Klaudia Kusmierz

My character design I've started with researching Aztecs and the culture that we are basing on. Film that I decided to see to get some ideas was "Apocalypto" (2006) BY Mel Gibson.

The first thing I've done was quick sketches of a short,fat guy who would be an ideal caricature character.
Lower few examples.

Some notes included below:

This is the Moodboard that I've made basing my inspirations and ideas of how the man should look like. This is obviously referenced to Apocalypto (2006) by Mel Gibson.

Some concept arts,sketches of the idea..

I was thinking about features corresponding with the aztec ones,so I came up with some ideas:

The one below really quick one concidering on features:

Ok now,Those are 3D experiments and concept on fat boy,I was thinking about them a lot but in the end I decided to make the character really simple.

Those include aztec jewellery and scarifications.

Especially I liked the last one but all in all the characer came up really simple in terms of the face.

This is my final 3d model that I came up with.

Decided to call Him fat boy Jim.

PHYSICAL Profile

Physical Advantages:

strong,well built,muscly,burly

Physical Disabilities:

sluggish,slow,lips are not visible,although he is able to talk!

Attire:

non or alternatively very small piece of cloth or hip wrapper

Unique Physical skills:

extremely strong

Major life events:

Mutation as he is a habitant of the planet so aztec human-alien mutation, although he had beeen born [or hatched out :) ] like that already.

SOCIOLOGICAL Profile

Born:

the planet that the plot of the game is taking a place

Upbringing:

in the society of those habitatns, creatures, aztecs who survived. Pretty much like aztec used to live,all the cultural aspects of life.

Accent or Dialect:

Ancient Aztec language,maybe small evaluated changes, the original language is called Nahuatl. So accent is on second-to-last syllabe. Ponunsiation is based on Spanish writing,I am basing this on scientific discoveries.

The voice is deep and pleasant. I would compare it to Thorins (Hobbit) voice,that is how I’m imagining him.

New Monster/Boss: Yruuk

Character Profile

This is the Character Profile that Sabina and I made!

Name: Yruuk

Gender: Male/Female

CHARACTER ROLE

This monster will attack the player on sight showing aggression in all stages of the game. Since it is a primitive monster it does not use any technology and fights completely on its own against the player. These monsters are rare and it takes time to defeat however, it provides high experience rate. This monster would mostly used as mini-boss battle in the game.

PHYSICAL Profile

Physical Advantages: strong, high defensive stats, high in health

Physical Disabilities: Lacking any technologies, Primitive, aggressive

Attire: No Attire

Unique Physical skills: Slow movement due to the weight of the Alien, Big teeth, Ability to hide between bushes due to the skin colour that allows them to merge with the environment.

Major life events:

Slight Mutation affecting skin.

SOCIOLOGICAL Profile

Born: On the planet, in the plant caves.

Upbringing: Like wild animals, within a family of other monsters that live like reptiles, learning to hunt from the earliest age for survival and protecting itself from other, stronger monsters.

Accent or Dialect: This character does not speak, they use sounds and roars in order to communicate or signal the danger.

Past profession: No past profession.

Major life events: No major life events.

How does your character make a living/survive now?

Hunting for food solo or in pairs, slowly moving around the bushes, hiding within the wild and it's caves created out of plants.

PSYCHOLOGICAL Profile

Personality traits: Aggressive,  primitive, unintelligent.

Treasured items: Some of the monsters might have children. The children will not attack the player but if the player attacks the child the mother will run right away from the inside of the jungle right away aggressively.

Personal interests: Hunting, Survival, Reproduction.

Mannerisms: They are quiet creatures amongst each other.

Sense of Humour: None

Major life events: The crash of the spaceship on their planet.

Gameplay abilities: Slow movement around the jungle, attacking the player using long arms, can deal a lot of damage depending if the monster will attack the player from behind.

CHARACTER SYNOPSIS

The Yruuk are a very primitive type of a monster inhabiting our planet. Existing for thousands of years, they have slightly evolved and mutated over the years making their skin change to be more fitting to the environment. After the intelligent civilization of Moanians that lived there had vanished, they slowly started overtaking the ruins and making it another one of their places to live in. The Yruuk are very slow creatures however, they more than make this up with their size, tough skin and strength

RESEARCH NOTES

I took a lot of inspiration and idea from a bull and rhinoceros. The Yruuk should be double to triple the size of the main character. The monster will have been inspired by the art of Ken Barthelmey.

Character Progress

Character Sketch

Zbrush 3D Sculp

Face (Side and Front View)

Body: Normal Mode (Side and Front View)

Body: Attack Mode (Side and Front View)

Maya Topology for game use

Final Render with Texture

Askesh design by Lucian

               In the beginning there was an idea.

There was only one way to approach this; As I wanted to look more human than creature or alien I had to start from a basic biped character, the first design that come out as you can see below it didn't looked very friendly so I started again from scratch.

The next design had to look more intelligent the first idea it came that a study shows that people think that intelligent people have the eyes further apart, also the eyes would be bigger,
And here it was; now I had a basic idea how the character would look like also this would give a basic start for future iterations in Zbrush.

