C.O.W. - 132: Aerial Cephalopod - VOTING!

[yoitisi]

ROUND #132 VOTING

Topic: Aerial Cephalopod


Deadline for the voting: Thursday, 19 February 2009

Posting thread (closed): C.O.W. - #132: Aerial Cephalopod (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=149337)


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OK - before voting/posting read this!!!

1. Please give c&c or a reason why you voted for the image!

2. Feel free to comment on any or all entries, the artists will appreciate it!

3. No voting for your own entry!!! If a participants votes for his own entry, every member has the right to call him a stupid lame moron in this thread! And i will delete his/her vote anyway...

4. The poll is public. Your vote will be seen.

582879

[Bralt Hannicart]

http://www.bralt.be/AerialCephalopod_web.jpg

Artist: Bralt Hannicart

Concept: Cumulus Gutsack
Feasting on cloud dew and solar light, the Cumulus Gutsack does nothing else than drifting among the clouds. They travel during the day, following the sun so the air inside it's steering- and gutsacks stays hot. Generic description for a quite generic design!

[Joey-b]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/b-yeoj/COW132done.jpg

Artist: joey-b

Concept: AerrowSquid

[Kin]

591083

Artist: Kin

Concept: Cloudsurge Cephalopod
The Cloudsurge Cephalopod lives on planets that have denser atmosphere. They stay afloat with gas filled sacs protected by a lightweight, but sturdy shell that also protects their innards. They generally move about by sucking up air with their mouths and blowing it back out of a giant vent on the back of their head. While moving the Cloudsurge feed on small birds or anything that is sucked up and expels any indigestible food and waste through their vent hence the dirtiness of the clouds.

[xinranliu]

http://www.ronaldliu.com/hosting/octopus_finals copy.jpg

Artist: Ronald Liu

Concept: Teuthida Petaurus
Composed of lightweight membrane, the Teuthida Petaurus is a species of squid gliders. Their six locomotive arms provide enough thrust for staying airborne.

[TimM]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/Timmah_45/aericeph4.jpg

Artist: TimM

Concept: NorthWestern Blimp Squid
The NorthWestern Blimp Squid is an endangered species that lives in Northern Temperate regions. These colossal creatures travel in widespread pods above and in the cloud layer, feeding on birds and other floating creatures. The large dark spot on their backs attracts sunlight and stimulates the creation of crucial enzymes that allow them to float. Their means of flight is a lighter-than-air gas they create in their upper mantle, coupled with incredibly light body structure. Young can be seen flying around them, occasionally resting on their parent's backs. As they age, their skin pigment changes to a darker, gray color, and their skin cracks. Numerous have been injured and killed by aircraft strikes. Some can be seen with deep cuts on their outsides from wing strikes.

[Nikola Marinkovic]

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o212/Hari013/cow132AerialCephalopod.jpg

Artist: Nikola Marinkovic

Concept: Acid Kephalópoda
This creatures are widely regarded as the most intelligent creatures of the sky. They fly really high producing poisonous gases. Chambers full of helium integrated in their bodies makes them float so high. They feed with birds flying near them but they eat everything else that comes in their way.

[Arthur-gl]

http://www.comlock.net/drawings/aerial-cephalopod.jpg

Artist: Arthur-GL

Concept: Aerial Cephalopod
(can also be read in the image)This creature can be found on many pathways of the migratory birds. In close range they are able to mess with the bird flock’s navigational system, giving this squid looking creature an easy time sucking them into it’s trunk. During rest they can often be seen laying on top of mountains like a sheet of snow.

Despite the huge size, the creature is extremely lightweight because of it’s hollow structure. The filter system under it’s body rapidly warms up the air so it can rise up into the huge balloon looking organ on the back

[AlisonRobin]

REJECTED - NOT IN THE POLL
Reason: Almost made it, but overall the shape is not clear (especially the yellow/brown part is hard to read), and it lacks texture and detail.

