Character Design / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Shofwa Alyadiena / 0350019
Task 1-3: Character Concept Development
Lectures
WEEK 1 - MODULE INTRODUCTION AND WORLD BUILDING
As every first week goes, we were briefed about the module's tasks and how to approach them. As soon as the introductions were finished, we moved on to the preparation for our character design. The first task is personification, starting with creating a character and the world that they will live in. There are two ways to approach world-building:
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Inside-out
This method prioritizes the existing story's characters. If a premise is already set, the world will be made to support the character's journey in the story. -
Outside-In
This method is ideal to use if geographical boundaries are already set. All that's necessary is to place our character into the world, and base them off of the region's details like weather, government, symbols, etc.
There are also key elements we can take as inspiration for the character's visual appearance.
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Time and Space
Is the story in the past or future? Does the character live near a body of water? High or low ground? Weather? -
Inhabitants
Are the main race humans or otherly creatures? -
Governing System
What kind of government do the characters live under? Are the systems tied to religion? -
History
Are there any narrative-changing historical events the world has gone through? -
Societal Differences
Any regional differences? What does each profession dress like in each place? -
Standard of Living
Power, art and entertainment, that might affect the character's accessories? -
Technological Advancement
Do the characters that exist have futuristic technology? -
Magic
Is magic an existing aspect of the character's life?
WEEK 2 - CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT
After the world-building step has been done, it's recommended to start conceptual development in the form of thumbnail sketches. Thumbnail sketches can be silhouettes or rough sketches, outlining the general build of the character.
WEEK 3 - SIMPLIFIED ANATOMY
To improve our skills in creating an anatomically correct bipedal character, we were shown a brief introduction through a YouTube video. In the video, it's explained that balance is needed to progress smoothly in terms of creating a pleasantly aesthetic anatomic structure. One half should be balanced with the other.
Using Marc Brunet's creative process, drawing the characters can be broken down into simplified pieces. The head is typically egg-shaped and can be aligned seven times vertically to figure out where everything is.
The absorption of this theory was able to be practised through a turnaround study of our own characters.
Instructions
Final Presentation
Personification
1. World Building | Slides 2-10
The first step of many was to compile the world-building ideas, regarding the universe the character is set in. At the start, I didn't think much of the canon character's designs as I had seen fan art and fan characters from a wide spectrum of designs and styles, but after looking closer into the canon designs, I realize there were more recurring visual features of a Jadeblood.
I'm aware that there aren't a lot of people in my region who have read Homestuck (I suggest you do!), so here's a brief of important details for creating a troll (prompts that affect visuals are highlighted), in order of the World-Building questions in Week 1's lecture:
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Time and Space
The story my character is involved in takes place on a planet named Alternia, one that exists in the present, with time shenanigans that cause some control over both the past and future. The planet has two moons, and danger lurks within every bit of nature- trolls work on their activities during night hours because contact with sunlight will cause irreparable damage. Trolls are divided into 12 casts based on their blood, but to put it short, my character is a Jadeblood, which caste is hatched into their duties within the Brooding Caverns.
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Inhabitants
The main inhabitants of Alternia are young trolls. Adult trolls are sent on intergalactic missions to spread Her Imperious Condescension's (The Condesce) empire (more on History). Trolls have grey skin, with bright yellow scleras and black lips, companied by a set of bright candy corn-coloured horns. Their tears and blushes are the same colour as their blood, and if there is any 'dyed' hair, it would also be the same colour as their blood. A troll's identity consists of their name, strictly 6 letters for both their first and last name, 8 letters for their titles as an 'Ancestor'/adult and their symbol. Canon characters in Homestuck have symbols resembling zodiac signs, and canon characters in Hiveswap use symbols provided by the extended zodiac.
There are 12 castes based on the colour of their blood, which is referred to as the Hemospectrum. There are a lot of ways to break them down, but usually get separated into 3 groups: lowbloods, midbloods, and highbloods. A full breakdown can be visited through this link. As was mentioned earlier, my character belongs to the Jadeblood caste, which is classified as a midblood caste. Jadebloods usually have at least one bent horn and tend to have a fashion sense that resembles Academia or Punk aesthetic.
