Team CHOW II-Team Coco Meowza

[Sekino]

3mMajster- Good job on the apple! I really like that one; funny fellow

XanaChama- I really like the chair and the rocket is a nice touch!

Pretty_Angel- No worries. As we discussed before, this was just a bit of practice to get warmed up. We all contributed and it's looking great

The official brief is coming up around midnight!!

I believe we've achieved our initial goal with this bit of practice. We have a better idea of how we each interpret ideas and that our styles are compatible (that's good news!). We'll just handle the brief and whatever is thrown at us the same way.

It seems that the genre will be pre-determined in the brief (Daestwen hinted at it), so I'm sure looking forward to our next brainstorming session...

Cheers y'all!

[AsaB]

Hi guys! Love the sketches, the ideas so far have been fabulous!

The brief is up!
Just gonna post a brief summary:

- Teams of five members need 8 portraits.
- You must do a LIGHT and a DARK version for each character.
- That means we need to design 4 characters, 8 portraits in all.

PLEASE SELECT ONE OF EACH CATEGORY FOR EACH CHARACTER.

Gender:
- Male / Female

Race:
- Human / Elf / Half-Elf / Dwarf / Orc - (and anything else you can think of!)

Class:
- Fighter (Barbarians, Knights, Dark Knights, Brawlers, etc)
- Thief (Assasins, Rogues, etc)
- Spell Caster (Wizards, Sorcerers, Druids, etc)
- Healer (Priest, Cleric, White Mage, Medic, etc)
- (feel free to make up something for this, too)

Alignment:
- Good / Evil (please do both for each character)


So! It's somewhat different from the last round of Team Chow. The genre is pretty specific in this case, that is, fantasy. In the words of daestwen: "We're looking at High Fantasy here, but I don't mind if you blur the culture lines a little bit. As far as style goes, that's totally up to your team. But try to keep it in genre." It looks like need to tweak our approach here a bit. It seems they're looking for humanoid characters, but we better ask daestwen just in case, just so know how our objects/fruits idea is gonna work. I'm still all for the cartoony tactic we agreed on, even though this is all high fantasy, it doesn't mean we need to go down the serious, realistic road.

Are people all familiar with this kind of fantasy genre? I definitely am, being a big video gamer and a sister of 3 boys :p If anyone isn't, it's probably a good idea to do some reading to see what we're dealing with.

I think it'd be good if we managed to have another live chat ASAP. Are people free today?

And lastly, here's a coloured version of my beaurocratic blackberry bloke! Made a new sketch. Just to show better how I ink and colour.

[Sekino]

Awesome! The suspense was killing me!

To be honest, Since Daest had warned not to get to entangled in any genre, I always had thought that our objects-fruits theme was for our group practice only.

And how ironic that uber-fantasy was the very theme we were vowing stay away from! That said, I do love elves and orcs as much as anyone; so it's all good I really like the good/evil twist also. I agree that we should stick with linear/cartoon style because it is our main common ground. I'll check for you guys on MSN (I'll be on for a couple of hours).

EDIT: Sweetness!!! I hadn't even seen the prizes!!

[AsaB]

I actually really liked that object/fruit idea, if we could've, I would've loved to have taken it further. But you're right, we should come up with something new for the actual brief, it's obviously not gonna work.

Haha, yeah, just was I was thinking, pretty ironic! I like high fantasy, though, I was just prepared to try something new with this, but it's all good I'm sure we could put a new and different twist to this all and make something interesting!

Alright, I'll be on MSN soon!

[AsaB]

I haven't come up with any worthy sketches so far, been mostly researching. I made these pictures for me of both races and classes in WoW, and just thought I'd share! Maybe it'll be useful to someone. If anyone has something similar, by all mans post! I know there is obviously much more available in classes and races, but this is a start
These are all screencaps from http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

Races


Classes

[Sekino]

Here are a few sketches, The first for some elf-warrior (good and evil), the second for some reptilian species' mages (good/evil as well)... Might be all I can post today because I'm now leaving for a wedding







Later!

[3mMajster]

Nice ones Sekino, I especially like that wizard, it's so cool.
I was busy, so I did only one sketch.
It's an elven mage, I know it's not the style we agreed on, but it just came out of me.

[Sekino]

Thanks Asa for the info! And nice first sketch, 3m!

