Dragon (criticism + ideas)

Alright, so- for a game I’m making that’s cartoony, and features many creatures, I’m making a dragon, in which is collectible via an ingame “loot box” system.



Though, with this dragon - something feels off, yet I don’t know what.

If anyone could let me know some criticism and/or ideas for this guy, let me know ! :smile:

Also, the ingame picture doesn’t have the wings insides yet- I’m still working on that part.

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I think it looks nice. Maybe try refining the body and legs. How would you picture this creature moving across the ground? Would it look more like a cat, a horse, a dog, a reptile, a serpent, etc? Once you decide, then look at images of the animal that gave you the inspiration. From the camera angle in the bottom picture, the body looks more like a tube on table legs than any specific animal. There’s nothing wrong with that, if it’s the cartoony look you are going for, but the body and legs are where I’d focus if it were my model. I could say make the back legs and the hind end bigger, pull the elbow (first bend front leg) up closer to the body, and so on, but those would just be my opinions and maybe not relevant to the kind of dragon you have in mind.

Actually an Internet search for “Dragon concept art” may be the better route. Tons of cool variety to choose from. Focus on where the bulk is along the trunk of the body and the relative sizes and shapes of front vs. back legs.

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Try making his body a bit shorter. Legs are “skinny” if you ask me, so you could try making them bigger. You could also make his tail more longer than that, but it’s your choice. I’ve never made a dragon before, because I know it is really hard to modelize it. Great work! :grinning: :+1:

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I don’t get it, first you say it looks nice, and then you state it looks like a tube on table legs. o_o

But I’ll keep what you said in-mind.

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It does look nice, especially the head, neck, spikes and feet. It should also work perfectly fine if it fits in with other creatures in your game. You said that you felt something was off (but didn’t specify an area you were concerned about), so I was trying to look at it critically and decide what might be the cause. If I had to pick something to change about it, I’d go with the body and legs because they look a little stiff as compared to the head. Sorry if the table comment seemed overly critical. That look probably has more to do with the camera angle than the model.

Edit: I assume this dragon is for the game with the little fox… If so, the scenery is really coming along nicely. The flowers and sparkles (bugs?) are great. The fog and overall lighting look nice too. That fiery red will really stand out in this setting. The parts that are working best feel like they were influenced by designs from East Asia. If you find yourself moving more in that direction, it might be worth revisiting the lamp posts. They are a little thick and dark-age Europe looking for where the rest seems to be heading. I think you also have a bridge that was modeled in a similar style. Maybe look at some garden bridge designs from Japan for ideas. No need to go full-on Zen garden with it, just borrow elements you like.

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Definitely look into breaking those wings up more. It’s difficult to animate wings when they’re discrete parts but rigid wings that stick straight out like that really do not look right.

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How many joints would you recommend? (rn there’s 5)

Generally there are three major parts to the wing arm, like your real arm including the palm of your hand. Your fingers in this example would be what the wing membrane stretches across. Ideally you’d want three main parts of the arm, but you should take into account animation process for this as well. You may not need to break the fingers up. You may need more membrane parts to support three part wings, or maybe you can get away with two part wings and fuse some things to make animation easier. You will have to experiment to find what works best with what you have planned.

It looks to bright and happy. Dragons are usually ferocious which this dragon seems to lack. It also is very skinny and I can’t see a sure way how you would make it walk naturally in it’s current form.

Dragon wings typically fold up on their back, or stretch out on either side like arms. The wings are what stand out to me the most.

This dragon is very nicely made! The only parts that I would change would be the sizing, the demeanor, and the skin.

Dragons are generally portrayed as having extreme strength, and thus it can seem off-putting to see one so skinny. You can change this by making the legs and the body thicker, with visible muscles.

By the demeanor I mean that the Dragon itself appears to reflect positivity, when in fact it should be more menacing. The dragon should be good without the change, but when thinking of dragons I think of a creature that is dark and evil in nature. My recommendation would be to change the looks such as the eyes to better reflect that.

The skin on Dragons is scaly and rough. The material you are using currently reflects a pattern, but it doesn’t truly reflect that roughness. I would change it to either individual parts or a different material entirely such as using slate instead.

Hope it turns out how you want it, and good luck!

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I love it!! I’m not sure but it does look like the head is 100% aligned with the rest of the body so if you could maybe fix that, it would look even better!

Another thing I see is that the body seems to be a little long. Scaling on the x or y axis (too lazy to tell) would make it look a little more like a dragon?

One last little thing is that maybe you could add some spikes or scales around the body or something to make it less blank?

I really don’t have much to say since it’s so good! Good luck and please tell me if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer!

I feel like the dragon is very “statue-like”. I would recommend giving it some form of animation so that it belongs more to the environment.

For example, you could have the wings slightly rotate back and forth like 15 degrees and the head could rotate up and down like 15 degrees as well.

Hopefully this is somewhat helpful.

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Looks great, but maybe improve the slight problems like on picture 2 on the body there’s tiny peices sticking out.

Otherwise, great and amazing! :slight_smile:

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I think the dragon looks fine but you can try changing up its proportions to see if you like it better.