YukiyaKitsuNebi
Creative Consultant Client
Yukiya: Vtuber and Content Creator
About the Project: Yuki's brief was a little different from my usual design cases. Instead of doign an entire character design from scratch he asked me to make an outfit for his current Vtuber design. While there are a lot of aspects to the character that were altered from his base design, I wanted to make sure that elements of that design were prevelant within the new outfit. Yuki was very specific in what he was looking for from the color choices to hairstyles. He also communicated to me that he wanted to make sure that the design was fuctional with his kitsune species. Things like tail placement were epecially important since that is a huge element of the original design.
Due to NDA I am unable to discuss client lore or story crafting, however, there are elements incorporated into his design that are pertinent to its proper visual communication.
Client Brief:
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Fox / Kitsune
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Orange, blue, and brown color palete
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Snowflake imagery
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Differing hairstyles
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Formal silhouette
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Pattern design
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Weapon design
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New outfit design
Shirasaya Katana (weapon): The first piece that was designed for this project was the shirasaya weapon. I had to make sure that the weapon drove a signifigant portion of the design. It's brief included an emphasis on snow and ice, hence the name Shirasaya. There were to be two forms of this weapon. An idle version and a powerful secondary form that would expand upon Yuki's elemental abilities. I incorporated Yuki's insignia as well as some icing on the hilt of the weapon to get that point across. A color shift was also necessary for cohesion as the more sky blue of the original conflicted with the teals and oranges of the outfit.
Formal Dress: Yuki's inspiration board really leaned heavily into formal wear. The challenge of designing this kind of fashion especially for Vtuber's is that each piece has to work independently but also together. Layering is incredibly important so the innerwear was what I designed first.
The outerwear is reminicent of the smoking jackets of the late 19th century. Unfortunately mens silhouettes have not changed too much in the last 200 years or so. A wrap belt was asked to be included and I really wanted the collar from the vest to stand out underneath the jacket. It was a fun design to work on with so many different elements.
Pattern Design: Yuki has a Norweigan heritage which was also something that he asked me to add into the project so my research led me to create snowflake patterns that mimiced traditional fabrics. I also used inspiration from yukata fabrics since Yuki has that distinct kitsune themeing.
This would be added as accented side panels on his vest. It is very common to add accent panels to contrast with the solid vest color.
Designing with L2D in Mind: One of the most important aspects of Vtuber projects is the makeability of the design. Live 2 D is a program used to create fully rigged avatars utilizing layers of 2 dimension artwork. This can be used in a variety of ways but one of the most prevelant is for content creators. The technology has grown exponentially in regard to its tracking and animation abilities as such it is a huge factor that determines specific design choices. As such it is my job to not only create a stunning unique design that suits my clients needs but also to handle the logistics and presentation of the character in its entirity.
As stated with other design projects of this type there is far more work and planning that goes into these beuond an illustration. Yuki has less of this since it is an outfit rather then an entire character, however, there are some noteable features that fall into this designing with the program in mind catagory. When you have multiple pieces that are interchangeable we call these toggles. With a toggle you can turn on and off certain aspects of a design. This can create a further challenge when there are so many differently designed layers in play. Every ommited piece must still be cohesive and eye catching for the viewers. The same goes for sfx like particles and powers. These are all aspects of a design that needs to be considered when working with the L2D program. As I continued to work on more of these projects I started to realize that this is not just design work but planning, organizing, and documenting everything possible for those that would continue the project after it left my hands.
The finished design is important but with this technology you have to truly think about all the parts that make the design functional be it fantatstical or not. It is personally one of my favorite parts about working with Vtuber clients because it takes design theory and decissions even deeper then just a singular finished product. The creativity is endless and it will continue to improve opening new doors for those that want to push the marriage of animation and real time tracking to the next level.