Monday 26 November 2012

More Designs...

Above: Reptilian Bird design.

Apologies for the silence guys, with the deadlines looming the pressures are beginning to mount and as a result i am trying my best to wap as much crazy, funky, weird and wonderful creatures out as i can!

Above is my take on a reptilian bird creature which dates as far back as the times of the Dinosaurs,its scaly body and beaked face eventually give way to feathers with a long plumage of tail feathers in bright colours which for the males are used to dance and display like those of our peacocks today. The males also have a distinct red throat sack which can be inflated resembling a balloon also used in the 'showing off/display' process.


Above: Rough colour variation.
I also tried a few colour ideas which lead me to consider sub species of this bird, some that have evolved feather colouration's to suit their surroundings such as ice blue, white and grey to assist camouflage in snow environments. I also like the bottom of these four colour options, the deep reds oranges and purple suit the extravagant nature of this creature.


Above: Bat/Snake inspired design
After watching various animal TV shows recently one interesting mechanic was how the skull of a snake operates. With its top and bottom jaws being split in two halves the enables the snake to open its mouth wider and literally walk down its prey using alternate parts of the jaws. i applied this mechanic to this creature design enabling it to snatch larger prey out of the sky and swallow it whole on the move. This creature primarily lives within the shelter of a dense tree cavity or crevices within caves or rock faces enabling the element of surprise when targeting prey. Its sharp clawed fingers and adapted single clawed rear limbs enable it to climb rough surfaces such as tree bark and rock faces with ease.


Above: Gorilla/Lion inspired design.
This design i believe needs a little more work as i am not 100% happy with it. This creature can run at high speeds and take down prey with a devastating bite and brute force. They hunt in packs making it hard for prey to escape unless they are much faster than this creature. They can be spotted within the tree canopy on the edge of the plains or on the plains themselves.

Friday 16 November 2012

Bradford Animation Festival!


On Wednesday this week I was lucky enough to head out on a 'school' trip to the BAF (Bradford Animation Festival) which was one of the longest days I've ever experienced but also one of the most inspirational!

I attended a series of fascinating lectures from many big names in the industry including;

*David Bennett from Faceware Technologies. (Worked on Avatar, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Polar Express).

*Christine Phelan from Valve. (Dota 2, Team Fortress and Portal 2).

*Jaromir Plachy and Peter Stehlik from Amanita Design. (Botanicular and Machinarium).

*David Brown, Philip Gray and Bill Martin from TT Games. (Lego Franchise)

*Neil Thompson from BioWare. (Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2 and Command and Conquer).

All had uniquely inspiring points and opinions in particular Christine Phelan displayed some creature design sheets and concepts for Star Wars' Rancor which I found similarities between my own work including silhouettes, rough skeletal line work to final bone structures and final concept presentation; from this I can apply these further to my own presentation for my portfolio!

Also Faceware is an interesting piece of software I'd like to attempt to use for one of my creature designs if I get the chance before D-Day! It's is a software package enabling photorealistic facial motion capture, which was very impressive!

Furthermore Amanita Designs approach to games design was linked greatly with being able to interact with everything within the game world specifically discussing their new game Botanicula and even providing a comical value making their game addictive, interesting and so pleasing to the eye with its colourful 'crazily fun' environments. Amanita Designs and BioWare couldn't stress enough the importance of working outside the box, taking inspirations from everything around us not just games but nature and other art forms.

BioWare's Neil Thompson also stressed the importance of being able to draw in the games and entertainment industries, everyone can have ideas but these are useless without the ability to show, design and display those ideas to their full potential!!!

All in all it was a fantastic day and would recommend to everyone with an interest in games and animation to attend next year! I will be!

Sunday 11 November 2012

The Silent Hunter...



This eel creature is one to be feared amongst the corals by all it shares residence with. Lingering in the crevice's of the corals it has mastered the art of stealth becoming within striking distance of its prey before launching itself jaws gaping. Like a snake the left and right upper and lower jaws operate separately enabling them to open sideways as well as upward for a greater surface area furthermore they are lined with razor sharp backward tilting teeth gripping prey, making it harder to escape. Equipped with these impressive deadly jaws this creature is capable of devouring larger prey such as sharks. Its abdomen becomes enlarged after eating larger prey which can take weeks to fully digest but these larger meals suggest longer amounts of time between feeding.

Fully grown adults can reach lengths of up to 25 meters shadowing the vast majority of its locals. It prefers to hunt anytime after the sun sets as its eye sight is at is peak in the darkness, also to assist this its whole body is equipped with tiny sensory glands picking up the slightest electrical fields given off by every living thing, although these are only faint the eels glands have no problem identifying them. This helps it to manoeuvre between the smallest of gaps successfully and most importantly pin point the exact location of its prey, enabling it to become close enough to strike without raising the alarm.

A deadly silent predator.

Progression.

Saturday 3 November 2012

The 'Torpedo Fish'...

Completed design


This week i have created a 'battering ram' or Torpedo Fish, once again developed from silhouette this creature has a solid reinforced head, face and spine a streamlined muscular body and a powerful tail propelling itself forwards into its unsuspecting prey. The solid grains engraved into this solid head structure increases chances of breaking the skin of its prey causing fatal injuries. In the disturbed waters of the islands shoreline it blends, patrolling in wait for its victim, spotting it at a distance it prepares gaining speed and slams the prey unexpectedly causing confusion and sometimes paralysis. After this blow the Torpedo fish can return for a second hit or begin to feed tearing its prey with shark like teeth and bone crunching jaws.
It is not uncommon to see these creatures hunting in groups of up to 8, in which case they almost appear to play with their food before feeding, passing and charging down the prey as part of a team.
These creatures can also bee seen launching themselves from the water in an attempt to remove pilot fish clinging to their bodies or show off to others hence their name, Torpedo Fish.
Progression phase
This design took a little longer that others as i changed my intentions during the development process which i do not believe is a bad thing as a result i believe the design is stronger for it. At the beginning i pictured a small coral fish with a solid beak for breaking off and feeding upon corals. However it was decided that the head looked much more solid and appeared to belong more to that of a predator. From that point the design transformed into a streamlined solid predator.