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Description
So... on December 20th, while getting in the holiday spirit, my thoughts returned to a piece of Babylon 5 fan art that has been slowly cooking over the years since I watched that show.

For those who haven't seen it yet, I won't spoil the identity and species of this angelic being. Let's just say that they appeared in different forms on the show, and I mixed my favorite bits of those.
The wings and tail are taken from their first appearance in the episode 2x22 "The Fall Of Night" - set during christmas, funnily enough.
The head and tentacles are based on this character's last appearance in 4x04 "Falling Toward Apotheosis".

Personally, I think the latter form is more fitting for this species. Suitably alien. But I also like the soft, harmonic shapes of the winged form - just not the humanoid body attached to it. Especially not the face presented to humans, which looks kind of bland to me.

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Now for the technical stuff: The model was done in Blender and rendered with the Cycles engine. I also used GIMP for refining the wing texture and adding the bloom effect.

I first started working on the aliens' tentacled form in 2008, trying out a new modeling approach based on the metaball system. I am quite pleased with the organic shape that came out of that. Afterwards, I spent some time rigging the tentacles, but eventually I put the model aside and moved on to other projects.

At some point, I also made a drawing of the combined form in colored pencils. Maybe after the Blender model, maybe before, but I don't think more than one or two years passed between those. In April 2017, I decided to dig up the old model and add the wings to recreate that drawing in 3D. I spent a few days on that, using a mix of traditional modeling and sculpting.

Then I tried my hand at illuminating the model with Cycles materials, but couldn't quite achieve the effect that I wanted. So that project went on another hiatus until December. I upgraded to the latest Blender version, spent about three weeks testing and tweaking the Cycles settings... and here it finally is.

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DISCLAIMER

This is a purely fan-created, non-profit artwork. My only goal is to entertain myself and fellow fans. I am in no way affiliated with the owners of the source material, and the work above is not officially endorsed by any of them.

The depicted character is part of the show "Babylon 5" which was created by J. Michael Straczynski and produced by Babylonian Productions and Warner Bros. Full company credits can be found on the show's IMDB page.

This particular interpretation combines design elements primarily from the following episodes:
- Season 2, Episode 22 "The Fall Of Night"
- Season 4, Episode 04 "Falling Toward Apotheosis"

Description
So... on December 20th, while getting in the holiday spirit, my thoughts returned to a piece of Babylon 5 fan art that has been slowly cooking over the years since I watched that show.

For those who haven't seen it yet, I won't spoil the identity and species of this angelic being. Let's just say that they appeared in different forms on the show, and I mixed my favorite bits of those.
The wings and tail are taken from their first appearance in the episode 2x22 "The Fall Of Night" - set during christmas, funnily enough.
The head and tentacles are based on this character's last appearance in 4x04 "Falling Toward Apotheosis".

Personally, I think the latter form is more fitting for this species. Suitably alien. But I also like the soft, harmonic shapes of the winged form - just not the humanoid body attached to it. Especially not the face presented to humans, which looks kind of bland to me.

----------------------------------------

Now for the technical stuff: The model was done in Blender and rendered with the Cycles engine. I also used GIMP for refining the wing texture and adding the bloom effect.

I first started working on the aliens' tentacled form in 2008, trying out a new modeling approach based on the metaball system. I am quite pleased with the organic shape that came out of that. Afterwards, I spent some time rigging the tentacles, but eventually I put the model aside and moved on to other projects.

At some point, I also made a drawing of the combined form in colored pencils. Maybe after the Blender model, maybe before, but I don't think more than one or two years passed between those. In April 2017, I decided to dig up the old model and add the wings to recreate that drawing in 3D. I spent a few days on that, using a mix of traditional modeling and sculpting.

Then I tried my hand at illuminating the model with Cycles materials, but couldn't quite achieve the effect that I wanted. So that project went on another hiatus until December. I upgraded to the latest Blender version, spent about three weeks testing and tweaking the Cycles settings... and here it finally is.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

DISCLAIMER

This is a purely fan-created, non-profit artwork. My only goal is to entertain myself and fellow fans. I am in no way affiliated with the owners of the source material, and the work above is not officially endorsed by any of them.

The depicted character is part of the show "Babylon 5" which was created by J. Michael Straczynski and produced by Babylonian Productions and Warner Bros. Full company credits can be found on the show's IMDB page.

This particular interpretation combines design elements primarily from the following episodes:
- Season 2, Episode 22 "The Fall Of Night"
- Season 4, Episode 04 "Falling Toward Apotheosis"