Possible Collab? Evolution!

[Sparr]

Hey there, I don't know if I'm in the right place or not, or how I would go about this, but I had seen the Polycount fighting game contest and really like the level of skill and range of styles, and was wondering if I could suggest a contest/collab theme?

I guess I could introduce myself first; my name is Tyler Rhodes, and I'm an animator who decided one day to make an animation about evolution. What's special about the animation is it involves many people who 'evolved' their drawings over time, which I then animated. I wanted to stray from the typical depiction of evolution as a linear process and instead represent it as a branching structure. You can see the animation here Evolution! version:Patrick Henry School of Science and Art - YouTube
(http://youtu.be/N8X-j0dbZWs) and more general info on my process etc. here http://evolutionanimation.wordpress.com/

Recently it was posted about on Scientific Americans website and made their video of the week, and has since bounced its way all over the internet garnering comments from Richard Dawkins all the way to Ken Ham, so I figured the time was right to finally ask you guys if you were interested.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psi-vid/2012/02/29/an-evolution-animation-unlike-any-youve-seen-before/
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/645147-an-evolution-animation-unlike-any-you-ve-seen-before
http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/technology-1/video-of-the-day-evolution.html
http://io9.com/5889824/the-most-adorable-video-about-evolution-ever-courtesy-of-elementary-schoolers

I was just l curious if you all would be willing to do some kind of collaborative something-or-other? Maybe not so much a contest, but just a fun exercise of using the kids drawings for inspiration to make some interesting 3-d art? I figured it would be the most fun to make low-poly models to keep it in the spirit of a limited crayon doodle, but anything is fine by me!

I'd love to hear your ideas, and thanks!

[Shigebon]

woah just heard about the "puppet tool" ! It's kewl!! =)
This is really interesting, but im a little lost of what you are trying to do here.. So, you want to make a 3D animation based on the drawings you've collected so far?

[Sparr]

Not an animation really, I just thought you guys would like to springboard off from the 460 or so creatures and run with it, making some 3-d versions. GIANT version here https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59922961/tyler%20rhodes%20evolution%20phylogenetic%20tree%2 0full%20size%202011.jpg

http://evolutionanimation.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/tree-5-spoke-color-corrected-small.jpg

These are all of the together, and I can get you bigger images of individual creatures if needed.

[gillmeister74]

This sounds like a lot of fun. Do you have a time frame you want this stuff put together?

[Sparr]

This sounds like a lot of fun. Do you have a time frame you want this stuff put together?

Nope, I just figured they would make fun 3-D models (I made a clay/foam model of at least one of the creatures, some are more challenging than others to think of three dimensionally, of course), so anything goes really. In the spirit of how I got the drawings, I was just curious in other peoples interpretations of the creatures in a different medium.

[Sparr]

I've had some interest in this through private messages, but anyone else willing to give some creatures their own personal flair?

[nkonstantino]

This sounds like fun, I'll probably make one.

[Sparr]

If you need a bigger image of any of those just tell me.

[Saigo]

I might make one or two for fun. Can you post a bigger version of the purple squid-like creature in the upper-right orange branch? The one that has a cyan pearl or something between its eyes

[Sparr]

http://i.imgur.com/8ZTq6.jpg

Is that the one you meant?

[Saigo]

Is that the one you meant?
Yep, that's it

[Saigo]

Ended up looking like a pokemonhttp://i.imgur.com/ossUb.png

[Sparr]

Hahahha, I love it. A lot of people mention pokemon when they see the whole tree, and pokemon does involve evolution in a small sense, so I can see why people would make the association (besides the fact that it's colorful!)

If you'd like to do any more just point them out to me; I'd like to have loads of them!

What was the resolution for your textures by the way?

[Saigo]

Breakdown

http://i.imgur.com/23DyH.png
And some toying around in gimp
http://i.imgur.com/IREyE.png

Yeah, I guess I'd like to do some more, this one was fun. And it sounds like a good excercise. Could you upload this one?
It's like three or four creatures directly under my previous one
http://i.imgur.com/yQTIH.gif

[Sparr]

Haha, a personal favorite of mine. The part of the tree you're pulling from was made by my test group, which consisted of the people in my animation class (hence them being a lot older than the kids, and the more elaborate drawings).

When everyone saw this creature we all agreed it looked like a penis climbing a tree.

http://i.imgur.com/9KEFD.jpg

http://http://i.imgur.com/9KEFD.jpg

[Saigo]

I thought I'd do it one of these days, but I'm so god-damn busy with exams and looking for a job and finding a new appartment that I haven't got a spare minute right now. I'm gonna do it later though.

