Cyberpunk Street Racer

Cyberpunk Street Racer - Character Design

The Brief: 

Set in the future where street racing has become more neon and flashy somehow, street racers take to streets in their heavily modified cars to earn some serious cash and serious street cred. This racer is one of the more established racers in the league, earning a name for herself and her machine, even getting recognised by her car's makers and getting a sweet bonus from them if she wins. 

The Goal: 

To design a cool looking character that could feature in a music video, reminiscent of Riot's recent music videos of KDA and True Damage in terms of aesthetic and style.  

Character Thumbnails

For my process, I typically start off with some rough thumbnails on the general look of the character and seeing what suits the brief but also reads nicely. 

I had a few pieces I already knew I wanted on the character, a cap and a prosthetic leg, so it was more trying to figure out what worked well with the personality and general vibe of this character.

Colour Passes

The next step was to figure out the colours of the character, as this is a part of my work I have had trouble with in the past. I had made another street racer within this same brief that was to work as an ally to this character but not be on the same team, so the colour work had to be similar enough to show the two characters alliance, but not so different that it made them look like rivals or enemies.

Character Turnaround

Once I knew which colour combo I felt worked best, I did a turnaround of the character and added some smaller details such as piercings.

Final Render

Originally I was going to take what was on the turnaround and essentially make it look cool as a render, but after receiving some feedback from one of my instructors I ended up pushing the cyberpunk aesthetic further, as well as adding some more smaller details such as more car brand patches and logos, more shape breakup on her prosthetic leg and extra cool straps over her white shirt.

Overall I am extremely happy with the final result as this is one of my most polished pieces yet. I hope to take what I've learnt over this project and make some more cool looking work!