Scarred and heavily augmented early in life, Viktor searches for purpose after a mysterious accident.
Project Bishop is my working title for a character design that I am developing over the span of two semesters. This first semester focused on establishing core design concepts, backstory and worldbuilding.
First Steps
At the start of the year I thought about doing a robot as my design, since I have not built a mechanical character before. I wanted to combine mechanical elements with organic elements like cloth. I was considering a wide range of shapes and ideas, even thinking about not designing a character at all and developing a vehicle design. With feedback from my professor and the class, I followed through with a two-legged robot concept at first.
Evolving the idea
After first starts in concepting head shapes for a robot, I switched directions slightly by changing the design to be a heavily augmented human instead. I felt that it would be a design with more potential for emotional storybuilding and it played better with the mixing in of clothing elements.
Organical meets mechanical
At the start of the year I thought about doing a robot as my design, since I have not built a mechanical character before. I wanted to combine mechanical elements with organic elements like cloth. I was considering a wide range of shapes and ideas, even thinking about not designing a character at all and developing a vehicle design. With feedback from my professor and the class, I followed through with a two-legged robot concept at first.
Worldbuilding
Along with the development of the model, the world in which the character slots in plays a big role and flows into its design. To not re-invent the wheel completely and with time constraints in mind for a solo project like this, I have decided to slot this story into the Endless-Universe by Amplitude Studios, specifically inspired by their game "Endless Space 2".
To visualize some of the writing, I have started creating a map of the galaxy and concept art of a crucial story location. Although certainly not my core strength, it is fun trying my hand more in digital painting and illustration.
Modeling
As I had also started with the head (or later helmet) in the concepting phase, I also started modelling here first, establishing the overall design language, defined by swooping lines and accentuated by sharp angles.Although not fully modelled yet, the helmet served as a guide for other elements.
One of these being the robotic arm, along with helmet it would be a visual highlight that the viewer might be drawn to, and so it was important to establish its design. I went through multiple iterations, going back to concepting and taking in feedback. I landed on a bionic approach, where artificial muscles and tendons weave through skeletal metal structures. This design really resonated with me and established the look of the cybernetic parts that are still to be modelled.