[Sparr]

No problem, take your time.

[Saigo]

Wow, this one is turning out really freaky. Gonna finish up the modelling and do the texturing later.http://i.imgur.com/nLq5m.png

[Sparr]

haha looking good!

[nkonstantino]

Can you give me a larger image of the crazy angler fish lookin' thing a little below and to the left of what appears to be the Jesus Crab? [Top Right]

Thanks!

[Sparr]

http://i.imgur.com/W2rDq.jpg

This guy?

[nkonstantino]

That's the one! Beautiful.
I'll get right on this guy first thing in the morning.

[nkonstantino]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/532840_3402324132064_334180398_n.jpg

Warming up the concept in my mind before I dive into Maya with it.

This is going to be fun I can already tell.

[Sparr]

Well, tried my hand at some lowpoly stuff recently. I tried handpainting a texture on this guy, but not matter what I tried I didn't like the look of it, so I mapped the original crayon to it directly!

http://i.imgur.com/Bwmvv.jpg

[nkonstantino]

Well, tried my hand at some lowpoly stuff recently. I tried handpainting a texture on this guy, but not matter what I tried I didn't like the look of it, so I mapped the original crayon to it directly!
[PICTURE]


That came out really cool!
I feel like if you had some kids draw out an entire world for them to live in they could all be rendered out like that and look awesome.

[Saigo]

Wow, that looks fucking awesome, actually. I gotta get myself together and finally texture the one I started.

[Sparr]

Made another one...
I've been trying to play around with toon outlines or some kind of crayon shader, but I haven't had a whole lot of luck.

http://i.imgur.com/s6hFV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2iJhj.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ITF9P.jpg

[Sparr]

Hahaha this one was fun...

http://i.imgur.com/oP943.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JcUJs.jpg

[Sparr]

Made another one! A little more complicated than the ones I've been doing.

http://i.imgur.com/bQLgd.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/RGIpt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VGyvy.gif

[Saigo]

I kinda got around to texturing it, finallyhttp://i.imgur.com/87qFa.png

[Sparr]

hahahaha amazing! I haven't made a 3-d model for them in a while, I've been doing mainly 2-D stuff for a change of pace.

[Sparr]

http://i.imgur.com/UdFYL.gif
Made another little guy, playing with different rendering techniques

[Sparr]

Got a creature from Mcejn that he whipped up in Zbrush!
http://i.imgur.com/xRxVP.jpg

[bear]

Back for a second look at the video. Awesomeness (the overused word that's justified, in this case). Recall a recent Dawkins/Krauss vid where they mention the arts should be more involved in public education re evolution. Very glad to see this. :)

[Sparr]

Back for a second look at the video. Awesomeness (the overused word that's justified, in this case). Recall a recent Dawkins/Krauss vid where they mention the arts should be more involved in public education re evolution. Very glad to see this. :)

Thanks! I've recently gotten more evolution drawings, starting this group where each other group left off, meaning the tree is now one 'tree' bigger! I also did some predator/prey specific evolutions, as well as getting them to evolve some plants. Here was the plant tree if anyone felt like doing something with plants.
http://evolutionanimation.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/tree-plants1.jpg

In other news, I've nearly finished a second(alternate) evolution animation that I started alongside this one, so hopefully that'll be ready soon. I've also managed to get a few other artists to take their own spin at a creature in their own style, but I'm still looking for any polycounters to give it a go!

[Dani Holt]

This is awesome and hilarious. I know I'm gonna go for one of the turtle-like ones at the bottom once I finish the rest of my work this weekend. :thumbup:

[Sparr]

This is awesome and hilarious. I know I'm gonna go for one of the turtle-like ones at the bottom once I finish the rest of my work this weekend. :thumbup:

I did a new group of kids using one of the turtles at the bottom, and they didn't deviate much for a whole other 6 generations. It seems like once the 'turtle' showed up, it was so recognizable that no one strayed from it much. It is a nice parallel to creatures on Earth though that are 'living fossil' and even after millions of years change little. Again if you or anyone needs some closeups of a creature i can get you much bigger images.

