Designing a Character (Opinions Needed!)

[Badger]

I'm a student of Digital Animation and one of my current modules is Character Design. Basically, we've been given a blank slate to come up with whatever we want and develop it into a working character in either 2D or 3D for games, cinema, tv, whatever. I plan to work up my final character in 3D using Maya.

Part of this module involves market research, so I thought what better place to get some useful critiques than a worldwide community built around gaming, cinema and tv :)

A brief version of my concept is as follows:

It's 200,000 years in the future and mankind is all but wiped out. In our place, mother nature and animalkind have risen up and taken back the planet. Now, a territorial battle rages in the northern forests of the Old World between Bears and Wolves. Our main character, Banamadr, is a mercenary Wolverine, an upcoming sniper defending the forest against the Wolves.

And here's a sketch:

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/3594/concept1a.jpg

So here's where you come in.
Would you play a game/watch a film/tv show with Banamadr as the main character?
What could be improved?
What do you like?


All opinions welcome, constructive criticism moreso. I will try to incorporate any cool ideas into the final draft. Also, if there are any Scandanavians about could you check if Banamadr or Gunnreifr translates as anything weird ;)

[KidCactus]

I know it's just a sketch, but to me it looks more like a panda than a wolverine.

[Badger]

I know it's just a sketch, but to me it looks more like a panda than a wolverine.

Noted, the bamboo rifle wouldn't help that I guess. I'll make sure to avoid confusion in the colour concept. Do you think it would work better with different/subdued/no face markings?

[KidCactus]

Noted, the bamboo rifle wouldn't help that I guess. I'll make sure to avoid confusion in the colour concept. Do you think it would work better with different/subdued/no face markings?
Well, it would probably work just fine in other colors than black and white.

[Ink Asylum]

Given that it's set post-mankind, I think you should take the opportunity to incorporate some leftover human technology to get that point across.

[the Jack]

Pandas are bears.

The unit name is "the Wolverines", yes?

I like that he's wearing the skin of his enemy, if we humanize this it would be akin to a Vietnam GI wearing a necklace of ears or tribal warriors adorning themselves with the skulls of their kills.

If they're that brutal, I'd make the overall aesthetic more brutal. Sharpen the edges and give him fangs. Elongate the claws and harden the face.

Let us know when there's more character development: I want to know what this character's internal conflict is (if any) and more background.

Hope that helps.

[Badger]

Given that it's set post-mankind, I think you should take the opportunity to incorporate some leftover human technology to get that point across.

Interesting idea, how do you mean- like walkie talkies, gadgets, armour or just clothing rags, toaster, zippo, that sort of thing? I like the idea of remnants from some sort of apocalypse but I don't want to stray too far into Fallout territory.

Pandas are bears.

The unit name is "the Wolverines", yes?

I like that he's wearing the skin of his enemy, if we humanize this it would be akin to a Vietnam GI wearing a necklace of ears or tribal warriors adorning themselves with the skulls of their kills.

If they're that brutal, I'd make the overall aesthetic more brutal. Sharpen the edges and give him fangs. Elongate the claws and harden the face.

Let us know when there's more character development: I want to know what this character's internal conflict is (if any) and more background.

Hope that helps.

Ok, full character bio can be found in .rtf format here: Banamadr Character Bio (http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/611245/wolverine_character.rtf) (don't open in new tab in firefox, mine crashes if I do that)

As you can read from that, the kicker is that Banamadr is actually more of a peaceful soul. I didn't want to unveil all the character development thus far as I thought first impressions of the visual aesthetic would be helpful. I actually have the whole process blogged so I'll link to it once this research stage is completed and the design is improved.

Thanks to everyone thus far, getting some great ideas to develop from!

[the Jack]

Ok, full character bio can be found in .rtf format here: Banamadr Character Bio (http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/611245/wolverine_character.rtf) (don't open in new tab in firefox, mine crashes if I do that)

As you can read from that, the kicker is that Banamadr is actually more of a peaceful soul. I didn't want to unveil all the character development thus far as I thought first impressions of the visual aesthetic would be helpful. I actually have the whole process blogged so I'll link to it once this research stage is completed and the design is improved.

Ah okay, very well done with the bio then. Yes, I would think about the wearing of the fur for the reasons I described just as that would really come across as a vicious kind of thing to be doing.

If you go the other way with the mellower feeling I would suggest toning it out and softening the overall design just a bit. You've really got it going with the facial expression and eyes. Just that "skin of the enemy" kind of gets me. :)

[Spectre-7]

Apologies if I'm coming at this from the wrong perspective.

During the initial stages of the design process, I consider the most important aspects to be developing a recognizable silhouette, and making sure your shapes will translate into a clean mesh (topology is key, especially where animation is concerned).

First up, the silhouette:
http://sites.google.com/site/spectre7/Home/concept_silhouette.png

The way your character is currently designed, he has a rather indistinct torso and his limbs heavily overlap it, meaning that the character's overall shape reads like a blob. From a strict silhouette perspective, his arms and head don't exist at all, and the most significant features are his feet and the wolf-skin's snout. Particularly problematic to me is the head which is entirely contained within the overall shape; at the very least, I would try to break that shape out.

