Creating the Characters of Hideo

Kathy again, here to talk about my experiences conceiving, designing, and illustrating the world of Hideo. My previous post discussed the development of the “world” and I think the next logical step is how I (we) created the characters.

I had the concepts for the characters pretty solid from the first few sketches. The idea was to work from these concepts to recruit actors who more or less fit the bill. Kind of a funny reversal of roles to see the images you created from your imagination become the goal for what you’re looking for in the real world.

Hideo obviously came first: physically tall and slender, of stoic character, and highly influenced by the likes of Spike (from the anime Cowboy Bebop). A young, brave, ambitious soul who is ferociously dedicated to justice, stopping at nothing to see it through to the finish. We made Hideo modestly armed with only a pistol strapped to his thigh and a sheathed sword carried on his back.

Complementing Hideo was Satoshi, the seasoned mercenary who fights with immense power and skill. Built like a brick, he is heavier and shorter than Hideo, and for some reason we were completely committed to him being a bald man. He has leather armor across his chest, shoulders and knees, a knife strapped to his chest, a gun at his thigh and in hand, and a dagger (and who knows what else!) in his boots. He’s not messing around. I even drew him a nice plated metal helmet, but when we realized he needed to be a live character, we knew that would be too difficult of a task to recreate for what would ultimately be very short stage time.

Reina was Hideo’s love interest, but we wanted to make sure she came across as a strong character on her own. Blair also wanted the singer of the “Aria di Mezzo Carattere” (Final Fantasy VI) to play the part of Reina simultaneously. Luckily, we found Mary Stocker, the petite Asian woman who not only knocked everyone’s socks off once she let out her first note, but who also amazingly matched the sketches I had already made for the character. Reina was the town healer of Blackwell – a kind-hearted and loyal person, always helping those around her. She was as stubbornly dedicated to her tasks as Hideo was to his, making for the perfect combination in the bleakest of times. I drew her with a slender and feminine figure, dressed in a very plain and simple dress with large working boots. She carries no weapons, which was a point we debated for a bit considering her town was always under siege by bandits. Basically, she’s so strong, she didn’t need a weapon, and too dedicated to the practice of healing people that a weapon would conflict with her convictions.

Blood Lt. Concept 1

Blood Lt. Concept 2

The Blood Lieutenants required a lot of discussions and tweaking. I have a few corny sketches of them, looking like a cross between an undertaker and a WWF fighter. These guys would be featured in the MegaMan medley, so I was kind of pulling from the idea of having them be the boss characters at the end of a level, varying only by the color (ok, so that was a little too “Ninja Turtle” for everyone), or being diverse in every characteristic (height, weight, pose, etc). Those ideas were graciously shot down, which is when I turned to Samurai soldiers for inspiration instead.

I modeled their armaments after the woven breast, shoulder, and leg plates of traditional Samurai, though I tried to make mine look more like metal plating than woven fabric, and had them be a little more slim-fitting than their historical counterparts. I then drew some sketches of a few styles of Samurai helmets, but ended up forgoing those in favor of Samurai masks. I kept the overall designs similar, but with differentiating patterns for each of them, although all had surly expressions. I gave them all a couple weapons, mostly blades, some of which were samurai-style swords, in keeping with the theme.

A tricky aspect of the character development was the weaponry. I have never been inclined to pay attention to the details of what makes a weapon specific to an era or its utility. The lucky part about the world we chose to develop was that I wasn’t in a position to dream up newfangled, futuristic weaponry, but also didn’t have to make sure I was breaking a timeline taboo by having a weapon in use that was too modern for the story. I also didn’t have to meddle with heavy machinery as the world was dilapidated and the action in the story too remote from any large military infrastructure. I was relieved to not have to endeavor into these areas of innovation/detail that, as I said, I am not inclined to be interested in. But that’s not to say that Hideo couldn’t go there someday. The material and story we have built for Hideo still leaves limitless and timeless possibilities for people to create their own world and characters.

Be sure to come back in a week or two, when I will talk about the process of storyboarding for Hideo.