Fictitious anatomy- any tips?

BakedCookie

Hia, I thought I'd take a break from human modelling and play around with something more forgiving, fantasy creature sculpting. I've looked up some animal references and had a go, but soon realized that mixing different species together isn't all that easy. And looking at other artists work, I always see how they manage to make intricate designs that all fit together nonetheless. Real life references always seem to be much more subtle though (or is it just the fur and fat that's covering up all the muscle structures?). So I was wondering what's your approach to fictitious anatomy, how do you make it work? This is my progress so far, the areas that haven't seen much love are the lower parts of the limbs and parts of the head. But what do you think of the overall anatomy, does anything stick out like a sore thumb?

Kurt Russell Fan Club

It does stick out, mostly because it looks like you've taken "human" as the base for a lot of your decisions. There are human traps, deltoids, collar bone, biceps, forearms, quads, etc. It's basically like a human but on all-fours.

Check out dog anatomy and look for the parallels. This thing looks like it'd work with 80% dog anatomy and then add in like some bear or rat or bison or something.

http://www.google.com/search?q=dog+anatomy+muscle&tbm=isch
http://www.google.com/search?q=bear+anatomy+muscle&tbm=isch
http://www.google.com/search?q=bison+anatomy+muscle&tbm=isch

Form follows function, so what does this thing do? It's a quadruped, but does it need to walk on the hind legs at all? Are the large forelegs big because it uses them a lot? Because it charges? Define its behaviour, then pick animals who have that behaviour as references.

BakedCookie

Well, the thing (don't think I'll ever name it) is just my take on a caragor:



And while the caragor has some sort of scale armor I wanted my thing to wear steel armor and have more defined musculature (it has to wear heavy armor after all).
I want the head to be straight silent hill material, with the cheeks ripped and teeth that are way too big to properly close its jaw; so there's little function there, just aesthetic.

Noren

Fictitious anatomy is just like real anatomy, as it does have to look functional, so in order to be able to make up anatomy on the fly you should study the real thing. I also agree that you should be looking at quadrupeds, but The biggest problem in my eyes right now is that the muscles are wobbly, look like pasted on top of the skin and not functional. For example the lower "biceps" sinew doesn't seem to know exactly if it's in fact a sinew or a vein and it's bend around the inner elbow instead of connecting to anywhere it looks effective. It can't apply any force. The deltoid is very defined but the parts themselves look more like dents carved into the surface and the connection to the upper arm does not look like sinew but like the muscles are fading out and get weaker and weaker. The muscles on the upper back again look like pasted on or carved into the surface and they don't look functional. I think it would be easier to go for a less defined look but if you want definition, keep in mind that does not mean you need to have deep groves and a lot of curvature everywhere. Shallower hills and shallower but sharper (depending on how much fat is ovelayed) valleys will give you a more muscle packed look in many cases. (As opposed to the relatively empty valleys you have now. Flat valleys should only be where sinews and bones are, in most cases.)

ncav

Hey dude I think you are rushing in to defining muscles, try staying low and play with forms and the way they interlock / affect silhouette before advancing. Maybe a hyena would make a good reference? They have that sort of front heavy build.