From dinosaurs to fantasmical monsters, creatures certainly make up a decent part of the conceptual artists diet. So what goes into the basis of a creature? How do you come up with a monster that will stand the test of time?
The First Step to building a great creature is coming up with your basic concept.
General Rules of Thumb:
If you want to create a fictional animal, creature, or monster then it can be highly useful to know how parts of animals in real life work. Knowing why bones have a specific form in nature allows you to then use that information to create bone formations that are similiar, or even totally different yet still believable and relevant to their task in a new creature. The same goes for muscles and covering “membranes” (fur, scales, skin,...) and generally all manner of organs found in nature. Knowing how these work can help with constructing a creature that is believable (if it would exist on this planet) and can be used to extrapolate parameters for different worlds like high/low gravity/temperature worlds and different climatic enviroments. It could be useful to have one or two books on biotic community or ecosystems to get a general overview on the workings of nature. A lot of exotic animals and their behaviour can be an inspiration for creatures.
As crazy as it may sound it’s true. Take any of your favorite fictional creatures and you’re bound to have a combination of real ones. It may just be a simple mix of two obvious parts, such as a human and a horse (centaur,) or perhaps a little more complicated; A woman, a lion, and a bird (sphinx.) Even the most fantastic and freakish creatures ever to be concepted find some grounds in reality.
What’s that you say? You don’t know any cool animals? Well, you poor chap and/or lass, in that case feel free to head over to the creature references page.