C.O.W. - #127: Strange Walker

[Fozzybar]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/images/cow/cow.jpg

For more infos and details about the rules go here:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110879


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Round #127

Topic:
Strange Walker

Deadline (extended):
Friday, 17 October 2008



note: The deadline won't be EXACTLY after a week...it can last up to 24 hours more, i am human and have to work also, you know ;)
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How to post

In this thread you can post all wips, questions, comments etc
However if you are done with your entry, post the final image in the following thread.

THREAD FOR FINAL ENTRIES (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=138868)

READ THE INFO IN THE 1ST POST OF THE FINALS THREAD TO SEE HOW TO POST YOUR FINAL IMAGE!!!

[Fozzybar]

JakkaS and me came up with an interesting twist for the new topic. There is another activity on conceptar.org which is about animation. It is called Sprite Animation Weekly and you can find it in the activites subforum:

http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=74

I talked with Sinix before about a round, where COW artists come up with a creature that will be animated in the Sprite Animation Weekly afterwards. So there we are, here are the special restrictions and rules for this round (all other rules are still valid):

ADDITIONAL INFO

1. Design and draw a creature which has a new interesting walking style.

2. The creature must have legs.

3. The creature must use its legs to move. How many legs, what shape, what movement - that's your part!

4. The creature moves only with its own body parts. It can use other body parts additionally to its legs to move, but nothing which is not part of the creature.

5. The creature must be able to move by its own power, eg no rolling down hills etc

6. Only 1 image of the creature allowed. Do not make drawings with several frames to show how the creature walks, that is the part of the animators later on in the Sprite Animation Weekly. The Animators shall come up with their own interpretation of the movement, if it's obvious by the drawing it's fine, if not the more interesting it will be.

7. You can come up with a concept text where you describe how the creature moves, if you don't feel like you can leave it without text, but remember that users have to vote for your entry. If no one understands your concept (and this rounds victory might be based strongly on a good understanding of your concept) you may fail.

8. No individual/character!!! Make a concept of a species!



This is an experiment to see how and if combining 2 activities will work. If there are any misunderstandings please ask, i bet there will :D

Have fun!

[hillergren]

Inspiration (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqhlQfXUk7w) :D

[Lander]

Rules, rules, rules. :)

[mkshden!!]

nice, I'm in!! :rendered:

[OTTA]

Interesting Topic! sound hard & fun! I'm in too. :)

[jhagen22]

Hey Foz, I have a couple questions.
I don't know if it's ever been brought up, but are sculptures allowed?
When you say 1 image, do you mean in total or just not images that are in sequential order to show the walk cycle? I guess I'm wondering since I'd like to do an illustration and a sculpt.
Thanks!

[Mr.Wittmann]

sketch #1
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5526/sketchix3.jpg
sketch #2
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/416/sketch2at9.jpg

i try to create some more before i choose, you really want to be creative on this one :P

[Fozzybar]

Hey Foz, I have a couple questions.
I don't know if it's ever been brought up, but are sculptures allowed? I guess I'm wondering since I'd like to do an illustration and a sculpt.Only sculptures are not allowed, i think i wrote it down in the rules/faq thread. But if you want to add a sculpture to your image it's ok ;)

When you say 1 image, do you mean in total or just not images that are in sequential order to show the walk cycle? Just not images that are in sequential order to show the walk cycle. If you want to show your creature in different poses or situations it's ok, just want to avoid that there is a source of frames where animators are limited in their interpretation and imagination of how the creature walks. I don't want degrade their work to only producing in-between-frames of the COW artists key frames ;)

[EdenGotterrCyan]

My sketch :sungod:

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii273/edengotterrcyan/EdenGotterrCyanCreature.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii273/edengotterrcyan/edengotterrcyancreature3.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii273/edengotterrcyan/edengotterrcyancreature4.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii273/edengotterrcyan/edengotterrcyancreature2.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii273/edengotterrcyan/edengotterrcyancreature5.jpg

[DefiledVisions]

Now we're talkin' ;)

[jhagen22]

Sweet! Thanks Foz.
The creature design I had decided on lent itself well to both illustration and sculpture. I'll be doing both this round. ....hopefully I can finish them both. :wink:

[Benisimo]

my first c.o.w ever so i probably won't get any further than this but its basically a creature with stilt legs and has a weight bag on front to make it perfectly balanced, to move forward it alters the weight bag so it stumbles forward

[scorge]

Nice sketches so far guys. Definitely strange!:teeth:
Some sketches.

