The Beast - Runaway

ChaosWWW

On a distant planet, prospectors have been collecting various resources to bring back to civilization and profit from. One of the most dangerous and profitable resources to capture are the animals. For a while, these operations were going smoothly. However, recently a mishap occurred shipping the latest batch of creatures offworld, and they managed to escape and scatter across the landscape. The creature designated DBF478 is one of the runaways. After fleeing for hours, the creature found a relatively safe spot underground the planet's surface. Although it cannot stay idle for long, it will take advantage of this brief respite.

Latest Update:

ChaosWWW

Original Post

Hey, this is my entry for this contest! There's already so much cool stuff posted, I already feel behind. Super excited to get started, though!

This is the current concepts that I made for the character (design sketch and the lighting/mood of the final comp), as well as the first draft of the backstory. The way I'm interpreting the contest description is a creature that is menacing and dangerous, but also sympathetic.

I'm pretty happy with the direction of the concept, although there are some things I'd like to address. In the profile view, you'll see a human scale in relation to the beast. I'd like something on the pedestal to establish that scale in the final shot, but I'm struggling to figure out what the would be. Also, I want the narrative to be apparent in the image itself, and one of the things I was experimenting with was including a piece of a high-tech restraining device that is destroyed. However, all the feedback I've gotten on it has basically been that it doesn't read well. Right now I've just removed it, but I'm wondering if it's worth bringing it back and redesigning it, possibly making it bigger and being more obvious about what it is in the design. Pretty torn between those two directions.


Comp concept with the restraints.

If you have any feedback on these points, or just feedback in general, please let me know! Thanks!

First Update:

Update. Started sculpting a little bit. Still got quite a bit to go. Especially want to improve the feet/arms a lot.

Revocare

Hey buddy! ;D Liking the sculpt so far. As far as the legs/feet go, I think posing the front feet a bit back would help give it more weight. Right now it appears sort of petrified, bringing the legs back would give it a more attentive stance. Also, twisting the hands outwards would help with a natural stance. For the back legs, the thigh could be simplified and rounded a bit. That roundness comes through in the concept!

ChaosWWW

Thanks for the feedback Revocare! Definitely some good pointers. I tried to integrate them in this latest image, although looking at it now I think I could push it even further.

Here's my latest update. My plan right now is to wrap up sculpting soon and start lowpoly work and doing posing. A very important aspect of this concept is the fur, and I want to start tackling that soon. Once I pose, I plan on going back to the sculpt and adjusting it based on the pose. Anyway, here's the progress so far:

ChaosWWW

Calling the sculpt done for now. Gonna go back to it later for some asymmetry and extra details after I pose it, but for now on to the low poly!

mcgillchris

Looking good! 

ChaosWWW

Thanks Chris!

Not a terribly exciting update, but completed the low poly model. Polycount ended up being what I wanted, because I wanted 3x the base polycount for fur and additional modeling.

Johnny_Wuu

Great anatomy understanding and graceful shape~
Worry about the deadline like me ,  speed up~

ChaosWWW

Thanks Johnny! Yeah, definitely feeling the pressure now

Finished first pass on the posing and lighting. Next up is texturing and fur for the beast.



Comparison to the original concept. The pose is a little different but I still feel like to captures the same spirit. (also the teeth got messed up a bit. Gonna fix that).

ChaosWWW

Texture update. Still got a while to go with all the texturing but since everything at least has some texture on it thought it would be good for an update.

ChaosWWW

New update: Just worked on the pedestal and lighting this time. Optimized the geometry and textures to fit the limits of the contest, and still have quite a bit of wiggle room for additional effects. Getting happier with the general look of everything, but I still have a lot of polishing and texturing to do.

ChaosWWW

Latest update. The extension allowed me to push this back a bit, but now it's time to get ready to finish up! Things are getting close now, there are some things that need some major attention and the rest is just polish.