University Year 3 Animation
I have decided that I will need 3 characters in total, not including monster characters, These three will be my adventurers which means I will need to make some brief backstory for each one, as well as appearances & colour palettes before I make & sculpt them in Z-brush.
The reason I have chosen to make three characters is that I figured out it’s both the minimum and the maximum number of characters, that is needed to both form a great dynamic between the characters & not overstrain or overcomplicate the project, since I still have to create some monster characters on top of these three.
To create the three characters required I will be using DnD as a reference point since it has a great character creator, DnD has 12 main classes in its player’s handbook (Coast,, Dungeons & dragons player’s handbook, 2014) but that’s too many to choose from for this animation, so I will pick a few of them & summarize each one before making my choices based of what I am looking for.
After reading up on all of the classes in the handbook I decided on five of them that were roughly what I was looking for those classes are as follow:
Sorcerer
In the handbook, there are three main magic classes however only one of those seemed like a right fit for my animation if I decide to use it, that class is the Sorcerer and the reason I chose it was because they have no need to rely on magical tomes or other people to provide them with there magic, but instead harness there own internal power to create magic from there blood like the handbook says (Coast, Chapter 3: Classes, P.98, 2014), in battle they use their power to fight against the enemy from behind there allies since they require time to cast spells.
Paladin
The paladin’s role is a big one and is almost irreplaceable in my opinion they are “Clad in plate Armor that gleams in the sunlight despite the dust and grime of long travel” (Coast, Chapter 3: Classes, P.83, 2014) basically, they wear heavily impressive looking armour, accompanied by a large shield which they use to protect their party members from enemies not only that but they “swear to uphold justice and righteousness, to stand with the good things of the world against the encroaching darkness” (Coast, Chapter 3: Classes, P.83, 2014).
Cleric
This class specializes in divine magic which they have been granted by the highest power, the gods, they are highly respected because not everyone can be granted this power which is very powerful, especially because of the healing magic that can be used because of it which makes them a core part of any adventuring party, they also have the ability to use spells that harm or hinder there enemies (Coast, Chapter 3: Classes, P.56, 2014).
Ranger
The ranger class is a deadly warrior specializing in hunting monsters that threaten civilization, they learn to track and hunt their targets like a predator moving stealthily through the wilds (Coast, Chapter 3: Classes, P.89, 2014), with there bow they can be used to fight enemies from a long distance or from a heightened position, in a party, they are very useful for taking out targets that other members can not see or attack especially targets of special importance like a mage.
Rogue
The final class I picked from the handbook is the rogue which uses stealth to there advantage when it comes to taking out enemies, They do not fight in the front lines or in the rear lines instead they slip around the enemy without being seen to get behind & surprise them like the handbook says “when it comes to combat, rogues prioritize cunning over brute strength” (Coast, Chapter 3: Classes, P.94, 2014), they is a bad stereotype behind this class since everyone sees them as the lowest of the low and usually an evil type character but that does not have to be the case.
Choosing My 3 Characters
Out of all 5 classes, the three that stand out to me are as follows: The Ranger, The Paladin & The Sorcerer, this dynamic is the best out of the 5 classes and covers all bases but the reasons I chose these are because the paladin is a frontline fighter who defends against attacked and creates opportunity for the rest of the party members, the ranger, on the other hand, is a rear line fighter who will be used to take out enemies of importance using the terrain to gain the upper hand which they use to support the paladin, the final member the sorcerer is a hard hitter who deals high levels of damage to the enemy seemingly at random.
As for the gender of these 3 characters I would like to make two of them female and the last one male the only thing I need to think about is which one to make which gender and as it stands now I feel like I should make the ranger male since the stereotype is that females are usually archers Throughout history, archery has been a link to female strength and equality. Many figures in mythology, such as the Roman goddess Diana and her Greek equivalent Artemis, were depicted carrying bows and quivers (USA archery celebrates female archers on International Women’s Day).
