Neuromancer: Adapted

Neuromancer: Adapted

Neuromancer: Adapted started as my Major Project in my final year at Massey Wellington, the goal was to explore and learn how to design characters for film. Recently I decided to further flesh it out by digging into prop design. Here's a quick synopsis of William Gibson's novel which I used as source material:

In Neuromancer we follow Case, a hacker who has been rough (out of a sleeping capsule in the Japanese port city of Chiba) after a former client damaged his nerves, preventing him from accessing Gibson's version of the internet. He is pursued by the bionically enhanced mercenary Molly, captured and brought before the mysterious Armitage who makes him an offer he can't refuse - Armitage will have his condition reversed in exchange for his hacking services on a massive heist. 

Character: Case

Despite being the main character of Neuromancer, Case receives very little in the way of physical description so I let narrative and his environment inform the design. I went with an orange puffer jacket as it could be a cast off from one of the local seamen. Ordinarily, a character wearing orange would stick out like a sore thumb (especially during a chase sequence) but given that Chiba is a port city and Ninsei (the bad part of town where Case does business) this helps him blend in whilst differentiating his design from other sci-fi protagonists.

Above: My final design for Case.

Case Process

Above: Early stages, exploring the main four characters' silhouettes. Below: Reworking the initial coloured lineup above to have more interesting/adventurous  clothing.

Below: Converting the lineart to photo-bashed base.

Below: Logo designs and application.

Below: Photo-bashing to the Major Project's final image.

Revisiting Case

After receiving critiques from Weta concept designers Jeremy Hanna, Adam Middleton and Paul Tobin I reworked my final image to be more consistent with the lineart I produced earlier in the process. In my pursuit of a photo-bashed finish I lost the unique shape design and proportions that made the design stand out.

Above: The major images used in the photobash. Left to Right: Bill Skarsgard shot by Valerie Chen for WWD, model wearing Acronym clothing, a licensed photo from photobash.org's Dirty Alley pack, Rains puffer jacket and model wearing Kenzo. 

Props: The Fletcher and Cobra

The Cobra

Early in Neuromancer, Case is pursued by Molly before he is captured and joins the team. During this sequence he ducks inside a small general store and purchases the Cobra; a telescoping baton with a hand strap. The Cobra , I think is a reference to A.S.P's extendable police batons.

Above: Starting with tri-tone handles, picking the best and making extended variations, then a quick maya blockout of my favourite design. Going back to the drawing board and gathering reference, iterating on top of the Maya base and letting reference inform the design to a greater degree.

The Fletcher

The Fletcher is the sidearm of Case's teammate Molly. Gibson describes it as being a flechette pistol with a pepperbox muzzle. He also suggests that the pistol has multiple fire modes with the line “... She put his pistol down, picked up her fletcher, dialled the barrel over to single shot". We see Molly use it twice throughout the novel, firstly with low-grade explosive rounds and secondly firing a toxic dart.

Above: The full process of designing the Fletcher from initial research to final sheet.