ITT: Artwork you created that you would like to be reviewed by /ic/
This is a Giant Spider I'm making for an animated short. So far, i've only got major shapes and secondaries blocked out.
It's suposed to be super scary, but maybe i'm overdoing some detail it on the legs.
What do you people think?
Coming from someone who is deathly afraid of spiders IRL, it's not really all that scary. It's pretty mundane for a spider design. I feel like there should be more of a complex monstrosity or something to it than what you have so far.
>>2491715
hey, that's some really solid criticism, thank you, anon!
Would you care to elaborate what makes a monster "scary", in your opinion?
The animated short is cartoony and all, but on this particular design, it should feel menancing and threatening
>>2491752
Not that guy but the hair on spiders is always freaky and lots of dangerous stuff always has popping/colorful designs to display they are venomous like the butt part on a black widow.
But your question "what makes a monster scary" that IS the design process. You look at references study them and understand what makes them what they are and use that knowledge in your design
>>2491775
>You look at references study them and understand what makes them what they are and use that knowledge in your design
Pretty much this.
Also my advice, OP. Make the eyes the same color as the body or an intense black a bit shiny. Currently it looks a bit goofy.
I'm also terribly afraid of spiders.
>>2491775
That's some valuable information, thanks a lot.
Designing stuff is hard, pretty much storytelling with shapes and colors and no words.
>>2491784
Those are some good suggestions, but the eyes have to glow in the dark for our current script to work :T
>>2491795
>but the eyes have to glow in the dark
That's why I said shiny. They could be dark eyes and glow in the dark.
>>2491795
I am >>2491715
For me, scary things (especially spiders) comes from the otherness of them. (Like being hairy, having jagged features, having an unnatural amount of extremities etc.)
Like the others have said, it would make sense to look at some spider concepts that were done before and play off of a creative combination of those.
That being said, I think white eyes would work better than red for this situation
>>2491823
bottom left is probably the most terrifying, because its features are so absurd.
>>2491823
These are kawaii.
Pic related are pretty big spiders that crawl into my house sometimes. Fortunately my cat likes to chase/eat them.
>>2492146
I'm not intimally affected by spiders, but yeah, they can be creepy.
As anon has already pointed out, that comes from the sense that they follow no "logical" anatomical sense, when compared to mammals. Too many limbs, a lot of jagged volumes pontuated by disgusting hair and small inexpressive eyes.
Probably your eyes are too expressive at the momment?
They're looking very angry and stuff, while one of things that's so repulsive about spiders is that they have these eyes that say nothing about them, and are surrounded by these hairy volumes of not-so-hard stuff.
This is good advice >>2491715
Your spider is nice, but it looks like It's from a 3D cartoon show, It's not scary.
>>2492146
>>2492562
Triggered
How creepy do you guys find the Broodmother from Dota 2?
>>2493167
>>2491684
Spiders that are more leg than butt are pretty freaky to me.
>>2493167
>>2493177
>>2491684
Spiders that try to look scary (evil red eyes, aggressive features, etc) tend to feel the opposite imo. Trying too hard, I guess?
Like somebody else said, it's the more unsettling and uncommon/weird features that make them unnerving. I've always liked spiders, but this particular one for example creeps me out.
>>2493196
Creeped me out the first time I saw it, anyway.
Now I think they're cute.
For the face, go for a look that's not even a spider? Like, take another insect and slap some more eyes on there. See, here's my favorite bug.
>>2491684
You gave it too much of a head, making it more like an ant. Spiders only have two sections, abdomen and cephalothorax (head and thorax fused into one).
The eyes are too big, uniform, take up too much space on the "face", and are reminiscent of those of vertebrates. Spider eyes are more tightly clustered together/smaller usually. Unless it's a super cute kawaii jumping spider then it has two huge primary eyes with smaller ones arranged elsewhere.
I don't think the serrations on the legs add scare factor, they make it feel heavy and more like a crustacean and less like a spider with spindly legs scurrying about. But it's a cartoon so I understand you're probably going for a certain level of "badass" factor.
Ok, so we pretty much have a consensus that expressive faces are not very good if you want to design a scary monter.
This makes sense, even if you just look at iconic monster's design;
The Xenomorph from alien, Jason from Friday the 13th, the predator from...Predator, etc.
Apparently, having tiny eyes or no eyes at all makes it harder to realte to, since we comunicate so much with our eyes. Maybe we lose the sense of "trustworthyness" of the creature when it's eyes aren't expressive.
This is some cool shit anons, thanks for the design lecture.
