Alien Birds

On an unknown planet in an alternate universe, a race of birdlike aliens called Tweets live. Eight of these Tweets are chosen to play a game that will change the fate of their planet forever... a fanrace/fanadventure/worldbuilding project by oripoke. on indefinite hiatus :<

[alienbirds]

smug bastard bird man.

[alienbirds]

What baby Tweets look like?

Tweets hatch from eggs, of course!

All tweet eggs that are are laid within adult Flocks are taken by the Teachers and placed in an incubator until hatch time, about 4 or 5 months.

Newly-hatched baby Tweets are ugly and freaky-lookin, like baby pigeons before their feathers grow in:

As they mature to 1-2 years of age, they grow in a layer of down and get considerably cuter:

Tweets that are at this stage are referred to as Downlings. They transfer out of the Hatchery and are placed in Preschool under the supervision of the Caretaking Flock. They remain there until their first molt, after which they are formally enrolled in Bird School.

(Extra credit: Can you recognize the Tweet in this pic?)

[alienbirds]

Here's all eight Tweets in one image. I added wings to their sprites. CG (Cardi) and AT (Saako) still don't have full twitterTags, I'll think of them eventually though. (Fullview please!)

Still don't know if I have the time/inspiration to start their adventure [BIRDCAGED] for real, but i will re-open this blog as a roleplay/askblog if people want to interact with these characters, ask them questions, etc. ;>

[oripoke]

sorry for all the ocs today guys!!

this is cardi cathican, Witch Prince of Time. she’s currently doing some spelunking.

[oripoke]

pixelish thing of leonn :>

[alienbirds]

Sorry if you can't answer, but what are(were?) the Tweets' god tiers?

Let me see if I can find the list...

Keeto - Heir of Void

Teema - Maid of Light

Leonn - Mage of Space

Cardi - Prince of Time

Georn - Knight of Breath

Pinna - Page of Life

Aster - Rogue of Blood

Saako - Witch of Mind

[alienbirds]

Here are the bird sprite bases in their own post. A couple of rules in order to use them

These are only for use for characters who belong to the Tweet fanrace. Please don't take these and use them in other sprite edits unrelated to this universe.

The eye color, hairstyle, ear fluffs, wing feathers, and tail feathers can and should all be changed. Any coloration and pattern is fine but should resemble actual birds whenever possible.

Please link back to this blog whenever you use them.

Thanks!!

[alienbirds]

(same anon who asked the last question) Coolio!! I have one other question - Can I ask you to make a blank sprite template of the more birdlike sprites of them that you did? ;v; I'm no good at spriting without a base to work from.

I just recommend editing Keeto’s sprite because it’s the simplest of the designs, that’s what I do:

also, do you think you could come off anon? i’d like to be able to talk to you more directly :>

EDIT: Here’s a base I whipped up really quickly, based on Keeto. (it’s transparent, too!)

[alienbirds]

Hey, I wanted to ask: If there was more interest... Could people make their own alien birds? I like them a lot and I want to make a couple and use them on my fantroll blog.

Omg!! Uh, wow, nobody has ever asked me that before! I don't see why not, but since it's my species I'd love it if you showed me your character designs first.

Here's some pointers on making your own Tweet OC:

I made a reference sheet that goes into more detail with how they look anatomically. More recently I started drawing them with proportions that were more bird-like and much less humanoid, but you are welcome to make them more anthro if you want. 

You're pretty much free to use any coloration and markings that you'd like, but I suggest you model them on real kinds of birds. For instance, Keeto's coloration is based on a rock dove, Georn a sparrow, Cardi a cardinal, etc.

4 eyes, 2 large ones and 2 smaller ones just above.

Each Tweet belongs to a Flock of other birds who share a hobby or occupation. Some possible ones are Agriculture Flock, Literary Flock, Science Flock, Gamer Flock, and the most elite of all, the Flight Flock. They decide their Flock on Fledging day, which takes place at the equivalent of age 12-13.

Flight Flock Tweets are the only ones who can naturally fly, due to special training as well as genetic modification. The rest have their wings clipped by the Teachers at regular intervals and therefore are flightless.

All Tweets go to bird school, which is for birds and is run by the Teachers. Their standing in bird society is directly determined by how well they do in class.

Birds who flunk out of bird school or fail to join a flock (such as Aster) are considered criminals. They tend to vanish without a trace after that.

They don't have native psychic powers like Trolls do, although Pinna has limited knowledge of the future because her dreamself has been awake on Prospit and has seen images in the clouds. Saako is the same but on Derse.

They do have decently advanced technology, including the Internet. Their social platform of choice is Alien Twitter, of course.

I could go on and on but I hope those are some good guidelines! If you have any questions about the Tweets or their world feel free to ask. :D

[alienbirds]

oh God I'm already in love with ur blog

Aaaah thank you!! but i haven't updated this project since mid-2013 i'm afraid... v_v It was intended to be a Homestuck fanadventure but since then I've fallen out of interest with Homestuck I don't feel like I can continue with it.

I'm still rather attached to the characters though... I wish I'd launched the webcomic while the HS craze was still going. There's not really a way I can make it an original story either because the entire crux of the plot is "an alien race plays SBURB" (or SBIRD in this case) and every one of the Tweets was designed along a god tier title, strife specibus, chumhandle (a.k.a twitterTag), etc.

I still have a lot of artwork and worldbuilding left over from when I was doing work on it though, you're welcome to go through what's on this blog! And if you have any questions about the Tweets or their world (Birdplanet) feel free to ask. :)

Also I finally figured out that the name of the alien birds' webcomic would be... BIRDCAGED.

[oripoke]

All eight Tweets sprited! (click for names.)

[oripoke]

alien birds v2, homestuck-style with and without wings

[oripoke]

an entire race of aliens that are giant parakeets wearing t-shirts

[oripoke]

saako

brush yr hair gurl

[alienbirds]

oh so here's a cool biology thing that i learned last week and how it pertains to alien birds

so, with humans, our sex chromosomes are XX (female) and XY (male). But birds have a W-Z system, and their chromosomes work the opposite way; so, females are heterozygous (WZ) while males are homozygous (ZZ).

this pertains to the tweets because of their chumhandles; in homestuck, all of the double-letter chumhandles (TT, GG, AA, and CC) belong to girls; with the tweets, though, it's the guys who have double-letter handles. I didn't even know about bird chromosomes until recently, so it's just a coincidence, but isn't it cool?

Here's the twittertags i've got so far:

Keeto - TT - taciturnThespian Teema - TC Leonn - CC - collusiveCodex Cardi - CG Georn - GG - gregariousGlider Pinna - GA Aster - AA - atoningAbaddon Saako - AT

*symmetry*! 

[alienbirds]

quick color ref of Aster, the 7th bird. Aster is ornery, defensive, and a flockless dropout-- which is a death sentence in bird culture. he'd been living on his own, foraging and stealing for years until he was found by Pinna, who brings him food and clothes behind the backs of the Teachers.

The sweatshirt he wears was a gift from her (that's why it's her color) and it disguises how emaciated-thin he is and the fact that his wings are basically just tattered shreds. birds can't get tattoos or piercings, so clipped wings are a sign of defiance. the front of the sweatshirt has a red ring that he sewed on himself-- an empty circle indicates soullessness. A bird without a flock is considered to have no soul.

[alienbirds]

i suppose i never showed what the Teachers looked like, they are terrifying gigantic betentacled white telepathic lobster monsters who all share a hivemind. they are about twice as tall as an average Tweet (so, around 8 feet).

even if i draw them looking cute here, they aren't cute. they are horrifying. they all wear tiny dapper hats.