Phoney Feathers

This is just a quick post about CG feathers - which seem to be difficult to figure out.
I recently saw the newest episode of Planet Dinosaur (which is pretty much amazing) which discussed the newer discoveries of feathered dinosaurs.
As expected, the majority of the reconstructions were very conservative, giving the dinosaurs a simple downy coat. However, some such as Microraptor had prominent flight feathers on their arms, legs and tail.

Now look at the wings.

I also noticed this in the opposite-polarity documentary "The Future Is Wild" with the 'Blue wind-runner' - A large, blue, goose-like bird that lives on high mountain plateaus.


Here's the problem:

Look where the body meets the wing - the feathers just sort of stop. What these models ignore is that bird wings aren't just skinny arms with feathers stabbed in.
Bird arms are actually webbed



_{Note the huge space between the elbow and the skin joining the shoulder and wrist.}
This webbing adds to the surface area of the wing and creates the smooth line from wing surface to body surface.
It only seems to be the lower budget CG documentaries that have this flaw, but they make the same mistakes.
Hair has already reached near-perfection in CG to the point where it's available in most packages, but feathers are different. They're much bigger, discrete structures that have such a vast variation that an easy paint-method would be initially difficult.

Fentil creatures are mostly bald, so issues like these are luckily avoidable. The closest thing to hair is the down found on Pouchbacks (top) and Loopers.
Shankbats (flying Fentil vertebrates related to cloverheads) have main wings similar to those of birds, but as they lack feathers, the webbing is more extreme.

Shankbats probably wont feature much in the CG documentary, but I'm glad that they have a newer, solid design.

Doodle drawings

I'm pumping these bad boys out like...a...
bad...boy...

pump...

...ahem.




This is my poor attempt to emulate the cool concept-art style of a lot of cool mech stuff, generally keeping the shading to flat blocks of colour. I didn't use any reference or sketch, so the form is a little stodgy.
The edges are also still a bit too soft.




Carrying on with the whole modern-dressed deity theme. It's pretty fun, actually. I also like the deity slayer. He's purple.
This deity is a lot smaller than the other one.

I have also been working on the storyboard for the Fentil thinger.

_{SOME people decorate with wallpaper}

Also, I am working on some inbetweens for an animation that Tom Gameson is working on. It's about riots and all that fun stuff, should be interesting.

Pretty certain this whole post read like it was written by a guy with brain-lumps, but I couldn't really think of an articulate way of saying "I DID PICTURE STUFF TODAY ACKNOWLEDGE ME"



_{"JUSTIFY MY EXISTENCE BY GIVING ME ATTENTION!"}

Quickie

I know that if I do this now, it'll make my life easier for the next post...so here is

Lord of Style




He's HUUUUUUGE!

I decided to play about with scale, a bit like the deities in Barlowe's Thype drawings.
Such as this one:



Unfortunately, Barlowe hasn't released much Thype stuff yet, which is a shame.
It's essentially about an alien guy taking a pilgrimage full of gods, demons, monsters and aliens etc.

I've also been watching a lot of Adventure Time lately, and its strange creatures and fantastical landscapes have helped get me into a more Fantasy mindset and loosen up on the things I draw, and I think some of that has worked its way into the drawing.
It's nice to not have to adhere to a load of physics, gravity and other logical forces when drawing creatures and the like. Just don't expect Fentil creatures to start pooping rainbows and glitter...

...although





OH

I drew some other stuff. Nothing worth posting on its own, but doodles are what I'm all about:













I am world-renowned for my use of colour.

You may watch this now:

The Bear That Wasn't

It's an old Chuck Jones cartoon about business and its silliness. And bears. It's also about bears.

Normal Walk


OH GOD!