If you don't mind humoring me, in your opinion, what are the most important parts of Mikis' design that make it into most of the alternate designs you make? I'm working on smth rn and would love your thought process on character design ^.^
Ooo that's a good question!
First that comes to mind is hair! Most voice synths have pretty distinctive hair. And I think most fans can recognize Miku, Teto, Rin, and Len from the silhouette of their hair alone. And although Miki's is not as recognizable as Miku's or as unique as Teto's, she's no exception!
The ahoge is a given. It's gotten less unique with each VB design, which is why I tend to stick to her V2 ahoge. But I think there's something very fun about the exaggerated plume of her synthV VB ahoge. It reminds me of a bird!
There's also the swoop of her bangs and the way the sides kind of curl around her face. Those are just as important to me imo! I tend to draw a lot of voice synths with those curled side-bangs, but they're present in every Miki VB design so I associate them with her the most.
Yusuke Kozaki has draw a lot of art of Miki outside of her VB designs. He's made a whole art book that I hope to own one day buuut some of it is in her picture gallery on the vocaloid wiki or on google images if you search for them. He tends to stick to a handful of design elements that I agree are essential parts of Miki:
-Her android joints (which were criminally absent from her otherwise very nice V4 design)
-The star motifs
-the fluff, usually found in her headphones but have been used in gloves and hoods as well
-stripes, usually in the order: dark color (navy blue), light color (white or cherry pink), dark color.
- The color palette! The base colors are white, navy blue, and cherry pink but I love experimenting. I view her hair color in the same way I do Miku's: it can vary in range within its color spectrum. Miku from blue to green and Miki from red to orange as long as it leans pink.
And my last little personal thing is the aesthetic. Miki has this whole futuristic android design going on so I tend to lean into that. There's plenty of wiggle room there though! You can lean more into the sleek futurism of her V4 and SynthV oooor get a little quirky with it...y2k, frutiger aero or even Shibuya punk/grindfiction suit her well! The world is your oyster!
OH ALSO RAMS/SHEEPS!!! Maybe that's more of a character item thing??? But incorporating ram/sheep elements in her design is fuuuun!!!
That's all I can think of at the moment but if anything else pops into my head I'll add onto this post :3 hopefully that helps!!
