Week 8, Year 2: Dichotomy Character Pre-Dev.

So, new project this week, and it's a character project. We're specifically looking at designing dichotomous characters with an emphasis on story telling potential.

Design a pair of characters which work well together and clearly belong in the same world; whilst visually demonstrating their contrasts in as many ways as possible.

Following the usual round of planning, I set about looking for inspiration. Several mood boards later, I had the beginnings of a few ideas.

After weighing my options and a presentation to the tutors, I decided to create a pair of characters that would work as a hero for DOTA 2. I was greatly inspired by the excellent PDFs Valve have put together, detailing the process behind their character designs and felt I could use this process to do something really interesting.

I was also inspired by the incredible art of Goro Fujita. The work in his dA gallery is so full of character and joy, it blew me away. If I could achieve even an ounce of that charm in my own work, I'd be happy.

 Pet by Goro Fujita.

Choosing to do a hero for DOTA 2 not only gives me a design guideline to follow, but also offers a precise list of technical requirements and restraints. Adhering to these will keep this project grounded in current industry practices and technologies.

Ok, time to actually put stylus to tablet and get my head down. I started off by bashing together a triangle, a square and a circle. I then picked out the head silhouettes that were the most interesting, keeping in mind which worked well as a dichotomous pair.

I then began to loosely sketch into the silhouettes to develop them and see where they'd go. I ended up finding a pair I liked fairly quickly, so I pushed that sketch further and came up with a couple of heads I really liked.

To match the DOTA 2 style I was going for, I needed a way to combine these 2 characters into 1 hero. I decided to have one on the other's shoulders, as it seemed to be the most practical. This would also allow me to create a dramatic size contrast, extending the character dichotomy.

Once I arrived at a strong silhouette, I sketched into it a few times to block out the main components and created quick orthographic views of the best one. I then used existing DOTA 2 hero models to approximate a realistic polygon count and texture budget.

It's been a full-on week and it seems I've not had much time for personal work. This is a shame because I'm not really in to creating characters and I'd like to have more time to do my own thing.

Although I have been very busy! I'm a course rep this year and recently signed on as a brand ambassador. On top of that, I've started volunteering at a drop in session for the homeless and I've got a second volunteering project in the works, but more on that soon.

For now, I'm hoping I can keep my enthusiasm up for the course work while we focus on something I'm not particularly drawn to. I reckon a healthy dose of external projects are the best way to do that.