TEAM CHAL: Demon Cat Assasin Herders Inc.

[Raoul Duke]

cool post Pixie. Glad to hear you liked my selections so much.

I have been having trouble with my tablet all week. I think I'm going to have to reinstall my wacom driver.

Meanwhile I have an idea for an exercise. It's something I do when I need to focus on composition or just think outside of the box. It's like a Rorschach test. See what you can do with the limited color pallet and open it as you move along. Feel free to flip, skew, warp and ad textures if you'd like. Anything to squeeze out a picture. This method is tried and true. Most of the star wars designs were created this way.

[Pixie Trick]

Ohhh... I see things! I'm definitely going to give that a go tonight. Is there a larger version anywhere?

While we're doing that, I think it would be good to start getting a storyline figured out. Even if it is extremely rough it gives us something to go off of. Some previously mentioned ones:

The enemy is an organism that corrupts the land and the guardian combats it by releasing his spirit creature which repells the slimy corruption thingy.

A small indigenous village has been living in secret, protecting a rare magical creature from exploitation. The village is being encroached by a rapidly growing industrial civilization.

And some thoughts on both of them:

Personally I would make the character the keeper of the spirit beasts (or whatever you want to call them). The evil makes sense as the corrupter of the land, but if that were the case I would make it a large opposing evil (vs. the guardian) with sub corrupting organisms (that makes the situation mirror-like I guess, but more parts to work with). I think this setup would give us a lot of range to work in. The basic plot is pretty much the basic plot which means all the interest goes into designing and images. For some reason I can totally see this not so much with the style but the vibe of Spirited Away.

The second is very workable too. If it were set on Earth I think things could get a bit like the news - How many times has this actually happened and continues to happen to this day if you remove the magical creature and replace it with their way of life or a resource? If this were another planet it would give us an opportunity for some very interesting character design (I would totally go for non-human on both sides) and it would be interesting to try doing some low tech sci-fi design that is not a spear and bow + arrow in disguise. Warrior steeds and guerrilla attack critters could be fun to design too.

What do you guys think. Both of these have promise, and of there are other ideas of modifications to these out there speak up!

[Varguy]

I know this isn't really the most effective way to go at things, but I reaaally suck at creating any worthwhile thumbnails, so I worked on a little story telling illustration instead. Just maybe a visual orientation if we go with:

Personally I would make the character the keeper of the spirit beasts (or whatever you want to call them). The evil makes sense as the corrupter of the land, but if that were the case I would make it a large opposing evil (vs. the guardian) with sub corrupting organisms (that makes the situation mirror-like I guess, but more parts to work with). I think this setup would give us a lot of range to work in. The basic plot is pretty much the basic plot which means all the interest goes into designing and images. For some reason I can totally see this not so much with the style but the vibe of Spirited Away.

[Raoul Duke]

I reinstalled the wacom driver and it's working fine now. But I have to customize the settings.

The thumbnails I made are just an excersize. Just give it a shot. No need to spend more than an hour on it.

This is not a bad composition. But the shrunk down, blurred out thumbnail I'm attaching is the first impression of an image. Like I said, not bad, but we could have options. The village looks like a mountain (I kinda like that) and the guardian doesn't even register. Those designs are actually very impressive at a medium distance but drown out in the big picture. So yes this could be better.

I'm going to play with your image now.

[Pixie Trick]

I think shifting the pov down would help this be a bit more dynamic and tell more about the attack of these things. Right now we're looking at some point between the hand and the little man's face which is quite static. If we shift down, the main baddie is larger and more looming and looks like he's going to overwhelm the city. I'll leave actual compositional mucking about to Raoul Duke for now. However, my main question is why the corrupting figures are so clearly human shaped- no warping or exaggeration. Should they be humanoid at all? Hands are unique in that they can grab, and humans are unique and that they have hands, but I think we can push what these corrupters are in the first place. Also, is the man in red calling up his spirit beasts? Would we be able to get more info across if it were more of battle scene? Anywho, I'm being an ass doing all this hypothetical questioning and blathering without drawing. I'll shut up now.

[Raoul Duke]

I did a quick paintover. I rolled with the idea of the village resembling a mountain to resembling a mountain range. The guardian is far more present in this image even when shrunk and blurred to hell. The shadow demon goo people are cropped in giving better use of their space.

I do see sort of a Miyazaki narrative in this. Here is a rough idea for a 2 page script.

An aristocratic breed of dark rulers demand tribute of souls to sacrifice for their army of slimy demon assassins. Happy mountain village offers a small herd of stray cats. Mangy strays are not good enough for the shadow lords, they demand the sacrifice of a young fertile woman. The Guardian offers herself as tribute. As the demon assassins approach the guardian she gives a signal and an army of assassin cats attack the demons.

