Concept Costume Design

[Weeda]

I'm far from a fashionable person so I've been having trouble clothing my drawings in interesting ways. Are there any good tips for creating outfits like those seen in video games or something like that. Or do I basically just look at a shit load of video game characters until I become inspired?

I remember a tutorial for creating creatures that said you should think about what an animal might need in its environment, and I tried to apply that same advice to costume design but I get as far as a plain jacket and boots... maybe a belt if I'm feeling especially creative. So how do I know what to add when so much of character design seems so unnecessary, with all those seemingly random straps and belts and flaps that make the character look interesting?

Thanks.

[Sogbad]

Well, you have to think. Good design is all about thinking things through, if you try to design in a vacuum your always going to struggle. I’m assuming you don’t have a brief or a direction given to you by someone else, an AD, Designer or Creative Director?? In which case you have to fill that role before you start designing.

If it’s just a personal project or exercise you need to create your own brief with enough background information that allows you to create interesting designs. So your example ends up with a “plain jacket and boots..maybe a belt.” Well take a step back and think about the character, what’s his background? Is he rich, poor, an eccentric, someone who follows fashion, is the person a slob, does he take things seriously, do they like bunnies? What’s the environment like that the characters appearing in? Ask your self lots of questions to give yourself a rich background which in turn allows you to visually explore some of those traits.

So maybe your character is a poor slob with low self-esteem and a rat fetish who’s always hungry and likes to keep food with him at all times, and he lives in a cold urban climate. So his jacket will probably be second hand, very worn out with no repairs, he’s too lazy for that, so it will have tears and holes, it will also be dirty with food stains. There will be pockets on the jacket because he needs somewhere to keep his snacks that will poke out of the pockets, it’s cold and he has a rat fetish so he may well line the jacket with rat pelts. Anyway you get the idea, just let your mind wander aimlessly, but know you have some ideas that can help create something more interesting than a plain jacket.

In regards to your “So how do I know what to add when so much of character design seems so unnecessary, with all those seemingly random straps and belts and flaps that make the character look interesting?” Some of this comes down to the Art Direction or look and feel of the ‘universe’ you are designing for, for example a lot of the design aesthetic for the Unreal universe is hyper functional (for want of a better term) if you look at the underlying design aesthetic they go for lots of functional details, buttons, split lines, straps, buckles… If you look at Star Trek in general they try for a more streamlined and cleaner look, a character designed for either wouldn’t really fit in the others ‘universe’

Hope that helps a little

[Weeda]

Yeah, I got you. Kind of like designing a back story, before designing the character himself? Thanks a lot. This helps.

[Elwell]

Or do I basically just look at a shit load of video game characters until I become inspired?

That's the last thing you want to do. The people who are designing those games (at least the good ones) aren't drawing from other games for their designs, their drawing from reality and history, either directly (for a realistic setting) or in unusual combinations (for fantasy/SF).

[Weeda]

That's the last thing you want to do. The people who are designing those games (at least the good ones) aren't drawing from other games for their designs, their drawing from reality and history, either directly (for a realistic setting) or in unusual combinations (for fantasy/SF).

Oh, snap. Okay. So, for instance, look at old-timer clothing and manipulate or exagerate it and dilute it with other styles?

[Carnildo Orion]

I tend to look back over historical costuming and gear, there is 10,000 years of really interesting designs from a wide variety of cultures and technologies to draw from. Get a good costume reference book or two, or scour the web. The Racinet books are a good basic text, but there are other good ones. DK has 2 really nice books out: "Warrior" and "Weapons" that have great photographic reference for military gear going back to antiquity. I would especially make a study of medieval armor both European and Japanese -there is a lot to learn by studying how armor is formed and articulated.

Personally, my wife and I are amateur costumers as well and that has helped me immeasurably in understanding the construction of clothing as well (where seams go, how closures are made, what materials might be used where etc.).

All in all, it's a great aide to start with reality to get a solid, believable foundation to then take that in whatever direction you want. As usual, once you understand what you're working with, you can then begin to really have fun playing with it.

[Weeda]

Thank you very much for your input. This is very helpful stuff.

[chaosrocks]

i am a costume designer in theater by trade.

www.costumes.org is your best friend

crx

[Weeda]

Thanks for the great link.

[Mirana]

Two of my fav "costume" reference books:
FASHION - 18th-20th Century - Taschen books are fantastic...instead of vague illustrations, you get huge reference plates of the Kyoto Costume Institute's collection. You can also find this collection in a smaller, one-book format through Barnes&Noble (at $20 instead of $50).

And of course if you want insight into what happens when you use historical fashion in the concept-to-complete-costume process (with details!) you'd better pick up Dressing A Galaxy.

[Maestro Andres]

Very interesting topic. Recently, I read this fashion illustration book called "Illustrating Fashion: Concept to Creation" by Steven Stipelman. It is the only book of this kind I have read and found it alright. I found it interesting that the different types of clothing have name categories for things such as sleeves, collars, sillhoute, shoes, etc. But with what people had said before, knowing some fashion and history would help a lot.
Also, what you are looking for is more oriented towards character design so you might want to check out some of Panda's notes about it that he got from the last workshop. They are on the workshop section. Adding to this, you could check Marko Djurdjevic DVD about character ideation since he very deep into explaining what are his reasons and influences when designing his characters including their outfit. Hope this helps.

P.D: chaosrocks thanks for that link, very helpful

[FlameDragon]

Great thread! I'm not up to this stage in my drawing yet, but someday I'd like to be able to come up with and draw alot of different cool costumes.