Recently I have come across the term cyberpunk, which as a visual theme is dark and polluted which as a style can lend itself well to creating a villain.
- The concept originated in the 1980's in literature and film beginning with William Gibson's novel 'Neuromancer' and 'Blade Runner' (1982).
Common themes:
- Negative Impact of technology on humanity
- Fusion of man and machine: cyborgs, blurs what it means to be human (characters have lost what it means to be human, emotion?)
- Visual: dirty, lived in
- "Cyberpunk is about expressing (often dark) ideas about human nature, technology and their respective combination in the near future."
To portray the nature tribe I could look into native American tribes who base there religion on animals and live so close to nature. However I have a worrying concern with this idea because of conforming to racial stereotypes, would I work around this by taking parts from or conform to it to portray my theme of nature vs machine.
I also want the mutants to have a specific animal quality to each individual, as previously commented, to narrow down each ones morphing abilities. The inspiration for this will come from looking into animal characteristics and human personality traits.
 |
| Marvel character: Sharman from Alpha Fight |
Another contrasting trait the tribes could have is the types of patterning they could have on there clothing. For the cyborgs it would be designed upon circuitry boards and the nature tribe it would be based on tribal designs.
Sharper edged shapes
Round and organic shapes.
I like your thinking on this Kay. When we think of cyborgs, such as Arnie in the terminator movies, we think of a loss of humanity - anything that modifies the face especially so, such as a metal musk or replacement eye, jaw etc. So in contrast, the idea of a mutation has to feel natural. Anthropomorphic animals is certainly one way to go. Perhaps, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the cause for the heroes mutation is due to the villains in some way (toxic sludge, radiactive gas etc).
ReplyDeleteRegarding tone, cyberpunk often represents a dark, dystopian future, so play these elements down. For villains, thats perfectly fine, but I would stay clear of creating the whole world in this vein. I think the villains represent the threat of this future, and given their way, would transform the world to match their cold hearts. The heroes obviously need to stop this happenening. Perhaps the villains come from a future earth where this already exists (ie Terminator), or a parallel universe.