C.O.W.#148 -- NEWBORN Special TWO week round. "Extraterrestrial Gestation Cycle"!

[Michael Jaecks]

For more infos and details about the rules go here:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=110879


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Round #148 NEWBORN Special TWO week round

Topic:
Extraterrestrial Gestation Cycle

Creature Description: Extraterrestrial Gestation Cycle-- As announced in the WIPs thread for the last round, we are doing a special edition COW for the next two weeks tied into the Massive Black/Wacom contest: "Newborn." Our topic this week is "Extraterrestrial Gestation Cycle."

Your task this week is to design a new alien creature at the beginning of its existence. You entry must consist of no less than THREE panels: Embryo, Fetus and Newborn. You may, with your entry, show more than three stages of its development if you like, but every entry must consist of at least three images (joined into ONE entry, not three seperate posts.) You need to show the creature's development over time, which is why we're doing a minimum of three panels. Embryo means early development. Fetus means its anatomy is formed and visible, but the creature is still in utero/egg/host. Newborn means the creature is sufficiently developed to survive outside it's mother's womb, egg, or gestational host (rather like Giger's Alien Chestburster.)

Think about the possibilities. There are ENDLESS awesome directions to develop your new creature.

You have two weeks to develop and execute your design. That's a lot of time, which is why a little more is being expected of everyone this week. Think about your creatures design, biology, anatomy and physiology. It could have a very brief gestational cycle. It could have a very long one. Humans gestate for a little less than 300 days. Elephants develop over 600 days. What sort of creature would need 1000 days? (That's nearly 3 years) ... or longer? If your creature has an unusual color of blood... what would it's embryo and fetal development look like? Probably pretty different from pictures you've seen of human fetuses or baby chicks inside an egg.

Really push yourself into new designs, even for the embryonic stage. Whereas an embryo might consist of a few cells, for a complicated organism, those cells could be very unusual, detailed and complex. The uterus inside which it forms might be quite unusual.

The Newborn should be a fully designed, interesting creature. Many animals are born into a great deal of self-sufficiency. Some are up and walking within a few minutes of being born. Not every newborn infant is helpless.

The same COW rules apply as always. No humanoids. No characters. No creatures that lack form, design, anatomy.



Deadline:
EXTENDED DEADLINE: Friday July 10th!.

Finals go here: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=161364

note: The deadline won't be EXACTLY after a week...it can last up to 24 hours more, i am human and have to work also, you know
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[tonynokills]

Awesome. This'll be fun.

[churapsoy]

Hhahaha, very unique topic! but 3? hmmm, i might bite off more than I can chew but it's fairly early on,. Wonderful idea sir!

[Michael Jaecks]

You think three is a lot? Hmmm.

For COW #100 we had to do 100... that's ONE HUNDRED 150px by 150px thumbnail creatures in a month. We picked ten topics and did ten creatures for each. The turnout for this round was crazy. Students and professionals alike stepped up for it. Obviously each one wasn't as well rendered and detailed as a single COW entry, but people took it pretty darn seriously....

This dorky artist came no where near close to getting anywhere in the poll, but even he did pretty good on some of his designs

http://www.michaeljaecks.com/cow100.html

Just you wait till we get to COW 200. Just you wait. ;P

[Blitz]

What resolution did you paint those 150 x 150s at?

[Michael Jaecks]

Um... I forget. Probably 500 or 600px square then shrunk them down. I do some work simillar to that sort of thing for a couple clients... browser rpgs, buttons for websites, playing pieces for casual games, all between 40px square and 100px square. There's no sense in making your eyes bug out when you do it. Work at 500px then reduce.

[acb]

wow....thats a really good theme for this one ^_^ i think we can do more of" the stages of development of a creature" theme and concerning the newborn thatll be a great oportunity to explore the creature im making for it mj .....thats cool @_@ *pointing this thread*

[Michael Jaecks]

Thanks acb.

I think a smart way to do this would be to start with the fully designed, matured and birthed 'Newborn' and then sort of devolve it in form a bit for 'fetus' while modifying texture, color, whatnot for its look 'in utero' and then sort of devolve the form further for the embyronic stage. You can modify its surroundings as well, be it, egg or placenta or womb as the creature changes over time. I wouldn't mind seeing folks use the idea that the alien gestates inside a host, though different from the Giger 'Chestburster' idea.

I havent participated in a COW since taking over the mod responsibilities, but I am giving some thought to trying this one.

