C.O.W. #254. Extreme Sexual Dimorphism - WIPs Thread

[Si_Swe]

For more info and details about the rules go here:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=110879


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ROUND #254: Extreme Sexual Dimorphism

topic:

ROUND#254 - Extreme Sexual Dimorphism

This next two weeks we’ll be dealing with designing a set of creatures wherein the physical differences between genders are immense in a very fundamental way. Your task this week will be to choose one of the sets of male and female provided. It will be up to you to determine how these creatures mate, and while having a very blatant difference, it will be up to you to ensure that the creatures still look like they could be of the same species. With that, here are your options for sexual dimorphism:

Tiny, Airborne Male - Colossal Aquatic Female
Requirements:
- The male must be significantly smaller than the female
- The male must reside primarily in the air, the female must reside primarily in the water

Rooted, Stationary Male - Hyperactive, Nomadic Female
Requirements:
- The male must be entirely stationary, rooted to one spot for most of its life
- The female must be high-energy and move from place to place consistently

Crystalline Male - Gelatinous Female
Requirements:
- The male must have a rigid, crystalline form
- The female must be partially comprised of a malleable, gelatinous material

Big thanks to infinitemonkey for suggesting the topic.

Deadline:

April 11th 9:00pm PST (GMT -8 )

finals go here... http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=3405679

[Rob Powell]

Great topic Si_Swe!

Got an idea for this one already!
I think you can make out what's going on in the image, just need to work on the designs a bit further, cuz they are kinda shitty.

[Pixeltuner]

I like this. Now I need to think. ^_^

[DyingAtheist]

Absolutely love the topic idea, reckon I'm going to go for rooted myself!

[Mr. P Show.]

cool topic

[aburnier]

Wow... very nice idea - especially because this occurs all the time in the real world. I really want to try out something insectoid... I might do some sketches if it turns out I have enough time.

[scorge]

Hey guys, been a minute or two. I've been battling some kind of shitty illness lately. Not really even close to healed yet, but damn it feels good to draw something.

[Metallurgist]

Going for the stationary male and hyperactive female
sexy time!

[Banvivirie]

Here's mine. It is likely to change.

[Metallurgist]

Another wip
I'm a bit worried that the female is to small. I'm trying to think of a way to prominently display them both, but nothing is coming to mind. frustrating.

[scorge]

Metallurgist: It is a difficult challenge. What if there was more than one female, and they were both vying for the male's attention. Give you an opportunity to show at least some of the detail for the female. Or, you could always change the female's point of view. Bring here a little closer to the viewer. I do know that sometimes the from behind the shoulder kind of shot is preferred. Could use some water or other reflective surface to show her face? I don't know, just throwing them out there. I understand your frustration.

Working on it....

[ToddBushman]

WIP - includes closeup of an Octofly

Every March the Octoflies gather in the millions out in the ocean while the Octopi turn upside down and spread their tentacles. The male's sacs are so large that they are too heavy to carry and start dropping from their bodies. The Octopi catch the sacs as they fall. A few months later, new Octoflies and Octopis are born.

[Pixeltuner]

Fooling around with the crystalline vs blob thing. Thinking of doing something with the male carrying the female around.

[Banvivirie]

I like the green one best Pixertuner, it's cute. I also like the red one, as it kind of has a basket on its back for her.

Fumbling with POV compositions. I am also struggling with showing the male and female together without losing the full view of one. I did some changes with the female anatomy.

I haven't settled on a way for them to mate, but I figure since the females are so huge and colossal that they live for hundreds of years as a deep sea predator. Only one female is viable for reproduction at a time, and when she becomes sexually active her airsac inflates, forcing her to the surface to be found by the males. They follow her across the sea as she eventually breaches on land and lays her eggs. She allows whichever males are present to fertilize her eggs, and she protects them with her body until they hatch. She dies on land shortly after.

[Rob Powell]

created a better silhouette for the female...still playing with ideas for the male...

[aburnier]

Dear Rob and Scorge. Your designs are effing awesome.

that's all I have to say.

[L.A. KARKERA]

Interesting topic! Count me in!

I'm going with "Tiny, Airborne Male - Colossal Aquatic Female" topic for my part. Here is the sheet of silhouette designs.

As for the female, she is designed like that as a silhouette but she is more of a vertical figure. Her four hind legs are designed to attach to the bottom, her body as the encasing armor to protect herself from potential predators and inside her body armor lies the sac for nesting.

Detailed explanation on the background of sexual dimorphism creatures: Once when she is ready to release eggs, she will rise to the surface once per ten years and release the million eggs that look like foam. The eggs are hatched after a week and offsprings crawl back into the sea. Females will sink to the bottom where they grow to an enormous size and attach themselves to the bottom. Males will consume nutrients needed in the sea and when they're ready, they'll fly out. They also will mate with females when they rise to the surface to lay eggs, etc.

- LKA.

