Catori Silhouettes

Here are some silhouette exercises I've been working on for my creature called the Catori. In my story the Catori are a race a of raptor like creatures who are at war with the Pronaxians, and since they are better evolved to deal with the conditions they are winning and are constant threat to the Pronaxians.

Individually the Catori aren't the brightest of animals with the intelligence of a dog or a cat, however together when they form packs of 5, they acquire a unified consciousness, act as one being of great intelligence.

I started my process with silhouettes focusing on making this creature look fast and menacing, below are a more detailed version of the silhouettes. I tried a variety of different looks, but I'm still not too happy with the look. 

This is a painting I've been working on for the past week, it shows my main character Menewa on his home planet.

For this painting I wanted to see how my characters design would look as well as the colours of his outfit and armour.

I also focused on the environment, The Pronaxian home planet is a cold mars size planet close to the axis of evil, but their planet is very old and is basically evaporating because of its weakened gravity.

The planet also is heated from a volcanic core, explaining the mini volcano you can see on the lower left of frame.

I have begun studying the effects of light and snow through James Gurney colour and light book which was a great help for the rendering of the snow. I wanted to show the snow as having been there for a while, not fresh, as well as melting on the trees.

For the lighting I placed my main light source on the upper left, however lighting this setting was tricky as I have read snow is extremely reflective so I didn't place as much shadow in this piece as I normally would.

Overall I'm happy with the painting and the rendering of my main character, I wanted him to have a less clean futuristic look and make him feel as though he belongs to that environment while looking like an alien from an advanced civilisation.

I wanted him to look more customised than futuristic, I was influenced a lot by the Sioux Indians and I wanted him to be able to blend in for his hunting trip than standing out with too many intricate glowing pieces.

"Tryons"

These are my designs for the famous Tryon race, for these small silhouettes I wanted to get across a feeling of cybernetics and organics moulded into one species.

The Tryons are the creators of Kepler, they were the ones who fought against the monster, and with their technology they managed to contain it on their home planet while the artificial outer shell of the prison was constructed.

Unfortunately the ones who fought bravely weren't allowed access to freedom and were left inside the prison with the creature. However they managed to form a civilisation and survive while trapped inside Kepler.

The Tryons before they built their prison for the monster were actually similar in appearance to the Pronaxians, however as their resources were running low and they were desperate for a new source of energy they invested all their resources and efforts into developing super bio engineered life forms which produce energy, artificial plants if you will.

This lead to a successful new self sustaining "tree life form", producing vast amounts of energy for their civilisation, soon enough they had solved their energy crisis and were a thriving race. They decided to push their new found science to try and discover immortality and invented these bio suits made of the same energy producing tree life forms, and ultimately fusing their consciousness into them.

Below you see their immortality suit of self sustaining energy, with their immortality and endless energy they became the most powerful race in the galaxy, able to build on an imaginable scale and fast pace.    

Main character Menewa

Here are a few thumbnails I did in Photoshop for the design of my main character. For my process I found it helpful to begin with small rough thumbnails to get my ideas down fast, as I wasn't quite sure what I wanted my main character to look like.

I finally decided on a snowy warrior design, Menewa is a Pronaxian a race of humanoid aliens living near the axis of evil, his planet is a cold mars sized planet with a heavy atmosphere. The planet is covered in snow however the planets core is heated enough for plantation and vegetation to thrive on the surface.

The characters name came from the Native American word for "great warrior", it seemed fitting as I am wanting the Pronaxians to have a Native American influence.

These aliens are technologically advanced, they have achieved interstellar flight however they have strong ties to their planet seeing as their planet is more hostile making it harder to industrialise than others, they have a deep respect for the freezing temperatures. Its not just the snowy environment which makes this planet a danger its also the fact its quite an old planet and its gravity has been weakened by millions of years of cosmic wear and tear. Asteroids, radiation from their nearest sun and several other phenomenon have caused their home to be weakened, making it one of the most dangerous places to live in the galaxy.

Menewa is a warrior in the Pronaxian military, but not just any foot soldier, he is part of the "special forces" in charge of the most dangerous missions taking place in the most dangerous regions of the planet. They are known throughout the galaxy as one of the most talented and feared warriors, with this reputation and the fact they're race has incredible endurance of the harsh cold conditions Menewa is taken along with several others in his group to protect the expedition to Kepler.

Ultimately Menewa discovers their peoples true ancestry to the Tryons, explaining why they are the oldest race in the galaxy. Being a descendant of the Tryons, Menewa is able to activate their technology and the use the bio suit on Kepler.



                                  

Sketches

 Here are a couple of sketches I've done for the Tarnak race. These are the warriors who are set to free the monster hidden beneath Kepler, as they believe the monster to be the embodiment of evolution itself.

