#redesign process

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

DnD 5e goblins and bugbears

are these designs racist? Well, as I am white, I can't really say I'm the expert on this particular concern, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone else point it out, so take this with a grain of salt.

They probably aren't intentionally racist designs. They do make me feel uncomfortable. I haven't finished my redesign for them yet, but I wanted to get this post started since I have other big projects to get to and if I just go straight to those, I will continue to forget about this one. So let's get started!

(image description: the official dnd 5e art for goblins and bugbears. They're related species, though the bugbear is much taller and covered in fur, while the goblin is very small and mostly hairless. they both have large triangular ears and a rounded hook nose with no bridge. The goblin has very yellow skin, the bugbear has very orange fur, and both have red-yellow eyes with flared eyebrows. Their weapons and armor look a bit scrappy, with bones and spikes and metal studs all over the design. notes on the image will be explained below. end description)

the fur color can probably be given a pass because it's fur, but the goblin's skin is so yellow. By itself, I don't think that would be enough to call it a bad design choice, but it is a little odd. what really makes me suspicious are the face shapes, especially the nose and eyebrows. And also the armor. There's not much armor, and it doesn't look like an exact match for any specific type of armor. Honestly I think it's a mix of inspirations, since the bugbear's leather skirt thing does look more like typical roman-inspired battle skirts. but there's enough going on with layered panels and metal studs, mixed with hide and bone and spikes for that "primitive" flair, that I do wonder a bit.

I gathered a few images that these designs reminded me of, as a visual reference.

(image description: both images contain screenshots of the huns from the animated disney Mulan film. The first image also shows old samurai armor and mongolian armor. the armor all has similar designs of layered metal and/or leather with metal studs all over it. The second image contains close ups of the goblin and bugbear faces with the animated film hun characters for comparison. They do all have similarly flared eyebrows and eye colors, as well as some similarities in the nose designs. end description)

Just, kinda makes me uncomfortable. Feels like someone should have double checked their work a bit before finalizing these monster designs. It's not blatant enough to be like, really on purpose, I don't think? I could be wrong, I very well may be missing some details. But the similarities to the hun designs alone are enough to make me say "oh gee, this doesn't seem right." Honestly, I think it's part of a larger trending problem with monster design. There are just some visual features that get used as the universal indicators that these creatures are Evil by nature. These features typically include some form of hooked nose, "primitive" armor, weapons, and clothing, and facial shapes that are angular and blocky, with a very heavy brow.

as a result of these common "evil" visual features, it's kind of inevitable that humanoid monster designs will end up feeling racist in some manner. It's much easier to avoid accidental racism with more animal or insectoid monster designs, but everyone always wants sapient-ish enemies they can use as cannon fodder, with even more humanoid final bosses. So they default to these visual traits again and again, because those are just the visual traits that have always been used. So it's an ongoing issue. Heck, if I tried to design evil humanoids from scratch for a job, I'm sure someone above me would request edits to give them the more obvious "evil" traits so they look more scary and intimidating. this is an industry problem more than an individual one. I hope I've helped point it out here, so more people can recognize it and add their own commentary.

I am also working on a redesign for these, in as close a stye match as I can manage. here's a WIP sample:

(image description: in the first image, a sketched redesign of the goblin and bugbear. Their noses and ears have been altered to look more bat-like, with prominent fleshy ridges on the noses that stick up away from the face. In the second image, the goblin is mostly finished with new colors and altered armor. It is now wearing a short leather wrap with strands of leather or hide hanging off the belt, alongside the arm bracers and leg bracers that were already there. Its skin is now a pale grey color and its hair has been redone as short bristly fur, with facial whiskers on the brow and chin. The bugbear has not been repainted, but it has been cut up and repositioned in preparation for the repaint. end description.)

fixed the poses while i was at it, making the goblin a little more dynamic and the bugbear a little more balanced. They're cave dwellers, so i went further with the bat-like features and the pallid complexion like other cave dwelling creatures have. It's going to take a while to repaint these, so this WIP will have to do for now. I hope it shows how a similar art style can be maintained while also making the designs a little more interesting and not so reliant on racist features.

[bordonfreeman]

Which one looks best???? Let me know, or give me a suggestion pls.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

any thoughts on the di$n3y fantasia centaurs? something about them weirds me out... maybe its how skinny they are? idk

No, you're right, they do look weird haha. As someone with synesthesia, I do love the more abstract parts of the fantasia movies, and some of the other animations are just so beautiful. But the centaurs have a pretty funky design going on, so let's go ahead and figure it out!

