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Saad Baloch
Art Creation
Creature Concepts , Realistic and Stylized
This thesis explored the development of a quadruped creature genus that had evolved into three different species based on their habitat and elemental power . The three pillars of this research are concept art , realistic and stylized visuals , and elemental affinities . My goal for this project was to explore how the appearances of these creatures would change based on evolution and to show that they belong to the same genus but evolved into different sub species . Moreover , I wanted to explore how you can make the same subject look stylized versus using Physically Based Rendering materials to look realistic . I chose this project because I am creatively motivated by the idea of imaginary creatures and what kind of elemental abilities they could use . A great source of inspiration for me was the ‘ Monster Hunter ’ series . The project took around 400 hours to complete over the course of ten months .
This project was immensely beneficial , as I am now capable of following through on my concept art drawings to create fully realized
game-ready 3D characters . On top of that , I was able to learn about the many problems that can arise from creating such assets and I am hence more well informed on best practices on the subject matter . Currently , I have only explored traditional elemental affinities — fire , ice , and lightning . Moving forward , the designs could be pushed even further with elements that explore ideas of darkness , hope , love , or a combination elemental affinities . The current creature explored was a reptilian dog-like creature . Exploring the same idea with many different creatures ( arthropods , cephalopods , avian , aquatics and more ) could yield many kinds of designs . Furthermore , within the realistic to stylized mastery , I only explored 1 style . It would be even more interesting to interpret the designs in multiple styles to showcase how the visual aesthetic can drastically change . While creating assets in different art styles is nothing new , drastic style changes within the same franchise are not common and I hope that creatives explore changing art styles further for their franchises .
6 ART CREATION