IT'S DANUARY - Character Redesign Exposition

[Skoops]

Every few years, I redesign some of my OCs to keep them fresh, refine the ideas and put them more in keeping with the changes I've made to what I charitably call a style. Danu is one of my oldest and least consistent OCs; I seem to draw her differently every time. Last time I made an attempt at standardizing her look was in 2021, where I went high detail:

I feel like that's been a detriment overall; it's prevented me from wanting to draw her, since staying on-model is such a pain in the ass when it's that complicated. So, I'm going to finally put the effort in to give her a simplified treatment that's easily repeatable and looks good enough that I don't keep changing things here and there. I might even make it so that other people are more keen to draw her. That'd be pretty cool.

I'm going to spend this month (or longer) going through a typical character design process in roughly the same way I would for a client in a professional setting. Hopefully I can present it in a way that makes it clear how much ideation and refinement goes into some characters before they're considered optimized - it's a lot of work, and that's probably why I've never really done it for most of my own characters.

I'm also doing it publicly in its own thread like this so that I can discuss character design more broadly and get people's feedback for things I'm on the fence about. I'll be making all the final decisions, but it might be interesting to see how opinions differ.

In order of what I'll be redesigning, I'll be doing:

1. Face and Hair
2. Body Type
3. Main Outfit
4. Accessories

Each of those have sub-categories, but we'll get there when we get there. Starting it off with a 1st round of heads:

I don't even like most of these. Fun fact, if you give a client 8 options where one or two are good and the rest are lame, they will always choose the one you almost deleted because you hate it. It's a scientific fact. Anyway, I'll think about which hair, eyes and mouth I like most and mix and match into something better, step by step.

[Skoops]

I liked some elements mostly from heads A and E, namely the eyes of E and the simple spiky bangs and pseudo bob cut from A. Cramming them together feels ok to me.

Going with the five symmetrical spikes for the bangs, and a "frame" that's more angular. Definitely going for a more triangle-heavy shape language.

I want to keep the eyes simple; need to sketch more before I'm 100% sure these are the shapes to use.

It's enough to work with for now. On to the next thing.

[misterbright]

The best picture of her

[tydaze]

The sharp angles and furrowed brow give me the impression that she's a serious-minded and task-oriented person.

That head turnaround looks really good, nice job on it!

[Skoops]

At 1/9/24 04:12 PM, misterbright wrote: The best picture of her

OUTDATED. OUTDATED. OBSOLETE.

At 1/9/24 06:57 PM, tydaze wrote: The sharp angles and furrowed brow give me the impression that she's a serious-minded and task-oriented person.

Good good, I'm going to refrain from info-dumping because I want the design to do all the talking. That said, it sounds like I'm on the right track.

[misterbright]

At 1/9/24 08:35 PM, Skoops wrote:

At 1/9/24 04:12 PM, misterbright wrote: The best picture of her

OUTDATED. OUTDATED. OBSOLETE.

Ur butt is outdated

[Skoops]

Time for some audience participation - the time for deciding body type has arrived.

Your options are all muscular. Danu is a tough lady, and that part is non-negotiable. Tell me your favorite way to get beaten up.

-Ectomorph type is characterized by compact muscles on a smaller frame. They can look harmless when wearing less form-fitting clothes, but Bruce Lee was an ectomorph, so there's that to consider.

-Mesomorph type is the typical lean muscular look that most superheroes get. The muscles are very muscle-shaped, arguably the most muscle-shaped as it gets. A good all-rounder, they look tough in just about anything.

-Endomorph types are the tanks. Their frames are bigger and their muscle is less lean with more body fat compared to mesomorphs. In entertainment, endomorphs are coded as more naturally strong because they're physically bigger and don't look as ripped as mesomorphs even if they've got more muscle mass.

[Thetageist]

At 1/10/24 06:10 AM, Skoops wrote: Time for some audience participation - the time for deciding body type has arrived.
Your options are all muscular. Danu is a tough lady, and that part is non-negotiable. Tell me your favorite way to get beaten up.

-Ectomorph type is characterized by compact muscles on a smaller frame. They can look harmless when wearing less form-fitting clothes, but Bruce Lee was an ectomorph, so there's that to consider.

-Mesomorph type is the typical lean muscular look that most superheroes get. The muscles are very muscle-shaped, arguably the most muscle-shaped as it gets. A good all-rounder, they look tough in just about anything.

-Endomorph types are the tanks. Their frames are bigger and their muscle is less lean with more body fat compared to mesomorphs. In entertainment, endomorphs are coded as more naturally strong because they're physically bigger and don't look as ripped as mesomorphs even if they've got more muscle mass.

