November 13th Update

Second last redesign, this week its Kusanagi Tsurugi: 

Once again there wasn’t a lot I wanted to change with this design, but I wasn’t happy with the lizard like look of the old face and the reverse wings I was experimenting with:

I also wanted to make him look more intimidating, and I noticed I forgot to draw a finger on his right hand, which gave me the idea to give him some scars, which will make a lot of sense since he is essentially a veteran from a losing army.

With that I only have one more redesign to do, which will leave the character design milestone done! Now this doesn’t mean I won’t be completely done with making character, there will be some scene specific characters and background extras I’ll need to do, but I wouldn’t consider them as high a priority as the building and weapon concepts that will need to be done.

Now, onto this week’s status on concepts:

• Background extras:42/42
• Main Characters: 13/13
• Main character re-designs: 5/5
• Secondary Character: 14/14
• Secondary Character re-designs: 4/5

That’s all for this week,
Until next time

Marc Out~~

October 22nd Update

Apologies for the lack of an update last week, I had a power outage and I didn’t get it back until mid week, so I decided to just add this week’s and last week’s progress together, first up the last on my main character redesigns, Naga:

I’m so much happier with this design than with the old one:

The actual changes aren’t that extreme but opening up the hoodie and changing to cargo pants really highlights the misguided teen style I’m going with, and breaks up the black and green nicely, where as before I felt the black unbalanced the previous design.

Secondly we have the first redesign of the secondary Characters, Sakata:

This design didn’t actually change as much as I thought it would:

Basically I adapted his armour to match the style of the human military

I also moved the tattered shirt to the outside, and while I do like the coat I feel it is a bit bland on its own, but for now I’m quite happy with it, since the problem is that I felt his design didn’t match the advance technology of the Human culture, which I feel subtlety it does now, while keeping his individuality.

Now, onto this week’s status on concepts:

• Background extras:42/42
• Main Characters: 13/13
• Main character re-designs: 5/5
• Secondary Character: 14/14
• Secondary Character re-designs: 1/5

That’s all for this week,
Until next time

Marc Out~~

October 8th Update

Another Redesign this week, Pamu:

Most of the design is  largely the same as the original, since I was pretty happy with it, but I decided to simplify the colour scheme:

This was mainly because of the changes I made to Anguis last week, so to give her more identity when next to Anguis, I decided to take the brighter elements of her scheme and make them more of a focus.

Now, onto this week’s status on concepts:

• Background extras:42/42
• Main Characters: 13/13
• Main character re-designs: 4/5
• Secondary Character: 14/14
• Secondary Character re-designs: 0/5

That’s all for this week,
Until next time

Marc Out~~

October 1st Update

Another redesign this week, Anguis from the Blind fold code:

I was happy with the majority of his original design, like his hoodie and hair, but there were a few elements that I had to change. First, his original colour scheme was a bit too bright and hard on the eyes:

So I muted the neon cyan of the t-shirt and had it match the blue of Pamu’s Hoodie:

Since Pamu has the darker colour scheme overall I think I’ll brighten up the blue sections of her hoodie when I get to her redesign. Secondly I didn’t like the short sleeved hoodie, so I took the stitched pants Idea from last week and applied it to the sleeves.

A really unexpected consequence of these redesigns is I’m able to see how far I’ve improved since I started the concepts, i’m half tempted to redraw all of the main cast, but I don’t think I’ll be able to find time, especially since there is still so much I still have to get on paper, so for now they’ll have to wait.

Now, onto this week’s status on concepts:

• Background extras:42/42
• Main Characters: 13/13
• Main character re-designs: 3/5
• Secondary Character: 14/14
• Secondary Character re-designs: 0/5

That’s all for this week,
Until next time

Marc Out~~

September 3rd Update

Another character that will be important in later seasons, Queen Ocher

She’s connected to one of the other main characters and I have a lot of fun designing her, although she looks younger than I intended her to look, but the actual costume I’m really happy with. I was going to a mature and elegant look, that was modeled off the idea of a queen bee.

I was also hoping to get another concept done this week so I’d only have one more to do, but a few unexpected things came up this week, but I’ll have the other done by next week.

Anyway here is this week’s status on concepts:

• Background extras:42/42
• Main Characters: 13/13
• Main character re-designs: 1/5
• Secondary Character: 12/14
• Secondary Character re-designs: 0/4

That’s all for this week,
Until next time

Marc Out~~

 

August 28th Update

A short post today, and this week we have reporter Alexis Cream:

My Shading is a bit off still but it is improving. This character won’t be all that important in the show as a whole (at least where I’ve written too so far) But she will have a more important role, when I finally move to update videos, this character will be the one informing people, so I wanted her to look more distinctive that just a run of the mill background reporter.

Only three secondary characters now, after that I’ll do a quick round of redesigns and then I’ll move onto designing buildings.

