How can I improve my sculpting skills for creature design?
Jack Mercer
Course/Route:
BA(Hons) Game Art – Character
Project Details and Learning Goals:
Research and breakdown inspirational work from other artists and learn to improve my own workflows.
Rationale:
I have discussed with tutors a passion for cryptozoology and creature designs, and focusing on creature design skills can move me closer to this goal.
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Traditional art and folklore
- Modern media
- Creatures in video games
- Professional artist workflow
- Sculpting
- Final compositions
- Drawing for games
- Referencing
Introduction
Monsters have plagued human storytelling for as long as our known history books can document, as symbols of power, discussed to inflict fear, or to explain the unknown.
How are these beings constructed in engine? What do they represent? How do artists make fictional creatures believable to a player?
Throughout this project, I aim to examine the workflows of influential artists and explore how studios create believable and immersive creatures, with the goal of improving my own design practice.
However, let’s define what cryptids and creatures actually are based on the history of the words themselves.
Monsters – From Latin, Monstrum [5]
a divine omen indicating misfortune, an evil omen, portent
Cryptid – From Greek kryptos (κρυπτός)
hidden or secret
(word origins are more modern and does not have historical roots)
Creature – From Latin, Creatura [6]
a creature, thing created
From the roots of the word, we can understand that creatures and monsters are beings that have been created, whether from divine omens, supernatural forces or by a deity, it could also simply mean that the creature is a figure of our imaginations, a hoax, or from fiction.
Even if the creature is entirely fictional, the fact it may move in a way that makes sense to us, and has been animated to do so, makes it a real creature, simply by the fact we created it!
The word cryptid has debated origins, as it was only coined within modern history, when cryptid researchers embarked on missions to track down and prove the existence of these mythological beings, for example bigfoot. They are known as cryptids as they are ‘hidden and secret’, and have no credible evidence to prove their existence, which comes back to why there is a lack of historical and scientific terminology.
Creatures in traditional art and folklore
The Garden of Earthly Delights is Bosch’s most complex and enigmatic creation [7]
The garden of earthly delights is a 3 part painting meant to tell a story, of how those who commit sin, and reject the gift of humanity from god will be punished in hell.
The first painting focuses heavily on the creation of humanity, as it depicts God presenting Eve to Adam.
The second, and centrepiece of the painting depicts all sorts of humans very provocatively, indulging in food, each other and riding nature. However as we look in closer, the true meaning this middle painting is revealed
Many of the humans depicted in the middle painting are eating and drinking unnaturally sized fruits, and drinking from each other from unusually shaped containers and plants, seemingly in promiscuous and adulterated together, many cuddled together inside giant fruits. Many of the humans are deformed, or amalgamated into human, animal hybrids. This represents to us how the human sins of adultery, gluttony and overindulgence is shifting and corrupting nature and humanity as a consequence.
The final painting depicts hell, or hell on earth, where humans are being killed, tortured and even eaten.
Large, strange creatures often with features such as animal heads, giant bones, or amalgamated into inanimate objects can be seen eating, and tormenting the humans.
The top half of the painting depicts war and civilisations burning, hinting towards an apocalyptic end to humanity.
When coming back to our meanings of the word creature, and monster, these paintings show us of the most ancient beliefs on consequences for our sins, resulting punishment by unnatural creatures and entities tied to the sins we committed in life, very similar to how modern cryptids and monsters tales are told today: as cautionary tales intended to scare, and spread the word of the dangers of sin.
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun (1803-1805) William Blake
‘Blake is today acknowledged as one of the most imaginative English poets and one of the greatest forefathers of English Romanticism’ [8]
These painting depicts lines from the book of revelation, ‘a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet‘, ‘a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns‘.
The pregnant woman is bearing a child, which represents humanities hope and salvation. The muscular dragon, intent on destroying and eating the new-born child, represents the evil, and the devils desire to crush human hope and steal salvation.
The dragon has a serpentine tail, which ties heavily with snake symbolism with bible stories. It also has large golden horns, which could be interpreted as a form of crown, symbolising power, and the corruptive goals of the dragon. Its large, muscular bat like wings symbolises dominance.
Blake lived during a turbulent time (post–French Revolution, rapid social change), and he often saw biblical apocalypse not only as spiritual prophecy but as social allegory. This shows that even throughout centuries, humanity has been portraying creatures and monsters as symbolism for evil.
Creatures in modern media
Until dawn – Supermassive games (2015)
Until dawn is a horror, survival drama game. Players control 8 characters, who have to survive in blackwood mountain. The game is mostly cutscenes, and third person exploration. Players can choose decisions for the characters to make affecting the story, or explore the world in the third person mode to uncover clues. The game has lots of different endings, some good, and some bad, mainly depending on the decisions chosen in the cutscenes.
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[5] accessed 12/11 https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=monstrum
[6] accessed 12/11 https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dcreatura
[7] https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-garden-of-earthly-delights-triptych/02388242-6d6a-4e9e-a992-e1311eab3609?searchid=35f1d287-bce2-23f3-d451-724dad378b80
[8]https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/william-blake-the-great-red-dragon/
Designs by jade 