Artist: AlisonRobin

Concept: Bellow Nautilus
The Bellow Nautilus propels itself along by exhaling through its 'funnel,' which is comprised of eight webbed arms. Because of this method of locomotion, it appears to rocket backwards.
Over millions of years its two tentacles have widened enough to serve a wings with which to glide.

[MoHog]

http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q429/LouAy/squideeadvancefinal.jpg

Artist: MoHog

Concept: Loftus Shelk
The pinnacle of cephalopod evolution, the Loftus Shelk has developed an organ to produce helium within its largely hollow shell. As ancient cephalopods used their air pockets for buoyancy the Shelk floats through the ether sifting morsels from the thick pollution clouds left by mankind.

[zimfin]

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee272/zimfin/cow132_zimfin.jpg

Artist: zimfin

Concept: Aerial Cephalopod
The Aerial Cephalopods live on a low gravity planet with a lot of Volcanic activity. The planet has very little land mass so the Cephalopods spend most of their time floating through the gaseous environment above the oceans. They use the volcanic gases and low gravity to their advantage when it comes to flight and maneuverability and will even hide amongst the gas clouds from Predators. In some emergency evasions, ( and sometimes for hunting ) they will contract the "balloon" membrane into a thin tentacle and plunge into the Ocean. Normally though, they will float close to the surface and quickly pluck unsuspecting prey from the waters. Due to very little energy expenditure they need little food and can goes days without eating. They are resistant to the extreme heat of the volcanic waters as are most of their aquatic prey and spend the early months of their lives in the water before developing their floatation membrane. They can grow to around 15 Meters in length from tip to tip and are thought to live for up to 30 years.

[Kredepops]

http://www.chrisguldager.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/Cephalopod.jpg

Artist: Kredepops

Concept: Bulaaari

The aerial cephalopods; the Bulaaari live at high altitudes on the planet Kaptana, which has an extremely low gravity pull. The low gravity combined with frequent and violent wind bursts, makes its light body float high above the clouds.

The rear tentacles are used to capture small pray, such as birds or other smaller cephalopods, for eating. It nurses its young until adulthood. Front tentacles are solely for social behavior, such as communication and caring for the young.
Bulaaari live in small heards of 5-6 animals.

[Gax]

http://guyvallez.free.fr/web2008/beholderdescrip.jpg

Artist: Gax

Concept: Beholder

[dwinbotp]

Artist: dwinbotp
Concept: Flying Plague
Mutated giant squid and jellyfish hybrid, with the ability to produce gases to make itself float, with tentacles that serves as gliders and as a means to abduct its prey of choice from above. These creatures are a menace to the planet's remaining livestock and diminishing food supply. Due to their enhanced reproductive systems, they are everywhere over the skies. efforts have been made to eradicate them but still their numbers seem to grow more and more.

[Christoffer]

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5725/cow132christofferka3.jpg

Artist: Christoffer

Concept: Sykillian Lantern

The Sykillian Lantern (aka The Lantern) resides in the Aerial Cephalopod family. It has an external organ that produces a mixture of chemicals to create a hot low density gas which lets the creature take to the skies. The chemical reaction also creates a bright light, similar to that of a lightstick, that shines through the translucent skin. This can be quite a sight to behold at night, hence the name. In the daytime it is almost impossible to spot from the ground except during plankton bloom seasons along the coast of Sykilia, when they fly low to feed. Plankton is the Lantern's only food source and when it is time to feed it simply ventilats the gas from a series of valves. It glides gracefully above the surface of the ocean and sucks plankton through it's hollow tentacles.

[OTTA]

REJECTED - NOT IN THE POLL
Reason: Again, the shape doesn't read very well. The colors make it a bit more confusing too.

Artist: OTTA

Concept: RAINBOW FAIRY

RAINBOW FAIRY are the queen of the night, All of her body, there are a million of air sack tissues which can keep air took from their both horns.They can move by using a contraction of muscles to pump an air inject into a hollow tentacle to direct way like a jet plane,There are 4 hollow tentacles controlling direction ,4 Poison needle tentacles for paralyze a victim. and 4 tentacles use as a catching hand.
RAINBOW FAIRY get a name from their shiny colorful gelatin skin,Which can change a color in rainbow by hitting the light, and inside there are bacteria which can glow in the dark, so they look like a glowing fairy fly at the dark night and of course,it can lure a lot of insects come and playing with the light. So,They'll hunt birds, bats or a small animal which come to eat these insects.