I finally got around to making a moodboard for the style I'm thinking about (optional, again). Here are a few examples of line-based characters that are dynamic and fun as well as lavish. The key is to have crisp, detailed lines and to have them complemented with rich colours (this board is for a visual style, not a theme):



As far as the theme is concerned, aside from the mandatory classical fantasy stuff (represented here by Dark Crystal ), I believe we had discussed incorporating some African or desert cultural elements. I'm picturing some semi-desertic savanna, hence why most of my characters so far have bare feet... among other things... ;P



(I'll make a more detailed moodboard for theme if I get around to it. But I think we all get a good idea of what desert/african feel is... If we're still up for that)

Here's a quick example of colouring; I'm thinking rich, warm colours and the characters having colourful skins (orange, purple, green...):



Thoughts? Other ideas?

[Pretty_Angel]

Dammit - Firefox ate my text! D: So here the short version:

Love your sketches so far - especially the lizard wizard.

I finally wrote my test in German civil law yesterday so that I have more time on my hands! Yay! So far I did a bunch of sketches but I still need to scan and refine them. So give me another day, please?

In general I think it could also help if we finally could decide on a theme or golden thread or something. As much as I love drawing random fantasy creatures/characters I think it would help our working process if we have a goal to work on. I'm pretty much open for the idea on doing non-European-centred designs. We should also decide some basics like What kind of races shall we use? Classic fantasy stuff or made up ones?

As so far I'm with you on the style and colours, Sekino. Warm rich colours for the good guys and perhaps cold rich colours for the baddies? Though I'd prefer to make the baddies not too dark and evil themed. The last thing we need is having a bunch of goths or something in the end.

[3mMajster]

Nice mood board Sekino, and the lizard wizard is cool.
I also agree with Pretty Angel that we should decide on what races and classes we should use, so I think a new chat will be perfect.
I'm waiting for a new PC, it should arrive tomorrow, and who knows, maybe there will be a new tablet.

[Sekino]

One more; kinda troll-like with some gazelle features...



I agree we should determine exactly what 'races' will be in our lineup. We could also post suggestions here and choose from them. Actually, I thought that the first sketches would serve that purpose: We'd all show various ideas for characters and then choose from the ones we like best (or mix the best features)... I'm all in favour of another chat session before next week, though.

[Pretty_Angel]

XanaChama Yeah, seems so. Though I'd actually prefer if we could meet up a little in between cartoony and realistic. :3

Ok then, here are some quick sketches - nothing special so far.
(My sketches look always terribly messy and not a good as they could be. Sorry)







Very random ideas so far and not many details.

[AsaB]

Hi guys, what awesome stuff you have already!

I'm afraid I've nothing to show right now, unfortunately some stuff on the other side on the internet had to take priority for the last several days. But I'm all yours now!

Ok, so decisions. Here is what we need to tackle, so I'm just gonna write out my thoughts and sort it out.

Theme
I definitely agree that we need to nail that theme ASAP. I did manage to do some researching and brainstorming after our chat, but I must admit that it was hard for me to just pump out sketches without a theme frame. I started a few sketches but they all ended up as uninteresting and generic fantasy fluff.

I'm very inclined on doing something non-euro and explore more exotic cultures. So far I'm liking the desert/savannah ideas, loved those ideas and moodboards you put out there, Sekino! But shouldn't we fuse it with something unusual and create something completely ours? I just wanna stay cleer of it being an Assassin's Creed lookalike, that people won't immediately think of that when they see our stuff, or something equally popular of the same theme. It has to be unique But we knew that already! However, I don't think it'd hurt to look into other cultural areas outside of Africa while we're still deciding on a theme, there are many other interesting cultures out there. Possibly some that haven't been used a lot in fantasy already?

Style
The moodboard Sekino put out it pretty close to what I had in mind. I love the dynamic and exaggerated poses and overall style. Sabrina, I know you're not too keen on making it "cartoony", but I think we should be able to pull of a stylized look without people not taking it seriously or finding it somehow less ambitious, if that's what's bothering you. And those pictures Sekino posted, I think those characters are not your generic Sunday cartoons at all, while I'd personally use the word cartoony for them, I think they're beautifully designed and obviously demanded great effort. We'd just need to find that common ground. Am I making sense?

