[Vampire Pixel] Behind the characters

As a natural sister to character animation, I have a strong interest in character design, and have learned to identify certain characteristics and conventions in characters, not only in the aesthetics, but in the personalities . In this entry I'll be explaining the drive behind the team in Vampire Pixel, starting with the leader, Viare. This entry will focus mainly on names and visuals, I'll be making a later entry on personalities and archetypes.

VIARE

Age:                       22
Gender:               Female

Viare's name is a simple pun of the abbreviation V.R. (Virtual Reality) giving a strong tie in with the digital/high tech world they live in. I prefer to make up or alter names for my characters as they're more memorable than your average "Joe Hero" and "Jack Protagonist". They often give me a chance to theme the names, this is evidenced in the team's names, which all begin with the letter v.

Viare is far from being a girly girl, and as such, I have her blue as her theme colour, which typically denotes boys, giving it a clear separation from the typical girly stereotype. This is also ideal for a theme with Veetoo, her younger sister, who has pink as a theme colour (typically synonymous with young girls). This immediately makes a link between the two of them.

As far as anatomy goes, Viare has a lot of emphasis on legs and arms. This will come in handy when I need to exaggerate movements, such as a run, as the focus is already on these body parts, complete with glowing lights that can leave motion trails in the most extreme movements.

I chose to put Viare's hair in a short style for a number of reasons. The first admittedly being for ease of animation. The art style I'm aiming for focuses heavily on strength, achieved through the use of noticeable, basic shapes. If I added too much secondary movement to Viare by having long hair trailing behind, I'd have lost some of the impact in the more action orientated scenes. Also, I don't have long to make this video, so y'know... Yeah.

               

VEETOO

Age:                       11
Gender:               Female

Veetoo is Viare's younger sister, therefore I wanted to have several links between them. These come in the form of body shapes, theme colours, and also names. Veetoo is literally pronounced as "V-two", implying there's a v-one, Viare. She also has two v's (or a w, if you're going to be like that...) implemented into her hair design, whereas Viare has one. On the opposite end of the stereotype spectrum, Veetoo is intended to be perceived as a lot more "girly", having pink theme colours incorporated into her hair and dress, and wearing glowing pink accessories. I also followed the formula for "cute" characters after watching this video.

Her head is bigger on her body, which is part of the typical child design, and she has large, expressive eyes, in comparison to Viare's beady eyes, (as Viare is intended to be more gesture driven, instead of facial expressions).

VIKING

Age:                       33
Gender:               Male

The design for Viking has changed over  time as I developed his characteristics. He was originally based as an oval with legs, sharing almost the same build as Timekeeper Guards, but as time went on and I thought about his back story, I changed him to being more built than fatty. His name is a no brainer, as he's the combat orientated member of the team. Being a rehabilitated super-villain, I was able to make a "good-guy" with more of a readable "bad-guy" appearance. This is shown in areas such as the head, using accessories such as goggles and adding a scar. His head shape is typical of the "strong man" character, which can be seen in so many characters that the trope was parodied by the creation of "The Crimson Chin"

As far as colours go, Viking follows a yellow and black colour scheme, this sticks to the basic theme colours and also adds a sense of danger to him. Yellow and black are often used together as a sign of hazards, or danger, more than fitting for a muscle man.

VEXTOR

Age:                       5
Gender:               Male

The final member of the team, Vextor's name comes from the words Vex, Vector, and Dexter. Vector is a link to the sharp art style I'm creating within the show, and has links to technology in the form of digital images. Dexter is a link to an influence behind the show, Dexter's Lab (also the name of my cousin's cat) and the final part of his name, Vex, represents his moody personality.

Vextor's collar was originally intended to be blue to show ownership by Viare, but I later changed this to green to make a complete set of red, blue, green and yellow.

Vextor himself is a parody of the "mascot character" that's often shoehorned into shows, a good example of this from a parody point of view can be seen in South Park. The show has an episode featuring the band Korn, using a Scooby Doo styled method of storytelling. The episode in itself is one big parody of cartoons, but the part I'm focusing on is Korn's brand new mascot, "Nibblet" who loves potato chips. This sort of mascot character can often be seen as a method of producing merchandise from the show. The character GIR in the show Invader Zim is a classic example of this, and judging by Jhonen Vasquez's writing was intended to stick to this formula in an ironic way. Due to the inclusion of this sidekick/mascot character, Hot Topic and other stores are often home to a huge variety of GIR covered merchandise, from shirts and bags, all the way down to lip gloss, which if I remember correctly, Jhonen made fun of. I'm PIKACHU getting PIKACHU side PIKACHU tracked PIKACHU with PIKACHU all PIKACHU this PIKACHU mascot PIKACHU business PIKACHU. I'm PIKACHU sure PIKACHU I PIKACHU can PIKACHU think PIKACHU of PIKACHU more.

VAMPIRE PIXEL

Not only do the team have their own traits, but I've tried to add certain aspects to the design that link them together, and set them aside from the rest of the characters. I've briefly mentioned the link between their names (all beginning with V) and their primary theme colours, but there are more links between them too. For example, the team is neatly divided into two male and two female, to make the show more universal to the mock primary audience. The show contains action, and also plays around with more "girly" aspects too, this is another method of broadening the mock target audience if this were to be shown on television. The characters are themed to be relatable for kids/early teens too, with the sibling relationship/rivalry themes, a big tough guy to look up to, two completely different types of girls, one tomboyish, and one childish and a grumpy mascot as the comic relief. Another small example is the theming in the character's ages, these being 11,22, and 33. Vextor breaks this formula, but this could be argued as part of his misfit personality.

To add a last bit of emphasis to the team's colours, I made their outfits more contrasting, often incorporating near-black colours to make the neons pop out more.

To summarise, I've taken a lot of things into consideration to give characteristics to the team and make them more readable. Aspects such as colour, body shape and accessories have all been taken into consideration to not only create four individual characters, but link them together through common ideas.