I started using silhouettes for their design to try and come up with interesting shapes and forms. I placed these masks on their faces as a strong feature in all of the designs, my idea was for it to be a mask dedicated to this monster of death they worship.

They all have a tribal look to them, My idea was for the Tarnaks to be an advanced alien race but who prefer to fight like the indigenous warriors of their past. They see fighting at range with long range anti matter rifles as boring and unchallenging and prefer to engage up close as much as possible. 

Ultimately their motives are to free the monster beneath Kepler and gain revenge on the Tryons, who it turns out have built a prison around the galaxy itself with technological limit. The Tarnaks despise the Tryons for this and want to be free of this limited galaxy, and they see the monster as the only way to escape.

This is a painting I did of my main characters face, I used several cold blue tones to show that he's from a cold planet.

Major Project entry 2

Major Project Research

For the past few weeks I have been working on a synopsis for the story I want to work on for the major project. From the beginning I was set on working on a science fiction story, I wanted to work on something which interests me, and would keep me motivated for the whole year. For inspiration I have been researching several books in both science fiction and fantasy for ideas. Some of authors are Gene Wolfe, Robert Reed, Nancy Kress, Dan Simmons, and Christopher Paolini. Also a major part of influence is reading the New Scientist magazines, focusing on the articles of physics and astronomy. Lately, I have been watching several documentaries on alien life and technology featuring Stephen hawking, Michio Kaku and Albert Einstein

World

The story is set in a future where humans and various other aliens species have made contact and established complex craft civilisations, most species have achieved interstellar space travel throughout the galaxy, the colonisation of most of the galaxy, advanced military weaponry, and advanced Nano technology.

The galaxy for the most part is similar to our own milky way galaxy except for one massive difference, the galaxy is divided between the habitable zone and the non habitable zone. The habitable zone contains the "normal planets", that's is habitable planets orbiting some sort of star. The uninhabitable zone contains mostly pieces of rock, ice and lifeless desolate planets wandering space, and most importantly no stars, and no life.

These two areas of the galaxy are separated quite sharply forming an invisible line separating the cold planets from the warm ones. This line is known throughout the galaxy as the "axis of evil", which is the most famous anomaly in the galaxy. As the name suggests many have fallen victim trying to conquer it, and many civilisations have tried to colonise some of its planets but have failed, there's no life to be found only death.

Brief Synopsis

It was previously thought that one of the pre requisites for life was the sun, that for life to survive the planet had to be orbiting a sun of some sort, but a recent discovery by some of the colonies closest to the axis of evil discovered a new wandering planet which they named Kepler, roughly 300 times the mass of earth, and seems to have an atmosphere supporting plant life.

Once this discovery was made, they send a team to investigate this mysterious finding, my main character Menewa is sent as part of the military to protect the scientists and geologists on this dangerous mission.

When they arrive on Kepler they find a dark mysterious land seemingly abundant in strange plant life(imagine black artificial plants). They soon discover the planet is actually an artificial space ship seemingly powering itself by these organic life forms producing energy for the ship. Soon enough the biggest discovery is made, the space ship is actually hollow and within lies a hovering small earth-sized planet.

With this new discovery they send Menewa and the best of the best to investigate this planet, however they discover this planet has its own set of rules and seemingly any high tech devices don't work here. One night, Menewa discovers a special bio armour which gels to him once he touches it, enhancing him physically and mentally. This suit seems to be the most advanced technological device on the planet, which appears to work perfectly despite the rest of the high tech gear malfunctioning.

While on this planet they encounter the creators of Kepler, a race of super intelligent aliens known as the Tryons, who explain that this space station is actually a prison for an evil ancient god like creature and that the race of warriors who worship it are in pursuit to free it from this prison.

Major Project Proposal

I realise this is quite an ambitious story, which is why for my paintings I would like to pick a small section of it, and produce maybe 5 highly rendered pieces showing key moments in my story. I would like to focus on the last part of my story where Menewa and the Tryons engage with the worshipers of the imprisoned creature on the inner planet of Kepler.

Introduction to Major Project part 1

For my major project I want to do a series of digital paintings and possibly an art book based on a story I created. I want to tell a story through a number of concept paintings showing action, character designs and environment designs.

Aim

My aim is to get my skill level up in character design, environment design, rendering different materials, improve my lighting and shading. By the end I want to produce 5 highly rendered paintings as well as the process I took to render them.

The paintings I want to be moody, with a lot of atmosphere and contrast. I want these paintings to show my particular style of painting as well as show what I am capable of.

My ultimate aim is for this to be a portfolio piece, something I can take with me to a job interview. I am ultimately looking for job as a working artist in the field of games and film.