You're the best at designs in my opinion. I got my own AUs and was hoping for some advice/ideas regarding a ladybug/rooster unification for Adult!Mari.
Awe! Thank you! My advice for when to create designs is to create a moodboard first! I use Pinterest and Instagram or Twitter. I find pictures like clothes, colors, small details, makeup, and anything that fits the design that I have in my head.
When it comes to designing a unification, I try to find two common colors, so for a Ladybug/Rooster design, you would be using main colors like Red and Orange, so warm sunrise colors. But I would also add other colors like blue and green to give it a cold flair.
Then I pick a theme, for me, I love adding feathers and coat jackets. For me, I would combine the fancy coat of the rooster with Ladybug, so make her wear a tailcoat. Make her look sorta like a pirate of sorts. I'd dye the tips of her hair red and give her a hat with rooster feathers.
Or you could be super cool and give her a mohawk. But try merging the two elements of both kwamis.
For example:
But don't forget this is YOUR design, so have fun with it!
I'd also totally love to see what you come up with, so tag me when you're done :)
I need advice from Black individuals on this character design choice!
TLDR: I’m designing a Black character based on Rafiki, a mandrill from The Lion King, and I gave her orange lips. I’m not sure if this directly calls back to racist art of the past, but it felt wrong to think this and then not elaborate. I want to make sure I’m being appropriately sensitive in my choices of design. It would be very helpful if I were to get advice from the group this kind of art directly affects!
Hihihi! To anyone seeing this who is Black, particularly Bantu/African diaspora but generally Black as this pertains to stereotypes, I’m currently designing a character based on Rafiki from The Lion King and I’ve gotten about this far:
The orange lips and nose are a more vibrant reinterpretation of the appearance of the mandrill primate (Mandrillus sphinx), pictured here, which Rafiki is based on:
However, I understand that there’s quite a bit of deserved stigma around giving Black characters “donut lips” as this calls back to racist propaganda spread about by white folk and especially imperialists throughout the entirety of the Transatlantic slave trade. It’s not remotely my intention to be insensitive or racist and I’m doing my best to honor the cultures upon which I’ve based this character (Bantu culture as a whole and particularly that of the Fang people), and I feel like it would be a huge misstep not to make sure I’m taking appropriate steps to do so.
Obviously it is not the responsibility of Black people to educate me or tell me when I’m doing something racist; it’s my job as a white person raised in a Eurocentric, white-focused culture to be self-aware. However, I am honestly stumped here and I’m not completely sure that my immediate circle will be able to discern whether or not this is a mistake. If you do so choose to advise me, please be honest, and thank you!
I have an idea for two dragon breeds: Wyverns, which are bat-derived dragons, and Elder dragons, which are pterosaur-derived dragons. They have thin arms for casting spells (six limbs in total). Both are sapient. What traits should I consider? How can I make both look dragon-like enough? What cultural and biological characteristics should I consider? Could both evolve from very isolated places?
luckily, dragons are such a broad category of creature that you can do a lot of odd things and still reasonably call it a dragon!
I don't think you'll have any trouble at all making bat and pterosaur inspired dragons that are easily recognizable.
step one in making any new design is to gather up a bunch of research images to study. look up lists of pterosaurs and bats, find pictures of the different species and pick a few for inspiration.
and then start tracing their forms, redrawing them in sketches, etc until you're fairly comfortable with that. make whole pages of sketches focusing on the body shape you want to draw, the wings, the various unique traits that you want your dragons to have, all of that.
and then just kinda sketch up some designs and edit them until you're happy with it.
example: here's a couple images of pterosaurs and bats from an internet search, and a sketch page of dragon body shapes and the inspiration wing shapes.
