However, my characters are designed to be a balance of realism and fantasy, typically leaning closer to 1 side depending on the character, but always including both, as just doing 1 or the other (meaning 100% Fantasy or 100% Realism) is not good enough for me, a nice balance of both is ideal, as this really gets the creative juices going (essentially i aim for a nice healthy balance of realism and fantasy in my character designs, with realism that also includes logic) in the sense that they comply with logic, and something that could potentionally exist (which is not nessarary restricted to real, this can also include lore / and myths), and be believable (logic regarding appearance,, combat prowess and or magic efficiency not limited to the 3 elements these 2 are mostly regarding fitting in the game, and logic also being something that could fit in tamriel's setting, and believable being connected to their theme and overall design, especially regarding lore / myths, both logic and believable going hand in hand)
as such she could never work as a replacer, as she does not meet the generic trend of characters being barbie dolls (supermodels, Pinup model or simply anything else that is just simply not believable (which includes all of the above regarding the first paragraph, logic / belivable) and or too modern, for elder scrolls setting, or in connection to what their supposed to be, such as demons, vampires, etc etc primarily appearance wise, including build but ye anything connected really. for supermodels and pinup models, you could technically connect them to dibella but theirs only so many times you could use dibella, and its very unlikely that peeps even think this far, and even so still completely not believable in elder scrolls setting, as theirs no way of eating healithy, and doing other tasks that it takes to achieve a perfect figure, its supposed to be a warzone / very hostile enviroment, especially regarding dragons (which if lived up to lore, tamriel would be extremely dangerous, as dragons are ferocious killing machines, dark souls and game of thrones do them justice as these forms of media is what i believe is the most accurate on these mythic beasts, as such most citizens in tamriel are very likely going to be in survival mode, which also means built to survive, tamriel is a very cold place, very hostile place, and incredibly dangerous place due to the beasts that roam it, not too mention the daedric princes influence, ye its a whole different world logically, as such supermodels, pinup, highly attractive peeps is simply not believable in this setting)
i know your post is somewhat of a jest, but i felt the need to write this above, to give a bit of insight in the character design.
Great insight. And yes, the statement was partially in jest, it is also a reflection of my similar views towards realism and fantasy. My wife got her undergrad in Anthropology. We constantly explore ideas concerning race, culture, religion and magical thinking. It's kinda ruined fantasy setting for me. I am constantly asking myself: "What would this world with magic and dragons look like?" So the idea of Serana looking like an elder demon as opposed to a friendly super model is really cool. I really enjoy Anima Nera - SerketHetyt's Serana Overhaul, but now I feel that it doesn't go far enough.
I hate so many of the popular fantasy tropes. My modlist really concentrates on making Nirn more mundane and more dangerous. And I still have to exercise some pretty dramatic head cannon on top of those mods just to tolerate this game.
Okay, yeah, I do enjoy the "jiggly girls". I confess. I am pretty standard when it comes to TnA shows. But the mods I enjoy the most are more grounded than that...
So nice work! Thanks for the thoughtful response. And I would actually enjoy a whole mega-rewrite of the Dawnguard storyline incorporating a Serana like that. Maybe with a replacer like that I can headcannon it.
Regarding fantasy, my main issue with fantasy is the need to apply logic, as well as valuing the balance concept highly, which of course mostly ruins fantasy for myself as fantasy cant really have logic applied, and it mostly leans to 1 side, which of course would be not realistic, (although having said that, elder scrolls seems to have a nice bit of realism, as opposed to games that have far more fantasy and or pure fantasy such as world of warcraft for example, although far less realism as opposed to Fallout, which is probably why i prefer Fallout Series over Elder Scrolls that and fallout setting is far more interesting to me, as its a view on what the real world could and would very likely look like, should them events occur. and also shooters appeal to be more then sword & board, largely because i grew up with shooters, where as skyrim was the very first sword and board game i ever played, and actually skyrim and eso are the only 2 sword and board games i have ever played xD, starting back in 2012, prior to that it was pure fighting and shooter games for me growing up and i still occasionally play fallout, and i am a massive fan of Borderlands Series (which are some of my top fave games of all time), i have equal amount of hours in them games as i do in skyrim and eso, which is an insane amount of hours tbh,
but ye regarding sword and board this is far more impressive to me vs guns, as i love the whole concept of a Warrior, Gladiator, Titan, Samurai, etc etc (a Fearless Combatant, wielding steel, against man, beast, or other), and guns just does not furfill the warrior requirement imo,
but ye as someone that values the concept of balance very highly (which of course also means quantity of either side), it certainly plays a part in most thoughts, such as likes and dislikes, for example, i am also fond of the supermodel characters, largely because its always nice to see eye candy, but im far less interested in them (as i am heavily creative based, and naturally characters are creations, and as a character designer myself i always view them from a creative perspective, simple images do not interest me, creative images on the other hand is what attracts me, as i have a heavily creativity orientated mindset (naturally meaning my favorite types of creations is Art, which is largely born from my extreme passion for music creation, which i have a lot of experience in, this natural passion for music creation also moved into visual art, as both music and visual art are part of the main subject art, they share a lot similarities and is both pure creation, from a highly natural gifted mindset, which also means i treat my character designs as though i am creating music / visual art, as such these characters are far more then just characters, their forms of creative productions, pure imagination and creativity, which ofcourse makes me passionate as i love to create)
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but ye, im far less interested in supermodel like characters / cute characters, etc etc, because imo Their is far less diversity, creativity, and logic that goes in, and of course not being believable, regarding these types of characters (ofcourse this is just my opinion on this, its not to be read as direct but rather in general, its also to add further context to my previous post) , its mostly the lack of creativity and diversity which go hand in hand, is what i mostly dislike. and these are of course the most popular and common images / mods.