[bear]

Another one in the pipeline... Think I've done like three unwraps in my life, lol, but this is a lot of fun (and I need the practice).

http://i.imgur.com/C5dJN.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ejLCu.jpg

[Sparr]

Another one in the pipeline... Think I've done like three unwraps in my life, lol, but this is a lot of fun (and I need the practice).

http://i.imgur.com/C5dJN.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ejLCu.jpg

Yeah unwrapping can be a bit of a pain, but nearly all the creatures I did myself (and almost all the drawings) are highly symmetrical, meaning you can overlap the UVs fairly easily. You chose one of drawings made by the college group so it has perspective and its a little more complex as far as unwrapping goes haha. You might want to try a more symmetrical creature at first if that proves too difficult. Here's a bigger picture of it, by the way.

http://i.imgur.com/JHYis.jpg

[bear]

Thanks for the larger image (wouldn't have known it's a rattlesnake tail).
Several unwraps later, think I've got the hang of it (including a transparency to
paint underneath, ie. guide lines). Realism keeps creeping in (more and more
loop cuts)... Not sure why symmetry would matter? Just paint, rig and pose?
Guess I'll find out shortly. :)

http://i.imgur.com/xF7Mg.jpg (http://imgur.com/xF7Mg)

[Sparr]

http://evolutionanimation.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/snailorig.jpg?w=580&h=372http://evolutionanimation.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/snail-highpoly1.jpg

Hey, I made a thing, based off of one of the 'new' creatures.

[minorthreat]

Towards the top of the tree there is a salamander creature hanging from a tree. Branching off to the far right past the cow creature is a little flaming squid/slug creature with a yelling mouth and red eyes, can I have a close up of that one?

[Sparr]

http://i.imgur.com/OoeKx.jpg

Here ya go!

[minorthreat]

Awesome!

[minorthreat]

I'm a total noob to modelling so this is my first attempt at modeling a creature, my first attempt at seamless texturing, and my first attempt at painting fire. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out but obviously there's room for a ton of improvement. I love low poly stuff as you can see lol.
Unfortunately I can't figure out how to render images in blender of uv mapped models, and I can't find any tutorials at all on it after extensive searching, so this is the best I can get, although there is the annoying orange dot in the middle of the model and I can't turn off anti-aliasing:
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/SCORB.png
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/scorb_stripes.png

Anyone know how to render properly in blender with a UV model?

[Sparr]

Haha, nice! I don't know anything about blender so I can't help you there, but you should keep going!

[Saigo]

Nice to see some new models here, they're all pretty interesting.
@minorthreat
To render UV-mapped models, assign a material to the object, chose your texture in the "texture" tab, chose "UV" as the method to map your texture. You might also tick the "shadeless" option in the material settings.
To turn off anti-aliasing, go to render panel, there's an option there for that. You also want to turn off mip-maps in user preferences for that crisp pixelated look.

[Sparr]

Nice to see some new models here, they're all pretty interesting.
@minorthreat
To render UV-mapped models, assign a material to the object, chose your texture in the "texture" tab, chose "UV" as the method to map your texture. You might also tick the "shadeless" option in the material settings.
To turn off anti-aliasing, go to render panel, there's an option there for that. You also want to turn off mip-maps in user preferences for that crisp pixelated look.
Where's your next model Saigo?!

[minorthreat]

Thank you so much Saigo, that was incredibly helpful! I was able to get a way better render:
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/scorb_render.png
But although interpolation, mipmap, and anti-aliasing is disabled, the texture is still blurred. Here's the same general area before the render:
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/scorb_mipmap_off.png

Also is there a way to do those awesome rotating gifs with blender as well?
http://i.imgur.com/UdFYL.gif

[Sparr]

I don't know really, but I made that .gif in Maya and it was real pain, because apparently you can't turn off anti-aliasing in Maya really. I had to sort of force it to do that, and when I tried it again today Maya kept crashing haha. It also has a unfiltered texture or something like that to make it super pixely, as well as a toon shader overlay to give it some light/dark areas. Its kind of hard to make out but theres a shiny highlight bouncing around on his back/tail there too.

Otherwise, though, I just rendered out the frames as .PNGs or something and made them a .gif in photoshop.

[minorthreat]

Oh I see, I could probably do something like that. Also could I get a larger version of this little guy:
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/littleguy_evo.png

[Sparr]

http://i.imgur.com/BRUGO.jpg

One of my favorites, also one of the more beautifully abstract creatures. I think this was the same kid that a generation earlier started the whole 'turtle' trend in that group, which persisted for another 8 generations after that one!

[Saigo]

@Sparr I dunno, pick me a random one, I might just make it when I have some free time
@minorthreat For rendering, you should disable mip-maps and texture filtering in texture properties, see screenshot. Also, turn off ambient occlusion, as it seems to influence textures too.
http://s17.postimage.org/wrh5vnmjj/example.png

[Sparr]

How's this one, Saigo?
http://s11.postimage.org/qcsz9y9sj/IMG_085.jpg

[Saigo]

Hah, nice! Gonna model it.

