Visualizing DRs: The Guide!
It’s-a time for another guide!
0. What’s this guide about?
Visualization is a catch all term for realizing your DR, the objects in your DR, and the people in your DR. It’s an important step for crossing the boundary from your CR to whatever reality you go to next. Visualizing cements your DR as reality for both your conscious and subconscious. While most of the other things I write about (scripting, methods, etc.) are optional ways to enable a closer connection to your DR, visualization is a must do for shifting. How will you know where you’re going if you can’t see it?
This guide will cover envisioning your surroundings, objects, and people. Ready? OK, let’s go!
0.5. A quick word about aphantasia:
Aphantasia is described as the inability to see objects in your minds eye. For instance, if I tell you to imagine a pineapple, what you are imagining may be different than what I am imagining. Aphantasia is on a scale, from slight aphantasia to full aphantasia. If you have full aphantasia, and I tell you to imagine a pineapple, you would see… nothing, whereas someone with slight aphantasia may be able to see the pineapple, but not all the details the pineapple has.
There are some in the shifting community who believe that if you have aphantasia, you cannot shift. This is not true. This same mentality was applied to artists when aphantasia was first discovered, and there are plenty of successful artists who have full aphantasia. Hell, a co-founder of Pixar had aphantasia and is still a successful artist who has left his mark on the animation industry.
Those with aphantasia may need to see more reference pictures or think about their DR more in order to visualize it. Aphantasia may be a slight setback, but what it really means is that you need more references to look back at. Pinterest boards, rewatching movies, and looking at fan art are great resources in general, but are especially useful to those with aphantasia.
Before starting to visualize people, places and things, it’s important to have a general understanding of what is and isn’t possible in your DR. As you possibly knew before, visualizing every single little detail is impossible for anyone, even the most experienced artist or shifter. Imagine it like this:
Look down at your hand. What are the first things you notice? Most likely it’s the fact you have five fingers, your nails peak out above the tips of your fingertips, and that you have some major creases in your palms and between your finger bones. Using only that information and a steady hand, you could draw a pretty comprehensive picture of what your hand looks like. If you showed that picture to anyone, they would be able to identify it as a hand.
The more you stare at the hand, the more things you may notice. For example, you may notice more red blotches in some areas than others, smaller creases, maybe some dirt that you haven’t washed off yet. These smaller differences are harder to pick up at first, but are necessary if you wanted to paint a hyper realistic painting of a hand.
But did you notice how you didn’t pick up on all the small details right away? This is because most brains filters out all that information so that you can understand what is going on right away. If you picked up all the details on everything right away, as soon as you looked at it, it would be overwhelming. Your brain uses a lot of previous information, inferences, and assumptions in order to figure out what is going on, and move on.
This is why setting standards before visualizing is so important. It gives your brain the needed assumptions it can make while visualizing and also after you’ve shifted.
Here’s a list of things to keep in mind before starting to visualize:
What time period is your DR set in? Future or past? Does that matter for your shift?
What technologies are possible in your DR? Are you just stuck with pen and paper? How about smartphones and computers? How advanced is civilization?
Is there even civilization? Maybe your DR is post-apocalyptic or maybe you’re shifting to a world where you’re not a human. What is that civilization like? What rules do they have that we may not?
Cultural norms. How do people great each other? Shaking hands? Bowing? How about romantic gestures (if desired?)
What’s the general setting you are planning to be in? A big city? How tall are the buildings usually? A small town? Small enough that everyone knows each other or a bit bigger than that? Out in the country? What’s the wildlife like out there?
Is magic possible? Is there any sort of system for how magic is done? Are there special practices people need to do to conduct magic?
This list is not comprehensive, but it does bring up important facts to think about before starting to visualize. Add and subtract to this list as needed!
2. Visualizing locations:
Locations are… well, locations! Where you are going to be, places you are going to go, places you are going to stay… all of them require different amounts of visualizing. So I made a little tier list from the places you should spend the most time visualizing to places that may not need as much attention:
Waiting room (if applicable):
Your waiting room is the place you will be going to before you enter your DR, but only if you script it in. Make sure that your waiting room is SUPER well visualized. Since it is the first place you will be arriving from your CR, it is necessary to have a great understanding of how everything looks and works.
The place you will be staying in your DR:
This is applicable to most DRs. There may be a few were you do not have a primary place to set up camp, and if that is the case then skip over this. For example, if you’re staying in a city and you’re staying in an apartment, make sure you have the layout mapped pretty well. Where’s the bathroom? The bedroom? Studio apartment or more sprawling? Think about wall decor and what’s in the fridge and cabinets. What about flaws? Does the sink work a little funny? Are there cobwebs in the storage cabinet you never use? Furniture? Is it usually warm or cold here? Since you’ll be spending a lot of time here, you would have noticed more things, so it’s important to have more mapped out.