In Zbrush I played with Z-spheres until I got the right human proportions

The first thing needed to be clarified was how the anatomic exterior structure it would look like.

So I came with this iteration

 Here The rough out of the armour is starting to appear.

More work on the shoulder and the arm                                                                                        

Because I felt that he look's too much like a warrior, a change was needed so I reworked on the face, reducing the strong jaw line, also I experimented with different face proportions.

Now was time to bring some inspiration from the real world so I started with some old stiles and clothing which were used to create some items or armour pieces and weapons.

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 While Protos played an important role in developing the armour and the warp blades, the clothing elements from Pope Sabinian gave me a clue how to approach the back shield plate that would house the shield emitter as it can be seen below.

Changed the legs from normal one joing to 2 joint legs, also here it is visible the hand warp blades, also added a helmet that I removed from design and will be replaced with a cloth hat.

As the design seem ready the next step is the re-topology. The re-topology in Zbrush does not give the expected results so I started the retopo in Maya;

With blue lines is the mesh exported from Zbrush, with green lines on the left is the mesh created in maya using as a base the high density mesh from zbrush.

At the final mesh would look like this : 

I kept the face from zbrush model and reduced the poly count in some parts while where face will deform i kept the high detail to have smooth deformation. At this point I the mesh would be suited for games as well for animation; Thou for games the poly number would still need reduction.

Further on I made the full body and facial rig.

CHARACTER PROFILE SHEET

Name: Askesh Duraél

Gender: Male

CHARACTER ROLE

Main character, he is most of the time solitary, before being cast away he was accompanied by the Number One which is one of the embodied AI in a semi organic body. The body has a terran anatomy base because the brain anatomy is perfect for binding it with the ship central system. After the disaster he was castaway and sent to live in solitary confinement.

PHYSICAL Profile

Physical Advantages:

Agile, Medium strength

Physical Disabilities:

none

Attire:

The Priest code outfit

Unique Physical skills:

Strong belief, strong psychic

Major life events:

Mass genocide, the Great War.

SOCIOLOGICAL Profile

Born:

Ebyctus second moon, the year 4567 in the house of Narsul

Upbringing:

He grew in a military school as his family was a part of Narsul war house. His father died in the outer rim wars when Askesh was young.

Accent or Dialect:

He speak formal, polite, in his native language.

Past profession:

Military

Major life events:

Promoted, demoted

How does your character make a living/survive now?

On the planet of Beth Ḥadudo the water is very scarce, the only living beings in the desert are a type of arachnid creatures and in the caves it is said that some intelligent life forms may live.

PSYCHOLOGICAL Profile

Personality traits:

Before the genocide that he participated: Obedient, friendly, egocentric,

After the genocide: Lonely, Faithfull, Guilty, Hopeful, Merciful, good, righteous,  

Treasured items: The most treasured items are his warp blades that he received from his father when he joined the military academy.

Personal interests

Science, religion, ascension.

Mannerisms

none

Sense of Humour:

Dry

Major life events:

War academy graduation, war hero, genocide participation

Gameplay abilities

Forward dash with blades, power jump

CHARACTER SYNOPSIS

Initially a member of Q’varr order (a religious-militaristic order) he asked for transfer in the Semjuuk post war planet conglomerate. Now Askesh received orders not from his homeworld anymore but from the high commanders, or from Semjuuk council members which serve directly the supreme leader, the Matriarch.

After the war Askesh have been promoted from counsellor to priest rank for his actions in the Great War. With the promotion he received the Higgaion, a pre-war battle worn Space Cruiser refitted with advanced weaponry and biological torpedoes for special high council tasks. Then he received an order directly from the Matriarch to eradicate a planet which the inhabitants supposedly worshiped numerous gods therefore considered unworthy for joining the Conglomerate but that was the excuse because of the rising Semjuuk population they needed new homes and at almost 0 expense this was the fastest and cheapest way to go; and so once in a while a purge was occurring killing millions of innocent people in the process. They were targeting medium to small planets with small population.

 The matriarch assigned Askeesh specially on this mission to ensure of his loyalty or betray his commanders and the matriarch.

This was his first participation at a “purge”. His inner self was battling to do the right thing. His army loyalist conviction was fighting his deep religious beliefs and the righteousness.
He had no one on that planet, no one he knew, but still there was people innocent people, men women and children would perrish. No matter the reason religious or not, life is a right you have, the right to live; most of his race being massacred in a couple of days;
 After he took out some low tech ships that were no mach for the Higgaion cruiser orbiting the planet, the other captains started the the biological bombing of the planet.... it was done, the end began so he ordered his Ship to launch the torpedoes; She released the biological torpedoes on the main cities, a range of viruses that targeted the native humanoid population only.

Overwhelmed with guilt and pain he asked for the removal of title. After a short trial the council found him guilty of treason, stripped of his properties the ship, rank and out casted on the desert planet of Beth Ḥadudo for 100 years as punishment… He felt he deserved so much more than that, 100 years to die in agony it was cheap.