New aim/objectives

I'v been reshuffling my project and bit and have decided I want to look more at functionality within design. I was thinking along the lines of investigating design that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional/fit for purpose. One subject that I'v seen brought up consistently is about female body armour and how in alot of games it is considered to be unfit for purpose (large chunks of armour missing leaving vital organs unprotected) making it seem less believable. This is however to make the characters more aesthetically pleasing to the target audience. I want to explore this relationship between functionality and purely aesthetic elements of a design. I was thinking that I could make this relate to creatures as I'v wanted to do by looking at the functionality of the form, e.g shoulder muscles for a creature that picks up rocks and throws them at his prey in order to catch them etc.

I'v written down another set of draft aim/objectives:

AIM

To investigate current design methodologies and explore the relationship between form and function in successful character design.

OBJs

1. Review and analyse existing character designs and discuss the methodologies involved in their creation.

2. Explore and discuss the relationship between form and function in the design of characters.

3. Conduct practice based research into the relationship between form and function within character design.

4. Create a range of 3D character models based on the research undertaken and evaluate their success.

Possible part of abstract:

A lot of characters are designed to look good but aren't functional - their design is not fit for their purpose - which can damage the audiences ability to suspend their disbelief. On the other hand, characters who are fully functional and make perfect sense might be lacking in the aesthetic qualities intended to visually appeal to their target audience. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between function and form, and determine by what means a designer can reach a balance between the two and help create a successful character design.