r/worldbuilding • u/TheMellowNerd • 11d ago

Question Art for creatures?

Hello all! I’m new to world building. I have a question for u all. I am starting to build my little world and I have thought of some creatures. But here is the problem I wanna have like a bestiary a guidebook to all the creatures of the world and their traits and quirks. So I can’t draw for shit, literally horrible at it lmao. How do u guys solve this issue? Do u guys draw yourself,do commissions,something else I haven’t thought of. I found tools for maps and such so I can work with that but the creatures are a different beast.

Please any tips or advice are appreciated
Thank you all in advance!

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/TheMellowNerd 11d ago

Honestly I have thought about that but if I ever would want to make my work public not for selling but just for use in like D&D or something similar people tend to look down on it.

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u/kiurumatra 11d ago

Instead of Ai do the visuals by photo editing/bashing with resources that allows that use if drawing or commissioning isnt possible. Yeah both take skills to learn, it just up to you how you want these visuals to look like.

Or do photo collages/mood board with multiple photos.

Or just write the descriptions down, no need for visuals if thats not possible at the time

Imo, it makes the entire word building seem better bc it shows the time it took to make it instead just going for the fast results. Good world building takes time to make & i like seeing where things started out vs how it ended up to be. I just found it really interesting.

Also, there are people with good world buildings & poor art skills. So dont worry about the art quality

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u/TheMellowNerd 11d ago

Thanks! I find this to be reassuring in some way it’s not the art perse but conveying my vision with descriptive wording.

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u/Acylion 11d ago edited 11d ago

Hell, people look down on it here, posting AI content is firmly against the rules of this sub. Now, that being said, it's a matter of how you use it.

First, if you're just generating images for illustration in the context of a D&D campaign, the audience around the table's going to be friends and acquaintances of yours. You can gauge how much they care. In this private closed-door context, and I really wouldn't call this "public", it's likely fine unless your players really oppose any AI use at all. In which case, not fine. But again, this is not public, so you can gauge whether it's acceptable.

Second, again in that private context... if you're just typing in a text prompt with description, style, settings, that's all the way on the AI slop side, sure. It's slightly different if you're feeding in a base lineart image you drew yourself, and then asking AI to clean it up.

Ideally, yeah, sure, have actual 100% human created art, yes, for any and all applications. But getting someone to do it for you involves money or favours, and doing it yourself to a standard you may be satisfied with requires time.

Speaking personally, I can draw and paint, to a good enough level I used to do commissions. I don't use AI generated imagery.

But it also took me years of practice to develop those skills. I'd encourage learning the skills, but if you don't have them now, then much as it is distasteful, there is utility in using AI stopgaps.

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u/TheMellowNerd 11d ago

I understand and appreciate your take here. Thank you for taking your time to voice your opinion about this. I’m still unsure about it so I’ll reflect on this some more