In your works, I’ve seen her described as an “unlikely hero” and a “glass cannon”, though I may be misunderstanding what about her is being labeled as such. So I’d be more inclined to side with ectomorph, since a less physically imposing appearance could mean more people, adversaries and critics alike, underestimate her.

[tydaze]

At 1/10/24 06:10 AM, Skoops wrote: Time for some audience participation - the time for deciding body type has arrived.
Your options are all muscular. Danu is a tough lady, and that part is non-negotiable. Tell me your favorite way to get beaten up.

-Ectomorph type is characterized by compact muscles on a smaller frame. They can look harmless when wearing less form-fitting clothes, but Bruce Lee was an ectomorph, so there's that to consider.

-Mesomorph type is the typical lean muscular look that most superheroes get. The muscles are very muscle-shaped, arguably the most muscle-shaped as it gets. A good all-rounder, they look tough in just about anything.

-Endomorph types are the tanks. Their frames are bigger and their muscle is less lean with more body fat compared to mesomorphs. In entertainment, endomorphs are coded as more naturally strong because they're physically bigger and don't look as ripped as mesomorphs even if they've got more muscle mass.

To me the mesomorph body looks like someone who spends every waking moment of the day at the gym getting toned. And the endomorph gives the impression of a boxer or wrestler, or weightlifter. If you'll forgive me for gender role stereotyping, the mesomorph and endomorph bodies you drew both look very, very butch in my eyes, especially with those broad shoulders.

If I had to pick one of those three I say ectomorph. But I think I would go for a halfway point somewhere in between the ectomorph and mesomorph body types you have drawn.

I'm thinking a character with a frame like that can be imposing, strong, and tough-looking without coming off as a complete powerhouse. Impa and Urbosa from Zelda come to my mind.

[Skoops]

At 1/10/24 07:14 AM, Thetageist wrote:

At 1/10/24 06:10 AM, Skoops wrote: Time for some audience participation - the time for deciding body type has arrived.
Your options are all muscular. Danu is a tough lady, and that part is non-negotiable. Tell me your favorite way to get beaten up.

-Ectomorph type is characterized by compact muscles on a smaller frame. They can look harmless when wearing less form-fitting clothes, but Bruce Lee was an ectomorph, so there's that to consider.

-Mesomorph type is the typical lean muscular look that most superheroes get. The muscles are very muscle-shaped, arguably the most muscle-shaped as it gets. A good all-rounder, they look tough in just about anything.

-Endomorph types are the tanks. Their frames are bigger and their muscle is less lean with more body fat compared to mesomorphs. In entertainment, endomorphs are coded as more naturally strong because they're physically bigger and don't look as ripped as mesomorphs even if they've got more muscle mass.

In your works, I’ve seen her described as an “unlikely hero” and a “glass cannon”, though I may be misunderstanding what about her is being labeled as such. So I’d be more inclined to side with ectomorph, since a less physically imposing appearance could mean more people, adversaries and critics alike, underestimate her.

Oh, you've done some research ey~

Don't let the glass cannon and unlikely hero things influence you too much. Still trying not to info dump, but the unlikeliness of her heroism is more of a personality issue than an ability thing.

The glass cannon designation was a characteristic of some of her old designs, but I don't mind making her tougher if it suits a better design.

[Skoops]

At 1/10/24 08:15 AM, tydaze wrote:

At 1/10/24 06:10 AM, Skoops wrote: Time for some audience participation - the time for deciding body type has arrived.
Your options are all muscular. Danu is a tough lady, and that part is non-negotiable. Tell me your favorite way to get beaten up.

-Ectomorph type is characterized by compact muscles on a smaller frame. They can look harmless when wearing less form-fitting clothes, but Bruce Lee was an ectomorph, so there's that to consider.

-Mesomorph type is the typical lean muscular look that most superheroes get. The muscles are very muscle-shaped, arguably the most muscle-shaped as it gets. A good all-rounder, they look tough in just about anything.

-Endomorph types are the tanks. Their frames are bigger and their muscle is less lean with more body fat compared to mesomorphs. In entertainment, endomorphs are coded as more naturally strong because they're physically bigger and don't look as ripped as mesomorphs even if they've got more muscle mass.

To me the mesomorph body looks like someone who spends every waking moment of the day at the gym getting toned. And the endomorph gives the impression of a boxer or wrestler, or weightlifter. If you'll forgive me for gender role stereotyping, the mesomorph and endomorph bodies you drew both look very, very butch in my eyes, especially with those broad shoulders.

