#character design rambles

[voidlingduck]

Redesigning Jester

I've been working on trying to pull my story about Kings Court into something coherent and presentable, and as I've been going through that process I've been realising that I need to redesign some of the characters!

The first character I've been reworking is my beloved Jester! Here is their original design:

I did really enjoy this design! But as time has gone on there have become certain pain points, and as the story has developed there are things I want to incorporate more strongly into the design. You can see a detailed breakdown of the re-design goals and process below the cut!

The mask - it needs to be a feature, not an afterthought.

As much skin as possible should be hidden, I want to play into the Jester as an anonymous and mysterious entity.

Simplify - the four tail coats are far too unweildy, and the pants proved annoyingly intricate with repeated drawing.

Ensure that the design is fun and exciting to draw in motion! Jester flops around a lot.

Incorporate an additional motif to reflect role in the court.

I began the process by looking for inspiration and reference material, particularly for the mask. I collected a variety of reference images onto a pinterest board to use for inspiration and then got to sketching! Here are some of the initial exploratory sketches.

After the sketching process, I started working on some more finalised concepts taking what I had explored in the sketches, exploring the ways to combine shape and colour, and also getting feedback from friends.

I then did a set of concepts all next to each other taking some of the ideas I had liked from these concepts as well as trying to add in some new things.

Silhouette was a major consideration throughout these concepts - as well as experimenting with the mask design. The first and second designs proved the most popular, and also worked as my favourites. And so moving forward I decided to combine elements from them both. Namely:

Collar shape from design 1 - it's dynamic, fun, and interesting!

Hood based design from 2 - I like the framing of the hood.

Two pronged vs Three Pronged design from 1 - Easier to draw repeatedly and manipulate in dynamic ways, I think it gives a more dynamic flow to the design as opposed to the triple prong potentially being a bit more static.

Thigh high boots from 2 - my friends like them and I like the way they make the legs look long.

I also knew that I wanted to make sure that the design I came up with fit with the design of another character - Jack, and also play with poses to see it in motion, so for the next tests, I decided to work on them both simultaneously and have some fun drawing them interacting!

As you can see, I had settles fairly well on the overall shape of the design, but still made some minor tweaks between images - mostly to do with the placement of the colour blocking. I also changed the mask design here from the previous iterations as they felt too cluttered and overpowered, and I also really enjoyed the design from the makeup Jester had in his original design, and realised it could transfer effectively to the mask design! Another thing that changed is I removed the crown motif I had started to develop, and tried to focus more strongly on incorporating an eye motif. This was a change made as I sat and considered the lore and symbolic implications, and I ultimately decided it worked best if Jester had the eyes and Jack had the crowns. King and Queen will likely have both when I get around to redesigning them! I still have some more playing around to do to settle into the final design before I make a proper reference sheet, as I'm definitley finding drawing the design in context helpful to get a sense of how it operates in practice and streamlining. I'm currently working on a mini PMV project featuring Jester which will hopefully help me solidify the design! But I'm feeling pretty happy with it so far.

I want to do more discussions of my design/redesign process in future as I find it really helpful and interesting to organise my thoughts like this. It's also exciting to see the progression all laid out, I'll probably do a similar thing for Jack soon!

[lunieloon]

TIME FOR ANOTHER OC INFODUMP!!1!!1!!

*sobs in Cosmos Siblings pre-SpaceAges*

Infodump/ramble under the cut!!!

SO

Im not gonna lie. I don't have much lore/angst this time cus, honestly I feel like I've screamed enough about their dynamic and struggles in the Comet post. But!!! I have character design notes!!!

So brief recap: Shapeling's define themselves a lot on their shapes, but they also display who they care about by wearing the color of the other person. This is no different for the Cosmos Siblings (at least before SpaceAges, that is)

Starlet: wears a lot of purple both for her mom and Spacey, since she's closest with both of them at this time. She has orange accents for Comet, and her socks (not pictured) are green for her dad. Her outfit is pretty simple here, mostly to represent that she's not had much character development at this point in her story. (I tend to add more to character's designs based on how far along they're at in their own arcs)

Spacey: His outfit primarily features orange for Comet, as he's the closest to her because he's her caretaker. He has some green accents for his dad. The second most prominent color in his design here is purple, both for his mom but also secretly for himself at this point. At this point in the story, he's starting to question if he'll ever be allowed to be his own person, and he's starting to push the boundaries of what a heart shapeling is supposed to do by putting himself first sometimes. However, he still worries he'll get in trouble for it, so the fact that his mom is purple too is a good cover for it. His boots are yellow for his twin sister, Starlet. He actually specifically requested that his boots be yellow because Starlet keeps him grounded, and he wanted to show his appreciation for that.

