Squash and Stretch

Here are a couple of the animations I have done so far for my Classical Animation class at VFS.  The 2 were class assignments, I did 2 more that were just things I did to pass the time, but it takes forever for these to upload so I'll post those later maybe... >.>

I love this class, and I love the classroom!  I wish I had one of the desks that they have there... ;^;

This is Bat Country! ....Er... Pterosaur Country?

Bloody pterosaurs!  Givin' me difficulties...

This was one of the first ideas I had for a monster, a pterosaur/vulture like thing that would attack in flocks.  On it's own a minor annoyance, but in groups rather aggravating.  They'd flock around where there was carrion or around places where the Allicrocogatordile-komodo dragon-pelican-venomous-frog-thing may be hiding (to eat the leftovers of it's meal, this would gives players some warning occasionally without having to watch the ground for suspicious looking rocks all the time)

But I'm having some issues with it, I just can't seem to figure out how I want it to look.  The most developed sketches look too much like a regular pterosaur, and (in my opinion) too strong looking to be a rather weak enemy.  I am probably going to have to go back to my earlier sketches and try again; simplify it down, try to get more vulture in there.

Once I get this one sketched to my liking, I still have 1 or 2 monsters to go.

Every Dot and Every Stroke I Paint Will be Alive

"From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of attention. At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so that by ninety I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At one hundred, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at one hundred and thirty, forty, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive. May Heaven, that grants long life, give me the chance to prove that this is no lie."
    ~Katsushika Hokusai

If only I could live to be 140 or more...

New goal in life! >:O!!

When Your First Job is Shepherding Giant Rodents...

Livestock!  Innit just the most adorable giant rodent thing you've ever seen?


Yeah, these creatures would more or less fill the role of goats basically, providing a source of meat and pelts.  They could be found in villages in the game and in the wild as a low level, non-aggressive enemy to slaughter to your heart's content for loot and exp.  Originally I was going to go for a design more like what you see in the upper right corner, which is heavily based on a cama, however while doodling in class I sketched something that look like a cross between a dik-dik and a shrew, so here we have a hyracotherium-capybara-elephant shrew-goat-type thing....  It may or may not gain horns at a later date.  Also, I may change it's feet to be slightly more hoof-like.


Socially it fills the role of livestock, but biologically it's more like a rodent, so yeah... givin' the capybara a run for it's money as the largest rodent around.

The sketch in the upper left corner is-obviously- a camel, it was the first thing I sketched when starting my discovery project, when I was trying to think of ideas for the pack animal and the livestock

Sorry there aren't more doodles, I actually didn't do as many for the livestock animal, and the others aren't even unrefined sketches, they're half drawn, half designed creatures that were quickly abandoned.

"From Beneath you it Devours"

Yeah, I'm gonna try this blog thing for a while longer...  I do this sort of collecting of resources and jotting down ideas anyways, I just don't post it anywhere, it stays in my computer favourites and files.

Allicrocogatordile-komodo dragon-pelican-venomous-frog-thing O3O

Some ideas I'm kicking around for one of the more major monsters that a player would have to face, it hides in the sand, then when you come close, it comes out and noms.  I think I'll go with the topmost design, but I might fix up it's face a bit more, but that will have to go on the back burner along with finalizing the pack animal's horns because I need to get more concrete designs for the other creatures down first.  I don't know if I'm going to have time to do shiny final artworks of my monsters it might just have to be a basic pose.

Lizards are hard to draw... I should really practice drawing creatures other than mammals.... >.>

Colour Variations

 

Here's some colour schemes I'm kicking around for the pack animal, I haven't yet done the final design, so it's still the lineart I posted last time.  Each one is based on a different animal; coyote, thomson's gazelle, sand gazelle and wildebeest.  I'm probably going to wind up mixing and matching elements from each one.

Still sketching out ideas for the other critters, but I don't really have anything I want to post yet.

