ART-Ventriculant

[Marquis]

OK I know it look like a flying peanuts But I think it will creep out the heck out of every one. I wanted the design to be more fonctionnal and self explanatory. I thinking of changing some of the proportion to minimize the peanuts aspect.

 

The bag on it's back only deploy during flight and right prior to a spit attack.

 

This is my first concept here so tell me what you think.

Edited February 15, 2004 by Marquis

[Cpl. Facehugger]

You beat me to the punch. It does indeed look like a flying male organ. However, I think people would be scared of that thing. It looks alien enough to work.

 

Edit: I am Xcomufo's head pervert. Thus, you beat me to the punch of saying that looks like a penius. (intentional spelling mistake to get by sneaky filters.)

 

Edit2: It is a good concept, that was drawn very well. Congrats on your first contribution.

Edited February 15, 2004 by Cpl. Facehugger

[MagicAndy]

its certainly a very good step in the right direction.

 

one way to make it slightly less phallic would be to remove the neck (so its a bit lie the brain alien out of Startship Troopers). Or make it alot thicker.

 

Good work though

 

EDIT: i especially like orifice at the front.

Edited February 15, 2004 by MagicAndy

[nixnihil]

I say who cares if it looks like a cack? That thing is fukkin' sweet! It definately looks totally alien, a living biological weapon.

[mikker]

its ugly.

 

 

 

 

 

i like it

[Puasonen]

I agree with mikker, looks ugly!

So it's cool

 

@ Marquis and Cpl.

If your wieners looks like that, I suggest you go see a doctor

Edited February 15, 2004 by Nyyperoid

[ATeX]

It looks like a neocortex with a male organ idd, hehe maybe u should add a female so they reproduce. Flying reproducing brains

 

 

This is just too weird :o

[centurion]

I have to agree with you people: apart from reminding too much of what you've already described, it's extremely good. Maybe making it look less homogenously smooth on the critical part could help?

[Whitewashed]

Looks great, maybe a shorter neck yes

[Deimos]

Come on guys lets keep this out of the school yard please. Yes it does bear a (very remote) passing to something but lets not drag the tone of the forums down please.

 

Marquis, Very cool stuff. Very alien indeed. I like the snail, squid, and other marine influences in it. It kinda reminds me of the Zerg Overlord.

 

The very best thing is that it doesn't look like a kidney

[Guest drewid]

Tinking about odd noises it might make.

 

 

I'd agree with the shorter neck I think. Other than that it's there already.

and damn ugly with it.

[Deimos]

I was just thinking about this and if its possible, when its flying or should I say flying and moving it should have a cloud or vapour trail as it moves around.

 

I agree with Drewid, this is pretty much a wrap.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Yup. The concept is good. Not to mention that it doesn't look like a malevolent kidney.

 

Upon looking at it again, with that inflatable back thingy, it doesn't look too phallic at all. I think the concept is fine as it. Modelling it might be difficult though.

[Cpt. Boxershorts]

Please read the CTD also, if you haven't already. The Celetid (Ventriculant, officially) has a very specific purpose for the aliens. It's not just a random blob thing like in the original.

 

That being said, I really like it!

 

-The Captain

Edited February 15, 2004 by Cpt. Boxershorts

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Remember, Captain, the art comes first.

[Marquis]

Thank you all, for your comments, :Blush: I'll try to get some modification in today. Deimos you got it right when you wrote about the marine influence. It was totally was I was going for.

[Foozball]

Does this thing really have to fly though? It looks like it would do a pretty fine (gross?) job just slithing on the floor like a slug (sea cucumber?)

[Cpt. Boxershorts]

Remember, Captain, the art comes first.

No, the GAME comes first. That means taking everyone's ideas into consideration.

 

Is there any reason why this always comes up (not from you, Cpl.)? I seem to see it in most threads where the CTD was done first. Is it really that difficult to read the CTD and incorporate it into the concept? Once the concept is locked, I agree that there shouldn't be changes....but if it's still just a concept, where's the problem?

 

edit: I should note that marquis contacted me prior to this post about where the ctds were, and was going to look it over.

 

-The Captain

Edited February 15, 2004 by Cpt. Boxershorts

[Cpl. Facehugger]

I don't know why if keeps coming up. It isn't my fault.

 

Besides, I can see that thing turning into a muton.

 

Edit: Maby the celatid needs to have a 'host' like my namesake (the facehugger) does? Or maby it lays its muton egg in a corpse (hence why it shoots acid at your men?)

Edited February 15, 2004 by Cpl. Facehugger

[kelfka]

@Marquis

That thing is, VERY, VERY, CREEPY!!

 

I love it!!!

