When initially designing my character’s visuals for 3D Character Design, I wanted to explore various ideas for the body type, the outfit’s colour palette and accessories before settling on my final design.
DESIGN EXPLORATION
When I initially started designing, the only thoughts that I had for Compton were that they were going to be a mercenary and they were going to have a cybernetic arm. I didn’t particularly have an idea regarding the character’s body type, which allowed for exploring different ideas and creating new ideas from sections of the designs that I particularly liked.
I decided to first experiment by creating some silhouettes to explore potential character designs. The top row of designs seen in the image below focused more on having a humanoid silhouette and adding additional elements, such as futuristic gauntlets, cloaks and belts that would help carry additional items to portray a mysterious character, which would fit within the cyberpunk genre. The bottom row of designs focused more on having a strong and dangerous silhouette that could easily convey to the player that this character is a danger.
As an example, the design in the bottom right draws inspiration from the character Urgot in the 2020 “Warriors” cinematic by Riot Games, featuring a torso that is significantly larger than the other designs, which creates the effect that this character is looming over the others; this can convey the character’s strength to the player, but with the inclusion of triangular shapes on the arm, it can also convey their dangerous nature as well – forcing the player to come to the conclusion that “this character is not an ally” and “this character is dangerous”.
The first iteration of Compton’s character design felt as though it was lacking in conveying the character’s strength to the viewer. The design prominently featured elongated rectangles in the character’s upper body, which made the character seem to be tall and almost gaunt in nature rather than portraying them as strong and dependable. In addition, the character’s outfit didn’t clearly convey Compton’s occupation of a Mercenary to the viewer; When seeking feedback from others, the outfit was most compared to stereotypical freerunning outfits whilst another compared it to the outfit seen in the “Run Boy Run” trailer for Techland’s 2015 game, Dying Light.
An aspect of the design that I modified further as I explored my designs was the detailing on the cybernetic arm – the level of detailing on the arm seen in the concept below included various different panels would have made the final sculpt rather busy in one particular area, whilst the rest of the outfit would have lacked in comparison
SECOND DESIGN ITERATION
The second design for Compton was focused on determining a body type that could convey the character’s strength. I decided to draw inspiration from female UFC fighters in order to determine the body type of Compton, as the fighters have to physically be strong enough to fight their opponent whilst also being agile enough to dodge the attacks their opponent, which would resonate within Compton’s backstory. Without Compton’s strength, her work as a mercenary would not be as successful whilst without her agility, she would be in increased danger due to an inability to evade.
This second design felt as though it correctly conveyed the desired strength to the player and that physically, Compton would be a character that the imagined player character could rely on. I wanted to experiment with potentially including a helmet design, as it would make the character’s silhouette more visually interesting; As the cyberpunk genre influences the character design, I decided to experiment with a number of designs including visors, extruding parts and potential areas in which light could be emitted. The inspiration for the shape of the helmet comes from Digital Extremes character Excalibur in their game Warframe (DigitalExtremes, 2013), as the helmet for this character is one of the first that can be unlocked by the player and as a result, is one of the most notable. As this secondary design features large squares and rectangles in the characters upper torso to give the feeling of strength, I wanted to add a small point to the helmet to add that small element of potential danger.
COLOUR PALETTES
Using a combination of Adobe’s Colour Wheel and Coolors, I wanted to experiment with colour palettes for Compton’s base design. This allowed further exploration of the characterisation of Compton, as certain colour palettes would be detrimental given her occupation as a mercenary, but would be interesting to see how they could potentially look on the character model. Colour schemes in the Cyberpunk genre often feature rather bright colours, including vibrant neon lights using shades of yellow, red, and blue to draw attention whilst darker colour palettes may include black and purple in the mix to create harsher shadows to depict the dystopian nature.
I wanted to have a mixture of neutral colour palettes and some that were bright and energetic to fully explore potential ideas for alternative colour schemes for Compton’s character. The neutral palettes lend themselves to Compton being a stealthy and mysterious figure, as the colours do not draw additional attention and would allow her to blend in with her surroundings and darker sections easily.
As an example, the base design that is seen on the left in the image below is composed of various shades of grey, with green and blue used to break the design’s pattern up. All of these colours are cooler, neutral tones that can help to create the impression that the wearer is cold and impersonal (Howard Bear, 2020), which would relate to the existing backstory and how the character is aiming to keep “Yasmine” and “Compton” as separate individuals. On the other hand, the bright colour palettes lend themselves to being almost abrasive and not caring about the dangers at hand, as these would actively draw attention to the wearer. The brighter designs would not allow for the character to be stealthy and blend in to the shadows as easily as some of the neutral palettes, but narratively would be interesting to explore, as if Compton knows that she isn’t blending in and doesn’t care due to her skill set and strength.
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