Races
Alright, so when we decide on a theme/concept/world for our characters, we need to start thinking about the races. Not nearly all the fantasy races are humans, although a plenty are humanoid. Or would you guys prefer going down the creature/animal road? I know the Thundercat Team is doing that. Obviously we can too, it's nothing new in the fantasy world, I'm just thinking if we could something that'd make it more unique?

When I mentioned the Africa theme to my brother (the "lesser gamer", but he knows plenty!), the first thing he mentioned was what kind of races we'd have. "Orcs, undeads etc don't seem African, so would you use giraffes and lions for races?" Haha We'd obviously not do something as blatant, but he has a point. Could we "africanize" (or whatever theme we use) the already existing races, or is that pushing the boundaries too much?

Light/Dark
I know it's still kinda early to think of these, but there are so many things to wonder in that aspect. Which of the two would be the "default" condition, if there is one? Could we somewhat blur the lines between light/dark so people would be unsure of which was which? That's something I personally find interesting but I'm also concerned if that's not considered following the brief properly, so we'd need to do it correctly. But it's food for later thought.

Also, I think we'd need some common factor in all characters that changes between those two states. You know, do we just make them 'light' by adding rainbows and butterflies and then 'dark' by putting in skulls and smoke? I was thinking of doing something more subtle and that'd actually make sense and be logical (in a fantastical sense, though!). Obviously this all also depends on the whole world concept/theme we've yet to nail. But we should definitely think of this aspect of it when designing it.


Alriiight, that's it, sorry for that huge wall of text! Normally you would've gotten this in smaller bits over the last few days But this is what has been brewing in my head since our chat. I'm sorry I don't have anything visual this time, neither inspiration pics nor sketches, but I promise I'll have something tomorrow.

Maybe it's even time for a new chat? Tomorrow possibly? In any case, I think we're all on the same page here and I'm positive we'll make something kickass out of this!

[JailHouseRock2]

looking soooo good ladies!

[Sekino]

Hiya! Thanks for the visit and encouragement, Matt!

Alriiight, that's it, sorry for that huge wall of text! Normally you would've gotten this in smaller bits over the last few days

No, no; I think that's great! Frankly, a nice well-organized lenghty post is great for exposing ideas withouth interruption. Chat is good because it's instant but it also only allows for a few short phrases at a time so thoughts get a bit fragmented...

I know you're not too keen on making it "cartoony", but I think we should be able to pull of a stylized look without people not taking it seriously or finding it somehow less ambitious, if that's what's bothering you. And those pictures Sekino posted, I think those characters are not your generic Sunday cartoons at all, while I'd personally use the word cartoony for them, I think they're beautifully designed and obviously demanded great effort. We'd just need to find that common ground. Am I making sense?

Makes sense to me, anyways But I also think it's important to be working with a style we all have faith in. So if there is a need to reconsider our style, we ough to address it early on. However, I gotta say I hesitate to automatically favour a 'game concept art' style just because it's the most popular style. Ilaekae once posted a great little spiel on the topic and it really resumes my position on the matter (and it saves me time to quote it ;p):

Because of the type of forum this is, with its stress on hyper-realistic and/or "painterly" rendering (important in context), many solutions that go outside those narrow parameters often suffer in the polling process because they "don't look like what we expect." The polling for ANY Challenge, from TDs to P.O.W.! should involve voting on the solution to the given problem above all else, and not an automatic knee-jerk reaction to a specific visual image type.

I think what's most important is to enjoy ourselves creating something that we'll be proud of as a team, not as much anticipating votes or responses alone. With that in mind, we still have time to experiment if there are other styles you'd like to explore (by next week, we'll have to be set though)

Light/Dark
I know it's still kinda early to think of these, but there are so many things to wonder in that aspect. Which of the two would be the "default" condition, if there is one?

An idea I had was to use a crest or symbols that each side would use on their weapons/clothing (like spirals for 'light' and 'spiky' for evils... only not something so lame). So we wouldn't resort on colours alone to determine the clans (meaning the good guy could still wear black, stuff like that). Suggestion only ;P

"Orcs, undeads etc don't seem African, so would you use giraffes and lions for races?" Haha We'd obviously not do something as blatant, but he has a point. Could we "africanize" (or whatever theme we use) the already existing races, or is that pushing the boundaries too much?

