Digital Choi: Evolution of a fantasy character.

By Carl Keifer

This project started for me about a year ago, I was struggling to find work and looking to get together a great looking piece for my portfolio. I made a bet with a friend of mine that I could accurately sculpt his face in the computer. The prize was a sandwich of my choosing, which, at the time, was more than enough. Needless to say I won the sandwich and,with the taste of thinly sliced deli style victory on my lips and the start of a great digital resource, I decided I would build a project around the model.  Not wanting to get into an epic story, but still wanting to work with an epic setting, I decided to design something akin to a movie trailer or game cinematic that would look and feel like it belonged to a larger project. The real life reference of my digital model works as a fight coordinator for many of the projects that come through the Pittsburgh area. Being that he is also getting on in years but still looks like he is young I decided to wrap his physical abilities and characteristics into the look of the character. So I wanted the piece to be an action sequence, but also about magic. Analogue(real life) Mark Choi also has a large dog that he is usually running around with so I figured our hero could have a beast that he rides on that resembles this dog. Currently I am working to make a sequence where Digital Choi and his dog fight a monster, break an aqueduct, and save a princess. It was around this time I also saw a similar piece from the Vancouver School for Digital Effects called "A Summoner" by Aasa Ooraikul, which pretty much set the bar for what I was expecting in quality.