After Silent Hill 4: The Room was released, he was asked to work on another Silent Hill game.
The extensive work on the series made him exhausted. These plans were ultimately abandoned.Īfter doing art direction, environment designs, key frame animations, and all of the creature design in Silent Hill 2, Masahiro Ito returned as a creature designer and art director for Silent Hill 3. There was also a valve spigot on the bulge near his right shoulder, serving a function in a cancelled cinematic. The character was initially modeled with bolts lining his helmet, part of a plan to depict James' delusions through his design. He compensated for this by putting more effort into Pyramid Head's cinematics. According to Ito, some of the development crew and his boss were hesitant about including the design at first due to its unconventional nature.
Modelling, texturing and rigging took an additional two weeks, and the keyframe animations took another two weeks on top of that. ĭesigning Pyramid Head, accomplished through Softimage 3D, took approximately two weeks. The valve spigot, tied to a cancelled animation. Pyramid Head's design initially included bolts attached to his helmet. He also took influence from oil/acrylic painting he created in 1995 while in art school depicting an anthropomorphic pyramid-shaped object as part of his Strange Head series. As a tank enthusiast, Ito took inspiration from the lower hull of the "King Tiger" German WWII tank when designing the edges of Pyramid Head's helmet, as well as avante-garde and other vehicles from the period. He redesigned it in a large pyramid-head shaped helmet and butcher's smock to get the inhuman quality he wanted. He designed such a concept but ultimately scrapped it, feeling that it looked too much like a regular human in a mask. Creating the chaser Pyramid Head, he wanted a monster with a hidden face so that it would appear less human and more disturbing. Because the monsters are manifestations of the protagonist's subconscious, rather than independent pre-existing entities indigenous to the town, Ito intended for them to have a symbolic meaning applying to James Sunderland's character arc and journey. When scenario writer Hiroyuki Owaku, art director Masahiro Ito, character designer Takayoshi Sato, game director Masashi Tsuboyama, and drama director Suguru Murakoshi were building the base story of Silent Hill 2, they realized that they needed a "chaser" creature to fulfill a role in the plot.
Since its creation, Pyramid Head has become one of the most well-known and iconic monsters in the franchise, turning into something of a mainstream and flagship figurehead for the series. The films and novels have extended his role to that of a protector and servant of Valtiel. After James kills Eddie Dombrowski in self-defense, a second Pyramid Head materializes.ĭespite criticism from Masahiro Ito and Tomm Hulett, the character was reimagined in Silent Hill: Homecoming as The Bogeyman aka The Shadowed One, a creature of vengeance and justice who inflicts punishment on those who deserve it. His signature weapons are the Great Knife and the Great Spear, instruments of James' inner torment. He is a manifestation of James Sunderland's guilt and desire for punishment, existing to keep him human and help him remember his past actions. His red helmet and butcher's attire echo the executioners of the town's past, who worshipped the angel of rebirth Valtiel. Red Pyramid Thing, more colloquially known as Pyramid Head, is a humanoid monster in the Silent Hill franchise first appearing in Silent Hill 2. Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals - Silent Hill.Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill.