So Genshin uploaded a developer insight post describing some of the background behind Xiao’s design process, and I just knew I had to make a video on it. I know I’ve kinda got a running gag that I hate Xiao, but I don’t. I already thought he was cool, and this info made me like his character even more. In this video I’m going to be summarizing the most important parts of the post, as well as providing additional research and some of my own opinions. The first part talks about cultural symbolism, and is written by Zhongyuan from the Creative Concept and Writing department.
He says that the first step to creating a character is defining their ‘core,’ which includes things like their personality and role in the game’s story. This is when the dev team establishes what makes the character different from the rest of the cast, allowing them to stand out and give a striking impression. This core acts as a guide to help with the rest of the design process. Despite being the 11th liyue character to be released, Xiao was actually one of the first to be designed, by an employee named CiCi. He was also the one who designed Honkai Impact 3rd’s protagonist, Kiana. His original intention was to depict Xiao as a “young warrior character.”
As progress was made, the Art team envisioned the idea of “a young man of great beauty,” meanwhile the creative concept and writing team hoped him to be a “beautiful adeptus.” The two ideas were able to align seamlessly, giving Xiao the identity of a “mighty and illuminated adeptus”.After the foundation is established, the next thing to be decided is surprisingly the constellation. No, not the upgrades for getting duplicates, the actual constellation itself. In a way, it is a visual representation of the character’s theme. Although most people overlook them, you can easily tell that there is a lot of care put into designing them. Xiao’s lore includes the physical toll taken on him due to killing. This parallels one of the twelve heavenly generals from buddhism, Mekhila, who is associated with the animal known as the garuda from indian religion.
Mekhila ate evil dragons, until one day the poison from a dragon he consumed killed him. At some later point in chinese religion, the garuda and the chinese mythological bird known as the peng merged into the idea of the Jinchi Peng Wang Niao. This icon would become the basis for the visual aspect of Xiao’s constellation. It’s English name, “Alatus Nemeseos,” comes from the latin word for winged, and Xiao’s role as the nemesis of evil. Alatus also happens to be Xiao’s yaksha name in his lore. Now this paragraph talking about chinese folklore is a bit hard to follow, but I believe what it is saying is that Xiao’s name and identity come from two different parts of ancient Chinese texts.
According to the chinese religion known as Taoism, there is a group of five deities known as Wuxian. One of them, the Sanyan Wuxian, refers to the guardian deity Huaguang Tianwang. This was the inspiration for Xiao’s identity as a guardian-adeptus. Conversely, there are also five evil deities called the Wutong, one of which includes the one-legged, people-eating, mountain dwelling demon named Shanxiao. The chinese character for Xiao, literally translating to demon, comes from this. It is especially fitting considering the Wutong were characterized by disguising themselves as handsome gentlemen. These inspirations became the dev team’s foundation for the character’s development and other cultural references. To further build on Xiao’s agile combat style supported by his Anemo vision, his kit was designed around the idea of the yaksha from Buddhism, which is a spirit that is connected to the elements. Traditional stories about “guardian yaksha” follow the archetype of a “malevolent spirit on a path towards goodness.”
This clearly inspired Xiao’s lore, which heavily focuses on his life’s regrets. Furthermore, another Chinese word for yaksha is jieji gui, containing the characters for swift, nimble, and spirit. This relates to Xiao’s physical agility, adding another layer of cultural significance.Xiao as a character is a fusion of various cultural inspirations, and in a way he is a reflection of Chinese culture. Xiao’s personality would be the next order of business. They knew they wanted him to be a warrior, so they decided he would be fighting against the remnants of gods which can never be completely destroyed. MiHoYo’s decision to release Xiao during the Lantern Rite is in reference to the Chinese custom of driving away evil spirits at the new year. Like mentioned before, a majority of Xiao’s lore focuses on his suffering caused by a life of killing. This idea is implemented as an important part of his gameplay with his elemental burst, “bane of all evil.” Xiao puts on his yaksha mask and greatly increases his combat capability, reflective of his relentlessness and extensive battle experience.