(image description: three screenshots of the centaurs from Disney's Fantasia. They have standard cartoonish proportions and coloration for the era it was released, the 1960s. As a result of the cartoonish style though, there are some unusual things to take note of, like the thin boneless torsos, inconsistent leg and body styles, and extreme differences between the male and female characters. end description)

And here is a traced over version where I make the outlines of the bodies a little clearer:

(image description: same as previous, but now the images are faded to highlight a simple traced outline. Notes on the image point out some oddly bent legs, inconsistent proportions, unusual dimorphism between the male and female designs, and commentary on the style in context. end description)

this is the 60s, so you can tell they still have some influence from the rubber hose era of animation, with the way the limbs don't always have clearly defined and consistent joints, and the very tube-like torsos of the centaurettes. Who have way smaller bodies and larger doll-like heads compared to the male centaurs. It isn't the worst centaur stylization ever, very much a cartoon made to be fluid and simple, it does serve its purpose just fine, like how the My Little Pony stylizations are also made with the intention of easier animation.

But we get to roast mediocrity when it comes from major monopoly corporations, even if it is a few decades old. So I'm roasting it. These designs are bland and awkward and they don't follow a consistent model. The females are too rubbery, the males almost look okay but next to their female counterparts they just look awkward. At least it doesn't just look like human torsos stitched onto horse bodies, but it could use some re-working.

Which I have not finished yet. But I've got a redrawn sketch and the start of some direct edits.

(image description: the same screenshots, but now the outlines over the faded pictures shows centaurs with better proportions, such as giving the females longer horse bodies and thicker torsos, and making the legs more consistent. The second image shows the original screenshots with the characters pulled out into pieces which have been relocated and modified to look more like the fixed sketch. end description)

I'll get the rest of that finished later, it takes a while to clean up an edit. Especially one this detailed lol some of those 'taurs need a lot of help.

Edit: got my years wrong, the first fantasia is from the 1940s and was re-released in the 1960s

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Forgot to add this to my previous post, but the start of the Vrock Saga is over here. I need to go through and make sure all the posts are connected properly, I'll probably make a master post eventually as well once I get more things on this blog.

But anyway. Last post was about my basic process in deciding how to redesign the vrock in my own style. This post is a little more fun because it's just a look at my sketches before the final redesign.

(Image description: several sketches of the vrock, titled "fun with poses". At the top left corner, there is a sketch labeled "original vrock pose", where I used the same crouching pose the official dnd art of the vrock did. My sketched design of the vrock looks like a very large vulture with a long fan tail, smaller dinosaur-like arms below its wings, a crest like a cassowary, and a fleshy lump on its nose like a turkey. The other poses shown here are one vrock perched on a rock and turning its head to look behind, and two vrocks posturing menacingly at each other over a large lump of carrion.)

One important factor in designing a creature is knowing how it moves. So I've made these sketches to get a feel for the vrock in motion, which helps it look more like a real creature instead of just a fantasy monster. I'm especially happy with the two that are trying to intimidate each other in a competition for food. Most animals will not fight except as a last resort, so these vrocks are simply trying to make themselves look big and scary and make loud noises at each other until one of them gives up.

And these next two images are tests for a final redesign. First a sketch, then a colored version. I used a similar pose to the monster manual vrock, standing on its hind legs with its arms in a vaguely threatening pose.

I'm mostly happy with the colors here. I leaned heavily on the colors of the king vulture with a beige body, dark blue flight feathers and neck ruff. The neck is a very vibrant orange and red, which I love because it can act as a display for intimidation, surprise, warning, and courtship.

But I felt this pose wasn't very dynamic and didn't give the vrock enough of an intimidation factor. It's just kind of slouching and not looking at anything in particular. I also wasn't sure about the placement of teeth in the beak or the head spikes I tried to keep from the original design.

So I made some revisions and many more sketches before I settled on the final design I will post next.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Alright time to start the posts about my total redesign process for the Vrock! I went to the full description of the Vrock in the D&D 5e monter manual and found that it is described as resembling a cross between a humanoid and a vulture. It smells bad, it likes shiny things, and its main attacks are its claws and its bite. But it also has a toxic spore cloud attack that it activates by shaking its wings.

The spores are the thing I really had to think over because no bird I know has toxic spore clouds at its disposal. But honestly that is a fascinating ability for what essentially amounts to a very large demonic vulture.

