Character Design Task 1: Personification

29/08/2022 - 26/09/2022 (Week 1 - Week 5)
Evaleez Voo Lian Yun / 0350275
Design Research Dissertation/ Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 1: Personification

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Instructions

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Task Progression

Fig 1.0 Client Profile

For this module, my main goal was to create a character with cyberpunk/ mecha genres. I looked through games with that concept and found an upcoming game from Hoyoverse - Zenless Zone Zero. Zenless Zone Zero is an upcoming free-to-play urban fantasy 3D action role-playing game developed and published by Hoyoverse. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic futuristic metropolis known as New Eridu.

Fig 1.1 Character Observation

This first thing I did after choosing the universe was understanding how the existing characters look. Since this game isn't out yet, I could only look through the official website updates and the beta test videos. From the character observation, we see that their outfits are varied, but functionality is key, i.e., outfits may be affected by their. There are also Japanese influences in some designs. 

Fig 1.2 Character 1 Moodboard

Fig 1.3 Character 2 Moodboard

I had 3 ideas for characters with the first one being a tall male with Japanese descent. Similar to him, the second character I thought of was also a tall male, with his story involving being a guitarist. I ended up choosing the last character, Jiho, as my final design. 

Fig 1.4 Character 3 Moodboard

Details:

The young master of Yamino Corp. Although his family doesn’t ofteen let him out of their mansion because of the dangers of the Hollows, he would trick Corin, the housekeeper hired my their family, into letting him out. Lycaon, albeit scolding him for his actions, still cares for him as he could see his young self in the boy’s personality. Jiho was slightly scared of him at the start, but soon saw him as his father figure. 

Appearance:

Height: 162cm

Colour Code: #F6ECF0 

Motif: xo 

Ji-Ho is a demihuman, with the ears of a rabbit. He wears a big jacket to make him look less small and it also acts as a cover to hide his home clothes. He loves cats and has a modified bangboo in the shape of a cat, known as ‘Candee”. Candee is kept in his front jacket pocket to protect his snacks.  

Weapon: Hoverboard Launcher (Ranged weapon). Saw some people hoverboarding in the city on his first visit and fell in love with the sport.

Fig 1.5 Silhouette

After choosing the character, I started creating silhouttes for the design. Most of the outfits were inspired by high fashion brands I found on Pinterest. I also attempted to create weapon silhouttes to pair with the outfit.

Fig 1.6 Refinement 1

After receiving feedback from Ms Anis, I decided to go forward with the above design. However, she advised me to increase the size of his shoes as he looks imbalanced at the moment. One of my classmates also noted that I could put the hood up instead so the overall silhoutte looks better.

Fig 1.7 Refinement 2

The advised I received were great and my character looks more stable. I then started to clean the lineart and add more details to the outfit. The main motif of the character is x and o, which can be seen throughout the design.

Final Presentation

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Feedback

• Its good that you connected the lore of the game to your character, i.e., having associations between characters.
• Good observation on the outfit design and purpose in the game
• The 5th design looks the best for the silhouuttes
• Having a consistent motif on your character can help with the design and individuality
• Try making the shoe bigger so it stabilises the characters

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Reflection

This section of the module was really fun as we were able to conceptualise new characters for the niverse we chose. One of the hurdles I had was how the universe I chose was quite new, with the game not being playable yet. Hence, I could only rely on trailers and it beta tests to have a glimpse of what the universe would look like and how its lore was connected.