[Raoul Duke]

An idea for the evil shadow master. I don't know if it's humanoid to have a goopy cluster of vaguely humanoid creatures. But let's keep them unified and mysterious. Keep it to where you can't tell where one ends and one begins.

Please keep in mind. Composition is not the coal here. This is the beginning of a design idea.

[Varguy]

@Pixie: I was thinking maybe the corrupted organism absorbs all kind of dead things, so the human shapes are fallen humans who died fighting it or just couldn't escape.

@Raoul: I initially didn't really plan the guardian to be in the image, just wanted to do a quick story telling piece how an attack of the corruption in that world might look like. But yeah, you're right if this was to be a final illustration, the whole composition would have to be different and focusing much more on the guardian and how he actually plans to fight the evil thingy.

I like the shadow master idea. However I'd make the figures popping out of it smaller. Like they are just insignificant things he absorbed on his way to the town. There could also be the occassional deer or bird and stuff hanging out of his body to show that this thing is just a massive avalanche of destruction and everything in its way gets aborbed and is made a part of it.

[Raoul Duke]

Here are three more silhouette variations. I'll admit they're all sort of the same concept and only read as a mess from far away, but I'll stand by them. I'll see if I can think up something different tomorrow.

Edit(missed varguys post):
Adding additional animals would be a great idea. Go ahead and play around with these if you'd like. They're definitely open to paintover.
(off to bed for me.)

[Alex Eh]

Great stuff guys keep it up!

[Pixie Trick]

Perhaps working on some character thumbs for all of these people/things would help? I like the idea of absorbed dead things that are evil-ified. To expand on that, what if the longer they were absorbed into evil, the more distorted they are? So you get fresh zombie like dead, then more and more mini-boss evil monster dead looking. I'm also going under the assumption that are creature designs will be the good spirits and the evil blob minions which means that they can't be humanoid according to comp. rules. So, a cat would eventually no longer be a regular zombie cat, but an evil demon cat with horns and multiple mouths or whatever.

[Incinerated]

i'll see if i can sling out something tonight

[Raoul Duke]

Perhaps working on some character thumbs for all of these people/things would help? I like the idea of absorbed dead things that are evil-ified. To expand on that, what if the longer they were absorbed into evil, the more distorted they are? So you get fresh zombie like dead, then more and more mini-boss evil monster dead looking. I'm also going under the assumption that are creature designs will be the good spirits and the evil blob minions which means that they can't be humanoid according to comp. rules. So, a cat would eventually no longer be a regular zombie cat, but an evil demon cat with horns and multiple mouths or whatever.

Lets see your take. All I ask is you put a powerful figure head on there for storytelling purposes.

Speaking of storytelling... Any objections to the storyline I posted? I think right now would be a good time for me to bang out the script. Once the scale tor everything is established I can get started on a layout.

[Raoul Duke]

The Cat Herder
Page 1
Panels 1,2 and 3 are a 180 degree pan. Panels 4-8 are a 4 quarter grid.

Panel 1
The Guardian snatches up a cat with her staff. We see her sunny village in the background.

GUARDIAN
Sorry Buster, you’re not getting out of this.

Panel 2
She snatches up another cat. We can see low dark clouds falling upon the meadows.

GUARDIAN
You too Gus.

Panel 3
We see half a dozen cats trailing her to the dark, murky swamps.

GUARDIAN
c’mon guys, I don’t like this anymore than you do.

Panel 4
We see a glowing, sinister grins in the darkness. There is an aristocratic figure head on top.

SHADOW LORD
Excellent, What souls have you to tribute?

Panel 5
The Guardian grabs a kitty by the scruff of his neck.

GUARDIAN
How would you like some nice little kitties.

Panel 6
The shadow lord is angered.

SHADOW LORD
We only ask for Tribute as a courtesy. We could take your village.
So you must do better than some flea bitten stray cats.

Panel 7
The Guardian snuggles the kitty.

GUARDIAN
I forgot you were allergic to kitty cats.

Panel 8
The cats circle the guardian and their eyes begin to glow. They seem to be morphing into lynxes.

GUARDIAN
So it looks like we’re off the hook then doesn’t it.

.................................................. .................................................. ............................
Page 2
Splash page of the cats growing to enormous sized beasts.

GUARDIAN
Or are we going to have a little misunderstanding.

[Incinerated]

I like it so far Raoul

Shadow lords and lover beasts

3's holding a wonky torch

[Pixie Trick]

latus: You alive my dear?

incinerated: So #1 is the head evil thingie + minions, and #2+3 are guardian concepts?

Raoul Duke: I'm absorbing the plot right now. I can see myself peeing myself laughing over a comic based on this for sure.

