Dynamic Duo II - Not Cool Enough

After gaining some desperately needed critique on my designs I came to the conclusion that a little redesign was in order. Comparing my ideas for the duo, my sketches and the final design I realized that I lost the original 'Cool and Uncool' dichotomy I wanted to convey so I went back to my sketches and redid the female character:

First I looked at my moodboard again to pinpoint exactly what look I was going for and then expanded on it by extra research into 60s mod fashion and design. I then used these as a basis for some shape exploration.

Extra shape exploration to find an imposing, stronger character.

The character I had in mind I wanted to be cool but the design before came across as more quirky, so I thought by giving her more of a stern, rigid look as opposed to the roundness of the guy would help sell the difference between the characters more.

The next process I used was overlaying value onto my selected thumbnails and refining it, I did this by using transparency lock and painting, a method I should have used in my initial concepting as it's quick, fun and it gets the job done well.

Value separations done within 45 minutes ish, could get them done even quicker with more practice.

Some refinement of the thumbnails; trying to work in the important things like the arms which can be handy.

More refinement, messing around with cutting forms and seeing how much I can add before it starts to detract from the design.

Next I worked a bit more into the guy character after receiving some feedback about his clothes, I created a moodboard like I did for the woman but used this as a basis for sketches which could then be worked into the final design.

Extra moodboard for the guy character

After some tinkering and experimentation I came to the final designs:

Final tweaked designs, ready for modelling. 

The guy in my eyes looks more friendly here and the woman is exactly like I wanted her; her clothes really make her look like a hard-faced bitch and it's great. The Dichotomy is a lot more along the lines of what I was imagining here.

And for the next part: Modelling process and Conclusion


- James