I'll try to apply this to my design, but it will be tough. As I stated before, it's for an animated short with a pretty cartoony aesthetic... let's see what I can conjure in the end.
By the way, what about the legs?
Hairy, chubby stumps, or the thin, jagged ones?
>>2493410
The thinner, the scarier. But once you go too thin, you turn it into a daddy longlegs, which are just kawaii
nope.exe
>>2493410
Thinner, not hairy legs, shiny and clearly separated joints.
Chubby is cute, super thin is fragile.
You need to think more about design in general, not only the emotion you're trying to convey but pure abstract design. Do you draw at all? If not, go to /3/, if yes, do TONS of thumbnails. Think of simple shapes, not the subject and once you have a good thumbnail, start thinking of anatomy, story etc.
>>2493415
>The thinner, the scarier.
Yes. Eg. tachikomas have thick legs and they are super cute.
>>2492698
Eh, it's a harmless but big European spider. They still trigger my arachnophobia but I saw worse when I lived in the US south.
Best design of something scary coming through
>>2494591
You see scary I see sexy
>>2494750
>>Ripley, I...
>>2494766
would watch ripley get dick sucked by alien SFM/10
>>2494750
>those cocksucking lips
Maybe if you posted something With The aesthetic you're doing In The animation we might be Able To help better.
Ok, although we are discussing design, why you're trying to design directly in 3d? Why not sketching or thumbnailing first? Why you haven't done the real world research first? I'm sure that would help.
>>2495644
Fundamentals, guys. It all comes down to knowing your fundamentals.
>>2495644
Only newkids do that. Real niggas skip the first 5 steps and go balls deep.
>>2495655
Yes, but for me, those are the fundamentals of design I would say. Research, sketching.
3D might be time consuming.
If the guy want to sketch in 3D, i would recommend him to paint over fast base models.
Trying to design for a comic I want to start.
A quick sketch up of what I had pictured for the two main characters
I'm mainly just concerned if designs come off as "interesting" or eye catching?
>>2495681
Commas would help your post read better. Having said that the only things I recognized from it were 'facebook' and 'twitter'... What are you even talking about?
>>2495694
I would try at least 60 more versions, just for the silhouette, so you can explore more the shape of the body.
Picking one silhouette I would do more 60 on clothes.
But this is just me.
>>2495713
This is bordering on autism. You don't need that many variations. He's not only going to burn himself out considering his skill level, but if he does do it, he'll just start churning out pure crap like they do on vidya and movies because they gotta fill the quota and force themselves to make each one different and unique.
No more than 15, 20 at the most.
I made some ayylmaos
>>2495694
>>2495713
for reals. Whenever I do any concept I do as many quick thumbnails as I can before I have to send it out to get reviewed.
and then they pick the 5 or so best ones then make a more detailed version of those and send it in again for review. The pick the best out of that and I continue adding more and more details to the sketch. Then comes the thumbnail for colors and values.
I do about 5 value thumbnails and 5 color variations and send em for review once more. Usually they will want tiny variations of smaller details. Like "what kind of watch should this be" and I make several rough variations on that. Or small variations on shoes and belts or whatever the fuck.
The final concept is after all of those thumbnails, colors, values, and variations have been decided on. Most people don't have no god damn idea how concept works. They think it's just "draw something cool once and that't it".
99% of concept work gets turned down.
>>2495694
i dont think their designs convey much about them other than irritated and chill. push their silhouettes and do some research on how clothes can speak about a character.
>>2495722
So forget it. You want him to solve his shit in 2 hours?
Ofc he also have to work on his skill level.
>>2495737
>you
auto fix'd
>>2495722
Not the guy you're replying to but doing that many thumbnails is incredibly important as a beginner designer. He doesn't know how to think as a concept artist yet. If he bit down and did excessive variations it's going to train his mind how to think and how to approach a design in a unique way. It's seriously an amazing way to practice.
For like... actually designing something no more than 20 is ever needed and you can get away with 10 or so most of times.
But he's not there yet. He needs that practice. A good couple of topics to make 75 thumbnails is either "apple" or "eye". Create 75 thumbnails dealing with either of those topics.
Once I did about 200 thumbnails of an apple. I'm tellin ya at about 50 you run out of ideas and about 100 your brain is completely shot. But something happens between 100-200. Like your brain starts up again and goes full blast and you start pumping out more and more crazy ideas.
>>2495729
I'm sorry about my shit spelling and grammar. When I have my display down to paint it makes it awkward to use the full keyboard and I fuck up a lot of typing. (keep my painting on the display and browser on my second normal window. The display has a swing arm)
>>2495741
>>2495741
>He doesn't know how to think as a concept artist yet.
