Friday 1 December 2017

It's A Faaaake! Not The Art Of Star Trek - Let's See Your OC!


  This month's Star Trek Art Challenge-
 Aaaand you've lost most of our audience.
Can you even call less than a dozen people an "audience"?
Who knows?
  Quiet, you lot!  If anything, the audience would have been lost before I started writing anything because the title's got a ruddy big "Star Trek" in it!
 Oh, get on with it then.  I cant be bothered with this malarkey - I've got apples to poison and fingers to prick.
  Well, shut up and go then!
 Hmmmph!
  Right.  For anyone who is still even the slightest bit interested, November's Art Challenge is all about one's original character (OC):


Invent your very own original Star Trek character and present it in whatever way you wish.

Maybe you make up a little backstory for your character. Where does your OC live in the Star Trek universe? How does it look? Maybe draw a traditional character sheet or whip up a photomanip of the actor/actress you would like to see portray your character or do it complete as a CG render of your OC in action or or or …

There are only two conditions: (1.) It has to be a completely original character never before seen or heard of on the shows. And (2.), please give us the name, species, gender and age of your OC on the entry itself.

A quick sketch of Vilix'Pran's species
  I was a bit flummoxed at first, but then I remembered something: Lieutenant Vilix'Pran and Captain Boday, both from DS9. I've got vague images for them both in my head: Pran is basically a nest of tentacles with several sets of dragonfly-like wings, and Boday is vaguely humanoid - similar to an Alien/Xenomorph - but with a lovely transparent skull.  As well as his transparent skull, Boday was said to have a toothy grin. And how much more toothy does one have to get to best an Alien/Xenomorph's "grin"? Especially when the little mouth is out.

"What?!   This is a smile.  I'm smiling!"


"Say cheese!"
  Plus, I read an article ages ago about the Alien (the original creature design, I think) having a partially transparent forehead within which was an actual human skull. I think it would be an amusing juxtaposition to see an alien so frightening but with a big smile - And this would be someone that I could definitely see Jadzia dating!
I've had a few ideas and sketches that I've been sitting on for a little while now, waiting for an opportunity (and the time) to make something of them, and the November Art Challenge was that opportunity. I worked on my Gallamite design in an attempt to come up with a crewmember for either a Starfleet ship or a private fleet vessel.

  On the right, we have a Gallamite seated at a glass table, inspired by the Alien xenomorph with some icthyoid tendencies (barreleye & toadfish), and has two pairs of upper limbs (the smaller, lower pair are crossed and resting on the tabletop), a pair of lower limbs, and some sort of tail.






"Look how cute I am!"
  Although, I then leaned more towards an Alien-Beluga whale concept - mainly for the lovely Beluga smile, its whiter-shade-of-pale colouring, and smooth physical features. If this were a Starfleet officer, I envisaged it to be a cetacean liaison officer or navigation specialist in Cetacean Ops aboard a Galaxy-class starship.


  I think my OC's looking a little too Beluga-friendly here with the exception of the far right "mouth-open" sketch. Also, I decided not going to give him an elongated head/crest (top left) as I thought it would just get in the way. As would those ridiculous circular shoulder-pad thingies that the xenomorphs have. But he's keeping the middle pair of smaller (vestigial?) limbs that the Alien Queen has.

"This isn't a smile.  I'm gritting my teeth over the 'shoulder-pad' comment!"

  ::

So, here's my OC looming up from the depths of Cetacean Ops to scare a couple of the Takaya's Whales who work there (he loves to frighten those silly whales).


 
I think the whale-frightening gives him an air of mischief and playfulness, as well as an awareness/acceptance of his not-always-adorable visage!


"We're so cool and scary"

"I'll show you who's scary:  Rrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgghhh!!!"

::

  And now, on to the final designs:
  This first one was a hasty slap-together but isn't immediately obvious as Star Trek. However, it's got a bigger image than the second, and more information.




