Character Design

  TAO YUZE 0366967 

Bachelor fo Design (Honours) in Creative Media

 

Please see the PDF file above for the image.

TASK1 Idea & Personification

Philosophy of Thinking and Design

From the very beginning, I didn't intend to create a very complex and flashy character, or a cool anime or game character. Starting from some very subjective concepts, I positioned Modesty as an "aesthetic manifesto," a tool to declare my personal style and aesthetic. It should be my most sublime and complex work at this stage, a period at Taylors, showcasing all the knowledge I've gained and the guidance of my Taylors mentors.

I named her Modesty, and as the name suggests, her design aesthetic should be understated yet dignified. Personally, I don't like overly flashy colors and shapes. I believe restraint is a more sophisticated aesthetic. So I began to pursue this aesthetic, attempting to achieve it, and Modesty is a bold attempt in that process.

In China's CG design community, we refer to a popular modern female facial style as the "internet celebrity face" or "CG face." This design has been successful (for example, Tifa from FF7). However, as a design student, I should create something unique or a work with a personal touch. I don't want to imitate things that are too mainstream.

Having begun my art education with a focus on design (oil painting), I turned back to classic works for inspiration. Like Neoclassicism, CGface represents a pursuit of perfection, albeit in one particular way. Many masters have chased perfection since ancient times. Among the female figures that best align with my aesthetic, those by William Bouguereau come from his work.

TASK2-3 Concept Development & Creation Execution

Technology and workflow

To create such a piece, I had to examine my own abilities and technical skills. First, I knew my drawing skills were insufficient to showcase its beauty, and my drawing lacked consistency across multiple angles (perhaps some masters can achieve absolute accuracy, but I'm far from that level). However, I am a concept artist, and the most important aspect of concept art is conveying a concept and design, while its technical methods can be diverse. But because my mentor said I couldn't rely solely on 3D technology, I opted for a compromise: using 3D to assist 2D drawing. Essentially, I first created a model, which served as my shape and perspective guide, and then drew on top of it.

I first used a neutral skull model, then employed fallback to move multiple vertices for shaping. Since I wasn't replicating a painting or a human face, I couldn't overlay the model onto a photograph. I referenced several works by William Bouguereau, using different parts of the female faces from those works. This is indeed a unique modeling approach.After obtaining the facial model, the material became the second challenge. I then used Character Creator's facial material function to achieve realistic facial features and skin textures. For the hair, I used Blender's hair curve function to create it.

The body was built using Characer Creator, but due to technical limitations, my head and body are actually separate. The face and head are not controlled by the body's skeleton. I started modeling the clothing from the body. I initially considered using professional cloth simulation software such as Material Design, but that was too complex, so I opted for a unique cloth workflow. I chose to first model a low-polygon model in Blender, then add a multi-level subdivision modifier (to ensure accuracy during skeletal deformation and smooth edges). Finally, in Special Purposes, I used a set of black and white alpha images of cloth wrinkles as displacement maps for the materials, thus achieving a near-realistic cloth appearance. During this process, the PBR workflow and 2.5D painting were done simultaneously; unfinished parts were roughly matte painted using 2D.

Modesty's test work on body and face completion

Regarding the design of alternative costumes and props

Although I didn't initially plan to design many interesting props or costumes for Modesty, due to the teacher's request, I needed to design some items that suited her style, bringing her into an original worldview.

To increase the competitiveness and complexity of my work, I've also included one of my backup pieces in Modesty's props: Munkar, a solo project I created last semester. Munkar is an automaton (mechanical humanoid) soldier inspired by the video game "Dishonored." Here, I'm awarding Munkar as a prop to Modesty.

When I saw Modesty and Munkar standing together, I immediately envisioned several story archetypes. Their appearance reminded me of the Big Daddy and Little Sister from BioShock; they seemed to represent a protector-protected pair, or a controller-controlled pair. However, since Munkar is used as a prop here, I couldn't imbue it with too much personality or consciousness, viewing it more as a machine. But as a machine, it couldn't be too cold, as that would make the interaction between Modesty and Munkar stiff. So, this was a point that required a balance.

As for Modesty herself, I designed an animal-like mask and a special cane with a blade. The cane and mask were actually designs I'd been conceiving for a long time, and this project gave me the perfect opportunity to create them. They also continue Modesty's color scheme of "walnut and brass." For the clothing, I designed an alternative outfit, featuring a long skirt and round-framed glasses of my own design. I used a unique color scheme for this. The colors are derived from magpie feathers; magpie tail feathers are known as "multicolored black," and I had considered how to represent this complex structural color in my work. Ultimately, I used a gradient color scheme with a sheen to achieve a similar effect.

Additional information about Munkar

Munkar, a term derived from Islamic legend about an angel who judges the dead in the grave, signifies "denial." Its earliest concept came from a sculpture of the same name I created for a course, but I wasn't entirely satisfied with it as an early work, so I remade Munkar last semester. My choice of a raven as the model for Munkar was inspired by the crows commonly found around Taylors. They are ubiquitous, constantly watching and observing people, just as the Islamic angels of legend are omnipresent and take on different forms; here, they can be seen as the raven incarnation of Munkar.

However, as a personal project with a purely 3D workflow, Munkar lacks the sketches and mood boards of traditional character design workflows. Therefore, I used a very personal workflow to create it (I discussed my workflow with Mr. Kannan). This is why I treated Munkar as a prop rather than a character in this project.

TASK4 Character Board Compilation