11: Researching and Planning Design

I have been watching a lot of lectures on creature and character design to get an insight of the methods that professionals use when trying to design a character. In designing creatures there is some very useful advice that I have picked up from artists. In designing the rock grubber creature pictured below. Jerad S Marantz stresses the importance of designing the creatures head, stating that "the head is the payoff" and that you can design the whole creature based off of its head. As almost every design makes use of repeating elements and patterns. As humans we are genetically programmed to focus on faces, this is the reason a creatures face is so important, its the focal point for a design.

Another technique he recommends is working in "thirds" that is when designing a creature that is based off of pre-existing animals, you end up at a more interesting place if you mix elements of three different creatures. Its somewhat similar to the rule of thirds and it strikes a nice balance between variation and making the design easy to read.

He also stresses the importance of how your creature would fit into the world "how large is your creature? What is its relationship to gravity." He gives the example of a dust mite, that - when scaled up - would not be able to support its own weight.  It is an important thing to consider, as evolution is the adaptation of creatures to their surroundings in order to survive, this makes considering the surroundings a very important part of design.

10: Real World Methods - Armature

In looking into designing creatures, and in the different methods that can be used to design them. It's important to look at a lot of real world methods and techniques. The clay armature is most often used just to support and hold up a clay model. When designing directly in ZBrush the same technique can be employed in the form of a ZSphere armature. In both methods this is employed to simulate the skeleton of the creature and its useful to give an idea of the broad strokes of how a creature moves, the silhouette of motion in a way. Given the importance of silhouette in a design then this stage of construction is vital. 

The only difference is that in turning a ZSphere armature into an actual model is different. The methods involve either sketching further "ZSpheres" onto the model (as pictured below). Or working directly onto the armature once its turned into a skin. This is different to what happens in the real world where the clay is stretched over the armature itself. 

Taking all this into account, I adapted the method slightly to show not only the skeleton but to help with the placement of muscles as-well. Particularly when designing directly in 3D, the technique is useful as it helps to depict the movement of a creature more accurately and give a better idea of how it would actually function.

In the manta-like creature below you can see where the model clearly has deltoid-like structures leading into his biceps. You can also see where muscles similar to the latissimus dorsi connects to the "elbow". The function of this being to pull the entire arm backwards so the creature can swim.

You can also see various other landmarks that have been approximated, siphons, eyes and tentacles/arms.  To simulate the real world construction, I used a ZSphere and dynamesh to pull it over the armature as if it was clay. I find this an extremely useful method as it allows the construction of a well thought out design. 

However I want to try supplementing this with initial sketches and trying to incorporate different methods, techniques and research that can lead to more interesting and better designs.

09: Mass Effect

I replayed Mass Effect over the last few days. It served to reinforce to me just how dull a lot of the alien designs are. For the most part they are just humans with very different proportions and heads. The more interesting creatures in the story are either cast as villains (Reapers) or are relegated to side roles, such as the Hanar. I found myself looking around to see what other creatures existed in this universe besides bipeds. There is some interesting designs such as the Pod Crab above, which seems to act somewhat akin to a grazing animal such as a cow, as in the game they spend most of their time in herds that roam the shallow waters of Virmire (presumably feeding on the molluscs there). I would have loved to see more interesting creatures playing a larger role within the game.

08: Creature One

A bit of practice in ZBrush. This was more of a technical exercise to practice sculpting than anything else. Though I'm very pleased with some of the ideas that are going on in this sculpt, such as the weird leg/arms. Though I'm less pleased with the long "crutches" that the creature uses for balancing on. It was inspired by octopi, squids and other cephalopods which I kept coming back to as reference.
Overall I'm rather pleased with the this and I feel like its a good starting point for getting some creature work done. 

I'm also currently in the process of developing a list of case studies to perform to illustrate some issues that I think there is with creature designs in a lot of sci-fi. From there it will allow me to develop a framework that I can use to analyse my own designs as-well as others, and aid me in coming to some more interesting places creatively.

07: Refinement

I had a conversation with another lecturer today. During this we went over a lot of points about what this project could become and some of the directions it could take. It became apparent that I'm less interested about how an audience reacts to a design and its place in the story overall, but rather how the methodology of design could be changed to produce something more original. Of course with the end users opinion being part of the final critical reflection.

Analysis of existing designs and design methodology is an important part of this as-well as examining just why a lot of designs tend towards being humanoid. There's a lot of scope for exploring the sort of technology and culture some of these creatures may develop as-well, would they wear clothes? Would they even understand the concept of clothes? These are the kind of things I want to explore in the designs and in the research. 

