28 April – 4 May, 2025 — Donita Kadharusman
Games Art Pipeline 24/25
3D — Low Poly Game Char, Week 2
Character Sketches
Feedback: Too many layered, loose clothing, and long hair = nightmare animating. Number 6, 10, and 13 look the most doable. -Amil
Agreeing with the feedback, I tried to turn these silhouettes into a clean sketch so I could vision what the model looked like more clearly. After sketching them out, I wasn’t satisfied with each designs as they didn’t align with Eleanor personality, 6 was too childlike, 10 was too elegant, while 13 was too ‘punk’. So, I pointed out elements that would or would not suit Eleanor which was also doable in the animating process.
Suiting elements:
- Sketch 6: wide sleeve at the end
- Sketch 10: fancy hat with an ornament poking out (feather, accessory, etc), scarf if using short hair
- Sketch 13: mask, bandages, chemical straps, goggles to show Zaun and Renata Glasc relation
Non-suiting elements:
- Sketch 6: hair stands out too much and only short skirt is too childlike
- Sketch 10: avoid over-layering of dangling cloth on her shorts / skirt
- Sketch 13: avoid overdetailing head design. Choose one: mask or fancy hat
Overall, I’d use a corset and key symbolism to show her victorian style and symbolism as an analyst in Renata Glasc organisation.
Through this stage of the workflow, I realised that it’s more effective to create the general shapes of the clothing first, as we can experiment more when it comes to detailing. Furthermore, it can prevent from hyper-focusing on the details which can consume a lot of time.
Although Amil suggested to create the general shapes of the clothing as we’d soon move on to 3D box modelling, I was still keen to fully sketch out the character, even with limited time.
Feedback: first one gives off more like alice in wonderland vibe, 3rd is too pointy, while the 4th resembles a heart which doesn’t seem to match Eleanor’s style and personality. Second and fifth are more neutral and give off steampunk aesthetic. -Amil
In conclusion, I sketched a new design, combining both designs. Inspired by Warrior Nun (Netflix Philippines, 2022), I wanted this harmless looking key staff to be able to turn into a more dangerous weapon, which is a syringe. So I came up with an idea of making the top/bow of the key as the staff’s main body, where the stem is an extension of the main body which can retract again to the bow again. The keyhole is a container of chemicals which can solidify and shape itself as the stem, yet it can turn back into liquid and retreat to the container. Because of this idea, the chemical can shape itself into whatever Eleanor wants, such as turning it into a needle, making it into a huge syringe. As the bow is the main body, Eleanor can carry only the bow itself, hence, making it more portable.
Furthermore, I’d want to further symbolise Eleanor’s occupation as a chemist and relation to Glasc, I added a sharp tip to the keyhole symbol to shape it more to look like a syringe.
With all elements sorted out, I made Eleanor’s final design with a pose that resembles her theatrical personality. As the weapon design included swirly and curvy patterns, I repeated these patterns into the character’s model to keep the harmony and flow. Showing that the whole character’s model and weapon belong together as a set. Furthermore, these patterns create a sense of steampunk into my character, which I intended from the beginning to show her origin: Zaun. On the other side, her main set of clothing is victorian fashion inspired to show her elegance, perfectionism, and theatrical personality. Lastly, including goggles, test tubes, keyhole symbolism with a sharp tip to resemble a syringe to show her identity as ‘a key’ in Renata Glasc’s organisation and as a chemist.
While also keeping in mind of League of Legends (2009) art style that resembles her expressive theatrical personality: stylised with a bit of anime style.
Feedback for upcoming 3D model: whole body in 1 mesh, except:
- hat
- chemical test tubes
- hair
- long dangling cloth and loose scarf (might want to apply to them nCloth in the future). -Amil
Character Orthographic
With her design, finalised I made the first draft of the orthographic. It was rather difficult as I had to draw her body and clothing precisely from every required view. Then I realised that the dangling cloth on her sides weren’t designed- 🙁
Tried pointing out the repetitive elements which could be implemented into the cloth: keyholes, chemicals, syringe, swirls. I’d want to keep it simple as her whole outfit was already detailed enough to avoid over-detailing and animation nightmare, hence choosing the 1st one as it had enough yet simple design.
For the second and longer dangling cloth, I’d want to include the keyhole symbol (cause the top dangling cloth didnt have it) and some metal swirly parts for character harmony. In the end, I chose the 3rd one as it had enough detail.
Other than implementing the fabric designs into the orthographic, I fixed their length as I realised they were too long to the point that they could drop to the ground, which could turn it into another animation nightmare.
Character Colour Tests
Looking at League of Legends (2009) champion colour palette, I’d want to keep in mind to have 80% neutral colour and 20% accent colour for harmony. At first I did pink colour for her accent colour to show her relation to Renata Glasc as she has pink chemicals rather than green ones (pink chemicals are ‘medicines’, ‘good’ side of chemtech, even if it has lethal side effects). Then tried with different accent colour and changing her overal black aesthetic with white.
Class vote: majority liked the one with purple accent, also try using green aesthetic for Zaun vibe
Feedback: not so sure with shoes. – Mike
Peer feedback: too delicate. – Rany
Peer feedback: too modern, try pointy boots with visual design – YC
After some consideration, YC and I decided to go for 1c as the colour palette aligns with her lore.
Boots Design
After the feedback session, I redesigned her shoes by implementing my peer’s feedback: pointy boots for more elegance. I initially had 5 designs then I had my peers vote which one’s the most suitable. From their vote, their most favoured aspects were: asymmetry and layered.
Peer feedback: add swirly pattern for harmony. -Rany
As a result, the sixth and final boots design was made, using these listed elements. (another example of how great ideation is-)
Character Orthographic Update
Bibliography
Netflix Philippines (2022) Mother Superion is Superior in Action | Warrior Nun | Netflix Philippines. 19 November. Available at: https://youtu.be/2zFaVNjQT0w?si=BeCo_cnnE_s2N9Ox (Accessed: 25 April 2025).
Riot Games (2009) League of Legends [Video game]. Riot Games. Available at: https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-gb/download/ (Accessed: 21 April 2025).