However, the karma from the pain Xiao has caused materializes in the form of his health slowly draining. I think it’s really cool that character lore is taken into account when designing character gameplay. It’s not like the lore and gameplay are done separately and just squished together at the end. It definitely makes the character feel more complete overall.The last main piece of Xiao’s personality is how he suppresses his own emotions. Xiao works tirelessly to protect humankind, but he does not dare interact with them because he is so different from them. He is curious, but just doesn’t feel like he could fit in.
This loneliness “has caused time to stand still, leading to him still having a very young mentality even to this day.”Now moving on to the visual elements, written by D and SS from the art team, who created Xiao’s concept art. His initial design is not too far off from what we have today, but there are some very key differences. Before, he was shirtless, and had a red chord with a tassel around his shoulder. I’m curious as to if this was later moved to be a detail on Ganyu. Old Xiao also had a much more friendly demeanor, more in line with the traditional idea of an deity. He used to have a very red-centric color palette, but it was later decided that it didn’t align well with his character.
In his current design, his white shirt represents the godly status of the adepti, and the green mirrors his anemo vision. Meanwhile, the dark colors on the lower body represent the poisonous, dark power within Xiao. The contrast between lightness and darkness can also be seen in Xiao’s abilities, which contain a vibrant green as well as black particles. Although Xiao has the appearance of a young man, he is actually over 2,000 years old. To incorporate this into his visual design, he was given Jade jewelry “to bring a sense of longevity and mystery.” In chinese culture, jade symbolizes prosperity, success, good luck, and immortality. To go back to the original idea of beauty, Xiao was given modern looking clothing, especially on his upper body. Usually, immortals are imagined to wear long, flowing robes with wide sleeves, and they very move reservedly.
This clashed with Xiao’s identity of a fleet footed polearm user, especially because excessive use of flowing clothing could cause clipping within the 3d model. To compromise, Xiao’s garments were made close fitting and short sleeved. He was given religious items with religious significance, such as a censer and a vajra. His clothing was also patterned with imagery of clouds to give him a sense of antiquity. This overall struck a balance between “practicality and ethereality”. Xiao’s mask is inspired by the masks traditionally used in exorcism rituals within the Nuo folk religion. As you can see, elements like the horns, imposing eyes, bared teeth, and large nose were carried over. Xiao’s version was given additional details like the center eye representing omniscience, and flame like patterns to give an imposing impression. Overall it is another physical representation of Xiao’s personality, solemn and mysterious yet menacing.The third and last part talks about the animation and debugging process, written by Xiaolong.
He states that a main goal of the Genshin Impact animation department has always been to provide players with an animation experience as smooth as a movie. Thus, they dedicate lots of time and resources into making character movements “as natural and polished as possible”. You can see the fruits of their labor in game, and how even if you input sporadic movements, your character doesn’t move abruptly. For characters, it is the animation teams job to bring the idea of them to life. As a Liyue character, the classic idea of a martial arts hero came to mind. And while they would be taking elements from there, they did not want to limit themselves to using only real life inspirations,
seeing that Xiao is not a mere human. The third hit of Xiao’s basic attack combo shows him doing a sideways somersault. Normally if a person were to do this, their legs would have to bend in order to absorb the force of landing. Xiao however, lands in a soft but steady way, similar to what is commonly seen in traditional chinese martial arts movies. This is further adopted in the animation for his elemental skill. When used on the ground it ends with a smooth slide.
When used in the air, Xiao finishes with a subtle twirl. To make these animations look as polished as possible, motion simulation was used to find the proper clothing placements, and every frame was scrutinized to look good while conveying explosive energy and speed. Xiao’s first idle animation represents how despite constantly feeling remorse and regret, Xiao will always put on his mask in order to protect Liyue. His second animation, Xiao is intrigued by a glowing spirit, but when he tries to reach out to it, it flees from him. His facial expression subtly but effectively conveys how dejected he feels. To achieve this level of high quality animation, the animation team uses advanced optical motion capture technology.
This section is ended off with a statement saying how the animation team is currently researching and developing character animation styles for future regions. I am so incredibly excited to see what inspirations they will draw from and how creative they will continue to be. A month ago when I made the video “what goes into creating a genshin impact character” I mentioned that there was probably a lot more to it than we knew about, and this article just proves it. I have huge respect for the development team for being so passionate about their work, and I really hope they continue to post more developer insights like these.
Reviewed by mattkaydiary
on
七月 17, 2021
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