Raksasa

Discussion in 'The Monster Monster Contest' started by Suika Ibuki, Mar 8, 2012.

  1. Giant Door

    Giant Door Space Penguin Leader

    No, I agree. The art, presentation and depth to this piece is phenomenal; really pro work... but the concept itself is relatively mediocre. While it would still make an excellent addition to the creature roster in this game, flying manta-rays are already very common in other videogames, anime/manga and even real life. This design is probably the best variant of this sort of thing I have ever seen, but looking at it I still just feel like I have seen it before. I actually like the first concept sketch much more, it looks truly terrifying and interesting to me
     
    Omikuji likes this.
  2. Joxalot

    Joxalot Subatomic Cosmonaut

    [​IMG]
    Rest in peace, boo boo
     
  3. Well, Rays are one of my favorite animals :3 I base things off of what I am inspired from, and creativity continues on from there. Just because it's really common doesn't mean it's not very original anymore. In fact, in my opinion, I think it's pretty unique, given the days of thought I gave it, and to be honest, I don't think it's close to a ray anymore. Sure, it may look like one, but the concepts; its movement, anatomy, mating process, and the fact that the male is tremendously larger than the female makes it more than just a ray. All this makes me still have a decent chance. Thanks for the criticism, though! Goodluck to everyone in the contest :>
     
  4. Giant Door

    Giant Door Space Penguin Leader

    Oh no, you have still got a very good chance even in my opinion, it is very a strong design. Also when I said depth I was talking about exactly that... the amount of thought and effort put into it makes it very intriguing in a lore sense. My only concern with that is how well all that extra info actually translates into the game - like internal anatomy and mating habits are very interesting to read about, but what does this all mean to the average gamer? Still, thinking about it more, the attacking below and defending from above design could be really interesting as a game-play mechanic.... although I dare say if it didn't have the toxic gas defence it would be pretty cool to hijack one of these things and ride it across the map
     
  5. Narutoman

    Narutoman Void-Bound Voyager

    wow, just AMAZING i love it alot!!
     
  6. Joxalot

    Joxalot Subatomic Cosmonaut

    And just because this is not entirely original and people happen to overdo it doesnt (or at least shouldnt) lose it's credit.
    I personally like how the creature looks, and it's a valid and interesting concept. There is plenty of planning behind the pretty drawings aswell. But opinions are opinions and it's good to see both parts had no conflict so far.

    By the way I cant name much games with manta rays (cept for a few, including Demon Souls) so I dont consider mantarays overused material...
     
    Suika Ibuki likes this.
  7. I actually have problems spriting it to look like the actual design- something I did not realize until I was finished doing the skeletal structure of the creature. I can't really show its wings without it flapping- and that's not really how it moves normally.. And about the internal anatomy, and the mating habits, I suppose I added that because I am not entirely sure what kind of information Starbound as a whole requires. I've heard you will be able to study creatures, so including information such as this is a nice touch to add.
     
  8. LiquidMetal

    LiquidMetal Void-Bound Voyager

    best submission yet!
     
  9. Giant Door

    Giant Door Space Penguin Leader

    Ah yeah good point about the additional info. With the spriting issue, well I assume that you must be doing this sprite off the side profile example of your creature... but if you look at the humans in the Starbound screenshots they are 3/4 profile - so I don't see why creatures can't be the same. If you attack the sprite by drawing it at a similar angle to the main image in your concept you should be able to show the wings and maintain the movement style you envisioned... if you still want to keep your attack animations as a side profile that will still work with the 3/4 view as the transition between the two would look fine because the image will be moving within the game world. All you got to do is pivot the change in angle around the head
     
  10. Now that you mentioned it, they do seem to be 3/4 here. I guess it was just me being too -into the style- of Terraria's sprites xD
     
  11. ArtByElde

    ArtByElde Starship Captain

    well hands down to you, this is the best one yet! I mean i spent a few hours on mine, but this one even has a sheet explaning everything. I've been doing concept art for 10 years, and i learned a lesson today, this is a MUST to do with all creature design,period.

    I will actually go back and design attackmoves and all those nifty things for my Jungle Mammothviper, examples like this just completes the whole design, and if u were to win, the spriters will even have an easier time making te actual animations based off ur sheets.