Comet: Her outfit, while seeming to mostly consist of green for her dad, is actually more layered than you might think. She wears green skirteralls to outwardly show that she appreciates her dad. (He's her favorite parent), but wears a dark purple shirt underneath because she actually feels closest to Spacey. She also has light purple socks for her mom, and her hairbands are yellow for Starlet.

Some general design notes!!:

-The Cosmos Siblings have a pattern in their hair designs! Spacey has 3 tufts of hair that are more prominent at the top of his head, Starlet has 2 tufts, and in later designs Comet always has one piece of hair that sticks out more than the others! (It's sort of noticeable here as the bump between her hair buns)

-They all have different tail types! Starlet has a longer tail with a tuft at the end, Spacey has a simple, straight tail, and Comet has a fluffy tail.

-I brought the toe beans and claws back. I am aware these will be a pain to animate, and i will most likely forget to include them sometimes, but let's please just assume they always have them.

-For reference, the way I first described Shapeling's appearances was "humanoid creatures with a wolf snout and butterfly wings" However i still have no idea if they have fur or if that's just their skin. It's up to interpretation at this point. Have fun with that, everyone. XD

[adrekiy0]

pov: designing a new oc

[the-phantom-peach]

skyward sword… yeah <3

Crimson Loftwing

↻ ◁ || ▷ ↺

[risestarkiss]

✨The Fashionista✨

Rise Ramblings #234

While watching “The Clothes Don’t Make The Turtle,” I noticed something.

I found it interesting that Raph, Mikey, and Leo were content with Raph’s outfit choice until Donnie stated that he wasn’t “in love with it, ya’ know.”

Suddenly, Raph declares “I’m a disaster!” Albeit ridiculously endearing, it was a little strange to see his sudden shift from moderately content to absolute dissatisfaction. Huh…

Then, the disaster twins decide to help him out.

Take a note of their outfit choices.

Raph tries on all of these fits and more.

Donnie’s first choice is a mild “no.” Leo’s choice is a hard “NO.” (Not surprising, lol.) But then, the overwhelming consensus lands on Raph’s fourth outfit, which ended up being Donatello’s other pick for his brother.

So, in summary, Raph tried on his personal choice for an outfit, of which they rejected. Then, ultimately, Donatello picked out an outfit for his brother, and that pick ended up being perfect. Hmm…

Then I noticed something else. In this episode, we never get a Donnie “curtain reveal” moment, to our disdain. I mean, Raph, Leo, and Mikey got to try on several different outfits in order to get their brothers' opinions before landing on that “perfect outfit, you know the one.” All of his brothers got to shine. Why not DonTron?

Then it hit me.

The try-ons were to get their brothers' opinions and approval. And, for his brothers' choices, he was a major contributor in assisting them in pulling their looks together.

What if, bear with me, Donnie didn’t need the "curtain scene" because he was so confident in his fashion sense that he didn’t need to ask his brothers for help to pick out a great look.

…or they figured out how to break Hypno’s spell before he could get a “curtain reveal.” BUT STILL-

Look at his outfit choices in this episode. Some of his wardrobe changes were off-screen, but all of them were fire.

(I added the baseball cap pic because it makes me happy. I wish we'd seen more of that fit.)

To me, he makes some really smart choices for himself, pushing the envelope of what is expected and taking chances: an open collar with no tie for a “black tie” event, a beanie and spiked wristbands for their “gansta look,” no socks with loafers (a viral fashion trend that actually began in Africa) with old man slacks in his reclined pose. *muah* Chef’s kiss!

But Don’s fashion sense doesn’t just shine in this episode.

In “Reparin’ the Baron” the boys go to Draxum’s apartment. Leo and Donnie show up in some extra nice “Sunday Dinner” twin drip.

The gold is in the details. Everything Leo is wearing, Donnie rocks its compliment: for Leo’s round collar, Donnie’s is angled, for Leo’s blue shirt, Donnie’s is white, For Leo’s light slacks, Donnie’s are dark. Blah blah blah. It’s so good!

Look at the winter fit in Snow Day.

Again, Donnie is Leo’s perfect compliment. As a pair? Fire.

Donnie has “the eye.” I can go on and on with examples, but I’ve said all of that to say this…

In the future, we see that Donatello’s technology had major pull in the resistance. He had drone ships patrolling the skies. He built and designed Leo’s arm, Casey’s chainsaw-hockey stick, and Casey's mask. The list goes on…

But, when Donatello from the past see’s Casey’s clothing from the future, he says this:

We know about the “Genius Built” brand. We’ve seen that logo on all of his tech up to this point. But, here he didn’t just say “Genius Built.” He said, “Genius Built Apparel.”

