Stella's Purgatory - Stella Character Concept

Welcome to my first blog post! I will be making a series of blogs from now, displaying three different Portfolio projects that will show off some of my current skills.

These series of Blogs will showcase development of the character 'Stella', through conceptualisation and references, the presentation of narrative-driven backstory, concept art and creating the character in 3DS Max, in which I will build the mesh, rig it and animate it. I will go through the process step-by-step to show my full development in images.

First of all, the concepting stage. The image below shows the character that I created for this project 'Stella', which I sketched out simply using Biro and scanned in to get a better clear image.

She is the main protagonist of the project 'Stella's Purgatory'. Her backstory involves living within a huge Secluded Dome far within the future, called 'Shan'Diva', and was built during the Apocalypse. Shan'Diva serves as a final haven for humans after monsters erupted throughout the world centuries ago. She lives in Sector-1, the lowest and least advanced area within the Dome, while there are also the remaining two Sectors 2 and 3. She and other citizens within the Dome have to wear an armband that indicates which Sector they come from, which is evidently seen on her right upper-arm in the design below. Stella bears a Mark on her left forearm, hidden away by bandages and remains a mystery but is ultimately a source of power that can bring forth unbounded power.

So, the reason why I decided to create a female character for this project? Well, simply because of the fact that I admire female protagonists within games, and obviously gives off a different perspective from your stereotypical male hero.

Her visual design and concept was mainly inspired by 'Stella' from Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The name itself derives from Latin, which translates to 'Star'. I chose to incorporate some of her glossy eyed detail and eyebrow into Stella, since they were my favorite features off the Stella in Versus XIII.

Stella From Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The eyes and eyebrow design is what I liked the most, and incorporated it for my character.

Johnny From Shadow Hearts: From the New World

I also borrowed some design ideas from a character named Johnny, from a game called Shadow Hearts: From The New World. chose to derive some design choices based on her personality; thus is why I gave her a shorter hair that reaches up to around her neck to symbolize her care-free nature. She also wears a plain T-shirt with Jorts. Johnny's overall design looks simplistic and quite 21st Century-like. Since the story of Stella's Purgatory is set in the distant future, in a fantasy world, I thought it would be interesting to have Stella wear clothes that would essentially be regarded as 'outdated', as she comes from the poorer parts of the Dome city.

#3DCharacter #Stella #3DSMax #CharacterModelling