sandwhale creature

[S13Drifter]

heres a creature from a small project i've been working on. its a type of "sandwhale" sort of creature that lives out in the dune sea. haven't come up with a name for it yet. I'd like to get some feedback so c&c's would be much appreciated.

http://stu.aii.edu/~mpl301/sandwhale.jpg

[bwkeough]

It looks good and I believe it could exist. It seems to have the right anatomy to swim through sand.

[Creativefx]

Sweet Stuff, can't wait to see more.

-Creativefx

[PencilPunx]

I like it a lot, and I agree that it definitely looks like something that would live in the sand. I'd like to see some pictures of it in it's environment to see how the whole thing works. Does it "swim" under the sand? If so, maybe you could add some type of breathing aparatus to substitute for a blow hole and contribute to the wale theme.

[S13Drifter]

PencilPunx- As a matter of fact it does swim under the sand. And the breathing aparratus is already thought of. I still need to do the orthographic views of it and certain cut-aways to depict how it work but ill just tell it to you for right now. The chittinous armor plating on the top of its torso splits open like a flying beetles shell splits to expose its wings. thus exposing "gill" type membrane which takes in the air when it surfaces.

creativefx- thanks man, glad you like it. and more is to come. ill post as i finish other concepts for this world. I've taken a look at your site. I really like your stuff. Any pointers on becoming a concept artist\production designer in orange county? :D

bwkeough- im glad you feel that the creature has a sense of tangibility. I did some comparative anatomy to piece this one together.

[Ahkahna]

I'm a lover of creature creations, and personally, I think it's awesome :}

[S13Drifter]

awesome or not.... it still has to go through another iteration of design. Just got back from a meeting with the instructor thats advising me and helping me through this project and theres some things that need to be "tweaked."

Such as the size of the paddles. They appear to be to long to be practical for subterrainean movement. also they need to be fairly bulky in respects to the fact that moving through sand is considerably more resistant than moving through water.

another point he made was pretty much subjective, but it held alot of merit. It addressed the fact that the tail end and the head were pretty much the same size, and i should give one more precidence over the other. He advised i should make the head larger due to the way i selected how it eats. this creature survives by feeding much like a whale. it filters sand through openings in the head which act as a sift that sifts out smaller sand mite creatures that live under the surface.

so suffice to say im taking it through another iteration or two. but i'll post it up here when i complete my second pass. and if any of you have any other suggestions from a design stand point i'd appreciate any. always up for another good idea or two :D .