#the aliens are so detailed and grotesque in a gross monsterous bug way

[intomybubble]

found a funny review of one of the worst manga i’ve ever read (out of the probably 1000+, including many manhwa, completed and not in the last 5ish years)

Bougyaku no Kokekko

aka people turn into giant man eating chickens and the perpetrator is trying to make human-chicken hybrids using enslaved women like cattle. also something something adults are awful for not getting my little girl treatment when she was sick so this only affects adults

Like depending on the age group, the characters look like they come from?? 3 different genres: teenagers look pretty standard for a shounen, there are disgusting detail looking adult men, and incredibly chibi little kids. The chickens are also pretty realistic looking too.

and also

[titleknown]

Advice On Making Good Open Species Part 2: Specifics!

Welp, your old uncle Title felt a lack of zing in the last one of these, on the subject of making good open species, but he couldn’t quite figure out why. Until he realized, hey, you’re going a bit too broad here! Sure it’s useful advice for starting out, but not as much for honing in on a concept and making it work!

So, I’ve decided to do an advice guide on some more specific archetypes of open species, the kind that aren’t really done much in the world of Open Species, but which I’d like to see more of. And I’ll try to ensure that by giving some advice on a few design archetypes I haven’t seen much of, and some pointers on how to make your creations the best they can be to make a splash!

Past the break y’all!

Well, because I cited it directly aesthetically in the last one, I figured I might as well start, off with Ugly species designs. To be clear, when I say “ugly” I mean designs that are in the spirit of the grotesque designs of creators like Ed Roth and Basil Wolverton, grotesque; hideous fleshy things that’d be the antidote to the cutesy stuff that usually populates the Open Species arena in the same way that; again; Rat Fink was the anti-Mickey.

But, the secret to making a good Ugly/grody design I would say; at its core; is the fact that; on some level it has to be appealing. It can be ugly; nasty; grody on many levels, but it has to have something to make it likable to make it work. Take a look at Rat Fink or Roth’s other hot-rod driving lunatics or; for another example; large chunks of the the Ninja Turtles or Toxic Crusaders toylines that took after that aesthetic.

A lot of the tricks they used were mainly in giving the designs a dynamic “energy,” every nasty fold and greasy pockmark conveying a sense of movement and get-up-n-go, aided by bright colors. And personality-wise they were aided by being exubertant and fun. As nasty and gross as these things could be, you could tell they enjoyed what they did, and they were having a good time.

So, keep those design factors in mind when designing your own. But, speaking of things connecting to motors and customization, there’s also the issue of mechanical species. Things like the Transformers or; if you want to stretch the definition of species; the Terminators.

These show up shockingly rarely in the world of Open Species, perhaps because of perception that robot “models” would be a separate thing from species. But, I would wildly disagree, because of how “species” is just a robot model made of meat. But I digress.

Anyway, a design tip that feels vital here would be: How was it made, by what was it made for, and by whom? Because, that will determine a lot of what they do; what they look like, and what their general outlook is.

Form follows function in character/creature design, though in development I might also advise you to do the reverse as well. IE, come up with a basic concept; then wonder “How would this have come to exist?” and, following that, “What would that add on to the design/how would that shape what it looks/acts like?” Even if the creators are unknown or they emerged from the chaos of the modern world ala Digimon, those factors still exist.

Thirdly, Symbiotes. Specifically, stuff that latches onto stuff and acts like armor/garb/gear/shiny bits. They are highly underrepresented; perhaps for being so esoteric, but quite versatile in terms of concept, thanks to how many different ways they can attach and; via interacting with the host; how they can be spun-off as characters!

But, a thing you always need to think about for such things is how do they attach to the user? The alterations to the user that’d inevitably result would alter their all important shillouette from a design perspective, so you need to make sure that alteration’s a good one. Make sure it can feel cohesive with the body, even if it’s grotesque, it still can “fit” like a glove. Like a MegaBlok attached to a Lego, it may look grotesque and “off,” but it’s still gotta fit.

For example, Venom literally started out as a costume in appearance, the Guyver’s patterned on armor and in Parasyte it’s the user’s body itself that is altered by its carrier instead of attaching bits. Use clothing and; for gnarlier ones; IRL internal/attaching parasites/symbiotes/mutualists as examples when thinking about “How will this fit onto a person”

Perhaps also think about concealability if it might be a narrative concern; whether it be because this new species is mutually disliked by other sentients or if simply there’s a “masquerade” going on. How would this species as you’ve designed it find a way to conceal itself if need be?

Finally, for now, aliens. Well, more specifically, a specific type of alien. Cinematic Genre-Pastiche Aliens to be exact.

While there are aliens in Open Species as of now; they tend to stick to the aesthetics of the more general  Open Species “look” so-to-speak. But, I think there’s opportunities there. But the most important starting point I must give is; know what era/subgenre you’re pastiching.

Like, are you going for Paul Blaisdell-type 50s bug-eyed monsters? 80s-type Alien knockoffs? Neville Page-type blandness because you’re boring as fuck? Then try and hone down what in terms of how they look; how they act; what they do; ect that gives that area of alien design its unique “feel” and try to do that. Even study the sorts of science they used; obsolete or not; or special effects technology from the era, because in a fair few cases they were designed via form-follows-function and you can reverse-engineer a lot aesthetically from that.

Also, unless you’re going full-on speculative biology, in which case @jayrockin  or @cmkosemenartwork would be better to ask for advice than myself, think less about specific details in terms of plausibility and moreso about how they capture the feel you’re going for.

Like, if you’re making a 50s-type space-kaiju, nobody gives a shit if it violates the square cube law, because it looks cool as hell. And that goes for a fair few other archetypes, as mentioned to me by my friend @cartoondogjpeg, sometimes trying to be “realistic” or plausible with your details stifles the imagination, so ditch it if it’s holding your designs back. For an example of what happens when you aren’t doing that, look at Neville Page…

So yeah, that’s it. If you want me to make more articles like this, hopefully minus the lateness, maybe support me on Patreon; where I post previews and polls for backers, and you can even have me do a piece of art or writing for you at the higher tiers!

I’ll probably be doing a Part 3 sometime this week, if only because I feel I still didn’t cover enough ground here, and have plenty more basic ideas...