[MikeCorriero]

Welcome to the Creature Planets weekly activity! As you can see, there are 12 spots (12 weeks) on the banner to showcase a thumbnail for the first 12 winners. There will be a winners gallery showcase thread as well to accompany the first 12 weeks at their full scale and the many weekly winners to come there after. After a certain amount of weeks (to be determined) the activity banner winner's will reset to showcase a new set of 12 winner's. Perhaps at the start of the new year or sooner.
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Topic #05 :: Feb. 26th 2010
Topic: Dazzling Prancer open to interpretation.
Category: Habitat - Environment
Explanation of category: Show your creature interacting in its natural environment. It's just as important for us to see a unique and interesting environment as it is to capture our interest with the design of the creature.

Deadline: Thursday March. 11th 2010 - 11p.m. [EST]
Topic Guidelines + Rules: It's equally important that we understand the purposes of development and design behind a creature, based on its natural environment and how it interacts with that environment on a daily basis. The habitat a creature lives in will affect parts of that creatures biology and anatomical make up. It may affect things such as the length of its fur coat or lack of fur, as well as the length of its neck, its eye sight, nails, structure of its legs etc. Think of its diet and the flora and fauna it may feed on, as well as where it sleeps, whether it's a nocturnal animal, a predator or prey etc.

Relevant links & info: Daz·zling - 1: eye-popping, fulgurant, fulgurous, blazing, blinding
2:To amaze, overwhelm, or bewilder with spectacular display

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General Activity Info: Only need to read this once.
Creature Planets is a Weekly Activity on CGHUB, covering creature design, creature illustration and creature creation of all related genres and entertainment industry venues. Though there are no obligations of any kind, I'd like to encourage participants to post thumbnails, sketches, work in progress images and final images as they move along with their entries. Please don't keep everything secret, working on your image in private only to post it at the very last hour as a surprise. The point of sharing sketches and work in progress material is so everyone can learn from each other, receive crits, compliments and improve their skills in a classroom/workshop like environment. There are no teachers and no students per say, but try to offer help to others when possible. Please be open to receiving crits, and paint-overs or mock ups of your work, as we are all here to participate, have fun, learn, grow and enjoy what each week has to offer.
Although there will ultimately be a winner at the end of the week, this isn't about competition, who's better, popularity or anything of the kind. The real reward here should be your own improvement and your own goals. Let this be more about sharing, learning, improving and building your knowledge and portfolio in the area of creature design with those who share the same interest. This activity is open to everyone, including new and old members, amateurs and working professionals alike.

Posting Info: Final Images + Voting Info Only need to read this once.
Please post all images using CGHUB's attachment manager, and keep images at a reasonable size IE; 1000-1200 pixels in width or height. Images posted smaller or slightly larger are fine, just don't get out of control. If you need help posting using the attachment manager, send me a PM or ask someone else in this thread publicly and you'll be helped. Feel free to provide a name for your creature and a bit of background information. It's not necessary, but the option to explain things further in text form is available, just don't write a book on it. A New thread for all Final images will be created. ONLY 1 image can be presented as your Final. The main reason for using CGHUB to host the image is so there are no dead links, especially when images are posted in the Finals thread for voting.

[remingt0n]

Awesome !

I already have a ton of ideas buzzing in my head, I'll give it a shot !

Good luck to everyone !

-R

[dman3d]

This sound like another fun one

[Steve_Somers]

"Fulgurant" that's a cool word. I've been saturating my brain with BBC nature specials and I picked up some more field guides to animals, so hopefully some of that is sinking in my noggin. Looking forward to seeeing what you all come up with!

[Brynn_Metheney]

This sounds great. Have some ideas floating around. Hope I can find the time...

[dman3d]

Lessons learned from the first two, well at least one that stuck, spend a few minutes (at least) actually designing and thinking it through. Then do it again, then it might be ok to start.
when I read the challenge the first thing that came to mind is tip-toe, hing leg movement, hoping about perhaps. That led to these two idea of a tall dainty creature and then the inspiration of birds of paradise. They are the most amazing birds and aside from the plumage their mating dances came to mind. Its easy to imagine some alien like bird of paradise with an elaborate mating dance or a flightless variety that might prance around a forest floor. So I have some idea but need to figure out how to suggest that movement in the piece. A real challenge for me for sure, hope I can come up with something. Not to mention the environment, Im already having tons of fun just thinking it through and the delight of exploring these hidden places.

[monstertree]

dman3d - I thought of birds of paradise too! It'd be cool to see an illustration of your creature performing a dance

Super quick sketch. Did a load of thumbs and did a little refining on the one I liked best. My idea so far is that the creature lives in an environment that has high UV, like it's lit by a blacklight - so it's markings have evolved to glow in the light. More designs to come

[Brynn_Metheney]

Very cool idea so far you two Bird of Paradise are a great resource!

