I decided to make this a separate post, since I had to do some more research into DND and its races and classes, but this follows the Pitch Presentation Critique post from before!
So once my group was told to lean further into the DnD aspect, we had to get research more about it. I in particular hadn’t really played this, so I wasn’t really aware about how it worked with classes and races but Eoin was very helpful and sent us some links that informed us about the races, classes and the handbook. I suggested that we all go off and create 3 different character designs, so that we could choose between all the designs to make a balanced party- which according to Katrina and Eoin consisted of about 1 cleric, 1 tank and some damage dealers. I thought it would be good for each of us to make some form of each with different races and have fun exploring the fantasy setting. Eoin also mentioned that we could have a look into sub-classes, with the intent that it would show our characters had been adventuring together for a while, and would give us a bit more creative freedom in trinkets and such for our characters.
I really liked the description and design of three of the races, The Tiefling, Goblin and the Satyr, so these were what I would focus my designs on.
https://online.anyflip.com/dkneq/yerq/mobile/index.html#p=1
Then I started to build up a Library of References on Pinterest for general designs and costumes:
Then I went ahead and started sketching some initial ideas and explorations in my sketchbook (these were done before any proper research into classes and such, more exploring fantasy style characters as I wasn’t familiar with them).
With that I went ahead and looked at some designs and researched into subclasses- the main ideas I wanted to get down was a Satyr Bard, a Goblin Tinkerer and a Tiefling Paladin (and to get some other class designs from these incase we needed other versions). I chose these particular classes as apparently they work well with the particular races buffs/abilities, and any alternate classes I will take using this same method. Thankfully I have people in my group who are willing to correct if I get any of the design element understandings wrong.
After reading through these, I will admit I am very confused and overwhelmed by how much stuff there is in DnD. There’s a lot of different elements that I am struggling to have a good vision of- however, I really like the idea of trying to make a mechanical arm for a character, with the Armorer Artificer subclass. For the rest of the designs I will try my hardest and ask for help from my group members to see if what I make works!
I actually found myself to be quite hesitant and nervous to start on new designs for this. I can’t tell if it is my mental illness flaring up or if it is just a general anxiety of the subject that is so new to me, but so knowledgeable to others ( maybe it was the panic of criticism in design, since I am a perfectionist and get attached to my art, something I am learning to overcome with time and help from reading The Study Skills Handbook – Stella Cottrell, or maybe it is just me getting overwhelmed by the amount of work I know we will have to do to achieve it and spooking myself form wanting to work…)Whatever it was it was taking the joy out of creating for this assignment and I was losing motivation over it. So I decided to just try my hardest and try not get roped down into depression, this is an area I haven’t explored but have always wanted to and I should use this time to focus on improving and not on grades or other’s comments.
I managed to sit down and do some sketching, I took references from my Pinterest board and other inspirations online. Looking through the subclasses, I saw that one of the artificers could have a metal limb and I liked that idea. I didn’t exactly know what to go for clothes, I need to understand character design a bit better so this will help me practice this area. Overall I just tried to combine what I saw in the references while making it my own design, I also tried to capture different aspects of the character in my designs and I did this with the intention to pick out elements I enjoyed and refine them a bit further into one or two designs that my group could pick from.
Developing Ideas Further
So with some initial explorations of my chosen character races and classes, I went ahead and picked out what I liked most about the designs and went online to do a bit more research into references. Looking at specific weapon, instrument, armour, clothing- essentially what I was struggling with the most when doing my initial explorations. One thing I made sure to do to pair the new references and concepts with, was to find references that worked for me in the games I enjoyed that shares a similar fantasy design. This allowed me to understand and build on the concepts a bit easier and try to eliminate what was overwhelming me with only using DnD aspects.
I did really struggle through these, as I was occupied with how exactly we would simplify these down and what my group would think and all sorts of things- so I’m not really satisfied with a lot of how these came out. I still showed all this development with my group and expressed my struggles to them to hope they would understand and maybe help with any future changes. Despite these struggles I still tried to come out with a good handful of designs and notes- I enjoyed drawing the armour most but the whole concept of the goblin I fell in love with, before this I had to desire to any goblin style characters but I adore them now!
Tiefling Paladin
Satyr Bard
Goblin Artificer
Extra sketches I did for fun and more exploration of the characters:
The next step from this would be to pick out which character that each of us have designed would be our actual character, and explore these further along with looking at how to simplify the designs into consistent models for each of us! This is quite scary and daunting to think of in this moment, and I am worried about how this will work with rigging but I am getting ahead of myself. I am a bit worried at how complicated our groups designs are in comparison to others groups more simple and cute designs, and if we are biting off more that we can chew, but this is something I can discuss with the lecturers in class to workaround. Even though I am not proud of a lot of these drawings I still experimented with new styles, designs and elements to try work with the groups theme. I look forward to see how these will turn out!
NOTE: since I found myself getting a bit overwhelmed with this task, I decided to ask for some help/clarification from Alec and this eased a few of my worries.
