AfricanVoodoo's Sketchbook

[AfricanVoodoo]

Practicality vs. Coolness in Character Design

   Practicality vs. Coolness was a debate that I was reading during one of Istebrak's critique sessions that she was having on her Youtube channel (it was was the one about a group of travelers or whatever and her students were trying to illustrate them i dunno) and the comment section was having a tiny debate about whether or not practicality was necessary in character design. The "Coolness" side of the argument was saying that it doesn't really matter if this knight's armor is way too fucking huge or that it is not suit for travel. It doesn't matter if this character has so much shit on his/her body that it looks almost impossible to put on every morning.  As long as it looks cool, the public will like it. This was pretty much Blizzard's way of thinking apparently.

   Honestly, I agree about the point that the public will pretty much eat it up and won't pay attention. Sometimes, the design will look too ridiculous that it'll take someone out of the game but that is not a terribly bad thing for the game itself. 


This is the Barbarian class in Diablo III. It looks amazing and the design looks ultra cool! It makes the character truly feel like a badass who is ready to take on a bunch of warriors and ogres and that giant fucking spider in the game who scared me while I was playing it (which was ironic because I was the Witch Doctor and my main attack was the spider jars). The armor design is very detailed and the silhouette truly makes the character feel threatening but in a hero type of way.

The problem is with the armor itself. That isn't silk, leather, or even normal iron armor commonly worn by archers who need that agility to move around and away from their opponent. This is most likely heavy armor shit that he is wearing right here and he needs to move around in this, this is incredibly straining even on Mr. Macho Husky Dude here. It is not practical to be wearing so much heavy armor during travel.

BUT, it looks cool right? Honestly, who actually had such a hiccup about this dude wearing so much superfluous armor in the first place? Nobody (who was in of importance) really wanted to boycott or stop playing the game because "its not realistic enough". And the fact that the game literally has fantasy elements like spider jars, monsters, magic spells and buff 600-pound-armor-wearing men around, I think it's time to just have fun playing the game.



   The characters of Last Of Us are pretty much on the opposite spectrum as the Diablo designs. They fall directly into the practical spectrum. Even though the story includes these weird sounding zombies, this is still a survival game and it is very realistic in terms of their costume design and the emotional aspects. The people who have to survive have to consider limited space for items, the amount of weight they put on their body, how heavy their weapon is, etc. They can't go around in a snowstorm half-naked like fantasy type shit would do, they need these odd contraptions called a coat. It makes them warm I guess.

   But, once again, nobody complains that it isn't "cool enough". The public respect the fact that being "cool" was not really the focus in a survival horror game.  So... does it really all depend on the genre of a game to determine whether the designs should be on the "cool" or "practical" side of the spectrum? Or maybe it shouldn't HAVE to affect it, maybe that is what the designers want in their game. Maybe the client just wants the characters to be decked out in heavy armor head-to-toe and artist was having a little fun with it. Maybe...

Oh, I never told y'all where I fall on this spectrum. I like to make cool looking stuff but at the same time if I am going to make a character, I am going to have to think about if this design works with their current situation, occupation, class, etc. For example, if I were to draw a warrior who travels alone with no home. I would draw him with scars and bandaging with some iron and leather armor. Light enough for a random ambush and for walking across the country at the same time. His main weapon would be two dirks, one on each side of his hip.  He carries a medium-sized travel bag over his back filled with food, water, medical supplies, sleeping bags, essential shit to live in the wilderness in. He wears a hood over his head because of the heat and just in case it rains and he needs a little cover. His hair is short since having long hair can make your opponent to grab it and trap you in for an attack. 

Okay, I'm gonna stop there but do you know what I am saying? I like everything to make sense for the world and the characters even if it doesn't look ultra cool looking. Understanding my subject and making those subjects understood for the rest of the world is my favorite way of designing something. In my opinion, it requires more thinking when you want things to make sense in the world you are creating because you have to consider so much shit but it is also fun to discuss with friends and external sources.

---

Anyways, hola!!










See... even I am a perfectionist when I come unto this site. I wanted to post this on Monday, but then I noticed I have little art (that I liked) of the ladies so I postponed the entire post until I can do more figure studies.  I just don't like posting little art on here especially if I don't post for almost a week.

(Art): Almost to fifty! This was a terrible batch in my opinion but it doesn't really affect me an awful lot. I was trying to draw more girls with a little bit more chub and it is way harder than I thought it would be. I tried to draw them as if they were skinny, then add the extra round forms next. I am still trying to make this work, if it doesn't work then I'll just try another way.

Oh and it's pretty much my hobby to fuck the proportions up now. I just do it so effortlessly.




(Art): Warm-up figures... yup. 



(Art): Two half pages that I put together. The left side is me trying to construct a female face... which isn't going too well. And a bunch of whatevs on the right.



I am noticing that I am focusing a bunch on my figures and anatomy but I never do any doodles or my own character work to complement those studies. I really don't know why but when I am on break I just like to focus more on longer projects than just randomly doodling some things in my sketchbook. Speaking of, I never drew in my sketchbook since school ended. I just picked up some cardstock and used that for the majority of this summer.

(Art): I drew this elf girl at like... 2 AM. Then I painted this digitally in the morning for Instagram. I should of colored her tunic green, it looks so incomplete without the shirt color in retrospect. 







(Art): Once again, I was up at 2AM in the morning and I decided to draw something. This is Sorn... just sitting on a beach chair.  I scanned the image, warped and rearranged some things in Photoshop, transfered it to Manga Studio and then I did the rest.

The lineart took at least 10 hours to do and it was an experience for sure. I like it but it looks like he isn't sitting on the chair which... sigh. I drew him before I drew the chair, I should know that pretty much ruins the picture, oh well. I like the way I handled the line weight though.

I have never done lineart ever since VERY early 2017, I was afraid to go back to it because fuck Photoshop I wasn't very confident in my line work so I just stopped. I noticed that is not a great mindset to have so I want to do more things like this so I can get better at the way that I draw and line art... Yup.



(Art): I did more concepts for this man's book... the character from the last post is also wearing a satchel were he carries all of his shit. I did some designs that are c u t e and then we moved on from there fuck im tired