The exceptionally tall, domineering countess of the castle in Resident Evil Village, known as Alcina Dimitrescu, has become an internet sensation since she was revealed as the main villain of Capcom's upcoming survival horror game. She stands at an impressive 9'6" (though she isn't the tallest Resident Evil villain) and is sure to possess some equally impressive supernatural abilities, as is typical of Resident Evil antagonists. Lady Dimitrescu and her three daughters who haunt the halls of Castle Dimitrescu already stand out as captivating characters for the highly anticipated Resident Evil Village, but the design process in creating the Lady's towering visage was not completed overnight.
The first step in creating Lady Dimitrescu for the development team at Capcom was to dress the character model of Mia from Resident Evil 7: Biohazard in a dress and hat. The practice of importing character models as stand-ins isn't all that uncommon. For instance, Nintendo used Link in his pajamas from Wind Waker as the player character in early builds of Breath of the Wild. Game development often takes a long time, and making characters just right can be an involved process.
Information on the conception of Lady Dimitrescu comes from Resident Evil Village art director Tomonori Takano, who recently divulged some development insights in an interview with IGN. Takano (joined in the interview by game director Morimasa Sato) was overwhelmed by Resident Evil fans' reaction to Lady Dimitrescu, and was responsible for revealing the Lady's exact height. He's now indulged another burning question from the Resident Evil community by informing everyone that she wears shoes roughly 17.3 inches long.
The Design Process of RE8's Lady Dimitrescu
Using Mia's character model as a design prototype was only the first step in Alcina Dimitrescu's design process, and dressing Mia in a hat and dress admittedly did not have the desired effect. The dress, presumably fairly similar in appearance to the final, 1960s-esque one, succeeded in giving Mia's model a ghost-like quality. Simply redressing her, an averaged size woman, was not enough to make her scary, according to Takano. "Then, we decided to make the character model much larger," he said. "That was the beginning of Lady Dimitrescu."
A shockingly tall woman, clad in white to resemble a massive specter was enough to produce the desired effect, but it wasn't until Takano drew a piece of concept art with her ducking down to fit through a door that he felt they were really on to something. Next came environmental prototypes to surround the character, which would later evolve into Castle Dimitrescu, which towers over the eponymous village. The design team toyed with the idea of making Lady Dimitrescu more creature-like, but ultimately decided the simple and powerful design she wound up with fit perfectly into Resident Evil Village.
Source: IGN