Post 2
Questioning/Research
Introduction of Questioning
Analysis/exploring other's solutions to similar problems in order to refine the problem/recognising needs
Character
Illustrator - Pen Tool
Movement
Want your character to talk?
Task 1: Choose at least 5 quality images of 2D/3D Characters from animations or videogames that are similar to something that you would want to have created.
Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat)
Kitana (Mortal Kombat)
Devil Jin (Tekken)
Ezio Auditore (Assassins Creed)
Faith Connors (Mirrors Edge)
Task 2: List the Character Traits of these characters
Aesthetics
Tall/Short, Fat/Skinny
Colour Palette
Warm Colours, Cold Colours etc.
Style
the look/appeal
Accessories
What they wear/weapons etc.
Personality
search personality traits in Google you'll find lots...
Motivation
Why do they get up in the morning?
Relationships
Who do they love/hate? Who do they associate with? How do they relate to others?
Back Story
What has made them the person they are?
Sub-Zero's background consists of him (also known as Kuai Liang) and his brother Bi-Han who were abducted as children and were trained to be ultimate assassins by the Lin Kuei. When Bi-Han was killed by Scorpion Kuai Liang swore revenge. He decided to master the power of ice and cold and took his brothers code name Sub-Zero. He then entered Mortal Kombat tournament with one significant goal which was to destroy his brothers killer and anyone who stood in his way. He is one of the few original characters still popular today within the latest game Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. He is known to possibly be the younger brother of Noob Saibot, who has been identified as his reincarnated brother Bi-Han.
He has a small build due to his body figure in regards to the Aesthetic appearance of this character, the creators haven't really defined his body mass that much, as compared to a character like Craig from Tekken. Sub-Zero also has a slim build and is fairly a normal medium to tall height. We can see that he has a rather tiny waist however the chest tends to extend outwards creating more definition within his upper chest area.
Sub-Zero has a similar style to a modern ninja. A mix between a Chinese and Japanese symbols help bring out this modern ninja style.
His overall Colour Palette of the outfit he tends to wear is a dark blue ninja-like uniform. He seems to be asian looking however when he is unasked in one of the endings of a series he appears to be Chinese-American. If we look closely we can see that Sub-zero has a scar over his right eye, this enables him to differentiate himself from his older brother.
Sub-Zero created relationships that displayed both negatively and positively. He was known to have taken away Scorpions clan and family thus creating a rivalry between the two opposing characters. Sub-Zero had saved both Liu Kang and Kitana from an assassination attempt by Smoke within thee film that was created, also he had fought Scorpion in the second movie.
Motivation for Sub-Zero would have to be mainly vengeance of his brothers death. He hopes to execute anyone who had to do with the murdering of his older brother.
Kitana from the video game Mortal Kombat
Kitana comes from a background where she is a princess of her hometown Edenia that is over 10,000 years old, she fights to free her realm from the oppression of Shao Kahn. Long ago, her realm was merged with Outworld when the emperor successfully invaded. When Earthrealm came under threat, she fought beside her new allies Liu Kang, Raiden, and the forces of Light to deny the emperor another conquest. Through her years she gained importance and respect as the loyal stepdaughter of Shao Kahn, however she soon became an enemy as she cut herself loose freeing her homeland Edenia. She basically ensured that Shao Kahn could never rise to power ever again as he was known to resemble evil and a dark aura for her beloved Edenia.
Even though Kitana is over 10,000 years old her Aestheitc appearance displays her to be in her early twenties. She has a rather fairly symmetrical face, with light brown eyes, long eyelashes and a body figure of a goddess. The creators have made it perfectly as it fits with her role as a princess, being the beautiful independent and graceful lady she is however, strong and mighty at the same time. Kitana's face has been rearranged multiple times profusely throughout the different series of Mortal Kombat. She wears blue just like Sub-Zero along with thigh-high boots, gloves, and a mask. Here we can kind of predict that the material she wears is thin therefore not giving her much protection once she is in the arena with any opposing character.
Her style is modern and simple in a way where she comes across as a threat towards her enemies.
The Colour Palette the creators have used are clean and deep. I think the black goes well with the dark blue as the black highlights parts of her body where there may be extra padding or armour. Even though they are simple colours they reflect how she is as a person. She is not bothered in her appearance and is not fussed over how others see her.
Her Relationships involve a lot of love. She enhanced a subtle love interest with another former Mortal Kombat champion Liu Kang. She was very loyal and considerate whilst with Shao Kahn however she aligned herself with the side of good and hence therefore learning more about her past an her true father. She has a sister Mileena.