[Ironhead]

Artist: Artur Franik

Concept: Little Parasite
This little Parasite sucks out the gas of flying fruits. It
can fly and glows because of the gas. He needs his tentacles to
reach the fruits when its windy and to hold tight.

[Poison]

Artist: Poison

Concept: South American Squid Trap


The South American Squid Trap, mostly found in the Amazonian jungle, is one of the the many hidden dangers that ignorant jungle explorers can encounter. Also called "globo mortifero" by some tribes, this predator uses the digestive gases of its fodder to inflate its body and hover up to 18 feet, where it waits for its prey.
Of their arms, 2 are extraordinarily long tentacles, reaching down to the ground and acting as anchor and catching extremities at the same time. The mani of these tentacles look like dead leaves. The Squid Trap camouflages them between actual leaves and waits for curious animals (usually small to medium sized mammals) to pass between its 2 tentacles. The strong tentacles immediately grab and strangle the prey while pulling the body of the Squid Trap down to ground level. Once down these beasts use their 4-split beak and radula to feast upon the prey. After digesting, they use the newly gained gases to rise and lurk again.

[johannesblomgren]

Artist: johannesblomgren

Concept: Gas Bleckis Cadavrus
With a very unique metabolism and a hunger for rotten corpses, this creature produces a gas lighter than air. The gas is stored in the partly hollow cranium, hence the hoovering abilities. It does not however fly in the true sense of the word but drags itself forward making use of its many tentacles.

[darkly]

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7995/aerialcephalopodtt4.jpg

Artist: natedogler

Concept: Cellapharas (Sky-Swimmer)

The Cellapharas aka Sky-Swimmer is a very rare species of Aerial Cephalopod that dwell high amongst the clouds here on Beta-Primus 9. Their migratory and feeding habits make it so that they are seldom ever seen by humans. Little is known about the Sky-Swimmer, but it is believed that they are nocturnal and that they come down from the clouds at dusk to feed. Some have witnessed entire herds of Halentherops and Slan disappearing in one night. Through the study of unfortunately poor specimens, Scientists believe that the Cellapharas is able to stay sky bound by regulating natural gasses that its body creates. These gasses fill large hollow skin chambers which inflate and act as flotation devices. It is believed that they can quickly evacuate the gas from these chambers through a series of valves and then use their fin-like wings to catch updrafts and ride wind currents. This ability would explain how the Callapharas can "swoop" down at such great speeds to capture its prey by surprise.

[rWDrk]

This creature flies around the sky searching for birds to eat. It waits high up in the sky untill he spots his pray, then he lets himself fall on his pray reaching up to 360 km per hour.

[Agustin Poratti]

589505

Artist: Agustin Poratti

Concept: AC-00495550

"Then they found that Dark Serpent of Apocalypse wasnt' but a small aerial cephalopod from a place several light years away, clumsily trying to make it's way home."

[siiilon]

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/6176/cephalopod4mx4.jpg

Artist: Siiilon

Concept: Big-Bee Hunter
So this amphibious creature is a threat to any insects or underwatter creatures of a lake. It's tactics is an ambush (usually during foggy mornings). It's most favorite victim, so called "Big-Bee", has no chance once it charges out of watter. Big-Bee Hunter is really good swimmer, it uses a hole on the top of its head for kind of jet propulsion. Although not persistent flyer, it can overflight few miles to reach nearby lake when necessary.

[Rauwolf]

CLOSE TO REJECTION
Reason: Since the concept is well thought out, I let this one slip. The drawing sort of explains it as well. However, it doesn't look all that different from existing octopi and the shading needs work.

Artist: Rauwolf

Concept: Aerial Cephalopod – Puff Octopus
The natural habitat of the Puff Octopus is where ever grass and wild flowers grow tall. They feed on small insects. When there is a breeze these creatures are able to float and hunt from above the grass. They usually grow no longer than two inches and, when not in flight, are easily camouflaged from predators as they look identical to a dandelion puff.

