Re: [Adonthell-artwork] Character description

[Benjamin Walther-Franks]

On Wed, Feb 13, 2002 at 01:07:50PM +0100, Kai Sterker wrote:
> I got mail from someone who would like to help with writing. Possibly plot
> and dialogues, but also some character descriptions.
> 
> The question is whether latter are useful for doing the character
> graphics. I'd say so, but I'd like to hear your opinion on it, Ben.
> 
> 
> Here's the work Andreas did for a play-by-email RPG:
> 
> ________
> 
>       Description 
>       Lunaire is rather small for an elf, being about one and a half feet
> shorter than the average human girl. Her sky-blue eyes always seem to gleam
> and sparkle as if light was hitting them just right, and light up like 
> sapphires when it does. Her brown hair falls openly down to the small of her 
> back in soft curls, with a texture almost like velvet or silk to it. Beside 
> adorning her back, her hair forms a nice frame for her soft face with its 
> small stub nose, soft red lips and smooth, silken skin and her slender neck.
> Somehow, her hair, too, seems to attract light, making it shine with the 
> dance 
> of shadows and highlights in it. Lunaire's movements are smooth and supple, 
> like a dancer's or stage performer's, and there is no hint whatsoever of
> self-consciousness in her posture. The way she holds her head, tosses back
> her hair or tucks some strands behind her pointed ears all speak of her 
> being quite used to gathering attention - and yet, at times, it seems as if 
> she just vanishes in a crowd, to reappear at a different time and place. Her 
> clothing tends to be a medium to dark blue in color, mostly silk and velvet 
> gowns, adding to the luxurious, soft impression she gives. However, as anyone 
> who has seen her move can testify, her skirts are slit highly enough to allow 
> for free movement despite their clinging, form-fitting cut, the tops are 
> equipped with bands to tie them together, transforming a flowing gown into 
> very practical clothes in a matter of a few minutes. Even when not actually 
> fixed by those bands, her tops tend to cling closely to her body, however,
> outlining the soft curves of her hips and waist and highlighting her 
> perfectly shaped, if somewhat petite bosom - but then, they're Lunaire-sized: 
> they might be small on a taller woman, but suit her perfectly well. When on
> the road, her clothing becomes even more of a disguise, her skirts actually 
> consisting of smooth overlapping bands hanging from her belt and concealing 
> semi-tight, comfortable traveling pants and her tops being tied together to
> sit by default.  
> 
>       History/Notes 
>       An orphan like her sister Solana, Lunaire grew up to a life of
> getting by using all her talents. While her sister was more studiously 
> inclined and finally apprenticed herself to an aging wizard, Lunaire 
> remained on the streets, although she was talented enough to syphon a lot of
> skills from her sister. However, she did never appreciate how much of a 
> burglar her sister remained, until one morning, she was told that the 
> infamous Cat's Paw had committed her last burgle - Solana's body had been 
> found under a window, the room having been looted by the thief they only 
> called the Cat's Paw because of her light step, and the goods found on
> her now-dead sister. Lunaire doesn't remember exactly how she tried to
> extinguish her grief, but certain physical evidence points to more having 
> spent a lot of the time in company. Having gotten over that episode (more 
> or less - some things can never be regained), the young thief decided to 
> move on in life, determined to make her sister proud of her, whereever she 
> might be now - decidedly more proud than that episode of trying to bury her 
> grief under sexual pleasure must have made Solana's spirit. Knowing how 
> much pleasure Solana took in her studies, Lunaire used the money from her 
> nightly excursions to finance studies into arcane knowledge, ancient 
> languages, and all sorts of tricks to circumvent or even reset mechanical 
> and magical traps guarding whatever mundane and magical treasure locations 
> she might find in her studies... Lunaire is first and foremost a thief, 
> contrary to her sister, who was both equally, sage and scoundrel. To defend 
> herself, she learned to shoot a crossbow, electing to use the heavy
> kind in order to compensate her lacking strength and skill at arms with
> using a ranged weapon that only needs one shot to kill most creatures, if 
> aimed properly. Realizing one shot would be the most she could get, she 
> began to delve into anatomy as well, hoping to learn where, exactly, to put 
> the bolt. And she started to wander, no longer limiting her forays to just 
> one city...  
> 
> _________
> 
> Guess it needs not be *that* detailed, but I think a good impression of
> the character's nature might help with the artwork.


I can only agree. Andreas' work is really nice, and yes, writing like that is 
of big help when creating artwork. In fact, Kai's and Nezumi's (hopefully this 
list of authors will expand in future) texts are often the only thing there is 
that I can keep to or build upon when designing characters. 

Coming up with a complete story, personality, description and implementing this 
in a piece of art/gfx is a very big job, so I am only too happy when most of 
this work is already done when I begin to make gfx. ;)

Of course you can't expect a 1:1 realisation of the authors vision, often I 
just use the written work as a basis, and then go a lot further... I always 
bring a lot of my thoughts in when going about designing characters.


So, to cut a long story short (Yada, yada), Yaay! Lots more writing! Lots more 
descriptions! I for one can never get enough. 

welcome to the team, Andreas!


BEN