[Psyk0]

Can i get a close-up of this one? (located at top / right side)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/64286672/HornCreature.jpg

[Sparr]

Here you are!
http://evolutionanimation.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/bighorn-orig.jpg

This guy was also part of my skeleton project, http://evolutionanimation.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/skeletons-40/

[jermaineb]

awww man. i think i might join this lol :P

[Sparr]

Simply pick a creature and you're on your way!

[Psyk0]

That was fun! i might do a low poly version and texture it.

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr90/Psyk0/evolution.jpg

[Sparr]

Very nice! I still need to complete the tree with the newer 400 or so creatures so you guys can pull from that too.

There are also these creatures I got from the Richmond Public Library when I left some paper and crayons there for a month for people to doodle with. Some interesting stuff in here that hasn't been utilized in anything yet.

https://evolutionanimation.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/richmond-library-creatures.jpg

[Sparr]

Also could I get some real names (if you don't mind?) to credit you guys when I post them to my website?

[Psyk0]

Sure, i'm Patrick Boisvert.

[minorthreat]

I'm Tyler Barker.

[minorthreat]

I've been aiming for speed. I did this and the texture in under two hours. It seems like an incredibly long time for most people but this is, like, my fourth creature I've ever done so it's an improvement in my eyes. XD
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/brugo.png

[Sparr]

Looks good! Two hours sounds fine to me; that's about how long all of my creatures took, but I'm no expert either. Is that his mouth on the bottom there? haha, and what are those things on his head?

[minorthreat]

Yeah that's his mouth. The things on the side of his head are little gill like structures for taking in air since I imagined his mouth would be suctioned to the ground a lot of the time.

[Sparr]

DID YOU KNOW?!!
Insects breathe that way through spiracles, and maggots, for instance, have them on their butt so they can burrow their mouth and body deep into something without suffocating!

[minorthreat]

That's awesome! I love evolution and xenobiology. I've actually drawn an entire ecosystem comprising of hundreds of creatures for a game I plan to make someday, so this is good practice.

[Sparr]

Anywhere we can see these pictures?

[jermaineb]

could i get this one?
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m277/jermaine_wiire/weirdees_zps6ea103fb.jpg

[Sparr]

http://i.imgur.com/Xgt1L.jpg

Here you go!

[aliasbane]

hey, mind if i get a higher res of this little guy?
opps sorry wrong image link -.-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/JacenSolo9/creature_1_zps303ec33a.jpg
this is my first polycount post! I am prolly going to do a bunch of these guys I see a few others i like.

[Saigo]

http://i.imgur.com/eaQHf.png

I felt like changing the original colors on this one.
You know, I kind of like how aside from exploring ideas of evolution of matter/organisms, this also explores the evolution of art and the relations between the different media of art. In a way, your project can trace the history of visual art from cave painting-like kids doodles to animation, 3d graphics and beyond. It really works on many different levels.

[Sparr]

Ha, thanks! Yeah, the actual process of getting the drawings is more interesting in itself than the animation, as the kids begin to take the game personally and exhibit 'real' evolutionary behavior, or go through various mini-phases of human society and the human condition in the course of a few minutes, which is pretty crazy to witness. We also get the drawings by making 80 or so copies of 5 or so originals, so the constant artistic shaping also has an 'evolution of art' feel to it. As we go on the drawings tend to get more complicated as well, where at first its just a creature, and eventually they start adding background, motivations for their creature, and writing things in the margin to try and plead their case for why their creature is better and deserves to live. It's also why I was trying to get various artists to take their own spin in a medium not restricted to crayon, because it 'evolves' the creatures further, as in your case where you altered the colors and removed the fur, changed the mouth hairs, etc. You can see all my and others 'extra' artworks on the derivative art on my blog here http://evolutionanimation.wordpress.com/category/derivative-art/

A few months ago along with my plant evolutions I had them do some predator/prey interactions, and my predator was in a distinct 'stalking pose,' which I had never done before, with all of the other animals being fairly neutral. Because it was slightly more awkward to draw, the kids struggled a bit more, but what came out of it really reminded me of ancient hieroglyphs and carvings of animals hunting in these distinct artistic styles that obviously change through time and through each culture, but the pose is rarely broken etc. I'll put some of them up here eventually as well.

Oh, and would you mind giving me your real name Saigo so I can credit you on my website?

