Maniacarta is Working Up a Storm
A Storm of Magic, Art, and the Soul of Character Design
I’m at a weird intersection right now in my creative life. Without going into too much detail about my health and situation, I’ll call it an uncomfortable crossroads. Road one goes to a place where I get a lot more societally expected stuff done, but my creativity really takes a nosedive, to the point where I don’t really even dream. Road two is heading closer to the default setting: Creative backrooms that look like they were decorated by a giant unicorn stomping through a craft supply store, maladaptive daydreaming, and the inability to remember what I just said I needed to get done not five minutes ago. While none of that may sound particulaly positive, it’s great for generating art.
I bring up my dilemma because while I’m struggling, I find that my issues make me appreciate the creativity of others a great deal. As a matter of fact, this week’s artist has an abundance of creative ideas and a portfolio that’s updated regularly to reflect that. Many of their artworks feature longform written stories about the characters, some of which are dense enough to require a substantial scroll through the artwork’s description to fully appreciate.
Maniacarta (マニア.カレタ) is the founder and CEO of Sandstorm, a studio in Tokyo. She credits Blender and Unreal Engine as being the bread and butter of her artistic practice, stating that she will, “…strive to create the best characters visual that have soul[sic]…” using the programs. Her skillset is extensive according to her Artstation bio, far too broad to cite all of them here. Outside of Blender and Unreal, I’ve seen some impressive works she’s made in Marvelous Designer as well. I think that she is really successful in her stated goal of creating character designs with soul. A good place to start is this post, which contains an overview of all of her Witches of Linerma series. There’s an overview of each of the witches and their signature aesthetic. For the more technically minded, many of Maniacarta’s posts feature a ton of process shots and detail closeups, and many also show off more of the character’s personality with still-frame-movie-screencap style images showing off their powers or weapons. All of the images that I’ve included in the article link to posts such as these.
One of the things I enjoy the most when lookin at Maniacarta’s work is the unique detailing the clothing. There’s a lot of storytelling that artists rely on in clothing design to tell the viewer what kind of character they are looking at. Maniacarta does a lot of really neat detailing in the jewelry and accessories, which she shows off in the aforementioned closeups. It goes a long way in showing where her thought process was during the drafting and concept phase, as well as giving the characters a lot of flavor and variety. She really uses the power of the tech at her fingertips.
This week, I’m not sure I’ve learned or actively sought out any inspiration for improving my art. I think I need to take some time to really figure out what I want to do and how to find a good balance between keeping my creativity flowing and also getting stuff done. It might just be important to put my challenges into words, and be ready to appreciate the creative energy of others when it presents itself, even if I still don’t have an answer. I know I’m not alone with the way I feel, and I hope that if any one who sees this feels the same way, they know they aren’t alone, either.
Check out Maniacarta’s Artstation here!
