Software: Procreate
About
For this project the brief was to design, model and animate a character based on one of the given games. With this project I hope to gain a clear understanding of game character creation process so that I can have more confidence when tackling future projects. I have previously worked in softwares like Maya, Zbrush and Substance Painter so I have a basic idea of how to approach the sculpting process however I have limited knowledge on how to rig and animate a character. Although there is an option to animate in 2D, my goal is to learn more about the 3D workflow as well improve my current skills.
My plan for the project is to research the IP, analyze the style, search for inspiration on platform like Pinterest, collect references and as much information as needed to come up with a concept for a believable character. I would then blockout and sculpt the character in Zbrush, retopologize in Maya, texture and bake in Substance Painter and go back to Maya to rig, animate and render the final result.
After looking into the different games, I decided to work on a character who would be based on the world of Monster Hunter. I liked the style and variety of creatures in the game. My initial idea is to come up with a non-playable character that would potentially exist in a new area/village. I plan to build on this idea after more research.
The brief suggested a timeline of spending about a 1 week on research, 4-5 weeks on modeling and texturing, 3-4 on rigging and character sheet and 3-4 weeks on animation. I intend to follow this timeline for my project.
Game research
Before choosing the IP to work on I looked into every game, the lore, timeline, gameplay, style and overall atmosphere. Although I was inspired by each game, I narrowed it down to Final Fantasy and Monster Hunter. I liked that although both games are leaning towards realism they still have incorporate elements of Japanese anime stylization into their characters’ design or behaviors. I thought it was a fun mix. I ended up choosing Monster Hunter because I was drawn to their creature and environment designs as well the overall atmosphere of the game. I never played this game before so I had to do more research to understand what to keep in mind for my design.
Monster Hunter is series of action RPG games made by a Japanese company Capcom. The games have unique environments with a variety of interesting monsters for players to hunt and make armor out of. According to the game’s wiki the world also has several races aside from humans, like wyverians – evolved from wyverns and thus have pointed ears, four digits on hands and feet, sometimes scales or claws on feet, known for intelligence; troverians – reclusive, short and stocky masters in crafting; lynians – some are cat-like and integrated into society, could become palicos and accompany hunters and others are goblin-like masked, aggressive creatures.
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Art style
I really enjoy how the game’s style balances stylized and realistic features. Although there are manga, live-action and mobile game spin-offs based on the game opening more styles to explore, I prefer the style of the original games. I did look into the costume design for the different versions. I noticed the costumes have a lot of equipment and accessories and vibrant color schemes. It gives the game this fun but believable look. I wanted to explore the stylized character designs but I also wanted to challenge myself for a more realistic design, even though it is a bit intimidating so this style felt like a good middle ground. I also like the animation in the game, like hunters swinging oversized weapons and the charming animation of lynians cooking. I felt like there is a lot I could explore to create a character.
Moodboard
To begin, I started looking up Monster Hunter characters to see the overall style of the game and how the characters are dressed and detailed. I liked the weapons design and how colorful the costumes are. Since the game somehow reminded me of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind I thought I could make a character inspired by insects or in that color scheme, that adventurous spirit.
Another idea was searching up interesting animals and insects, of which goats, hawks and praying mantis particularly stood out to me. I thought I could incorporate animal characteristics by adding the textures, shapes or colors into the character’s design.
I could also explore the traditional clothes of nomadic cultures to inspire my character design. I thought it would be a good opportunity to explore central asian culture and I could practice designing convincing fictional characters based on existing cultures in a way that is not an exact replication but still recognizable.
While I was still exploring the options I did decide that I want to make a wyverian female character living in a new environment in the game.
Idea exploration
To help idea generation and decision making I had to collect a lot of references and do a lot of sketches and studies. I realized this is a necessary part of my process, as I need to try everything to see if it fits, exhaust all the possible options and keep only my favorite ideas.
That is how I ended up with a lot of studies on hair styles, belts, costume or clothing pieces, accessories and bugs. Sketching these ideas helped me brainstorm and have a clearer picture on how I would model and detail these things in 3D. I would continue doing studies even after settling on the final design just to get an understanding of what I am trying to express.
