Pezzalis wrote:Creature Statues - A Tutorial by Pezzalis

Lately I've been making a fair amount of creature statuettes in the building editor.
Such as:



For this tutorial I'll cover the basics on how to make simple creature statues and I'll even cover how to outfit them
The main trick in this is to Build upwards.
The best technique is to block out your creature first, then add outfitting details, and then add bio-detail (Creature details)


We'll use this statue I made of pwurman's Lord Larte creature mainly because he asked me to make it and because I happened to be planning on making this tutorial.



Creature Shape

We will begin by making a basic, simple block structure of the creature. You will have to do alot of 'rounding off' (Smoothing out edges, uless you are making a bot statue or some kind of geometrical creature)

Legs



-Start off with you base/pedestal. Find a piece suitable for the legs (I used 'Lozenge') and place one smack in the middle.
-Copy it to each side so they snap in line with the center piece. If your creature has more than 2 legs, you will have to manually adjust them.
-Remove the middle leg piece.
-Begin building upwards in the shape of the creatures legs by copying one piece and using CTRL click to raise it then SHIFT click to horizontally adjust it.
-If neccesarry, resize or morph it so it suits the leg shape better Copy this piece and use SHIFT click to place it above the other lower leg piece.
-Repeat until you have finished the creatures leg shape on each side. (Don't worry about feet for now)




Body:


-You want to use a body or roof piece for the body as you might need to attatch detail parts to it later.
-I used the Dollop Habitat piece for the rounded area on this creature.
-Place it between the two leg pieces and CTRL click it to raise it up.
-Rotate resize and morph if necessary.



-Round off the flat areas of your body area with detail pieces ie. At this stage I used the Pedop piece to give the flat end on the creature a pointy rear end.
-I used a connector piece for the neck, and placed another dollop habitat piece on as the head and resized it to fit.
-I used an Espheral piece to round off the flat areas on that piece, so I can still attatch detail parts to it but its a perfect sphere.
-Regardless of your creatures headshape, you should still try to make it a body roof or connector piece.
-Mouths are tricky. For this one I used the Parasol piece to imitate the beak.
-Try using detail pieces. Check out some of my other statues to see some other mouth designs.
-Espherals and Epees will help alot.

Arms


-You can use the same techniques as you did for the legs, but seeing as you may want to attatch parts to it later, you can use connector pieces.
-Round off flat ends with detail pieces.

We now have the basic body shape for your creature. We will add the additional body details later ie. Feathers, feet, hands, eyes, detail parts. We do this later because you can losecomplexity by covering up such parts during outfitting.


Outfitting

Colouring system:
Blue=Creature body/Pedestal
White=Outfit
Red=Focused/Newly added part
Green =Distinguishing between two parts for better contrast



Right. Here I've began outfitting Lord Larte.
-I've used a couple Hive cover parts for the collar area. During outfitting, you will find that the Donut and Hive cover pieces are among the most useful.
-I've used a donut to give a ring around his neck.
-Another donut is used for the base of the "tierdrop" Hat piece that pwurman has used as a broach on Lord Larte. ---Two different sized Cylindras make up the tiered formation.





-The Donut Piece is really great for imitating the Parkaboy-Ring/Snoke AND Tinker ticker/Bolt outfitting tehcniques.
-Here I have copied a big donut piece and repeatadly rotated it to give the layered effect as seen on Lord Larte.




-Another Tierdrop-imitation piece around the waist area.
-Alot of people use the "Harmonious Song" GA piece as a belt/broach/dangly thing- No I really dont mean that (I really dont know what to call it).
-The Biovauc roof piece is really good for imitating this, and then just slap an Epee right through the middle of it.




-I would actually recommend using a color coding system for this bit. Try to cover up any blue areas showing on the main body, Here a large hive cover piece does the trick and then some additional donuts to cover up the thin area.



-For limb sleeves use any awning piece. Hive cover works well (I said it was useful)
-You can also use 'stretced' donut pieces (Hey I said they were useful too ) partially sunk into the body. (You can see this kinda technique on my trophies up the top of the page ^)




Biodetails
Now we begin to add the actual creature parts
Blue=Body
White=Outfit
Green=Creature detail

Hands/Feet:



-Right! Hands and Feet are realitively simple.
-The Hanging horn piece makes for good claws, upside down awning pieces make good shoes.
-Raw Demagogue will give you a nice hoof.
-Tuning time can give you a frog like foot.
-Epees are also really helpful.

Details:




Detail Parts that are VERY useful:
Epee - Eyes, claws, spikes, feathers, crests, twigs, nurples, tails etc
Donut - Jellybuttons, eyes, ears, mouths.
Epshpereal - Heycorns, bumps, eyes, mouths.
Hanging fang - Spikes, claws, eyes, beaks, tails, crests, hands, feet
Parasol - Beaks, spikes, heycorns
Hive cover - Allows for smaller Jellybuttons than the donut piece
Biovauc - Good plates ie Think Squid, Stegosaurus
Illumine - Perfect nurples but high complexity
Pedeop - Thin spikes when you sink it in


Eyes


Eyes. By far the hardest and nearly the most important part.
If you get the eyes wrong, the whole statue could end up looking very gimpy (And to be fair, the eyes on my Lord Larte statue aint perfect). You will have to make the eyes 2 (Or 3, or 4, or 5) times and make sure they are level (If they are on your creature).

