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  • Writer's pictureSamanthaRichardson

FMP Fantasy Character Part 4: Item Development

Updated: Oct 1, 2020

For this section I will be focusing on creating the magical items that will be used by Jayson within the game. Using the descriptions of how it works and how it will look I will be aiming to create the designs based on them or if it turns out better than the description, I may even go over what I wrote. The use of these images is to be placed along side the character in the image and as separate items to go with the ability sheet for the game, almost like having ability cards.


-Amulet/ Eye of The River Styx-


From the creation of Jayson, I did a first draft of what I wanted the amulet to look like however, I feel like the one I made doesn’t fit in well with that I want it to represent. As it’s the ‘Eye of The River Styx’ I want it to have a more infernal feel to it as well as looking like a fancy piece of jewellery to fit the characters design.


Here are some images I used as a reference to create this item. The eye was the main focus of its original creation symbolising its infernal connection to the 9 layers.

While away from my computer I decided to do some hand sketch work to see what I could come up with, the technique I used was one I picked up during my study in product design. What I did was first create a rough line on the circle and around that I scribbled randomly, from that you look at it in different angles to see what ideas you gain from it following the line work and here are the results of that creation.

From the sketches I have done I went over them neatly in photoshop to see that the overall look would be and I have also included the original I had done as inspiration for colours and affects.

Next, I had done the basic colour layout of each item to see what would look best and if I feel like changes need to be made. While I was working in this section, people in my area of study commonly mentioned that they liked the design of 7 so I showed them what it was for and they stood by their decision thinking that it suits better to the character compared to the original, so I started to work on that fully.

As the eye is the heart of the design I added a lot of detail to the gem to make it look like its almost real, with the shading I made sure to give it a glossy look while trying to round the corners to create a glass ball look with some dots of bright white to reflect strong light.

For the next part I focused on the string and cade that houses the gem on the amulet. During the time period of the characters existence a lot of high-quality gold was used for the rich and powerful and as this is an item made by the king of the River Styx it needs to reflect that, looking very clean and mark free. I had also added a light glow to the eye to represent its magical properties.

For the last finishing touches I added affects to the blue pearls to represent that same rounded look and for the crystal I had recreated a smaller version of the Mysterious Gem used for Jayson’s weapons to show that these items are connected and forges in the same place, linking them in story.

Here is the overall published look of the design that people will be able to see along side the item sheet with the character.


-Mysterious Gem / somnus aeternam-

With the Mysterious Gem I have decided to use and item from my sets of drawings I had shown during my presentation as the main inspiration for this item as I feel like it fits in perfectly with what I want to do with it.


As you can see within the designs, they carry an infernal based image and I though by using the crystal as a summon item for these, would be perfect for a legendary based the player could collect later on in the game. As stated on the item sheet with more energy/souls it collects the powerful it becomes unlocking an upgraded item to be used by the wilder based on proficiency.

Within my own personal sketchbook, I have, I drew these items as part of a set that were going to be used as a separate weapon for people from the 9 Layers within my own campaign. After going over these I though the best ones I am going to keep are the dagger, sword and bow as they are all items my character can use for the crystals awakening. As Jayson cannot use the scythe or the Warhammer these will be items that could potentially be used by someone else who possesses the power of the crystal.

When looking at the dagger I had created I feel like the design is too heavily influenced by the Daedric dagger that is used in the game Skyrim. To make sure that I don’t have any copy right issues and make it more my own personalised style I will be looking into changing the design to one of the ideas I drew above.




For the development of this item I have provided a video time lapse I have created to show the progression of the item over a few hours, shrunk to a few seconds. As these items are a set they will all follow a similar range of steps leading to the end result.


These along with the bow are what I am going to use as the final set.


-Gloves of disguise-

To create the gloves I made a basic design on the last character design but I feel like they are too simple and bland, searching the internet I found that these items were the ones that were close to the sort of thing I wanted to create

As I was also drawing Jayson final look at the time, I decided to draw it straight onto the character instead on doing it separately to save time, with the coat I had also done the same thing.

To see what I was making I decided to try and sketch the design using what was already there, after a few tries I kept the eye and blended the design around it using the moodboars to help influence its creation too.

Once I was happy I went over it with a black outline and then I tried to replicate this onto the other hand as well.

As the glove is a magical item, I wanted to give it a sense of a whimsical aesthetics so I used a nebula brush with starts to make it look sparkly, I did this in deep purple to match the colour of the icon used on dnd beyond for the illusion spell.

To give the eye its own magical presence I added a glow and sparkles that radiates from it to almost lake it feels like it’s a sentient item. This if the finished design of the gloves and I believe it fits perfectly with its uses and how Jayson uses it in game.


- Coat of shadows -

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For the jacket I looked into a few other designs of other coats and trench coats to see if there were any ways, I could improve the creation of mine. I did a few test sketches of how it could look but the majority of them hid the chest plate and I wanted to keep it on show so I went through the stages to re-create the one I did with a few improvements on how I made it to create a more personal style.

Using the pattern that was already on the image I chose for the coat I used a slightly fuzzy brush and the mirror tool to make a single use pattern that I would them duplicate across the jacket.

Using the warp tool I moved the pattern into place in the direction the fabric would follow, as I made this parent it was a lot easier to manipulate the shapes into place even if I removed a single part and added it in correctly on its own.

Using the same gradient as I did last time I applied a new overlay to fit the characters new jacket and then I drew on the fibres to be used on the edging and the underlay of the coat.

Here is the final creation and as you can see the outfit works a lot better alongside the new design.

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