Bones: Character Design

Bones is a young, innocent, dashing aspiring writer who sadly passed away in 1879 due to choking on a walnut. Raised in wealth, his death was an embarrassment to society so his family decided to move to the country. He was a good looking young man with long brunette hair, blue eyes and a smile to win the hearts of everyone, however his shyness, awkwardness and anxiety in nervous and unfamiliar situations stopped him from ever finding his one true love. A kind and gentle soul, Bones values friendship, is curious about life and is naive to his own charm.

As he doesn’t remember who he is, he goes by the name of Bones and feels as though he is a bit of an outsider in a strange and unfamiliar world. 

Original Sculpt

The original sculpt for 'Bones' was done in Nomad Sculpt on my iPad. I have never sculpted or modelled a character before, so this was a nice and light way to start and tinker in some fairly beginner friendly software. 

I then brought the character into Zbrush and fixed the topology, making him symmetrical (as close to) and creating the low poly/high versions. I then popped him into Substance Painter to texture and into Mixamo to test out whether rigging him would work and how he would run around in a game space. He would need customised animations and professional rigging should the concept continue to develop, however this was a really big learning curve for me working my way through very unfamiliar territory. 

Colour Tests in Substance Painter

Original Sketches