Hi everyone,

We’re World Forge Miniatures - a new Tribe that launched this month! Our first collection is the Mirthlight Carnival, a set of terrain which you can use to create a fun carnival event for your players :)

In this article, I want to take you through the process of designing a collection from start to finish. We’re going to look at how we decide on the miniatures to include, perfecting the design through the sketching & sculpting process, and print testing the miniatures to guarantee quality.

Let’s find out how a collection is made!

Step 1 - Deciding the Collection Contents

The first thing we do after deciding on a theme, such as a magical carnival, is to come up with a list of miniatures that we can make. The aim with all our collections is to create a well rounded set of models that you can use to create a realistic diorama for the environment we’re portraying.

To get ideas, we’ll search online for inspiration using concept art from websites like Deviant Art, Pinterest and ArtStation, images from real carnivals that we find from a Google Image search, and articles online, for example we searched for Top 10 Carnival Games to decide what to make.

Once we have our list of ideas, we narrow it down by considering two things

1. Essentials

Firstly, we choose the most essential models for the diorama. With our Carnival release it was a Ticket Booth, Carnival Entrance, Carnival Games, Carnival Tents and a Direction Sign. Without these elements, a carnival location would feel incomplete.

2. Size Variation

The second factor for narrowing down the models is ensuring that we have a good spread of miniature sizes. When building a diorama, it’s important to have a mix of large, medium and small models to create an aesthetic and balanced piece and to be more realistic too.

For our carnival release, that meant we decided to include a Carnival Wagon to offer people a large, detailed miniature to paint and it also meant we decided to create our pack of Carnival Scatter, which are smaller pieces to decorate the environment.

3. Atmosphere

Once we’ve decided on the essential miniatures and also included a good spread of sizes, we can pick other miniatures that add to the overall atmosphere of the diorama. For example, we decided to include a Carnival Lamp because it makes the location feel more realistic to have lighting, and also allows people who wish to build a diorama to use OSL techniques.

Carnival Food made the cut here too because it adds to the atmosphere of a carnival. It allows a variety of tables to be assembled to give variation to the diorama, it provides more realism since food is a big part of the carnival experience, and it’s fun!

4. Inspiration

Sometimes we make miniatures because we’re inspired to make them! The Mushies in our Carnival collection were not on the original list, but came about through pure inspiration because they seemed to fit the whimsical feeling of the location :)

5. Feasibility

Finally, we might have an idea for a miniature that would be awesome but isn’t feasible to do because it would take too much time. We really wanted to do a carousel for the Carnival release, but that is a large, detailed, complex, multi-part miniature that was too ambitious in the end. The time we’d have invested in that model would have taken away from multiple other models, and would have meant we needed to drop too many other miniatures to include it. It would have been awesome though!

Step 2 - Sketching the Miniatures

The next stage of designing the collection is to go down the finalised list and sketch what the miniature could look like. We decided during the inspiration stage that we would be sculpting miniatures with a whimsical and magical look.

Usually we will sketch several options that would work for the model, and then as a team we pick our favourite. Here are some of the original sketches for the carnival release and the final miniature.

Carnival Gate

For this one, we picked sketch 2.

Carnival Ticket Booth

For this one, initially there were just three sketches, but we liked elements of all of them. The shape of sketch 3, the booth opening design of sketch 2, and the booth table and sign design from sketch 1. So a couple more sketches were made combining these elements, and we picked sketch 5!

Carnival Wagon

The same process occurred with these sketches too. We liked elements from wagon 1, 2 and 3, and so a fourth sketch was done combining those ideas and that is the design that went into the sculpting stage :)

Carnival Lamp Post

From these sketches, we went with design 4 for the lamp post shape because it was the most whimsical. Although we also liked option 3! Then for the lantern design, we choose option A which is actually using glowing mushrooms as lights. This seemed the most magical and would better represent the magical carnival aesthetic :D

Jack in a Box

Finally, in this example you can see that we picked the shape of sketch 2 but the decorations from sketch 1, which were then combined into an additional sketch in the corner. We also picked the cute little frog-inspired ‘jack’ to pop out of the box!

Step 3 - Sculpting the Miniatures

Once the sketch choices have been finalised, the miniatures are sculpted. Often they very closely match the original sketch, but sometimes changes are made and new elements are added. This is because some things that look good in 2D don’t work as well in 3D, and also because once something starts to take shape, new inspiration can arise :)

For example, the balloons were added to the ticket booth during the sculpting stage, but were not an idea at the sketching stage.

Step 4 - Print Testing the Miniatures

After the model has been sculpted, it moves along the chain to be print tested. An essential part of designing a good collection is that it prints well, looks good when printed and is usable. The support artist will provide this detailed feedback to the sculptor to ensure the best quality miniatures are produced :)

Here are some examples of things that changed after the print testing the carnival collection:

1. Closing the Gaps

These are improvements to the model's mesh that makes them better for 3D printing. For example, originally the carnival wagon’s curtains hung away from the wall, like they would do in real life. But after printing the miniature, it became obvious that they trapped liquid resin, and made it harder to clean the miniature.

We could have left the gaps, but the printing experience is better for our subscribers if the curtains clip into the wall to close that thin gap.

Before:

After:

2. Increasing details

On the smaller miniatures, certain details might not come out as well as we want them to. In this case, the sculptor can either enlarge or deepen the details so they print better. For example, our Jack in a Box face was enhanced after the first test print to make sure that it printed as crispy as possible :)

3. Making parts thicker

Other issues that come up from printing might be that a part is too thin and either snaps when being cleaned up, doesn’t print at all, or is just too delicate. For example, we increased the thickness of the loops on the Hook a Duck ducks several times before we got a size that was large enough to print well, but not so big that it looked ridiculous!

Before:

After:

4. Usability

The final common change is that the miniature needs a change that will make it better for a subscriber to use in their diorama. For example, the Spin the Wheel game didn’t stand up on it’s own because the base of that miniature was too small. After test printing, it was extended to make the base larger and able to balance.

Step 5 - The Collection is Released!

After all these stages, we finally have a collection that we’re happy with :) It has a great balance of miniatures that will help to transport subscribers to that location, everything has been print tested and passed the quality checks, and we can then release the files to subscribers for them to print and paint.

This is the best feeling in the world! After months of work, we can release our creations into the wild and watch people enjoy them :D

This is the finished Carnival Collection, available on the World Forge Minis Tribe for February only:

Here are some examples of the collection printed, painted and assembled into a diorama. The carnival has come a long way since those first sketches!

This diorama was created by Troy from the YouTube channel FacilityD20, and there is an accompanying video showing you how he made it here:

Thank you so much for checking out our article! I hope you found it interesting to see how a collection gets made :)

Gem, Martina & Lorena - The World Forge Team

Embernell Studio