 

I look foward for other pics.

[Marquis]

here a sightly modifies version made to add the CTD content.

[Marquis]

Here a colored version this is not final just a rough color

Edited February 15, 2004 by Marquis

[MagicAndy]

how about extending the brain material forward and the glands backward (just as a thought:

[Breunor]

Wow, first time to see this concept, it's really cool! Perhaps you could resolve the "resemblance" issue totally by moving the front protrusion so it's more underneath the brain part, centered under it but with the acid squirter still pointing out. You could even have the tentacles be exposed all the time, just hanging below the body. You'd have a jellyfish look to it then.

 

Edit: and it also include removing the "sack" portion as well if the tentacles were at the bottom.

Edited February 16, 2004 by Breunor

[Marquis]

I foud a new way that will be cool to do the mouth. It should solved the resemblance issue. I will post it later.

[Breunor]

I would like to model this latest design, but would like to make some of the adjustments mentioned earlier as well. This would mainly involve making a shorter shaft, er, neck, which would bring the head in closer to the main body. I think it would look cooler (and be easier to animate) if the tentacles were hanging down from the mouth when relaxed, rather than curled up into the mouth. If this sounds ok, I'll mock up a sample.

[Breunor]

Here is the first draft I cranked out, I plan to flatten/flare out the little skirt along the bottom, and the tentacles are in a neutral position right now. They would wave as it moves and follow the motion detailed in the concept art. I felt it wise to move away from the concept a little to avoid the "extraterrestrial schlong" look, sorry. The low poly model is under 500 right now, this one is just teh smoothing tool and it's at 2700+ IIRC. I've loaded it into the web viewer as well, linked via my sig.

 

Does anyone want to work on a texture for this guy? It just needs a tentacle all the way around, detailed brainy matter, and samples of the otehr fleshy areas. I'll try playing with PS at work to make something, but if a good artist wants to do this please let me know!

 

Additional comments on this guy are welcome, hopefully refining what we already have.

 

Edit: additional items not done yet include the pustules under its chin, making the lower trim wavy, and extending the brainy part further up the neck btw.

Edited May 20, 2004 by Breunor

[MagicAndy]

hey thats great!

 

whats the deal with the fin at the bottom? Does it go all the way round or what, i can't tell from that picture.

[fux0r666]

Looks a lot like something I doodled in class around the same time that I drew up the tripod. I should post it. It looks like a brain with a proboscus kind of like that only it has an array of spines coming out the bottom to allude to the fact it never lands.

[Breunor]

The fin at the bottom is the wavy slice of flesh along the centerline of the concept, it was getting late so I didn't get that finished. The pointy tips will be attached to the body, and I'll have to divide some edges to make enough verts for the wavy effect shown in the concept.

 

We'd like to see the concept fux, this concept was never really finalized, but everyone liked where it was going. So some cool tweaks wouldn't be a problem. I've made this thing twice now... forgetting to hit Ctrl-S more often can come back to bite your butt...

 

Edit: I've been playing with photoshop today, some fun stuff if I knew what I was doing Heaven forbid, I read some of the thousands of tutorials out there... anyway, here's part of my sample texture, the top left will wrap around the tentacles, the top right is for the underbelly and neck, the bottom left is for the brain sack part, and the lower right is the head/acid squirter part. The wvy trim piece will be covered by the striped section.

 

Edit 2: Updated pic.

Edited May 20, 2004 by Breunor

[Deimos]

I like where you're going with the model Breu and they're some funky textures I think I can see what kind of look you're going for. If you can find a picture of a himan brain somewhere on google it might be fun to see if you can map it into the 'brain area' of the model and make the outer shell of it slightly transparent so it looks like you can see the brain through the outer shell.

 

If you're having trouble figuring anything out in PS, give me a shout. I've got a few (9) years under my belt and I should be able to help

[mikker]

If you're having trouble figuring anything out in PS, give me a shout. I've got a few (9) years under my belt and I should be able to help

Psssst.....have some tutorials of creating textures from scratch?

 

Those textures look great. Just one thing, if you are going to use brains, you might need to adjust the color. More yellow, less pink, etc.

 

and what about scale? I think that it should be just as high as a human soldier. Therefore twice the length.

