Zuko Concept
here is my step by step process of a real life Zuko design based on the shape language of the original and translated into real life. This project is the outcome of my gnomon Character Development class with Loic Zimmerman who tasked us to pick up an existing design that didnt work and improve on it. Frankly, the feature avatar-the last airbender film was generally an unsuccessful project that i feel had deviated way too much from zukos original iconic style. i hope you enjoy my take on it :)
The iconic silhuette of the original design got lost by the new design
I take the original as reference and see how far i can go with the original shapes and tweak them to make them fit in our world. At the same time i keep my Chinese Armor reference on the second screen. The shapes have to be based on real life
After example B was chosen (i got some improvement feedback) I decided to bring the design into 3D because i needed to fit the armor on a body and see how it would sit, work and flow. Zbrush to keyshot.
I assembled my textures and had to add dirt, burn marks and worn out feel to the armor to make it feel like the pieces belonged together. Also the occlusion shadows had to be drawn and the face painted.
Moodboard. I thought: what is the main difference between real chinese warriors and firenation soldiers? fire bending and more agility for Zuko. I needed dragon Scales for fire proof armor.
The real life look also comes from detail and story telling in that detail- hence the stitching and painting of dragons on the armor pieces.
I cast my man and looked at different mediums of how Zuko can look from Anime to painting to photography
Different outfits for firenation- keep silhuette and shapelanguage in mind!
Love the details, pay attention to those, they make or break the illuistion
Firenation armor is translated from chinese architecture - more shapelanguage to follow
Also look at cosplay and see what works and what doesnt! readability is important