(image description: the first two images are scientific illustrations of the pterosaur family tree and several bat species divided into "microbat" and "megabat" categories. the third image is a sketch page showing a quadrupedal dragon shape and a bipedal dragon shape with smaller front arms. This is accompanied by a sketch of a bipedal dinosaur, similar to a velociraptor, and the wing shapes of pterosaurs and bats. end description)
if you just sit down and do a pile of sketch studies and design drafts for like, an hour, you'll probably end up with some simple designs you're happy with and then you can work on refining those designs into something better!
don't worry about too many worldbuilding details like evolution just yet, that's a detail for later. to start, you just need to know a handful of worldbuilding details that can inform the design.
here's just two important considerations for the early design process:
what are their general dietary needs? (carnivore, herbivore, omnivore)
what environment do they live in? (temperature/weather, mountain/forest/plains/desert/island, etc, but no need to get too specific yet)
that's really all you need to worry about at the start! what they eat and where they live will give you plenty to work with for their designs, like what traits they'll need to access their foods, what sort of shelter will be available to them, and the weather they'll have to adapt to.
and with that, since they're sapient, you can also determine things like what resources they have for crafting, what tools they might want, any clothing or accessories they'd wear, how they like to prepare their meals, etc etc etc.
it's really just a matter of "yes, and", asking yourself some questions and letting those questions inspire more questions in more detail. take your time! don't rush too much! it's a bit of a domino effect, once you get going. but also don't let it get so out of hand that you end up confused or overwhelmed with the details. when in doubt, put some limits up and go for less detail rather than more. simplicity is not a bad thing!
Having a bit of a character design related crisis right now, see image below
So I'm trying to get my sona's redesign ready for artfight ASAP so I can work on attacks and other designs I have yet to upload, but I cannot for the life of me figure out his lower legs. Transformer legs are hard enough to design as it is, but everything I come up with just doesn't look right compared to the rest of his bot mode. Nothing does: the knees, the feet, the general shape. I've asked for advice previously, but even when I try applying the advice I receive, it still doesn't end up looking like it belongs to the same bot. Do any of you have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
And while we're here, please link your favourite original TF designs in the comments and what you like about them! I've seen some incredible work myself and I'm currently scouring for inspiration as that has been most valuable for my design process so far. My biggest inspiration so far has been a Skyfire design by the artist Missocpus on Twitter, they made him look so strong and confident and I wanted my sona to make me feel the same way!
I also kindly ask that responses to Killjoy's appearance remain appropriate as he is still a representation of me, although deviating greatly in terms of personality and lore. Feel free to ask questions about him though! I love him so much :D
NOTE: The VTOL stealth transport concept that is Killjoy's alt mode is by an extremely talented designer named Rodrigo Avella, please do go check out his art!! You can find him on ArtStation I believe and iirc he has his own website too.
Im not sure how active this blog is but the art here has legit been one of my biggest inspirations lately. I'm trying to improve my own art and was wondering if you had any advice for how to make characters look like themselves especially when you're portraying them as non human if that makes sense? I hope it makes sense.
Thank you! I’m glad my semi dormant project brings joy still.
when it comes to designing non-humanoid characters I tend to look at a character and pick out what are the defining traits to me. What do I look for when trying to evaluate who is who?
lenny and hosea as examples, I mainly use their shapes, age, and clothes to make them recognizable. Rdr2 characters already are super distinct so the game designers did most of the work for me, haha.
Davey and Mac are more similar in design, so i had to distinguish them with arbitrary differences I pulled out of my ass.
Just choose some visual traits (shapes, colors, poses, scars, etc) and stick with them. People will eventually learn to spot them. I recommend visual distinguishing that is easily seen from a 360 degree view. Ex: the cut in Mac’s ear can be seen from most angles, even id the art was just line art and lacked color to identify their hair colors.
I took my second ADHD pill a little too late I guess because it was suddenly 4 am and I made this thing about why parasitic organisms are shaped like ways and how to consider that for your fiction settings.