    I sadly have to say, as an artists, that i agree with Giant Door. The mantaray, especially airborn ones, is heavily overused. This is not a critique tbh, its more like a general original artwork issue i have with this piece. U are SO good at making these species sheets, u should make something so original they cant say no to it. The airborn mantaray is cool, but like giant door said, it's been done WAY too many times in previous games.

    my hat is off to you, this is videogame ready when it comes to design, it only needs a 3d modeler, but i just wish u made something from another animal that asnt been so heavily used before.

    once again, marvelous work, im gonna follow u, and hopefully i can wok with u on designs for this game in the future as fanart, i might even learn a ting or 2 from u!:)
     
    Suika Ibuki likes this.
  12. Bamseper

    Bamseper Ketchup Robot

    This is genius. I already saw it on deviantART
     
  13. I have to say, though, despite being an overused creature [though I disagree with that. Of course, they do appear on a lot of games, but judging from many other 'overused creatures ((zombies, skeletons, dragons, a lot more mythological creatures, etc)), the "Manta ray"-esque design doesn't seem overused.], I guess it's safe to say that I do back up my creature with decent lore. :0
    In fact, here's one bit of some of the information I've been thinking of for the past few days:

    "The Raksasa are fast adapters. If they invade new nearby planets, their bodies quickly adapt to the surroundings, to quickly become the top of the food chain in that area.
    The Raksasa is an evolution of some sort of scavenger, which uses its four tendrils to aid it to slither in the land, and uses its suction-like mouth, which is in the middle of its body, to devour plants, leftover food, and bugs in the ground. Like the Raksasa, this scavenger is huge as a male. The "World Snake", as they call it, devoured everything it could. It was given the name due to the fact that it was capable of eating its own world of its resources to the point that it is probably the only living thing in that world. However, it cannot cross water, and is only limited to the land it resides in. After a while, World Snakes eventually ended up relying completely on sunlight, due to the lack of food.
    This eventually led to their evolution, as they slowly gained a wider surface area. Their 'whiskers' [the long spinelike bones protruding from the sides of their head, which are actually their ears] developed long tough flaps that connected to their lower body. They were able to use these flaps to absorb more sunlight. Of course, that is not all, because these flaps made them capable of flying, but some went into the waters, too. Of course, this means they can travel to new land. New land means new dangers and new food, but these new food were terribly underestimated.
    Despite their speed, they were unable to catch up with these food. Adaption led them to a more stealthy approach, and a killer strike- their solarized skin and their battering tail. Due to this, they were the masters of the land, but still possible prey of the skies. Sentient beings and their technology hunted them for their skin, but they would not let that happen. They soon developed toxic sacs that would corrode mechanics and poison these hunters."

    That's all I've come up for now. In all honesty, they were originally snakelike in appearance, but I thought snakes that -don't- burrow could be kinda difficult to picture in a sidescrolling game [looks like some long line in the ground, so I developed them into flying creatures [and then I wrote a story about it! yay!]. I quickly noticed it looked like a ray. Since I love rays, as they are one of my favorite sea creatures, I went "why not?"

    And about the speed of adaption, don't ask me about it >_>; I just did that because I thought it was needed

    Enjoy the additional lore, btw c: And sorry for the lack of images ._.; I might whip up a few this weekend

    THE WALL OF TEXT HAS BEEN DEFEATED!
     
    S1nZ likes this.
  14. fjora

    fjora Master Chief

    I really really like this one. My favorite so far. <3
     
  15. fjora

    fjora Master Chief

    I really really like this one. My favorite so far. <3
     
  16. petelectro

    petelectro Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Really cool. The whole look of that thing is really unique and interesting.

    Did you think about variations of that creature for different planet types? Just a question that came to mind while reading your notes.
     
  17. Yeah. Since they're quick to adaption, there could be various subspecies of them, which vary from planet to planet, biome to biome.
     
  18. Cacame

    Cacame Phantasmal Quasar

    It's impossible to come up with something truly original now days. Everything has been done before, you have come up with some nice groundwork for it so don't worry about originality.

    Generally flying manta rays are the things in the water just grabbed and moved to the sky.

    All that said I like the last bit of concept art the best.
     
  19. Maplestrip

    Maplestrip Existential Complex

    Wow, I should defietetaly go read all this. Awesome submission, but I wouldn't expect any less from you.
    Good luck with the contest. We might have another winner here...
     
  20. If nobody noticed, I've added a bit more lore and some possible attacks it might have. I also added another concept art but that's been there for more than a day now.
     

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