If I had to pick one of those three I say ectomorph. But I think I would go for a halfway point somewhere in between the ectomorph and mesomorph body types you have drawn.
I'm thinking a character with a frame like that can be imposing, strong, and tough-looking without coming off as a complete powerhouse. Impa and Urbosa from Zelda come to my mind.

I do rather like Gerudo girls. In BotW/TotK it's a little hard to pin down body types there because they're (almost) all giantesses, so the less ripped ones read more like endomorphs to me: muscular and physically imposing but still lots of room for feminine curves and all that. There are some obvious mesomorphs in the mix too, but ectos are relatively rare.

[Skoops]

Since Danu's a fighter, I thought studying fighting game girls would be a good idea, but it's funny how few there are that look as strong as they canonically are. The ones that aren't purely designed for sex appeal are all giants, so I see my niche for a character that's a little short and more buff than the average Capcom girl. Honorable mention to Baiken from Guilty Gear; that's about as close as it gets to the vibe I want.

That said, I think the original Mesomorph demo was a bit much. I want someone that looks tough and knows it, but not with every muscle group perfectly chiseled. Kinda type-mixing to get a less lean, slightly softer-looking build that can still obviously choke a bitch out.

[Skoops]

Danu's general body type and size seems good to me. She's shorter this time, only a 6.5-head figure. I think it gives her a more feisty vibe that I like. We stan our angry short queens.

With that, it's on to costume design.

This is the part that needs the most simplification. I've already thrown out the messenger bag and headphones outright, and I think the headband is going to only be a "sometimes" thing. Less straps, less patterns, less little doodads and details, just focusing on a few items I can make iconic, no waste.

Honestly, I'm leaning towards keeping the jacket from the 2021 design, but not before forcing some concepts out. That's a very "industry" thing to do, knowing what you want to do but doing a bunch of repetitive work on top of it anyway just to prove to yourself (or your boss) that you were right the first time.

[SpikeyBlum]

The jacket is my personal favorite part of Danu's 2021 design besides her bubblegum hair, so it's nice that you are considering keeping it around, even if it gets some small tweaks in the end [which looks like what you're trying to do with B.]

[Skoops]

A composite of my favorite elements:

-Choker now has spikes (again). Wrists don't have spiked bracelets to match because it's too Chun-Li.

-V-neck cropped shirt (Dunno about a design on it)

-2021 jacket is back, slightly simplified

-Fingerless gloves and arm wraps replaced with more realistic boxer's hand wraps

-Simpler belt buckle

-Regular-ass jeans, cuffs rolled up

-Boots are more boot-like

Revising the color palette is next I think. Things feel disjointed, and I will... joint them.

[Skoops]

Color time, round 1 at least. Changes here might seem subtle. A lot of metallic bits used to be a pale green to give off a more cyberpunk vibe, now they're more of a blue grey that plays better with shades of purple. This puts all the colors on one half of the color wheel, meaning more cohesion but less contrast. That's fine; I want this version to draw attention primarily to he upper body to make it clearer that she's a fist-fighter.

Danu lives on Newgrounds now, so I'm interested in making her colors more saturated overall to fit a more western animation vibe.

Something I didn't check last time that I'm checking this time is color values. She should read better now that all her colors have different values.

Color palette under a 0% Saturation Blend Layer:

Doesn't seem that important at first, but its necessity is more obvious when you see designs without those subtle differences in values .

[Skoops]

Open call to any fellow martial arts nerds that can back up a good recommendation for a (preferably asian) punch-heavy style befitting a street fighter.

In previous iterations, Danu's style wasn't very focused or defined, so I'd have her float between kickboxing and western-style boxing, and just call it "MMA" when it doesn't fit either. I think she'd still be doing MMA since her whole thing is "whatever works", but I want a particular style to be her standout focus that's more obvious when she squares up.

My first inclination is to have her be a Muay Mat fighter, a style of Muay Thai that's about aggressively closing distances to land heavy punches at the expense of being vulnerable to an opponent's attacks. I feel like it fits a character that's impatient and doesn't mind getting hit if it means she can get in there and hit harder. Kick-focused Muay Thai like with Street Fighter's Sagat has that super iconic guard stance with the leg ready to block, but with Muay Mat she'd be just a little light on her front foot and have hands slightly more extended out compared to a western boxing stance. None of that really reads super obviously, so I'd have to be animating her to show her throwing elbows and stuff like that before it's anything more than headcannon, but eyy.

[Skoops]

Putting it to the test, she's definitely easier to draw and render. (She takes the jacket off if she's in a cage match)

[Skoops]

Wrapping up Danuary with an updated pfp. Like a mighty phoenix, Danu is reborn in the flames of... me, deciding to do an update.

[SpikeyBlum]

The Sailor Moon meme lives on.