Characters and Symbolic codes.

“studying clothing provides a powerful framework for understanding how people interpret various forms of culture and social systems, as well as how they perceive their positions within those systems. From this perspective, fashion provides a window into individual and group identities”

  Crane, D. (2000). Fashion and its social agendas: Class, gender, and identity in clothing.

 I found a useful paper about Group Identity and Avatar Design in Second life. The paper explores how individual players form social groups and how they customize their avatar to fit into these groups. The 2 useful sections I got out of this looked into symbolism and themes as well as levels of participation and how this reflected on their avatars visually. The paper describes how players identify their communities through visual cues to show their relation to the group. These codes can consist of anything, from a specific aesthetic or colour, to individual items their character is wearing. However, the important part about this is that these codes must be readable by other players within the group. The experiment conducted within the paper demanded that users turned up to an event attempting to keep to a theme.It was seen that players managed to manipulate these symbolic codes to show or disguise their group affiliation.

I wanted to see how an artist would use symbollic references in their work to distinguish teams. ..

Keith Thompson, an artist and illistrator for the Leviathan story books manages to seperate 2 factions within

the steam-punk ww1 theme. 

The Darwinists use Organic colours and materials, as well as genetically modified creatures 

The Clankers use Dark, metal colours and use a lot of mechanical aesthetics. 

These teams are easily identifiable whilst keeping to the ww1 steampunk theme. 

http://www.keiththompsonart.com/

"Scholars of fashion note that coordinating with one‘s social group and with society at large requires adopting dress and appearance that correspond to prevailing social norms"

So what are the key symbolic codes will my team adopt on their dress and appearance to identify identify themselves?

Old Soviet Gear

Mechanics

Ceremonial use of Red

Do they match with the social norms for my group?

Poor

Adaptive

Resourceful

Undisciplined

CHARACTERS

"The Hermit"

I wanted to change the character to demonstrate lower levels of group participation. This character would be more of a recluse, acting on his own rather than in a team. I adapted the previous design of the low level infantry soldier to make him more individual, which also made him appear to be more important.žThe new design would have the character wearing the uniform that differed from the group norms without straying from the theme. This also allows the character to show his own personality more as there is less group pressure.

žCurrently painting on the design to the sculpt. 

Laid back and casual when it came to wearing clothing

Not well maintained

Unshaven

Mechanical leg and arm falling apart

Incredibly skinny

"The Aviator"

Players using taller avatars tend to act more confident. - 

Yee, N. & Bailenson, J.N. (2007). The Proteus effect: The effect of transformed self representation on behaviour. Human Communication Research, 33, 271-290.

This is one of my favorite designs as this seemed to transfer well into it, as the character is meant to be cold and calculating.
His tall physique makes him look powerful and confident. The mask and mechanical elements as well as the bird like influences are successful in making the character feel inhuman, even though he has a human shape. 

Character 3.

I'm still uncertain in which direction I want to take the 3rd character. 

I am wanting to block out the designs in more detail in 3D and begin high poly modelling soon once I finalize the designs.