Okay, so my basic conclusion for a survival horror creature was that it something on it had to move/open up/shoot out, etc. This basically comes from watching The Thing one too many times. Part of the appeal (for me at least) was that the creature always had an ace up it's sleeve when it came to what it could do and how it looked. I've tried to do that here by hiding tentacle arms down it's own throat so it might look like it has a semi-normal head until everything slides out(probably in some sort of cut scene for maximum impact).
So far I'm happy with the head designs that I've got but the body's giving me some grief mainly because I haven't really decided how I want it to move or ig there's anything else I want it to do besides the splitting head trick. Right now I'm leaning towards some sort of biped/quadraped but I'm wondering if I want to be something that runs along the ground at high speed or if it should clamber all over surfaces and cling to ceilings (the reason why this is important is that it would affect the way the hands are shaped at the very least).
I've kind of gone with a more human shape at the moment just because I've found that things can be a little more creepy when they almost look like something recognisable. This might change soon since I feel like I sort of hit a dead end with it. There's probably going to be a couple more pages like this and at least one colour sketch before I get to the 3d in any event.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Azazel/page1sml.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Azazel/page2sml.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Azazel/page3sml.jpg[/IMG]
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[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Azazel/page5sml.jpg[/IMG]
wow, awesome idea and concept art. I like where your heading with the concept too, looks awesome in the last page. And I agree with Malus that the middle right head concept was the coolest, mainly cos' of it's unhuman-ness compared to the face your going with and if the body is going more human, could be cool contrast maybe.
I'm definatly liking the way your mind thinks man.
Okay, not as big an update as I'd hope to make but I got distracted by an advance screening of Dodgeball: A true Underdog Story, which I recommend (stay through the credits).
Anyway, I gave some more thought to what this creature would do in the game environment. I've found that figuring out how a creature does what it does can sometimes be a really good way to get yourself out of a rut. Basically I decided that this guy would be a bounder and by that I mean something that would get around by leaping from place to place. It would climb all over surfaces as well, making it something like a freakish ape. This means that it would need big thighs for leaping and big calves and forearms for gripping power.
Then I had a thought about how it would attack. The mouth is an obvious guess but in terms of gameplay it would be pretty boring if this thing kept running at you face first just to use the tentacles that its got there. Then I got the idea for an ambush predator. Bascially the creature would hide itself above it's prey then hoist the victim up towards it's mouth where the whole head could be inserted (this is why I made the neck have a long gash running down it, it basically increases the size of the mouth).
I took the hooked claws from birds like eagles and hawks which snatch their prey from the ground or underwater. Originally I was going to go with one big claw but the idea of lots of little claws hooking themselves under your ribs before you're hoisted up into the ceiling just creeped me out more.
Enough of that, here's my updates:
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Azazel/page6sml.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Azazel/page7sml.jpg[/IMG]
Malus: Cool, good to know I'm heading in the right direction. I have a love/hate relationship with horror games (they're my favourite but I find it really hard to play them since I seem to get really sucked into them). This is basically the first time I've posted my stuff on a bored so its nice to get a good response straight up.
Tojo: Maybe Malus is trying to hint that its your turn to buy dinner. I get what you mean about the Tarzan stuff, I have a habit of doing really kinetic stretched out human figures when I get bored. This is just kind of tapping into that.
Animal: Originally I was going to go with the more human head. My friends that I originally showed it to seemed to go more for it and I thought it suited a more human body better. Now I'm slowly adapting the body to suit the wierder head which is why there's a seam running down the chest now. Its a small thing but I think it makes a good bit of difference.
Aven: Yeah, I've got a soft spot for that body as well but I ruled it out because I thought it would be hard to cram that shape into the spaces I want this creature to go. The only way to do it would have been to shrink it physically but I want this thing to be fairly sizable.
Me109: Here's hoping I can live up to it in polys. I'm pretty out of practice in 3d since I decided to switch back to traditional stuff after I finished my course.
MoonUnit: Actually I only started doing life drawing recently (tutored lessons at ACSA) and to date I've only had three lessons.
Hopefully more updates tomorrow where I should go into the colour scheme and some more reasons behind design choices.
Sorry about the lack of an update yesterday, I got stuck for two hours trying to get files of a Mac onto a PC (no luck in the end either). Hopefully I'll be able to put something up tonight.
HazarD: I don't mind confetti just no rice, that kills birds...or something.
Delmo: I actually like the exposed guts one as well but I've ruled it one since it would require a lot of detail to model (or at least it would require me to make comprises I don't want to). I'll probably be going with the spec map option in this which would most likely leave me with a kind of lumpy surface with an internal organ texture on it. Now if I could use normal maps...
Conner O Kane: Thanks!
danger dave: The hands probably look a little more refined since I knew what I was trying to do with them and felt comfortable spending extra time on them. With the body I kept thinking about something else while I was drawing them so kept rushing to try out the new idea.
