Sworm Creature Design
Chefs: Christian Ochoa, Haolun Huang, Michael Aromando, Jason Piperberg, Weitze Fopma, David Puffet
Ingredients: 🐛Tardigrade 🐍Worm
Time: Jan 2018 - OngoingA
Notes: My favorite creature to design!
1. Choose a Base animal and it's habitat
I chose a tardigrade because it was an animal that could survive in outer space. I envisioned an alien predator that could live inside asteroids and survive meteor showers.
2. Research base animal
I read about tardigrades online and in books. Here are some of my research materials.
3. Gather reference images
I looked for tardigrade images on google images, websites, social media, and even bought some tardigrade digital and physical models so I can take my own pictures/screenshots.
4. Gather inspiration images
I looked at other alien predators, animals, and creature concepts to create an inspiration mood board. Some of my favorite inspirations were Alien by H.R. Giger, Carnictus by Jamie Beswarick, and the Sand Gobblers by Andrew Baker, with initial work by Mickael Lelièvre.
5. Sketch initial ideas
I sketched out some ideas like egg spewing blowholes, an ejectable controller body part, mouth pincers, and mouth tentacles.
6. Come up with a name
The sworm's initial name was P.E.S.T. Parasitic Electrical Space Tardigrade.
7. Sketch ideas using references
Using inspiration mood boards as a reference helped me sketch out other ideas for the sworm. I experimented with colors inspired by caterpillars and Alien.
I looked at marine worms and star nosed moles when drawing the tendrils.
8. Design according to its habitat(s)
The main habitat for the sworm was inside water filled asteroids. I wanted it to be able to survive on land as well so I came up with an idea of it secreting slime so that it could stay hydrated when out of water. I looked at the hagfish for inspiration.
9. Design how it hunts
The sworm looked like a slow creature so I came up with some hunting methods like electrical tendrils, electrical eggs, and slime traps. Inspired by the sensory system of sharks, it could sense both electricity and scent.