Kitanas weaponry ranges from steel fans, flying blades,
Devil Jin's background is confusing at times however it displays a lot of love and hatred that was passed throughout the Mishima bloodline. Jin (his human form) inherited the traits of the Devil Gene from his father Kazuya Mishima. Devil Gene had escaped earlier from Kazuya Mishima and attempted to inhabit the body of his unborn son Jin Kazama, but failed. Jin's mother Jun Kazama fought off the devil however it soon returned 15 years later after she was defeated by a ogre in battle. This branded her teenage son Jin with a mark on his left arm, hence the devil taking over him. Jin was later shot in the head by his grandfather Heihachi and was easily healed by the Devil Gene within him, thus resurrecting as Devil Jin as his human form escaped and triggered the anger that had been building up inside Jin.
Devil Jin has a highlight of Aesthetics. He seems to be half human and half demon and has been portrayed as the strongest character amongst the Tekken series. His hair is black matching the colours of his rather enormous wings. Also he has the devil horns sticking out pointing forwards. He has a highly noticeable demonic tattoo on his well built chest. His body proportion is mostly even, displaying a rather large chest and wears threatening gloves that has sharp pointy parts at the tip of each fingers. He also has a thick chain around his waist leading all the way down to his lower left leg. Pants with flames reminding me of a hell typed of aura. And his rarely large convincing pitch black wings allowing him to fly high maybe convincing the fans that he is high up and is the ultimate ruler as none of the other characters have special features for example wings.
The Colour Palette he relates with is mainly colours that resemble death and darkness, typically we see dark red symbolising blood and rage. He has a lot of dark red however his dark deep black wings help bring out the interpretation that he is of a demonic generation.
His Personality has known to be extremely arrogant, aggressive and brooding. He wants nothing else but ultimate power, and will do whatever it take to achieve his goal of ultimate power. Devil Jin is also very sadistic meaning he has a bad habit of laughing at the suffering of his foes after winning a fight or tournament. In Tekken Blood Vengence, he seems to appear as overly confident after beating Devil, his personality is different then his game face, however he acts more similarly to his human form.
In my opinion, he needs to upgrade his Relationships with people. His biggest relationship would be with his human form which is Jin Kazama. However within all the stories that have been shared of Devil Jin over power for example in Tekken 6 Azazel tried to gain power this frustrated Devil Jin as he lost his rage. He also encountered many other individuals who had tried to gain his power or capturing his army. Individuals being Sergei Dragunov, Heihachi Mishima (his grandfather), Jinpachi Mishima (his great-grandfather) and Devil Kazuya Mishima (his father and arch enemy).
The only Weapons Devil Jin has is his tempered fist.
Ezio Auditore is a young italian nobleman, the son of prosperous Florentine banker and undercover assassin Giovanni Auditore. Ezio is a descendent of Altair (origin). Born in 1459, Ezio lives in Florences during the 15th century. His life before the tragedy is simple and positive, however once he and his family were betrayed by a friend his father and brothers lives were taken hence being the tragedy that forces Ezio to flee his beloved Florence with the guidance of his mother and sister to his uncle's villa. He learns the way of the assassin after his family is betrayed and his father and brothers are hung for false treason therefore he seeks vengeance for the templar who he found out had betrayed his family.
Aesthetic properties that Ezio has is that he may symbolise a mysterious character full of secrets that may be unlocked amongst the game. Just by looking at him he seems like the type to cause trouble, this is related to how he is a womaniser as once he is finished a job he may get the lady just like that. In my opinion the way the creators have designed his physical appearance sends off a sense that he is ready to fight at any time. With the many layers of robes and the little charms places around his chest area it also shows that he might be high up coming from a wealthy family. Because he covers most of his skin this may mean that he is mainly in the outdoors and hopes to cover up deflecting away from any skin diseases out there also the thick layers may also keep him warm during the many changes of the weather.
The Colour Palette that Ezio is associated with is mainly reds, whites and dark browns. These colours help bring out the contrast and the relationship between the character himself and his background. For example the mix between the white and red on his robes help represent the traditional colour of his order, the Assassins.
For his Accessories, Ezio carries traditional weapons that are usually hidden amongst the layers of his robes, placed in various places such as his arms and legs. Because majority of his weapons are hidden this enables easy access for a quick reflex if anything were to happen. He also carries smoke bombs, throwing knives and many different modern guns.
His Style is simple originating from the 15th century with a Italian mix. It can also pass as a casual look within the wealthy regions of his city.
His Personality before he was a assassin was mainly careless and irresponsible. he didn't care for other people surrounding him unless of course it was his family and or close personal friends. He was competitive and a hearty womaniser. However as he makes the change of becoming a assassin he becomes a man of conviction and responsibility.
