Artist's commentary
Team RWBY Redesign: Yang Xiao Long
These are a series of redesigns for Team RWBY that I am making for a new RWBY Alternate Universe Project, called RWBY: Visions. Read more to see more info and my design thoughts.
Visions
RWBY: Visions is a fan reimagining of RWBY’s story from the ground up. It takes all the familiar characters we know and love, its lore and setting, and starts from the very beginning of Volume 1, but with my own little twists added to it.
However, it is also a community project. Over on a dedicated subreddit called r/RWBYVisions, I’m working together with fans to look at the show’s story and lore in order to improve and explore.
I decided to hit things off by redesigning Team RWBY. I want these redesigns to be embody what Visions is about: Taking and respecting the originals, while also looking at them in a fresh, new way.
Next is our friendly neighborhood firecracker:
Yang Xiao Long, Fiery Fighter
While I was redesigning Team RWBY, I wanted to make sure there was a clear direction with their designs. I used a one-phrase description to guide my process for each character. For Yang, it was:
“The Fun-Loving Biker”
> I wanted to focus more on Yang’s more thrill-seeking, adventurous personality and portray it through her redesign. When she has her moments of levelheadedness and maturity, they’’ll stand out more.
> I revised Yang’s jacket to resemble that of a biker girl more. I toned down the poofy sleeves from her original outfit. I did actually like the sleeves though since it gave her a more fantasy look, but I eventually decided to go with more conventional rolled up sleeves since I think the original sleeves, while gave her a more distinct silhouette, looked a little too bulky, especially where drawing her for a comic is concerned.
> Added elements of beige to her collar and golden trim to her jacket to give more colour variation. The side zipper adds some needed asymmetry to Yang’s design, which fits her theme of not conforming to norms.
> Changed her shorts to be more torn and ragged to sell her rowdy, party girl personality. Also, fanservice? Yeah, just a little.
> Her aviator glasses from that one moment in Volume 1 are a permanent part of her Volume 1 outfit. It helps sell the biker look more, and I can imagine her putting them on every time she either 1) feels confident/adventurous, and 2) tells a pun.
> A minor change is switching the yellow of her blouse to orange in order to match her scarf. I felt that her hair and gauntlets added enough yellow to her colour palette, and I wanted to unify her wardrobe a bit more.
> Added some trim and rivets to Ember Celica to give it a more cool metal look.I also added holes to the barrels. I read that one of the functions of these is to reduce recoil, which would make sense to reduce pressure on Yang’s elbows. But really, I just thought it looked cool.
I watched Yellow Trailer multiple times to understand how Ember Celica’s different parts work, and it’s a really cool machine with different interlocking and overlapping plates. Monty’s talent as a mechanical designer really impresses me till now.
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