[Saigo]

Hey, that's really interesting. Another interesting aspect of it is to explore different art styles through drawing various creatures, to see what works and what doesn't, to draw different versions or try and translate them from one medium to another as you did and evolve style and technique. So, again, very interesting. Pick me another one, maybe something from the same branch. Maybe I'll try to go in some different direction than the previous two and the first one.
Oh, and my name is Bogdan Gontar.

[Sparr]

One thing I noticed is that, if l ask people to choose a creature, that 9 times out of 10 they choose from the upper right. Those were the creatures from my initial test group of college aged people, so naturally their creatures are a little more 'designed' and perhaps more 'interesting' to people than the others. I don't really feel that way, of course, and when, for instance, I was making skeletons for a variety of the creatures, I found the more abstracted designs to be more fun because I had to look at it and wonder what they hell was going on!

Try to give this one a shot, Saigo.
http://evolutionanimation.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/macetail-orig.jpg?w=580&h=386

I made a skeleton for it here. http://evolutionanimation.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/skeletons-9/

[aliasbane]

well i decided to model the blue guy I wanted last morning. I dont like the texture much but I might redo or work on it again. Tho it game out pretty well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/JacenSolo9/Blue_Creature_Sheet_zps439d5532.jpg


Also anyway I could get a higher res version of the center purple branch of the tree. I want to do some of the simple yet colorful creatures there.

[Sparr]

Not exactly sure what branch you mean, with the center being all 5 branches very close to each other. Here's the whole purple generation anyway.
http://i.imgur.com/vsZ2o.jpg

Oh, I also made another alternate evolution animation that I had never shown you guys. It swaps out the creatures from the top left part of the tree for the bottom right, and instead of ending with the ice age, it ends 'underground.'

Evolution! version:VCU Lobs and Lessons - YouTube

[aliasbane]

Thanks Sparr, that is exactly the part I wanted. Expect some more from me this week!

[Sparr]

I've been aiming for speed. I did this and the texture in under two hours. It seems like an incredibly long time for most people but this is, like, my fourth creature I've ever done so it's an improvement in my eyes. XD
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/brugo.png

I always loved this little guy, and when you reminded me of him I started a little artwork that I just now got around to finishing. I also just realized why you called it BRUGO (that was the filename shorthand from imgur, haha)

http://evolutionanimation.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/turtle-rock.jpg

[dudealan2001]

MUST DO ONE

[Sparr]

Well, which one do you want?!

[dudealan2001]

I think the electric looking one on this page
Upper Left
yellow turquoise color

[dudealan2001]

http://i546.photobucket.com/albums/hh428/Uppity_Sticks2/ThisOne_zps71ded8fe.jpg
This guy

[Sparr]

http://i.imgur.com/LIDCC.jpg

Here you go

[dudealan2001]

Sweet Thanks

[The_Onomatopoeia]

This is awesome can i get a closer look at these 2?
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/Uppity_Cracker/batthing_zps1e671139.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/Uppity_Cracker/foxthing_zpsce6e19a5.jpg

[Sparr]

http://i.imgur.com/7a5pC.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/QkApC.jpg

[The_Onomatopoeia]

Awesome thanks!

[Sparr]

http://evolutionanimation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/turtlebones-3d.jpg?w=580&h=718

Made a thing based off a skeleton I drew, based off an original drawing by a kid! You can see the chain here.
http://evolutionanimation.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/3-d-turtlebones/

[minorthreat]

Thanks for posting me on the blog, I'm honored! XD The cave animation was an awesome alternative to the original. I'm wondering, is the second video like a different timeline, or is it a different evolutionary branch working on the same timeline as the ice age?
Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll do all of these (or maybe I will!), but can I get larger versions of these plants? I really need to practice modelling plants, uv mapping, and especially texturing.
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/alienevoplant_zpsd547b865.png
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/alienevoplant2_zps337efe42.png
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/alienevoplant3_zps65ea0bcf.png
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/alienevoplant4_zps08bc819a.png
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/alienevoplant5_zpsbb2c3c05.png
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/alienevoplant6_zps5092a962.png
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/alienevoplant7_zps7b1ec100.png
I think it's cool how you're able to motivate the kids to change their thought processes. It seems like when the drawings appear to be very similar to the original, you start a new tree with one of the more different drawings, and there's suddenly an explosion of creativity.

Also about that thing I mentioned; the drawings of the ecosystem, I had actually intended to post them until I realized I don't have a photocopier. :p I do, however have a camera with dead batteries, so I'm going to try and remember to get new batteries for the sake of documentation!

