Extended Practice Second Ancient Character Development: Research, Design, Bio and Character Turnarounds

I then moved onto designing my second Ancient character which is based in Egypt and this is the level that I am creating. For this as I had already done a lot of research into Egypt I felt that I didn't really need to any more in order to come up with some really interesting designs for this Ancient character. I wanted to go with a fairly traditional looking character design and one that made him look instantly like he was from Egypt so I explored traditional and ancient outfits that the Egyptians wore to start off with to get some inspiration for a costume for this character.

Name: Menes
Age: 26
Human Age: 102
Date of Birth: 26/05/1988
Ethnicity: Egyptian
M/F: Male
Profession: Ancient Protector of the Wonders
Education: No education

Hobbies/Interests: He tends to sleep a lot throughout most of the day as he is a fairly old character but when not sleeping, or eating, he enjoys building model structures, and some of his favourite things to build are models of the pyramids and also ancient Egypt as he wants to recreate the old world in model form.

Political/Religious Beliefs: He believes in a religion based on polytheism, which is what Ancient Egyptian's believed in.

Disposition/Personality: He is a very cheery person when he is awake, but most of the time he is very tired and this is mainly due to his age along with the fact that koala's need to sleep a lot. He likes to be in the comfort of his own things but will gladly sit down with everyone to enjoy a stimulating conversation with the other ancients.

Weaknesses/Faults: He doesn't like to share what he has, he is a bit greedy with food and doesn't like it when somebody eats something he feels was his share or his in general. This gets to the stage where he does become a bit of a hoarder with food, concealing it in his room away from everywhere else.

Pet Peeves: When someone moved his food in the living areas of the tree where they live, or if they eat something that they he considers his own.

Fears: He fears that the ancient world is going to be destroyed soon and he doesn't know if they are able to protect the wonders anymore.

Guilty Pleasures: Sitting down in his room, modelling his ancient world while munching on some food.

Prized Possession: His models, he has spent his lifetime working on these and is always adding to it and changing different areas to get it looking as perfect as possible.

Proudest Achievements: Completing the model of the Pyramid's of Giza in full, complete with tombs and burial chambers.

Secret Talents: He can burp the entire alphabet in one go.

Clothing/Appearance: He is a fairly smart character and will always try to look good, but as he sleeps a lot he can end up with ruffled up fur in places and unfortunately over the years his clothing is starting to become a little tighter on him as he refuses to wear anything but his traditional Egyptian clothing as he feels that it would betray his ethnicity without it.
Dialogue/Interactions: He speaks with a hint of an Egyptian accent but as he has lived with native English speaking Koala's his accent has changed over the years and adapted to become more English sounding.

Relationship with the Other Koalas: He gets on very well with the other Koala's when he is awake, apart from when they eat his share of the food. He enjoys there company a lot but does like his own space. If they weren't there he would be upset and wouldn't want to do what he does.
Wants: He wants to fully complete his model of ancient Egypt, but feels that it will never get done due to his old age.
Needs: To probably eat a little less, and stop the hoarding as it is not good for his health.
The single thing the character wants the most: For the Ancients to be a peaceful place without an worry.

The next thing that I went onto doing was design what his look was going to be, again I used my initial design sheets for Keith to pick out the head and body shape for him as it made the process easier and quicker. I had previously already designed an Egyptian outfit that Keith could have worn and I thought that that really brought out the essence of Ancient Egyptian clothing so pretty much took that and altered it slightly for this new character.

I then looked at creating the character turn arounds and once again did the same thing as before, by creating a black and white version and a colour so that I could use them as reference when modelling them in Maya. I think overall the final design is great and could work very well once in the level itself. The character will work well with the other that I have designed and also the ones that Sophie has designed to come from England and India.