Research and concept art

Since the character I’m designing is inspired by a real historical period, I looked at references from the time.
The period I was looking at was 11-12th century Byzantine Empire, ottoman and Bulgarian traditional clothes, as well as eastern orthodox priests, since my character is a priest.

Initially, I wanted to look over religions that ruled the area before the arrival of Christianity, since my character belongs to a religion that believes in the existence of several gods (but only worships one). Sources were hard to find so I decided to look at Orthodox Christian priests of the time. I found out modern day priest clothing keep many elements from the Medieval period, especially in the east, so I looked at them.

The hair covering in this outfit is inspired by a drawing I found in a book about historical fashion I own called “The costume history” by Auguste Racinet and published by TASCHEN.
It has clothes from the Egyptian empire to the late 1800s, divided by periods and regions.
I later found in Wikipedia the original photos they used for many of the drawings in the book, in sections of cultures closer to their own period.

Outfit “A”

The front cloth separating to two and the shape of the cape are the main elements I took from modern-day priests

[image from dreamstimes.com]

The second outfit is inspired more by Byzantine clothes (elements from those clothes can be found in modern Orthodox priest clothes). The hair covering is once again from the book, I couldn’t find the photo reference.

[taken from number 5, second to the right]

The way the 2 fabrics overlap and cross is inspired from a mural of Emperor and Empress in the loros costume, Nicephorus III and Maria of Alania. 1074-81

[From Wikipedia]

The way the sleeves are cuffed by bracelets, which I added as part of Barya’s modification to the priest outfit to fit more for fighting (like I mentioned in the character profile) comes from a Justinian mosaic from the early Byzantine era.

[from smarthistory.org]

Outfit “B”

The last outfit is more heavily inspired by the Justinian mosaic, with the hair covering being from a mosaic of Empress Theodora. Because of that, the outfit looks more regal and fit for a royal, rather than a priestess, and it’s the outfit I feel fits the least.

[from smarthistory.org]

Outfit “C”

I think I’ll continue exploring outfit B, as it fits the most for a priestess-turned-fighter. I like the shoes from C and the hair covering from A.

As for the face, I had a general idea of what I wanted. I made the final colored face with a bit of stylistic inspirations from Byzantine art (i.e. the nose and mouth)

The colors come from the first drawing I’ve made of her, except her eyes have a brighter tone, to emphasize that part of her character design.

I still need to explore her hairstyle (the braids and beads mentioned on her character profile), and the symbols/pattern I want the fabrics of her clothes to have. Those might not be in the final version because I don’t know if it will be too hard for me to add to the model, but I assume they will be flat so it shouldn’t be that complex.

Here are all the links I used for research:
https://academic-accelerator.com/encyclopedia/ottoman-clothing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_clothing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_paganism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_dress
https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/byzantine/
https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2601773/vie

Character Design Assignment – Research

Different character design style of the genre (Horde mode games)

• World War Z: Aftermath, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Zombies

Realistic style, aiming to be as accurate to real life as possible. The Division and COD: Black Ops 2 Zombies are centered around military soldiers, therefore their outfits usually consist of real life gear. That gear is the main way for the designers to distinguish between characters.

WWZ: Aftermath’s characters are survivors of a zombie apocalypse, and their cloths often reflect their previous occupation before the zombies appeared. Age, ethnicity and clothing style are the main differences between characters.

• Darksiders 3, Dishonored

Fantasy, more stylized.

Dishonored takes heavy inspiration from Victorian-era Britain, and takes place in an alternate reality to ours where magic is common knowledge. Character anatomical proportions are exaggerated. Social status is very prominent in all designs, and divides characters between a high social-economical background and low. The main character wears a skull-shaped mask and a hood, emphasizing the stealth element of the game.

Darksiders 3 leans more towards high fantasy settings, with less realistic proportions and faces. Takes inspiration from knight armor sets. Designs are full of death and skull imagery. A lot of little details. Main character has bright pink-red long hair and a red cape that set her apart from other characters.

Designs from games outside the genre (with PEGI rating 12 and below)

• Risk of Rain 2

Highly stylized scifi style. Humanoid characters all wear space helmets because of the setting (space). RoR 2 rendering is cel shaded, and their designs are fairly simple. Characters are differentiated mainly by color and silhouette. RoR 1, the first game in the franchise, is a 2d pixel art game. Most designs of the second game come from it, so many of the design choices originated from that simpler, minimalistic style. That style required heavy use of big shapes and colors as well as silhouette to help the player distinguish between characters.

The actual character models and shaders used would be something I’d like to explore further, from a technical standpoint.

• Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator

2D early medieval style. The main interest in this style is its modernized version of the early medieval manuscript art, in the simple faces and crosshatch shading. Character designs differ with occupation, social standing and colors. It appears that many NPCs are randomly generated, with their hair and clothes mixed.

I’d be interested to explore the possibility of taking inspiration from art of the 12-13th century and including style choices in my own final design.

Target Audience

• Fantasy within a medieval setting

Character designs inspired by a certain historical period with a fantasy twist.

Can be separated to 2 groups:

-Fantasy enjoyers

-Medieval/historical enjoyers

For research, since I already made a high concept document for AND218, I know a bit about the genre Barya’s game will be.

I looked at games that fall into this genre, and games that interest me in their style.

I wasn’t sure what would be the target audience, beside the fact the style would be Medieval with fantasy elements. I suppose there could be a division between girls and boys, younger and older audience. In that case, the design isn’t aimed for one gender and towards an older audience. This is reflected in the examples I looked in, but beyond that I’m not sure how to research that.

What I gathered mostly from research is that horde games often have multiple playable characters you can choose from, sometimes the choice affects gameplay and sometimes it’s purely aesthetic.
Because of that, the greatest challenge is to make the characters differ enough to be recognizable from distance, while also making them appealing to a player to choose.

From the research, I also thought of the idea of using early Medieval art style for the character design. I showed an example of a 2D game that does that, but it would be an interesting challenge to make in 3D. Might be too hard for a beginner like me.

I might have to do further research after Mr. Morris gives me feedback.