Okay, so this will probably be the last of the drawn stuff that I'l be sticking up. I'm going to try and see if I can't colour the full body shot while I'm at work but that's about it. I haven't gone too overboard with detail (relatively) because I want to try and stay under the tri limit. I'm used to working high poly so this will be something of a challenge for me so I'm trying to work around my habits for now. If I have enough room left at the end I'll use that to start adding extra little things.
The first page is all about torsos. I'm hoping that by adding a seam down the chest I'll give the impression that there is one creature wearing another creature's skin so I was trying to avoid going with something predictable for the waist. Right now its actually based off a skinned throat which should hopefully give it some otherworldyness which I think the design may be missing now. The back I always wanted to have some sort of bony spine thing going so that didn't need to be designed too much.
The second page is more or less the finished design, I may alter the proportions a bit during modelling, shrink the chest, lengthen the arms, that head looks to big, but this is pretty much it. I know that it looks pretty dull right now but this creature wasn't really meant to be seen in such a bog standard pose. It looks much better when its contorted into wierd shapes and hunched over like it would be in game (at least that's how it looks in my head). The main body is going to be a very pale, dry skin colour whereas the torso and inside of the mouth should be a very lurid and slick red. This should give some nice contrast to the design and should really help for the impact when the mouth opens up. I'm also trying to go for the danger colour idea that you see on some wild animals, particuarly frogs and the like.
Oh yeah, for those wondering what that thing on the right of the second page is, it was meant to be a shot of the mouth wide open from front on.
Now onto the modelling.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Azazel/page8sml.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Azazel/page9sml.jpg[/IMG]
Colour version, as promised.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Azazel/full_body_col.jpg[/IMG]
Might go and do a full adjustment in Painter (screw around with the proportions, not just add colour) but I think I've fooled around with this long enough.
quote:Originally posted by MoonUnit
damn, that is some fine work man. I didnt realise you were going to make the inside of the tentacles ehhh muscley (ah you know what i mean). Not sure if i like em better either way though
To be honest I'm not entirely sure what the inside of the tentacles are going to look like, all I know is that they need to be red and slick like the inside of the mouth and the waist. That wierd random muscley look just seemed to be a decent way to stick some detail in there for the time being.
quote:Originally posted by Azazel
quote:Originally posted by MoonUnit
damn, that is some fine work man. I didnt realise you were going to make the inside of the tentacles ehhh muscley (ah you know what i mean). Not sure if i like em better either way though
To be honest I'm not entirely sure what the inside of the tentacles are going to look like, all I know is that they need to be red and slick like the inside of the mouth and the waist. That wierd random muscley look just seemed to be a decent way to stick some detail in there for the time being.
makes sense, so you basicly want them to be an extension of the jaw/mouth rather then tentacles coming from the cheeks?
Moonunit: Exactly. I'm hoping that because the look of the inside of the mouth continues out to the tip of the tentacles it should make the mouth look about three times larger than it actually is when its open all the way. Should also make the throat look deeper.
Delmo: I'm hoping to at least rig the creature for the contest so I can pose it but any animation will most likely have to wait until after the contest is over. I would like to do an animation of the mouth opening at least.
brilliant concept, i can't get over how awesome the feet are, they have a real sense of weight. also the colouring of the stomach is great, i needed that level of detail with my stomach. can't wait till the model and of course texturing (although it will further diminish whatever chance i have of winning)[:)]
I really admire your drawing ability! Please tell me you were professionally trained and its not just raw tallent. Where can I go to learn to draw like that???
I have one small crit on your creature. His upper body seems a little too small to support his bulky head. Even if you are going for the withered look, I think that the rib cage should be a little larger. The head is in good proportions to it's legs, and the legs look like they should be supporting a larger frame. But hey, that's just my thoughts.[:p]
Don't worry guys, I'm not dead, I've just been finding 3d modelling a lot harder than I remember it being since I let myself fall out of practise while I worked on my traditional skills (which is my real passion I guess). Basically I'm so underwhelmed with my results so far that I really don't want to post my progress. Hopfully after the weekend when I've had an opportunity to work at it for an extended period, instead of waiting until after work, I'll have something to show.
Sinister: sorry buddy, no real training to speak of. I did Graphic Illustration at Uni SA for a year but left after I got really frustrated with the fact they were teaching more graphic design instead of illustration (six months of typography, no thanks). I just did a five week, three hour session life drawing thing but that's about the extent of my formal education when it comes to traditional stuff (I have a diploma in multimedia but that's a different skill set which I've sadly let languish). If I have any skill it mainly comes from paying close attention to my influences and getting a lot of info from the web.
Very cool, now this is more like it! I like the top 2 concept pages, especially the middle right head concept.