Awkwardbex
Tell me a bit about your history playing XIV! What pulled you in, and what inspired you to start creating art and merch for it?
I first started playing FFXIV back in 2018! I was already an avid fan of the Final Fantasy games, and was currently obsessed with FFXV, so much so that I applied to be a vendor at a final fantasy convention (Kupocon, you may have heard of it) and had already begun making stickers and prints of XV. It was there that I found out from others about fourteen’s existence.
I had never touched an MMO in my life, and I’ll admit I told myself I could never play such a game, or at least the idea that playing a game with that many strangers who would judge me was super intimidating. However, about a week later I spotted a case for ‘XIV Starter Edition’ on the shelf of my local GAME store and the voice in the back of my head told me to give it a go. So I bought it and I haven’t looked back since!
I’ve always enjoyed making art for all my hyperfixations, and having such a vast story that allows me to slot myself into the shoes of my warrior of light makes my imagination go wild. As a creative person, it was only natural that I began to draw my WoL and the beloved game’s NPCs more and more!
How does your personal creative outlook or style influence the merchandise and art you create (XIV or otherwise)? What do you hope people take away or feel from your work?
My outlook on art in general has always been that you should create what you love.
I used to table at conventions and just create art/merchandise that I knew would be popular and/or sell well, regardless of whether I enjoyed it or not, but I can say from personal experience, that’s the fastest way to burn myself out. Some artists that sell art thrive doing so, but it’s never been my cup of tea.I feel like my best work, personal or otherwise comes out when I’m genuinely passionate about the topic, whether that be my original characters or fanart.
It’s very much a case of, “If I want it, then I should just make it myself!” when it comes to merchandise, and honestly, that is also how I connect with others in the community. My favourite interactions I get from customers or even just online viewers are those who enjoy the things I do. For example, I’m crazy over the Arcadion raids in XIV right now, so I made charms of all the enhanced fighters. Whilst selling them at Kupocon early this year, I got to talk my head off with fellow players and buyers about how much I love the raid, as well as hear how happy they were that they’d found merchandise of said characters! It really motivates me to draw more of what I love so I can find similar minded people!
Is there a piece of art you’ve created that you are especially proud of – for example, a piece that pushed or “leveled up” your skills, or one that was particularly popular, or perhaps something that came out exactly as you had imagined it?
I gave myself a goal at the end of last year to draw more dynamic, visually interesting pieces, as I was trying to further develop my style as well as get out of a rut I’d found myself in with my art. It was also around the time I was drowning in con preparation. I’d decided I wanted to create a print of Calyx from the Dawntrail expansion, and I used it as an excuse to start this new goal of mine. It got way more compliments than I anticipated, and it also helped me prove to myself that I could work towards that goal! It’s been one of my favourite XIV pieces for a while now!
What is a future project you hope to pursue, whether in fandom spaces or in your personal work?
At my last convention I debuted my first acrylic standees. I’m an avid collector of them myself, and I am severely lacking in FFXIV ones! They were received pretty well and I had such a blast making G’raha & Haurchefant as mini standees that I’m planning to make much much more! So stay tuned!
Also, noting that Evercold is right around the corner, I’m sure it’ll fill me with even more inspiration!
You’ve shifted largely into illustrative work with your commissions, prints, and online store, but you have a lot of experience and education in comic work as well. Do you see yourself pursuing any comic projects in the future, or are you focused on merch and illustrations for the time being?
I adore comics, and with all the stories in my mind with my characters I hope that one day I can gradually move back into creating comics again. They are extremely time consuming and I found after graduation and going straight into work, I found little time to create my own, and just began losing the drive, though I sort of lived vicariously through my students, of whom many of them are now very successful established freelancers both in comics and illustration. They continue to inspire me even now, and I’ll admit, that yearning to make comics again is growing, and hopefully my confidence will grow with my latest goal so I can make them again!
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NotJannet
Tell me a bit about your history playing XIV! What pulled you in, and what inspired you to start creating art and merch for it?
I started playing the game just before Shadowbringers was released. I was dragged into playing by a friend who wanted to stalk play with a boy she liked and got me involved so we could play together. Fast forward almost 7 years and part of my life now revolves around the game and they’re still happily dating.
I’ve always been a maker/designer (from childhood through to getting a degree in product design) and had been 3D printing since 2014, so it didn’t take long for the inevitable thought to hit: “that’s cool, I wonder if I could make that”. I started with a couple job crystals, which seems to be a rite of passage that most 14 fans with 3D printers go through, then the Convocation Constellation Crystals. Then the obsession began – Allagan Tomestones.
