#object xenofiction

[penwrythe]

The Blazing Champion - Flammagentius

With her Beloved, Queen Nike

I had so much fun working on this design back in June! Now that Altostratus is complete, here they are, the Blazing Champion!

Now the notes on this text under the read more:

Flammin (she/they, paintbrush, 10 years before refitting) 

- before the relic wars, they were a master muralist 

- 40 years old when her home was destroyed by Apollyon and was later found by Queen Nike 

- although the trauma of their past gravely hunts them, they still find purpose within the Jazeran havens as a tunnels scout, using their skills to make maps on the walls of Nike's hidden haven. When Queen Nike recruited aid among the survivors of Apollyon's rampage, Flammin volunteered as a representative of objectkind.

Flammagentius the Blazing Champion

Throughout the pain of refitting, Flammin was cared for by Nike, who provided the future champion with quicksilver to calm her sore ichor and some needed company in her isolated construction scaffolding that supported her massive frame. With Nike as their mentor, Flammagentius became a proficient fighter trained in flight, combat, and flame. While objectkind looks up to their savior with brimming hope, Flammagentius feels burdened by her role in the relic wars. Yet, with each of Apollyon's relics destroyed and the fallen cities he conquered restored to their former glory, Flammagentius' hope for a future grows ever brighter.

[penwrythe]

Altostratus cover update!

To be unreachable...

Queen Nike's wings are a combination of linen cloth and ichor threading rooting from her ichor structure. Flammagentius' wings are all ichor, with the only non-ichor material supporting them being her bronze metal fingers.

Ichormancy is the practice of developing and improving a living object's ichor structure, increasing its strength, flexibility, durability, tension tolerance, and damage tolerance. Most objects hatched with the instinctual ability to do basic ichormancy (moving limbs and shifting them for better balance or tolerating pressure). This level of ichormancy demonstrated by Flammagentius takes years, along with refitting, to master. Don't want to drop straight out of the sky should it fail.

As a living object grows more powerful, their ichor limbs gain colorful gradients...

[penwrythe]

Flammagenitus Sketches!

Spent some time developing her over the past week for Altostratus' cover. I might need to rework some parts of her description in the story to match this design but yeah.

For more info about Flammagentius: see here!

So, I developed Flammagenitus' massive head from the Greek Corinthian helmet. I wanted something that showed Queen Nike's Antiquan influence on Flammagenitus's refitted design. Initially, I felt the design was a bit odd with the large jaw and jaw joint combined with the helmet, so I looked into Dunkleosteus, an extinct Late Devonian fish, for an example of a head shape that works with the helmet.

Absolutely terrifying fish!

So, this helped make a more memorable and iconic design for Flammagenitus's design. Not final, but it's what I'm looking for.

Here's the rest of her pending design!

[penwrythe]

WOR Sketch Dump!

I forgot to post these here! A few halberds, a sword, and war-torches!

I need a month for polearms so I can draw nothing but polearm object ocs, lol!

[penwrythe]

So I've been working on a 3D still life since the beginning of the year! Photo ref below!

The purpose of this still life is both to learn Blender and also to create a starting point for practicing cel-shading style for WOR!

First, create a realistic (as possible) still life using what I learned from Blender tutorials. Then research and test cel-shading styles for the still life to match my style for WOR.

Before that step, I need to create a style guide for WOR's style. So far, I have plenty of examples to base the style guide on:

Might take me a month to create it (it's not just the characters the style guide is for, it must include backgrounds, buildings, creatures, etc).

So, what's the cel-shaded style will look like?

I'm looking at the following:

Lightning Boy Shader Tutorial from Lightning Boy Studios

Hades Behind the Scenes from Supergiant Games

Why this style??

The goal is to make things a little easier for me while I work on RFR's comic and any art for WOR's stories in the future. My current style is a little time intensive from sketch to the final image. 3D will allow me to cut time in half, providing me with either a good reference/starting point, ease of composition, and, maybe hopefully, spending more time on getting pages for RFR's comic done once I start producing it.

Still, that's a long way off (rn doing concept stuff now ahhhh), but it's something for me to explore!

Anyway, once I do a couple of successful renders from the still life, next is taking a character from my past art and recreating them using the same methods.

So, maybe, one of these two! Clara (not WOR related) and Not-Marathon are the simplest object ocs I have currently and are good candidates for the future style test. If successful, then either of these characters will be next:

Doing a human character is very important since they still exist in WOR (just barely on the edge of extinction lol). Sylvania would be great for a more complex version of my object characters to prepare for something like a war-torch.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing! Sorry for the long post!

[penwrythe]

She is finally complete!!! Sylvania the Elven Ground Staff in the style of World of Relics! Inspired by Sylvania of the Spirit Keep from RAID Shadow Legends.

[penwrythe]

Troubleshooting design concepts for World of Relics:

Spending time figuring out living object anatomy!

That reminds me, I still need to research how material composition may affect anatomy, function, and durability! Along with environmental factors, too. Still researching the topic of alchemy for my magic system.

For the first image:

Object anatomy in its most basic form is easy. But I still like some subtle details like "ichor pooling" to affect how their limbs and facial features work. An object's ichor in its most base unraveled form is a mess of slime-like tendrils. The texture of an object's ichor would feel slightly damp, but not soggy, clay.

Second image:

Head shapes are going to be very interesting to design. It's pretty straightforward with basic shapes but gets weird with irregular shapes. Like, I can see how a hammer can work, what about a halberd??

Look at this pointy boi!

Last image:

The sketch thumbnail I used for Prince Luther and Gwuenevere illustration inked and a few sketches figuring out my sword anatomy. I wanted the swords to float to move around, both in and out of combat, but I need to figure out where their hands and limbs go. Originally, their legs would be their handle. They use their legs normally when walking around, but while fighting other swords or war-objects, their legs become the handle and their hands would grab it, using themselves as an actual sword.

Eh, I decided that would be silly and instead have the mass of the sword's lower limbs absorbed into their upper limbs during the refitting process (objects modified into a new shape). So instead, they would float. During combat, they will use themselves as normal swords (with the ability to cast magic and stuff). For small living swords, they only need one hand to hold themselves and another to grapple with. For larger living swords, both hands are needed to hold themselves and direct their attacks. They will only free one hand for grappling if fighting a flying poleaxe or shield.

[penwrythe]

Menathrenna and her spring-chicken running under the shattered moon over the sands of Journod.