Another Character Design

Here is another Character Design I have been working on for school!

Rough Sketch

I decided to lift my character from an existing story, due to the fact that I have a lot less time to complete this character than I have had for my previous ones.

The idea comes from the movie "The Rock", in which the main antagonist is a military officer played by Ed Harris, that is holding people hostage, until the government pays benefits to the families of soldiers who died in a unpublicized war/engagement.
The essence of the character is that he is a life long military man, who's allegiance is to his men above all else. He has been pushed to the breaking point, and seeing no other alternative, is willing to do something awful, in order to bring about a positive change.





Structure Drawing

My character is a career military captain, who has worked his way up from the bottom ranks. He cares more for his men than military politics. His squad is outfitted with advanced technology, his weapon is a backpack that generates an electric charge and shoots lightning from a robotic glove on his right arm. After some of his men get killed in a skirmish where the enemy have similar technology, he feels responsible and vows to set things right. He fights for justice, against a ruthless corporation selling weaponry to the enemy, and a General who tries to cover it all up.








Clothing Rough

Lightning Rough

I was a little scared of a short deadline on this project so I decided to come up with a idea as fast as possible and start work immediately. It only took me 20 minutes and a cup of coffee to decide on the base idea of Ed Harris shooting lightning haha. Greg Brown, one of my instructors at the Centre for Arts and Technology, has helped me quite a bit with this project, and how to begin working on my character design chops.

The best parts of character design are the details. The little things that hint about a deeper story, but don't draw attention to themselves. I easily gave the character a cool lightning backpack and a military style outfit. But Greg suggested some ways to think about the character and start adding details. For example, He started as a grunt and has worked his way up, so he probably has military style tattoos from his boot camp/first assignment. Does he have a family? Does he need eye protection from shooting lightning? Should he have a sidearm? What division/company is he from? Where was he before now? Did he come straight from a warzone, dirty and tired, or has he been home and is all clean. Most of the best stuff comes from actually trying to make a story for the character, and adding details from that. A person just looking at your pretty 3d model ( or painting ) will likely never read your back story, but it will add visual interest and noise none the less.

All roughs put together!

This is my 3rd character design that I have done at school, and I feel like I'm finally sinking my teeth into how to think about design.

These photos were roughs I have done up, the somewhat more polished ones will follow soon!

Thanks again to Greg for the help!

Check out Greg's Blog!