Here is a small breakdown of the vamp creature I did a while ago.

It is a strange process that I did just for fun and it heavily relies on making happy accidents.

It all started from a quick abstract thumbnail that I did in photoshop just using the lasso tool , filling up a randomly created selection and then draw on top features that made it look more like a creature than a random blob. Once that was done I jumped in 3dsmax, mapped this thumbnail onto a simple 3d plane and of this plane I cut the different parts of the creature and made them 3dimensional. You can see that the 3d model is really rough.




Why doing this? Well first of all I really like to experiment in my free time, so that was one of the reasons, but second and most important is that once the thumbnail is in 3d I could actually twist it, bend it, make different variations and poses out of it for free and in no time. For example just by playing with a symmetry modifier and rotating it in different angles you could come up with many unexpected variations.




The slide below shows how two of the variations sparked up my imagination and I ended up with two quick sketches of possible creature designs.Nothing weird here (apart from the badly composed slide), just regular sketching.



And this one made its way to a more refined sketch later on.



I've played with this weird process earlier, you can see another example here (the bottom of the post).

Hey fellows,

I've started this idea on Zbrush two weeks ago and I think I am going to make it as final render image with particles and textures. These are some ideas for the final pose. Check it out:






Please let me know which one is your favorite and could be great for the final illustration ?

Hi guys, one sketch from mel. The creature that I chose is tooth fairy, but not the cute version that we know:)This is the first sketch, coming soon: some other variations probably and colored version as well.

Hey Marto,

I just found some very interesting parts of your creatures, so I decide to mixture them from vamp01 and 02. If you have any ideas you can take it and draw over it.

I had some time for few more weird werewolf thumbnails.


- Martin

Name: Ed Mattinian
Age: 27
Current position: Senior Concept Artist at Gameloft 
Web adress: www.mattinian.com
Interests: 2d



I`ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. Mostly self taught, I was 
influenced by computer games as any kid is. I remember drawing scenes inspired from games like Doom, Warcraft and Prince of Persia when i was not in front of the computer playing them. Eventually started work in Masthead Studios where I met the fine examples of bulgarian youth and creative talent that are presented in the Creature Atelier :)

Well it happened when I stumbled upon friend's blog. It is accident collaboration with http://mihailpetrov.blogspot.com/

I did several more wolves , some of them look more like a horror squirrel or other kind of rodent, but anyway I had fun while doing these.

I'm waiting to be annihilated from your critique :D



-Martin

some furry classical idea

Hi , guys here is my take on the warewolf...I've started with a speedsculpt, but I'm planning to explore some more variants through overpainting and hopefully push the design further. Critiques and comments are not welcome - they are a must ! :D

- Martin

The time has come for creature atelier’s first round ! The theme we choose together is “New-age creatures of the night” . The most well knows representatives of this category are vampires, werewolves ,banshees, the bogeyman, ghouls, but we can chose something that
we are not so familiar with, it only need to be somewhat supernatural creature of evil that shows
itself after dark.

Wait ! I forgot the interesting bit of information that explains the “new-age” at the beginning of the theme. We have to explore a new , fresh idea of a night creature, something that differentiates from the classic look we all are used to see on movies, games and so on. It may be "shadow demonic shapeshifting owl creature" or something else, but the important things to stress on are originality and exploration, strong silhouette, to help each other during the process and most importantly have fun !


Good luck everybody, and don’t forget to post your work in progress so we can discuss them.


Martin


----------------------------------------------------------------------


briefing: create a new-age supernatural creature of evil that shows itself after dark.

medium: 2d, 3d, mixed, everything is allowed.
deadline: end of July.
emphasis: fresh idea, exploration and collaboration.

Name: Tsvetomir Georgiev
Age: 27
Current position: Artist at Aaron Sims Company
Web adress: www.ceco.cgsociety.org
CGHUB
Interests: 3d


I was practicing drawing and sculpturing since my early childhood. In
2001 I've discovered digital art and then I've become aware of how
much greater freedom and creativity it allows. Two years later I've
started to work in CG industry creating high resolution models for
films and video games, low poly models , texturing, lighting, rendering
and concept Illustrations. In 2008 I've become part of The Aaron Sims
Company team as modeler and designer.

Name: Martin Punchev
Age: 23
Current position: Freelance artist
Web adress: www.vertexbee.com
blog, deviantart, cghub, behance, twitter
Interests: creatures, characters & sci-fi

------------------------------------------------------

A short intro


I grew up in town at the foot of a small valley, part of the Balkan mountain range, where after you prove that you are good for a hunter and you can supply food for the rest of the tribe, you receive a spear and bow and live with many honors .. . did not become a hunter and I got to stick with the computer. I started messing with 3d apps and not long after that I fell in love with CG. What do people when they are in love? The answer is simple – hit it with the bat first then drag it into the cave…that’s when it became time to buy a new PC.

Name: Sergey Punchev
Age: 27
Current position: UI Artist (Electronic Arts - UK)
Web address: www.punchev.com
Interests: Creature Design

------------------------------------------------------

Who am I?
My name is Sergey and I was born in 1984 in Sofia (Bulgaria)
After finishing National school of fine arts (Graphic - Painter) , had the opportunity to be in our Technical university - Industrial Design specialty.
I worked in the field of graphic design for almost 10 years - 5 of them in the game industry.

What I Love?
My family
Good music
Nice People
...and playing games:)

What I do?
Images like these...

Name: Miroslav Petrov
Age: 26
Current position: Freelance artist
Web adress: www.soulsart.org
Interests: Creatures


Somewhere between socialism and something else, in the very begining of the upcoming long and cold winter in 1985 was born Miroslav with a marvellous for the time almost 5 kilograms weight. Till the age of 8-9 the primary observation from teachers was to accept Miro as infant prodigy, BUT some years elapsed and they found that they are and were terribly wrong. For the biggest regret mostly for Miroslav, he didn't evolve at all from then... the facts tell that it is either because of PC games or the invading age of the naked women on the home screen... I've been drawing since the age of 16-17. I was playing games for more than 10 hours a day when suddenly my biggest inspiration came from Warcraft 3. Samwise and his art team inspired me to start pushing the pencil very hard.After lots of long, painful nights of hard work and skills improvement I decided to step into digital art. I was hired as concept and texture artist at Masthead Studios. Then I made it to an art director and now I am happy freelance artist with many crazy ideas.