06: Abandoned Design

So the above image is a design that I am unhappy with. I feel like it could be a lot better than it in fact is. While I am pleased with the overall idea, I think that there is too much that could be improved, such as the locomotion of the creature and the exact design of its legs. Although I worked hard to make it look like the legs would work, I'm just not seeing it. As the design starts to fall apart towards the lower legs.

As this was an experiment in designing directly in ZBrush, I did not have any preliminary sketches beyond an idea of what I wanted it to look like. I feel like this was a mistake, along with some of the methods I was using to actually sculpt it.

The hellish, chunky designs of Doom 3, were the main inspiration behind this design. Although the main animal basis for the design was as a large quadrupedal crab-like creature. It changed a bit when the time came to start nailing down more of the smaller forms.

05: Some Initial Project Ideas

So after talking to one of my lecturers I've managed to nail down an initial idea for a question and a more focused area to explore. That area being how a given audience reacts to a given "creature" design, and how these designs are utilised in the context of the world around them. 

An example of what I'm talking about is why the basic bipedal design is so prevalent in the Mass Effect Trilogy, and why the more abstract and interesting creatures are often relegated to smaller parts within the story. Or indeed used as the villains within the various games. I think it's an interesting area to explore, as it gives the scope to look at a broad range of designs and how they are utilised. What is a popular design for a creature that is supposed to induce fear, for example. I think the smartest way to begin is to go out, investigate and gather a broad range of material pertaining to different designs. Then looking at how they exist within their various worlds, what their purpose is and seeing if any themes develop.

On a side-note. I feel like it's important to talk a bit about what will constitute a "creature" for this project. For starters it is something that is not human. The difference between a character and a creature is where it starts to be a bit less defined though. Broadly, character usually refers to a human or a humanoid style design (such as the Turian in the image above), but it can also be something that is decidedly not human but that plays an important role within the story. (such as the Reaper below). A character can in fact be a creature as-well, as both the Turian and the Reapers are characters within the Mass Effect series, but neither is human. 

The Reapers are a tricky one though, as they are built to be machines...but they act like a living creature in the way they think and act. For the purposes of this then, they count as a creature design. This is another quite interesting topic in this field of design, the blurring of lines between machine and animal. Though it is something that can be explored further down the line after some more research.

04: ZMats

So, I was kind of bored with using standard/downloaded materials in ZBrush for sculpting purposes. This led to me creating my own materials using Maya & V-Ray. I based a lot of them on my favourite sculpting material, the dk_hulk. I find that it is the best for reading the form as you are sculpting, with a front on light and rather strong cavity detection.

The final result of my experiments, a front on light with a very dark lower half and a brighter upper half. The rim-light is optional as I have a version of the material with, and without it.

Another material, with a slightly rough texture applied to it, similar to the above material but with a slightly angled lower light.

A highly specialised material, similar to things like car paint or polished latex. It is best used on relatively flattish surfaces, as the number of highlights can make other surfaces hard to read.

A top-down style material based on the final result. Its more useful for getting a look at the model in a dramatic lighting setup than for actually sculpting.

Quite a strong rough texture on this one, its also very good for checking sculpts in different lighting and not quite as good for actually sculpting.

The different materials applied to an older model of mine, as you can see the paint style material is applied to a much smoother model (a stock ZBrush skull).

03: Creativity - A Lesson from John Cleese

I found this lecture a while ago, and it has provided me with a set of principles that I've tried to stick to when facing any creative challenge. The most useful one of these I find is allowing time to ponder a certain design issue, how to resolve a specific area of creature anatomy for example. By allowing time to ponder the problem and by looking at a wider array of reference material, I've found I can come up with a much better solution that the first one I thought of.

Im hoping that by continuing to work in this way I will be able to come up with more original designs for creatures.

02: The Horseshoe Crab - 450 Million Years of Adaptation

The Horseshoe crab is the product of 450 million years of adaptation and evolution. During this time, 
it has developed many systems that all increase its chances of survival. The most important of these is the crabs blood, which contains a powerful clotting agent, known as LAL (Limulus amebocyte lysate). Horseshoe crabs have no immune system, and so they are highly susceptible to infection from the endotoxins that exist within the ocean around it. Ordinarily the exo-skeleton protects the crab from these toxins. When the crab is wounded however, and the interior of it is exposed to the murky, bacteria-ridden ocean, the active ingredient in its blood (LAL) immediately seals and forms a clot. This clot protects the crab from the dangerous toxins that surround it.

