So I've been thinking about my theme, The Perception of Reality. Instead of adhering to my project plan and following the route of Split Personality again, I have decided to look into another idea; The Multiverse Theory. I have thought of a Character based on my previous Old Man design... He is now an scientist (inventor) that is trying to find way to enter a parallel universe. Being the victim of many previously failed experiments (including one that took his legs) he expects to fail again, to his surprise he succeeds and finds another superior alien race, and befriends it- this can be my low poly character.
Today I have been experimenting with different shapes in my design. Shapes can be the base of the characters personality, and is usually the tell tale sign of their characteristics; because my character is an old ex-military man, he will have to feature predominantly squares.
This character is based on the body shape furthest right; he is predominantly squared, due to his military background. He has droopy cheeks and fat due to his age, the army patches and poppy are a symbol of his previous military experience; similarly to his hair cut. This is quite a stern, emotionless character; however, there is lot's of room for alterations upon the switch to another personality. The droopy cheeks and oversized features will easily shift to best highlight a different expression.
Here are a couple of design's I did based around circles and tear drops; using more rounded shapes gives the character a harmless, dopey feel to him.
I have been researching how to convey facial expressions most effectively on a Character. Here are some examples I've found online that I will use for inspiration..
Facial Expression Sheet Keane, G (2011) Tangled Retrieved from: http://theartofglenkeane.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/rapunzel.html
Facial Expression Sheet
Keane, G (2011) Tangled Retrieved From: http://theartofglenkeane.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/rapunzel.html
Facial Expression Sheet Shange, P (2010) Coraline Retrieved From: http://jukilo89.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/coralines-character-design-expressions/
After researching into DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) I realised the character could originally be anything, but must be a design that will best highlight the different personalities. The best way to portray personality in a character is through the pose, and the facial expressions; the best character for this job- an old man with eccentric facial hair and facial muscles. He can have a number of persona's such as: Ex Military, Farmer, Little Girl, Old woman, Middle aged man, Baby.
Mood Board: Old Man- Ex Military/Adventurer
I then drew a few thumbnail poses to try and get a good base design down for the personalities. Because the character design is based around multiple personalities I had to make sure the personality came across strongly in the pose; here I tested out a number of character ideas, from the little child, to the mad gunman. I will now have to pick one and develop it into a design.
I have been watching video's of people with Multiple Personality Disorder, in order to get a clearer picture of how they behave/look. The changes can be so drastic, as far as being blind as one personality and have 20/20 vision as the other. The disorder seems to come about after an abusive childhood or traumatic event, where the person cannot mentally cope with the effects of the trauma and will split into different people, living in the same body. Sometimes this will often result in a child personality, where the person with the disorder cannot read nor write and will act exactly as a child.
Sometimes, the personality may wish to harm the beholder, even cutting the body to injure the other personality. In the film, one lady refers to herself as 'she' and refer's to 'the body', with different people inside; sometimes she will not know where the body has been, or what it has done and asks people to force her other personalities to write a diary; each one has different hand writing. People can have up to a hundred different personalities.
The personalities come out at certain emotional points, whether they are aggravated, scared, worried, enthusiastic. Each personality is better at dealing with certain situations, so will come out when the person is feeling the corresponding emotion.
Although the person is exactly the same, when they switch between personalities their physical appearance can change drastically, simply through the use of different facial expressions, body language and language.
The main route to recovery is to release the traumatic memory that caused the personalities to split, however, the person will often form a personality that prevents this from happening, making threats to the therapist and often resulting in violence.
Animals can also react to personalities differently, in the documentary the dog had been trained to stay out of the room, when he switched to a child personality the dog sensed his master had gone and entered the room, when he switched back the dog recognised his presence and left the room.
Different personalities hold different memories and each personality has a different purpose.
A young boy with split personality disorder has his ice-cream stolen. The player must learn to master each personality to complete this fast paced puzzle platformer and retrieve Bobby's beloved ice-cream.