[Sparr]

The cave animation can be thought of as 'both'. Its a sort of alternative history, in that every group starts out exactly the same and stays the same(until the final 2 generations), but it also follows the same generational epochs, so you could also think of all the creatures inhabiting the same planet at the same time, just in different parts of the world/biomes. It shows how even though the hundreds upon hundreds of creatures look different from each other, every single one of them comes from a single common ancestor.

Here are your plants!
http://imgur.com/a/XXrSs

And get a scanner!

[minorthreat]

The first plant I saved onto my computer was named "ctenoimbricata_spinosa_by_ntamura-d54ari1", but after going back to check, it was renamed to "9jFB8". Do the other plants have scientific names?

[Sparr]

I don't really know what you mean, but the file you described is this
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/172/0/a/ctenoimbricata_spinosa_by_ntamura-d54ari1.jpg

maybe you got your files confused or something? I dunno, but none of the plants/animals have scientific names, although I have named some of the animals simple things in my skeleton sometimes so I can remember and keep track of them (fathead, lumphead, squatbody, etc)

Nobu Tamura did make this creature drawing for me, though, so maybe thats where you're getting mixed up somehow?
http://evolutionanimation.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/blue_monster_nt-wm.jpg?w=580&h=435
http://evolutionanimation.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/derivative-art-5/

[minorthreat]

XD Yeah that's really weird, I know exactly what happened. I downloaded both of those images, but deleted them because I had copies in another folder. By clicking on the file and deleting it, I had set the name of the plant image to save it as. That's weird, sorry for the confusion XD

EDIT:
Hey I just took some pictures of some of my ecosystem drawings, should I post them here or do you want me to pm them to you?

[Sparr]

Might as well let everyone see them, if you don't mind, of course.

[minorthreat]

I didn't want to consume the entire page with drawings so here's a link to a slideshow. It's not all of my drawings, and unfortunately I've only actually drawn on paper a fraction of what's in my head. Most of this stuff is inspired from weird dreams. You should be able to right click and "view" the images to be able to read the words and see closer detail, but photobucket has a shitty resolution. Believe it or not, the first creature I encountered in a dream is the thing on the bottom right side of the third to last page.

ZION (http://s379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/ZION/?albumview=slideshow)
For some reason, to view it up close, you have to right-click on the left side of the image or else it'll open up the next picture.

Zion is a gas planet comprising of an atmosphere bearing a striking resemblance in composition to earth.
The landmass is an array of floating islands; I'd love to say it's due to certain elements reacting with the strong magnetic field surrounding the planet, but I really don't have any knowledge of physics or geology. XD
I think my biggest inspiration for the actual geology of the planet was playing Half Life 1 as a kid, and always wondering what Xen would be like if it actually supported an ecosystem, and I guess that idea flourished into something of its own.
The ecosystems I have imagined are incredibly dense and biodiverse, and the weather is very humid.
Interestingly enough, despite a complete lack of lakes or oceans, water is abundant on Zion.
The planet itself rotates on an axis running almost parallel with the poles, meaning the north pole is too hot for life (aside from micro-organisms), the south pole is in perpetual cold and darkness, and the equator, where most of the life lies, is always in twilight.
The days and nights are hard to determine, but the sun appears to "bounce" on the horizon as the planet wobbles on its axis, so during the peak of a day the sun will be slightly higher in the sky.
The game will actually be even more interesting then the planet alone. I've planned several characters who get thrown into this alien environment. They try and work together to survive and explore, but sanity deteriorates easily as stress has its tole on the characters, from both external and internal forces. I have much of the story planned out, including a mind blowing sequel that will take place 500 years later.

If you have any questions about any of it feel free to ask. I'm actually using this evolution thread as practice so I can model and texture my own creatures. XD

[Sparr]

Cool stuff, some of those plants look pretty dang close to what the kids came up with, haha. When did you start drawing these things?

[minorthreat]

Freshmen year of highschool, so somewhere around 2008.

[lancer611]

Have there been anything thoughts about making some kind of game from these assets? Perhaps a mobile childrens game?

[Sparr]

If I knew how to make a game, I guess it could be possible, haha

[lancer611]

Well I'm a programmer. If you or someone started designing a game based around this theme and these assets, I might be interested in doing some coding for it.

[minorthreat]

I could imagine a life simulation kind of game where you explore a crayon environment and watch these creatures interact with eachother. Maybe you could even play as one of the animals, and hunt others down for survival. OR, here's an idea: What if each level was you playing as a different animal trying to survive the apocalypse through different means? Whether it be running into a cave, diving into water, running from lava, etc. I think there are limitless possibilities for something like this.

