Creating Groovy Characters: Our Process from Concept to Finished Models
- Abyssal Inc.
- Jan 20, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 11, 2024
Within Boogie Beyond, we only have four unique character models: Heathers, the Boogieman, The bouncer, and our shadow person. The process for designing and modeling these characters is a long and well documented process. In the first phases of the project, the design for a main protagonist was cut early due to scope,) and the club boss who would eventually become the game boss - the Boogieman. Every project has unique needs, but my preferred method of ideation was to present about three designs at a time for review, and then move forward with the one chosen by our team . Different characters had different amounts of ideation that came with them. Our bouncer had three rounds of revisions, while the boogieman had around five. A benefit to having multiple ideations is the ability to repurpose designs that didn’t work for one specific purpose. One of our early bouncer designs eventually inspired the design for our shadowman.
When designing a character, the first thing I like to think about is form and silhouette.
How will this character read to the viewer? Is the character big, small, round, or sharp? You can make very compelling characters by focusing on their form. Heathers and the Boogieman both share triangular and sharp body language, while the bouncer is more square, and the shadowman is round.
The turnaround is another great way to understand how the shapes play together. It is also a crucial step in the design process that assists the 3d modelers in their sculpting of the character. Our sculptors are using Zbrush to make our characters. The most recent of our workflows involves using Zspheres to build the form quickly. A great piece of advice given to us by our art instructor Karl Koehle is to begin with the larger form and save all the juicy details for later. When modeling in detail on our characters, it was especially important for us to keep our polycounts in mind, especially being a VR game.
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