Logan Latham Final Pepakura

 

Concept

My first idea was to make a Sarlacc from Star Wars. However, one stipulation of the project was to not use copy written material. I thought of ways to make a creature similar to a Starlacc. The horns and teeth or tentacles from a Sarlacc were the main inspirations of my original design. One of the more defining features of a Starlacc is that it lives buried in the ground. When attempting to design the creature mostly buried in the ground, I decided to place it in some sort of container. Then I incorporated an egg and used a xenomorph egg from the Alien franchise as the reference. A xenomorph egg has petals when opened, but I wanted my design to be wavier, gnarled, and exaggerated.  While it was difficult to find an image that I envisioned, I was thinking of wrinkled petals that were naturally wavy or had become so due to age. The petals were of an exotic or wilting flower.

Techniques

I made a sphere and manipulated the vertices on it to make a more oblong egg shape and scaled flat the bottom so it would rest flat. I cut three lines from the top and used the vertices to peel them back to create the opening petals. I put detail in one tip of one of the petals and then duplicated it and used merged and combine to attach the detailed tip to each of the other petals. Each one would then have a more detailed tip. I pulled and pushed vertices and edges until each one had a unique wave and tip and then used extrude to fill in the hole that was a flat surface. Then made a cone and extruded the bottom of the cone multiple times to create a tentacle. I copied them and gave each a unique pose. Lastly, I added a plane and used soft select to give it a more wet, dripping feeling as if it was oozing off the side of an egg.

Materials

Without actually making the egg it would be hard to say all that I would do, but I did have a few ideas.

The egg would have some sort of enamel coat or something make it look forever wet. the majority of it would be black or very dark green, and the inside would be pitch black. The tentacles could be green with fleshy pink underbellies. I would use something to make the outside of the egg bumpy, and try to get some sort of slime ooze effect near the bottom of the egg (I would need to experiment to figure out how exactly though).

The final design was based on a half penguin half whale concept and entitled “I now realize why Steve Buscemi was terrified of his abominations in Spy Kids 2”. The majority of the group agreed it was the design they wanted to pursue. This design was the least intricate of the options. We decided it would be more interesting with the inclusion of a nest as a base with eggs to go along with it.

We all worked in Pepakura software. We worked as a team on the laser cutting; however, Aidan did most of the cutting work. We all did some construction; however, Sheena, did the majority. We all did some post processing; however, I (Logan) did the majority.

During construction, it was discovered an eye had been misplaced, messed up, or somehow had never been cut. To work around, I suggested we give it an eyepatch which was ultimately used. The original design did not have a large footprint and was top heavy. It was suggested that we anchor it with a nest and include eggs. I used some paper mache in areas where seams were more noticeable.  I originally tried to spray paint it white, but the cardboard was absorbing the paint and making it splotchy. Then I used a paint brush to coat it with primer before painting additional coats. For the eggs, I tried tape to cover some of the seams, but it took several layers of wall texture and paint to make it smoother. The second egg, I used spackle which made the job easier. For the nest, first I spray painted it white and then covered the ground plane in model glue and dirt. Then I covered the whole nest in wall texture and then I added sticks in the middle. I covered with more texture and then placed some yellow-tan flocking in the middle. I used gap and crack foam filler around the edge of the nest with plaster and spackle to help smooth out the transition. I covered the foam, plaster, and spackle, with model glue and covered with artificial snow and glitter.