[acb]

I havent participated in a COW since taking over the mod responsibilities

damn @_@ being so close and incharge of a very cool think and not being able to participate ....its annoying (at least i know i would get annoyed out of it ~_~...well hopefully the longer timeframe will let you join too

[Blitz]

Um... I forget. Probably 500 or 600px square then shrunk them down. I do some work simillar to that sort of thing for a couple clients... browser rpgs, buttons for websites, playing pieces for casual games, all between 40px square and 100px square. There's no sense in making your eyes bug out when you do it. Work at 500px then reduce.

Thanks, was just curious. I worked on a project a few years ago with a group of guys creating a game. I did a lot of the User Interface and icons for the game.

Oh, and did I miss a link to maybe an Archive of all the other COWs ? Id love to look through some of the older entries.

[Michael Jaecks]

We have a gallery of winners up until last October. I took over in Feb and havent been able to update the gallery with the standard PSD. I will probably start a new gallery of winners while we work on the two week project going back as far as I can find winning entries.

You can see more past threads by going down to the bottom of the forum and changing how far back you want to see threads in those drop down menus at the bottom. You should be able to go pretty far back to see old threads...

EDIT: Yeah, I just checked. You can go all the way back to round number one. You may not be able to see every entry. Today we have people upload entries right to ConceptArt.org. Way back when, everyone had to host their entries on a remote site like Photobucket and whether or not people still host those works on those sites will determine whether or not you can still see them.

[chriskot]

Sounds excellent. Participating in C.O.W.#103 was one of the first things I did after joining CA and I haven't finished one since. This seems like an excellent opportunity to try and get back into it. Hopefully I can actually get something put together before the deadline this time.

[M!CK]

actually sounds quite had this one. I may just give it a crack tho =)

[rushwolf]

I think i should come out of hibernation for this. Wacom 4.... mmmm

[Michael Morisse]

Great topic!! hope I have time to participate. lost the last round to deadlines.

[Labrynthine]

I'm gonna try this one as well! "Shadow and Flame" was a blast, but it left me pretty drained for the week afterward. Now I'm refreshed and ready to try another one.

[Choob]

This might help somebody by showing some gooey bug development.



Probably won't enter this time round, I'm trying to sort out my future career, since I've decided staying on at school this year was a bad choice.

Good luck guys.

[Marsch]

Will do apex predator that comes from a sessile plant like creature.

Question: Can we do the other life stages too (plus the required)?

[MasterStryke]

sounds awesome.

[infinitemonkey]

I couldn't finish Demon Devourer in time, but with 2 weeks on this I should just squeak in under the deadline. I hope.

[lkjhgfdsa]

gonna do an embryo/egg-larvae-crystalis-critter... too much h.r.geiger in my head...

[Cam Sykes]

Probably going to do something Marsupial, since I'm australian. They ahve a very interesting way they bring up their young. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsupial

I also thought of this, which is a dragonfly's life cycle. the video is worth a look. Because the Larvae stage of a dragonfly is really self-sufficient, and pretty badass. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezq_JWd1Sd8

[lkjhgfdsa]

@camsyko the larval stage of the dragon fly is also where geiger was inspired for his Alien series of concepts and models (for tha movies which I recon are great).
But you prob. know that... ;P

[Cam Sykes]

ah no, i didn't. thanks for the info mate.

[Arcko]

I keep being thrown off by the no plants rule of this challenge. Would something like the plant out of Little Shop of Horrors not be an acceptable species for exploitation for this contest?

[domo arigato]

hmm...this one sounds interesting. Gotta do some research on this but I think I'm in.

[Bralt Hannicart]

Here are some useful videos that explore lifecycles of several species:

pupation of caterpillars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3jbzq-_7bU

Zombifying wasp larvae living inside caterpillars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMG-LWyNcAs

Sandtigershark's womb with cannibalistic offspring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrqgPjZ07Ts

Honey Bee life cycle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSk_ev1eZec

[tonynokills]

Couple of sketches, not sure where I'm going with it yet though.

[MoHog]

hmmmmm may try to do this alongside the special they're running at chow
thanks for those finding resources already

[churapsoy]

You think three is a lot? Hmmm.

For COW #100 we had to do 100... that's ONE HUNDRED 150px by 150px thumbnail creatures in a month. We picked ten topics and did ten creatures for each. The turnout for this round was crazy. Students and professionals alike stepped up for it. Obviously each one wasn't as well rendered and detailed as a single COW entry, but people took it pretty darn seriously....

This dorky artist came no where near close to getting anywhere in the poll, but even he did pretty good on some of his designs

Hehehe, for a newbie like me sir, 3 creatures fuly rendered is a lot of work, I couldn't imagine how you got to fit 100 -.-"