“Apparel” is not a tech brand. “Apparel” is a fashion brand. Of course, tech is incorporated into the clothing, but still.

This means that past Donatello secured this trademark with plans of creating a fashion brand, comparable to the likes of Gucci, Ralph Lauren, or any other modern clothing brand, as a subsidiary of “Genius Built,” the tech company.

And why not? The evidence has been in front of us this entire time. He has a sharp eye for style, fashion, and trends. It is easily canon that he can sew. Splinter sewed their ninja garbs in “Insane in the Mama Train,” and there is a sewing machine in the house.

They already learned Ninjutsu through basically osmosis, so learning to sew is not too far-fetched.

And here it is, right in front of us, Casey’s entire ensemble, from mask, to weapons, to clothing, was made by Donatello in the middle of the apocalypse under the brand name “Genius Built Apparel.”

And that was just in the bad future. Resources were limited, they didn’t have access to much of anything in that broken world as they were survivors of a devastating Krang invasion. Yet, he created all of this.

However, now that they’ve changed the future, his future as a fashion designer is limitless. Think of what Donatello could produce with unlimited resources, unlimited technology, and unlimited creative freedom.

Tech genius. Clothing designer. Fashionista. Future Genius Built Apparel Owner and CEO. I’m sorry, but I have to call it...

Donatello Hamato of the present, of the bad future, and of the good future is a fashion icon, the likes of which the world has never seen. ○○○○

Update: I've decided to make this concept into a mini-comic series!

[puppyeared]

learned something about myself lately

[applestruda]

*falls through the ceiling and comes crashing to the ground*

SECRET LIFER DESIGNS BUT THEY ALL HAVE PERSONALIZED LIKE, BOOK HOLSTERS FOR THEIR TASKS THAT THEY GET EACH SESSION

[honoratacarnage]

on of my biggest pet peeves is how little design/art people actually try to research about phenotypical differences when creating an monster/making a character based on an animal. like animals from the same species can change sooooooo much!

take the very famous Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) for an habitat based change exemple!

first this is how they look living in the siberian arctic:

ultra fluffy dense coat, stocky limbs, rounder body and small ears for retaining body heat!

now look at how they look in the arabian desert (no this is not a fennec!)

pointy boy unlimited! very long limbs, big tail and ears for body heat dispersion, super lean built.

so when you are designing an animal or using it as a base for a character, try researching a bit more for potential subspecies!

[qcomicsy]

I will always be a normal guy defender, I don't want vigilantes who always look like super models unless it makes sense for their characters (Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Kori Anders). I want super-heros that look like the guy you could stumble on the supermarket. Your classmate. Your coworker. A random face in a ocean of people. Absolutely and completely forgetful unless you love them.

I want super-heros to take of their mask and the person be like "THAT'S JUST SOME GUY." their face leak and people be like "WHO 🗣️🗣️ THE FUCK IS THAT⁉️‼️‼️‼️🔥🔥" enough with conventionally attractive heros who look like bodybuilders more some heros who would be your Uber driver and you wouldn't pay attention to them twice.

[cadaverkeys]

Girl im working on 4 class. shes called Birthday and her Unicorn is called Golden Years k thnx bye

[quirinah]

oomfs started playing a certain visual novel recently

[cheebuss]

Team Fourtrees 2 except Redclan Spoovy doodles... not canon for the AU or anything but life could be a dream...

[swordmaid]

brienne but she's wearing 1949 cocteau's beauty and the beast inspired fit!!! this is the inspo pic i used if ur curious.

gonna be posting more of this redesign thing (and also jaime's ver) some time in the future but i just wanted to share this one <3

[ruporas]

studies from the finale

[cryptidkreates]

super insanely indulgent au

character ref + mini comic below

if you havent seen this movie the parallels are insane. if somebody wants to do smth with this feel free, just lmk so i can see it! i feel like theres alot of shit id change but the template is so good (sorry if u cant read my handwriting)

like imagine, katelyn rlly badly wants to rizz up aaron but fucking cant because he made a deal with andrew. so katelyn gets desperate and goes to neil, weird guy with fuzzy backstory to distract andrew. in return? a spot on the exy team

[modeus-the-unbound]

Oh, random shoutout to my fav enemy design (visually) in Elden Ring.

The Serpent Snails! These guys are super creative and cute looking, (yes even the boney boi.)

With a special shoutout to the unused Green Cobra looking one. May you be brought home to your fellow serpent snails in the DLC lil buddy.