[gnahz]

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s288/gnahzCA/COW-132.jpg

Artist:GNAHZ

Concept: Baqiud
Live among the clouds. The green sacs contain air thats enable the Baqiud to float. Feeding off the moisture from the clouds and sunlight from the sun, Baqiuds survive in huge quantities among the clouds.

[ChromaticCodex]

Artist: ChromaticCodex

Concept: Farmer Squid
The farmer squid uses its tentacles to grow and consume a symbiotic algae that can only be found on its body. The squid keeps its tentacles moist by inflating its gas sacks and hiding in clouds. Occasionally, the farmer squid drift down to swamps or bogs to replenish their tentacles nutrients. When a farmer squids algae eventually dies, they are known to become hostile, especially to its own kind.

[yoitisi]

No more entries past this point! As usual there was some cutting involved. I tried to give the ones who didn't make it to poll some comments to work on next time. If you've got further questions about it, send me a PM.

Not in the poll: AlisonRobin, OTTA

Close to rejection: Rauwolf

Next round will be up soon.

[siiilon]

I vote for dwinbotp, great action, composition, lighting. I love it.

Second: Arthur-gl - very close to dwinbotp, I like the uniqueness and engaging beauty of your creatures ( especially those kinda eyebrows :) ). It's well designed >:)

Third: zimfin - I like it very much. I only disbelieve its functionality.

[Nikola Marinkovic]

I voted for Arthur.

Second: dwinbotp - lots of action and scary looking creatures. love it. :)

Third: Poison - love the idea.

[TimM]

I voted for ChromaticCodex. He has good attention to lineweight, and his color scheme is clear, not muddied up by excessive brush detail and environment effects, the silhouette is good against the simple background, Works well. Nice work, everyone. This is the first time I submitted to the C.O.W.

[zimfin]

I voted for Arthur-gl for a great image and flowing style.

A very close second to dwinbotp for a cool, creepy creature.
I liked quite a few others but the main battle for me was between those Two.

Thanks for my votes folks. Much appreciated.

[SirJohanna]

It was a tough choice between Bralt Hannicart and Agustin Poratti. I ended up voting for Agustin Poratti, but both are great concepts.

[Kin]

I'm happy I got a vote! I voted for Arthur-gl this time around because of the composition and design of the creature. Zimfin's entry was a close second for me. It's great to see so many great compositions.

[Michael Jaecks]

voted for dwinbotp. Would have liked to have seen just a teeeeeeeeny bit more sharpness in the areas around the mouth and surrounding pink membranes, to give the overall lost edges of the softness more purposeful intentionality, but it's still a gorgeous painting with lovely colors. Also... its COW not CHOW. ;)

Arthur was my second choice.

[CavyWolfe]

siiilion I really enjoyed your piece, it's both a very well shaped ttogether with the color, and the lighting is awesome. :)

[meganite]

I voted Zimfin for creativity and awesome execution. I felt like his was the most original of these, and one that could actually work. Interesting mechanism, reminds me a lot of the way a fish's "swim bladder" works.

I also really liked Augustin's, but it didn't strike me so much as a cephalopod, but more like a millipede. Great story concept though.

Dwinbotp's has cool lighting and it looks like the creature could work. Great detail on the mouth area, but kind of blurry and not so well defined everywhere else.

I really like the perspective on Arthur's and how he pushes out of the frame. The top part is going off the screen though, and it seems like a vague balloon shape up there. The underside looks more machine-like than animal-like somehow.

I also like Kin's and the perspective is really great there, but the smoke "ink" obscures a lot of the front mouth end of it, which would have been nice to see.

... and that's all the comments I have time for. Great work y'all!

[HareTrinity]

Bralt_Hannicart: Got my vote. The texturing on the creature's great, and I can imagine it appearing in a documentary, "although this may at first appear to be fungi, it is in fact an animal closely related to the squid..."

