For our final character, we are tasked with using ZBrush to create the design and accessories if we wish. I have narrowed down some existing characters that I could take inspiration from.
Inspirations
Max Goof from a Goofy Movie is a good inspiration for the design of what my character should end up looking like, as he has a red hoodie that might draw influence into my colour palette or something.
The design of Alvin Seville from the Alvin cartoon series can also be something of an inspiration given he has blue jeans and the addition of somewhat spiky hair, something I could take notes from.
An obscure choice but Fly from A Fish Tale/Help! I’m a Fish has the clothing that could inspire the clothing of my ZBrush character, with blue denim jeans and a cool personality to go along with him.
This is kind of a weird inspiration but Meg’s attire could resemble the clothing I decide to go with, albeit a different colour and without the hat.
This is another fitting inspiration because Bart is both a skateboarder and he has a similar clothing to what I’m going to add to my character with a similar colour palette minus the yellow skin tone. and blue shoes.
I decided to base my character around athletics and sports and I was influenced by Rainbow Dash in the Equestria Girls spin-off series. Her agility to partake in any sport she is given. I decided to base one of my character’s strengths around soccer for this reason.
Of course, my final character couldn’t be good at just soccer, so I gave him the ability to be good at basketball instead, which leads on to the inclusion of Lola Bunny from Space Jam as one of my influences in terms of personality. Arguably, one of her clothing choices in Space Jam in A New Legacy (2021) which is a red top with a white outline could potentially be an option for me to take inspiration from.
Scott Pilgrim’s movie and game incarnations sport a red t-shirt with white outlines as a great source for me to follow through, only without the guitar print in the middle of the shirt.
Link’s Hair Colour in both his game series and in the Smash Bros series could be a perfect inspiration for what I choose to dye the character’s hair from. I guess I can also take influence from his hairstyle too.
The attire for Pokémon Trainer Red in the Pokémon Sun & Moon games (2016) is a great inspiration for the type of clothing I would put on my character. The jeans are also something I want to try and model onto my creation as well.
Shape Theory
Male bodies tend to be in different shapes and sizes. It helps distinguish one from the other when looking at them from afar. The torso area in particular can be sculpted from different influenced shapes to help me get started.
Alot of these shapes can give me an idea of what I want to sculpt the Basemesh from, either if the character wants a slender body or a buff one. Right now, I feel like wanting to shape the character’s body from a rectangle and go from there.
Clothing Inspirations
Before I even get started making my character Basemesh in ZBrush, I had to draw up some rough sketches of what type of body this character should look like and the type of clothing he will wear.
I figured having my character wear a casual red t-shirt and jeans was a good option for me to undertake. Not too simple and not too hard to pull off in ZBrush. However, I want the red shirt to have the white outlines so I can model it like the one in the below image.
To finish off the design, I also want the character to be wearing simple black shoes.
Sketches
Here are some of my sketches of the character including a blockout version using basic shapes for the limbs and such, and the colour for the clothing in which I’m going to use.
Personality
His personality is based around an athlete that excels at sports like football, basketball and skateboarding. His name is William. The medium he is in in video games, his hair is brown and he will have a skateboard as an accessory that he will be riding around on. He dreams to become a star at the sports he’s good at and is still attending school in the hopes of getting good grades.