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Governing System
The government could be classified as a fascist government. They openly use violence against lower caste individuals and have an imperialist ambition. They don't have any political party that competes or opposes the royalty castes (violetbloods and fuchsiablood) because of their strength. There is an intertwining of the government and religion, evident within the purpleblood caste's obsession with clowns (it's a clown religion there's no other way to put it). Visually, characters that are followers/believers of a certain belief will use the symbols of a figure from that belief as an accessory.
Fig. 1.1 The Signless' (Cancer) Necklace
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History
The history revolved around the main cast's ancestors, each bearing a symbol that relates to astrology signs. The Condesce (Pisces) has a near-immortal lifespan, and as a fuchsiablood was immediately set out to rule troll kind. A revolution led by The Signless (Cancer) attempted to put an end to The Condesce's era but was halted abruptly by his death. To put it simply:
A. The Condesce's (Pisces) followers: Imperialists
B. The Signless' (Cancer) followers: Pacifists
C. The Grand Highblood's (Capricorn) followers: clowns
The revolution was what caused The Condesce to restrict adults from living in Alternia, to prevent future rebellions.
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Societal Differences
The societal differences could be broken down into two ways, the character's blood and beliefs. Lowbloods tend to have less care for fashion and are more inclined to think about how to survive. Midbloods have more defined 'jobs' under The Condesce's rules. Highbloods tend to do whatever they want, but as soon as any troll from any blood rebels, it's certain death.
As said earlier, lowbloods dont have much time to think about more than survival, but midbloods and highbloods tend to learn about their ancestors and believe to be fated to follow in their steps. This usually causes them to dress similarly to their ancestors, but more consciously.
Fig. 1.2 Similarities of Trolls and their Ancestors
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Technological Advancement
In Homestuck, it's seen that the trolls are a much more advanced technological society, being able to contact humans in different timelines. It's also shown that they have the knowledge to create robots with the ability to be sentient. Other advancements that struck my eyes include their weapons, specifically a Jadeblood's. Their weapons typically have the capability to transform from a small object, usually make-up, to a fully-functional weapon.
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Magic I
The first category of magic relates to the troll society's blood colours. Trolls have psychic abilities. The Jadebloods are the only caste to have a possibility of being a Rainbow Drinker (let's say vampires), which grants immunity to the alternian sunlight and a quicker healing metabolism but does make a troll thirst for blood. They are able to glow in the dark, resulting in their skin turning pure white.
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Magic II
The second category of magic relates to the universe itself. Each character, whether or not they play SBURB (the main plot of Homestuck, not yet existing in Hiveswap), has a dream-self and god-tier aspect. A dream self is self-explanatory but is divided into two 'moons' - Prospit and Derse. Prospit dreamers use yellow-coloured garbs with accents of purple and Derse dreamers use purple garbs with yellow accents. These moons are simply another planet or universe the characters get transported to while they are asleep.
God tier is the state of a character after a "legendary nap" (which is literally just death, in a really fancy personalized bed) and would result in a character's conditional immortality. Usually, an ascended character would be in their best self, so all injuries tend to be cleared unless the injury helps them in some way. A God Tier consists of a class and an aspect, both of which affects the character's appearance after the ascension.
Fig. 1.3 God Tier Colour Schemes
2. Conceptual Development | Slides 11-13
Following the intended workflow, I began to create thumbnail sketches. They
all started out with a few key things in mind, I wanted to make sure all of
them had gloves and boots, preferably ones that have grips. Another thing I
had in mind is to make sure that each outfit has a sort of storage- like
fanny packs or a backpack.
Of the multiple thumbnails, I polished one final base design for my character.
3. Final Concept | 14-18
The final concept went through one change (explained in the slides). The basic idea is that my character uses a jacket, gripping boots and gloves uses a sash belt to hold their items, and has a spare flashlight tied to their right horn in replacement of a helmet- even if they never really need one.
Since there was too much going on in their front design, Ms Anis suggested I replace the location of their symbol with the back of the outer jacket layer.
Design Development
1. Character Poses | Slides 2-4, 7-9
The poses were first done with little to no thought, as they're extremely
difficult for me to imagine. I asked for opinions, mostly from friends and
classmates, and everyone suggested I look at how people in real life
handle hammers- but one of my friends suggested looking at golfers, and
that really helped. At first, it was still a stiff pose and needed a lot
of rework. However, I looked up one of Ms Anis' suggested YouTube tutorial
videos regarding poses, and afterwards had a better understanding of
attempting a more dynamic pose.
