Some people have brought up concerns to me about the Mammoth’s design, so I thought I’d talk a bit about the design process and what I did to create it.
First off, as much as I hate to have to use a real reference, that was the only thing that I had. The rest was left up to my creative interpretation. I decided the key things to take from it were the triangle-like shape, the wrinkling, and the general distribution of girth (I also kept the base the right shape, but that’s a much smaller detail in the grand scheme of things). While I could have attempted to make a true 1:1 of it, I prefer not to. For projects for Frisky Beast, they work in fantasy toys. There are other companies that specialize in bringing more realistic designs to life, and I would not want to infringe on their territory. However, I wanted it to be clear what it was based on. It’s a fine balancing act when it comes to designing things that have a clear basis.
Being based on a prehistoric creature, I wanted to create a really intense kind of design. My biggest concern while working on this project was preventing a lifeless meat tube of a design. My second concern was to really improve my technique. Around the time I made this design (and others) I put a big emphasis on trying to make my designs a bit more organic. I felt that even for a fantasy design, there’s a place for trying to make things a bit more grounded and naturalistic. Not realistic, but something that feels like it’d be believable as a functional thing. So I wanted to add detail, but to have it be a natural kind of detail. I’m sorry if I’m not conveying that idea very well? But it’s hard to put into words.
Originally, the ribbing/rippling down the front extended less far, but I added more detail to it as I worked on it to really tie it all in the design. The subtle details in between really help the organic look of the design. I wanted to prevent it from being all wrinkles though! So I think the parts from the front/back help that. The idea was to go from tight small wrinkles to looser ones as you go up and then back into tight ones before the head. I thought that would be a logical kind of pacing to the design. Personally, I’m a big stickler for design cohesiveness. I like when all aspects of a design complement each other and feel cohesive.
There used to be no real detail on the back view, just an extension of the side details. The long vertical bit was created through a back and forth revision process and kept the view from being bland. The idea was for a muscle like definition along the back, though, it might be a failing on my part if it does not come across like that. The veining is also a key detail that prevents it from looking like a lifeless tube! And the Corpus spongiosum in the front was a detail I exaggerated to try and make it have a really defined triangle like shape. It actually had to be brought in at some point because I made it way too intense. It was a huge oversight on my part that it ended up that exaggerated. In its current form, it should not cause discomfort in use, but still be very apparent and defining in the shape.
The head was one of the hardest things to settle on for this. Without detail, it simply looked wrong. With a plate like detail, it looked wrong. With a puffy, soft detail with wrinkles, it looked wrong. What I ended up doing was taking the triangle shape and softening up the corners. I curved it up under the head a bit and had it follow a diagonal line. If it was too flat, I felt it would be hard to use, however, I did not want to make it pointy. In the end, I settled on hard and soft folds. After adding those details, I went back and softened them so not too much of it would be standing out. The idea was this way there’d be a nice, subtle detailing to the shape without it pulling or dragging in use. The wrinkles on the inside also help it from just being a void. The tiny urethra just looked strange without any detailing around it. Having concentric lines that ran about the same shape as the head I thought brought the details together best. Once again, I’m a stickler for design cohesiveness…When it comes to why I choose certain small details, the answer is probably almost always “I used this feature somewhere else in the design”.
And that’s about it. That’s the process I go through when I design a toy. “What are the key features of the toy?” “What makes it readable as what it is supposed to be?” “What can I do to bring these design aspects together?” “What can I do to improve my set of skills to bring a better toy for customers?”. I only referenced real images for this toy. How I chose to exaggerate the design were based on my own impressions on what would make the toy most immediately readable as a Mammoth toy.
If you made it all the way through this, I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my thoughts! I hope you all enjoy the end result and all the work that went into it along the way.