Joey-b: I find those holes a little creepy, but it's a nice use of colour. A background or diagram would have been nice (the critter itself takes up less than half the pic, which is a shame to me).

Kin: Storm squid! Who cleans the sky? Neat. Reminds me of some of the recent MTG elementals... I find it hard to believe anything that fleshy would stay off the ground like that, but it's an awesome pic with a cool creature design.

Roland_Liu: He's cute, and you have a good grasp of colour use, but the solid black lines take away from that a little. Also, the face is rather more humanoid than need be (mouth raised up to front of 'face', ear-like placing of the funnel, tentacles in the moustache position) though it's nice to see some teeth!

TimM: I think you meant the dot "absorbs" sunlight? But I love the name. Blimp squid. One thing that's not obvious to me is why they have short, fat, tentacles as opposed to just the long, thin, ones. Also, the picture looks only partially finished (on account of the sketchy clouds and tentacle pads in the foreground, as well as the very vague background sky)... It's an awesome creature design (description included) though.

Nikola_Marinkovic: A very simplistic approach, which makes sense for a sky squid! You resisted the tentacles and made it look very balloon-like (this would rock hiding in children's parties). However, I was offput by how difficult it is to make out the anatomy (I had difficulty spotting the mouth), so again a diagram (say, of its hunting technique/s) or some others in the background might have helped. Gorgeous choice of background by the way.

Arthur-GL: Ignoring my wonders on the physics applied (would there be enough blood/heart power without weighing it down, plus squid are cold-blooded), it's a snouty cephalopod! Makes it very cute, though I was more tempted towards the other more squid-like entries (the positioning of the tentacles makes me think it looks like an insect, say a mosquito). Plus you're a clear winner for this round anyway! By the way, the evil looking one on the mountain to the far right? Very cool.

AlisonRobin: Ooh, you went for a nautilus! Don't be put off by not being included in this poll, it's a pretty original take on the topic!

MoHog: Woo sky cleaners! Not sure that's a healthy diet, but nevermind. It's a cute design, but the body shape makes me think more of insects than cephalopods (6 legs, hint of head, thorax and abdomen being separate). It's a nice pic though, especially good detail on the eye.

Zimfin: That looks frickin' awesome. Seemed a little too far a stretch from the 1-tentacle-sided make of cephalopods I think of, but nice dodge on the problems of inventing an Earth-dwelling one! A diagram of how that parachute forms would be nice too, but I'm totally saving this when I get home.

Kredepops: Woah. Imaginative cephalopod there, though it shows a little bit too much that the one in the background is copied and pasted... Still, it's a good concept and I like the mention of its social patterns (herd-size), but what mostly puts me off this is the appearance. The face-tentacles and very forward-pointing eyes in particular seem a little out of place... Nice choice of colours, but I think the face in this case seems a little too... Conventional compared to the rest of the body. Again; I like the use of different a planet to help with keeping the critter airborn.

Gax: I find this art style difficult to comprehend, so I'll keep this short. It's nice to see some bright colours, but it's a shame you can't see more of the creature's shape.

Dwinbotp: Awesome apocalypse demon, though I'd have prefered a beak to the teeth. It's a great picture too, but I'm a little put off by it snatching a cow. Despite not being vegetarian I guess I'm too soppy for livestock.

Christoffer: Glow-cuttlefish! This is a lovely picture and concept, knida makes me sleepy... I find its wings/tail a bit odd, but if I hadn't fallen for the simplicity of design and great textures on Bralt_Hannicart's I expect I would have voted for this.

OTTA: Very striking critter, but does make my eyes hurt a bit. Lovely background, I think it would have paid off if you'd gone for a similarly simple choice of colour-scheme. I don't think the Blue or Green Fairy lacks a ring to it (though it does make me think of puppets and alcohol, respectively), but then I'd have had the eyes on the side of the head too. I like the touch of the horns though, makes it very distinctive.

Ironhead (Artur Franik): Cute! Have you seen that short animation of the Gas Planet critters? Colourful and simple, a bit more oddities thrown in (like more about its habitat) would be nice, but this is one of my favourites, despite not being monstrous. Nice face too.

