Redesigning "velocirection"

(EDIT: Fixed the missing text in this paragraph that somehow didn't make it in the post, how embarrassing >_>) After many, many attempts (and a few attempts at writing a post about this) I've finally solved a problem that I've been thinking a lot about for at least a year a now: What should "Velocirection" look like. I've been wanting to redesign him because, in the time between the advent of the "dragon-era" of Velocirection and now, I feel like I've improved a lot. And I want the character that's supposed to represent the Patreon to be a reflection of what I'm capable of doing now.

I put a ton of thought into it, I've done many designs and explored a lot of ideas. Should Velocirection be a dragon still? Become anthro again? A horse (velociequine)!? An alien creature!? A monkey even!?!? I was ready to think outside of the box, start a design from nothing and rethink everything. Nothing was off the table! I ended up doing a lot of designs that I think are cool but they didn't really feel properly on-brand (but I'll probably use or recycle them in the future)

Such as this nerdy kobold, I think I've shown him before because I was working on him on and off for awhile:

 And for a bit I was thinking "this is a good one!" but when I was working on it again, re-doing the body, doing more rigging, I felt like... maybe it's not the look I want.

Still is a cool lookin' nerdy guy though imo.

At this time I wanted a design that has a level of cuteness, appeal, smugness, softness... and sometimes when trying to arrive at a better design, you need to re-think it completely. This is when I considering making up an alien species and being that (since then I could fit Velocirection as a character into the sci-fi setting). Drew up some sketches of some cute alien fellas.

This design I really liked but it's a bit too feminine for "Velocirection"

 So drew another one, trying to go for a more androgynous look.

I quite like this one! I liked it so much I started modeling it.

 But I feel like it's just too... unconventional. So at this point I started sketching with a more traditional design in mind.

I ended up drawing something I liked and thought might fit. Very rough and sketchy but it had the energy I was going after.

So I started modeling a head based on the design, it was going okay.

Then I thought "maybe orange isn't the way to go..." and changed it to be more in-line with the V-rex dragon color scheme. (and also did a quick mock up with a very hastily rigged version of the body) 

Then I thought "okay, this is cool..." and tried to redo the topology of the mouth so it could be posed into a smile. And I was messing around with the colors/material and thought it was cool. But like... still not "right." It's just mid.

At this point in the redesign journey, I was like... "eh, this is pointless. Maybe the dragon is fine." But then awhile later I thought "Okay, I'm going to redesign Velocirection as a dragon, come up with something new..." So I drew up some dragon sketches. I was thinking "What if he was girly, lean more into the feminity of Velocirection... What if he was more of a femboy dragon"

That was a tad too girly... so I did another one.

This one I was like "Oh yeah, this is the one!!!" But still... I wasn't quite satisfied with it. So I never modeled anything with this idea.

So last week (or the week before?) I got an idea... "ALIEN dragon!" And I sketched this up. And I was like "THIS right here is the one!" 

 But at the same time... it felt too different. I lost the plot I think.

One of my friends mentioned he liked the hat/headphones Velocirection has sometimes and I was like "... that should be part of the requirements for a new design. Velocirection should at least be capable of wearing a hat and headphones" so no crazy horns or head tentacle things.

Then it came to me, an epiphany... how about a back-to-basics, more literal "velocirection." Go back to being a raptor. But not anthro... feral. Because I think one of the appealing factors of Velocirection became the feral dragon aspect- the fact that he doesn't have a humanoid body plan.

How about... raptor shaped!? But he could still hit anthro-type poses if needed. Started sketching.

I like the head shape, the hair is cool but... eh. It looked too close to MukiHyena's sona. And plus... the hat and headphones will be on the head, it fulfills the purpose of having something visually pleasing on the head. So I did one more sketch and felt like "This one is Velocirection."

So I started modeling him, worked on some textures, this is the current WIP look of him from the neck up and what my pfp will be once I have at least the head finalized.

The body isn't ready yet, still making tweaks and stuff and I don't want to do a full reveal until I roll out the new Velocirection properly. But here's some silhouettes (hint, he will have a fat butt, big balls and prehensile horse dong...)

Honestly the body would need it's own post, I took a different approach with the body design (since it needs to be able to appear both feral and anthro-like when need be)

If you're wondering about the dragon version of velocirection, heh... I still want to use him now and again of course! He just won't be the face of Velocirection. I'm not sure when I'll be switching and updating things to be raptor Velocirection though, either when I get closer to finishing the Deep Dish animation or maybe early next year...