[chriskot]

Oh man, I have a great idea for this one. I'm going to have to get in on this.

[skinny]

Does the creature have to be organic?Can it be biomechanic?

[thescala]

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm105/thescala/monstergirl.jpg

here's a drawing i did this morning, the creature itself is a giant hand that feeds on people and other living things, hopefully ill have a couple more by the weekend

[Pixelestial]

Careful, Benisimo. I like where you're going with this, but since the creature is already tipping forward due to the placement of the legs, that weighted tail would actually throw it further off balance. If you moved the legs further forward on the body, the concept may work.

[Einen]

Hay guys, perhaps I'll join in! It's been too long since I COW:ed and this sounds too good to pass up. :perv:

[Carbono]

Great idea, really, Cow is really surprising me lately with some very original ideas for the topic.

I might try to enter on this one, but i'll wait to see if some "lighting" hits my head and gives me a great idea.
But I really think the idea of having your creature "pixel-animated" is really a seductive prize.

Well, lets see!
Cheers guys!

[ijacobs9]

Err....yea....
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee181/enigma9/StrangewalkerWIP.jpg

[Benisimo]

hey thanks Soulweaver if i do carry on with it i'll redo the legs n make it look more balanced

[Tyrus]

Here are a few sketched ideas, any ideas on which one has the most potential?

[Fozzybar]

Does the creature have to be organic?Can it be biomechanic?

No, read the f*** manual :D

[Paul Kang]

heres mine.
embraced a new drawing style.
dont know if the legs are "strange" enough
its a work in progress

[meganite]

Well I am going to try to participate this time again! I might do my drawing in class manually at first... then color it on the computer.

My preliminary creature concepts:

490872

And here I have developed a couple of my favorite designs, and added a couple more:

490873
Which ones do y'all think show the most potential? I am eager for feedback, since I usually have such a hard time deciding!

I'm intrigued by that 4-legged crablike one, it has two fangs on its underside. Probably it scuttles along a wall or a cliff ledge and then sinks its fangs into its prey when it finds it.

[dariocoelho]

Here's my little brainstorm - i'm not really used to design creatures and i guess thats exactly why i should try to.

[Zaorish]

Nice topic :)
Made some sketches for my first Cow. Hopefully, I've got the time and motivation to finish it. Don't think it's gonna race for 1st place though ;)

Anyway... I took the Lovecraftian-crab-thingy-route :)

It's a Lovecrab :D

[Kristen Whitaker]

these are some ideas i came up of.. one of them i'm thinking of using

[OTTA]

I've a problem with my scanner, so I'll bring some pencil sketch later :)

This is my creature's sketch. It's move by use seperately a pair of leg walk like rowing boat.My idea coming from an octopus which living on ground :D, They got a hand with like a muscle tentacle. It's gonna be fun when it's move with a lot of legs and tentacles together :D

[J]

my 6 legged desert beast. Still sketchy as. need to consolidate the form and start some proper rendering. I'm pretty happy with it so far though.

UPDATE: changed the beast heaps. Trying a low angle perspective which I haven't done before and also using a main light source with some bounced light hitting the it's belly. Next is to work on the cargo, rider, and the dunes. I think it's a huge improvement over the initial sketch.

[Windfalcon]

Hi everyone, I'm new to Conceptart.org, but I've been looking around and looking at the COW and CHOW challenges for a while now. I don't know if I'll have enough time to participate from beginning to end for this, but I figured I'd try my hand at some sketches and see what you thought of the ideas.

I was thinking about what would make an interesting 'strange' walking creature, and I decided look at how it would work if something didn't walk on land. I sketched two creatures - one is an ice-walker, and the other is a water-walker.

The ice-walker has hoof-like feet, but they're a bit diamond-shaped rather than wedge shaped, to give it an advantage on the ice. This creature's method of walking is half-skating half-walking. As you can see, it has four 'hoof' feet, and two 'propelling' feet, that dig into the ice and push it forward.

For the water-walking creature, I took inspiration from water insects that use water tension to walk atop the water. Also the jacana, a water bird, has long feet that enable it to walk atop lily-pads (see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacanidae )

So I'm a bit unfamiliar with how this works. From what I read previously, it appears people post their concept sketches here for feedback and critique? Any suggestions would be more than welcome! :)

[meganite]

Welcome, Windfalcon! =) Cool sketches! Yeah, this is just a place to post sketches and works in progress. The final pics will be posted in the Finals thread.