After learning Tomestones are effectively USB memory sticks from the long lost, technologically advanced Allagan Empire, I had the idea to make them into storage for real memory cards. When I looked for reference images and found all the others that had existed, it ignited a desire to accurately recreate every Allagan Tomestone that had been in the game. When I posted my ‘replica’ Poetics on social media someone said, “I’d buy those.” and in response I thought “sure, why not” and opened an Etsy. The rest, as they say, is ancient Allag history.
How does your personal creative outlook or style influence the merchandise and art you create (XIV or otherwise)? What do you hope people take away or feel from your work?
I am a simple minded, straight forward designer. I’ve spent my adult life working in factories doing mechanical or industrial design – I think in straight lines, simple geometric shapes and patterns, so making anything organic doesn’t come naturally to me. This is possibly why I’m so enamored with Tomestones – the simple geometry. It’s also why most of the 14 merch I make are devices or objects, as opposed to models of characters or the elaborate cosplay items that people might wear.
I do, however, like to be accurate to the game. I sometimes have to take some creative liberties, like smoothing out the low poly shapes you might see in the game, but if I notice something looks too different to how it is on screen, it will bug me until I fix it. I think my biggest compliment regarding this was when I applied to table at Kupocon one year, and they denied me claiming that my prints looked too close to the game. While not saying the words, they all but accused me of ripping assets to print, which I do not do. Everything is done from scratch and I’m proud of that. A lot of things I make, such as the Totem rewards for ultimate raids, only have small icons in the game for me to work off.
What I hope people get from my work is that moment of “wow, that’s cool. It’s that thing from the game”. I wish I had a deeper meaning I could explore, but I simply live for the validation when someone thinks a thing I’ve made is cool or clever, even when my own opinion of my work a lot of the time is pretty low.
Is there a piece of art you’ve created that you are especially proud of – for example, a piece that pushed or “leveled up” your skills, or one that was particularly popular, or perhaps something that came out exactly as you had imagined it?
I’d have to say the Aethernet Shard lamp. This one still surprises me. Despite being the most expensive thing I sell, it’s also one of the most popular and I’ve learned a lot from it.
– It was the first design I included any kind of electronics, even if it is a ‘simple’ string of LED lights.
– The first few I sent out got broken in transit so I had to learn to package things better.
– I ended up dreading having to assemble the blasted things, so I redesigned it for easier assembly.
This one design, this one product, and having to deal with it through the whole process, has given me insight and experiences which have impacted how I create new designs.
It’s also the first design I’ve made which has had direct competition. Someone made their own model of a light up Aethernet shard for fun that you can download for free from Makerworld. Then on Etsy you can now find some other near identical light up Aethernet Shards. Honestly, I had to wrestle with my emotions and my ego a bit over it, as I felt like it was my thing, but I can’t claim to have a monopoly on Aethernet Shards. A valuable lesson to not get hung up on things like that, which I’m still working on putting into practice – us designers can sometimes get a bit precious over our creations.
What is a future project you hope to pursue, whether in fandom spaces or in your personal work?
I, as I imagine most designers do, have an extensive ‘to-do’ list, most of which will probably never get worked on. My current project, which has been on that list longer than I’d care to admit, is a Cruise Chaser statue/figure. I’ve previously designed & printed my own transforming TARDIS toy – so the idea of a FFXIV transformer? I just had to.
It’s a lofty goal, but I want to make it a 3D printed model kit that people can build themselves (think gunpla, but not as complicated) or have it pre-built. There will also be different colours available, like the red or blue versions from PVP, or a plain one suitable for painting. It will be fully poseable and change between robot and jet forms, almost exactly as seen in the game. It’s been in the works for some time already, with a goal of completing it this year, although life and health continue to cause delays.
There are, as I said, other ideas in the list and designs I’d like to revisit, but I’m always nervous to tell people my plans in case someone else gives them a go before I get to it, in which case I would lose all interest.
Have you explored other art media outside of 3D modeling and printing? What are other skills – whether artistic or from more unexpected places – that you’ve explored outside of 3D printing that you’ve found to be helpful for the art you currently make?
Over the years I’ve tried my hand at image editing, video editing, audio editing, web development even programming (I have spent most of my life since hitting my teens in front of a computer) and while I’m barely a novice at any of these, having a bit of knowledge on each has been useful for the customer facing aspects like setting up a website and making videos or other promotional material.
But in terms of actual art forms, I’m pretty locked in to exclusively doing CAD design using Solidworks and 3D printing with FDM machines. While I know some people would consider me an artist and my work art, I still think of myself as a designer, and they as my designs. A paltry distinction, but one I always make.
That said, I’ve done a whole bunch of sketching during this Cruise Chaser project, something I’ve barely done since leaving university. It helped me work through some problems and let me examine different ideas and options instead of wasting time modelling things I’d only have to re-model later. I’ve never been any good at drawing and usually jump straight to 3D modelling, but I’d like to return to using pen and paper more often in future.
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