Winter styled Characters

Kukkitero

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, anyway.

I'm working on some character art recently and have hit a brick wall, I'm completly stuck on what approach to take.

The character in question is a serial killer set in a winter woodland environment and has to have their face covered as it will be used by multiple players.

PROBLEM IS: I'm not sure what type of clothing I should go with that would still fit in with a horror genre. Ski goggles and a fur winter jacket I don't think will fit in well haha.

If anyone has any ideas on what clothing style I should go for please leave a message it'll be greatly appreciated.

Deathstick

Well, it's very hard for me to think of a serial killer in a winter woodland environment and NOT think of The Shining, although I'd probably look to that film as more of how to make an iconic environment. Serial Killers tend to be more menacing when you really don't know they're a serial killer at all, with just a hint of craziness visible; such as seen through the depths of their eyes or expression. IE Jack Nicholson gets a little bit more unkempt as the film progresses, but mostly due to his facial expressions, which unfortunately probably won't work if your character's face needs to be covered.





Is this more of a multiplayer type character ala Rust or just a single-player character that has their face hidden to keep more of a first-person connection such as the masterchief?

There's also Fargo to use as possible ref or inspiration:


Again, alot has to do with facial expressions but you could argue the character's dressing helps support the visual claim of a serial killer. It all depends on whether you want the appearance to be subtle, or pretty damn obvious, general, or iconic. IE the hockey-mask of Jason is more towards the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of "hey this guy is probably off his rocker"

Multiple layers of clothing, such as sweaters, jackets, etc. can help if you don't want to specifically go for a fur jacket, although I think fur jacket's in themselves can actually be pretty creepy and allude to a serial killer. (the idea of wearing the skin of another for example, the trophy or kill) There's also a sense of femininity to a fur coat which can be further disarming to a player.

Then there's also the classic lumberjack pattern, which can help if your going for a rather buff, obvious woodsman type feel. AKA this guy is probably good with an axe.

In order to hide the face you have plenty of options, such as balaclavas/skimasks (there are a whole ton of options in how you can arrange it. Pre-cut, one whole swat style, two holes cut out by hand robber style, if a hole for the mouth is cut is it just a standard hole or is it cut in a rather creepy type of pattern), if they're wearing ski-goggles I'm sure you can find a pair that works, make it dirty and scratched if you're going for an unkempt feeling. Then there's always scarves and a wide variety of hoods or hats. (Assassins creed style, or scarf goggles, ski-mask, or all 4 etc.)

I'd probably think about what kind of level of visual-craziness do you want to go for. Subtle, disarming serial killer in winter-clothing who may be your friendly neighbor or just might have a few bodies in his basement; or the more obvious this guy wears a ski-mask inside a store and there is blood on his boots wtf RUN type character. You can also think a little bit about colors, IE blues and whites and the character will be able to camouflage themselves a bit. Wear a red shirt and you can see him instantly in the snow. (Something Fargo has alot of... saturated blood on clean white snow)

Kukkitero

It's for a multiplayer team deathmatch type game, the masks the serial killer team are wearing is dear skull masks if that helps. I like the bottom picture that seems kind of fitting. The player's faces won't be visible at all, I'm just struggling on coming up with a suitable attire for them.

I want something that would be fitting for the weather conditions but at the same time has a chance of adding to the character's overall frightening appearance.

Deathstick

Well nothing says serial killer + general enough to be used on multiple players without feeling too repetitive like thick black leather overcoats and gloves. Maybe you can have a sweater or two underneath to give them a bit more of an appearance of staying warm + have a secondary color peaking out.

Maybe something else to keep in mind is the idea of using multiple materials to help stand out if you're using a PBR-based engine. IE leather versus wool, metal belt buckles or buttons, plastic zippers etc.

If you were to say use something like a sweater poking out underneath you could easily use that as a way to increase variety among the players without having to create alot of additional work. (different sets of colors/texture map reskins for the sweaters, etc.) Sort of like how some of the models in CS:GO are pretty much the same minus a few different texturemaps and a change in apparel like whether or not they have a different mask.

Darker values and less-saturated colors generally tend to sway more towards the "frightening side," although i don't think a little bit of spot color such as the color scheme of steve buscemi's red sweater would hurt. Long trench-coats might also help in the appearance of a frightening character, and could be a little bit of a technological marvel as well if you're looking to explore something like Apex clothing.

Kukkitero

Awesome, thanks this has given me a lot of ideas, I'll definetly be having different varients (Textures). The trench coat look is great, so long as it isn't one of those trench coats from the matrix movie (down to the feet).

Might have them wearing Freddy Kruger sweaters posibally.

Thanks for the help, if any more ideas come up, let me know! xD

Steve Schulze

If all your characters are the same, a big fleecy hood would help by giving them a more generic silhouette. It'd probably look good with the deer skull mask set into it too.

Deathstick

Here's a miniref board I made for ya with a couple of different samples that may or may not help since ultimately it's up to where you want to take it. I mostly just did a search for winter clothing, jackets, sweaters, etc and then thought of a couple of more movies in winter such as the thick coats they use (much like the one Jackablade posted above) in the original The Thing, as well as the movie Dreamcatcher.



Maybe you can play around with things like hunting vests or shoulder holsters as well. Hunting vests might be a little too look at me! shoot me! though, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how easy it is to distinguish the opposing team from the environment. Mini/portable axes hanging off the sides, holsters, and such might be details that could lean the outfits towards being more "menacing" than standard winter clothing as well.

There's also a couple of variants in the board such as what I'd like to call the "New Yorker" business coat, though that's probably too city-styled for your game. (would probably work more in something like the terrorist model in CS_Office)

I've also included a bit or two from the STALKER/METRO game series incase your game is a bit more post-apocalyptic rather than 1970s-today.