Character Development

As a basis of research this image was used as a reference of size and shape of real Rhinos in the wild.

After a lot of sketches and proportional changes to the aesthetic of the baby Rhino character I came up with the final face and body structure. These are sketches of the orthographic front and side views of the Rhino.

Side

Front

The front of the character will never be seen (in game) but for a reference of size it is important to include.

Here are some vectored and coloured images of the final character. The skinning of the character and the patterns on the skin are a very important element to the character. The colouring is equally as important. I wanted an aesthetically pleasing colour pallet that would look good on a small window, I also wanted him to stand out, this is not an easy task. Often game characters have very vibrant and colourful skins with a high colour saturation. This was not the aesthetic I wanted my character to have. These colour pallets are mostly neutral blues, browns and purples.

I chose these colours because they are not so unlike the real colour of Rhino skin that the character becomes unrecognizable as a Rhino but they aren't real enough to drag the cartoon aesthetic of the Rhino and its proportions into looking under developed. I wanted the personal style of the character and the stylized skin to speak for them selves and stand out, instead of just becoming another colour tone on a character.

Aquamarine

Orange/Yellow

Grey

Dark Brown

Brown

Purple

These vectored shape of the character made him come to life. The colouring pattern works with almost any combination of tones. It is a typical THREE tone colouring, this is to describe the low, middle and high lights of the characters skin.