however for me if i do create supermodel style characters, i associate them with dibella, and im far more balanced on them regarding quaniity, for me im far more interested in the darker beings for lack of better word, as their is far more diversity and creativity in that respect, where as if we good beings such as angels for example, theirs far less diversity on the positive beings side, for example, for darker beings, you have, demons, banshees, wendigos, ghosts, sirens, succubus, incubus, and whole host of different unique demons, grim reapers, dark angels, and so much more darker creations, where as on the good side shall we say, you have angels, and attractive beings, but its so limited, and likewise far less diverse, and arguably far easier to create, hence the trend, the majority of images of characters in the image share, is almost exclusively highly fantasy unrealistic attractive leaning characters, basically completely living up to my previous post, but i do occasionally like to see them. but not as much, as i would very much like to see a nice balance of the 2, yin and yang is a key to this balance concept, i would love to see more characters inspired by the Daedric princes, Demons, Dark Entities, and sithis, and other supernatural beings etc etc (of course i would like them to be believable as well, demons and vampires for example are very likely to not be attractive, their is nothing sexy about evil, but, the balance here is quantity, the majority of the images i see, seem to always be un-belivable characters, so as such, it creates a distaste. so my solution to this is, is to break the mold so to speak, as i absolutely love character designs, and using the creativity, as well as skyrim setting and lore, especially the daedric princes, and creating characters that belong, with elements of all that i wrote in the previous post, this also enhanced the game as these characters can also be implemented as enemies, companions, and so on, and that is nice start to transforming the game into a more believable game, a more grounded game as you mentioned, as these characters could really bring the daedric prince influence into tamriel, by having these beings roaming, for example. the characters could be the start of something far grander. however im not a story writer so i personally could not create stories to change the whole concept of the game. but what i can do is create a huge amount of diverse characters and implement them heavily into the game, via roaming, enemy additions / replacements for every humanoid enemy type in the game, this will add great diversity to these enemies, as well as make it feel as though the daedric princes truly have great influence in the game, and more importantly much more believable characters / enemies, regarding their theme, lore, nature etc etc. i got a very ambitious idea for this, the guardians reborn mod will be the start of this, as this bit above is the mod i plan.
but ye, with that said, i do appreciate your thoughts on this, and do agree with quite a bit,
regarding this character, she is inspired by banshees, so as such, would not really be a viable serana replacer :P, as banshees are very different to vampires as you may know. however it could make for an interesting alternate serana concept, and story as you mentioned a twist / change to dawnguard story line. although banshees are far more powerful then daedra :P especially with the design on them, they are have very powerful supernatural power, with my twist on them, and are somewhat reminscent to ghosts with the ability to phase in and out of existence, to ambush their prey and slice them in half with their razor sharp nails.
Balancing fantasy and logic is the real crux, the central issue to design. At some point or another, different media, movies, pictures, games..., can cross that "believability" threshold. And that threshold can be very different for all of us and mine can change depending on my mood as well. Skyrim crosses it all the time, but if I play just to be the adventurer on yet another dungeon crawl, it remains fun. Without mods that create believable armors and weapons and towns and characters, I wouldn't waste my time with this game. And even then I have to ignore the game's anachronistic contructs and head cannon others.