Sounds great! I really like the idea of inventing creatures totally from scratch yet without having straight anthro versions of known animals. For instance, there could be a race with giraffe markings and some characteristics but without looking like a giraffe... I think the most critical aspect of the brief is to stick with proper classes as opposed to species (as long as they have a relevant background), but I could have misinterpreted this.

Okay, I'll stop writing for now because two glasses of wine make me verbose and not very sensible

[Pretty_Angel]

AsaB Yeah, it's also hard for me to nail down useful ideas without those final decisions.

Theme
I think the most popular by far are Eurocentric fantasy games. Everything else is quite rare or hasn't been touched at all. So if we're doing something outside of Europe it should be quite easy to come up with something original. We just need to make a decision.

Style
Please don't misunderstand me - I don't want to push our style towards a generic conceptart style. It's just about finding a compromise. The examples shown by Sekino (precisely the one with the Chinese guys or that Pocahontas) are actually what I meant with a style that's somewhat between cartoony and realistic.
I hope that clarifies it. It's probably just a problem of semantics here.

Races
When we decided on the theme we could do some cultural research and just do what Tolkien did: Take mythical creatures and adjust them to our needs. I also like the idea of modelling European fantasy creatures into something foreign. Like there are some kind of tiger/lion-centaur that they have in Aion or a giraffe-centaur concept that is saw for Guild Wars Nightfall.

Light/Dark
You're right about that! We should think of some kind of symbol like Sekino mentioned. Perhaps some kind of flag or banner.
Though this would lead us to another question: Should the characters look like they are from the same faction/army or rather like individuals? If it's the first we'd need to determine certain criteria for the armour design.


So in the end it all boils down to one thing: We need to decide what theme to do ASAP! When do we want to do that? In a new Chat? If yes, when? Or here in this thread? Everybody suggests a theme and we take the one that's fine for all?

[AsaB]

I think Sekino's right, it does seem easier and more efficient to bounce off ideas here in the forums. It's easier to articulate somehow, everything happens so fast and we easily steer off course in the chat! I think we are making good progress, in any case

Theme
Okay, so is everyone liking going down the non-eurocentric road? I'm definitely up for it! So far the African theme has been getting some good responses, it seems. Should we maybe just decide on it to get it over with? I'm fond it that one myself, I think it has plenty of interesting opportunities and is something fantasy hasn't really delved into so far.

However, Africa is a big continent with a plethora of cultures and tribes, so just picking "Africa" isn't the end of our problems! I'm making a vast generalization here, but you can roughly divide Africa in two sections: North Africa (in Sahara, considered a part of the Arab world) and Sub-Saharan Africa (savannas, jungles etc). I made two quick inspiration boards to demonstrate my point, both with a few keywords regarding what cultures/tribes reside in these areas. I actually think so far I've seen more of the North African vibe in most of these sketches, with that kinda sand/desert feel to it. But we could also merge these and create something new!



Style
That quote by Ilaekae was fantastic, Sekino! I wholeheartedly agree with him. I'm all for doing something different than the usual run-of-the-mill hyperrealism. However, like Sabrina just pointed out, I think this was all a matter of semantics, I think we are actually on the same pager here after all! Maybe cartoony isn't the word here but rather comicbook-like? I suddenly felt so after looking at Sekino's moodboard up there again.

Races/Classes
Yes, having something like giraffe markings or elephant horns or whatever is characteristic of the theme we choose is exactly what I was thinking. Rather some subtle hints instead of making a huge giraffe creature or the like! I believe we should think about fusion here, since we definitely need those classic fantasy elements to not derail from the brief too much. So merging those with something exotic and new is the way to go here? And of course the classes are super important too, we need to think of all those aspects when creating something new.

Light/Dark
Ooh, I love the idea of having some symbols or crests! And flags! Yeah, we could design the world's flags, probably one for the two factions, light/dark. Having something more understated than "evil colours" is definitely good, yeah. And absolutely, I think the light version should be allowed to have dark colours in them, so they don't come across as light or dark purely by colour choices, like Sekino pointed out.

Sabrina makes a good point regarding factions vs individuals. I was also thinking of that. I think we need to depict them as distinct individuals but yet with that something in common. They don't necessarily have to come fromt he same faction. I mean, look at Horde vs Alliance in WoW, although there are 5 races in each, they all have distinctive looking characteristics but are on the same team. Is that something we could tackle?