[Sparr]

Lancer and I were talking about a bunch of ideas but I think I scared him off, haha. I think he sees things more your way, whereas I wanted something more in line with doodleordie, or draw something where people's drawings are built off of one another and only then do they come alive in some way.

I think you all are only seeing the project as the 'end result' (the pictures/animation) but its primary purpose is to educate, and the actual drawing/evolving of the pictures is by far the most interesting part. The animation is just a byproduct of the drawings produced, and the group dynamics that play out in the actual act of creating are fascinating to watch.

Most of this would be lost in a game, but games like doodle or die and draw something come very close anyway and work on the same basic level.

http://youtu.be/Ok_tcAEbHHw?t=26m19s

This Richard Dawkins documentary and the programmable creatures withing was part of my direct inspiration for the project. You can see how something like the "biomorphs" could translate into some kind of iterative game.

[minorthreat]

That video was really interesting. I see your point though, education is the purpose, and a very good one at that. Also I just checked out that doodleordie game, it's awesome. XD

I have several ideas floating around in my head. I'm starting to form something really cool but it's so loose right now.
I'll just brainstorm here in case you see anything cool you would wanna go off of.
I'm thinking of an open environment, but can't determine what would be cooler, 2D or 3D. I myself am leaning more towards 3D, I feel like it'd be more fun to work with but of coarse all of this is your call.
It definitely needs to incorporate gameplay elements that would be fun and entertaining, but would also place strong emphasis on creative freedom. I can't decide if it'd be more fun having a game set up with AI or multiplayer, most likely multiplayer.
I'm also tossed up on whether or not there should be an in-game system for creating creatures, like spore, or if all of the content is community based, like Garry'smod. I think spore was kind of a failure, yet gmod is still around, yet not everyone can texture and model, so I think that there should be a hybrid.
The gameplay should be somewhat strategic, keeping your species alive and having them adapt to their surroundings, adding and removing aspects of your creature. I feel like it can stray from realism, I think it deserves more of a wacky atmosphere, almost like a childs mind. Say everything floods during a storm and you can choose to adapt your creature to an aquatic environment, flight, skimming on the surface of water, or even just give the animal long legs so they can walk above the water.
OR what if instead of basing the game off of the actual concept of biological evolution like spore, it instead focuses on artistic evolution, using evolution as its theme. For example, what if this vast world is a patchwork of different art styles created by the community. I feel like it'd be based heavily on exploration and adventure. Environments would have an array of different colors, with high poly creatures mixed in with low poly ones, some may even be sprites, and some animated drawings. I dunno, I feel like it's something to go off of.

Also I've just wasted the past few hours on doodleordie, thanks...

[Sparr]

My idea was to have something like doodle or die where you evolve the creatures and then afterwards have them "live" in some kind of 3-d world, but have the creatures be goofy 2-d animals, just like the animation. So something like this http://www.pintgames.com/free-games/20248/Draw-Your-Cartoon-Character.html

or this http://epic.drawastickman.com/

I was pointing out a lot of games that have fun creative/evolution elements Ive liked, such as Amazing Island http://youtu.be/AxGFGrM4Kn8 the Discovery game Evolution, SimLife, and my favorite, Googrid. Googrid was the first MMOE, a massive multiplayer online ecosystem. I had some screenshots from about a decade ago that explains how that game worked...

I cant believe I took/saved pictures of this considering how old it is, but here were some of the menus from Googrid to give you an idea of how it worked.

http://i.imgur.com/welXm.jpg

You could customize the pictures in Googrid with anything you wanted, and otherwise you changed colors etc from default bug parts. You would start with a set number of points based off your creature size and then had to allocate them as you saw fit. Brain speed meant your creature could think faster (Ive been bitten! What should I do next? etc. If you had low brain your creature would be too dumb to move. Higher brain meant you could flock, coordinate attacks etc, but at the cost of something else of course.) You also had to time when you wanted your creature to sleep to conserve energy.

The food web worked by having goo(plants) that herbivores would eat. There was blue goo and green goo to have some basic plant competition(you could specialize in blue goo but if seed eaters ate all the seeds and green goo could grow you'd be dead, eventually) Seed eaters eat the seeds flying off from the goos, and meat eaters could actively hunt, or scavenge dead bodies. There were also more advanced things like poison (you could have poison as an herb to make your body indegestible, or my favorite, neurotoxin that slows down the brain so much they can't react to anything).

