When thinking about my character design, which is something that I've been looking forward to now for a long, long time, I immediately started getting a basic idea of what I want him to look like and be like. I still don't really know what his backstory will be, or whether he'll be good or bad, but here are the first few things that I felt strongly about and would definitely want to include in some way:
- He should have an elongated head. This would help him to mirror his home planet, which I had designed and created to be egg-shaped. It also links my character to the typical view of aliens as having elongated heads, as well as to the Mayans who bound the heads of their young to create this effect.
- He should be mutated - have more than 2 arms, maybe more than 2 legs - be a bit rough around the edges as a result of his home planet's fall from grace into a state of chaos.
- As a result of his mutations, he should be hunch-backed and have some trouble walking. I think that the perfect result would be to make the audience really feel sorry for him while he is walking later on in the Walkcycle project. It should look as though he is really in pain, and this will be best shown through his posture.
- He should have 2 heads - or 1 head that has 2 faces - or 2 half heads that are joined together at the middle. I did something similar to this in year 12 for art - where my 'villain' was a 3 faced demon who was partly demon, partly clown (my biggest fear!) and partly a rotting zombie mutant. I fell in love with this idea of once face being many faces, and would definitely like to bring this idea back into my character design this year. Also - this could perhaps mean that my character has a split personality disorder, which would be fun to play around with later on.
In the world design project, I had decided to make my planet egg shaped - not only making it more unique as a world/planet, but also to link it to the Mayan race in another way. I think that it is really interesting how the Mayans bound the heads of their children from birth to mould the skull into an elongated shape (as is shown in the first image below), as this has been widely linked to their supposed 'relationship' with aliens, who had supposedly entrusted them with important information and details such as when the world might possibly end. Or, well, this is one of the theories concerning the Mayan's elongated heads and their incredible intelligence. Personally, I think that this is all rubbish, but in our game world, this is an interesting theory to work with - considering that there ARE aliens in our game.
(http://www.blogversity.org/blogs/cstanton/maya_skull_modification.jpg)
Anyway, as I had already experimented with this sense of elongation with my world design, I thought that it would be good to also experiment with it in my character design project - thereby further linking my character to its home planet.
I used this image as inspiration. It is the actual skull of a Mayan person from all those centuries ago, and it does seem quite alien to me.
(http://museumsyndicate.om/images/3/20214.jpg)
I have also always been very very inspired by H.R. Giger's work - especially his work on aliens (also for the Alien movies).
This is another interesting take on the widely accepted idea we humans have about aliens having elongated heads.
Of course, the alien's head here is meant to represent a part of the male anatomy - something I do not wish do do myself...
but it is still very beautiful and inspiring work.
This piece - and a lot of Giger's other work would really be very food inspiration for the design and development of a 'bad' or 'evil' alien - so I will definately try to experiment with it further. I still don't know whether I want my character to be good or evil.
(http://www.sarahmensinga.com)
One of the best places to find inspiring character designs is of course on the internet, especially on artist based sites such as deviantart.com.
I found this piece on Sarah Mensinga's website while searching for images on slouching/hunching characters/creatures/people etc.
I was finding it very difficult to find an image of a hunched back character/creature/person do draw inspiration from - but I had originally envisioned my character as being very mutated and as a result of his deformities - having a hunched back.
After sorting through hundreds of unrelated and uninspiring and unhelpful images on Google, I came across this one.
I love the way that the character's head is bent so far forward, his terrible posture, the sense of weight and pain and discomfort he seems to have. I definately want to use this in my character design as a way to make the viewer feel bad for him. This particular character's other features aren't important to me, as they are much too caveman-like and not what I want my character to look like.
(http://www2.fileplanet.com.images/190000/196120ss_sm2.jpg)
Of course, most of my inspiration comes from the games that I play - especially games like Fallout 3, Bioshock, Dante's Inferno, God of War, Gears of War etc etc - which boast some absolutely amazing character design!! These mutants are from Fallout 3.
I really love the skeletal look of their bodies. They look so frail and yet still so absolutely daunting. Somehow, to me, they seem less human with this quality.
I thought that I might make my alien somewhat human in proportions, and perhaps somewhat frail - but perhaps not quite as frail as these guys!
(http://scuddster.deviantart.com/art/mutant_114407766)
I found this image on Deviantart a couple of years ago. This was one of the images that had inspired my character design work in year 12, and I think that I'd definitely like to include this in my work again now. Nothing says 'mutated' more than two heads or two beings that have been somehow joined into one flesh!
I also think that it makes a character more interesting - perhaps also in terms of speech, sight, other senses and of course personality. I have been thinking about making my character have multiple-personality or split personality disorders, but I am unsure of how I'll really incorporate these ideas into my work.
This will be a great way to show those ideas in a physical way though.
I guess that the next thing to do now would be to start drawing and putting these ideas together in a variety of ways.
Also - maybe I should come up with some ideas about his backstory and his history as these will ultimately somewhat influence the way he looks.
Maybe in a later post!
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