Something just seemed off about the changes to the alien’s head, and I played around with a bunch of ideas, including scrapping the entire concept and going with something entirely new for it. I even considered just throwing a Mars Attacks head in there! (that really looked off though and a total cop out). One of my long-time COR Entertainment partners said something was off with the eyes, after he said that, I saw it too. The more I looked at the tweaks I made, the more I disliked it and favored how it originally looked. Making the head veiny was not the right move, the head is a skull, with gaps showing the brain, originally. That felt right. Making the teeth longer was a mistake as well, it made the model looked “hacked” to me, much like the Gen 1 versions. I did however like the idea of the cranium being more bulbous and alien-like, rather than human.
But those eyes. What was wrong there. Then it hit me – they didn’t look angry enough. Far too wide-eyed and childlike. I did some mockups and came up with a plan. I sat down and went to work on the mesh, painstakingly subdividing and creating a furrowed, evil brow. I put the teeth back as before, and this time I didn’t close the gap in the front any after re-shaping the cranium, to allow for the brain to show through better. After a few days, I finally got it.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
I reverted the head textures as well. The gappy skull made sense again, with the exposed blue brain bits. The shape looks “alien”, and it looks a bit evil and angrier. Design-wise, I’m super happy with this little guy now and can move on to some other stuff.
One, I need more pain animations, and probably some other sequences. I’d also like to be able to do some more color/skin customization on player models. Maybe the eyes, and brain color/texture. I also need to do some more sound work to give it more variety.
