31/3/2022 - 28/4/2022 / Week 1 - Week 5
Lui Hsiao Hui (Tressa) / 0342003
Character Design / Entertainment Design
Character Design / Entertainment Design
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 1: Personification
INSTRUCTIONS
Task 1: Personification
Week 1-2: Concept World Creation
Fig. 1.1 Alice in Wonderland (2010) - chosen universe, Week 2 (6/4/2022)
Before choosing a universe, I already knew I wanted to relate my character
to fashion design since it would sustain my interest throughout this
project. So I thought of Monster High, Winx Club, Alice in Wonderland and
Lord of the Rings (I was particularly interested in the elf designs). I
ended up picking Alice in Wonderland since I could not pinpoint a good
storyline/narrative for my character if the universe was Monster High or
Winx Club. I was not very familiar with the lore of Lord of the Rings so
Alice in Wonderland would be the best choice.
Concept World Design
Inside-out method: Based on story
Universe: Alice in Wonderland
Location: Crims (the Red Queen’s castle) located in Salazen Grum,
Underland
Characters: Mix of human and mythical/magical creatures
Governance: Government (Kings and Queens)
Social classes: Divisions and appearances
History: Traumatic events & power shifts (the Red Queen taking
over)
Cultures: European - Fashion eras - Renaissance, Baroque &
Rococo
Technology: Medieval
Magic: Wonderland is entirely magic, often nonsensical
Character
Fig. 1.2 Ruby Sanguine - character introduction, Week 2 (6/4/2022)
My characters name is Ruby Sanguine, She's human and aged 21. Her name is
a combination of a precious stone and blood so basically her name means
precious blood. This alludes to her importance to the red queen as she
works as a fashion designer and personal assistant.
Fig. 1.3 Backstory and rank of Ruby Sanguine, Week 2 (7/4/2022)
This is my character's backstory based on the Alice in Wonderland (2010)
film. Click here
to view the original document with the comments (story connections to the
film).
Moodboards
Fig. 2.1 Fashion, Week 2 (6/4/2022)
In the story, she helps out Alice and the Mad Hatter to escape the Red
queens castle and later shifts alliance from the red queen to the white
queen. With that in mind her outfit will be a mixture of both of the queens
aesthetic - Renaissance and Rococo elements.
Fig. 2.2 Makeup/Look, Week 2 (6/4/2022)
The primary look I was looking to achieve was a doll-like type of aesthetic.
Fig. 2.3 Hair, Week 2 (6/4/2022)
Fig. 2.4 Prosthetic left forearm, Week 2 (6/4/2022)
Cyborg arm: Alita: Battle Angel
Research
Fig. 2.5 The Red Queen's Court, Week 2 (8/4/2022)
I compared the red queens court fashion to Renaissance and Baroque
fashion. I found that they're quite similar in the dress styles, such as
the chemise, collars, sleeves and patterns.
Fig. 2.6 The White Queen's Court, Week 2 (8/4/2022)
I also looked at the white queens Court fashion and realised that it was
more towards Rococo fashion which is 2 periods after renaissance. I thought
this was very fitting since the white queen is the younger sister. The main
characteristic of Rococo fashion are the pastel colours and bows, as well as
less constricting necklines and lack of collars.
Week 3-5: Character Conceptual Development
Initial sketch
Fig. 3.1 Character sketch, Week 3 (14/4/2022)
Before beginning with the character silhouette sketches, I first
sketched out the body shape of my character and her face.
Silhouette studies of existing characters
Fig. 3.2 Silhouette studies of existing characters, Week 3 (14/4/2022)
The existing female characters in this universe have similar
silhouettes, especially Alice and the White Queen. They share similar
dress shapes and hairstyles. What differentiates Alice and the White
Queen is the White Queen's pose (hands) which displays her mannerisms.
Iconic hairstyles such as the Red Queen's also help the character to
stand out.