[Rob Powell]

did a bunch of silhos trying to figure out what to do for the male...more likely gonna settle with this first design though, with a few small changes here and there...pretty soon gonna start working on the illustration...



Edit: ah, what the hell, I'll do some crits as well since I'm here...
scorge: nice start man! I'm not sure I wanna know how they mate...may be still early but I'm not sure what that arm looking thingy sticking out of the ground is supposed to be or do...no biggy at this, point just a little curious...

Metallurgist: I think you can push the stationary factor even further in the male, also as for readability on the females, pretty much what scorge said, and you could put one in the foreground, say on the stump for example or add another foreground element on the right.

Banvivirie: composition 1 seems to most promising for showcasing both effectively, you wanna make sure that the scale comes across the way you want it too, just have ne or two males fly by in the foreground so we get a better view of them (of course keep in mind the focus of objects on the foreground), also number may work also, and when in doubt you could use something like what I did in my first wip, just magnify one of the males.

ToddBushman: you def wanna push the values at this point, also the design of the female is looking a little plain, interesting idea though.

Pixeltuner: I like the blue concepts however I also like the idea of the males carrying the females around, I'd def play around with that idea even further see what else you can come up with before settling on an idea.

L.A. KARKERA: looks interesting atm, male doesn't look very capable of being airbourne, but it is still just a silhouette, try to push the design a bit further from each other so they don't resemble each other too much, one of the best examples in nature that you can look at is the anglerfish for reference, for the longest time scientists thought they were two different species, plus they were puzzeled why every specimen was female.

[scorge]

(updated) It kind of goes like this Rob,
Fat bastard sits on his fat ass, eating his mushrooms or giant white puff things that grow as a result of his lethargy and nastiness always oozing all over, and she stops by when when needs a pick me up. Her eggs are fertilized when she rubs all over his exposed root, which can be seen extending from the ground. Huh, guess I need to work on his orgasmic expression. Kind of gross I know, but then again, it's nature right?

BTW, Cool silhouettes dude.

aburnier: You do flatter me. Appreciate it.

Pixeltuner: Always appreciated your strokes. Personally, I like # 4. But the green guy is close second.

Banvivirie: Awesome idea!

[lkjhgfdsa]

Yes, I have a thing for carapace...

Tiny, Airborne Male - Colossal Aquatic Female
Requirements:
- The male must be significantly smaller than the female
- The male must reside primarily in the air, the female must reside primarily in the water

[ninety9]

cool one lkjhg

[Pixeltuner]

Some development. I seem to have lost some of its coolness in the shape though in a way especially in the neck and head.

[silken]

I dunno, Pixel, I still find it pretty darned cool... I like the contrast between the steely grey and the bright green.

[Pixeltuner]

thx But something's still nagging

[Banvivirie]

thx But something's still nagging

Just a guess, but I think that the missing element is that the original drawing had a more plausible musculature happening from the shoulderbones down to the neck, where it looked like it still extend its neck out (which would be useful, if it wanted to like eat or something). Don't forget they need to look like the same species - maybe give the glob a headplate.
lkjhgfdsa I really like the creature design, it looks like a reaper and has lots of cool details, but I don't know if it necessarily looks aquatic. Colossal aquatic creatures don't need their limbs to support their weight.
scorge Gross... cool... weird... they look a bit too different to be of the same species to me though, maybe give them the same headpiece or similar markings.
Rob I can't wait to see the actual structure of the creatures!
LAK & Todd I second what was already said.

[Rob Powell]

quick background whipped up and started rendering...still building up forms before adding any sort of major lighting or whatever...probably need to work on the male's wings a bit, it's supposed to buzz kinda like a bee or a hummingbird, but as they are now they seem incapable of doing that...

[scorge]

Awesome advice Banvivirie. Thanks!

Final...Going to try my hand at the crystalline and blob too. What the hell.

[Si_Swe]

scorge - Go for it! I'd love to see you take that on too. On your current one, I'd maybe push the atmospheric perspective on the female a little more, get her a little further in the background.

Rob - Is that the size comparison you're going with? I think you could probably go even smaller on the male. If you want to keep it in one illustration, you can always work with areas of magnification, especially if you're looking at a full on profile view.

Pixeltuner - I'd say it's less a problem of lack of interesting forms right now, but I do think that it will be important to develop traits that are visible in both male and female forms, to really give us that visual cue that they're the same species. Obviously that's harder with such dimorphic forms, but I think you can pull it off.

lkjhgfdsa - Very nice. I'm interested to see what the environment you put them in looks like, as well as your colour scheme for these guys.

[Rob Powell]

Si_Swe: don't worry that was my intention, my first wip is basically a shitty version of what I'm going to do with the illustration.

[Banvivirie]

Okie so I changed the airsac on the female to feathery appendages that unfurl at the surface of the water. The males latch on and deposit sperm on the bioluminescent bulbs at the ends, so they work a lot like the pistil of a flower to deliver sperm to her ovaries.
I still need to make a cloud of males around and finish the feather pistils, but wahtuthink?