Jason_Pichon- Enemies

Hey Guys,

Here is my first pass of a possible enemy. The idea was to play with some shapes, and shake the dust off. I don't know that this guy will make it much further. This was more of a getting in the mood piece. Next I will most likely explore some silhouettes to try and find what I think my shape language will be. Then just do pages of creatures and narrow them down from that lot.

Once I know what my "fully formed" creatures look like, I can translate that to my stages of possessed human creatures.

I like how sad this monster looks in the face.  I think because of the expression he's wearing and the blunted nature of all his protrusions, you could take this creature either way in terms of being evil or good.  To the extent this kind of thing matters to you, those mandible things that extend out beyond his face would negate the danger posed by his big predator teeth by preventing them from actually reaching his prey.  When those appear in nature, they are typically articulated on scavengers like crabs (who use them as miniature hands to scoop tiny bites into their mouths) or they are tipped with structures that inject venom like spiders (who then drink the liquified internals of the prey and have no teeth).  They would also make excellent handholds for a hero character desperately trying to keep those teeth off of his/her neck though, which would be a cool visual opportunity.

Hey Max,

Thank you for the feedback. Those are meant to be tusks, not insect or crab like mandibles. Although I can see how they might look that way. I showed it to Chris, he got tusks not mandibles. But he did call out the something that you pointed out, and universally has been noticed. He appears to be benevolent Vs malevolent.

Although I wasn't planning on going further with this piece, in the interest of this project I think I will do another pass on him, and hit those notes.

The reason I don't get tusks from them is because tusks are just elongated teeth that actually issue from inside the mouth. The way you've got those meeting the neck looks more like a horn or mandible to me. They appear to be covered with the same type of skin material as the rest of the body, which is something I'd expect from a mandible or antler, plus they look articulated at the base because of how it gets darker there like the stretchy skin reptiles get around their mouths. The orientation of those tusks is also defensive. If you look at carnivorous creatures with tusks (there aren't many) like a Walrus or Sabertooth Cat, they are always arranged in such a way that they keep prey from escaping the jaws. Herbivores like Elephants or some prehistoric mega fauna have them pointing forward to aid in defensive behavior or for digging up roots.

Some tusks:



some mandibles:

Thanks for the follow up.

"The reason I don't get tusks from them is because tusks are just elongated teeth that actually issue from inside the mouth"  True, a tusk by definition is an elongated tooth, however they do not always issue directly from inside the mouth which is the case with the narwhal  
Or the prehistoric four tusked elephant

So I do think I have some leeway there. However I agree that these could probably be more functionally like horns that wrap around, perhaps from the back of the head. But since I think I will stick with them coming from below the zygomatic arch, I think I'll stick with tusk.

since I have decided to resolve this character further, my fiction for the tusks would be for defense and goring. Much like a bull, or hippo. I don't think herbivore or carnivore is really an issue. Gorillas are herbivores. Some in captivity have been conditioned to eat meat, but naturally that is very, very rare, and gorillas have massive canines, much like a predatory animal.

I'll go with my creature being an omnivore, like a bear.

Also I'm not worried about the direction of tusk. I don't think walrus and saber tooth, Vs elephant really impacts my creature. In fact a Saber tooth's used there teeth for tearing soft tissue, rather than for holding on to prey. from an article about Smilodon.

"The shape of the cats' teeth also supports the theory that they ripped through the throats or abdomens of their prey, leading to death through loss of blood. Because of the variations in thickness, the cats' saber teeth were stronger from front to back than side to side. This meant that their teeth easily could have been broken while trying to subdue struggling prey. However, there aren't many broken saber teeth in the fossil record, it's likely that the cats killed through slashing and stabbing rather than holding on to struggling prey." I can link you to the article if you're interested.

As far as the material being the same, I think that is a failure on my part to have an image that is further along, so there isn't enough information in this gray scale image to really discern a material change. Although I felt it was approaching more bone like, rather than skin. That just means it needs to be resolved further.

In terms of them feeling like an articulated mandible, I wonder if it isn't because it feels as if there is a knuckle or joint  at the top break. Maybe re-configuring the structure there will help to clarify that area more.

Hopefully the next pass will resolve these things.

Thanks for the continued posting!!

Definitely take all that commentary with a grain of salt, I just wanted to explain what it was about that visual that wasn't saying "aggressive predator" to me. Looking into an actual skull of a 4 tusked elephant, they are super specialized. Very cool looking animal, I wonder what it's lip situation actually was.

Absolutely, and just to be clear, a value everything you have said, salt pepper and all.

