Assignment 8: Rock + Lava Creature
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| Typhon, a winged giant and Giga Gigas, a smaller giant enemy |
For this
assignment, I decided to revive some ideas I'd had for several rock/lava
creatures a few years ago. I'd hoped to combine this two designs, and use the
additional reference and technical skill to make an interesting hybrid
creature.
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| Lava Creature Reference |
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| Lava Reference (The image on the right was used to provide texture on the lava) |
Looking at
the reference, most lava creatures either have a very dark colour or are almost
entirely red. These create two very different effects for the character, either
giving the impression of the rocks containing the molten mass within or the
creature being a living inferno that is flaring out wildly. The former would
make more sense for my design, as the earlier designs are very thick set. I
also liked the idea of giving my creature a handheld weapon(As seen on the
upper right of the reference) or some other means of controlling/channelling
it's powers.
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| Horned Variation |
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| Mace-hand + Birdlike Variations |
The three
initial sketches that I did, made me reconsider some of my earlier ideas. These
drawings seemed to skinny and frail to support the rocks and lava that made up
their bodies. Because of this, the muscles of my finished creature would need
to be large enough to give it a degree of weight. I did however like the idea
of spikes and large mounds coming out of its back, as seen in the first drawing,
and the mace hand in the second could be converted into a handheld weapon.
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| Final Design - Guidelines |
This final
design mixes some features seen in my sketches with some of the ideas in the
reference and my older artwork.
The spikes
on its back and the "feathers" on its head were based on the wing
like features on my old lava giant. I also included the technological implants
and cyborg limbs, to make it seem like this creature was being modified or
controlled, with the machinery drawing power from its lava to provide it with
attacks and abilities.
I also
decided to include the flame vents on the back, which while still giving the overall
design a very strong, stable impression, also creates the aforementioned
released energy image.
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| Lineart |
For the
lineart, I used a mixture of black lines
and coloured lines, to provide a border for any glowing parts of the design.
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| Colours |
Again
using my older designs as reference, I decided to use greyish blues, rather
than just simple grey colours and using grimier grey colours for the mechanical
parts. This creatures a clearer separation of machinery, organic parts and rock
armour, as well as being a complimentary colour to the lava's glowing orange,
thus making it stand out even more. Also, I decided to make the lava, in the
creatures stomach the brightest point, to draw the viewers eye inwards.
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| Colours after texture was added |
I then
layered a lava texture from my reference over the largest parts where there
lava was revealed. Personally, I don't think this did much or anything to
improve the way the lava looked other than create slightly more colour
variation.
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| Shadows (Step 1) |
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| Shadows (Step 2) |
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| Highlights |
I then
added shadows and highlights, using darker shadows than normal to make the lava
seem brighter.
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| Lightning and Fire effects |
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| Coloured highlights |
The
effects for the fire and electricity at this stage were done using the inner glow
and the outer glow, respectively. After that, I added highlight of block colour
around these luminous points, as well as the lava, to again, make them seem
brighter. Finally to complete this, I added a dark background.
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| Final Piece (Pyronic Gigas) |
