" hi, my name is Z 134 ! "
The character that I decided to create for the Faux Selfies project was a delicate, soft, passionate and also anxious astronomical being. Z 134 is their name, which I intended to be reminiscent of the scientific naming of nebulae. The character is made of nebulous matter (Eagle nebula specifically), which contributed to the overall galactic theme of the project. Many of the images include a drawing of the being, which I hand drew and imported into Photoshop as a separate layer. I felt this was necessary in order to really flesh out the image I had in my head of this character’s appearance. The flames were a design choice, and were meant to portray a sort of aura. Some inspiration for the aesthetic was a Pixar-like animation style, which can be seen in the cartoony flower field with floating planets and also in my attempt to create hand-drawn “animations” in some of the GIFs. During the critique of this project, a comment had been made about the “infantness” of the character, as well as how they seemed like something that needs to be protected, which I found to be very true to my intentions!
While this alter ego was designed out of a creative mindset, I realized while I was working how a lot of aspects of myself were being reflected onto this character. The fact that Z loves classical music was a reference to my past as a former classical flute performance major. Also, the image where Z is sitting alone gazing at the stars was made to portray distance and loneliness that comes from being an anxious person, which is also a part of who I am.
Overall, I truly enjoyed the idea of this project, and despite some technical challenges in using Photoshop and especially Illustrator, I feel like my idea was able to come across in the end and my little character was able to come to life.
~ Ria
made with photoshop
made as GIF
made with illustrator
^.^