Shooters for me do not work. Having been a shooter, I cannot enjoy the game mechanics. There are times when even fantasy-sword combat turns me off. Heroic and non-heroic combat in reality looks very different from what popular media displays. Luck, fate and skill become a blurry mess in the real world, but games and movies have to quantify them...
For me, the fantastic concepts still have to be grounded. If magic exists, then it's just another form of technology, like cars or cell phones, and it therefore has effects on the world itself. How medieval would a world be with technology that creates fireballs and healing? Would people still wear armor or train with swords? Would the athletic, armored knight be replaced by the scholastic, robed mage? For me, the exploration of these things can become anthropological.
Thanks for providing more food for my brain! And continue making cool creations.
5 comments
However, my characters are designed to be a balance of realism and fantasy, typically leaning closer to 1 side depending on the character, but always including both, as just doing 1 or the other (meaning 100% Fantasy or 100% Realism) is not good enough for me, a nice balance of both is ideal, as this really gets the creative juices going (essentially i aim for a nice healthy balance of realism and fantasy in my character designs, with realism that also includes logic) in the sense that they comply with logic, and something that could potentionally exist (which is not nessarary restricted to real, this can also include lore / and myths), and be believable (logic regarding appearance,, combat prowess and or magic efficiency not limited to the 3 elements these 2 are mostly regarding fitting in the game, and logic also being something that could fit in tamriel's setting, and believable being connected to their theme and overall design, especially regarding lore / myths, both logic and believable going hand in hand)
as such she could never work as a replacer, as she does not meet the generic trend of characters being barbie dolls (supermodels, Pinup model or simply anything else that is just simply not believable (which includes all of the above regarding the first paragraph, logic / belivable) and or too modern, for elder scrolls setting, or in connection to what their supposed to be, such as demons, vampires, etc etc primarily appearance wise, including build but ye anything connected really. for supermodels and pinup models, you could technically connect them to dibella but theirs only so many times you could use dibella, and its very unlikely that peeps even think this far, and even so still completely not believable in elder scrolls setting, as theirs no way of eating healithy, and doing other tasks that it takes to achieve a perfect figure, its supposed to be a warzone / very hostile enviroment, especially regarding dragons (which if lived up to lore, tamriel would be extremely dangerous, as dragons are ferocious killing machines, dark souls and game of thrones do them justice as these forms of media is what i believe is the most accurate on these mythic beasts, as such most citizens in tamriel are very likely going to be in survival mode, which also means built to survive, tamriel is a very cold place, very hostile place, and incredibly dangerous place due to the beasts that roam it, not too mention the daedric princes influence, ye its a whole different world logically, as such supermodels, pinup, highly attractive peeps is simply not believable in this setting)
i know your post is somewhat of a jest, but i felt the need to write this above, to give a bit of insight in the character design.
I hate so many of the popular fantasy tropes. My modlist really concentrates on making Nirn more mundane and more dangerous. And I still have to exercise some pretty dramatic head cannon on top of those mods just to tolerate this game.
Okay, yeah, I do enjoy the "jiggly girls". I confess. I am pretty standard when it comes to TnA shows. But the mods I enjoy the most are more grounded than that...
So nice work! Thanks for the thoughtful response. And I would actually enjoy a whole mega-rewrite of the Dawnguard storyline incorporating a Serana like that. Maybe with a replacer like that I can headcannon it.