Finally, drawing! Ok, so just illustrating what might happen if they did morph to match a head evil. These are pretty generic evil-ifying and I'd like to try a few other things- mostly playing with warping anatomy 'cause these are all pretty much the same on the body structure, but you get the idea I think. So the boss evil blob might and or all of the following: a bunch of mouths, bits of fur, glowing orange eyes and horns if this were the resulting cat for example. If we get a boss evil we can morph a cat or whatever to match it more in the same manner. I see the absorption of things into a goo working very well in a comic format, but I'm a bit more hesitant for the rendered images. I can give that a go next along with the other things I've mentioned and see how it works. Suggestions?

[Raoul Duke]

Pixie-I'm glad you like the script. I Really like your cat beast. I was about to upload mine until I saw your's, so I went back and added horns.

[Raoul Duke]

I couldn't think of anything too impressive for the guardian, but at least I'm not going to have a problem with her interacting with the kitty cats.

[Incinerated]

Pixie Yeah, sorry was abit tired by the end of that post, 3-4 in the morning as ussual. anyway nice cats.

Raoul Needs even more cats, more you hear!?

The 1st one was just me trying to get into sync with you guys, 2nd one was actually supposed to be a villain type, 3rd was me going for the ranger style hero latus wanted a while back, I guess I can always make the crossbow into a cat launcher instead, 4th was an attempt at a non-human character, I call it Amor, once it hits you with its hammer, it will 'love' you for ever.

[latus]

Sorry for absence. Was busy with other things, but now I back on track.

Here is my interpretation of corrupted villain. Later I'll make morphed cats as well.

[latus]

Morphed kitties. I uploaded psd to dropbox if you feel like playing with the colors.

[Varguy]

Worked a bit with Raoul's Guardian design. The crazy catlady guardian during a battle and a quick sketch of her main cat companion. It's grown too big to throw, so now she uses it as a mount instead.

[Raoul Duke]

Allright, since the Shadow Lord and the Cats morph we can totally roll with all of these concepts. If you guys are up for me adding a few more panels we can have a smoother transition. Any changes I make to the script will be in red text.

Cats-Since cats naturally have great varriation in coat and body type, it's sort of open season. I think we all like the big ass ears and horns, so that will be their common thread. As a personal request. Can everybody do a mess of cat studies. We need to have a good mental library of cat anatomy. Lets use logic for the transformations. Fluffy cats become lions, black cats become panthers etc.

Shadow Lords- I'll stand by my idea of having a historically recognizable aristocratic figure head to begin with. Something that says "bow down peon, or I'll have my underlings kill you" When the defences go up he transforms into a larger more demonic form.

Other notes: While I'm at it here are some more ideas that I think we are closing in on as this project develops more personality.

Guardian- It came to my attention that she needs cultural reference, so she doesn't become generic fantasy fair. Let's make her a gypsy. They are a nomadic and untamed culture that has been roaming the earth since the Roman empire. They fuck around with magic and certainly value sexy ladies, without coming across as misogynistic.
My favorite design element is the cat basket. The armor is cool but we can push it to be more decorative.

Happy Ass Village- Varguy's first sketch really nailed a great start. How about it spreads out as a massive gypsy camp. The caravans stack on top of each other when they are densely grouped.

Murky Swamps-In contrast to the colorful village, lets limit the hell out of the pallet. We just need to find the appropriate reference.

[Incinerated]

Continuing the cats with horns line of thought. cats so far is not seeming like my strong suit... will study, now bed time

[Raoul Duke]

Yeah for some reason your cat looks a bit like a cow. It's okay if cats aren't your strong suit. But I promise if you do 3 or 4 reference studies in different poses you will get the hang of it and have a strong mental library.

Here is a site for good big cat reference. http://www.bigcats.com/home Give some of the more obscure breeds a shot. Lions and Tigers are bit too obvious. Lets see if we can come up with something surprising.

[latus]

...cat studies incoming...

[Raoul Duke]

Nice page dude. Now try some off the cuff designs. That's a good way to get a study trapped in your memory.

[Incinerated]

Well done latus

3 or 4 kittens inbound, gotta go too work, gonna do abit more cat studying later.




I love these ears

[Raoul Duke]

Incinerated- Your making progress. But I don't think you quite have the hang of it yet. I'm going to call out a couple habits I'm seeing. You are making the heads too big (I do that too). I understand stylizing them, but you are losing the characteristic. You also seem to be forcing the head to point straight forward. The idea is to pick up on the natural movements.

[Incinerated]

not a lot of work today

Raoul the huge head thing, is because I couldn't make the face of the cats work, I used to do it with people as well...
I think its because I become so focussed on the face I forget to check my proportions

More cat faces... a bit better I think on the ones I semi rendered.