Raw text version below the cut for people with busted seeing:
SO YOU WANT TO DESIGN A PARASITE
(and if not, you should)
a brief creative guide by jonathan wojcik ( bogleech.com )
A parasite, in the strictest definition, is an organism that exploits the body of another species as both its habitat and its food source, without providing a direct benefit to its host, and it is the single most common lifestyle on the planet Earth. Almost every single non-parasitic species suffers from multiple uniquely adapted parasitic species: a one tiny crustacean is found exclusively in the nostrils of walruses, there's a leech adapted only to the rectum of the hippopotamus, there's a mite that clings only to the inner jaws of an army ant and there's a parasitic tardigrade found only on the skin of a sea cucumber.
An animal's parasites are as much a part of its ecological history as its habitat, diet and reproductive methods, so if you're not designing parasites for your fictional species, you aren't done designing your fictional species!
For those interested in tackling this "realistically," here's what we can learn from the real thing!
ENDOPARASITES (internal parasites) tend to be smooth and streamlined to slip softly through the body, causing as little physical damage as possible. Some use delicately sharp mouthparts to feed on tissues or body fluids, while others may simply soak up surrounding nutrients like a sponge. Because they live in darkness, endoparasites have no use for eyes or pigmentation. They are usually pale or transparent, but some may appear pink or red from their steady diet of blood.
One rare exception to the color rule is Leucochloridium. These flatworms display colorful "brood sacs" through the skin of their snail hosts in order to entice birds, which will spread the parasite's eggs in their droppings. This is also an example of something almost universal to endoparasites: they tend to have multiple life cycle stages, and each one infects an entirely different host species, usually exploiting the food chain to get from one host to the next, and in many cases actively altering the behavior, health or appearance of a host in the process.
Nearly all animals have not only their own unique endoparasites, but also their own unique ECTOPARASITES, or external parasites, which must be adapted not only to their host's body but to the surrounding environment as well. The ectoparasites of furred or feathered animals like mammals and birds are typically bristling with spines, hooks and claws to navigate the host's coat and avoid being thrown off. The ectoparasites of smooth, slippery animals like fish and amphibians may also employ hooks or barbs, but rely most of all on suction, and are often as flat as possible to fit flush against slick skin.
It's important to note that not all tiny, blood-sucking pests are proper parasites! Mosquitoes, horseflies, vampire bats and most leeches, for example, do not live on their host's body long-term, but visit only momentarily to feed, which is instead considered a category of predation. There are, however, truly parasitic leeches that even brood young on the bodies of their hosts, and parasitic flies that complete their life cycle entirely in host fur!
Possibly the most graphic parasites are those that manifest both internally and externally: this is particularly common among parasitic crustaceans, such as Anelasma barnacles and anchor worms. Despite being crustaceans, these creatures have reduced much of their anatomy down to fleshy stems and roots they bury deep within the host's flesh, while the parasite's reproductive systems and egg sacs dangle outside of the skin. Note that parasites of fish can especially get away with this because fish don't have appendages capable of pulling the parasites out, and by leaving their reproductive organs outside, they can spread their eggs or larvae into the water current!
So, when designing a parasitic organism, consider all of the following factors and how they should affect the appearance of the creature:
Where does it live on its host?
What does it feed on?
What does it NOT need to facilitate its lifestyle?
Perhaps most importantly, why can't the host easily get rid of it?
I wrote this guide mostly because a lot of fictional parasitic creatures put no consideration at all into these evolutionary characteristics. Oftentimes when they don't look like mutated lampreys, they look like broadly "weird" or "gross" creatures with no obviously parasitic adaptations. These can still be fun monster designs and you should never feel like you have to follow "rules" when building your own world, but if you never realized why parasites look the way they do, maybe this has inspired you to consider what kinds of creatures make life a little more miserable for your other original species.
Just read this article as recommended by @indierpgnewsletter! It's really neat and I think I might need to file it away for future game design thoughts.
What are Conspicuous Mechanics? Conspicuous mechanics are those that demand recognition or decision before intended play can continue. Con
