A DEL TORO INSPIRED CREATURE DESIGN
PREPOSTEROUS
BRIEF
THE
The objective for this project was to design a captivating creature for a fictional new film "Preposterous" directed by Guillermo Del Toro.
The briefs main challenge was creating a creature that balances both empathy and horror
The concept I developed is a giraffe that has been modified for manual labor or rescue missions.
FINAL DELIVERABLE ->
RESEARCH
CONCEPT
EMPATHY IN CHARACTER DESIGN
Having the audience empathize with the character was a key element of creating a successful character for the film. Empathy is a subjective concept in the way that everyone empathizes differently, however empathy at It's core is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another being intellectually but even more emotionally.
As Humans we are naturally drawn to faces and especially eyes, witch act as as windows to the soul and emotions. The the image on the left is a great example of this since the cat isn't frowning, but we can tell it's suffering through its eyes. Other elements that can be added to a character could be injuries and restraints that show helplessness similar to the headgear and bag the cat is restrained in.
MECHANICAL DEVELOPMENT
The design of the character has to balance machine and flesh in an appealing, functional, and purposeful way. To make sure my hybrid could function and have freedom of movement, I researched construction equipment and robot arms to make sure I was using proper joints, weight distribution, and overall functionality to make sure my character looked properly engineered.
DEVELOPMENT
CHARACTER
CONCEPT PITCH RENDERED SKETCHES
My initial pitch concepts featured a giraffe spider crane hybrid built as a mad scientist creation, and a skeleton deer cyborg meant to act as the films anti-hero or final boss
My art director suggested leaning into more of the empathy side and story element of the character design, so my first concept was chosen due to it's higher potential.
CHOSEN CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
I initially chose the giraffe for it's innocent nature witch is a great foundation to pull empathy from. Now I needed to develop iterations of my giraffe concept with different stories behind each to push empathy even more
The last concept witch is a giraffe designed as a medical rescue unit is the one I decided to go with
WORKFLOW
TECHNICAL
AI GeNErated 3D BASE MESH
Meshy AI is a great tool for generating quick 3d mesh though an image. To begin modeling the organic elements I fed it images of a giraffes head and body and it gave me some workable mesh to tart with
RETOPOLOGY AND REFINMENT
UV MAPPING
I downloaded the mesh body and head as obj's into Cinema 4d for sculpting. The topology was very rough and unusable for proper modeling so using Cinema 4D's remesh tool, I was able to create proper symmetrical, quad dominant topology to begin sculpting with.
To get accurate realistic textures for my model I had to unwrap the mesh of my model on a flat surface to map out where I wanted certain textures to go. This is the giraffes head I textured in photoshop.
PROCESS
MODELING
I redesigned my initial concept to evoke as much empathy as possible through a sad expression, an injured posture, a sulking appearance, and restrictive headgear. the modeling process took around 2 weeks. My art director confirmed that the horrific design element if the character comes from the human evil done to it. Knowing this I made sure to add many wires, angular geometry, and bruised/damaged flesh that gives the character a sense of disgust, but also empathy. The mechanical element where all done using subdivision surface modeling and were referenced from ambulances.
OUTCOMES
LEARNING
This project was full of technical, design, and conceptual challenges. Creating this character required some understanding in mechanical engineering, character design, and 3d modeling, all of witch where skills I had to develop
I developed a greater understanding of 3D through combining hard surface, organic modeling and utilizing UV mapping and bump maps. This was also my first project Iv'e rendered in Redshift due to it's node editors easy to grasp interface.
This project has made me more confident in my 3d modeling and texturing skills and I plan to introduce more 3D into my work in the future.