The last of the four main characters of Reminiscence is Robbie. When I thought of the story, his character and looks were the clearest to me and the ideas I had for his appearance influenced my decision about the style and which time periods I was going to get my reference from.
Robbie has always looked up to people. He is the youngest of his large family and when he and Ivory got to be friends with the regents` son and the son of the highest police officer he was in 7th heaven. They became good friends and kept in touch even after Robbie left to be a marine. He`d never admit it, but during his training in the city Aquaris he was often homesick for his family and friends. He is a true people-person, always making others laugh with his lively spirit and he quickly made new friends amongst his fellow marines-in-training. But under the surface he constantly doubted his decision to go away from Narrati. He couldn`t visit his friends often and especially Ivory, who lived just across the border. He wrote with them a lot. When Ivory disappeared he was worried sick and doubted his decision to be a marine even more. He comes home for the holiday now but finds his group of friends changed, and not for the better.
Robbie is extremely loyal, hates conflict and loves to bring people together or encourage them. He is short and lean. In training he relies on his agility and swiftness. He loves the water and knows a lot about technology.
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All of my main characters are based on some of the stuffed animals I had as a kid. The animal that Robbie is based on is a seal. This inspired me to make him a marine. Their big eyes inspired the goggles and because of his youthfullness (he is the youngest of the four friends) I used many round shapes in his design. The challenge was to make him look young, but still make it believable that he was roughly around the same age as the others of the group. It also had to look believable that he had been accepted into marine training and that he is able to stand his ground in a man on man fight.
The world of Reminiscence is a mixture of Steampunk, regular clothing and technology from the 19th age and the beginning of the 20th, a little hint of the middle ages and some fantasy.
There’s a lot of inspiration to find on the web with these genres, I use Pinterest a lot for this.
Costume design can be a tricky thing. Add to much detail and it gets cluttered, add too little and the character becomes boring. (unless you need a boring character, this is bad)
For the main characters I am now deciding on the final costumes, as well as figuring out how the characters move, talk and express themselves. Fun stuff.
I`m also designing the other characters in the story and the villain(s) and might shift to environments and props soon. I might do more blogposts like this whenever I have something new to show you.
So, now you know the four main characters. If you missed any of the previous characters, you can read about them and their design process here:
Bern
Max
Ivory
Thanks for following along this character design journey, the last blogpost of the year will be about goals and progress. See you in a week!