Modular Creature Kits

Rrah-rrah! It's been a while, but that is not because of the lack of work on the project, no-no! You see, I keep digging into programming side of things, and while I have some decent progress, it's nothing I can show (yet). However, I realized that if I keep at the same pace, I'd have leave my beloved Patreon without updates for a long time, not ideal.

But while conceptualizing a gameplay-system for bodypart damage & armor, an idea came to my mind: "What if I modeled characters for the game as separate body-parts, instead of making a whole model every time?" First, I could create a library of paws, heads, bodies, tails, orifices... and then assemble many unique characters out of these parts - similar to Spore, although much more sexy! This is how I began working on a "quick test project" that turned into a two-month endeavor. But it was worth every second of it!

Body parts are separate models that can be rearranged as you see fit. Multiple arms, eyes, even tailholes - anything is possible. Glue and paint is provided in the package.

I envision this system to help me design a variety of creatures for my games, and perhaps even make an in-game creature creator someday. But for now, I focused on making a product that I could publish for people to enjoy much sooner.

After making a bunch of test models, I wanted to make something I could actually present! Inspired by modern trends among friends, I created a specific, legally distinct Desert Trotter raptor creature... It's not the only creature that will use this system of course, but it's a first step for filling the library of reusable body parts. And it was an excuse for me to work on a feather system as well.

The models may come in parts, but every part is fully rigged and can be easily posed/animated. Currently it lags a bit though, working on improving that...

I plan on releasing this model (and much more) packaged as a Modular Creature Kit for people to use. Either customize existing presets or assemble your own characters and sonas in Blender (no modeling required!). After that, you can pose, animate them, render personal reference sheets or even comics - this is what I'm already doing with these models already! Additionally I plan to offer unique pre-customized 3D character models adoptable + reference sheets combos.

More parts can always be added later... I called these additional sets "Ray Dancer" and "Wrath Queen", can you guess what creatures they are inspired by? ;}

Overall, this system is all about empowering people to keep creating custom creature 3D models within a couple hours, painting them like virtual table-top miniatures and posing them like action figures. It could even become a virtual hobby for people who want to have fun with 3D without suffering the Blender misery (cause I did all the hard parts already).

So yes! Hope you're excited about this. I'm finally preparing something to come out of the shadows and create art for people to enjoy, both here on Patreon and outside of it too. I couldn't find time to do it before, but it should be so much easier with this system.

I'm now working on 3D environments to for these creatures, because they look rather lonely without a ground to stand on. While I made a pretty landscape, rocks and trees in Unreal a few months ago, I can't distribute them to people because they use Megascans (and it's against the EULA). This is why I'm revising my Megascan automatic stylization workflows to instead work on the texture-photos I take personally! It also gives me a nice reason to go outside and touch grass sometimes...

PS: The rendering style is something I'm still working on. There is a line-art cel-shaded one, and a more detailed 3d model one. I can't decide which one is better (more attractive) for now, I'm still experimenting.