Character Design Brief - WordPress.com · Character Design Brief: Out of all the briefs, I...

Character Design Brief:

Out of all the briefs, I struggled with the monster the most. Partly because I left it to do last and gave myself a lot more limited time to get it done compared to the other briefs, and also because the texturing of the monster was an absolute nightmare.

I chose to do the Minotaur and gathered some reference pictures I started to do some really rough sketches. I was leaning towards more of the animals’ characteristics rather than human because in the “description” it says that there is no furniture in his house. Even though he lives in a house, he still lives like an animal. I also had the idea of maybe incorporating some characteristics that are associated with wendigos as some interpretations of them have similar form to a minotaur – hooves, antlers/horns etc. The last of these photos stuck with me as I like the fact that it’s extremely gaunt and deranged looking, the arms are extremely exaggerated and the blood relates to the passage talking about how the Minotaur intentionally hurts himself.

I then started sketching. I wanted to explore different body shapes as the generic minotaur is

considered to be really big and muscular. From the 'description' that we were given, I got the

impression that this character is very depressed. Then I went on to consider if this depression

could affect his weight, as often depression is linked to eating disorders, whether it be that he is

overweight or extremely emaciated.

I decided to go for an emaciated character with a big wound on his ribs and a deformed horn. I

then went on to draw some reference pictures to model from.

Once I had modelled my character off of the pictures I drew, I decided to make the character

more hunched and to make the feet and hands bigger to exaggerate it's features and make it more

interesting as I feared it was too boring. I was quite happy with the modelling process, it was

pretty straightforward I was a followed my drawings, but then came the texturing…

I used a UV map on the face which worked really well, and I was also planning on using UV

maps to texture the wound on his ribs, but after MANY attempts it wasn't working. I had to admit

defeat at that point as I was running out of time. I then opted to use a fur texture all over it as I

fell out with the UV editor. I felt this was a shame as I could find another way to effectively make

his wound look like it was bleeding.

Here are my final renders of my character:

I am disappointed with the outcome of this model, as I had high expectations of myself for this

brief and I don't think I executed it as well as I'd hoped. I think it has a lot to do with the fact I

didn't devote enough time to it and didn't take into account the amount of time I'd lose running

into problems. I also think I rushed into my character design too quickly and jumped on one of

the first ideas I had, again because I was conscious of time. I wish I spent more time sketching

and playing around with ideas until I came up with something a lot more creative.

I think overall I am happy with the modelling, not so much the texturing, but mostly I have learnt a hell of a lot from my mistakes so far that I will take into account for my next project.