Sea Creature - Tyc's Mantalodon

[Tycane3D]

Hey guys, so i couldn't resist, i've never been interested in the ocean, or water for that matter so i have never attempted something that spends most of its time wet, so i thought i'd give it a try, and i like these challenges.

Little backstory always helps,

The Mantalodon, its a 56 meter behemoth, rarely seen despite its size. its design is that of a mix between shark and a manta ray. it has an armored head and back. 6 to 8 360 degree moving poison tipped hooking barbs that it uses to catch large prey like wales and great whites ,also to protect its relatively delicate wings.
Due to its size and design it is not as fast in a corner as a shark, altho its top speed is unmatched.
its vision and smell are excellent, and its is also able to very acutely detect changes in water pressure around its body, enabling it to exactly pinpoint prey around its body that can out-turn the Mantalodon which it uses to locate where to direct its tentacles.
It is a true fish, and can dive to amazing depths and the few people that have seen the creature and have lived to tell the tale say it has large scars al over its body similar to the scars squids leave, suggesting it might encounters or even hunt the fabled giant squid at these huge depths.
Its is often accompanied by smaller fish that cling to its back and underside and take care of any parasites or left over debree from the beast feeding.
Scientist believe that stories from the olden days of giant squids pulling down ships into the deep sea might actually have been the Mantalodon, mistaking the animals huge barbed tentacles for squid tentacles, as it would be the only animal with the shear strength and size to achieve such a feat.

It has only been glimpsed a half dozen times in the passed 100 years, although its barbs and bone plates sometimes turn up on beaches around the Pacific. In 1996 a relatively small (6 meter) heavily decomposed carcass was found in a deep sea fishing net, scientists believe to have been a very young Mantalodon, unfortunately the fisherman on the boat burned the carcass for superstitious reasons before scientists could examine the remains.

There have been 23 mayday radio transcriptions found in the passed 50 years from small to medium sized sea vessels on the ocean, especially in the ww2 period of time, requesting rescue, describing a huge tentacled animal attacking their ships, unfortunately by the time rescue arrived at the location the vessels had disappeared, leaving only large flocks of seagulls circling what little debris was left of the ships.


I started the base mesh in zbrush using zspheres, and continued the base mesh in max to get a nice topology.
Also making lots of screenies as i go through the process that i will upload later together with concept and inspiration.

[Tycane3D]

Gimme some mo'

[xxxcubanxxx]

Nice back story and start on the base mesh, glad you decided to join.

[capitan_popo]

ufff loving that basemesh! cant wait to see more

[Tycane3D]

Thanks guys


So a little concept i did this evening, mostly seeing what color scheme i want to go for, the head doesnt look much like the original concept which i thought was better, but i like the back so thats something thats probably gonna stay.
i dont have much 2D talent, but the idea should be clear.

[ServantOfTheNoise]

I really like your character. Nice flowing lines. I could imagine such a creature could have excisted. I hope you might consider more options about the head before taking it to the next level.

[Tycane3D]

Heyah.

Well i'm open to suggestions ofcourse, right now the head is being based on a combination of a Dunkleosteus skull, a cat fish, a great white, a smidgen of viper fish, the concept is not really a good representation of what the heads is gonna be like, im a better sculpter than 2d artist.

[tsabszy]

love the desing, im pretty curious about how you solve the head

[Tycane3D]

I was thinking something like this.

[tsabszy]

looks great! maybe a little transition on its back with the armor plates? i mean there could be more plates on the back like the ones on its head fading into the more soft parts of the creature instead of just having 2-3 big plates and then there's no more
just like you drew them when sketching

[Tycane3D]

Thanks man.
More plates will be added, just had to stop coz it was getting late and this guy has to work in the morning
Cant work on it coming evening, stupid commercial idiocracy called valentine's and all, i dont believe it but the gf sorta does, which means i sorta do

[drained spirit]

Originally Posted by Tycane3D

Thanks guys


So a little concept i did this evening, mostly seeing what color scheme i want to go for, the head doesnt look much like the original concept which i thought was better, but i like the back so thats something thats probably gonna stay.
i dont have much 2D talent, but the idea should be clear.

really nice concept and specular effect.

[drained spirit]

Originally Posted by Tycane3D

I was thinking something like this.

fantastic tycan 3D

[xxxcubanxxx]

start on the sculpt looks really good, waiting for more

[bgen]

would wanna meet him in my bathtub .
looks pretty sweet so far. i am intrested how u will detail him.