Hey everyone! So here's what I have in mind so far.
The first thing I wanted to do was create a creature inspired by the sentai flavor. Not a specific series or anything. If you're not familiar with Super Sentai, it's what Power Rangers was made from. Crazy monster designs that usually would be made into a costume and used to create a suit for an actor to wear.
The first thing I did was do some studies. I didn't show all of what I went through below, but it gives an idea. I gathered villains that I liked, and did some silhouette studies of them. I wanted to see what kind of design elements that was commonly used.
Next I needed a story for the character. And an ability. First I created a story for the fake series. I would call it something like "Isha Sentai Mediranger". Doctor Taskforce, Medic rangers. Something like that. The enemies in this show, would be led by the villain in question here. I am thinking they're a group called Nikannibals (Japanese word for meat, and then just cannibals smashed in there). This group are alien body harvesters. They travel planet to planet to steal bodies, or rather, the "malady energy" that living creatures emit when injured or dying. So the enemy of the week would sort of cause a new injury.
Villains need heroes that oppose them. In this case a group of doctors gain the ability to call upon some sort of energy source that changes them into a colorful team of heroes. Standard fair kind of stuff.
The leader of the Nikannibals, Blood Drive (or if it was in Japanese it'd probably be ハートイータ [Heart eater] or something like that.) He was mortally wounded trying to defend their leader before she was killed. Their chief scientist took some of their remains and used it to keep him alive. This procedure is what grants him his abilities.
His ability is probably called Bloodmorphisis. By consuming large quantities of blood (or a heart), he can transform his limb into a weapon. The choices are determined by the type of blood or heart he consumes. It could be a shield, a sickle, a sword, and all over the place. Whips, tendrils, maybe a bazooka. It's inspired by tokusatsu. Pretty much anything goes.
So to the design. I gathered some reference of various heart related things - life support, hearts, blood bags, syringes, defibrillators, etc. The first few paces are largely focused on silhouette and general ideas. I want to work more and more of the thematic elements as I go foward.
First Pass:
Second Pass:
3rd Pass:
I still want to do more exploration. The next step is to combine the elements that I like from the 3 options (plus, considering any comments people may leave!) and maybe doing some head exploration in a different medium like Zbrush or something to see what I come up with. When a design and idea is finalized I'll do some composition thumbnails. some more zbrush setup for lighting reference, and then finish it off.
Thanks to anyone who takes their time to check this out! It's a lot to read.
tldr, Power Ranger inspired monster who consumes blood and hearts to morph his limb into different weapons.
