Character Cosmetic Design
Why:
I decided to design cosmetics for existing characters in order to practise and demonstrate my ability to develop alternative concepts to existing designs, as well as work within specific theming requirements. I wanted to restrict myself to specific themes in order to become more focused with the concepts
Original concept art by Christopher Young, property of Behaviour Interactive
After selecting the game, Dead by Daylight (by Behaviour Interactive), and chose holidays as the theme, I needed to select which characters I would design cosmetics for. I first excluded all licensed killers, only choosing from the original characters. I then excluded killers that either already had noticeably more cosmetics than others, and the ones with so few cosmetics that I wouldn’t have enough to reference my own designs from. After that it was just up to me to select the killers I felt most strongly about designing for, those being the Plague and the Oni.
After gathering both original concept art and in game idle poses as reference, I began thinking of ideas and sketching concepts for them. The ideas I ended up liking the most were 2 Halloween themed Plague cosmetics, a Christmas themed Plague cosmetic, and a new year themed Oni cosmetic.
For the Plague skins I was able research them easily enough, but I made sure to do extra thorough research for the Oni cosmetic. As the character is Japanese, I researched important Japanese holidays and then settled on new year. I made sure to research the holiday more carefully, as it is not one I myself am personally familiar with and I wanted those aspects of the costume to be as accurate as possible.
Plague:
Concept sketches for the Plague
Both of the Halloween Plague cosmetics are based primarily on jack o'lanterns. The first replaces the diseased sections for rotting pumpkin, a common sight just after Halloween. I used a moon shape for the helmet and a veil to cover the less-infected side of the face, as well as changing the bottom of the dress to look like the games iconic scull icon. I then chose to make the censor based on traditional jack o'lanterns, originally make of turnip.
The other Halloween cosmetic instead treats the pumpkin itself as an infection, growing out from the mask and fusing to the face. I still include some dark mould to stay true to the original character, but kept it more solid than my first design. I kept the censor a more iconic pumpkin for this one, and added stains that almost appear like a jack o'lanterns grin on the dress.
For the Christmas Plague cosmetic, I based it off of an angle topper for trees. A broken halo for the mask, I made the sick sections swollen and frostbitten. The dress I changed to the classic white, puffy version, and included diseased, rotten wings to help the silhouette. I had issues making a serious censor that looked different from her normal cosmetics, but I liked the idea of a Santa themed on enough to sketch that idea.
Oni:
The Oni cosmetic was the most challenging, and I referenced the existing cosmetics many times to make sure I understood the limits of what could be done with the character. While the original cosmetic is fairly heavily armoured with a large mask, but many cosmetics already break these conventions. This gave me the confidence to give the Oni a more traditional yukata and a smaller mask. The mask itself is based on a daruma doll, with only one eye painted and the other broken, so whatever was wished can never come true. A similar idea with the belt, based on a shimekazari, a traditional barrier or gateway for the home during new year. I made it broken for the cosmetic, a sign of danger instead of safety. There is less meaning behind the kadomatsu sword. Kadomatsu are traditional new year decorations, and I was stricken with the idea of using them as a weapon.