Animal anatomy and design.

The task is to do research and design a creature 



Here are some designs that I drew up using pencil/paper and Photoshop.

This design is based off the image above, and was the original idea before I moved on to the design below.

I am going to use multiple characteristics from the creatures to create a design 

Instead of tentacles, my creature will use fins, this is what will make my design an aquatic animal. It will have four fins and a tail fin, two either side of the main body. The fins on my creature will also act as its defence against predators, also as the fins act the same way as they are expected, to propel the creature through the water and control, where it goes. The fins are also razor sharp, and can be used as weapons for hunting prey or defence against larger predators.

I would like to use a design similar to a squid as, each eye has a 180 degree sight arc. It also shares the same creepiness factor.

The main body mass is enclosed in the mantle, which has a swimming fin along each side. These fins, unlike in other marine organisms, are not the main source of locomotion in most species.

The skin is covered in chromatophores, which enable the squid to change colour to suit its surroundings, making it practically invisible. The underside is also almost always lighter than the topside, to provide camouflage from both prey and predator.

The thick hide around the armadillo is something I would like to add to my creature, as it is designed to protect it from predators. 

Armadillos have short legs, but can move quite quickly and have the ability to remain under water for as long as six minutes. Because of the density of its armour, an armadillo will sink in water unless it swallows air, inflating its stomach to twice normal size and raising its buoyancy above that of water, allowing it to swim across narrow streams and ditches.

The lion fish has fins that are also poisonous spines to protect it from predators, this is something I would like to incorporate into my design. Pretty much everything about the venomous lion fish—its red-and-white zebra stripes, long, showy pectoral fins, and generally cantankerous demeanour—says, "Don't touch!" The venom of the lion fish, delivered via an array of up to 18 needle-like dorsal fins, is purely defensive. It relies on camouflage and lightning-fast reflexes to capture prey, mainly fish and shrimp. A sting from a lion fish is extremely painful to humans and can cause nausea and breathing difficulties, but is rarely fatal.

All of the secondary research that was used in my design was found on the national geographic website and the images where found using google images. The Secondary doesn't give you an exact example, and the Advantages are that if you need an image of something that is almost impossible to get hold of, you can just google it.

This is Sherman(the silver and gold one) and Tiger(the gold one) and Cromwell(the one behind tiger), and there babies, the shape of their tail fins are large, I can use this in my design, I think that a large tail fin would work, very well.



The Primary research worked well because I could observe how they move at home and see how the actions with the fins control there movement. The disadvantages to Primary research, is that to take the pictures yourself, it is really difficult to take a picture of an animal that does not live in your country.

The Beholder, as seen in D&D was created by Terry Kuntz, who was skilled in crafting wargame miniatures ^^^ this is one of his pieces.
My main design is an aquatic creature, with a design that relates it to the Beholder mythical creature, a large floating eye that is     protected by many layers of carapace. The form of this creature is rather complicated and the standard mesh is rather complex.

my creature is also based around the latest Minecraft "mob" the guardian, that is found in the ocean. This is also related to both my design and the beholder. The basic mesh of this creature is very simple as it is made up of very basic shapes.

some of the original ideas didn't involve any aquatic features, this one adopted the armadillo shell idea but I wasn't very confident with the legs so I decided to change it up a bit.
 

My creature is an aquatic animal. I used colours that would camouflage it from predators. As my creatures habitat is based in the ocean/large bodies of water I figured that, blue tinted colours would work better with the creature. I used the Thick carapace from the armadillo idea, and the single eye with a 180 degrees came from the squid. Its defence/offence is its razor sharp fins that can be used for hunting or defence/rivals.

This is the, low polygon version of my creature design. It took longer than expected because I had some problems with the eye not being made out of 4 sided shapes. I could do with increasing the amount of joints in the legs/fins, as they look weird as just rectangles, but it gives you the idea of where and what they are.

from the birds eye point of view, you can see the layers of carapace that build up to form a strong defence against predators.

Here I have split my creature in half, I did this because incase both sides weren't symmetrical, now I can "copy and paste" then the creature will be symmetrical. "Because cheating is good" - Ben Smith 2014.

This is my creature with enhanced legs/fins, and lighting, to remove the extremely dark shadows. I also mirrored the image so that both sides of the creature are identical.

I sorted out the fin and fixed the lack of four sided shapes at the back.
Now it looks more like a fin that belongs on an aquatic creature.

The legs no longer look like just basic rectangles, this adds more immersion to the creature and makes it look more realistic.

these were some initial designs that I sketched up before the 3D modelling took place. I used a large range of unique ideas but I hated the idea of fur and teeth, so I used a thick carapace and no mouth, Just one big eye.

here are some reference images that relate to my first design and my current, final design for a creature.
the main creatures featured the beholder and simple fish scales and fins.


The advantages of using a mind map rather than using just pictures and words is that it stays in your head and allows your mind to remember the layout of the page, this can help with research and studying.