Project Description

For our game project - Hangtime, a first-person grappling hook racing game - I am in charge of designing a character.  My only direction given was that he is a hawk who dresses very extravagantly, and it kind of a show-off.  ​
They mentioned Cirque du Soleil costumes as an idea, but I also thought of how there's a lot of birds with flashy color schemes.  I also thought of the Bird of Paradise - both the bird and the flower.

Reference Images

I first gathered references of hawks, then looked for outfit and color references.  I had some more, including various palettes I found, but sadly they have been lost to time (a.k.a. I didn't save them).  

Rough Sketches

Here are the sketches of the bird that I developed - the first three I really only used references of the hawk head, then I used outfit references for the various looks (inspired by circus acts and glam rock), and the last one I tried various color palettes on the design we picked.

Character Concept

The turnaround for my hawk man, which I will use for modeling.  It's not quite as polished as my normal work, but it will do the job.

Base Mesh

Very rough first pass of the torso (top), working on the body more (right)....