically creating a very detailed character in a particular pose. However, after consultation, I took some advice to try and do quick stick-like characters in different poses, and to also try and develop some different characters faces by using different shapes. This was to get me out of the habit of doing the character design immediately when I should have tried to figure out what I wanted my character to be like. This ended up helping me a lot as I have now experimented and developed my ideas and got more of an idea of how I want my character to be and what I want my character to look like.

Faces:

I like this drawing as this shows a much more hardened warrior look, as if they have been through many fights in their life, and this is the type of design I am looking for in my character. The main thing I would use from this design is the hairstyle and eye patch as these can show an experienced warrior used to brutality and injury from battles, and who knows how to fight.

This design is something I both have liking for and dislike for. The main thing I don’t like is the ‘eye slit’ as I think it makes the character look odd which isn’t what I want for my character. I am not sure I would use this design as I don’t think the design is good for the look I am wanting for the character.

I like this design as it shows a bit of mystery as to what is underneath the helmet. I also like the ‘modifications’ of the horns and the runes carved into the helmet as it shows both a viking influence and a possible religious aspect to the personality of the character. The broken horn is good because it makes it look like the character has been in battle and had had some close calls.

I like this design as it gives off a mysterious look and that of someone who has been through experience. The design itself is something I would like to put into the final character design. The half face with the horn could be taken to represent half viking as if it is part viking and part some thing else.

This design is a good look at first but then when I look at it some more it doesn’t quite lfit what I want for my character. I feel that it has too much of a Viking look to it, when I am trying to make something from both Viking and Medieval Knight styles, I feel that I could use some aspects of it to put into another design, but this I feel wouldn’t be put into a final design.

I feel that with this design that it does look like a viking had got a piece of medieval knight armour (helmet) but I don’t quite like the look of it too much and I feel that it doesn’t have enough to make it seem like it suits the personality traits that I am looking for, it doesn’t look enough like armour.

Poses:

• 

Peer Review 1:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The writing above is the first peer review I had from other people in my class. This was done to see what sort of personality they would like to see in my character. This was to also help me decide and draw more poses that would express these kinds of personality traits to the viewer/target audience.

What I got from my peers is that they would like to see a character that is:

• Empathetic/Honourable
• Worships a God of Duty, Loyalty and so forth
• Fights with his brethren
• Is a collector of trophies
• Is a skilled craftsman

Final Designs:

I like this design as it is, in my opinion, a design that expresses the personality traits well and a lot more than the other designs, although they too express them too. I like the look of having multiple pieces of different types of material armour, such as the studded leather thigh piece (cuisse) and then on the other side medieval knights iron or steel thigh piece. The fact that one side is a medieval knight look and then the other is a viking style is what I like most about it. The cape, however, will be a challenge as it might be something I will have to take out in the final product, but if I have the time and if I feel that I can do it I will. As well as being technically challenging, having a cape might hide the back of the armour which I don’t want to do.

This design in my opinion does express the personality traits, but not as well as the first design does. I feel that this design does show more of a battle hardened character with the dirty damaged armour, but it doesn’t show any specialities to it, such as different textures and patterns on the armour, as much as I wanted it to. I feel that if I worked on this design more then I would have put in some more parts that make it look like the armour was either made by the character or taken by others from the battlefield, but at the moment I feel that it was just from one fallen Knight not many as I had intended.

I feel that this design is a good start to see where I could go with the poses and armour pieces, but I felt like this design didn’t portray all of the personality traits I have for the character. There are parts that I feel like adding on the design I am taking forward to the modelling, but it depends on whether I have time for it near the end.

Peer Review 2:

I had another peer review session in which I asked my peers to pick out of the three Final Designs, what they think best suits the personality traits from before, here are the results.

• 

• 

• 

• 

My peers all decided that the best design that fits the personality traits was Final Design 1. They have all stated it for different reasons and I fully agree with them on their points. Now what I need to do is move on to redrawing the character design from different points of views, i.e. front, side left, side right and back. This will help me sculpt out the player model in blender to make it fit the size of the character design and then I will move on making the armour for it.