Quick amalgamation of preferred design ideas. I will pick a fitting creature for each artist's design process (for instance an artist whose process uses multiple headshots would require a creature design with more potential for an interesting face shape).
Creature Design #1
Overview
My first choice was the three-legged crow design I had been toying with, seen on the bottom of the above image. My initial sketches suggested it was some sort of boss, possibly blind, and that villagers sacrificed prisoners to it, presumably for good fortune. I had a loose idea of it being based on Yatagarasu, a crow creature I knew was from Japanese mythology, but I didn't know any specifics.
The artist whose design process I wanted to begin my studies with was Feng Zhu, founder of FZD School of Design. He has a series of videos on YouTube, typically an hour or more, about various topics, including creature design.
Research
For this design I used Feng Zhu's video "Design Cinema - EP 62 - Real-Time Creature Design", in which he drew three Men In Black style alien creatures, and then tidied up the lineart on the same layer. Also, he used a shade of red to draw in, instead of the typical grey/black. Another I used as guidance was "Design Cinema - EP 85 - Mythological Creatures", which features the idea of drawing for a client, and creating three initial versions that are distinct from each other - one entirely based on the client's brief, one filled with your own ideas and interpretations, and a happy medium in-between. He also explained that it's best to work with notes and images on the page as reference, to keep your mind grounded in what you're trying to achieve, and to research into creature designs to get the best understanding. This is why I chose Feng Zhu as the artist whose techniques I wanted to explore for this creature, as I knew I would have plenty to research on it.
Thus, my research on Yatagarasu and three-legged crows was fairly extensive:
Wikipedia - "three-legged crows"
- For a general overview of three-legged crows in mythology.
- Yatagarasu ("eight-span crow") is the Japanese version, a giant jungle crow/raven embodying divine intervention and guidance. Within rituals to him is the idea of purification by fire.
- Sanzuwu ("three-legged bird"), is the Chinese version, though the names Yangwu or Jinwu ("sun/golden crow") are used for the ten crows that pulled the carriage of the sun god across the sky. They were red in colour and were blindfolded to stop them being tempted to land and eat a forbidden grass.
- Samjok-o, the Korean version, was a symbol of the sun and of power, chosen over the dragon and the phoenix.
The Legend of Yatagarasu, the three-legged crow and its possible origins
- More in-depth about Yatagarasu and the myths it appears in.
- The European tales all have black crows, linked with death, war or the underworld, whilst the Eastern myths tend to change the crow to red or yellow to better link it with the sun.
- Cherokee Indians told of the Raven Mocker, an androgynous, withered old creature that robs the dying of their life, and flies in a fiery shape, arms outstretched like wings, with sparks trailing behind and the rushing noise of a strong wind. His call is like the sound of a diving raven, an invisible force that frightens and tortures the dying.
- Northwest Indians spoke of a raven who stole fire and gave it to Earth - once the raven was white, but its feathers were stained by smoke.
- Australian Aborigines had a raven that stole fire from seven sisters, failed, and was charred in the attempt.
- Odin owned Huginn and Muninn, ravens that sought hanged men and slain bodies - sometimes they were considered valkyries in raven form.
- In Ancient Greece, ravens and crows were messengers of the sun gods, Helios and Apollo.
- In Irish myth, the Morrigan often took raven/crow form to fly over battlefields and armies, taken as an omen of impending bloodshed and fortune.
- Typically ravens were considered one of the oldest and wisest of animals.
- Three-legged, asymmetrical animals are highly unusual in mythology. Typically they feature two front legs and one back leg, or three legs in a row. It's much rarer to have one with one front leg.
- The Scandinavian helhest ("ghost horse") has one front leg and two back legs. It is blind, a harbinger of death, and leads people into the hereafter. It is a psychopomp, a guider of souls to the afterlife. Sleipnir (an eight-legged horse from Norse mythology) was similar, and could descend to infernal regions. (Potentially used for the warhorse planned later?)
