[Ogi-G]

Welcome to the Creature Forge, the CGHUB 2D challenge of illustrating creatures of all shapes and sizes!

Creature #53 :: Vivamus Venenatis

Deadline: March 17th 2012 11:59pm [PST]

Challenge Overview:
This predatory creature is entirely made up of plants, to the point that it is hard to guess what its actual anatomy is, making it very easy to blend into its environment as it waits for its prey to come within striking distance.

Your task:
1. Draw an image with the creature hiding in the environment, completely camouflaged. The harder it is to notice the better.

2. Second image should be the creature against a solid white background so we can see its actual anatomy clearly (could be the above image with the background erased)

Restrictions:
Steer away from humanoid and quadrupedal forms. We want to explore different anatomy. Try to go for a very creative lifeform.

Please submit these two images (plus your voting thumbnail) in the finals thread.

Let's keep up the awesome work!!

Good Luck and be sure to post any questions or comments in this thread.


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“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.” --Mike Corriero

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If you have questions concerning Creature Forge Rules and Information please refer to this thread.

Also, check out the rules on Plagiarism - HERE -

[natzuurjk]

Cool topic, been working really fast. WIP stuff:

[Ogi-G]

natzuurjk - great start! love the whole feel of the forest! creature is great too, i would just recommend to camouflage the face a bit more, cuz it stands out in the scene, and the little critters might see through the bluff

[maxdav]

Whew, caught a challenge in the earlier stages this time ^^

Feedback;

@natzuurjk: Nice one! Cool use of colour with the camouflage. My suggestion would be to make it look more threatening, like a predator. Though, maybe that's the ruse? Either way, it just seems naturally placid, sort of like a green Buddha.

I've just done some rough designs myself. I have my own favourites/ones I'd ditch, but feedback will be what swings this for me

[Lowestofthekeys]

This challenge should be exciting, I love the creature contests

[chipsandsalsa]

Like some kind of land octopus, an uprooted-tree-disguised-land-octopus...

[driftingwood]

Gonna try my hand at this, just wanted to throw a helpful website out there http://www.arkive.org/ has tons of pictures of every species of plant, animal, ecosystem you name its great for references.

[Ogi-G]

Originally Posted by driftingwood

Gonna try my hand at this, just wanted to throw a helpful website out there http://www.arkive.org/ has tons of pictures of every species of plant, animal, ecosystem you name its great for references.

Thanks a lot for the great link!


Also a very creative start for this round, keep it up everyone!

[zanga_kid]

Itīs my first time entering one of these. Here are some ideas

[davidpereira]

Hi everyone. My first post here. I hope learn a lot .

[mayanew]

Here are my ideas for the challenge. I have always liked plants.
Anyway, thinking a cross between a crocodile with tentacle type roots and a pretty flower to lure in the Prey.

[maxdav]

I went for design B - seemed to me that it answered the brief better than the others.

Using it's 'feet' to detect the movement of prey, the Vivamus strikes down in a heartbeat, impaling the victim on it's frontal spike. It then drains all fluids from the unfortunate creature, before letting the remaining husk slip off into the undergrowth.





Edit; these are just drafts - colour paintings inc.

[natzuurjk]

@ Maxdav/Ogi-G: Thanks for the input guys, truly appreciated. He will be more hidden as I move along for sure. I guess the hard part is when you show the creature against a blank background you know what it looks like and what to look for already. But I plan on some more integration into the actual environment. As for the actual look of the creature, it is supposed to be docile looking, however I have changed it to look a bit more sinister. I'll show the mechanism of attack (and lure) in my next update.

Your WIP is coming along great btw maxdav!

Here is my environment:

[monkjudge]

thats a really tight concept man

[natzuurjk]

Here is an update on my creature. In stealth mode (fully hidden) It appears as a plant from afar, while in this mode it's lure (flower on top) releases a sweet smelling neurotoxin into the air which both attracts it's prey and confuses it by putting it in to a state of euphoria. Once the prey has been sufficiently intoxicated the creature goes into attack mode.

In attack mode the creature unhinges it's jaw, releases it's fang like thorns fully and feasts!

Oh I also was wondering if the current background color will be ok for the creature? It says white in the description, however because the values of the enviro are overall dark because of the canopy, the creature doesn't work at all on a white background.