Theme Research: The Ultimate Black

  For this post, I will discuss the theme and inspirations that I have taken to tackle the project. One main reason I chose this theme is because I already had the characters I made several years ago that I can use and that were relevant to the theme. The characters, which I made back in 2011-2012 were also inspired by characters/designs that took inspirations from black colour. I will now showcase those inspirations and discuss what I can integrate those elements in my designs.

 The first inspiration is another character design called Black Rock Shooter. As the name suggests, the character is build around the black colour and also includes the necessary design cues as well.

(Black Rock Shooter, 2010)

 The elements of the design that are noticable is that this is mostly monochromatic, where the skin colour is pale to almost being pure white, and the black heavily contrasts the hair, the outfit and also the weapon. The only exception to the colour is the colour of the eye, with light blue pupils to highlight the details. The only colour in the eyes while the rest being mostly black and white is what allows the eyes to stand out more prevelant. This design also works considering the fact the character also has a full sized weapon, the design is kept relatively simple but works with the mecha-futuristic style to the character.

 The next element of inspiration is the product from XFX. This is a computer component, however their staple design is alwasy using the colour black and incorporating tasteful highlights to it such as silver ring around the fans and metal lining on the top of the component. This gives it more industrial and futuristic look while retaining the minimalist aesthetics at the same time. The company is well known for their previous 'Black Edition' components which would have outright black coloured shrouds with no high lights. This is were my inspiration for the name came from as the name 'Black' is an open interpretation to not only for the character, but their form as well.

XFX AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT MERC 319

 And final inspiration for the character designs are the weapons which seems obligatory since these characters are offensive based, their weapons morphing ability is the key stand out points to show their enemies about their strenght and power and in order to showcase that I had taken key design elements from existing weapons. One such weapon is the assault rifle AUG Steyr.

AUG Steyr

 AUG is a tactical weapon, however in this case this is an airsoft gun but the relevant design stands out. With the weapons I want to give for my characters, it was important that I take inspirations from military aspects such as the grooving on the top part of the weapon. The AUG has sharp edges especially on the top part, where the parts of the weapon that will be gripped is smoothen for extra grip. This is the particular design cue that I will look into and take note of because the weapons are much larger than the regular weapon.

And with this, these are some of the elements that I have noted down and what my characters will have for their weaponized designs with black colour in mind.

Reference list:

Amazon. 2021. RX 6900XT 16GB XFX MERC319 ULTRA. [online] Available at: <https://www.amazon.co.uk/6900XT-16GB-XFX-MERC319-ULTRA/dp/B08Q9SCPGD> [Accessed 29 July 2021].

Black Rock Shooter. 2010. [DVD] Directed by S. Yoshioka. Japan: Studio Ordet.

(Black), T., 2021. Tokyo Marui (High Cycle) Steyr AUG Airsoft Gun AEG (Black). [online] Fire-support.co.uk. Available at: <https://www.fire-support.co.uk/product/tokyo-marui-high-cycle-steyr-aug-airsoft-gun-aeg-black> [Accessed 29 July 2021].