Analysis of existing characters in games

Soul Calibur:

Below are two images of the character creation promo art. All the characters are posed in the same way, however it is evident due to their clothing what kind of class or what kind of lifestyle the character may have. For example, in the second image, you can clearly see that two of the characters have some sort of wizard background due to the hats they wear. A woman is some sort of knight, due to her armour and lance. The man next to her is some kind of dancer/ jester character, as indicated by his tambourines and clothing. Then there are more traditional looking costumes, such as the two on the far left and one on the far right. It is interesting to see, that none of these characters show much personality, either through their pose or facial expression, yet there is a suggestion of character despite this, indicated by their clothing. All the characters look incredibly different from each other despite the same pose. It goes to show the power of a different costume design, showing that completely different clothing and hairstyles can produce a completely new character. This can also be seen in character skins in MOBAs, now that I think about it.

Below is a compilation of different skins for the character Leblanc from League of Legends. Some skins are so different from the original art, as can be seen below, the first on the left is the original skin. The skin on the bottom right looks like a completely different character in my opinion, however, the only way to really tell that it's the same character is the pose and the staff. It goes to show that the way a character holds themselves can carry a lot of importance in suggesting who they are. The same goes for people in real life, when you think of your friends or family, even if you can't really see them clearly, you can tell who they are just by the way they walk or hold themselves. 

Below are the splash arts of the above 3D models, in the same order. 

Below are splash arts from another character from League of Legends, Annie.

Although Annie's skins differ greatly, due to different costumes, hair colour and hair styles, she still remains the only little girl in the game. This, along with her ever-present teddy bear that she holds, aid in identifying her. As I discovered before, having one or two objects or accessories can be a great aid in establishing a character and making them easily recognisable, as it becomes a character trait.

Week 7, Meeting with Ryan

Due to illness I did not attend the meeting. However there were a few notes I made to discuss:

The question of what makes a character successful- not just the design.

I noticed how characters are successful for different reasons, for example, the game itself being a success can make or turn the protagonist into a successful/ memorable/ recognisable character as they become a symbol for the game, a visual representation of it. However, other characters transcend the game, for example, Mario, their design becomes representative of the franchise and even the games industry itself.

Week 5, Meeting with Ryan

Discussed looking at the underlying structure of the body and getting more familiar with the bones and muscles to aid in understanding the way the body moves and how it is constructed. 

In Sarah Simblet's Anatomy for the Artist, there are pages with a photograph and a skeleton overlay that aids in better understanding the skeletal structure in relation to the body.

Ryan also lent me Burne Hogarth's book, Dynamic Figure Drawing, which had some interesting and useful sketches that helped me understand the way the body twists and so on.