Update

I finished my animation for the Games Development Society, and am very happy with the result. Learning to animate in Photoshop took a while but it's a much more familiar interface than TVPaint, which I had considered using. I definitely want to look into animation more, whether run cycles or some other type of movement, to give a creature design a new edge. My character is simple but that simplicity helps the flow of the movement - I'd like to try something more complex with a creature design.

I also drew seamless backgrounds for two levels, and some obstacles. It was a useful way to test brushes on new environments (one of the levels was a futuristic city, which I have never drawn before) and learn something new, whilst continuing on with sketches for creatures from Bloodborne for my mini-project.

Bloodborne: The Old Hunters DLC

So far, this DLC has fulfilled expectations on some counts that I had picked up on, and completely thrown curve-balls in others. One of the bosses, Ludwig, is not a wolf, a hunter or an unclassified monster - he is some sort of malformed, horse-based design. I am unclear whether it is supposed to allude to him once being a hunter on horseback, or just that he has formed out of a pile of random corpses, but he has a lot of horse imagery, including a long face, blunt teeth, and dialogue that breaks off into mad, braying laughter. He still retains memories of using a great-sword, so it could be that he rode horses to slay beasts. One of the mangled feet in his design is very dog-like, also, so he could have had a pack of hunting dogs with him (if he formed from corpses), or his transformations have been influenced by his memories of hunting. All in all, he's a very grotesque design, but very interesting because of it.

Executioner variant               

A creature design I did not anticipate is a variant of a creature known as an Executioner, a heavyset humanoid that carries an executioner's axe and is unusually mobile for his size. I don't know the official name or lore yet behind the creature's transformations but it has thick tentacles growing from under its face-covering cowl, and is much stronger - one carries a cannon, and another seems to have a huge axe formed from part of a bell, judging by the sound-waves it causes.

One I did expect was hunters with dogs; doberman-like animals that actually attack other enemies, as well as the player, alongside their hunter masters. They're also much stronger than their rabid counterparts, fittingly. Another creature is a new variant of the very first boss faced in the game, the Cleric Beast. This variant is on fire, making him much stronger to face and allows players to fully appreciate his design and move-set.

The inclusion of Ludwig's more unusual, monstrous design has made me more confident in some of the ones I want to start finalising. They no longer feel too outrageous or potentially unfitting, as the DLC has added new parameters to what a design for Bloodborne could entail. I've begun to explore more complex, grotesque designs as a counterpoint to my more tame, original ideas, possibly to be used as a boss.