Here's my model of the Bellhop from the Hotel Podcast!! :]
I've been working on this for a little over two weeks, since the beginning of November. It's my very first stab at making, texturing, and animating a 3D character model. Based on the official art/design by Filthyguts.
I wanted to make the Bellhop for 2 reasons: A) I wanted to choose a character from something I'm passionate and excited about so I'd have motivation to see this through and. B) The character has SUCH a fun design full of very fun distinctive shapes and proportions, I thought it'd be a fun challenge to try and recreate
I could, and have, spent nonstop hours tweaking and re-tweaking and fixing to get everything juuuust right, just that little bit extra better. But I don't want to be stuck on one character forever. And for a first attempt, I'm pretty proud of what I put together!
This project was mainly a learning process, to see how I felt about working in Blender and if I'd even like 3D modeling. I do!!!! A lot!!!! It's been ridiculously fun and I'm super excited to keep going and seeing what other kinds of things I can make as I learn more :-)
As an avid little nightmares enthusiast, what are your serious beliefs on the often overlooks Wax Bellman? Any theories or headcanons?
Frankly? I don't really have anything.
Don't get me wrong -- I find it very sweet that the fandom has always tried to involve him into the fan content, making him part of the crew of the Maw even though he was cut in the end. Considering how involved he was in the marketing of the game up until 2016 we have good reason to believe that the guy was also beloved by the crew; he must have been a "last second" cut.
(Pictures from the previously mentioned con.)
His situation is really a sad one because it would have been awesome to have him run around in the game. Would have made the runtime longer.
HOWEVER! His presence is still tangible in the Maw, in spite of him being gone. This is something I will gladly get into: bring little details to light is something I am very fond of doing.
We see him directly in a couple of paintings owned by the Lady, both in the Residence and in her own quarters. She has a habit of keeping pictures of her employees; this is a good indicator that he was on the Maw during her reign. Might be an obvious statement, but you never know with the Maw... In all of these instances, he is found hanging by his neck; considering his jack in the box is also in a room where a Nome is swinging aggressively on a lamp attached to a long wire, the "cord around neck" part is a prominent aspect of this character.
((This is, most likely, one of the reasons why they ultimately cut him out. I cannot imagine how hard it would be to animate a guy walk around with a cord around his neck all the time. Adding to that, his face looks hard to model and keep consistent, so that's a point against him as well.))
Keeping his profession in mind, one could really call him a dog on a leash. A bellman is a person who helps the guests carry their luggage inside their place of residence and shares information about the establishment and its services. From what we can discern from the first painting, we can also see that this particular Bellman was also the one in charge of the booking and the tickets, so doing check ins and things of the like.
Generally, he'd be the one to look after the Guests more closely, which lines up with the traces of him we are left with...
You see, in the 2016 con, the Wax Bellman was shown hiding behind a two-way mirror. He could only be seen once the light was turned on, on his side of the mirror. Meaning that the two way mirror we see in LN 1 is most likely one of the places he would have resided in.
That in itself is not too obscene considering the other customs of the Maw, but the mirror is in a bathroom. And he has a chair. With toilet paper.
... Yeah, uh. Very interesting, Tarsier Studios! 😁👍🏻
About Tarsier Studios, actually! This ask reminded me of something they said in regards to the Ferryman and the Wax Bellman. A few years back, LN twitter referred to the Bellman as "Ferryman"; for this reason, it was believed for a while that the two characters were either the same person, or that one replaced the other in the lore. This was confirmed to not be the case!
(From this awesome interview! I suggest you go listen to it, because this screenshot is hard to read + it reveals a LOT of Maw lore!)
So we can finally put a stone on this lost soul. He is lost to time, but never forgotten. Keep the fan content of him coming!
I completely forgot about this, but a year ago I started a one thing you can’t replace animatic— NEVER finished it. Never will finish it. So I’m just putting the draft into the world because it’s just fun. Even has my old ponytailed bellhop design lol. And no I cannot get rid of the random white space at the end believe me I TRIED. The worst part is that it was so close to being done but the file glitched and I cannot work on it anymore.