Character Design: Task 2 - Character Design Development

03.10.22 - 07.11.22 (Week 6 - Week 11)
Chai Yi Xuan / 0346645 / B' Creative Media
Character Design / Entertainment Design
Task 2 / Character Design Development

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INSTRUCTIONS

To-Do List:

• Create expression sheet and explore various poses
• Design five costume designs for your character, varying for different events

Week 6

I often come across some sample expression sheets, usually titled "expression memes", while browsing on Pinterest. Since I have to make one, I decide to select one of the templates for the project.

Figure 1.1: Expression sheet found on Pinterest

While picking expressions to draw, I thought of the possible situations that Mizuki might be in and how she would react to them. After picking enough for the requirements (and a little more), I drew them all.

Figure 1.2: Mizuki's expression sheet

Aside from expression sheet, we have to draw eight poses. Despite my character being more or less a hero, I was struggling to think of a proper pose for her. After some advice from Miss Anis and suggestions from my friends, I managed to think up of poses that capture her persona.

Figure 1.3: Hero pose exercises

With both of the expression sheet and poses done, I have done 12 bust expressions to test if both designs work well.

Figure 1.4: Bust expressions

Week 7

For the second part of the task, we are to design five different costumes for our character, each worn for different events. At this stage, I wanted improve on Mizuki's vigilante outfit to be more "fierce", since I felt like her design made her look too friendly. I also had the idea of designing Mizuki's everyday outfit and her bartender uniform. While now I have a total of three design ideas, I couldn't think of any other events/situations that Mizuki would be in that requires a costume/outfit. After some pondering, I decided that I could create a hero and villain outfit, one for a future timeline and one for an alternative timeline. This way, I get to create two more outfits while sticking to the theme of My Hero Academia.

I looked up on references for my outfits.

Figure 1.5: Vigilante outfit reference

Figure 1.6: Casual outfit reference

Figure 1.7: Bartender outfit reference

Figure 1.8: Hero outfit reference

Figure 1.9: Vigilante outfit reference

Week 8

After collecting some references, I had a clearer idea on how the costumes should look like. Then, I proceeded to sketch my ideas. I was careful to think of designs that would make sense in the universe, especially the hero and villain costumes. Since high tech support items aren't easily accessible to people who are not officially heroes, I wanted to show it in my designs.

Figure 1.10: Outfit sketch, default

Figure 1.11: Outfit sketch, casual

Figure 1.12: Outfit sketch, bartender

Figure 1.13: Outfit sketch, reformed hero

Figure 1.14: Outfit sketch, villain

Week 9

I made a few changes to some of the outfits before exploring the colours for the outfit. I tried to create contrasting colour palettes for different outfits to make them stand out from each other. Most of them took a few tries to get it right, but overall I was satisfied with the colour of each outfit.

Figure 1.15: Colour exploration, default

Figure 1.16: Colour exploration, casual

Figure 1.17: Colour exploration, bartender

Figure 1.18: Colour exploration, reformed hero

Figure 1.19: Colour exploration, villain

Figure 1.20: Final selected design and colour palette

Week 10

For weapons and equipment, I didn't have to think too hard for its design. This is mostly because I designed them alongside my character's costume. I only had to refine the design and breakdown its functions.

Figure 1.21: Sketches of Mizuki's main equipment

Figure 1.22: Equipment breakdown, water gauntlet

Figure 1.23: Equipment breakdown, jet boots

Figure 1.24: Equipment breakdown, water tank bag

Week 11

Once all the designs are finalised, I drew the turnaround for the default/vigilante outfit and the future reformed hero outfit.

Figure 1.25: Character turnaround, default/vigilante outfit

Figure 1.26: Character turnaround, future/reformed hero outfit

PDF file presentation for Task 2

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FEEDBACK

Week 9

Expressions and poses are all good, and the ideas for your alternative costumes are nice. Looking forward to seeing the designs.

Week 10

The sketches for your outfits are good, but hurry with deciding the colour palette. 

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REFLECTIONS

I think this task is by far the most tasking assignment for the module. There are a lot of designs to make and having to justify it makes it harder. For me, the most challenging part of this assignment is the equipment. Despite the fact that I designed the equipment alongside the costume and character, I had to think about how it functions and how the design should reflect that. I mostly left the actual conception of the tech to imagination but I think my final designs manage to make it believable to the audience.