I was also reminded of ceratopsian dinosaur skulls looking at the crest your guy has:

those are sweet, I'll have to look at more of those. I plan on adding some Alphonse Mucha, Art Nouveau inspiration. I am thinking beautifully evil, something like that. I may do some studies of those skulls but with the "AN" influence, to get a feel for the look.

So, in the last 30 minutes or so of lunch, I started to address some of the feedback. Primarily getting a more malevolent vibe.

This is just a start, hopefully I'll something more to shoe you guys after the weekend!

The new eyes and teeth make a big difference!

So I'm going to call this guy done. Especially since he was just meant to be an exploratory drawing. But hopefully seeing the process may have been helpful for someone. I'm glad I went through it. Now I'm off to work on my hero character. Just to step away from the creatures a bit, work on some contrasting imagery, and come back to the enemies with a fresh eye.

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and with some goo

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The goo makes all the difference, very menacing. Is that cow-skull looking wound/brand going to be a hallmark you carry through all your possessed enemies? It's a cool detail either way.

Just thought I would add this scale reference, since I had the Hero chick. Also Max, yeah the exposed nasal cavity sort of area, I will have that across all of the demon creatures. Some more so than others.

I could be reading them wrong, but I love the 'maggots' coming out of the chest cavity. Those would look great wriggling around.

They weren't intended to be maggots, but it could be cool if the creatures, or some of them had maggot, leach or insect like creatures constantly dripping from their flesh. I may have to use that on some sort of Boss like creature.

So here are more enemy explorations. These are still WIPs, at the moment. They lack the final pass, polish, armor/gear and texture etc. I am not really happy with anything at this point. Although it has still been fun!

I still feel like I'm figuring out what it is I'm looking for.



Here are a few more. I'll show the stages because a couple of people said they would like to see them. I saved a JPG every hour.

rough silhouettes, which took just a few minutes, using three different approaches.



the save at hour 1



the save at hour 2



the save at hour 3



This time frame also included reference gathering, of which there was a lot. I spent a lot of time looking at deformations of the body and face, and wounded soldiers of WWI, and early cosmetic surgery.

I really need to settle on something and run with it, because time is passing quickly!!

A larger version, for those interested.

https://2img.net/h/i1346.photobucket.com/albums/p692/JBQP/EnemyCreature_Prog_4_zpsd8fe8f46.jpg~original

So I think one of the things that may be contributing to you not finding the look you're shooting for is that none of these enemies really feel like possessed regular folks to me the way you were describing in your pitch.  I think they're all really cool, but it might be helpful to take an interesting (but mundane) silhouette of a person and then morph it into a demon.  So if you have a Jay Leno-like face, maybe his chin stretches out into a huge chin horn-stuff like that.

I really like the obese one after the addition of the second arms, the pose implies there is a person in there suffocating under the fat rolls flailing around trying to get out.

The Left 4 Dead series takes that approach of having average folk who've undergone rapid bodily changes/mutations.

The tank also look likes someone suffocating, but under muscle not fat rolls.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101024005016/left4dead/images/7/7c/Specials_s.jpg

I think it's awesome that his head resembles a Rorschach test. Pretty menacing! (referring to the creature on your avatar).

The changes in the face really straighten out any confusion that the creature was a demon, not just a sad, misunderstood creature. I also agree with Max about the goo.

That would probably make me want to throw up. Which is cool to react that way lol, but wouldn't want to see this guy in person. Really like the goo.

hey everyone, sorry for the late reply, and thank you for the feedback.

Max: these aren't the human mutations. I probably should have clarified. These creatures fall under the base demon/creature umbrella. Once I have to figured out what the base creatures look like I can figure out what the human/creature mutations look like. But when I do move on to the human mutation I would start with a base human and "mutate" it from there. Not too sure that I'll be able to get all of it done by the deadline. But I'll give it the old college try!

Jose: The L4D characters are a good jumping off point, I will probably be somewhere between that and the Necromorphs from Dead Space.

Alex: Thanks man.

Jaclyn: Thank you.

Ashlee: Thank you, throwing up is good.

So here is some additional progress, really just on the center guy. I'm starting to feel like I'm getting close, but maybe that's because there is a week to the deadline and I have a ton left to do on this stuff. I may have to bail on doing an environment piece for this.

I'm also starting to explore the presentation side too.





I plan to do a few more heads, complete the costuming and variations if any, go to color on some with variations (again if any), and try to get to my human/demon mutations (maybe) and try to get it all in by the deadline.