Hey folks!
Once we were asked if our hero will take off his helm, so you can see his face. The answer is simple: No, he won’t show his face. Why? We think it’s making the character more interesting. A part of his visual identity remains a secret. But that’s not the point. More important: the lack of a face has consequences – lack of emotions, right? And that’s the challenge! We have to master the art to make the character exceptional without a face.
We thought a lot about how to show emotions with no face. We knew we could accomplish a lot with body language, but we had to add more zest.
For example: when the knight is frightened he might stumble backwards and you recognize that action as such but will the action be perceived as such? Not necessarily. That’s why we started to experiment with the helmet of the knight. We agreed that the helmet is a perfect replacement for his face. Have a look at the sketches for some of his expressions, from laughter to rumination:
We think it’s way more exciting to represent the emotions of the character through his armor and his body than to give him a replaceable face
along with facial expressions one already has seen so many times.