Silhouettes
First of all, I wanted to make a wyverian character so my character would have pointed ears, four fingered hands and maybe scales or claws on feet.
I started sketching my character design with silhouettes. Since I wanted to make a wyverian character they would have pointed ears, four fingered hands and maybe scales or claws on feet. As part of exploration I drew a lot of versions, some posed and some in A pose. I realized I was overthinking it when I saw just how many skethces I was making but it did help me understand my preferred concept sketching workflow which is to draw characters in different poses to feel out their personality and then draw them in an A pose for more precise silhouette and costume design.
After experimenting different animal characteristic influences, body proportions and focal points on costumes, I narrowed down the designs, separating different ideas by colors, chose which ones I liked best from each category and picked which direction I would follow from there.
In hindsight, I think I could have pushed my silhouettes further but I leaned too much into realistic side of the game’s style whereas I could have played more with shapes. I tried experimenting with different body types, exaggerating different body parts, and muscles but I do feel I could have been bolder at this stage.
Designing the costume
After deciding on the nomadic theme for my costumes I did some research on traditional clothes of Kazakhs. There are many nomadic cultures in Central Asia and they share a similar tradition. I researched Kazakh culture in particular because I felt it would be more convenient for me to research my own culture as I can access resources from home and in my language.
While researching references I took a liking to the style of Mongolian boots and clothing and ended up researching their traditional attire as well. Things I found interesting aside from attire is Mongolian archery and their thumb rings meant for drawing arrows with more efficiency. If I were to model a weapon, I could have looked into this in more depth.
According to the book ‘Costume Design for Video Games’ there are ways to approach when designing costumes for characters
First it could help to question what the primary task the character would perform be? In my case, my character would be an aspiring hunter or handler, someone involved in combat or travel.
Does it help gameplay? Since I want to use nomadic clothing as inspiration I think the costume would be practical for adventuring.
Is it for aesthetic? What fantasy does it fulfill? I think this look would fit right in with the game world where a character
Does it represent a milestone or area of the world? It could represent a new area within the game world.
Costume research
The type of clothing nomadic Kazakh people traditionally wore was made of natural materials like wool, cotton, leather and fur. Higher quality garments were made of silk and velvet. The clothing was supposed to be practical, keep warm and protect from wind while being comfortable to wear on horseback. Aside from that, the clothes were decorated with traditional ornaments or accessories made of gold, silver or precious stones. Boots were the national shoe, lighter in summer and longer and warmer in winter.
Women’s attire included long dresses or shirts, pants, hats and vest on top. Dresses could be decorated with embroidered patterns, buttons and so on. A long and emroidered festive robe is called a chapan and it was worn by wealthy people. Waistbands/belts were also a regular part of the outfit and would often be decorated as well. There are different parts of said belts and they are decorated accordingly. One type would include silver or gold accessories believed to bring luck. Hats were also special in that exchanging them was bad luck and they were handled with care. There are many types of traditional hats but I will not go into much detail on them as it is not included in my design.
Mongolian and Kazakh people share a lot of similarities such as both believed in Tengrianism and their environment and beliefs influenced the way they dress. Mongolian men, women and children wore the deel and trousers most of the time. They also wear a long sash from which they could hang essential tools. Each tribe had their own headgear and there are hundreds of types of hats. Their boots (gutuls/gutals) were designed for convenience in wrestling and horse-riding. Mongolian boots were made up of two parts: actual boots and long protective socks inside them. Patterns or decorations on the boots signified the wearer’s status and usually had some kind of meaning or superstition attached to them.
Values and colors
Final design
The character turned out simpler than I initially intended but it was a more realistic goal for the amount of time I had left for myself. I had to let go of the ideas like the mask, tumar charm, the shoulder guards and jewelry. Shoulder guards and mask made the character look a bit too much like a warrior so left those parts out. Jewelry on the other hand felt too formal. I did want to add a tumor which is a protection charm but I ran out of time. I might eventually revisit this project to add some accessories in.
The character is meant to live in a village inspired by nomadic cultures. I thought the village could be situated on cliffs and the costumes would incorporate the color scheme or texture of the creatures living near that area (in my mind it was insects like orchid praying mantis or beetles-like creatures).
