|
The survival horror video games series ''Silent Hill'' features a large cast of characters. The games' player characters are "everymen", in contrast to action-oriented survival horror video game series featuring combat-trained player characters, such as ''Resident Evil''. The games are set in the series' eponymous fictional American town. Characters went through several different conceptual phases prior to settling on their final designs seen in the games they first appeared in. The physical appearances of characters in ''Silent Hill 3'' were created using actors as models. ==Design== The characters of ''Silent Hill'' and ''Silent Hill 2'' were designed by character designer Takayoshi Sato. Team Silent, a production group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, oversaw the process. Team Silent designed the character Maria to have physical flaws and did not base her on any particular model.〔''Silent Hill 2: Making of.'' Fun TV, Konami, 2001.〕 The developers toned down her character design after being unhappy with it and the technical problems her low neckline caused.〔 To better capture her facial movements, Sato Takayoshi would practice her expressions in front of a mirror at work and drew her facial expressions instead of using motion capture.〔 Maria and Mary share the same facial structure, polygon count and voice actor; only the muscle structure differs.〔 Takayoshi designed Angela to appear older than her intended age of sixteen or seventeen and the developers chosen an older voice actor for her.〔 Fifty to sixty Japanese and American voice actors auditioned for ''Silent Hill 2'', with five ultimately chosen: Guy Cihi, Donna Burke, David Schaufele, Jakey Breckenridge, and Monica Horgan.〔 Motion capture of the voice actors was used to model their characters' action.〔 The design of ''Silent Hill 3''s characters passed through different stages. The game's development team initially saw Heather as "innocent", something that was reflected by original sketches of her, but they found this motif to be too "nice", so the game's supervising illustrator, character designer Shingo Yuri, sought another source of inspiration, modelling Heather after French actresses Sophie Marceau and Charlotte Gainsbourg,〔Konami Corporation. ''Silent Hill 3: Naissance d'une Renaissance''. Konami Corporation, 2003.〕 with Vanessa Paradis having served as a model for concept art of the protagonist. The character's leg-revealing outfit and slightly curly hair had been the subject of debate among Yuri and two young female members of the development team: while Yuri firstly envisioned her wearing jeans, these members dissented on the addition of this element because they believed that Heather should discreetly be instilled sex appeal—a property which they insisted that it should be possessed by her—by having her legs divulged as they considered that exposure of them would bestow femininity and prettiness on Heather; he was ultimately convinced by the females that their own proposal should be followed. Trusting these members' sense of fashion, Yuri also accepted their judgement on the character's hairstyle, which was that curly hair would be more suitable for a young girl. Heather's hair was "more natural" and "less elaborate" in earlier design stages, according to him.〔 The character's name was taken from Heather Morris, who provided Heather's voice and motion capture. The name "Helen" was firstly planned to be used for the character, but was later discarded as it was considered to be old-fashioned. The design of priestess Claudia Wolf was the most difficult of the game's character designs for the development team.〔 Her creation was based on the concept of making her look strange but conventional and evoke to the player a feeling of being endangered. Desiring to show her evil side, the development team initially imagined her with a shaved head and tattoos all over her body, though this idea was finally rejected as the team deemed that giving her this physical appearance was a very obvious way of achieving this goal.〔 Other dropped ideas included portraying her as a "holy woman" as well as dressed in a long robe that trailed along the ground. After seeing a fashion magazine cover depicting a human face without eyebrows and believing that the pictured person's feelings were unrecognizable due to this trait, the team opted to integrate lack of eyebrows in Claudia to impart her the same perceived property of having feelings unable to be defined by other people, also esteeming this feature to trigger a subtle and solicitous emotion to the player.〔 Hollywood actress Julianne Moore had been used as a model for concept art of the character. Claudia's name originates from Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, having substituted the original "Christie" because the latter was viewed as too "cute".〔 ''Silent Hill 3''s male characters were delineated by the development team as possessing flaws and complexes in order to appear as realistic humans, an example being character Douglas Cartland's combing of his hair to his head's back part to conceal his baldness.〔 In early design stages, the image of a quotidian middle-aged detective was attributed to him.〔 A priest from the film ''The Fifth Element'' was the basis for the generation of Douglas;〔 actors such as Ian Holm and Giancarlo Giannini were models for some of the character's concept art. The name of Douglas was taken from actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and according to one of the game's creators, this name was selected because it "just seemed to suit him", with the character not being connected to his namesake.〔 The foundation of character Vincent's design was the idea of a character of a hypocritic nature which is disguised by their "nice" clothes and neat appearance, as the game's animator wished the hierocracy of Vincent to be manifested through the way he acts. An incorporation of hints aiming at unveiling Vincent's nature occurred, though, according to Yuri: the character constantly laughs "like he is hiding something nasty" and during his speech, "one of his eyes is not looking at the observer." Yuri underlined that the latter hint is subtle.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of Silent Hill series characters」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|