Part of what inspires me to make Bientôt l’été is my fondness of the seaside during grey weather. It’s a very common sight here in Belgium, yet one that is not popular. Our entire coast is a continuous sandy beach, 67 kilometers long. And whenever the sun dares to shine on a holiday or in the weekend, the highways are jammed with people from all over the country driving to the seaside. Maybe that’s why I like the seaside when the weather is bad: I don’t like crowds.

We were at the seaside today, for making motion captures of walking on the sand and in the wind. A completely overcast sky. Grey sand, grey water, grey clouds. Ideal in my mind and yet it didn’t draw me as it used to. Maybe I have ruined my taste for the real grey seaside by making an idealized version of it in a videogame. Or maybe I’m just sick of staring at it. I must admit that there’s also a shadow of a memory of our somewhat unsettling encounter with the sea in Trouville. Ever since, I’ve been somewhat afraid of the huge mass of water that just sits there making terrible growling noises all the time like a huge wet monster.

Technical issues also ruined the mood. Motion capture suits and computers don’t mix well with sand. And for no good reason someone started bulldozing at the foot of the dunes where we had left our stuff. So much for our peaceful little outing at the deserted seaside. But I’m extra motivated to make our own virtual seaside as lovely as possible. Because it may only exist in dreams.

I have implemented the first passes of the characters today. Auriea modeled them. They’re not finished yet but it’s good to replace the Woodsman Wolf and Misc Woman X with characters actually designed for the game.

Man and woman we created them. Or Homme and Femme as they are called in the game. They are losely inspired by the main characters in Moderato Cantibile (once played by Belmondo and Moreau in Brook’s 1960 film of the novel by Duras). In the sense that the woman is somewhat upperclass and refined and the man is working class and a bit rough. I also imagine the woman being slightly older than the man.

Their clothing was designed specifically to blow in the sea wind. Not in a gentle summery breeze kind of way, but more like the continuous almost violent tugging that happens at the Atlantic coast. We didn’t replicate any specific design, but Martin Margiela functioned as a reference for the woman’s look and Boris Bidjan Saberi for the man’s. So she’s stylish, but very modern, while he is a bit of a nomad.

Another peculiar thing about their design is that I don’t want their faces to be seen in the game. They have faces but the man wears a scarf and a hood and the woman has big sun glasses on. In the game, they will do their best to look in the same direction as the camera, showing you the back of their heads.

This is the first game we make in which the characters are actually intended to just be avatars. They have no autonomy. But they are not entirely neutral either. They have a personality. But no backstory. They are a man, and a woman.

I have made Twitter accounts for each character (@unHom and @uneFem). Not sure what I will do with those yet. Maybe I’ll find a way to connect them to the multiplayer part of the game.