Lava Dragon Demon Boss

[Ninspriterx]

Hey TSR!
Star, Ridge and I started working on this here super boss character for our special project thingy but we need a little help!


Based of of dinosaurs that lived near volcanoes. Has a cubone-like thing going on with his head. His "shell" is a transition from scales to rocks, in the center they form an active volcano.

The problem is the anatomy. While we love the design we aren't satisfied with the structure/stance of the creature. Right now it's a little awkward but we don't really know how to go forth fixing it up. So I'm asking for a little help, being fully prepared to hash it up as much as I need to.

[Kitsu]

Maybe try playing around with different postures, like making it lean forward more like an allosaurus/whatever it's called; should make it look more aggressive.

Also the way the arms are currently (not sure if just pose or if it's the anatomy) means they don't have any impact on the silhouette, and since they're sharp, if they could be worked into that, it might further the aggressive look.

Also, it's not readily apparent that that's a volcano, maybe because I'm used to thinking of the cone shaped ones rather than shield ones. But still cones stick out more, so maybe try a pointy volcano instead; it'd bring way more attention to the volcano and also add even more to an aggressive vibe or intimidation.

Assuming that's what you're looking for more of. It's pretty interesting idea, just needs a bit more oomph.

[StarSock64]

hi I did this really quickly


You don't have to go all t-rex-style the way I did, but one of my major problems with that side sprite is that the neck looks like it connects to the back of the jaw instead of the back of the skull. I would think that the spine goes along the back of the "skin" part and not the back of the "shell" part.

The left is what I think should happen and the right is sort of how I'm seeing your sprite


If you wanted to keep a similar posture to what you already have, you'd probably just have to move the "skin" portion of the neck and the shoulder back a bit, I think? I just can't define where the spine is on your sprite the way it is now, which is where a lot of your structural problems might be coming from.

Also the arm and the body share a line, which makes them look like they're part of the same plane, when obviously the arm is in front of the body (but don't carelessly make the forearm and upper arm uneven when trying to fix it like I did) (lazy edits)

the front view...
I don't think I can make an edit that's any good so I'm going to try to explain this all in words. Bear with me I guess.

I'm pretty sure this project has a top-down sort of view thing going on but the front view looks pretty straight-on. It doesn't match the other character or the background you have there. I think the head should be positioned lower on the body, and that it should be tilted down on the um...whichever axis...you know, so you'd see more of the top of the skull, less of the bottom of the jaw, the eyes would be lower on the skull, etc. You'd probably have to tilt other things that way too. Try to think in 3D.

I'd rethink the way those forearms connect to the rest of the arm in the front view. If you go with my suggestion of making things look more top-down, then you'd probably get to see more of the forearm and have less foreshortening to struggle with.

And if you tilt everything to change the viewpoint, then the patterns on the chest would probably be curved up a bit. I'd mess around with varying the widths/heights/shapes of the patterns too. They're kind of different right now, but I think they could tell us more about the shapes and curves of the body.

[Zac]

I think that when doing a large character like this its important to use perspective to give it the presence it should have.
in relation to the pipe flooring that you included, the character should probably be in a slightly top down perspective.
correcting the perspective also lends itself to correcting the anatomical issues, since you can better describe the torso with value as it would fall on a character at that angle

here's a crude edit of how the character would look if you applied some of these changes
take note that in the original the character is facing us, the viewer
if you want the illusion of it existing within your game to be stronger you should try to make it look as though it's facing forward relative to its game world

[Ninspriterx]

Oh christ thank you all for your wonderful advice. I'm taking everything in though it'll take me a while to get it exactly right.
You guys are really helping me out for the better and I greatly appreciate your pointers.

Here's how it's slowly coming along.
Any suggestions or references for how this creature should walk?

[Candel]

Thoses kind of foots are actually four legged animal feet ( not 100% sure but the only animals I found were from reptilian dinosaurs and the big cat family).I also have kind of a hard tome reading his dagger lik hands (?)

Overall I like the design alot! I may try to find some refs later

[Sinkin]

As it does kind of look like a dinosaur, maybe look at a t-rex? Since the legs are similiar to each other

[Gors]

the goat legs are actually a reference to the satyrs, so I like them that way. Also the popular depiction of the demon is with goat legs anyway

in adittion to everyone's (wonderful) advices I personally think you should give him a rougher set of teeth in order to look menacing. As for now, it's as menacing as a Dry Bones

as seen in the t-rex reference, the profile skull should also be a lot more pronounced. Stretched jaws implies the character is a ferocious monster, who lungs at its prey fiercelly. If you make it short like it is now, it'll look like turtles (who are ferocious to lettuce).

as for the arm, you can either go for the T-rex route or make it a muscly arm which actually helps defeating his foes.

[Ninspriterx]

Alright so I'm going with the t-rex physique as well as adding on a few new details.
Is this a good direction or should I take it back a few notches.

[Hiynastrike]

It's good... The arms are a bit hard to read but other than that it's good in my book... That is... If you added arms... Maybe the craggy shell looks kinda weird

[Ton]

Yeah, maybe making the "stomach" into a skeletal color, the lava will be more readable. On the other hand, you'll run the risk of the skull blending into the stomach.

[Kitsu]

Another potential alternative color would be a dark grey sort of thing. It's a common color to go with lava, and it wouldn't blend with the skull, though it might contrast too much with everything else (or make its belly look really tough, which may or may not be what you want at all).