Video 1. Marc Brunet's "How To Draw Better Poses"
After watching the video, I immediately applied what I managed to gather,
which was to emphasize the 'S Curve' by bending any parts as much as
possible. I had more fun with the character's poses afterwards.
2. Character Expressions | Slides 5-9
I was going for a more stiff or negative-leaning expression, as they're meant to be more of an opposing character.
3. Character Outfits | Slides 10-11
The character outfits created were made with the sole idea of implementing the character's Dream self and God Tier (mentioned above). Unfortunately, I've definitely gone in over my head with the details which started looking out of place compared to the rest of the canon Homestuck characters. In the final, I reworked the level of detail and tried my best to recreate the character's outfit that matches its universe better.
For their dream self, the colours are purple with yellow accents as they are a Derse Dreamer.
I took away their flower-struck heart for the god-tier outfit to show that their best self isn't injured.
4. Character Weapons | Slides 12-13
For the weapons, I had a similar mindset with creating the character's alternate outfits. The first is a normal-shaped scythe, based on a more casual form of them than their more knowledgable self as a Rainbow Drinker and their dream self. All of the scythes do have a thick base that's meant to collect their victim's blood to be consumed or used as pigment for the weapon's graphic liner form.
The casual design is simple and has small elements of the character's collar included on the base of the scythe. The second weapon design is more recent and to me is seen as the character's main weapon, as it has elements like the flower and thorns as a reference to the character's heart. It's also made with a straighter design with a visible hand grip to make it more believable that it's battle-ready. The last weapon design is based on their dream state, which seems bubblier and harmless in comparison to their awakened state.
5. Character Colour Palettes | Slides 14-16
The character colour palette was actually decided a while back. My first idea was to have their green blood colour shown off on their jacket, as caving jackets tend to have bright colours. However, after seeing the attempt that's been made, it turned into a bit of an eyesore. I opted to use a more popular troll colour- which was mostly greys with coloured accents. After a lot of messing around, I came to the final colour palette for the character.
Design Executions
1. Detailed Turn-Around
For the final turnaround, I cleaned up the original sketch and included a finalized colour version. The character reference was switched from an A-Pose to a T-Pose for more easy-to-process information for 3D modelling. The horns were originally in the middle of the head in the side view, which is now fixed.
The bits and pieces coloured in fuchsia pigments are to show their loyalty to The Condesce but serve as a foreshadowing of their God Tier colours.
2. Splash Art
Following the original spirit of Homestuck, I attempted to fit the style that was shown in the flash animations "[S] 3x SHOWDOWN COMBO" and "[S] Attempt rare and highly dangerous 5x SHOWDOWN COMBO." which had the main trolls stand with portraits of their Ancestors looming over them. I used the alternate outfit I created for my character as a sort of placeholder for their Ancestor.
Feedbacks
General
Make sure the character reflects the backstory, and the colour scheme should have a good sense of contrast while the overall character is preferred to have an asymmetric balance in its design.
Specific
Utilize the Jadeblood's traits in the character design; take inspiration from existing folklore regarding vampires to keep it in theme, and change the sash/belt to wrap around rather than clinging onto the pants, and place the symbol at the back of the shirt instead.
Reflection
From going through the first five weeks of this module, I have learned new methods and perspectives on what to consider for a character design. The reason I chose Homestuck/Hiveswap's universe- other than being a huge fan of it- is that it gives lots of restrictions yet so much potential for new ideas. Combining the explorative nature of creating a "fantroll" with the design aspects taught in this module created a really fun experience.
My classmates were also just as excited about this task. Some of them were doing things ahead of time, and others were exploring different options for the current tasks. From observing the lectures and my classmate's works, I was able to understand what details were necessary from the character's universe that could be used for the character's design themself. For mine, I had to look at the details of my character's possible traits and compare them to how they would look in real life and search for references for how they can be combined with all the other traits.
Lastly, I found myself thinking about how everything around me could affect the things I wear as well. I realize that although people's clothes were randomized and based on whether they're into style or not, what we wear is greatly affected by the weather, where we're going, and how they weigh.
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