Monodrone creature model

I joined the City of Doors Initiative in early 2003, and our goal was to bring Planescape to Neverwinter Nights. It's a vast and varied setting, but there are a few iconic beings that make Planescape Planescape, and the modrons are one group of them. Modrons are like a race of fantasy robots... not the circuits and wires sort, but sort of steampunk — with magic.

Monodrones are the lowest rank of modron. Dimwitted and incapable of language, they're also the most populous rank of modron. Being so common, and also of a relatively simple design, they were a logical choice for a new creature model.

A fair deal of official art exists for the monodrone. My design most closely resembles the illustrations of Tony DiTerlizzi's official Planescape art [example]. DiTerlizzi's a really wonderful character artist, so the challenge was to capture some of that personality, while keeping within game limitations. For example, while an animated mouth would have been great, the polycount would have been awfully high for a common (low-level) creature. Still, I was able to do a pretty solid job of it. The eyelids were simple, easy to animate, and brought a lot to the character. The wings also were an important emotive point — upheld wings meant sprightly spirits, and wings down made him look submissive and meek.