Final Character Roster

The following are the final character each placed into their affiliated factions.

Central Alliance - Team Northstar

Dismali Empire

Tundran Republic

Imperial Illustration Development

At one point I was planning to include illustration which featured the characters, the environment that is affiliated with their faction but also show their relationship between characters in terms of composition. However due to time constraint, this was not completed. Below are a series of images that document my progress.

Environment Sketches

Early Semester 1 sketch of Illustration.

Images of Further Illustration Development 

I group violet and Tiffany together to show that they are close as a mother and daughter but also I placed Tiffany behind Violet to show that she is in Violet's shadow. Oliver was placed on the opposite side to balance out the illustration's composition.

Anime Inspiration - Order and Chaos

At the beginning of my project, It was going to be a project that was inspired by one of my key interests, Japanese anime.he anti war message in anime is appropriate but can lead to being overused and can be hypocritical. For example in Pokemon: The First Movie(1998) they discussed how it was wrong to fight even though Pokemon was built around fighting.  I perceive this message to be similar to my project's recurring themes of order and chaos.
Transformers Prime (2011) did use this anti war message but they did not make it the main focus. The main character tried to use reason on occasion to avoid  conflict. Sadly these attempts failed but it showed that the character was prepared for a fight.
However this is not the focus of my project but I thought it would be appropriate to address this as it can relate to the themes of order and chaos.
For example, there is a character in my roster who tries to use passive ways to over come problems during peace time operations whereas there was another who believed that causing chaos to the other side would be the best way to promote order..
Here is an example of how I've considered the anti war message in my project.
Ursula Dimitri was one of the republic's finest soldiers on the battlefield. She hated the Empire because her father was killed in action and she joined the corp to put his soul to rest. However during a raid on imperial territory she accidentally fired upon civilian settlements and she witnessed the death of innocent people. As a result of this, of this act, she vowed to never let her anger get the best of her.

Tundran Republic: Sam Development

I decided that this faction should have some leader who deserves his position. That's why I chose to make him cybernetic because:

•  It helps emphasis what he has gone through.
• It helps make him fit more in the futuristic setting.
• It shows that this faction is more accepting of diversity and progress.

I also wanted this character to have had one a positive Back story but as he became more battle worn the less he became as a person.

Early sketches I made depicted Sam as a younger figure but for him to be the leader of an entire nation's military in his mid 20s was a bit much. So I decided to age him.

Another thing I was wanting to do was make him blind but with quick ninja like reflects. Again, I've had some consideration about this and decided that he was blind but with new glasses, he can see normally now.

Another thing I considered also was that as a leader's he doesn't look strong. However he's quite intelligent and swift.  

Samuel Lineart

Sam Colour Iterations

While I still intended red to be the overall colour and triangle shapes. I wanted to use blue to suggest his sophistication but cold mind. I reduced the saturation of the character to suggest his age.

Here was the first colored iteration but it was too saturated and it didn't reflect the character's age.

Final Colour Scheme

Samuel with Coloured Lines

Tundran Republic: Ursula Development

I fancied designing a character based of Ursa Major .From my previous blog on animal traits, bears were often associated with nature and life. I used that knowledge to develop a character that fitted the Earth Mother trope. I wanted to add some variety and so I designed her to be a middle aged mother who was also a commissar like Cassandra.

Here are a variety of silhouettes for Urusla. It was through this process that I experimented with uniform ideas but also body types for Ursula. Since the Republic is meant to be more racial accepting compared to the Empire, Ursula should reflect that diversity. I wanted to represent the racial diversity of the Republic faction through the cast in the same ways as the original series of Star Trek (1966) had characters of various ethnic origins.

http://www.themarysue.com/star-trek-diverse-cast/

Early Ursula Sketches

I was able to get this pose with the help of these images for reference.

(Shipfactory, n.d.)

(Nmaxfield, 2006)

Ursula Line Artwork

While I explored certain shapes, I wanted to make sure that I still had the shape motifs of the faction in the character's design.

Ursula Colour Scheme Iterations

Final Saturated Colour Scheme

I began playing around with colour saturation and tried out different types of warm colours. I used browns and greens to reflect her role as an earth mother. The desaturated colours I have chosen have helped emphasis her age and experience through the military.

Final Ursula Colour Scheme 

For the final iteration for Ursula, I added extra detail to suggest her high rank.I added extra strips on her gloves to emphasis this.

Images References

Shipfactory, (n.d.). Asian business woman isolated greenscreen green background upset arms crossed. [video] Available at: http://ak7.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/6251429/preview/stock-footage-asian-business-woman-isolated-greenscreen-green-background-upset-arms-crossed.jpg [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Nmaxfield, (2006). Business Woman - Stock Image. [image] Available at: http://www.istockphoto.com/photo/business-woman-1167350 [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Tundran Republic:Cassandra Development

11/2/15

Casandra is a key character to the story. My main inspiration was from female characters who were very active, egotistic and aggressive. Anime was a good source of inspiration. The key inspiration was from the constellation Cassiopeia. In regards to the two contrasting themes, Cassandra is more associated with chaos and this would be portrayed with her appearance and attitude. 