I thought about using the cleric instead of the ranger as it would have also been a good dynamic though it would have caused a few problems, the first being that I would have had two mages in the party which is not an extremely large problem, however, there would have been no character to back up the paladin without causing damage to the paladin, the second problem being that it would have made the story way too easy since the use of healing spells would have been visually cool while making any damage the party receives disappear like it never happened making the story have no consequences or backbone, Rather than having a Sorcerer & instead using the cleric could have also worked but the same issue would have arisen.
Using the rogue class would have been much too difficult for me in particular since I would have to create instances where the character could slip away unnoticed, so they could get around the back of the enemy and attack not only that but since the character would disappear from the screen it would make animating too easy since I would have one less character to animate for most of It and it would be hard to get the timing right.
Monster Characters
For the monster characters, I will be using 2 of the following creatures: Orcs, Ogres, Trolls or Goblins as the antagonists of my story these four creatures are seen a lot in medieval fantasy and I would say they are the most used creatures other than say dragons.
Three of these creatures are almost identical as far as looks go since they are large strong looking characters so I will only be picking one of these creatures, the goblin on the other hand I will definitely be using so its just down to deciding which of the 3 others I will use when It comes time to make them.
Year 8 Animation Possible Character
I plan to use found characters as I have stated before in my project overview as opposed to self-created ones since I am aiming to make it as a high schooler would, so my port of call for characters will be Mixamo (Mixamo, 2022) which has a collection of character models ready to use for animating, however, there are a lot of them to choose from and by my next post I will have my choices narrowed down to the one I want to use for each character needed.
In total, I need 5 characters which are The main character, The heroine, The Teacher/master, The antagonist & a random background character I will search mixamo (Mixamo, 2022) in the hopes of filling these roles.
Main Character
There were 11 human male characters that would work well for this animation the problem is deciding which one I would like to use, I need to go threw them all and list reasons I do or do not think that character would work with my animation.
Heroine
There were fewer human female characters that would work for the Heroine role in total there were 9 of these characters I can already see a few that would not work well but again I need to list why in my next post.
Teacher/Master
Characters fitting the role of the main character Master were even fewer and there were only 3 options to pick from & as it looks now I am leaning towards Eve by J Gonzales Suzie (Mixamo, 2022) the eye patch helps sell how much fighting experience she has as well as looking more refined.
Random Magic Sword
The background character role could be played by any one of these 3 characters.
Evil Guy
On mixamo (Mixamo, 2022) There was only one Evil looking guy within what I wanted for the year 8 animation, a lot of the other evil looking characters on there are not human and I need a human for my project.
Cleric (no date) D&D Beyond. Available at: https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/cleric (Accessed: November 22, 2022).
Coast, W.of the (2014) Dungeons & dragons player’s handbook: Everything a player needs to create heroic characters for the world’s Greatest Roleplaying Game. Renton, USA: Wizards of the Coast.
Coast, W.of the (2014) “Chapter 3: Classes,” in Dungeons & dragons player’s handbook: Everything a player needs to create heroic characters for the world’s Greatest Roleplaying Game. Renton, USA: Wizards of the Coast, pp. 45–119.
Jonru (2022) Goblin, Lexicanum. Warhammer – The Old World – Lexicanum. Available at: https://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Goblin (Accessed: November 22, 2022).
Mixamo.com. 2022. Mixamo. [online] Available at: <https://www.mixamo.com/#/?page=1&type=Character> [Accessed 25 november 2022].
Orc (no date) Warhammer Wiki. Available at: https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Orc (Accessed: November 22, 2022).
Ogre (no date) Forgotten Realms Wiki. Available at: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ogre (Accessed: November 22, 2022).
Troll (no date) Monster Wiki. Available at: https://monster.fandom.com/wiki/Troll (Accessed: November 22, 2022).
USA archery celebrates female archers on International Women’s Day (no date) USA Archery celebrates female archers on International Women’s Day. Available at: https://www.usarchery.org/news/usa-archery-celebrates-female-archers-on-international-women-s-day (Accessed: November 22, 2022).
