Beasts of a Different Color: Coloration in Creature Design | Sci-Fi Worldbuilding
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2024
- As it's a question I get asked a lot, today's video explores coloration in creature design! I share some of the factors I consider in my work as a creature designer for Kaimere and other projects, and offer tips on how to design your own. Lots of art by you amazing people included throughout.
Tales of Kaimere: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tale...
Paperback ISBN: 9781087927442
Hardcover ISBN: 9781087919560
Patreon: / illustratedmenagerie
Instagram: / illustrated_menagerie
Twitter: / talesofkaimere
DeviantArt: www.deviantart.com/illustrate...
The depth you put into your creatures is exceptional. There is no other way to describe it. Also those little sauropods mimicking venomous snakes are too adorable (unless you are an surprised predator) and the idea is just so awesome. And it's great to see that you manage to incorporate fairly recent discoveries like that the platypus and some other basal mammals display weird coloration under UV light.
Thank you! Figured they needed some sort of protection until their armor hardens since mom invests about 30 minutes into their nest and says good luck.
I saw that in an article a few weeks ago and the idea hit me like a truck. If your main predators/competition see you glowing no matter what you do, might as well sicken them while you're at it!
I simply adore how tigers have gained an almost mane along their shoulders, and hyenas look *fabulous* and there's red panthers and everything, and lions and leopards look exactly the same because they're already perfect.
Color is easily one of my favorite subjects when it comes to spec-evo, fantasy creature design, and paleoart. When I draw I will sometimes forgo details just to get as satisfying a color scheme as I can. The detail you put into the world-building here is marvelous!
Thank you! It's such a fascinating topic. I've definitely made creatures canon that I hadn't really been considering purely on account of liking the skins I gave them.
I said it once on twitt but i must say it again here
The titanosaur juvinile mimicking a venomous snake is incredibly clever and one of the most unique takes on a young titanosaur
I also really like the idea of young uktan resembling the Dro’khel similar to cheetah juviniles mimicking homey badger
Also might i add the idea of the guchar being nauseating to megaraptorans since they see in UV light
Thank you! It's also going to influence adult titan designs (basically signaling that they can pass on good snake-mimic genes). Makes me really excited to make some display and dueling pieces for the titanosaur videos.
That was inspired by a lot of the crazy neon UV displays seen in marsupials. Thought they could make really good use of it!
@@TalesofKaimere i mean it does make sense after all
The mammals need some way to hide from their theropod contemporaries
Er well i mean
Avoid conflict with them
Guchar isn’t exactly hiding lol
@@SkylerTheCryodrakon69 Nah my dude wants to be found lol
@@TalesofKaimere he wants to be found exclusively to make you vomit
, I really hadn't thought about the coloration, fur and other tests that way when designing creatures / inhabitants / characters. You really showed me another different level of perspective! Thanks!
You’re most welcome!
Colors in creature design are nice, especially with neat patterns.
The idea of sauropod hatchlings mimicking snakes is really good!
Thanks! They gotta have some edge since parental care is a joke amongst the titans.
@@TalesofKaimere it’s practically nonexistent in some species
@@xuanluu4873 All the ones of Kaimere employ the 'lay em and leave em' strategy.
Very educational, keenan and information about animal colouration is very good. I kinda hoping to start my nitro evolution worldbuilding project but I think I need some motivations and reminded knowledge and your kinda helped with animal colouration so thank you
So happy to hear it! Hope it goes well for you. Worldbuilding is so much fun!
Thank you, this really helps out with color ideas on animal.
Juvenile Titanosaurs acting like cobras? Now that is unique and brilliant :)
I'm here for the Taka Birb, let's gooooo! Cool video too!
irescedent colors are missing, a cheap way to get green colors. A lot of bugs, butterflys and birds use it - i myself own cayuga ducks - they are comoleatly black-green.
Oh and one mammal evolved irescendent fur as side effect (golden mole)
The best colors start with black backgrounds and irescendence on top.
However more 'natural' versions of green exist in snakes, they got yellow pigment combined with irescendent blue - the combination creates green. That's why there are a lot of morphs of blue and yellow snakes in green species, like the treeboa
Really cool additions! Not sure how I completely blanked on iridescence its such a cool topic and I've got several canon iridescent creatures. Makes sense that a mix of yellow and iridescent blue would make green. I'll keep that in mind!
Just looked up the golden mole. That's beautiful.
@@TalesofKaimere and the golden mole is just a proof of concept, mammalian fur can evolve irecendesence, however with the lack of colorvision predators, there is no preasure to evolve it. Or without the ability to see color - blue mammals exist, some primates and monkey paterns. Because they can see it.
@@TalesofKaimere will you apply iridescent colors to latter kaimeran mammals and dinosaurs? It’s a cheap way for ungulates, carnivorans, and other therian mammals to blend and hide in the titan forests, as well as for dinosaurs and non-therians to gain some unique colors
@@xuanluu4873 I do plan on working with iridescence for the reasons you mention.
Yooooo thank you very much, I love everything about this very VERY much
Thank you so much for featuring my creature designs, this was such a cool video. Can’t wait to see more.
Thank you for sending them in! I was really blown away by your attention to detail and the heaps of spicy lore. Do you have any social media accounts?
@@TalesofKaimere no sorry, this was the first time I’ve hade my art featured at all on the internet and I’m happy that this was the place it was.
@@deangelisl9450 It was my honor to be their debut!