- Yatagarasu is often equated with Karasu-Tengu ("crow tengu"), which is a giant crow-like demon. Karasu-Tengu is also similar to Garuda, a winged Buddhist creature.
- Tengu are identified by a bird's head and beak (karasu tengu), or a human physique with wings and a long nose (konoha/yamabushi tengu).
- Tengu was taken from the Chinese word Tian-Gou ("celestial dog"), which resembles a black dog/meteor, thought to eat the sun during an eclipse.
Process
Feng Zhu's videos said that writing notes about what you want to design, and collecting found images around the topic, all help to keep your drawings in the correct frame of mind without drifting too far.
[All images are from Google Image searches aside from the bottom-most sketch, which is mine.]
To get a sense of what could be possible, I drew a few crows/ravens, using references for proportions and typical features.
Feng Zhu drew in red in my chosen video to follow. It was an interesting change from the previous grey/black I would normally use, and helped to avoid figuring out shadows instead of just defining the shape.
Left - two legs forward, one leg at the back. Hunched. Looked too reminiscent of a gryphon.
Right - three legs aligned. Cawing. Too stilted.
Blindfolded crows. One leg slightly forward. Hunch less exaggerated. Still seemed too unnatural.
Left - different pose of the previous two, experimenting with features.
Right - rough concept of a potential opening cutscene with this boss. Player walks into the arena with a sole tree in the centre, seemingly full of leaves. Leaves are crows, drop to the floor in a cacophony of noise, branches revealed to be bony, broken wings of giant crow, which pulls itself to its feet to begin the fight. This idea was discarded because the difference between feathers and bones felt too off, and didn't seem like it would gel into a good design.
Chosen pose/design. Blindfolded, hunched, feet planted apart for stability. Continuing with Feng Zhu's process, I tidied the line-art on the same layer rather than fading it and drawing it again on a new layer. It was much faster and gave more detail (i.e. the idea of feathers) than I am used to with line-art.
Final colours. Already knew it would be red, to avoid looking like the typical black Bloodborne crow. Potentially it rises from a lake of blood. Keeping with the theme of fire found within my research on Yatagarasu, the boss would hit a new phase at a certain amount of health left, and burn off the bandages to become more threatening, and then at another subsequent phase, it would set on fire. Probably 50% and then 30% health.
Top - moodboard/references. Used in the second image.
Left - first concept for the fire Yatagarasu.
Right - final design, using references of bird wings damaged in forest fires, and embers. The pose is more hunched, with raising wings, to make the bird seem more upset and threatening. I couldn't make the design work the way I wanted, but feathers with too much fire would burn entirely, and a fiery skeleton felt too otherworldly and unfitting. For a first attempt at smoldering fires I'm fairly pleased with the result.
Reflection
- Feng Zhu's design process is extremely useful and was a good exercise
- Reference images and notes on the drawing page is something I try to do, but now I will definitely keep it up as it keeps your mind grounded whilst offering inspiration
- Not drawing over the line-art neater made for a faster workflow
- Research prior to the design helps to develop ideas and inspiration, often from unexpected places
- Keeping the 'client brief' (or the main concept) in mind for one idea, and then moving through into an idea based on your own thoughts (i.e. the typical red Yatagarasu, and then the fiery one) means that ideas don't get too out of hand, and also push the initial concept forward
- The art I created using this process was more researched than I would have done otherwise
- Line-art was looser and it felt much more acceptable to change elements of it on a whim than it would had I drawn a black, neat line-art over the top
- Didn't entirely uphold the idea of 'client version, midground, own version', but I did keep separate ideas in mind, and explore them (i.e. the tree-branch/bone wings)
- All in all, Feng Zhu's design process is definitely useful to take elements of, and the fact he has a series of design video tutorials ("Design Cinema" on YouTube) means that his tips are open to any caliber of artist
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