Primary locations:
Primary locations consist of places you will visit quite frequently. It may be a college campus, a coffee shop you like, a place you work in your DR, maybe a friend/lover’s home. There should be a pretty comprehensive review of these locations, but without the need to think of the little, tiny details. Layout should be mapped, and you should think about furniture, wall decor, and the general vibes. You can let your brain/subconscious fill in details like the little things on the counters, what’s in the fridge, etc.
Secondary/Transitional locations:
Secondary and transitional locations are places you may visit frequently, but don’t spend a lot of time in. For example, a subway station, a train/bus, hallways, streets, etc. These are the locations you visit on your way to a primary location. Layout is still important, but most of these areas you can leave up to your brain for filling in details. If you are adamant on your train looking a certain way or having a certain aesthetic, I would recommend viewing inspiration boards to get the general mood of it all.
Out of scope locations:
These places are things you may see in photos that your DR friends have in their home, or places you may see on TV or out of the window. These locations are places you have no intention of visiting. Again, inspiration boards are a great way of getting a general vibe of these settings. Not a lot of attention needs to be distributed to these, but it’s helpful to imagine them a little bit.
After you have shifted, you may spontaneously decide to visit places you haven’t visualized before. You will still be able to visit these locations, but keep in mind that you will have very little control over what they will look like. If you don’t like the decor of the froyo place you and your friends visit, there’s not a lot you can do change it. Just keep that in mind!
Objects and locations fall into a similar category, but are slightly different. Locations are more stagnant. Sure, maybe there are doors you can open and close, maybe your recliner has a setting that lets you move the seat back, but mostly you can’t interact with the settings a ton.
Objects, on the other hand, are the things you will be using on a daily basis. There are objects you may use more than others, and it is important to imagine how those will operate, look and feel in your DR.
For example, maybe you have a wand that you use to cast your spells. That’s something you’re going to be holding a lot, so it’s important to have a good idea of how it looks and feels. What’s the weight like on it? How is your dexterity while using it? When you cast magic, does it heat up? Do you feel the magic flowing out of you and into the wand? Does the wand feel heavier after casting spells?
It is these conditional spaces that the object may occupy when using it that it is important to keep in mind. If you’re having trouble imagining what objects to visualize and what not to visualize, here’s a system I use called the backpack status. It goes like so:
If you, in your DR, are going to move out to a different apartment, what objects would you put in your backpack? These are things you use frequently. Often in my backpack would be: A laptop, my cute pink mechanical pencils, pendrives, makeup case, wallet, keys, water bottle, etc. If it is something you would put in your backpack, it’s something that you should visualize!
Clothing also falls into this category. If it’s something you want to wear, make sure to have it visualized. I like making pinterest boards with outfit ideas in them. It helps me remember the clothing I will be wearing in my DR.
People follow a similar priority scale to the locations. People who you see more should be better visualized, people you see less maybe not so.
Visualizing people is easier if you are shifting to an already established world that has already established people. For example, shifting to Hogwarts and visualizing people there would be much easier than shifting to your OC world, especially if you haven’t done a lot of thinking of how your people actually look.
For example, shifting to MHA would be easier than your OC reality since you’ve already got an idea of what Bakugo, Deku, and Todoroki look like. You may not have the luxury of finding pictures of people that look like your OCs that you can use to visualize them. Here’s some recommendations for visualizing people:
Artbreeder! It’s a great tool for putting together faces for people you want to see in your DR. This can be used for preexisting people or your OCs.
Fan art. This mostly applies to preexisting.
Movies/shows/comics/manga: Also mostly applies to preexisting.
Your own drawings: This is arguably the most powerful tool for visualizing people, though some people may think that they do not have enough experience with drawing/painting to accurately recreate how their OCs/preexisting people should look.
https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/, this website generates realistic portraits of people that do not exist. Great for if you’re just starting to figure out how your OCs should look.
There are many more resources that you can utilize for visualizing people, but I’ve just listed the ones I am most familiar with.
5. Final notes and thoughts:
Hey, thanks for reading! The actual guide is over now. Go ahead and skip this if you’re uninterested in reading it. I might be adding on to this again later, but I think I’m satisfied with the ending product. I hope this helped you too!
I made this guide because I’ve received an increasing number of questions pertaining to “how should I visualize _____.” I thought it would be nice to just have a catch all guide for it.
Have a great morning/afternoon/night!
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