Homing in on designs as well as an ecology and gender dynamic of these little beasties:
As with the birrin, they are to be sequential hermaphrodites in a similar manner to clownfish, with a dominant female and her subordinate younger males protecting a territory of feeder flowers. Her display crest, rather than ...
2016-03-01 16:11:23 +0000 UTC View Post
The awkward adolescent phase of a digital painting - setting up the layers you need in any random color that does the job!
Completed the Idiran line art. Proceeding to color!
Starting the final line art for the Idiran reward image.
While waiting to begin the hummingbirrin, I thought it might be valuable to share this: abandoned years ago as a failed experiment, nevertheless an interesting early experiment in designing flying life on chriirah.
It was to be a small, fast and nimble 'insectivore', using its modified, porous mouthparts to trap small flyi...
2016-02-18 15:47:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Decided to make the small flying creature the focus of the next artwork!
Ecologically, it will fill a similar niche to the hummingbirds and hawk-moths of Earth.
Work on the high tier reward: an illustration of an Idiran, enemy of the Culture from the Ian M. Banks series. I am thinking this could be a civil protection/internal security type, lacking the heavy external armored suits of the front line soldiers, but packing a very powerful and accurate plasma rifle.
2016-02-11 18:25:02 +0000 UTC View Post
For my next piece I would like to explore another of Chriirah's creatures!
I am trying to decide between these two: a large, elephantine leaf eating beast, or a tiny nimble hummingbirrin.
What do ya'll think?
(Note: Rewards for the planet image will go out when payment is processed)
The map is complete, our first look at the surface of the birrin world!
...and a link to a higher resolution version.
Any mistakes you see, feel free to point them out. This months Q&A will h...
2016-02-01 16:55:29 +0000 UTC View Post
The map is essentially done!
It will be uploaded at a high enough resolution to see the smaller text once I have done a final naming/editing pass, feel free to point out any errors you see.
And thank you all for getting our second Patreon work to this stage!
At this stage, I have decided to push designing the entire solar system to a later stage, and focus in greater detail on the birrin homeworld itself. I will release a high resolution version of the planet as well as a final work based on the WIP template above.
I will label and detail the major land masses, geographical fe...
2016-01-29 20:08:55 +0000 UTC View Post
While I finalise the planet, I thought it worth sharing a link that helped me break planet rendering down into manageable chunks. Robert Simmon created an excellent simulacrum of Earth using multiple rendered 2D and 3D elements composited in Photoshop.
The first test render of a semi-complete planet! I might need to balance things out with a continent fragment/large island in the upper left if the globe is to be rendered from this angle for its beauty shot, and slightly downsize the super-continent. Apart from that this design is nearly ready to produce and I can proceed to th...
2016-01-26 19:41:44 +0000 UTC View Post
That big land bridge, an interesting possibility for the story, is somewhat hard to explain geologically, and looks rather silly when rendered in 3D.
By expanding the southern continent across the equator, I think I can achieve a greater aesthetic result AND massively expand the land area of the Kiln. All this while still ...
2016-01-24 17:19:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Almost have a final continent layout, with climatic zones (will add rain shadow deserts/green zones later)
Coloring will be interesting, as Chriirah plant life has red leaves! It will be a very burnt, dry looking world.
Clouds are via NASA's Blue Marble, I will be using those textures a fair bit both as photomont...
2016-01-23 19:03:35 +0000 UTC View Post
Suggestions by Patrons prompted some research, and I am redoing the tectonic zones to match more realistic science. Basically the two large continents were once a single unit, and are being divided by a large oceanic rift. See what you think of this direction!
I am largely happy with the arrangements of land masses, and added a little more southern Kiln, taking into account suggestions made here and on DA.
I have been mapping it onto a sphere within 3D software, which is giving me a good idea of how it will look even with polar distortion. When I add the textures next, I will ha...
2016-01-18 19:08:24 +0000 UTC View Post
To clear up some confusion of the apparently limited number of landmasses, here is a quick illustration of the rough range of the 'kiln'; the superheated region which inhibits birrin habitation.
As it lies both in wet and dry tropical regions, it is not all sandy baked desert: there are frequent floods and vast areas of hu...
2016-01-14 17:53:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I spent some time trying to develop the landmasses and oceans of chri-irah, balancing aesthetics with realism and story functionality. Quite a bit harder than I expected, and interesting that what is meant to be random can look right or wrong to the human eye!
Here is where it stands now!
Hello!
I want to thank my patrons for a successful first image, and welcome my supporters. You are all much appreciated!
Up next, I am going to design an aspect of the Birrin universe that I have kept mostly vague until now; their homeworld, Chriirah, and its solar system with attendant planets, asteroids and par...
2016-01-12 17:52:24 +0000 UTC View Post
While I prepare the rewards for the Antlerworm image, here is the complete redesign of the Irridalli RO!
2016-01-04 17:04:14 +0000 UTC View Post
It Begins!
I have moved the fins and wing back, which opened up a large area of dead space in the middle of the fuselage. Experiments now begin how to fill it, either with observation windows or new patterns.
2016-01-02 18:21:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Welcome to 2016 folks!
Starting out with a quick freebie before moving on to the next major piece: several people on Deviantart pointed out that the design of this aircraft has a major problem with the tall blade like ...
2016-01-01 16:46:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Here it is, folks!
I shall begin putting rewards together, and distribute them when payment has been processed. Anything in particular my Level 3 and above patrons want to know? Drop in a comment and I will consider it for the expanded materials.
"The Reef Antlerworm, a robust and ill-tempered marine
...
2015-12-29 16:56:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Pretty much done! I will add some polish, toy with the colors and write up the description.
2015-12-27 17:41:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Thank you to all my Patrons! I present to you an older design I wish soon to fully develop; a hummingbird-like relative of the birrin, and important friend to the plants of chri-irah!
2015-12-23 18:39:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Not too far to go now. I have removed the detail window which would show the closed jaws, since this species no longer uses the plug-shaped mouthparts and is a more active hunter. That will require some tweaking to fill the space, possibly with colorful background marine life.
2015-12-21 17:37:41 +0000 UTC View Post
As I work, I make a new save every time I make an important or irreversible decision. As you can see, this can get rather out of hand!
This is the working folder for the current Antlerworm.
2015-12-20 18:05:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Working out the details of the reef, not too far to go now!
This reef is dominated by filter feeders rather than the active predatory corals that dominate tropical reefs on present day earth. On the birrin world reefs were stripped of a lot of their diversity during the Fall, and are now largely populated by more versatile...
2015-12-19 18:40:55 +0000 UTC View Post
