Nick Freeman - Enemies

Ok so the basis for my enemy ideas will come from the little back story I built. Creating a small bit of a back story kind of gives me a frame to hang the designs on. So the idea I had for a set of Monsters was that they simply be based on the Seven Deadly Sins. So my goal is to create probably 2 monsters from the 7 and an environment for one. Anyone who might want to jump in and take one of the seven for a monster idea feel totally free. I think it'd be enjoyable to see takes on the monsters and environments.

So I based these 2 loose sketches on Wrath. These are quick first pass sketches and I may need a little help to make these things more "Dark" since I tend to be a very fluffy artist. Or maybe these two just aren't "uncontrolled wrath" enough. Just let me know.

I like the designs so far. I'm confused on the first ones head, I assume that's a spectral wisp coming out of it?
How about the cyclops could have a open mouth in his stomach with super sharp jagged teeth.
He could be grabbing people and shoving them in there and grinding them up. To me that would be a
good visual language of wrath. Make him an unstoppable force, visually. Keep at it!

I think Paul has some interesting ideas. I think these are a good start also.

I Personally would shy away from a cyclops because they already kind of occupy a place in Mythology that doesn't necessarily say wrath to me. I suppose they could though.

I just didn't mentally connect them with the 7 deadly sin idea. Which I love by the way.

They also look like they would fit in very well with Ben Caldwell's Odyssey. Not a bad thing, just an observation.

I prefer the headless guy, because it feels like something a bit different.

Cool, I'll take a pass at this and maybe try and incorporate a different look for the head Jason because I didn't think about the association with old mythology. So I think like the Mouth on the stomach idea can make a cool look and I'll try a different type of head maybe try and fuse these two idea or just breed a new one. but Paul i really love the idea of making it feel like an unstoppable force, which I didn't think about. I mainly just thought about the emotion of the creature and showing that in the build. But trying to apply a certain feeling of force didn't hit me. So I will try and get that in.

Funnily enough, you captured an idea (aside from the face) of an enemy I was thinking about having! Haha! Like the sketches a lot. I would love to see more of what's happening in the face on the one on the left. Kinda hard for me to picture it.

Wrath: (noun)
strong, stern, or fierce anger; deeply resentful indignation; ire.

If you really want that to read as wrath, you might need to take a step back and determine what the platonic elements of "wrath" are and then try to translate that into a physical featureset. Incorporating a larger than normal face may give you the opportunity to show off some angry expressions pretty easily, as opposed to a monster with no face at all. you'd probably also do it in the posture and animations, so you may also want to think of a pose that is a little more extreme since both of those creatures are pretty placid right now. I think those are neat character designs, but I'm not getting too much anger from them.

I agree with Max almost entirely. I definitely think you should push the  idea of wrath. Particulalry because it is key to your idea.

Although I think a larger face to feature an angry expression isn't necessary to convey emotion or thought. In fact I think body language (which Max mentioned in terms of posing), and posing can be just as or more powerful.

The body language is what you typically sort out first in animation, making sure that is clear before diving into facial animation and expression.

Although I think it's worth exploring all ideas, I think the faceless guy, with the smoke pouring out of his head is a more menacing, scary, and unique idea.

To help illustrate.
The famous flour sack from illusion of life


Carpet from Aladin


Some gestures from Will Eisners comics and sequential art

These gestures are just what I was looking for lol. Also, yay wrath, and Cyclops still reminds me of Mike :p Love the headlessness with the spectral wispy stuff... that's unusual.

I'm totally telling Mike! Also Will Eisner's books are pretty awesome. He is a legend.

Just wanted to do a quick sketch of a big headed angry guy. I like the idea of a huge head just to add to the grotesqueness of a character that represents a raw emotion like that.

It's cool to see another persons take on another artists concept. I'm looking forward to us all tackling the same theme, post Substrata. It could be really cool.

It never really occurred to me before, but Carpet from Aladdin basically IS just the flour sack animation test.

Carpet definitely is the sack, but Carpet definitely got way more screen time. Unless of course you stack up every animation test done using the sack, lol.