I had the idea for this creature while in a lecture and sketched out some quick designs in pencil. The general idea is that the larvae is the baby form of a fly like creature.
They are about the same size of a mans arm and sense vibrations through their tongues as well as taste scent of nearby prey.
These larvae spawn from fleshy eggs that when a player comes close to hatch the larvae, there are often caves full of these eggs and will hatch huge numbers of larvae to swarm the player.
Below are a set of references and textures I used for the final painting.
Using a reference of a fire hydrant I created a pixel version in Photoshop by zooming in and drawing shapes pixel by pixel. At times I could copy and paste similar shapes then move them using the transform tool and flipping them to create an exact opposite.
Using the same methods I created two retro robots to place in a already made pixel art scene. To do this I created a new layer above the image and painted pixel by pixel next to Einstein so I could get the correct scale.
Using reference images I used ovals to create a base structure of hands and then added the detail.
I found this worked very well for simple front or side views of hands but for some sketches that needed perspective I need to focus on using cylinders instead.
Observational drawings from the previous two life drawing classes.
5 minute sketches of my own hand in charcoal.
Pencil sketches of my own hand, each sketch timed at 5 minutes and each drawing shows motion step by step.
40 minute self portrait. I felt quite rushed to do this piece and did not take time to stop and realise that I was drawing each facial feature far larger than it meant to be.
2 minute pose sketches of a life model. I need to work on my speed and try to draw legs first since I always seem to run out of time to finish them.
15 minute sketch. I aimed to capture the movement that the life models pose was given by focusing on how weight was being distributed.
Another 15 minute sketch with the same focus as the previous.
Process of my 40 minute sketch.
I start by using ovals to get a base pose to work from.
I then fill in detail around the ovals to make the sketch look like the model.
I began to work on shading but could not add as much as I would have liked in the time frame. My focus for next time is to try and speed up each stage and take more risks by drawing much heavier.
I began by doing a lot of pencil sketches from references to get an idea of what my Insectoid would look like.
Once I was comfortable with the different types of body parts and structures I did several designs side by side with a front view and side view of each along with some ideas for tools and weapons that my particular Insectoid would use.
My chosen design is of a young adult of Insectoid creatures that live in a very harsh desert environment.
These Insectoids live in tribes located high inside craggy canyons where they can use their natural colour of their exoskeleton to camouflage and stay safe from predators.
They are very peaceful creatures and only fight to defend themselves or to hunt. Their four arms make it easy to climb and their legs are extremely powerful enabling them to run at extreme speeds to chase prey and to leap from great heights.
Speed paint in one hour, the focus was on values and not so much on detail.
I am quite pleased with how this turned out but I believe I focused too much on the character and should have given more time to the background.
The video below demonstrates Biped animations with the use of Skin modifiers and Pelt Mapping.
The first clip demonstrates a generic Biped using the automatic walk function and an oversized tongue with the Flex modifier to make it react to the movements of the Biped.
The footsteps show the direction and number of steps the biped will take, these can be moved and rotated.
The second and third clip show a skeleton model we were provided with that was made of separate objects. The goal was to parent each piece to a corresponding part of the biped to give it a natural movement when we animated it.
We had to ensure that the biped was resized first to match the model, this meant that the animation would line up correctly with the skeleton.
Our next task was to use a pre textured model and change the photoshop file to create our own character. Using a series of multiply layers and simple brush tools I changed the colour of the clothes, added torn clothing, blood and a skull effect to the face.
Making use of the biped once again I added a biped to the model using the physique modifier to attach the model to the biped and to change the envelopes so that the model would move naturally with the animated biped.
Following an online tutorial I attached a bone structure to a model of an arm. Using the HI solver I attached the forearm bone to the middle bone so that they would act as a normal arm would when moved. By adding a skin modifier I was able to attach the bones to the model itself and then using a combination of envelopes, vertices and weight tools I made the arm animate as naturally as possible.
Lastly the class was set with the task of Pelt Mapping a model of a frog.
To do this I followed an online tutorial and learned how to use several different mapping tools such as Point to Point seams to draw my own seams on the model, the relax tool to flatten my UVW maps and target weld to sew vertices together to create a smooth wrap around the different body parts of the frog.