I also looked at other sources. despite her having an aggressive and extreme attitude, she is more of a anti hero who later joins the main characters but to begin with, she's affiliated with the Republic and plays the role of the main character's rival. Cassandra uses one form of weaponry whereas John uses an axe. 

Cassandra Influences Moodboard

Cassandra has a range of influences from certain characters in games,animation and comics. I looked at anime characters which expressed traits such as aggressiveness, impulsiveness and even unpleasantness. I even considered traits from male character such as Starscream's cunning. The colours and even primary colours came from these sources. Despite her aggressive attitude, Cassandra has a back story which explains why she is the way she is. 

 Casandra's family where killed when she was really young by Imperials who used a experimental gas. Cassandra managed to survive with the assistance form a young Tundran soldier named private Ursula Dimitriv. Seeing the bravery of the Tundra Republic, she began to obsess about the Republic's patriotism. This obsession lead to her abandoning her friend john who opposed her joining the Tundran Republic.

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Uniform Moodboard

I looked at uniforms used by the military but since it was a army inspired by a mixture of America and Russia,I looked at mainly soviet uniforms.

According to legend, Cassiopeia held a mirror to present her vanity but she also held a palm leaf but unfortunately there's not sources what the symbolism for this was. So I decided to merge the two items together as a weapon that Cassandra uses all the time. In her silhouette, I wanted to emphasis that the weapon that she holds is key component. I wanted it to be similar to how Satsuki from Kill la Kill emphasizes her poses and stature with the use of her Samuari sword. I decided that the blade should be reflective as a mirror and the hilt will have the shape of a palm leaf.

Silhouette Development

A variety of  facial expressions for Cassandra.

Character Development Sketches

Although this sketch includes other characters I was really happy with how I drew Cassandra's body in it.

The Tundran Republic was inspired by a mix of America Patriotism along with Russia's communist traits with the idea of equality. 

I made a series of colour iterations but I decided that a warm colour palette was more suitable and that contrasting colours would be necessary.

 Base on feedback, I added some blues in the colour scheme. However I feel that the blues are too saturated. Another student had difficulty accepting that this character was from a futuristic setting. This helped me consider what I needed to do to make the characters look like they were from a futuristic setting.

http://tenyune.deviantart.com/art/Vios-Terra-Uniforms-304424108
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/killzone/images/a/a0/Jan_dies.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120208155033

I also made some adjustments to include more triangles in her silhouette. I reduced the length of the cloak because it was too long and did not support her active attitude. Making this adjustment helped give the silhouette more form.The extra detail I've included not only helped break her character's form down in simpler digestible components but also helped her look like she belonged in the futuristic setting..

I took one of my line artwork pieces of Cassandra I made in Sai and simply added in areas to help with her silhouette.

Final Character Line Artwork

I also decided that Cassandra was to be an equal  match for John. I decided that she should have her own power suit that she would use to combat John on occasion. Since the primary inspiration was Cassiopeia, I decided that the motif should be integrated in her pilot in the same way as I have integrated the mercenaries star signs which appear as coincidental socket patterns on their suits  So here I've giving her a pilot suit inspired motorcycle jumpsuits and Anime mecha pilot suits. I wanted to include a motif of triangles but also as a reference to her constellation inspiration. 

The idea that came to me for the power suits design was that Cassadra. During her time as a high ranking commander has been dubbed the "Witch of the North" for her unpleasant and extreme means to friend or foe that were used to accomplish missions.  Because of this,Cassandra has been despised ,feared but respected officer. Therefore I decided that the idea of a "W" can be used in Cassandra's  power suit design.   I chose to include flame throwers on the suit to reflect Cassandras fiery personality but also as a paradoxes on the concept of witches. People who were acccused of witchcraft were often burnt at the stake. Here Cassandra who is accused of being an unpleasant figure uses fire to roast her enemies.

 Here is the final suit design made in Paint tool Sai. I am quiet happy with the result. It doesn't suggest that a female pilot is controlling it and also connects with the angled shape motif of the Tundran Republic. There is a sense of order but also a sense of chaos based  on the layout.

Early Sketch

Suit Colour Iterations

I felt that red should should be  overall colour not only to identify with her faction but also to act as a way for enemies to spot her first and then attack her first. 

I felt that since the suit was manufactured and part of a military faction, it should have warning hazards.

In summary I wanted Cassandra to be a character who starts out being selfish, corrupt and egotsitic. However. However there is a chance for her to change or atone for her actions and may lead to her changing her allegiance to a certain faction.