Character Lineage

When I thought about creating my character, I wanted a character who works in a team. I wanted the character to look different from the rest and give off a comical atmosphere. The character has to be strong and smart at the same time and an unusual body shape. I was thinking about having the character do a lot of comical jokes and gags and decided make the character look similar to a gorilla so that gorilla jokes can be created.

The first character that I used as a reference to create my character’s appearance would be the Heavy from the game Team Fortress 2. I used the facial feature of the stubble coming from the ears to the upper lip. I also reduced the ear size. I like the bald head of the Heavy and decided to make my character bald.

Even though the body is perfect for my character, the Heavy is large and looks menacing. He also looks like a big oaf which is something that I do not want. By cross-referencing to another character, Mr. Incredible from the film The Incredibles, I was able to make some adjustments to the body.

Mr. Incredible has a slightly protruding belly and has a more proportionate body than the Heavy. By using Mr. Incredible’s body as a reference, I decreased the size of the upper body and increased the size of the head. However, I also shrunk the lower body so that the upper body of the character will still be bigger than the lower body. I wanted by character to have short legs and long arms.

I wanted my character to have large hands and looked at the picture of the Incredible Hulk. The Hulk has a very muscular body and very large hands. The Hulk’s skeleton is proportionally correct but his muscles are very large, making him look wider. I did not want the width of The Hulk because it makes him look more frightening as I am aiming to create a comical character. I made my character’s arms thicker and hands larger.

Now my character looks more like a gorilla than a human and looks strong. However, I want my character to look smart as well. To look smart, one has to dress smart. I decided to dress my character in a suit with a tie. This reminds me of Agent 47 from the Hitman series. By looking at Agent 47’s clothing, I get the impression that he is a professional and does not go around randomly shooting people. I feel that people wearing suits look smarter and neater because of difficulty of maintaining the neatness of the attire.

By dressing my character in a suit with a tie, my character looks physically strong and intellectually smart. I just need to decide on the personality of the character. Since my character does odd jobs in a team and does a lot of jokes and gags, I researched on 2 anime characters.

The first anime character that I researched on was Kagura from Gintama. Kagura is a ridiculously strong China girl who works at an odd job business. Even though she is strong, she is not smart. Majority of the jokes and gags that she does are violent like smashing a monk’s head on the table during a funeral. This displays carelessness in the environment which is not something that I want in my character. My character is a responsible person that does funny jokes and gags without causing trouble for others.

The second anime character that I researched on was Switch from Sket Dance. Switch is a high school student who is in a club that helps solve problems of students. Switch is very knowledgeable about various things and usually makes jokes and gags. Even though he acts like a goof most of the time, he can be serious when the situation calls for it. This is the kind of personality I want my character to have but unlike Switch, I want my character to be serious majority of the time and suddenly come out with a funny joke. Switch is funny most of the time which is not something that I want. This gives me the impression that he is not serious most of the time. I feel that a comical character that is serious most of the time can make a funnier joke than a character that is always making jokes.