Something like this could be interesting if the stats were more or less hidden at not as harsh. Googrid had an easy mode that did most of the work for you, but you couldnt fine tune all the cool things.
http://i.imgur.com/xJ2Tu.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YU4Sa.jpg

Here was my world at some point, the little guys are seed eaters, the giant beetles are neurotoxic predators with enough teeth to pierce any defense, but spend most of their time sleeping to conserve energy, only waking up to gorge themselves then sleep again. I also made tiny size 1 creatures with little else but brains and teeth, but complex behaviors like swarming so if one gets attacked all of them attack like bees. They would then gorge themselves on the carcass of the much bigger animal and reproduce like crazy.

[minorthreat]

That sounds totally awesome, I'd love to play something like that. I especially like the idea of having a 3d world inhabited by 2d creatures, very much like your videos. I also like the idea of hiding most of the functions for the sake of simplicity, but there should obviously be an option to visit those features for more advanced players.
I could picture a cool gamemode where you continue designing creatures to fit into your ecosystem and see how long you could maintain a balance without your ecosystem collapsing. It'd probably get players to realize just how intricate and delicate our ecosystems really are. mmo would be awesome as well.

[Sparr]

Yeah thats pretty much exactly how googrid functioned. If you weren't careful you could devour your entire food supply and wipe out everything on your tile. If you weren't connected to another plot, you'd have a void continent.

[Sparr]

A local radio station interviewed me about the project, so if you wanted to know a little more about it detail (and listen to my monotone voice for 30 mins) click here! https://soundcloud.com/thecreativehabit/tylerrhodes

[Pierceton]

This looks very interesting in a very good way keep up the good work hope to see this turn out well!

[Sparr]

Ha, some of you guys are in this weird 'fan video' I guess you could call it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woEw03xlJnU (http://youtu.be/woEw03xlJnU)

[minorthreat]

Aw cool! Also I listened to the whole radio thing, you brought up some really interesting points. I understand what you mean now about the whole misconception of evolution and the final product, and I think that's extremely important to teach kids. I feel like it'd give a less egocentric view. Like: "We're all essentially the same, we're just variations." as opposed to: "God made us in his image and we're the final product, so all other living things are inferior to us".
Anyway, I haven't had as much time as I'd like to for making these plants, but it's been pretty fun. I made this one a few weeks ago, maybe even a month ago:
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/spinoid_xtralarge_zps2ee69fb7.png
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/supatails3/spinoid_small_zpsa7eef6bd.png
I'm working on a few others but I'll wait until I'm done before posting them. I'm definately learning alot about modelling and evenly distributing polygons, I'm learning a lot of really cool techniques about painting and beveling, and how colors interact with eachother to portray certain textures. For example, this plant I'm working on now has trichomes which were really fun to learn how to paint. I'm also learning some really cool techniques for UV mapping and saving texture space, and most of all efficient workflow. Practice makes perfect. Anyway when I finish all of the models I'll smash them all together into a mini ecosystem and upload a pic.

[Sparr]

I like it! Looks like my starter 'moss' if I'm not mistaken.

I'm trying to get some plant evolution drawings from a local botanical garden, and in the meantime I agreed to do my 'evolution' game but specifically with orchids/flowers. I'll do a dry run tomorrow to see how it goes.

And yeah I was trying to teach myself UV mapping, and although I'm no expert I got it to work somewhat. I eventually began to shift into trying to figure out weird visual techniques to emphasize the 'crayon' look(toon shaders/outlines/sprite clouds), but I sort of hit a dead end considering I didn't really know what I was doing!

I'm really curious how you'll make the stranger plants. Keep up the good work!

[minorthreat]

Sprite clouds sounds like an interesting concept. Anyway thanks, and good luck on your dry run, hopefully you'll get some interesting results.

[Sparr]

Yeah, as far as sprites, I was trying something where I had individual hairs as sprites attached to points, so that they would always face the camera when you moved around it.

[Sparr]

Happy Darwin Day!



Here was a separate version of my evolution animation I just finished where I said I would do a 'seminar' at the Science Museum of Virginia, but instead we did my evolution simulation and I got some new drawings and sound effects from the mostly 60+ year-old people in attendance. They also have a new ending; the rainforest.

http://youtu.be/Nuua_9Y1hHo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nuua_9Y1hHo)

edit: I also made a new thread in Pimping and Previews to try and get some more eyes on this http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116846

I also have an utterly huge version of the tree here, with every creature easily visible. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59922961/tyler%20rhodes%20evolution%20phylogenetic%20tree%2 0full%20size%202011.jpg