Regarding fantasy, my main issue with fantasy is the need to apply logic, as well as valuing the balance concept highly, which of course mostly ruins fantasy for myself as fantasy cant really have logic applied, and it mostly leans to 1 side, which of course would be not realistic, (although having said that, elder scrolls seems to have a nice bit of realism, as opposed to games that have far more fantasy and or pure fantasy such as world of warcraft for example, although far less realism as opposed to Fallout, which is probably why i prefer Fallout Series over Elder Scrolls that and fallout setting is far more interesting to me, as its a view on what the real world could and would very likely look like, should them events occur. and also shooters appeal to be more then sword & board, largely because i grew up with shooters, where as skyrim was the very first sword and board game i ever played, and actually skyrim and eso are the only 2 sword and board games i have ever played xD, starting back in 2012, prior to that it was pure fighting and shooter games for me growing up and i still occasionally play fallout, and i am a massive fan of Borderlands Series (which are some of my top fave games of all time), i have equal amount of hours in them games as i do in skyrim and eso, which is an insane amount of hours tbh,
but ye regarding sword and board this is far more impressive to me vs guns, as i love the whole concept of a Warrior, Gladiator, Titan, Samurai, etc etc (a Fearless Combatant, wielding steel, against man, beast, or other), and guns just does not furfill the warrior requirement imo,
but ye as someone that values the concept of balance very highly (which of course also means quantity of either side), it certainly plays a part in most thoughts, such as likes and dislikes, for example, i am also fond of the supermodel characters, largely because its always nice to see eye candy, but im far less interested in them (as i am heavily creative based, and naturally characters are creations, and as a character designer myself i always view them from a creative perspective, simple images do not interest me, creative images on the other hand is what attracts me, as i have a heavily creativity orientated mindset (naturally meaning my favorite types of creations is Art, which is largely born from my extreme passion for music creation, which i have a lot of experience in, this natural passion for music creation also moved into visual art, as both music and visual art are part of the main subject art, they share a lot similarities and is both pure creation, from a highly natural gifted mindset, which also means i treat my character designs as though i am creating music / visual art, as such these characters are far more then just characters, their forms of creative productions, pure imagination and creativity, which ofcourse makes me passionate as i love to create)
Continued:
however for me if i do create supermodel style characters, i associate them with dibella, and im far more balanced on them regarding quaniity, for me im far more interested in the darker beings for lack of better word, as their is far more diversity and creativity in that respect, where as if we good beings such as angels for example, theirs far less diversity on the positive beings side, for example, for darker beings, you have, demons, banshees, wendigos, ghosts, sirens, succubus, incubus, and whole host of different unique demons, grim reapers, dark angels, and so much more darker creations, where as on the good side shall we say, you have angels, and attractive beings, but its so limited, and likewise far less diverse, and arguably far easier to create, hence the trend, the majority of images of characters in the image share, is almost exclusively highly fantasy unrealistic attractive leaning characters, basically completely living up to my previous post, but i do occasionally like to see them. but not as much, as i would very much like to see a nice balance of the 2, yin and yang is a key to this balance concept, i would love to see more characters inspired by the Daedric princes, Demons, Dark Entities, and sithis, and other supernatural beings etc etc (of course i would like them to be believable as well, demons and vampires for example are very likely to not be attractive, their is nothing sexy about evil, but, the balance here is quantity, the majority of the images i see, seem to always be un-belivable characters, so as such, it creates a distaste. so my solution to this is, is to break the mold so to speak, as i absolutely love character designs, and using the creativity, as well as skyrim setting and lore, especially the daedric princes, and creating characters that belong, with elements of all that i wrote in the previous post, this also enhanced the game as these characters can also be implemented as enemies, companions, and so on, and that is nice start to transforming the game into a more believable game, a more grounded game as you mentioned, as these characters could really bring the daedric prince influence into tamriel, by having these beings roaming, for example. the characters could be the start of something far grander. however im not a story writer so i personally could not create stories to change the whole concept of the game. but what i can do is create a huge amount of diverse characters and implement them heavily into the game, via roaming, enemy additions / replacements for every humanoid enemy type in the game, this will add great diversity to these enemies, as well as make it feel as though the daedric princes truly have great influence in the game, and more importantly much more believable characters / enemies, regarding their theme, lore, nature etc etc. i got a very ambitious idea for this, the guardians reborn mod will be the start of this, as this bit above is the mod i plan.
but ye, with that said, i do appreciate your thoughts on this, and do agree with quite a bit,
regarding this character, she is inspired by banshees, so as such, would not really be a viable serana replacer :P, as banshees are very different to vampires as you may know. however it could make for an interesting alternate serana concept, and story as you mentioned a twist / change to dawnguard story line. although banshees are far more powerful then daedra :P especially with the design on them, they are have very powerful supernatural power, with my twist on them, and are somewhat reminscent to ghosts with the ability to phase in and out of existence, to ambush their prey and slice them in half with their razor sharp nails.
Shooters for me do not work. Having been a shooter, I cannot enjoy the game mechanics. There are times when even fantasy-sword combat turns me off. Heroic and non-heroic combat in reality looks very different from what popular media displays. Luck, fate and skill become a blurry mess in the real world, but games and movies have to quantify them...
For me, the fantastic concepts still have to be grounded. If magic exists, then it's just another form of technology, like cars or cell phones, and it therefore has effects on the world itself. How medieval would a world be with technology that creates fireballs and healing? Would people still wear armor or train with swords? Would the athletic, armored knight be replaced by the scholastic, robed mage? For me, the exploration of these things can become anthropological.
Thanks for providing more food for my brain! And continue making cool creations.