I've decided to go with a symbiotic fungus to explain the spores. As for the vulture aesthetics, I specifically picked the king vulture as a reference because it is incredibly colorful and I think the naked pink neck with dark grey feathers vulture aesthetic gets overused for bland evil creature designs. If I was getting paid to design a freaky vulture demon, I think it's just more fun to make it colorful.

From a worldbuilding standpoint, considering how such a creature could have actually evolved, the Vrock lives in a place full of incredibly powerful and often very large demonic creatures, most of which are above it on the demon ladder. So toxic spores from a symbiotic fungus coupled with some vibrant colors is a very good way for the Vrock to say "hey! Leave me alone! I'm to toxic to eat!" as they go about picking off the leftovers from more powerful creatures.

I'm sure my friend @bonnettbee could write a whole essay concerning the place of the Vrock in a possible demon ecosystem.

So with all that in mind here is a sample of how I begin my design process:

(Going from the top of the image to the bottom:)

Now I dont have saved images for the entire process, but the very first thing I do is find some real pictures to use as inspiration. I looked up king vultures, and dinosaurs such as the velociraptor and the archaeopteryx. I knew I wanted to maintain that dinosaur appearance along with the vulture aesthetic. I trace several images until I have the feel of the shapes down, and then as seen here in the image above, I draw them in my own style. I've drawn the long feather fan tail of an archaeopteryx and the arms and leg shapes of a velociraptor but keeping closer to the appearance of vulture feet. I also drew and colored a king vulture head. King vultures are so fun. Their body feathers are beige and dark blue, and their necks and heads are dark blue with flashes of bright red, orange, yellow, and even a little pink. They have similar fleshy nose lumps to turkeys as well, which I like.

After I've gathered all my references, I sketch out some tests for how I want the Vrock to look. There are only two head sketch samples here but trust me I sketched a lot more. I mainly stuck to the look of a king vulture but i added a bony crest like a cassowary because why not. Made the nose lump more pinkish blue and played with the idea of beak teeth. I liked this a lot more than my other concept of sticking closer to the original Vrock colors of blue and grey with the funky head spikes all along the sides of the skull.

So that's the design I kept to moving forward as I made more sketches of the full body. Which I will talk about in the next post because this got long haha.

Previous post and first post on the vrock

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

And here is the original DnD 5e monster manual design of the vrock vs my finalized redesign.

First vrock post is over Here and my previous post is Here

(Image description: two different pictures of a vrock, a DnD monster which is supposed to be a demon that resembles a humanoid/vulture hybrid. On the left is the original design. It's very very scrawy with long limbs ending in bird-like claws. Its color scheme is blue and mildewy grey, with the blue skin being exposed along the limbs, neck, and chest. The mildewy grey feathers along its back, long tail, and horribly designed wings look liek a matted shag carpet. The design is creepy but lacks space for a ribcage and has entirely useless crescent shaped wings designed for looks rather than function even though its supposed to be able to fly. It is crouching like it's sneaking around.

On the right is my redesign, which bears a lot more resemblance to an actual vulture instead of a nonspecific outdated dinosaur. I used the king vulture color scheme of dark blue, beige, and vibrant red and orange. My vrock is rearing up on its bird-like back legs, flaring the long feather fan of its tail and flapping its wings so the primary feathers seem to curl with the motion. There is an orange crest on its head liek a cassowary, and its dark blue neck also has a bright red-orange wattle like a turkey. Its large eyes are a very pale blue so they stand out. It has its beak open in a screech, and instead of teeth along the edge of the beak I gave it freaky tongue teeth like many birds have. Its arms are small and held close to the body, but are still ready to lash out. The spore attack mentioned in the monster manual is here depicted with a patch of bare skin on its chest that is covered in a symbiotic fungus so the spores are spread when it flaps.)

I realized after I was done that the primary feathers on the far wing are not entirely proportional at the end, but let's just say it lost those feathers in a fight once and is still regrowing them. It was also really hard to get the arms to look the same length and be held in an interesting pose that wouldn't get in the way of the fungus patch. But I am not getting paid for this so I can forgive myself a few small proportion flubs. So anyway, that's the vrock all done and totally redesigned! Wow that was a lengthy project.

My next post will be a smaller project. Instead of a redesign I'm just going to discuss the prevalent issue of shredded wing membranes on fantasy creatures that have bat-like wings.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my process as I critiqued and redesigned the vrock!

[that-one-art]

are you still redesigning ur oc?

Oh! Yes. It just is taking forever bc I I can’t really do anything to detailed. My hands don’t work that way.🥲

[chocolate-aisha]

:v