That juvenile titanosaur has amazing desing !
Thank you!
Very interesting !!
Thanks for the video! It was educational, interesting, and entertaining.
My absolute pleasure glad you liked it!
6:06 I'm not going to Kaimere any time soon.
Simply amazing!
Many thanks!
thank you for the self care checkup
It's important!
Yesh
One thing to be careful about when giving colors to animals is called Fisherien Runaway.
It's when a sexually-selected trait, such as a display structure or indeed many instances of coloration, can become so exaggerated that they can serve more as a handicap rather than an asset.
Example, Peacocks have bright blues and greens along with the large number of eyespots on their long tail feathers, which makes them attractive to females, but makes them stand out to predators like tigers. Therefore, it's expected that males have a higher mortality rate than females do. At first, it begs the question of how natural selection could favor this over camouflage. To explain it, it's likely that if a male survives all the dangers despite having this detrimental trait, he will still pass his genes on to the next generation.
Question are you gonna do animals that mimic other things like plants or other animals
( these are my ideas )
A owl that looks like a spoder
A badger that looks like a hyena
Sauropods with tree like legs and leaf like feathers ( yes I made fluffy long necks )
A newt that looks like a viper
A titanoboa descendent that pretends to be a flower
You like ?
Very cool! I've got a lot of mimicry ideas, some of which I was able to work into this but I didn't have time for all of em.
@@TalesofKaimere ok sorry
@@seanessdragon4142 No apologies needed! All is good.
All the entries are beautiful but could I ask, is the Spotted hyena (or the dinosaurids that you have said at one point) still alive outside of the known world? Or the First Children completely purged their existence?
They are present on the Eastern continent, and I may have them newly returned in small numbers, but their former niche has very much been supplanted by the smaller yet more intelligent and social prairie hyenas
Are the longisquama descendants by Alex De Angelis for Kaimere?
I think he designed all of them with Kaimere in mind. Not an official collaboration for copyright reasons.
i wonder what a kurajaku would look like if it were never introduced to the green algae that lives in their filaments. in one of your short stories a young uktan was taken, is it possible that perhaps a similar scenario involving the abduction of a kurajaku egg happened and there’s some rich noble family with a white kurajaku roaming around in a pen they made for it to be put on display?
In that scenario yes! I expect they would maintain the original brown pigment. Often the mother will pass the algae directly to the offspring via contact along with it being in the nest, but if the eggs were taken before they hatched, then they wouldn’t have access to the algae and would be brown.
@@TalesofKaimere could only imagine a “pet” kurajaku with its filaments dyed in bold colors like war paint
“None of these adaptations are present in the therian mammals that dominate the known world”
Marsupials in the known world: Are we a joke to you?
Lol I even have eutherians in my script I misspoke. However there are also some South American placentals included now since they evolved alongside terror birds that may have had UV vision. That’s still in development but could further undermine that statement. At its core though the point remains valid that since most eutherians didn’t need these adaptations for many millions of years, they were at an initial disadvantage upon arrival
While I can understand why you would want to keep your explanation as why not a lot of large animals have green colors, but my curiosity was peeked too much you said green is expensive without explaining how or why. Is it the same reason(s) as why blue is rare in nature in terms of pigments? One would think that reptiles like dinosaurs would be green to blend into a chlorophyll filled world. Yet, if green in animals is that expensive, then there is obviously a work around in a world where both the predators and prey can see in all the colors of the spectrum.
going to disagree with you on the tiger thing, tigers blend pretty well into the forest to human eyes as well
I know it has nothing to do with the video but i miss the Zentaur so much :(((
You’ll see plenty of him during Megaraptoran Month!
@@TalesofKaimere * happy shaking *
Is it weird if I keep being put off at how you keep saying how Kaimere is a world “ruled by dinosaurs” even with how many mammals are better then dinosaurs in many niches? To be honest, I feel like Kaimere should be considered a world ruled by both mammals and dinosaurs, with how both are better at some niches then others
The apex predators, largest herbivores, and most ecosystem engineers are all dinosaurs. Also the know world has a lot of mammals, but they aren't as common on the other continents. Known world is an exception to the general rule of dinosaurs in Kaimere, but even then, they don't really dominate any ecosystem except the herbivores of the houze prairie. Fine if you're put off by it, we've been over that on DeviantArt, but that's the call I made for Kaimere.
@@TalesofKaimere since kaimere’s apex predators, largest herbivores, and ecosystem engineers are all dinosaurs, are they far more susceptible to extinction then mammals are?
@@xuanluu4873 Yup. That's the trend we see throughout history. Being a generalist usually means you aren't dominant in your niches, but you're in a much better position to adapt when times are tough.
As for me personally, the way I see it, Kaimere is a world currently “ruled by reptiles”, similar to how Earth is currently “ruled by mammals”. I’m referring to how common the megafauna are and largest (terrestrial) ones at the time. Of course, the “less dominant” clades from both planets have their fair share of striking megafauna.
Why the spider Me no like spider ☹️
haha he's super helpful in keeping harmful insects out of Pakardia. He's bright so people know to avoid him.
@@TalesofKaimere yeah it’s not like the hell on 8 legs is going to bite
@@seanessdragon4142 lol
@Desert Rambler oh ……
Sorry
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You're scared of spiders!
😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆
FYI that is not why cats hiss lol.
It’s a pretty accepted theory of at least partial influence from what I’ve read.