Character Sheet

Now that I've completed - or mostly completed my character design, it is time to work out the finer details about my mutated alien friend.

The hardest thing is to decide whether he should be good or evil... to me it looks like he could be both... both would definitely suit him.

In the end I decided that he should be good, as I had originally wanted the viewer to feel sorry for him when I eventually make him walk. He should look like he's in pain from his terrible posture and the way his legs bend and I think that this will be somewhat lost if the viewer feels compelled to dislike him due to him having an evil nature. If he is good, then the viewer would feel all the more sorry for him in his state of constant pain when he moves, and I would have achieved one of my goals.

I decided to name my character "Murtagh" - pronounced "Mur - tah" as this was one of my favourite characters in a series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. It was between the names "Murtagh" and "Thorr" - an infamous Viking God. As I am quite obsessed with Viking/Norse mythology and history, I definitely had to include something "Thorr" or Viking in my work - as I usually find a way of doing!

I decided that "Murtagh" was a more suitable name for my alien character, so I instead named his home planet "Thorr", making the race who inhabit it "Thorrians".

Next it was time to decide on some of Murtagh's history.

Here are some of the variations I came up with:

• Murtagh is a quiet resident on Planet Thorr who is addicted to Trans-drugs. While he spends the most of his time cleaning up his polluted and generally destroyed planet, he never lets an opportunity to acquire drugs pass him by...
• Murtagh is the leader of a group of aliens who oppose the Mayan theory on the destruction of the world. They think that it's all just hocus-pocus and spend their time trying to prove the theory wrong...
• Murtagh is a loving husband and father who has been kidnapped by his evil government to make trans-drugs. This is particularly horrible for him as he used to be addicted to them and hates them for the horrible mutations on his body that they had caused...
• Murtagh is a kindly old alien who spends his time nursing his plants. He hopes to one day fill his world once again with nature's gifts of plantation, which has been destroyed in the final years leading up to their doomsday...

In the end, I came up with this as his history:

" Murtagh is the leader of the 'Rebels' - a group of Thorrians who aim to restore natural beauty, happiness, cleanliness and hope to their planet.

He personally campaigns against the use of Trans-drugs, as these had mutated him horribly - many years of overuse morphed his body together with his twin brother's, who was wrestling him at the time.

Although they are usually of one mind, disagreements result in certain 'incidents' occurring, and these are disastrous for all present. His amazing charisma generally wins him his fights, but when it fails, he will ruthlessly resort to a physical alternative.

He is physically strong, but has a lot of trouble moving fast due to his terrible posture. As a result of his mutation, he is blind in both of his center eyes - however, when in 'fight mode', Murtagh has the ability to shoot lasers out of them to blind and stun his enemies."

I think that this is perfect basically! I think it's pretty crazy and funny and explains a lot about him. I also included the idea of him having a split personality, and even gave his two blind eyes an awesome function!

Once this was written, it was really easy to come up with information about his likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses etc:

" - Gender: Male

- Age: 218 Thorrian years; 31 Earth years

- Species: Thorrian

- Home planet: Thorr

- Strengths: Climbing, leadership, intelligence, dominance, melee combat, scream, speech

- Weaknesses: Slowness, lack of agility, blindness in center eyes, some split-personality

- Likes: Slow dancing, hibernation, healthy plants, campaigning, areas of unspoiled planet

- Dislikes: Trans-drugs, pollution, mental institutions, bomb shelters, chaos, clothes

- Weapons: Laser vision, melee, clawing, head-butting, ear-piercing scream "

I figured that he had 4 arms and 3 hands so he'd be able to climb well.

Also, as he has two mouths, I figured that he'd be twice as loud as a normal alien - making his scream one of his strengths, especially as a weapon. Perhaps it shatters the victim's eardrums?!

Finally it was time to create some extra 'actions and emotions' to further deepen the character and his personality. I did these by copying the head part of my alien 'front' drawing, and changing the facial features in photoshop.

I decided that he should be a pretty depressed alien, as his planet is very much in a state of chaos and his beloved world is slowly dying due to over-use of resources, pollution etc. Most other alien's careless actions make Murtagh angry, and as most aliens are VERY careless, Murtagh is mostly angry. This also explains the second emotion - "as happy as possible." As Murtagh is mostly angry, he would rarely be happy. A happy day might come where he has succeeded in growing a healthy plant or getting new followers or rescuing someone from a mental institution etc.

Another must have expression is a shocked face. Murtagh is naturally shocked every time something else chaotic or horrible happens in his world, and these things would keep happening on a day to day basis as the world comes closer to its apocalypse. I also thought that this face made him look as though he was whistling, and since he loves slow-dancing, he MUST love music too, so he MUST love whistling!

His appalled face would have a place on his face a lot of the time when his fellow aliens do something else that impacts the world or its race of aliens in a negative way. I also thought that this face made him look like he was speaking or shouting, so I decided that this could also be his "command" face.

The last face I included was one showing Murtagh using his awesome laser vision!!!

And with all of that, this project is completed and I am once again ready to submit and hope for the best!!!

I am overall very very happy with all my work on this project. I had an absolutely awesome time with every stage of this project, and I think the final outcome is very good. I have definitely already fallen completely in love with my character, and I can't wait to animate him!!!