I used a technique that I saw on Parkaboys bauder statue because it had the same eyes as Lord Larte.

-I used stretched out espheral piece and repeated it until it slightly overlaps the one before it giving it the brow detail.
-A flattened Esphereal gives the rest of the eye its shape, and another stretched esphereal will make a pupil.

The scary thing about eyes is that you have to repeat it for as many eyes as your creature has, and if its symmetrical they will have to be even on both sides.

For other eyes:
I find the following pieces useful as eyes:
-Vacuole (Flattened)
-Donut+Esphereal center
-Hanging Fang (Flattened)
-Esphereal (Flattened, Stretched)



Painting Your Statue

-Do not paint the whole statue a single stone/gold/material texture.
-Make sure there are different levels of lightness and darkness, otherwise there is not enough contrast to make it out.

You can try painting it just like the original:



Or Go for a rocky/stoney texture (Note the different toned greys)
-Try stay away from the rock/brick textures on page 2, they give a bad messy look to the statue.

-Instead, I used the sandy texture on page 1, in the first row.




And as far as things go, thats just about it! Of course you can now add more details, such as items into you creatures hands. ie. Guns, swords, books, staves.

You could also try posing you creautre. But that will involve moving every detail piece so I would recommend building it posed first.

Uses for you statue:
Adventures mainly. They could also make a neat entertainment building/City hall
Well in GA there is the trick to use a creature disguised as a gate - Giving you a creature statue.
But this method makes it feel much more real and you can give it a realistic stone texture. Plus you can go crazy. You have much more room for complexity with creatures in the building editor. And you have alot of new 'parts'. You can express further details that you can't in the creature editor.

Lord Lartes:




I hope this helps people, this is my first tutorial.

Thanks =]

Pezzalis

RogueGamer23 wrote:things are coming great in this thread, hope newbies pass by here more often.

Drew980 wrote:This is great for people that are not aware of these techniques. Keep up the good work.

Pezzalis wrote:I'm gonna share some important guidelines to building sets

If you want to make a cool set, the best way to do it is to play around with body and roof parts.

It is important to find a Main set piece. This is the block that you want to be present throughout the whole set.
Grab the main set piece, move it, morph it, size it. Find an appealing shape. Then duplicate it. Rotate it to be symmetrical to the other, or size it so it creates a layer. Get creative! When you have found a non complex design that you like, begin adding details to the building. Windows, doors, different block shapes, structural support, spires etc. Remeber the detail parts you used. These are your Set detail pieces.

This way everytime you make a new building in the set, select the Main set piece and form the design you have developed, BUT make it slightly unique. Maybe rotate the whole design 90 degrees or shape it slightly larger or smaller - Morph it in another direction or even multiply the design and have multiple buildings This way there is a common design throughout the set. Then grab your Set detail pieces and well... detail it
This way there is a common sense of style and detail throughout the set without too much similarity.

Colouring: Make sure there is a colour similarity amongst the set. Seeing as colouring can vary greatly depending on the style, this is up to you.

This whole design thing may seem a little complex, so heres some examples by me (Of other peoples species' buildings) :

Dracknorin's Adrenti Set

Main set piece:: Barn Roof - They are sized up, and duplicated many times, each time they are sized down a little to give the carved wood effect. They are stacked high above eachother in a Norse-like fashion.
Set Detail Pieces:
Thinkin' Logs - Used as a central structure piece, usually painted like stone.
Windows: Blue coloured blocks to replicate 'glass' areas. Glazier Box, Cobbled portal window pieces.
Party Favour - Curled to give a carved bone look to the roofs.


Wolfin298's Wolfin Species *COMPLETE*:

Main set piece::
Pyramid. Stretched long and rotated vertically. Duplicated, Pieces stretched back to standard pyramid size, then duplicated furthermore, raised and lowered to create triangular windows. On lower levels they are flat on hte ground and duplicated and sized and painted accordingly.
Set Detail Pieces:
Not alot really... The same trees (Top cap) I guess this was one of my earlier sets - But I think the design and paint makes it one of my best, but there isnt alot of detail. You can see totem poles in most of them, and they use the same door.

Zaragorne's Womple Species *COMPLETE*

Main set piece::
Barn Roof. ALOT of barn roof (Its very non complex)
Multiplied and rotated around an axis to give the curved roof. Roated and stretched vertically, then multiplied and sized down (and out) to give the layered window effect.
Set Detail Pieces:
Dome roof - Covering over where all the bases of the Barnroofs meet and form a circular area.
Buckyhome - Used as a rounded base
Tube cabin - Used as a corridoor to the entrance

RubbishyUsername's Greshian Species *COMPLETE*

Main set piece::
Octaroost. Stretched vertically (Maybe on a slight angle too) and copied, and rotated to form a symetrical spire. Layerd to form vertical window rows.
Set Detail Pieces:
Tower roof - Used as spires (Strectched alot) and as a base on some of the buildings.
Mushroom stalk and Acicularis. Used as flora (Or fungi)

This style is present in nearly all my sets. I have a Main set piece and sometimes a secondary block piece, and many re-occuring detail pieces. I find that this... 'Format'... Makes set building very easy and much quicker (Once you've done the first building) while still retaining uniqure re-occuring forms and quality to the set

Red-Indigo wrote:Sticky this someone, now!

Jonoman3000 wrote:Well here is a tutorial about how to turn base parts in the building editor