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.