Dream Skillz: Weapon Prop Concept - BloodBat
This Prop design project was inspired by a short comic story titled Dream Skills which featured in the anthology comic book Sun Bakery by the comic book artist Corey Lewis.
Dream Skills depicts a world in which Guns have become useless and the social culture is swordplay. Swords have become the ultimate life accessory much like smartphones within our world and conflicts are now resolved via sword fights called Blade Battles. Swords in this world are much more than weapons and have many unique custom features specific to the user’s design. These range from cosmetic items to functional tools such as a Deodorant Stick and built in Wifi Modem.
The goal of this project was to take this basic outline from the comic book and design a character and their accompanying sword for a hero shooter/brawler based on the comic’s world and themes.
This project mainly focuses on the design and details for a character’s personal sword “BloodBat”. The character is currently in development but as a starter here is their personal sword*.
*In the comic book it is established that there are different subcultures who Blade Battle with different melee items such as axes. This project was my own personal exploration into a culture that centres around using Baseball Bats instead of swords
The character is a paid Hitman and Baseball fan who loves Europop and Y2K culture. They belong to a secret community of Hitmen and have been featured as Miss December in Playpen Magazine; the no.1 magazine for Hitmen.
The concepts of the Hitman society, Playpen and the character and prop are original to the design project.
Weapon Concept - A Baseball Bat used as a Sword
Key features of BloodBat
Model Sheet and Material Reference
Initial silhouettes
Developed sketches using a previous iteration as the base
Sword cross-guard exploration
Further Hilt exploration
Value iterations focusing on highlighting the hilt as the primary focal point
Colour explorations
Tweaks to the design including design exploration into the characters key chain/charm accessories
Presentation thumbnails and render of 3d model base created in Blender
Moodboard on Weapons in other media and Y2K aesthetics
Moodboard focusing on phone charms, accessorised items and other objects central to the character and prop’s theme.
Material rendering studies done as pre lim for the final concept render