Poison: Hee, "squid trap" is a cool name. It's very cool (again one I think could hide in children's parties), but a bit more like a jellyfish than a squid? Cool mouth though. If the top right pic had been a close-up to show off texture (I'm a little put off by the furry blur) this might have got my vote.

Johannesblomgren: Corpse demon is very cool. The background looks out of place (Is that a photo?) but I love the creature's expression. Doesn't make me think of cephalopods, but it's definitely very cool.

Darkly: Interesting creature design, and nice touch to dodge the "how can it fly" bit (by saying what scientists currently believe, meaning that they, not you, are wrong if it's implausible). I think what puts me off is how the original art mixes with the background (a faded overlap which I think takes away from how awesome the lineart/colour on the creature is). Also, it shows that the other 2 background creatures are the same pose exactly, which is a shame since it would be nice to see this from more than 1 angle.

rWDrk: I know it's meant to be a slit pupil, but he looks so happy! What texture there is looks good, and it's a colourful design, which makes it more of a shame that the whole thing is so brief! It'd be nice if something was happening in the picture, or at least if we could see the whole critter.

Agustin_Poratti: How peculiar. It's a shame we can't see more of it, but I do like the vague art and short little story! It's very atmospheric!

Siiilon: Squid serpent! Very cool picture (I'm going to save it later for my awesome critter pic collection), though I'm not sure why the face is dripping when the tail isn't, and the use of the "head" as a tail takes away from the cephalopod-feel for me. It really is a gorgeous picture though.

Rauwolf: Rabbits like dandelions, are they its main predator? It's a very cute little critter, and it's nice someone went for a small one. Bit of a shame that the background's so blank and that the cephalopod art style doesn't match that of the plants... Cute eye ridges though.

GNAHZ: This reminds me of a Pokémon, though I'm not sure which one... I like the simple choice of colours, and though again I don't like the use of copying and pasting, it doesn't show so badly in this case. Not sure what the face-tentacles are doing though (it looks like the creature's diving, so I'd expect them to be pushed back), and it reminds me more of a fish or ray than a cephalopod.

ChromaticCodex: Awesome creature shape! Really does look like a cephalopod! Nice that someone went octopus too, they're so cute. The gorgeous line work on the head seems ill at ease with the algae-tentacles though... But overall it's a real shame that the picture isn't as striking as it should be, I might have voted this! Maybe get it submitted earlier next time?

Great job all! Sorry if these comments got increasingly brief/erratic/incomprehensible, I'm tired and there were a lot of entries!

[shinobitoshi]

dont have time to reply to everyone, but I am voting for christoffer. I really like your piece. It seems really well thought out to me. I like that you have not only taken into account the creature's method of flotation, but also it's means of locomotion via the wing flap thingys. It's cool that you decided to have the chemical reaction this creature uses to float also create a phosphoresence. It seems to fit your creature perfectly that this reaction holds such beauty because it is such a peaceful creature.

on a technical side I think you rendered the clouds really well and I love all the little details about the squid itself like the tiny veins on it's wings. You also handled the secondary light source from the gas sacs well.

The only thing I would like to have seen is a method of sight or detecting location. If it's location were a totally water covered planet it wouldn't be an issue, but I can almost see one of these smashing into a mountain because it didn't realize it was over land.

[Mydrim]

Voting for GAX. It was not an easy decision thogh, cause it's true the creature is poorly visible and so it's hard to say it is a creature design.
Anyway, I meditated about it and analyzed and finally you got the vote. But next time sure try to make the creature more defined!

[Christoffer]

Thanks for the comments HareTrinity & shinobitoshi and the vote/s. :D I actually didn't give much thought on it's eyesight so that was a mistake on my part. One of those 'Homer Simpson moments'. I guess I got too caught up in figuring out how to make the whole flight mechanic work.

[Kin]

Thanks meganite and HareTrinity for the comments! I usually tend to just work without really thinking too in-depth on how things work, which would be a good idea and for sure it would make it have that extra depth of reality. I should really work on that.