这是我为独立游戏自由星球 2 (Freedom Planet 2) 设计的一个配角，三邦电视台的蝙蝠记者美若庭 (Maria Notte)。本文共包括 1 张主概念图，4 张设定组合图。

我为自由星球 2 设计了全部近百名的配角，其中美若庭是蝙蝠种族的模板角色。蝙蝠在拟人化卡通中往往要么被处理成同时具备人手和背翅的设计，要么就被抽象成吉祥物造型。我则在自由星球 2 中试图挑战在保持蝙蝠的解剖学特点的前提下设计具有拟人化人体结构的角色。

蝙蝠的最关键特点就是翼手的构造。我找来蝙蝠的影像资料，尽可能在不损失过多实际结构特征的情况下找到兼顾美观的平衡点。在这个过程中我发现了许多之前我并没有注意到的解剖学细节——例如翅膀的“支架”原来是手指——自己以为“知道”的东西，等到实际画出来的时候如果没有参照物，往往容易流于符号化的抽象造型。这次的经历让我体会到了实际观察的重要性。

蝙蝠的翼手在拟人化的日常生活中是非常碍事的，但与其过多改变结构而导致消除种族差异，我选择了直接让他们带着这种种族劣势生活，在拿持物品的手势、服装的裁剪、合用的辅助工具方面进行了相应的设计，让他们能在某种程度上应付日常生活中的不便。

自由星球 2 中的蝙蝠都会佩戴主动降噪耳机来降低外界噪音对于他们敏锐听觉的刺激，也会在白天佩戴墨镜来降低阳光对他们夜行性眼睛的刺激。他们的衣服是无袖且侧开的，以避让身体侧面的翼膜，衣服内藏钢圈和磁铁以维持胸背部附近的贴身性。鞋子都带有挂钩以便倒挂在天花板上，或者在飞行时吊运行李。

我个人觉得美若庭是一个在设计上很有趣，很有潜力的角色。只可惜她在游戏中并不是可操作的主角。我或许会在个人作品“千变灵兽”中以同样的人体结构设计一个蝙蝠灵兽。

These are the concepts arts I created for Maria Notte, a support character from Freedom Planet 2. She is a reporter of the Three Kingdoms Channel.

I designed over 100 NPCs for Freedom Planet 2 (although not all of them were used). Maria has the significance as the template character for the bat people in the game. In most cartoons, bat people usually have back wings instead of the anatomically correct hand wings. Even if they do have hand wings, they got heavily stylized into mascot-like proportions. In Freedom Planet 2, I decided to create more anatomically correct wings for the bats.

To make sure Maria has convincing wings, I carefully studied bat anatomy, and tried my best to find a balance point between anatomy and aesthetic. I was surprised by how different real bat wings are comparing to the most cartoon bat wings. For example, the “wing spikes” are actually fingers, and they have the same amount of joints like human hands. This was an educational experience, it taught me to be humble and always look for reference before working on something new.

The hand wings of the bats are rather inconvenient because they are prone to get in the way. But instead of changing the structure to the point of erasing their unique identity, I decided to let the FP2 bats live their lives with this disadvantage. They would invent gestures, costumes, tools that specialized to make their lives easier.

The bats in Freedom Planet 2 wear active noise-cancelling headphones to lower the ambient noise and protect their sensitive hearing. They put on sunglasses in daytime because they are nocturnal beings, their eyes can’t handle bright light. Their costumes are sleeveless and cut open on the side of the body to make way for their wing membranes. The clothing has embedded steel/plastic frames to ensure a close fit. Their shoes have hooks for them to hang on things, or to carry their luggage around because they can’t use their hands to do that.

I think Maria Notte is a very interesting character for her anatomy design alone. Her concept has a lot of potential. Maybe I will design a spirit bat character in my original project, Spirit Animals in Disguise.