10 thumbnail silhouette sketches
Fig. 3.3 10 silhouette sketches - blocked out, Week 3 (14/4/2022)
I tried to include silhouettes that differed from the existing female
characters, but also was reminiscent of those silhouettes that would
be seen in the Alice in Wonderland universe.
My main priority was to emphasise my character's pear body shape with
the puffy dresses around the hips.
5 progressive silhouette sketches
Fig. 3.5 5 progressive sketches, Week 3 (14/4/2022)
In these progressive sketches I noted down what I liked and didn't like,
and how these designs made the character look. For example does it
portray the characters age and personality well. Most importantly, does
the dress/outfit allow Riby to escape with ease (story wise). Besides
that, I was also implementing metaphors into the designs. For design #8,
I was trying to emulate a chess piece shape with the silhouette, to
signify that the character is the red queens pawn. Overall, designs #6
to #8 are my favourites hence I merged those designs to form my detailed
silhouette.
Detailed silhouette
Fig. 4.1 Detailed silhouette, Week 4 (21/4/2022)
A few changes were made to the hairstyle and outfit. I combined the
outfits of #6 and #7, but went with the shape of outfit #7 as her main
silhouette. While the court dress (#6) will be explored in the character
outfits stage/transformation outfit later on. Other elements such as the
stockings were merged in from outfit #5 and #6.
I was actually a bit torn on the hairstyle because I really liked the
initial face sketch with simplistic curly hair. However from the existing
silhouette studies, all of the female characters in this universe had
curly hair so I decided that Ruby should have a distinctive hairstyle.
With that in mind I ended up with the braided hearts hairstyle (reference
in Fig. 2.3) to imply youth to this character as well as give her a proper
distinct hairstyle.
Fig. 4.2 Character proportion, Week 4 (21/4/2022)
Fig. 4.3 Colour value studies - coloured, Week 5 (27/4/2022)
Fig. 4.4 Colour value studies - black and white, Week 4 (21/4/2022)
I did a few renditions for the colours of the outfit to see what the
values look like in black and white. Working with colour straight away
also helped me to figure out the balance in my character design. Because
there's a lot of asymmetry in the outfit, the distribution of colour value
was important to balance out the asymmetry.
Detailed turnaround study from silhouette (head to toe)
Fig. 4.5 Character turnaround, Week 5 (27/4/2022)
Getting the same pose was tough, especially maintaining the arm at the
right angle and height, though I did reference myself for these poses to
help guide me in drawing. It was satisfying to get the end result but HELL
to draw in a hectic semester with other assignments due per week. I barely
did the last turnaround view on time and to prepare my presentation for
the next day. But then again perhaps its my fault since I like details :)
For the prosthetic forearm turnaround, that will be done during the props
stage. I have an idea for it to be able to open and allows Ruby to hide
things in them such as needles and the Bandersnatch eye which is relevant
to her story.
Fig. 5.1 Final Task 1: Personification - slides, Week 5 (27/4/2022)
FEEDBACKS
Week 2: Quite solid, good starting point. Continuing to develop it, can
almost see what your character looks like already.
Week 3: #6 can be her court dress, #2 could be the outfit she wears
outside of court (main outfit).
Week 4: For the turnaround study, make sure to follow the same pose.
Since she's wearing prosthetics, it would be great to do a turnaround study
for that as well. You can also start working on colour studies - create a
colour scheme that will be able to highlight the character in the background
of the universe (how do you maintain the colours to ensure the characters
stand out etc).
Week 5: Well set and everything is pretty much there. Would love to see
more on the design of the porcelain prosthetic, do research on porcelain in
the specific era and see how you may implement those designs (flowers etc)
onto the prosthetic.
REFLECTION
This project was quite fun to do and learn. I really enjoyed coming up with rough outfit designs (or in this case, silhouettes) because they reminded me of fashion assignments I used to do. It was also fun to imagine what my character would be like in certain outfits since there are differing characteristics in all designs. I also learned the importance of colour value and asymmetry in character design. Having designs be symmetrical can be boring as there's no visual 'texture' and colour value can easily create an imbalance if the selected colours are not varying well in contrast.
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be nice