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Tutorial: Species Design
Published: 2011-04-29 14:59:42 +0000 UTC; Views: 63359; Favourites: 2289; Downloads: 974
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Description
A tutorial going over some of the concepts I try to follow when doing species and character design. It's pretty general suggestions so that it can be applied towards different types of characters.I hope you enjoy!
Disponible en espaΓ±ol aquΓ: [link]
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Edit: Holy crap. A DD!
Thank you SO much to =Sarky-Sparky for the suggestion and to `FantasyStock for the feature. Of all the pieces in my gallery, I'm really thrilled that it was this one. I love creating characters, and I hope that people find this useful in making their own!
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Comments: 243
You totally missed my point haha. No biggie though, I'm not going to try to drill anything into your head. I just wanted to say what I had to say. I see what you are trying to say and it makes sense, it's just that some people like bioluminescent skin because it looks cool, and not everyone wants to light up like Avatar when they walk at night. (btw I liked the movie, so don't argue about it lol)
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While the storyline was one that has been repeated in the past, I still found it an enjoyable movie to watch. But everyone is entitled to their own opinions.
I'm not saying don't think about functionality, I'm just saying that not everything has to be functional in the way in which you have specified.
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I like that movie too, though in this case, it wasn't supposed to be bio luminescent. The colored markings are just that, markings.
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I figured that it was just a light blue hue to the skin, but nothing lighting up like in Avatar. I was just using it as an example. I still think that'd be kinda cool though, lol. XD
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Umm, Sentient, I think your going a bit far... Its a tutorial, its not an actual character design and this doesn't cover world design/building either. Its just meant to help people think of the process of going about creating their own character. =/ You have valid points, but I think the purpose was more to give a possible guideline on how to create a character and giving area's to give thought on when creating it. Honestly, I thought it really helpful, thanks Jnet.
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Thanks so much for this! I can't wait to get started making my own species.
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You're welcome yerself! It's incredibly helpful!
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LOL they look like World of Warcraft's characters!
good work! 
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haha, I don't think I'm up to Blizzard talent level, but thank you, I appreciate it!
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haha! xD you're welcome!
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Your artwork and anatomy look great, and the tutorial is awesome for helping set up an animalistic character or species.
There is a minor issue with terminology though.
Animal legs aren't 'double jointed'. Most animals walk on the ball of their foot or on the tips of their toes, called digitigrade and unguligrade, rather than on their whole foot, called plantigrade. Your characters appear to walk in a digitigrade manner, making their heel closer to their knee and foot longer, creating the 'double joint' or 'backwards knee' look.
Again, it's a minor issue, the tutorial is great and your work looks very professional.
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Hey thank you so much for the terminology! I was trying to figure out what to call it, but I couldn't figure out how to search for it in google. "What do you call animals backwards looking legs" didn't give me anything helpful.
Thanks a lot, it was a point of curiosity and my vocabulary and knowledge has expanded +1!
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Amazing work!
Love the tutorial.
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Thank you so much, I appreciate it!
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Awesome tutorial and species you got there!
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Hey, thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
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amazing tutorial 
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Sounds awesome. I don't have a Linux machine at the moment, but my boyfriend is actually working on setting one up, so I'll check it out if he gets that done.
Thanks for the comment, and the visit.
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colour lovers is cool too, but thats a site
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Thank you for stopping in, it means a lot! :]
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you're welcome and no prob ^^
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... i dont know what to say... the is AMAZING! that tutorial is one of the best ive ever seen!
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I'll be happy if it comes in handy for anyone! 
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Well it helped me alot!
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Will be using this to improve on my original species. Thanks for the tutorial, it is awesome.
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You're welcome and thanks for the visit! I hope it comes in handy, I'd love to see your design if you have any drawings up?
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Well, my newest drawings of them are in this [link]
They're kinda chibish, but whatever. It gives you a good idea anyways. The two middle ones are my creatures, kinda thing.. an ice demon, and a faun, but it's a cow faun so I attempted giving the ears a cowish appearance, and I was thinking the realalistic him would have a funny nose that was a bit cow-like.. And I'm planning on giving them a more realistic approach soon, and your tutorial gave me a good idea where to start.
Also, I know how you said all the colours of the rainbow is bad, so what do you think of the last one? He's kind of my trippy hippy human character.
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Actually, I think the trippy hippy human is cute, haha. Rainbows aren't bad, and I've seen lots of successful rainbow-based characters. [link] for instance. If you're going for a fun, colorful character, that's fine as long as it's done right.
I think you're character is okay because the rainbow is primarily pretty small. His main colors are purple, green, and black. I think the rainbow dreads is a bit much, but that's a personal preference rather than a design complaint.
The cow-faun is super cute, though his feet look a bit weird. He should be standing on the hoof instead of on his ankle. The ice demon with the flower is adorable too, haha.
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Aha, thanks~ I do love rainbows. x3 They make me happy. I'm glad my colours work well together, purple and green are one of my favorite combos for some reason, but I can't stand a lot of bright colours without some black.
Ahh, I see what you mean, I'll have to fix that up on my next attempt on him, it does kinda look funny. And yeah, I drew the flower with my ice demon to show how he freezes any life he touches, including plants. It makes Himesh sad though cause he's a nice demon, unlike the rest of the ice demons who are generally a cruel race.
I only use a mouse momentary, so that's the kind of style I can make due with, pretty straight solid lines with my mouse, it would probably change a lot if I ever got a tablet.
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Actually I think your style is pretty awesome, mouse or not. I couldn't do lines that clean with a mouse, that's for sure, haha.
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Aha, thank you so much~ I've been tweaking it quite a lot, but I'm pretty happy with this style. And the smooth lines are nice, but sketchier ones are really cool on other work. Smooth fits the chibi's though.
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Yeah, absolutely. It's something I'm really bad at - smooth illustration lines. I've tried doing chibis in the past, but lines kill me, haha.
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thx for sharing your knowledge ^^ will help a lot
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Thank you for the visit and I hope it helps!
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lol your sig fits perfectly!
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oh my ...LOL...didnΒ΄t noticed that, but youΒ΄re right
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You're welcome, thanks back atcha!
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This is so helpful. Thanks for making and sharing this! c:
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You're so welcome, I hope it comes in handy!
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Fantastic instruction, it show of all the skill and knowledge you need to know when it comes to character design (specially species and animals). Also teach how to use color in the right way and NOT too colorful
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I love color, but aagh! Rainbow characters scare me! Hehe. Thank you for the comment, and the visit. I appreciate it.
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I'm usually afraid of rainbow, but other times, i don't mind
Oh, and glad to comment
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Great tutorial! I've been looking for something like this forever! Thanks a ton for posting it and congratulations on your DD.
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