This active ingredient has also become incredibly useful to humans. Endotoxins are just as dangerous if they come into contact with us, because of this, pharmaceuticals such as injections need to be checked and tested for these toxins. This test is known as a LAL test

.It is an interesting quirk that one of the main mechanisms by which this animal survives, has caused so much harm to the species once humans discovered how useful it was to them.

Aesthetically the crabs are rather similar in a  way to the "facehugger" from alien. Although the horseshoe crab sports a carapace that covers the entirety of its delicate organs. The carapace protects the entirety of the crab, look at the way that legs fit perfectly inside it, exposing very little vital components to would-be predators. With a central "hinge" that provides some flexibility, especially to the tail that has become a means of self-righting when the crab is tipped over.

Its similarity to the face-hugger is somewhat due to the fact that the Horseshoe Crab is not actually a crab. It is in fact not a crustacean at-all, and is a member of the arachnid family, one that includes scorpions and spiders, but also the parasitic ticks and mites (which may explain a bit more about why the design was based around this class of  arthropods).

01: 'Eye Protein'

When you think about why a specific creature looks the way it does, it all comes down to function and how the creature performs its day to day life. 

For example, the incredible visual display of the male peafowl's tail is down to the need for the creature to have some form of ornamentation that would help it to attract a mate and although the effectiveness of this is currently disputed, mating ornamentation is a common recurring theme amongst animals. The antler of male deers are another example of this, although they also lend themselves to sexual selection by combat with another male.

Another example of this kind of thinking can be found within the variations within the bills of various birds. The shapes of which have evolved to suit a birds individual feeding needs. With hooked bills more suited to the predatory birds who require something that can rip and tear at flesh, and long thin bills more suited to birds that require a kind of needle, for example for poking into an insect hive where there isn't much room for a larger beak. I have used birds as the example here, but this kind of idea that aesthetics should be informed function is present everywhere. 

So, lets look at a different creature and think about how the way it looks is an important part of how the creature itself operates, and how it has adapted to life in its given situation. The creature below is part of the Phylliidae family, one of the leaf insects. In this case, its aesthetics serve the important purpose of camouflage. The whole insect resembles a leaf, in some species they even mimic the bite marks and browning, curled edges that are present on so many leafs. The leaf insect sports one of the best camouflages that there is and it's the main reason that the creature looks so unique.

However the Phylliidae aren't the only family to sport camouflage. The colouring of many animals often serves this purpose and is dependant on their surroundings. Some of them, can even alter their colouration based on a number of factors, such as temperature, communication, and of course, as camouflage.

So let's have a look at how this philosophy has been applied to a real-world media project. Namely Pacific Rim, the 2013 movie about robots fighting giant Kaiju style monsters. It was one of my favourite movies of the year, sporting some brilliant visual effects and an incredibly striking and vibrant use of colour. For now though let's just focus on one thing, and it is to be found in the Pacific Rim art book, Man, Machines and Monsters. 

One specific quote in particular always springs to mind when I think of this movie. From Guillermo Del Toro himself.

"It's a summer movie so you want to see some eye candy. I, however, believe in 'eye protein,' which is high-end design with precise narrative content."

This quote came about when one of the artists was discussing the designs for the Jaegers, and the layers of detail and thought that went into it. An example of this would be the World War II battleship inspired paint job. It immediately sells the militaristic purpose behind the Jaegers inception, as-well as giving us clues as to the rest of the design as more parts of it may take cues from Naval vessels.

Another example is the many small cameras that make up Gipsy Danger's visor, resulting in the "honeycombed" look, as-well as providing some visual interest for when the visor gets ripped open by a Kaiju. Being able to design something that a spectator can look at and go, "oh right, that is why that it looks this way, it needs to be able to perform function X" is one of the most important aspects for a good design.
It has to read well.
The audience needs to be able to understand the purpose of it.

00: Fields of Interest and Initial Thoughts

Adaptation and Augmentation.

Two key areas that I would like to study within this project. Areas that are important when it comes to designing any kind of creature or organism. Examining how nature itself produces animals that are suited to a specific environment and lifestyle is vital in understanding how to work aspects of this into your own designs. Of course this is important, it is the very reason that artists perform research and referencing before starting any project. 

What I am also interested in beyond this though though, is the study of technologies that exist to augment and enhance the abilities of a given creature. Be it the simple re-breather that allows humans to breathe underwater for extended periods. Or the complex mechanical exo-suit worn by the Cephalopoda-like aliens in the Crysis series that allows them to walk in an environment that they were not adapted to. A kind of artificial evolution if you will.

Currently I am unsure what the endpoint of this project will be, it will very likely change throughout the course of it as I look deeper into these subjects.