He never mentioned being a CA. That type of work is expected that that industry whereas in comics, especially one's own personal little thing for shits and gigs or whatever, doesn't require so many design variations. In that case, you're the boss and you can decide when enough is enough.
I mean he can do 70, 100 or however many different designs for a single character he wants, but I think somewhere way before that range of numbers you hit a point of diminishing returns. And to be frank, imo, character design isn't as important as many make it out to be. But that just comes down to one's personal philosophy on art and their own goals and so on.
>>2495929
I mean... that's what I already said. That you don't need to do any of those.
But if he wants to be a concept guy then he can do it as an exercise.
>>2495940
To be honest, I didn't even read the rest of your post after the part I quoted. kek
>>2491684
What about something like this?
You should also focus on the natural danger messages
And play a little on what scares an human
For example look at pick related
Not really a spider but you can a little associate on human skin
And associate the sparse hairs and bumps to sickness
This is why this particular camel spider is so repugnant
Btw i like spiders
>>2499048
Also the brain hates when something is off
Like not a perfect simmetry
Play on other stuff as well like trypophobia or try to make it eyeless
>>2493196
>Spiders that try to look scary (evil red eyes, aggressive features, etc) tend to feel the opposite imo. Trying too hard, I guess?
Let me explain it in simple form.
1) Spiders from fantasy/superhero/badass - related products (Monster toys/Videogames/Monster Movies) make spiders look "Scary-Cool" like a badass looking godzilla monster toy with CLAW BITING ACTION.
2) Spiders that are scary done in the same uncanny-scary way as...
For example compare monsters from Kaiju Movies to monsters from Resident Evil or from psychological thrillers.
Scary spider SHOULD [NOT] LOOK [BADDAS]
>no evil eyes
>no teeth
>no crazy colors
Try to think what makes cool monsters or action toys cool and remove it.
>>2493197
this dont look cool
this looks "Uncanny Creepy" like a hairy deformed human head on alien-esque body
>>2499061
Also other thing - no "edgy" parts like spikes or "saw-insect legs" like OP's picture has.
Again it makes it look like a cool spider toy i would buy.
So for OP"
>>2491684
1) DON'T make those "disney villain eyes". Make them round and empty/souless.
Spiders are creatures without feelings.
2) Remove spiky legs. Make them different. Otherwise those legs look like some kind of robot or again-toy.
Think about it in real life terms.
If you had to squash a spider with your bare foot, would you rather squash a fat spider, or a thin one?
Squashing the fat one would be gross and messy, so I'd pick the opposite.
The metaphorical spider is squished in between your toes, Which would be most unpleasant texture?
For me, the fuzzy texture would be the most unpleasant, as opposed to the beetle-roach texture in something like >>2491715
The furry would mix with the squashed spider goop and make a nasty texture,
akin to hair in a shower drain
Scary is NOT cool. It should be unnerving and unpleasant.
If you trying to make something disturbing you have to understand what people hate about the subject, and turn it up to eleven.
>this thread
You fuckers won't get me with spiders.
>>2491684
Looks like you're missing the pedipalps.
The leg segmentation might need a bit of rethinking since the final four segments seem a bit awkward in terms of their distribution.
If it's animated then quite a bit of the scariness will probably come into play with motion and that's definitely a good thing to look at for references, though I guess for design that plays into it less aside from just making sure the basic articulation is good.
>>2491795
I think if you look up pics of ogre faced spiders or wolf spiders for instance you'll get some good ideas on how to do glow in the dark eyes without glowey red eyes.
I think they have a special kind of reflector behind their retina that passes light through it twice to increase the intensity of an light in an image.
You'll also get some good ideas on how to do eye placement since I think spiders rarely if ever have such uniform eye placement and they generally have rounder eyes.
They don't actually move the lenses of their eyes but Jumping spiders I think can kind of move their retinas so you can still get a good feel for soulless black eyes that you can still somehow feel are definitely looking at you.
Jumping spiders I don't think have those same reflectors though and I would have to describe their eye placement as cute so you'd have to mix and match at your own discretion.
>>2491775
Also this I guess.
optimal placement of hair and markings should be considered.
>>2495725
real neat alium designs there
although personally i think the rocky/crystalline stuff with glowing veins is really derivative and bland
not 100% sure what it is you're trying to convey there but maybe broaden your options
>>2501118
you are guys have goood ideas i cud make sum spiders
Any good literature talking about concept art and design?
