Hi
Thank you for the positive response.... this is one of my most satisfying design attempts and I am really happy for Kenney's brilliant artistry in bringing it to reality.
So if you'd indulge me I'd like to lead you through my part of the process and the journey (abridged of course) that lead to the approved final design of "L"'s Blaster in Death Note.
First a little about my background... I work in the film industry, having started on set in various positions from PA to Assistant Director.... and then in the production office and then the in the most round about way possible I arrived in the art department.... though not as an illustrator yet but that's another story.
I've made a ton of models growing up (and still do when I have a chance) and I am mostly self taught in the ways of 3D modeling.
Designing stuff is fun, hard work, aggravating and fun. One has to have a knowledge of industrial design, artistry and story telling. There is more to consider but the primary thing is to serve the script and to be part of the world it inhabits.
When starting any design, I usually get some sort of brief and/or direction or references from either one or from all of the following: the Production Designer, Art Director, Prop Master and sometimes from the Director. Then I find and research my own references and start sketching ideas to develop the character of the design and the function as the script dictates and beyond.
In this case the brief was kinda like this.... The character known as "L" has a gun and we're going to make it a little different. Adam, the director of Death Note is a big fan of Blade Runner and suggested that we base our aesthetic to Deckards Blaster as a homage ....or something like that.
OK. No reference required as I also have "studied" this prop since the first time I saw it.
Being so iconic the challenge was to design a Blade Runner Blaster without actually designing the Blade Runner Blaster. OK.
The first thing I did was to draw up anything like it that wasn't like it.... here is a few attempts:
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Then to draw it but not to draw it......
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It kinda went on like that for a few days.....
I even tried a few like this just to be different.
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One of the most distinctive things of the BR Blaster is that its sorta has the silhouette of a revolver but no visible cylinder suggesting a technology that is outside our perceived norms like something in the future might be.....like in Blade Runner. The thing is that our world of Death Note was not in the future but now.... todayish. So with this in mind I started incorporating the cylinder into the design which eventually lead to these two:
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Which was ultimately combined to this one....
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At this point it was decided by the prop master and the production designer to create a full render to show the director.... But before I did that Dan, the prop master, showed me something brilliant that I could incorporate into the design
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Believe it or not this is an actual thing.... it's a camera mounted to a revolver that shoots six shots... one picture per shot of the gun. Brilliant!
For me, the design has some meaning and reason for being the way it is instead of just looking cool.
With that in hand and in mind I proceeded to model the Blaster around a Smith and Wesson revolver that was going to be the donor gun for this prop.
I will go into that in a following post.... Cheers.