Characters for my dissertation
For my dissertation I am looking at if video games cause body dysmorphia through protagonist design. I've drawn a protagonist for a hypothetical game and made different versions of them through race, gender, and body type.
I then put these in a questionnaire I used for my dissertation, starting with the muscular white man as the standard character design and it gradually increases to different races, body types and genders as the questionnaire goes on.
Muscular white male, serving as the standard game protagonist design.
Muscular men of different races, shown after the muscular white man.
The men of differing races and body types, shown after the muscular men.
Finally, the men from the previous image, but with female versions of them added in. This is shown last in the questionnaire.
Progression of how the characters were made. These are the silhouettes.
Thumbnails for the normal weight male and female, the proportions grid is visible next to them.
Thumbnails of the characters of different body types and genders. The races would be added in by colouring them.
In a peer assessment, I was advised to draw the characters in a profile angle, so I redrew the thumbnails from a slight angle.
This is the original finished version of the characters. They were designed after Vee from Cyperpunk 2077, but the class advised that I remove the vest as it conceals the body types of the characters.