Some feedback for you: What if the ice walker had feet kind of like skis? And then the propelling feet were in between those and had the full range of motion? Or are the hoof-feet for gripping the ice also?

Also, an idea for your water-walker: There's actually a lizard called the basilisk, and it actually runs across water! Also known as the Jesus Christ lizard, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, everyone, cool work! Some of them I don't know what to say... I'll try and provide feedback as requested. Someone please comment on my sketches! :O Do any of my ideas look cool?

[Paul Kang]

update
any comments or crits would be great

[dan j levy]

Might actually try and make time to do this week's COW...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/spazizoner/walker.jpg

[jhagen22]

Great ideas on walking so far! I'll try to post comments later today.

This is my entry so far. - illustration and sculpture. Long way to go yet. We'll see if I can cross the finish line on this one. :\ I'm calling my entry the 'Northern Tip-Toer.' I think I'll show it on ice or something like that. Something I came up with on the first day and it remained my favorite over the next few as I came up with a few other ideas.

[Sturnus]

Interesting topic this week, can't wait to see all final entries :) .
Here's my wip

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa297/sturnus/COW-127wip01.jpg

[Moai]

Great work, Jhagen and Sturnus!

[arghmisfit]

whoa spazizoner some of our ideas turned out quite similar haha

looking good sturnus

[OTTA]

My second WIP, The tentacle is in process of thinking. I think about adding some speed of this creature when needed by use all the tentacle as leg too from 4 to 8. Must be good enough to chasing somethinh heh :D

่jhagegn22 : interesting work! nice design. I'm looking forward to the finish :)
Sturnus : Nice render, I like your creature.
arghmisfit : interesting concept, I'd love to see more detail :)

[ArtAdonis]

Here is my Strange Walker. Black and white right now with colours to come. Values seem a bit more washed on my screen in work as opposed to last night on my laptop, grrr.
Some nice posts but don't have time to go into detail. I spotted an ambitious Sculpture from jhagen22, hope you get this completed as it would be awesome. Also like the coloured/shelled thingy by Sturnus!

http://www.artadonis.com/Uploads/COW/Strange_Walker_05.jpg

[thedying]

Hi, I'm new to concept art and this is my first entry.

[Mr.Wittmann]

here is two "strange walkers" but i make one more before i choose :P

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7740/alienlvjs4.jpg
finished (i think)

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9252/alienlllit9.jpg
wip (not finished jet:P)

any comments or crits would be great :D

[thirdeye]

My humble WIP. Hope I can finish before the deadline.

[realitychek]

Here's my WIP.....hope I'll make the deadline....
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f6/Pinto777/CA/strangewalker1.jpg

[Windfalcon]

I'm going to try to finish mine tonight. I'm participating in 24-hour art day at my school (based on the national 24-hour comic day) tomorrow so now is the only time I have to finish it!

I took Meganite's advice and did ski-like feet instead of skate-like feet. They're technically a formed kind of hoof. I think it's working much better for a believable creature. Here's a work in progress!

[Xenier]

Here's my finished Walker, seeing as it's my first ever post on this site, i wont embarrass myself by putting it in the final entries only to have it taken down due to lack of skill. Check it out though and i hope you like it.

http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp190/Xenier/Harvester.jpg

The idea is that it uses it's two legs to stride across open grassland while it's tentacles assist in balance and scoop up creatures to eat as it moves around.

[monotony]

uh joining the game a bit late but this sounds to good to miss out as I seem unable to give my creatures serious legs anyway. haha.

cool diverse ideas so far.
I hope you get to finish yours thirdeye. looks really promising!

ok really just starting out on this one.
sketches so far and first layout with colorblockin.

493956
493955

[electric goat]

A very strange and creative batch of creatures here! Nice job weirdos!

Feeling inspired after looking at all of these. I might have to finish mine even if I don't get it in the final entry thread in time.

Fozzy- I'm really digging these topics lately. Thoughtful and creative, very nice.

[jhagen22]

I'm not sure if I can finish these. Might have bitten off more than I could chew this week with new work coming in and trying to do both an illustration and a sculpture. I still want to finish them even if I don't for this week's c.o.w.

[scorge]

Josh: You're an animal. Keep it up man.
Working to get mine done.
Hard to tell what's going to be in the final threads these days.. Makes it a little more, interesting. Me love challenges.

[Fozzybar]

poll is up:

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=138868