TIMEKEEPER

Character Design Case Study

The Timekeeper is the antagonist character developed for a story called Turnkey-- A story of a wind-up beetle trying to bring power back to the rest of the Wind-Up World!

The Timekeeper is a monopolist over the power of the city and acts as both the mentor figure of the Protagonist as well as the final enemy to overcome.

Timekeeper :: IDEATION

During the ideation phase, I needed to set some foundational ideas of who the Timekeeper is in order to have a base concept to launch off of and develop further-- He didn't even have the name at the time.

First understanding that the Timekeeper is effectively a dictator of the world of Turnkey, he is meant to be a charismatic leader with power stolen from the people, so I started with ideas of Monopolistic Power, Markets and Stolen Power.

These ideas along with the core art style of Turnkey (characters being designed to seem like wind-up toys), I began making exploratory sketches:

I ended up liking the idea of a character who has a father / mentor energy and has pretty cliche ideas of what productivity, profits and the world should be like.

As such, I settled with his focus on maximizing time and profits by having his base concept being that of a clock / hourglass with a bull head to represent Bull Markets.

Timekeeper :: DEVELOPMENT

After coming up with a base idea, I was able to start fleshing out what exactly is in my head and iterating on what I like / dislike about each idea.

Sometimes in the character design process I'll try quickly creating what's in my head in a more polished manner in order to understand what's working and isn't working for me.

In this case, I made a semi-polished variant of the Time Keeper that can be seen here.

I found that I was very unhappy with the proportions, colours and overall silhouette! It was too... Normal.

But I did like the Pendulum, extendo-arm and hodgpodgier feel of the character.

From those core issues I had with the design, I began iterating with some keywords in mind as well as a focus on abnormal silhouettes.

I also used the elements I liked more often in my sketches and iterations.

These iterations were designed to let me figure out what direction I'd like to take the design in the next step of formalizing and finalizing the design.

From this batch, I particularly liked the designs of 1, 6 and 9 and used them in the next phase of designing the Timekeeper.

Timekeeper :: REFINEMENT

Displayed down here is a kind of idea web that I've made to voice my thoughts on each of the designs I like!

From here, I decided to knuckle down and begin working on the Timekeeper's final design by mixing all of these features together.

My favorite features were:

The large spring in his back
Extendo-neck + arms
Pendulum necktie
Hunched over posture
- (it makes him imposing when he stands fully!)
The mix of parts that don't all work together.
- They're stolen from other people in the world of Turnkey, and have let the Timekeeper live longer than he should
A bird hand
- Like in a cuckoo clock, but also represents his right-hand man as being himself.

Timekeeper :: FINAL SPEEDPAINT

And so with all of these ideas and preferences, I began work on the final deliverable for the project -- a turnaround and character details sheet!

Timekeeper :: Final Design

With color, I was able to add in some details that I hadn't in past iterations, such as the copper oxidization that shows off which parts of his body are oldest.

Although I think there are still improvements to be made to his design-- especially with front-on silhouette clarity, I'm quite happy with the outcome!

I think the design succeeds in showcasing a wind-up business man bull as well as still making him seem approachable.

It does however also lack in clarity on his clock features, with the only remaining parts being the pendulum tie and clock hand tail + horn.

If I were to redo this design, I'd definitely make sure to include more exaggeration on the frontal silhouette to make it clearer as well as a focus on clock / time related elements.

The overall process took around ~12 hours due to the higher level of fidelity required at each stage for the purposes of turning them in for review from peers + the class professor.