DEVELOPMENT AND LOOKING BACK ON CONCEPT
I started off by looking back into my overall moodboard that covered the entirety of my narrative as I had wanted everything to align to the overall lore and aesthetic that I had made. Though I was uncertain I would get to some of the characters mentioned in the moodboard, I would be sure to still take their designs and aesthetics into account for the sake of continuity and cohesiveness. For this project, I kept in mid that I wanted my character to be in somewhere like the Fishing Hamlet in Bloodborne (2015), so that I would have an overall mood to keep in mind when creating the model. I also looked towards the aesthetic of the Abyssal Hunters from Arknights (2019), as there was a mix of sailor and hunter that I found was similar to what I had wanted to go for. Along with this, I looked to many armour sets within Dark Souls III (2016) and Elden Ring (2022) .
TEST MODELLING
I began with some initial block-outs in Zbrush as I had learned Zbrush well and plan to expand my skillset with this program. I wanted to verify my concept’s structure and to see if the armour would translate well into a 3D model. I already found a few structural issues regarding my concept such as with the shape of the helmet. I found that it did not look good from a forwards angle, nor did the chestplate’s multi-layered design live up to my satisfaction. Despite a few modifications and minor tweaks to the design, I decided, in the end to not completely go through with the full details of this design and attempt to interpret it into something that was more logical and that aligned with the nature and function of old armour. I then moved onto improving this concept as even aesthetically I did not think it would work at all, despite being quite unique.