Creature Concept Challenge!

So before  I get started with this blog post, I'm happy to say that I was recently appointed Editor and one of the Animation Leads on our short film, Celestial! This was very exciting news for me, as these were the two positions I wanted the most. On top of that I also managed to get a job as a Student Representative for Adobe! So expect some great things coming soon!

Ok now back to your previously scheduled blogpost! So the other day in class, as I was waiting for the new scenes to be uploaded for me to edit, my friend Ward was working on UVing one of our models. UVing is basically where you take your 3D model and unfold it so you can paint the textures on it. I happened to look over at his computer and saw that one of his UVs looked like it could be some sort of creature. I decided that it would be a fun idea to try and come up with a creature concept based off of it. I've wanted to do creature concepts ever since I read "The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide".

Heres what the UVs looked like:

To me it kind of looked like it could be some sort of fish. I had recently watched an episode of the show Face Off where they had to come up with an underground creature design, so I decided to make this fish something from the bottom of the ocean. The large part at the front reminded me of the Angler Fish from Finding Nemo. In addition to that, the body reminded me of a Shark, and the head of a Beluga Whale. With that in mind I began to paint! Now normally when I paint, I sketch out a drawing first, and then paint over. However, after sitting next to Ward the past few weeks, I was inspired to do a piece where I just painted, no sketching whatsoever. Ward is a KILLER digital painter (and our texture lead!) so do yourself a favor and check out his work here!

The first thing I did was pick my palette. I decided to go with a dark red for the body with some oranges as well. I also chose to use a charcoal color, but decided to not use it in the end. From there all that was left was to paint. It took me a few good tries before I finally found myself painting something I liked. I did all of the painting on a single layer, with the only exceptions being the scales and the glowing veins. I really enjoyed this concept and plan on doing more like it soon!

As always enjoy!

~Josh