I'm experimenting with male rivalry too... This species (name unknown at this point) lives in wetlands. Males will pair off and run side by side trying to out perform the other by prancing about on the water with their large webbed feet. They don't get very far but its quite a spectacle. This shows females how agile and swift they are - making the winner the more suitable father.

Anyway I'll show the description better once I decide on a design I like....



EDIT**

this is where I am for the night...

[remingt0n]

Oh wow Brynn, these sketches are amazing !

[Ludwin]

cool sketches brynn, especially the lower one!

[Brynn_Metheney]

Thanks you two Here is where I'm at with the drawing for right now:



not too much of a difference but I raised the head on the male to the right and lengthened the canvas a bit more.

[dman3d]

Looking sweet Brynn.

I hope to get back to sketching as soon as I can, pesky job interfering and I just realised I dont have any idea how
to paint feathers. hmmmm I had another idea for an elephant like critter too, might poke at that.

@monstertree - that little guy is cool

-d

--update--
Well pretty much getting pwn3d but here is something

[Volkertron]

Hey all,

I'm still pretty new here, so I thought I would hop into one of these creature creation jams.

Here are some sketches I did on lunch today trying some different ideas. Any thoughts you guys have on them would be great to hear.

thanks!

-Volkertron

[Brynn_Metheney]

@ dman3d - Thanks. I really like your sketches so far! Perhaps you could change some proportions in the faces to make them less "bird" Maybe playing with beak shape (relating to what they might eat) could help. Even looking through prehistoric birds could be interesting too.

@ Volkertron - I love these! I'm attracted to the top right and lower left myself. I'm interested to see where you take these

EDIT**

This is where I'm stopping for the night... I'm really wanting to keep that "drawn look" through the color. I'm finding it hard to do so...

[CrowCandy]

Hey everyone! Time and final projects allowing, I'd like to give this round a shot as well!

I may not be able to start until this weekend, but until then, here is some food for thought regarding the topic:

Prance:
verb,pranced, pranc·ing, noun
–verb (used without object)
1.
to spring from the hind legs; to move by springing, as a horse.
2.
to ride on a horse doing this.
3.
to ride gaily, proudly, or insolently.
4.
to move or go in an elated manner; cavort.
5.
to dance or move in a lively or spirited manner; caper.
–verb (used with object)
6.
to cause to prance.
–noun
7.
the act of prancing; a prancing movement.

Origin:
1325–75; ME prauncen, praunsen (v.); akin to Dan (dial.) pransk spirited, said of a horse

—Related forms
prancer, noun
pranc·ing·ly, adverb

—Synonyms
4, 5. gambol, leap, skip, romp, frolic, frisk.

It to me looks like Prancing necessarily involves legs!

It is always nice to know the boundaries of a topic and establish where the wiggle room is before beginning a design.

Sadly, the first 50 things to come up in google image search when I typed in "prancer" were slutty girls... -_-() (and that was with safe search on!!)

In any case, it looks like the usual imagery involved with prancing involves long legged animals like horses and deer. Whether you go along with or shatter this typical view is entirely up to you!

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

[CrowCandy]

Brynn_Metheney: I love where you are going with this! The webbed feet are a great environment-based adaptation. I can't wait to see more progress shots!

Volkertron: Great sketches! I especially love the idea of the fish-type body with legs XD

Dman3d: I was hoping at least one person would go with a bird-type creature! Here is a very helpful basic tutorial on wings and feathers of birds... It explains the basics based on anatomical data rather than someone's style which is always more helpful, I think ;P .

[Brynn_Metheney]

Sadly, the first 50 things to come up in google image search when I typed in "prancer" were slutty girls...

Haha, yeah I think she might be a pop star or something...I got her too.

[Scribblehead]

CrowCandy - As its open to interpretation, it's not exactly meant to be taken literally i think....good food for thought though.

[dman3d]

Brynn - yeah still sort stuck, I started out with that idea for the birds and fizzled so I am looking around for inspiration, bird but not too bird.

Crowcandy - thanks for the DA link, will drop that into my collection for review

Volkertron - those are all very cool

--update---
yup, nothing, got nothing at all. might just bail on this one.

[Volkertron]

Sup folks,

glad to hear the responses on the designs. I'm going for something that still prances, but underwater. I like the idea that it's possible to gallop underwater. Probably cause I have all those frustrating dreams about running in water...

but enough about that. Here is where I am at with this. Feedback is well appreciated.

Brynn - I dug the top right one too, but it didn't feel prancy enough for me. If I could offer some feedback on your piece. I like the design of your creature, but I think in the illustration could use some work. Perhaps you could enlarge the foreground prancers, it seems like things are competing for priority because the foreground guys and background guys take up a similar amount of space. Just a thought. I like the webbed feet thing.

-Volkertron