Edited May 21, 2004 by mikker

[Robo Dojo 58]

Here's a pic of some brain tissue:

 

--Edit: due to the graphic nature of the pic, it has been zipped. You've been warned.--

Acanthamoeba_brain.zip

Edited May 21, 2004 by Robo Dojo 58

[Robo Dojo 58]

Here's another one. It's much cleaner, and pinker. It's not as disgusting as the last one.

he10.zip

[Breunor]

Thanks for the zip, I'll play with this some more this weekend. I started mapping the model, and realised the layout of the texture is not the greatest... I need to make a UV map first, then make the texture over top that. I like the idea of a transparent shell covering the brainy material beneath, sounds good. Thanks for the offer Deimos, I'll try what I can at work. I like layering the parts together, and really like some of the textures you can make. If I'm not mistaken, I could use a color mask on a seperate layer, and make that into a greyscale bump map? That should really make the surface look nice.

[red knight]

Breunor, just make sure it doesnt look too gory...

 

Greetings

Red Knight

[j'ordos]

I've been enjoying myself with Photoshop for a while, and this is one of the results, I'm not sure it'd work as part of the texture, but I thought I could just as well post it here

[fux0r666]

Discuss the ventriculant below! Edited June 11, 2004 by fux0r666

[Breunor]

I'm partial to the concept Marquis made, moving the tentacles closer to the brain sac area, perhpas having them almost hanging below it, like at a 45 degree angle. Instead of a flap, there could be additional tentacles hanging below, smaller than the main ones in front.

[fux0r666]

I like it too but saying that I think that his original concept is too literally phallic.

 

I have a design that's very similar albeit more pod-like and considerably less phallic (the tube on the front is more proboscis-like and it lacks a scrotum). I will mock it up from a cm square sketch into a more palatable design and post it for comparative purposes in the near future.

 

That said, feel free to toss around ideas regardless.

[Breunor]

This is a very rough draft of a modified version, sorry it doesn't show well. It would obviously be higher poly and smoother, but the main body would be bumby to represent the brainy matter, there would be small tentacles hanging from the body with several larger ones around the mouth. The acid spitting part is up on the "forehead". There could even be a little cyborg implant on the belly to explain how they levitate if need be.

[fux0r666]

This is a concept that has been sitting in my junk drawer for almost a year. I lost the original paper but I mocked this up in a little over an hour. As a piece of art it sucks but as a concept I think it's good, and I think it captures what I was trying to do a year ago.

[j'ordos]

It looks a bit like a flying brain with tentacles, in other words: a tentaculat

 

Isn't the ventriculant used for alien alloy production? I thought that was the idea, but I don't remember if that got through or not. If it did, maybe we can have some half-finished alien allloy pieces scattered on its body.

[fux0r666]

It was a shapeless sack with a flying machine inside it, originally. The tenticles are not tenticles they are spikes.

[Zipperhead]

its a flying meat gun, weeeee

 

sorry I know I havn't been draw the last couple of days, been playing thief a lot latly, damn good game

Edited June 28, 2004 by Zipperhead

[fux0r666]

I like the idea but I think the design is too terrestrial looking. I would like to see other ideas along this line.

 

Edit: Maybe more meat..

Edited June 28, 2004 by fux0r666

[Breunor]

To pull in the idea of how it functions (which might help with the form), the Vent spits acid on the target to break it down (Brendlefly!), then sucks it up/eats it/absorbs it. It becomes larger and eventually reaches a maximum size. It's then taken back to the alien base, where the matter is removed, probably by just cutting it away like shearing wool from sheep. The alien wouldn't get bigger in game, but I can see Fux's concept fitting most of that bill. If the spikes curled in just a little, they would suggest a support for when the belly was full of matter, they would help hold it in place. The long snout could spit the acid, then easily reach the remaining goo to suck it up. Some kind of chitinous/bony spikes curling under would look cool IMO, rather than something metallic.

[fux0r666]

I do agree, though, that my design looks too much like a brain or a crash helmet. I'll try to alter the overall shape. Expect a post tomorrow.

 

In the meantime, I would still like to see other concepts. Just a reminder, though, that although the only purpose in game for the ventriculant is a floating weapon, it's weapon is quite weak and has short range(correct me if I'm wrong)- suggesting a more support and logistics or noncombattant role.

 

The above just dawned on me at the time of this writing. It's been a long time since I have played xcom.

[fux0r666]

Here it is. Not bad for a rush job, but don't look too close. There's lots of gaps in the paint and stray lines.

 

Edit: I was rushed and maybe I didn't get the exact feel for what I was going for so I feel the need to explain a bit. You know when you put a flashlight behind your hand or something you can see through it slightly? This thing is supposed to be semi-transparent.. so the high red content it supposed to be you seeing through it's skin and the dark shadow parts on its body are its bones that are visible with the backlighting. The 'stomache' is supposed to be even more transparent and full of an orange mash of genetic material.

Edited June 29, 2004 by fux0r666

[fux0r666]

Must.. have... feedback... *gasp*... need... validation or *choke* condemnation.