Creatures - My Monsters

[wave of light]

Excellent updates Jim. The final part of the walk/run cycle is by far the best... maybe a little more downward squashing when each foot hits the floor.

This is a cracking thread.

[BillS]

The second and third one are both great. The run cycle though, I think that the upper body should be more bent forward at the hips. It looks a little to upright as it is now.

[Treybor]

Looking better all the time Jim.

[JimCrafton]

more updates, more torso detailing...

[Treybor]

It was big and fast and it ate fred..... Great work Jim.

[JimCrafton]

Thanks guys!

@Treybor: who the hell is fred and did he deserve eating? Honestly, keeping track of what these things eat is a full time job...

Some more updates:

[Starbase1]

Seriously unpleasant! (In a very goodw way...)

[JimCrafton]

Practical question - does this reek too much of the xenomorph? Meurig had mentioned this with the previous model, and I'm trying to be aware of this, while still trying to work in a similar style to Giger's (drawinga lot of inspiration from his bio mechanical landscapes).

[Starbase1]

Originally Posted by JimCrafton

Practical question - does this reek too much of the xenomorph? Meurig had mentioned this with the previous model, and I'm trying to be aware of this, while still trying to work in a similar style to Giger's (drawinga lot of inspiration from his bio mechanical landscapes).

I'm not sure if you can do a Giger like biped monster and NOT have strong similarities...

I like it the way it is - but if you want suggestions, I'd say:

The arms look superficially very human in proportions and shape.

The original film 'alien' was designed for a man in a suit, like many screen monsters - I think the further you get from that in proportions, the more you will distance from the original.

Off the top of my head, you could try:

• Changing the proportions of upper to lower limbs, maybe even add an extra joint.
• Make some parts really thin - a wasp waist?
• Very long spidery limbs could be creepy and offer lots of posing posibilities
• How about even splitting limbs and knee or elbow?

If you want to get seriously weird but credible, check the work of Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, such as this:
http://stevyncolgan.blogspot.se/2008...t-know-it.html

I was lucky enough to meet Jack, and he's a witty imaginative guy - a reproductive biologist, but also Xenobiologist. (He hates the 'Frankensetins Zoo ' aliens, and was the brains behind some of Larry Niven's best aliens.)

[Treybor]

The "man in a suit" idea is so hard to get away from because we are so familiar with it. You could also go with an odd number of apendages, but then you might have to work out a different way to aminate the run and the walk. My art teacher in high school once told me I could only draw fantasy creature in his class if I explain their biology, their anatomy and their habitat. SOOOOOO much of a creatures form is based on their environment.

[JimCrafton]

Another update - more lower torso/abdo detailing

[JimCrafton]

Some renders in Houdini, rigged/posed with messiah.

These were done to see how the current model looks like in different lighting conditions. Aiming for something kind of mysterious and spooky.

[Treybor]

I like the light rig on the third one.

[JimCrafton]

OK, finally got some motivation to get some more done on this thing. Most of the modeling is done, and I spent most of yesterday doing some preliminary texture painting. Tried rendering it today, adding some spooky lighting, basically trying to make it look like everyone's first encounter with their mother-in-law...

This is my first try doing anything with an SSS shader, so that's been interesting to say the least

Any C&C on the texture would be most appreciated!

[JimCrafton]

Some further work on shaders and textures.

[Starbase1]

Excellent, I like the double thumbed hands a lot.

[BillS]

Sorry but that second image just screamed out for this....

[JimCrafton]

Sigh, well I suppose that's a step up from what my wife said. She thought the pose made it look like it was auditioning for a part in a Broadway show!

[JimCrafton]

Originally Posted by Starbase1

Excellent, I like the double thumbed hands a lot.

Thanks, all credit goes to Mr Giger for that, it's a variation on what was done in the original Alien, or at least how it appeared to be done to me.

[JimCrafton]

Couple more "studio" style renders plus texture shots from ZB. Still fiddling with the materials and how to work out SSS. The studio shots are larger than I've normally done, kind of interesting to see the extra detail. Apologies for the larger than normal size.

[JimCrafton]

Decided to finally update this thread, been busy with other stuff and haven't kept this updated. After having problems getting the Messiah based rig to work well with the tubing, I decided to give ti a go in Houdini, and much to my surprise found the rigging tools in Houdini to be alot easier to work with! Here's some shots of the rig in houdini







clay render







A video showing the rig at work

Houdini rig for biomechanical character on Vimeo

Houdini rig for biomechanical character on Vimeo

After doing this I got motivated to redo the texture into something a little more sophisticated

[JimCrafton]

Yet another biomechanical study, this is a different take on the Space Jockey's suit, something like a soldier. As always any C&C would be most appreciated.

First roughed in with dynamesh


a little bit of detailing








more final detailing









wireframe after retopology

[wave of light]

All great updates Jim. Nicely rigged, by the way.

[BillS]

That is a slick looking rig. I wouldn't have thought about H for rigging. I thought it was mostly used for FX work. You hardly hear of it being used for rigging at all.

[bmckain]

That is really cool. Would love to see you turn these into a scifi creature pack or something.

[Treybor]

Very cool Jim. Nice design.

[JimCrafton]

Thanks guys! Here's some look-dev renders with the new textures in Houdini. Any suggestions would be great.

@bills - yeah Houdini is really powerful for rigging. Now that I've built a couple I'm liking it more and more.