PDA

View Full Version : Where do you guys find art for your monsters/avatar?


magicalmagicman
2018-10-18, 10:33 AM
I've been using...
Magic the Gathering card arts
Yu-Gi-Oh card arts (though not anymore)
Deviantart
Pinterest

and was wondering if there were any others.
Goaty14
2018-10-18, 11:23 AM
Oh that's so creative...

I just use Google Images. Type in something like "D&D ____"... :smallsigh:
HouseRules
2018-10-18, 11:27 AM
How about draw them based on their Descriptions?
Psyren
2018-10-18, 02:40 PM
A lot of my splats are in PDF format, and you can extract images from those. Books like NPC Codex are great for this.
Bastian Weaver
2018-10-18, 02:42 PM
I bought them from the Giant, naturally.
magicalmagicman
2018-10-18, 09:33 PM
A lot of my splats are in PDF format, and you can extract images from those. Books like NPC Codex are great for this.

The pictures from those books are nowhere near Epic enough for my tastes. When i polymorph or summon a monster, I want people to think "wow! that looks so cool! I want to do that!" not "so that's what a ___ looks like"

:P


How about draw them based on their Descriptions?

If I could draw I wouldn't use other people's work!
Thurbane
2018-10-19, 02:32 PM
Google image search ans Deviantart are my go-to's.

Back in the day I also used Elfwood, but that's gone now, I believe...

My wife is a pretty talented artist, so sometimes I bug her for art.
Troacctid
2018-10-19, 05:25 PM
Pretty much all the artwork from the books is available online. http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/ag
Psyren
2018-10-19, 05:26 PM
The pictures from those books are nowhere near Epic enough for my tastes. When i polymorph or summon a monster, I want people to think "wow! that looks so cool! I want to do that!" not "so that's what a ___ looks like"

:P

I guess it's a matter of opinion; for my groups, I'm usually the one who does the deepest dives into the bestiaries and manuals - so when I use official art for a polymorph or a summon, most of the time they go "whoa, what page is THAT on?" or "oh yeah, I remember seeing that, what does it do?" In other words, the added authenticity augments the appeal of my avatar and all that.


Pretty much all the artwork from the books is available online. http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/ag

Indeed, and those are great for handbooks too.
Climowitz
2018-10-20, 09:08 AM
Pinterest basically. Once you search enough it will know your taste
Faily
2018-10-20, 09:51 AM
Pinterest basically. Once you search enough it will know your taste

Seconding Pinterest, though I will warn that it is quite a rabbit-hole of consuming your time.
Ualaa
2018-10-20, 01:01 PM
I use a virtual table top (d20Pro) for the battlemaps.
Basically create a map in Dungeon Designer 3+ (an addon for Campaign Cartographer 3+).
Save it as a PNG, with x10 the X and Y dimensions.

Then open that in GIMP, and convert to a JPG.
Usually somewhere around 30% quality, shrinking the map to around 1 MB in size.

That JPG gets imported into d20Pro.

I export, from Hero Lab (have all the Paizo stuff).
And then import into d20Pro.
So if there is monster art, I get that.

In the case of an NPC, generally there isn't much art.
But the two good sources for that are PinInterest and Google Image search.
With PinInterest, having made an account and saved a bunch of images, I get emails usually one a day from PinInterest.
Any of a style I like, I save to my PinInterest account, which modifies the type of art they send to me, as suggestions.
I also use Snaggit, to save a picture to my folder, and descriptively name it.
Male Human Scimitar Fullplate Tattoo Dagger Belt Boots
Or whatever other features are prominent.

If an NPC (or player) wants a race/class/item combination, that's my first search.
The second would be google image search, if my PinInterest folder failed me.
Anything cool on google image is added to that folder too.
Remuko
2018-10-20, 03:14 PM
when playing dnd i use the art from the books when possible and just read the descriptions of them when not.

for avatar, do you mean like my avatar here on the forums? I won a raffle on deviantart and had it made for me. its basically the D&D version of me (as a human monk) in an anime style, though for some reason the pic despite being hosted on imgur just doesnt show most of the time.
OgresAreCute
2018-10-20, 03:30 PM
when playing dnd i use the art from the books when possible and just read the descriptions of them when not.

for avatar, do you mean like my avatar here on the forums? I won a raffle on deviantart and had it made for me. its basically the D&D version of me (as a human monk) in an anime style, though for some reason the pic despite being hosted on imgur just doesnt show most of the time.

Imgur ain't with it anymore. I think my avatar displays and I host it on Gyazo, which is like a snipping/screencapping tool.
ezekielraiden
2018-10-20, 05:34 PM
when playing dnd i use the art from the books when possible and just read the descriptions of them when not.

for avatar, do you mean like my avatar here on the forums? I won a raffle on deviantart and had it made for me. its basically the D&D version of me (as a human monk) in an anime style, though for some reason the pic despite being hosted on imgur just doesnt show most of the time.

I believe it's because the link uses m.imgur.com instead of i.imgur.com (or possibly the reverse). Changing that made the image link work while I was on my comp IIRC (on phone now, which won't let me try to open broken images in a new tab).
Troacctid
2018-10-20, 06:24 PM
No, imgur simply doesn't work at all. If your avatar is hosted on imgur, it will not display on this forum unless it's already cached in your browser. You need to use another image host entirely.
JNAProductions
2018-10-20, 08:42 PM
I believe it's because the link uses m.imgur.com instead of i.imgur.com (or possibly the reverse). Changing that made the image link work while I was on my comp IIRC (on phone now, which won't let me try to open broken images in a new tab).

I don't see your avatar at all.
PhantasyPen
2018-10-20, 10:22 PM
For monsters I generally use Google, Deviantart, Tumblr (I follow a lot of artists there), and Pinterest (as much as I dislike it).

If you mean my forum avatar, I commissioned it from an artist for a story I'm working on.
Remuko
2018-10-21, 01:51 PM
No, imgur simply doesn't work at all. If your avatar is hosted on imgur, it will not display on this forum unless it's already cached in your browser. You need to use another image host entirely.

do we have any idea why? its really annoying tbh.
DeTess
2018-10-21, 02:00 PM
If you're having trouble finding a character, you could also always ask in the relevant thread on this forum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?525214-Dungeons-and-Dreamboats-VIII-Bulletproof-Nudity). No guarantee people will find something, bit it might help.


Imgur ain't with it anymore. I think my avatar displays and I host it on Gyazo, which is like a snipping/screencapping tool.

Your Avatar shows for me, at any rate.
Troacctid
2018-10-21, 02:03 PM
do we have any idea why? its really annoying tbh.
Imgur doesn't allow hotlinking on forums.

Just use another image hosting service and you should be alright.
Grand Poobah
2018-10-21, 02:06 PM
Google images and Pintrest, which, as someone noted above, can be a real rabbit hole and I have to tear myself away.

Sometimes dip into deviant art but find it’s hit and miss.
digiman619
2018-10-22, 08:56 PM
A few things.

1) A quick and easy way to host the image for your avatar is just to post it to a Discord server (I tend to use them to talk to people I'm gaming with anyway, so it's convenient for me) and link it from there.

2) I don't think you'll find one that will fit a avatar here, but a good place to go for art is r/imaginarydragons and the entire imaginary network of subreddits. Also, if you want female characters in actual feasible armor and not just chainmal bikinis and other stupidity, r/armoredwomen is the place to look.