Anyway here is this week’s status on concepts:

• Background extras:42/42
• Main Characters: 13/13
• Main character re-designs: 1/5
• Secondary Character: 11/14
• Secondary Character re-designs: 0/4

That’s all for this week,
Until next time

Marc Out~~

August 21st Update

This week I’m presenting Indigo’s second in command and personal assistant Sapphire:

This was actually a really interesting one to design, this particular character is a very stoic and silent character to contrast Indigo’s loud and flamboyant style, I was tempted to make her a stereotypical Maid, or secretary, but I feel that wouldn’t fit with the image of the show, so I went for more of a bodyguard feel, taking a lot of inspiration from Virgil from Devil may Cry:

The big challenge was creating a colour scheme that fit with Indigo, and aside from the image I decided on I had two alternate schemes:

I knew I wanted the coat to be purple, but I wanted to experiment with the brightness of the coat, and ultimately took the bit I thought worked from both designs.
On a final note, I actually still haven’t decided on the finer details of the sword she has, Weapons are an important factor to design in each character and will be a refection of each personality, so for now that Katana is a placeholder.

In other news I’ve realised that I’m probably going to need to design two more secondary characters before I have all I need, The Mayor of the city, and a news reporter that appears on tvs in certain scenes.

Anyway here is this week’s status on concepts:

• Background extras:42/42
• Main Characters: 13/13
• Main character re-designs: 1/5
• Secondary Character: 10/14
• Secondary Character re-designs: 0/4

That’s all for this week
Until next time

Marc Out~~

 

August 7th Update

Back to concepts totally drawn by myself again, I’ll admit, I was excited to see if I had improved at all since using the template for my civilian characters, i’m pretty pleased with the result:

While my shading can still use work, my posing and anatomy has come a long way, which I’m very pleased about.
This character is Lucid, and he isn’t particular important character at the moment, but he’ll be used to give exposition in later seasons, and needed to be introduced in the current season, he’s an anthropologist specialising in semiotics, or the study of symbols. He’s also based largely on a Ferric Fox:

I always feel these little guys look much older than other foxes, plus foxes have a reputation for being smart, so I feel its fits this character really well.

In other news, in order to give my composer a better idea of the music for the opening, I’ve started collecting music and putting it into a YouTube playlist, if you are curious about the musical inspirations of the show, you can find it here. I’ll be adding to it often for the foreseeable future.

Anyway here is this week’s status on concepts:

• Background extras:42/42
• Main Characters: 13/13
• Main character re-designs: 1/5
• Secondary Character: 8/12
• Secondary Character re-designs: 0/4

That’s all for this week
Until next time

Marc Out~~

July 17th Update

Only two more to go, another Hojo member this week, But this week its an Otherkin:

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I’m a little worried that the levels of contrast in the first two are a bit much, they are based off the colour schemes of two Vocaloids, Miku Hatsune and Haku Yowane respectively :

The Third Scheme is based off of the Anime Black Rock Shooter, which I think might be heavily inspired by Miku:

I’ve also been thinking about the trailer for the show, and while its still a while to go before I focus all my energy on it, its still turning into a tricky task to plan, I want to show off the best parts of my story, but I don’t want to give spoilers, so I have walk a tightrope of what to release.
At the moment I have two options I’m planning:
The First is taking a big plot point from very late in the series, and then flashing back to a short prelude to foreshadow the big event, however I haven’t planned out that big event very much, and I don’t want to release a teaser that might not pay off.
The Second is to to little action preludes showing how each member of Team Fade reached where they are, simlar to the Rwby trailers, which were very successful, the only thing is that I’m worried that this could give too much information and spoil the story ahead of time. I’ll think about it more in future updates, but I wanted to get my thoughts on the matter on paper, but I’d be curious to hear any thoughts on the matter.

Anyway here is this week’s status on concepts:

• Background extras:40/42
• Main Characters: 13/13
• Main character re-designs: 1/5
• Secondary Character: 7/12
• Secondary Character re-designs: 0/4

That’s all for this week
Until next time

Marc Out~~

July 10th Update

Last of the Human Hojo members this week, only the Otherkin members to do now and that’s the last of the background extra concepts!

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This one is heavily inspired by Cloud, in particular his Advent Children attire:

I decided to make his outfit more symmetrical because it always bugged me that one half was all long and flowing and the other was basically his old outfit, so I gave him a second sleeve and moved the waist covering around to the back, a little more like Tifa’s design in the same movie:

This actually lead me to realise the to outfits actually have a lot of similar elements, which surprised me, such as the leather strips around the thigh of the leg. Finally I brightened up the colours in the out fit to make the first colour scheme, but I am worried its too similar, so I may make another when I review all the extras.

Anyway here is this week’s status on concepts:

• Background extras:39/42
• Main Characters: 13/13
• Main character re-designs: 1/5
• Secondary Character: 7/12
• Secondary Character re-designs: 0/4

That’s all for this week
Until next time

Marc Out~~