In my last post I went on the hunt for reference. I found some animal and insect references that I felt would help lead me down a pretty cool path in redesigning the critters.
In this first image, I dove in to the designs with the intention of using the last thumbnails I showed in the Hunting Down Reference post as a jumping off point. I’m really just feeling out the character, trying to find his personality. My focus is on the face/head knowing that he’s a grinner, but also a biter! I’m still deciding if I want to keep to the campiness of the original design and movie or go in a more aggressive direction.
Everything right now is real sketchy and that’s the way it should be. These images are really for me as the designer to see. I use these to find a direction to go in. The director/art director/whomever usually won’t see these.
With this next group, I’m starting to get a feel for the critter’s look. I’m still playing with the design and the creatures anatomy a LOT though.
1 & 2) In these 2 I’m going over in my head how the critter would curl into a ball and how he would then look standing.
3) This sketch shows the mouth all the way open as I imagined it swallowing its prey whole like a boa. Not sure I’ll use this option.
4) A basic angry growl.
5) This one was based on looking at a bullfrog for another direction for the body and neck. I wanted to try and show them as one with a bunch of flesh – instead of the caterpillar route as a way to show his bulk. Buuuut, it looks pretty goofy. Kind of looks like he’s flexing for the mirror….or the ladies.
6) In this sketch I thought about changing his stance. Maybe he’s hunched over and at the ready to roll at any time.
7) Time to figure out the back. I took a look at the gorilla image I showed in the last post as an idea. I really liked the bulk that silverback had. So I thought that might apply here. I’ll go back and rework it as their anatomies are different and the critter’s movements are vastly different.
8) I went in more of a piranha direction with the skull here.
9) Deciding on how much bulk to have in the neck here.
10) And I wanted to show him attacking in this one. What would it look like from the side? What do I like and what do I want to change?
As you can see, we have a ways to go before we have a solid design. I’m showing my process here bit by bit as I thought that would be more interesting so hopefully it doesn’t seem like I’m taking forever. Many times these early steps are just a few hours before you have to get to a more finalized design to show the powers that be the next day! But I’m taking my time here to explore this fun little critter and show you all a bit more. Hopefully it’s interesting!
More to come!
Click here for part two of designing a new Critter – Huntin’ Down Reference
Click here for part one of designing a new Critter – My Kind of Critter
Josh Hagen 
Very cool concepts. I really like how the heads protrude forward when they open their jaws. Pretty true to how the sharks jaw anatomy works, or even a snake.
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