Coming from a rough background of death and vengeance his Relationships involve a lot of loss and heartbreak. Advancing from a rather large family consisting of his mother, Maria Auditore, his father, Giovanni Auditore, his brothers Petuccio and Federico Auditore and his sister Claudia Auditore he understands the significance of family and trust. After losing the men of his life he joined the Assassins brotherhood. There he built allies and made friends, he also had a romantic acquaintance with Christina Vaspucci at one point however it didn't last that long.
Because of all the grief and vengeance his only Motivation is to conquer the organisation called the Templars.
Faith Connors from the video game Mirrors Edge
Faith Connors a character that is the primary protagonist in the Mirrors Edge series. She is an independent young female who is a runner.
Her Aesthetic features make her look Asian and White decent. Her figure is of a normal mutual type however hasn't been enhanced in any way that shows that she works out or is strong, wearing a casual working out outfit. Her elements are simple wearing a black tank top with a pair of white, loose fitting pants, her style is typically effortless, comfortable and realistic for a person who is constantly running and sliding across buildings and even jumping on helicopters. She wears fingerless gloves allowing the perfect proportion for her to get a good grip for when she is climbing around towers and buildings in the game. She also has some unique eyeliner typed pattern leaving the rest of her face clean and clear to attract the gamers towards the eyeliner pattern and nothing else on her face.
Her Colour Palette has a variety of bold splashes highlighted with a deep dark red. The colour helps her stand out and differentiate herself from the rest of the other characters present within the video game. Her running shoes are bright fire engine red with white stripes across the side of them. She also wears bright fingerless gloves to help accent all the other boring colours (black and white).
Task 3: List, compare and discuss the similarities between the characters you have selected
Task 4: If there are multiple versions of the characters you have selected, how have they evolved?
Sub-Zero has evolved quite a lot over the years. You can see a obvious difference between each individual character as they were modified. For the first Sub-Zero (top left-hand corner) that came out we see that his shade of blue is extensively lighter then the recent Sub-Zero (bottom right-hand corner). We can also see a difference between the scar. Firstly the scar is a light red that then later on leads to a glowing shade of blue. Another obvious difference between the evolution of Sub-Zero is the masks. In some editions he is covered however in others majority of his face is covered by his signature mask. His eyes have also changed over the series, from a typical human eye to frosty blurred eyes, then bright glowing eyes and then back to a human realistic set of eyes. There is also another rare character change throughout Sub-Zeros evolution, this is the colour change of his skin. Throughout the first few versions of Sub Zero we see that he has a light human like skin colour however as it progresses on the designers have decided to edit and manipulate it in a way which the colour or appeal of his skin looks pale like a part of his ice power has taken over him. I think this looks rather unattractive as Sub Zero is meant to be a ladies man. It looks dead and numb. Though I think the designers decided to enhance the players reviews and change it back to the old usual normal skin colour look, this makes him look more human-like and not a zombie, alien like look.
With Kitana we can see that there is a fairly obvious change within her outfits and hair. The first outfit we can see that it covers majority of her body however still having the bathing suit type of look. The next we can see that there is a bit more of a revealing appeal to her, here the creators have added in shorter gloves and arm bands they have also changed the plain boring blue and black design to a more interesting design however this time the black sort of out weighs the blue. If we look further onto the next character we see that there is a major difference forming from the first Kitana we see and the third character. Kitana's outfit has a group of patterns placed around the base of the outfit. The creators have also revealed that she has abs, due to the fact that they have designed a rather short looking bikini top. Her boots still come past her knees although the only difference is that there are also designs on her boots as well. Her arm bands have also changed from the thin black bands to a thick chunky blue band.
Task 3: Research Case Study
In order to develop a 3D character we will research a study undertaken by Brad Jerod Madison on the implementation of stereotypes in Videogame character development (2009-2012)
During this research phase of the project we will be looking at how misrepresentations can occur in popular culture.
Key Questions
What/Who will be my character(s) be?
Who has done this before me?
Who/What is my favourite animated/videogame character?
How can I be original?
What new skills do I need to learn?
Properties: This function allows you to edit properties of whatever object you are set to be working with.
3D View: The 3D view holds all the objects you are working on/with. This is located on the toolbar below. This toolbar is also very important as I use this quite a lot for various things.
Outliner: Blender can also help create a personal approach to your animation. Above is an example of renaming a particular asset that lets you rename a feature in the Out-liner side-bar. Personally I think this will be a great help as the given names can be complicated at times.
