Creature Design - Ostrad

Overview

A creature based around the idea of it having huge front feet capable of smashing rocks. It underwent a lot of changes during the development, and for this reason it took a lot of time to complete as parts were awkward and didn't reach a viable conclusion until a lot of thought had been put into it. The end design is not where it was originally going but as a creature aiming to be believable it probably works better this way.

Named for ostracods, abyssopelagic fish that glow with bioluminescence and can spit the same as a deterrent to predators. They were the original inspiration behind this creature.

Inspiration

Creatures:

• Bull (particularly the Spanish Bull)
• Spiny Lizard
• Elephant
• Fennec Fox
• Blue Whale

Considered:

• Hermit Crab
• Horseshoe Crab
• Butterflies, moths and caterpillars with eye-spots, i.e. Monarch, Peacock
• Pacific Barreleye
• Narwhal
• Manta Ray
• Abyssopelagic creatures, i.e. Toimopteris, Dragonfish
• Ostracods

Ostracod fish shooting bioluminescence as a predation defence.

Process

This creature took a lot of different turns. It started out being a very basic idea of a crab/bull, but nothing worked so it was quickly discarded. However, the idea of a bull stuck, and it developed over several weeks during various attempts, and ended up being a fairly interesting design.

Initial sketches for a crab/bull. If it led down, its armour was to cover it entirely. The idea of projecting front feet is covered at this stage, which stuck later.

Sketches after R.J. Palmer's first Skillshare video. The bull is clearly explored in the bottom right. Eye-spots and armour are considered.

Took the favourite bull sketch and moved back to the proper design page. Drew a proper bull for practice, and get a sense of its muscles. Big front feet quickly developed as a favourite concept. Back legs took longer to decide on. Eye-spots are considered at a sketch stage, alongside different poses.

The idea here is that the Ostrad has glowing eye-spots along its body, to deter predators, and can spit an airborne version of the ostracod fish's bioluminescence. It didn't set right, as the designs did not fit such a big creature, and often stalled the design process.

Eye-spots are attempted, as is a red flush when the creature overheats (desert/mountain climate). Concepts stalled. Returning, the pose was altered to be more like walking, the previous ones looking unnatural and dipped. Pushed forwards with the bioluminescent idea, using abyssopelagic fish as reference images.

Changing horns. First idea seemed too tentacle-like, almost movable. I expect it was based on a butterfly's proboscis but it didn't suit such a big animal. The looping back idea felt different and usable. Features glowing bioluminescent scales and peacock butterfly colours.

Eyes added to just behind mouth, like a whale. Barreleye-like transparent bubble head tested under the horns, where the bioluminscence to be spat would shift and glow. Felt too spacey. Used the navigator function on Photoshop to see the creature's silhouette as a whole, which helped greatly. Eventually took away the glowing dots and brought it to a simpler, sandy/pinkish desert-dwelling animal colour.

Finding a solution for its head design: the Ostrad smashes rocks with sulphur veins, and generates a carbon disulphide mixture (found naturally in volcanic/marshy areas) to extract sand from sulphur. The sulphur is stored in its neck-pouch, and can be ignited (when spat) by a flick of its whip-tail, to hurt enemies. Sand is stored in its hollow, red horn, and can be blasted out at high speed at will, to blind predators.

Final image. Fitting the creature into the background was difficult.

Design Notes:

• Stores sulphur extracted from smashed rocks in its crop, removing sand from the mixture with a carbon disulphide mixture its body can produce. Can ignite sulphur with its whip-tail. Has been known to melt rocks into a more managable size with carefully placed sulphur
• Stores sand in its headpiece, and can utilise it as a sandscreen to blind predators
• Massive forearms create a huge amount of pressure, can smash through giant boulders with enough determination
• Will try to crush/kneel on enemies if provoked
• Typically peaceful and passive. Very protective of children
• Can get sunburnt, though rarely. Will sit in shade or roll in mud to cool down during heatwaves

Reflection

• Took a very long time to finalise. It got fairly irritating at times, but I had no intention of giving up as it was not too lost, just difficult to figure out.
• Reworking so many aspects of the creature multiple times meant that the original vision was lost. I think I preferred the version that utilised bioluminescence but I don't think it could work on a creature of this intended size and scale.
• Using a background - the final effect is better but the sized version gave more of a sense of scale, and kept all interest on the creature.
• Photoshop crashed multiple times towards the end of this piece; the final image is more pixellated as it was salvaged from a screenshot, and I hadn't wanted to lose the work I'd put into it.
• Using the navigator at the side of the screen is very useful for getting a sense of the whole piece, and definitely helped to keep this creature with a workable silhouette.
• It looks more alien than I wanted. I'm not hugely happy with the result but I came to this end as I couldn't make what I wanted work, so this is really the least objectionable result.