[Pretty_Angel]

Theme
Ok then, my personal choice would be the Sub-Saharan Tribes. We could do some pretty cool stuff with war painting, accessories and such. I'd also say that we could still spice it up with some Arabian influences. I just love the draperies of their clothes.

Good/Evil
I think it would be more interesting if we have individual characters. Though we could use symbols or some kind of other detail (war paint?) to make them visibly a member of the same faction. That's probably a good compromise.

Races
I'd like to have at least one human, then perhaps a mixed creature and a mythical creature of sorts. The latter would need some more research, but should be possible. It could also be some anthro.

Classes
The classical 3-man-band in RPGs is consisting of a tank (warrior/knight/whathaveyou), a healer (shaman/monk) and a damage dealer (sorcerer/mage). Also quite common are supporter/dd classes like ranger/chanter/bards (or whatever they're called) and some other caster classes like mesmer/hexer/necromancers/etc. So the easy way to go would be taking the 3-man-band and one random pick of the rest. I don't know if we really want to make up completely new classes. Though we could make some mixes/hybrids.

[Sekino]

I hope I didn't put you on the spot, Sabrina. Just wanted to make sure that if anyone felt doubtful about the style we're aiming for, to express their ideas before it's too late in the game. All 5 of our honest opinions count And I do love realistic concept art and don't think it's generic/boring, just that a lot of people tend to try cloning that style.

Theme
The moodboard is great, Asa. I really like the mix of desert Bedouins and Sub-Saharan African tribes. I agree we should concentrate on that feel.

Races/Classes
Again, love the idea of African animal features. Are we going to also include one or two humanoid characters for variety? I was thinking they don't all need to look like animals, kinda like elves don't look like orcs but still can be in the same lineup (does that make sense?). Then again, I really like the creature aspects, so anything goes as far as I'm concerned. Same with classes, as long as they look varied enough.

Light/Dark
I'm pretty sure that the brief implies that the good/evil versions are indeed the same characters, only as alternatives. I guess they're some sort of 'dark mirror' image of each other. So while they can have different symbols (factions) and minor feature differences, they pretty much have to have similar characteristics only 'dark' and evil. Am I getting this right?

They don't necessarily have to come fromt he same faction. I mean, look at Horde vs Alliance in WoW, although there are 5 races in each, they all have distinctive looking characteristics but are on the same team. Is that something we could tackle?

Yes, I think it would be more interesting to have very varied races/tribes. I'm thinking a bit like in LOTR where you have so many radically different species yet they for alliances (evil or good). A common characteristic would be nice. But overall, I was thinking widely different shapes and sizes could be visually interesting...

XanaChama-

What medium(s) and program(s) are you using for a majority of your sketches, Sekino?

Sorry, I missed that I use ink for sketching then tablet and Photoshop for colours.

[Pretty_Angel]

Sekino No worries! with generic I just meant it's like a "all the cool kids are doing it" thing - like in that wonderful quote you brought up.

Light/Dark
I'm pretty sure that the brief implies that the good/evil versions are indeed the same characters, only as alternatives. I guess they're some sort of 'dark mirror' image of each other. So while they can have different symbols (factions) and minor feature differences, they pretty much have to have similar characteristics only 'dark' and evil. Am I getting this right?

That's also how I understood it. So basically we need to think of 4 different characters and then simply do one good and one evil version of them.

Otherwise I'm also with you when it comes to variations. The more the better!

[AsaB]

Theme
Ok, it seems we are settling for Africa! I hope to hear from Majster soon to get his thoughts in. But I think mixing those two African groups (the two moodboards I made) could create something new and interesting. Maybe we could vary the emphasis between these two groups between characters, like the rogue (or whatever) has more Sub-Saharan characteristics while maybe the warrior is more N-African. I think that might spice things up a bit.

Races
I agree we should vary these and definitely visually as well. So we can have both huge creatures and small with different silhouettes. I too want at least one human but I'd love to play with the rest and combine things! As long as remember to have some 'pure fantasy' in the core it should be alright to make those classes more African. So maybe the lineup would be like this:
- Human
- Humanoid (Elf/Dwarf/etc)
- Anthro (maybe Orc with some added themed elements)
- Mythical creature - (Maybe something very African and new?)
Also, some races are what is considered purely "dark", like undead and orc. Since we do both light and dark versions, we need to think of those dark guys too. It just seems like we have thought of 'light' as default so far, can't forgot to nasty guys too. It could be interesting to create the light version of undead, death knight and so forth.

