Dorky References In Character Design

Posted 6 years, 10 months ago (Edited 5 years, 1 month ago) by Lonestarcelt

Is there anything more fun than creating new characters? Probably not...but there are certainly things that we enjoy outside of that creative process. From movies we love to watch, songs we listen to on repeat, books we can go back to over and over, and games we could play for hours if not days on end, and as a result. Sometimes, intentionally or not. We inject a bit of our other loves into the creative process. This thread is for that very purpose. Was your character's name a reference to someone from your favorite book? Was their fashion sense lifted from a show you watched? Did you get their hairstyle from an anime you saw ages ago or did some aspect of their past come about from listening to that song that you just love? Why not post the connections here? All references from big to small. From details that may seem super obvious to you to the minor minutia that someone only as in-depth in whatever lore as you would even start to recognize? It doesn't matter. If you have something that helped influence your character why not share it here and let everyone know, not only something that went into your creative process, but also maybe introduce people to something new. 

Examples: 
Your character's pet is named after something from a video game
Your character wears a bit of jewelry taken from some part of a short story
Your character has a phone charm of some video game faction

Please note: This is just a thread for references. Sure these references could inform large parts of a character's design or world but there's a difference between that and say a fan character for whatever bit of media they were made for. Nothing against fan characters it is just not the goal of this thread. However, if you have a fan character who has a reference to some other bit of media? Say a wizard for the Harry Potter universe who loves a particular band from the 90s enough to have some merch on them to a Homestuck fantroll with some obscure video game reference? They are more than welcome here. In essence.

X: A fan character on their own
✔: A fan character with a reference in their design to some outside media. 

 Gary PhantomForest

My character Gary is based off the ice cream called "Cherry Garcia." which is also sort of a reference to Rick and Morty which i liked at the time

Vani Amaro ♥ Dyloteryx

Moxx was essentially made to push all my Wrestling love onto

He was even in a round about way inspired by an actual wrestler's old character (the one he played on TV)

He actually has a wrestling company himself, and has ring gear and everything 

Mike Hay Dyloteryx

Mike was originally an anthro design based off of this album art

NOFX_-_Wolves_in_Wolves%27_Clothing_cove

Its a super nostalgic album to me and I love the punk style in general

Shi Apomu Dyloteryx

He was literally made because of the "Guess I'll Die" meme

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Rico jetsetspy

Rico's outfit is a reference to grey spy from spy vs spyand she's also a bit inspired by Mirage and Edna Mode from the incredibles

SnowSpirit

Nessie is literally a Splatoon OC

Snowball was originally a Black Rock Shooter OC named White Snow Spirit, until I ultimately decided to just make that an AU version of her, Heck, that's even where her flaming eye comes from.

Xerenity was just a random alien girl I made one day who came to be solely because I wanted a character based on pastel aesthetics. (Same goes for Loli Pop, my other OC.) Recently I decided to make Xiya a bit based on Celeste from Huniepop. Same species as her, but with a twist which intertwines with my universe, the Spirit World.

Aaand the rest of my OCs which I am still currently making is prob gonna be based off a bunch of CocoppaPlay/DreamSelfy outfits in all honestly, lmao

Lucian RU-HX

I sometimes draw Lucian wearing a red plaid shirt which is a nod to the TOS Star Trek episode City on the Edge of Forever.

Joel lemmings

Joel's name comes from Joel Robinson from Mystery Science  Theater 3000! Some of his personality and color palette is inspired by MST3K Joel too.

Jade-Everstone

Welp

Errorface's cape is designed based off Ghirahim's and Vaati's capes ( went through a phase with both of them). The world he lives in is also based off of Wreck-it-Ralph in the sense of videogame characters being their own people n' such

Rin is named after the main character from the Eastern Mind games by Osamu Sato

VERD-8's design takes inspiration from EVE from Wall-e