The Tyrant and Bathos

The Bathos
Early on the Bathos and Pathos were very similar to the Stygian but smaller with a ranged weapon.
we thought they needed to look more distinct so we  made them look more cherub like.

I didnt spend to much time on the tyrant as Alex ended up doing him, great job he did too.
Anyway here some ideas I had for him.
A few thumbnails to loosen up

I like these following guys but they were perhaps a tad to comical?

The Drone Army continued and some more environments

 I started to think about a sort of old dirty looking exo skeleton or Armour that housed or protected a black slimy slug inside, sort of evil primal ooze, this then became  an oily viscous tar that would be constantly moving under the hard shell,  pretty Creepy I thought?

I really liked the idea of an over sized blob head as well so went with that for a while..

I remember showing these to Alex and the team and he asked me to continue exploring this idea.
that's when we started finalizing the materials on the suit, a mix of a ceramic  or porcelain, some kind of treated wood and metal.
The second phase in the sketches saw the drone becoming more masculine a more typical warrior physique.
There was then a quick chat about proportions and we thought a more androgynous approach could work, something more unsettling perhaps going down the horror rout.
 that pretty much led to the final look of the Stygian, elongated limbs, swollen doll like head, with an occasional sticky tentacle flicking out from under the protective out layer.

and he above final image is what we went with

Eventually these guys needed variants  so I did some heads to get an idea of how far we could push it

These guys were random variants I did throughout the whole process that for one reason or another didn't fit in : (

and Some early ideas for the docks, I personally loved the rotting demon whale but it got lost along the way somehow?

The Drone Army Thumbnails and sketches

The Stygian

This was pretty much the first thing I designed that went in game as we needed to give Dante something to fight against.

 So I started out filling a few pages with thumbnails and silhouettes, Alex (my Art director) was keen for me to just explore, there were a few basic parameters from design if I remember correctly, Bipedal, soldier class, slashing weapon etc

lots of sketches and silhouettes

 Again just playing around with shapes

The Dream Runner

This is my second favorite character, the dream runner.
When I first designed him he was very short and fast, witha child like build to him.
The idea was that the body was acually being controled but a large spider that sat where his head should be.
Tameem ultimately didn't like this as he thought it might be to distracting, so I went back to the drawing board.
Although I will always have a soft spot for the spider headed guy I think that ultimately the right decision was made.

The sucubus

This to me was the most fun I had on the project, right up my street, we had so much freedom on DMC  and of that time I think this was the best thing I did, Tameem did a great job with the characterization, I remember him mentioning the possessed girls in evil dead when he was explaining how she would act, I thought that was great.

I remember Alex asking me to add the extra eyes, so you would get that great reveal when she pulls the flesh sack thing back

DLC creature

Early on in the design process evrybody seemed to like this character, nicknamed carrion a tthe time...
Over time he evolved in to the hunter, anayway a few people sugeested I try and incorperate some of his features in to the Wisp character in the games DLC,
so he started like this..

then evolved into this,

Then we finally got this

Vat creatures and critters

The vat creature can be seen in the varility factory, he works as a sort of filter, in game he can be seen with a great big pipes going down his throat pretty gross stuff.
I was lucky enough to do the sculpt of the in game critter as well as the concept, you never get to see him that close up, shame I like his little hooky face!

Hunter in Action

Some more Hunter Illustrations,The first started life as quick zbrush sculpt, I did this just to get the design straight in my head

Then I put him in action against Dante, this was a proper speed paint

Then an idea for his demise, Great big sword in the face!!

The Hunter

So this is the first Boss in the game, we went througha few different looks some really bestial aproaches too I liked the one we went with as he feels to me like  like a hybrid of Quint and the shark from Jaws, not sure if it comes across in game, probably not, I think his voice in the game is to monstery, I though he sound a bit smarter perhapes, more conniving

I love the really obscene vertical slit for a nose I think it adds so much