Classes
We need to start deciding which classes we're going for. I liked the line-up Sabrina brought up earlier. To recap, we'd basically we'd be doing:
- Strenght (Warrior/Paladin/etc)
- Healing (Druid/Shaman/Monk/etc)
- Magic damage (Warlock/Mage/Sorcerer/etc)
For the fourth one, how about Stealth? That could be anything like Assassin, Rogue, Thief or possibly Ranger or Hunter. I believe that one would be quite different from the other 3 classes so far. Thoughts?

Light/Dark
You guys are indeed right, we design 4 individual characters with both a light and dark version of them. So they need to be recognized as the same character in these two versions. I like the idea so far to have emblems that symbolize the light/dark aspects, but we also need to convert more parts of the character/outfit/gear/hair between these two parts. Maybe we could make something like a "convertion chart" so that those characters who have, say, anything with green leaves on them as light will have those leaved but burned in the dark version. Okay, that was kinda lame, but do you see what I'm getting at?

[Pretty_Angel]

@Asa
I'm all for Stealth! I love playing Ranger classes, haha.
For the good/evil variations we could simply make some kind of digital paper dolls.

[Pretty_Angel]

XanaChama lol, sweet photo! And I agree NPCs are a good source for inspiration!


Ok then, now that we're pretty sure about the African theme I started to do some photo studies. Not much for the start since it's getting late here, but yeah... I need to get a feeling for the setting. Masai have pretty awesome coloured clothes!

[3mMajster]

Hi guys, sorry for missing the whole thing yesterday, but I wasn't home whole day.
I agree with all you guys said, and there is nothing I would like to add, you already said all I wanted to say.
There is only one thing, to draw.
I'll post some sketches latter.

[3mMajster]

Here is a quick one, don't have much time, and I'm still waiting for new computer.
Ok it's a rhino/warrior. Sorry if it's little blurry, I don't have scanner so I had to shoot it with digital camera.

[Pretty_Angel]

XanaChama: Depends on what you mean with "traditional fantasy" . So basically, yes it'll be fantasy but the armoury/weapon/creature design will be heavily influenced by African cultures instead of European. So since it's fantasy it doesn't have to be an accurate depiction of African tribes - it's fantasy, go wild!

3m Great idea!

[Pretty_Angel]

Just dropping some stuff here.

Some studies with reference used:





And some character sketches:

[3mMajster]

Those are some nice studies there Pretty. Keep up with the good work!

This is a monkey necromancer, I'll try to do a troll like creature, like Sekino suggested me.

[Bendragon]

Hey Sekino! Love the troll n elf sketches. Wish you n the team good luck!

[Sekino]

Hey Bendragon! Good to hear from you Thanks for the good words!

3mMajster- Nice rhino-warrior sketch! Character wise, I feel he's a bit too 'human' aside from the rhino head... It would be great if he had a more 'extreme' silhouette, like stockier with a heavy back (almost hunched) for more rhino-ness We could definitely work with it... I also really dig your monkey necromancer. Pushing that concept a bit more could be interesting!

Pretty_Angel- Great studies. I love the warrior sketch (the one on top). The second one looks nice as well but I get an outright Arabian feel from it, not as much African...

The centaur-creature is a great idea! I hope you won't mind, but I played around with the idea a bit trying to get it a bit less deer-like (especially the ears: I do believe one of the other teams have a deer-looking species). I mixed an elf-feel with a gazelle/satyr...



And that's just a straight-human warrior sketch:



Next step-

I think we probably have enought ideas by now to narrow down the concepts we'll work with as species/roles. If you all agree with the options, we ought to vote 4 from the following tentative ideas to polish them off (settle on their exact features, accessories, symbols, etc). Let's not forget we'll have to find names/backgrounds for each species we create...

A-Ape-based creature/Wizard
B-Rhino-based creature/Palladin or Warrior
C-Gazelle-based creature/Rogue or thief
D-Reptile-based/Healer
E-Human/Warrior

I could see any combination work. Just for kicks and get the process started, I'd vouch for A, B, C, D (just because it sounds like one colourful lineup! If anyone would rather keep a human in there, I have no problem with it either...) and, since we haven't been very clear on gender yet, C and/or A being female. What do you guys think?