Character Development and Art Direction
Art Brief
For Population:One I design the character cadence for content releases, so once I have the basic idea- in this case, “Snow Fox” I put together an Art Brief which includes references and a short character or story blurb to inspire the artist.
Thumbnail Designs
I ask artists to stay rough and loose for this first pass to make sure we’re on the same page and experiment with silhouette and design direction.
Feedback
If the thumbnails are successful I’ll select a variation and ask for iterations or changes. In this chance I wanted more defined construction in the tunic under the arm (esp for future rigging needs). I also wanted to break up the dark block of her chest so I added a cut-out. I liked the mask from 6, but wanted it to look like a Japanese fox mask so I refined it and added ears.
In this feedback, I established some colors I would like to see in the next colorpass, and included a reference image showing the energy Id like to feel in the design.
Color Pass
These are the initial color options the artist sent me. While I like the colors, the values were blending together and muddying the form.
Feedback
For this round of feedback I did a quick color paint over to show how to fold in a value break to give her form, and call attention to her face. I also introduced gradients on the sleeves and stockings to give a bit more interest to those shapes while also bringing the eye up the body. Small detail elements like embroidery with emissive, a moon icon, and bells help create layers of interest without overcomplicating the design.
Final Concept
The final concept is delivered and passed along to the 3D OS team.
3D Feedback
Much of the 3D feedback is attempting to preserve the design of the concept. In Population:One this can be a challenge for female characters as we only have 1 character rig, and it is build for male proportions. Elements I revised for this hires pass was to adjust the fur to match concept, adjust the proportions of the waist, butt, and thighs, and adjust hair to better work for our animation constraints.
3D Final Render
Here is the final render and pose of this character. We ended up going with a more slender and lean version of the concept to compensate for our rig.
Marketing Art Brief
Similarly to the character art brief I put together a series of references as initial direction for the artist. These will include background ideas, colorways, and character poses.
Marketing Art 1st Pass
For this 1st pass the artist provided different variations and poses based on my earlier direction. The bottom right is most successful, so I move forward giving feedback on that image.
Marketing Feedback
The character was much too dark and high contrast in the original. If we just lightened the entire character she would feel washed out and flat, so I added in a gold bounce light, and gave a pink cast on the main light source. Adding a secondary light source helped define the silhouette while still giving a strong impression of the primary light direction.