As for matters of topology, it's hard to tell what precise shape you have planned for the torso. On a single enclosed mesh, the torso is sort of a grand central station where all of the surface topology crashes together, so having a good initial idea of how it's shaped will help you plan out the modeling immensely.

Again, apologies if this isn't the sort of critique you were looking for, but I hope it helps.

Cheers!

Edit: I also noticed that in your description of the character, you really emphasized his speed, but I don't so much see that coming through in the design. I have trouble imagining him moving very quickly because of the round body and lack of actuated hips; I keep seeing him waddle when I try to picture his walk-cycle.

I think, if speed really is a key design consideration, I'd like to see that embodied more. Longer lines, with a sleek, aggressive posture. Ideally, I believe your text description and design should feed into and reinforce one another, and that's the one aspect that doesn't seem to jibe right now for me.

Best of luck to you!

[Badger]

Apologies if I'm coming at this from the wrong perspective.

During the initial stages of the design process, I consider the most important aspects to be developing a recognizable silhouette, and making sure your shapes will translate into a clean mesh (topology is key, especially where animation is concerned).

First up, the silhouette:
http://sites.google.com/site/spectre7/Home/concept_silhouette.png

The way your character is currently designed, he has a rather indistinct torso and his limbs heavily overlap it, meaning that the character's overall shape reads like a blob. From a strict silhouette perspective, his arms and head don't exist at all, and the most significant features are his feet and the wolf-skin's snout. Particularly problematic to me is the head which is entirely contained within the overall shape; at the very least, I would try to break that shape out.

As for matters of topology, it's hard to tell what precise shape you have planned for the torso. On a single enclosed mesh, the torso is sort of a grand central station where all of the surface topology crashes together, so having a good initial idea of how it's shaped will help you plan out the modeling immensely.

Again, apologies if this isn't the sort of critique you were looking for, but I hope it helps.

Cheers!

Edit: I also noticed that in your description of the character, you really emphasized his speed, but I don't so much see that coming through in the design. I have trouble imagining him moving very quickly because of the round body and lack of actuated hips; I keep seeing him waddle when I try to picture his walk-cycle.

I think, if speed really is a key design consideration, I'd like to see that embodied more. Longer lines, with a sleek, aggressive posture. Ideally, I believe your text description and design should feed into and reinforce one another, and that's the one aspect that doesn't seem to jibe right now for me.

Best of luck to you!

Thank you Spectre, great post!

The silhouette doesn't read very well in that sketch I agree, I guess I should apologise as it's not the best sketch to read a 3D image from but it's the only one I've done so far with all the elements of the character together. I have a few concept sketches of nothing but the basic shape of the character from the front and side, and the head extrudes out much further than that sketch shows.

I tried to capture the shape of a real wolverine, which is very similar to a miniature bear with a hunchback. This is where I ran into problems, because I couldn't find a balance between looking like a bear and looking fast. My first concept looks more like a chubby kangaroo, so I bulked his shape out for the current version. I hear what you're saying about lines, I'll take his shape back to the drawing board and see what I can come up with.

Thanks again, this is exactly the kind of picking apart I need!

[Ink Asylum]

Interesting idea, how do you mean- like walkie talkies, gadgets, armour or just clothing rags, toaster, zippo, that sort of thing? I like the idea of remnants from some sort of apocalypse but I don't want to stray too far into Fallout territory.

If the idea is that animals became intelligent and dominant long after humanity had died out, you could avoid the Fallout cliches and instead have the animals rediscover relics of humanity but misunderstand their purpose. So a lot of what they find gets strapped onto weapons and armor rather than made into useful, functioning equipment.

[Raen]

Interesting idea, how do you mean- like walkie talkies, gadgets, armour or just clothing rags, toaster, zippo, that sort of thing? I like the idea of remnants from some sort of apocalypse but I don't want to stray too far into Fallout territory.

I really like the idea of zippos as some kind of trophy. I think that'd be pretty cool. I kinda visualise it in a Wall-E way, with them throwing away what we would consider useful (or the primary use of something) and keeping some weird bit of stuff.

On the image I kinda get the feel that this is an action type shot, of him stalking something. Just my feel on it. It would be nice to see some more basic concept art, so we can get a feel for the character as a whole rather than in a particular situation.

[Badger]

Alright I tried to take as many suggestions into consideration as possible, and I've reworked the character a bit.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5421/characterdraft3a.jpg

I gave him some trophies strapped to his arm (lighter, broken CD, bent fork) along with a hubcap for body armour. Also, replaced the scope lens with some broken spectacles, a wristwatch and added a twisted coat-hanger- the idea behind that is Banamadr can sling the rifle onto his back and it won't dislodge while he runs on all fours.

For the more peaceful moments I envision him flicking back the wolf pelt like a hood so he doesn't look quite so mean.

I'm really interested to hear what you guys think, after all you're my audience now. Does he need to be leaner? Does the silhouette need more work? Anything else that works / doesn't? You guys have been a great help already.