Character Modelling!

This quarter I'm also taking an ITGM class, ITGM 333: Sculptural Texturing for Games. The fancy title is a little confusing, but its basically a character modelling class. We're spending 10 weeks designing, modelling, and shading one character that we create. The concept process took quite a while, 3 weeks!! But I think its important to be able to really get into a character that you like and want to bring to life.

We were supposed to start with silhouettes exploring three key words, but I already had a character in mind before that. I was dead set on doing a hybrid of bird and person, but not just a girl with angel wings slapped on the back. I wanted it to be plausible enough and not just do arbitrary things and justify it "because fantasy."

This is the first sketch that I did that really hit home with what I was looking for in my character. I did a lot of extensive research in look development for how she should look. My main bird for inspiration is the golden eagle, especially after seeing a documentary about a group of people in Kazakhstan that have lifelong relationships with a golden eagle to use for hunting. 

After doing this I started looking into birds and how they fly and their general physical biology. I knew I wanted my character to have a face that had a wide nasal bridge and very large eyes to mirror a bird's head. I read that an eagle's eyes fill up most of the skull, not leaving much room for the brain. I knew I wanted my characters to be intelligent, so in the model I will elongate the back of the skull to make room for a large human brain.

I like going very in depth with my creations, so I created a whole background for this race of people:

I call them the Tenger people, the word is made up but is based on the Japanese character 天 ten meaning heaven, sky, and imperial. They live on floating outcroppings of rock high in the atmosphere, a la Laputa, Avatar, and Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Below the planet is a vast ocean that has an abundant supply of fish, which is the people's main food source. There are no trees or wood in this environment they live in, only rock, grasses, vines, and shrubbery. I would say the biome would be most similar to xeric shrubland and grassland steppes.

These people's society is scholarly, with a focus on science, math, and logic. Inspiration was from ancient Rome and the Islamic Golden Age, where scientists and scholars were important members of society. They are obsessed with astronomy and the movement of the stars and also history of how their people got to where they are. Their history scrolls only go back so far, with the origin of the people being a mystery.

I love going into more details in my mind, things like if they don't have trees then they have a plant from which they make paper, like papyrus or rice.

The hands and the feet would have the fingers and toes end in talons that could be used to grip onto surfaces when perching. I added an extra toe to the back of the ankle that is similar to an eagle's feet, which would allow for grabbing things with the feet while in flight.

Her name is still tentative, but I like the sound of "Serak." Its based on the Kazakh name "Serik" which means "support." It is androgynous sounding and I feel fits her look.

For fun I did some expressions that explore her personality, I like the idea of her being very curious and tomboyish, similar to the personality of the character Arya Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire.

Final costume, hair, and face design. My thoughts on the costume were after thinking about what this race of people would viably wear. Going back to the idea of ancient Rome and Islamic cultures, I wanted to play with very drapey, layered fabrics made of linen and cotton. I like the idea of these long ribbons that flow from the back that would look like a kite when they fly. 

And exploration of how the pants could tie to make space for the tail. 

Looking at the wingspan- I made the arms much longer than a human's arms to make the wings large and look like they could plausibly fly.

For Serak's particular background, I thought of her as the daughter of a blue-collar family, perhaps stone carvers or fishers. Despite not having a formal education, she displayed a high level of intelligence and interest in science and history. Because of this she is sent to the capital city to be an apprentice to a scholar and learn under him. These sketches are exploring how her personality might clash with such work.

Final model sheet ready for modelling!