Some stuff I'm looking at:

Pterosaurs

Striped Hyenas 

and finally, the Dik-dik!  The cutest little antelope you will ever see

Pack Animal Design

Some of the sketches I've done of the pack animal, which so far is the furthest along in design.  I have some ideas for colouration, what I'm having some trouble deciding on the the horn design.  At first I was thinking of going for broad, flat horns that would act somewhat like heat fans, (similar to a stegosaurus' spines, which is also the reasoning behind those spiky protrusions on it's back and hindquarters) however I'm also kicking around the idea of making it like ceratopsia fans (upper right image, though I think I prefer a more ox-like or bovine-esque face to a dinosaur-like one, such as in the upper right and lower right sketches)

You can see two similar sketches here of the creature in the same pose; the more sketchy one is the first sketch I did, I originally drew it more sleek but I decided to give it some bulk, I also added ears, which may or may not stay, but I think I'll keep them.

I still might tweak this a bit more, particularly the spines on it's back.

Critique is appreciated.


Some other stuff I'm looking at:

Saiga Antelope: They have funny noses
Four-horned Antelope: These little guys are cute
 Cama: A cross between a llama and a camel, there's no image in the article,that's what Google Image Search is for.
Vulture
Pterosaur
Xerocole: I learned a new word :D
Thermoregulation
Hydroscopic

Discovery Project

So I suppose it's time I posted something a bit more substantial than just links to things that inspire me, so I'm gonna talk about my discovery project.

This term we are required to create something; anything we wish in any medium we wish, we can use it as a precursor to our final project or simply as an opportunity to explore working in a field we haven't before.

Though I came to Foundations uncertain of where I wanted to end up (or even if I would be able to attend VFS for another year) I've pretty much set my sights on Game Design now.  So, while I don't know if this will ultimately tie into my final project, I have decided to head in that direction for my discovery project.

Since one of my most favourite things to do in the whole wide world is draw weird monstery creatures, that's what I'm going to do.  I'm going to design creatures for a mock video game, if I have time I may do more and develop the game world a bit, but my main focus is going to be on the monsters.

At first I was thinking of picking different environments (jungle, aquatic, mountains, plains) and developing a creature for each one, researching animals from each environment to create believable monsters.  However I've decided to instead pick just one environment and design creatures for that one environment.

So I've picked desert as my choice.  I'm thinking of designing a couple of domestic creatures and some wild creatures.

For the domestic creatures:

A Pack animal - similar in role to an ox or donkey, something that would pull wagons and such
Livestock -  right now I'm thinking something sheeplike, though I might move more towards a goatlike design since all that wool in the desert just seems... silly to me
A Herding Animal - Think along the lines of a sheepdog, but it'd be closer to a jackal or desert fox.  these would keep the aforementioned livestock in check

For the wild creatures... I'm not sure what I'll do yet, probably a couple of smaller monsters an maybe one bigger one, since these are the things that would be fought for exp.

Yeah... I'm going more RPG with this, probably fantasy as well, but not high fantasy like Dragon Age, something more along the lines of Monster Hunter.

I could also design monsters geared towards different game genres... but I dunno, I kind of prefer the idea of thinking of one game concept and thinking of monsters to fit into that single game world.

More Stuff

Whooo, my second post.

Here's some more things I enjoy, they give me the inspiration and patience to see tough, frustrating projects through:

The Story of Khale

I would embed this one on youtube, but it's crappy quality on there and you really need to appreciate the detail and timing the creator put into this.

Same goes with these: Brackenwood Animations!  They're amazing little animations by Adam Phillips.  The music, animation detail and timing, and creature designs are awesome, these are my favourites from Brackenwood

The Yuyu
Littlefoot
Last of the Dashkin


Penndragon:

An experimental animation about an angel out to earn her wings







And some webcomics

Gunnerkrigg Court
The Abominable Charles Christopher
Johnny Wander
Hanna is not a Boy's Name
Phoenix Requiem