Character design development

Having completed my final character designs, I decided to ink them and scan them again, because the original pencil scans didn’t contrast well with the templates. Now, the images look cleaner because the ink lineart stands out while the template lineart fades into the background.

When comparing all three designs, I came to the conclusion that they have a similar style, but are distinct enough to stand out. When on a poster together, the cast won’t look like a jarring mashup of random characters from various B-movies. With this in mind, I moved onto the next step: Colour palettes.

Colour palette 1 was my original idea. I already had this palette in mind when designing my characters. The robot would be bubblegum blue, to look like a 50s vehicle or appliance. The scientist would have a soft colour scheme- a white outfit with baby blue accents and green hair, which has a clean, scientific aesthetic. The space marine would have a red palette, to contrast the other characters and communicate bravery.

The other two palettes were created by shifting the hue of the first one. They are both experimental, created as alternatives that could be mixed and matched with eachother. Overall, I prefer palette 1, but the alternative colour schemes for the scientist and robot look good too. I decided to stick with palette 1 for my final iterations of the cast, but I changed the scientist’s hair to purple, to contrast with the other characters.

Cast palette final

With the character designs and colour palette complete, the next step is to draw the characters’ faces in detail. To prepare for this, I will first brush up on my drawing skills.

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