 
This next one was also rather hasty, but at least it has a bit of a Star Trek aesthetic going on. Unfortunately, I had to shrink my drawing of Svjolweir to fit it in a pre-existing LCARS template I'd made. As I ran out of time, this is the one I chose to be my final entry.

The touchpads on the left show Svjolweir's age (in Gallam and Federation Standard years), his Aperception Quotient, his Esper Rating, and his Duke-Heidelburg Quotient.
::

"It's all about me!  ME!  Look at me, goddamnyoureyes!"

[Widescreen xenomorph images from the film Alien: Resurrection; Beluga's from websites I can't remember; "Say cheese!" from the set of Alien³]

::

Previously on It's a Faaaake! Not The Art Of Star Trek:

October 2017 - Celebrate Good Times, Come On!
July 2017 - Walk Like An Egyptian 
June 2017 - Foreign Relations
May 2017 - Driven to Distraction
February 2017 - Of Prophet's Tears and Verteron Nodes (plus the warm up: The Celestial Temple Cries Golden Tears)
December 2016 - "Did the plan fail, Edward?"
November 2016 - Winter Solstice
October 2016 - Twisted October: Star Trek Art Challenge



  As is now traditional, Senator Vreenak insists upon having the last word:



16 comments:

  1. Completely missing the point of the post, I read it as 'fingers to pick'. I'd better get checked out again...

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    1. Maybe leave it for another day or two to leave those poor medical professionals time to recover?

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  2. I remember Star Trek as having a man with a wig, an man with funny eyebrows, an super-sassy black lady, the Scottish one, the Russian one. the Oriental one, and a man who could heal people with a meter-reading-device-thingy. That's not helping a lot, really. Jx

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    1. Don't forget the woman with a basket on her head!

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  3. DIl SoHvaD idiocy.

    I warned you, young man.

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    Replies
    1. Oh my gods! You were the slightest bit interested!
      I'd better pay the price, then...

      Delete
  4. Wow! That's pretty impressive, creating an original character, a profile, and then creating two different file formats presenting the character and profile. Fantastic job! He is astounding! I want to see him on the screen in action!

    Also, luv the beluga pics! That mischievous beluga personality is reflected in your character's pic and profile. I'm surprised he dislikes that high pitched squeal baby's sometimes make. I'm guessing the baby squeal might sound like cussing or obscene insults in Belugan or Gallam. That baby squeal never fails to fascinate me, as I can't tell what it means--and the baby does a terrible job of explaining. I sometimes wonder if the squeal is the baby's attempt at singing or howling or just wanting attention.

    I'm assuming by his name that he must have some sort of Scandinavian ancestry. And since he's a whale like species, any relation to the big cigar probe that came looking for Earth whales and nearly destroyed Earth during its calls out to find the extinct whales?

    Also, I'm guessing that when Svjolweir states he likes cricket, I'm assuming it's the game with the bat, sticks, and a bowler who's not bowling, and is not a reference to the insect, the kind that's tasty once it's been de-antennaed and legs removed before being deep fried, salted or covered in chocolate? Now I'm wondering what flamingos taste like fried or cooked and covered in chocolate.

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    1. Thanks, Eros!
      That baby squeal almost turns me inside out, and I think that it would play havoc with Svjolweir's (or any Gallamite, Dolphin or Beluga) echo-location. And, yes, it probably sounds rude, to boot!

      Svjolweir's parents did live on Earth for a while, so I think there was some influence asserted when it came to choosing a name for their son. Svjol (or свёл) is the "masculine singular past indicative perfective" of svesti (свести́), which means "to bring together" or "make friends" in Russian. Weir is from the old English "to defend" or "dam". (His mother is a citizen of Betazed - her mother emigrated there from Gallam and took a Betazoid surname, hence Ti Meerdoy).

      You're right about the cricket. He can't play for toffee, but does like to watch it (he thinks insects are creepy). Flamingo on the other hand... He's a bit cagey when it comes to his reasons why he likes them. Could it be that they come with their own sticks for dipping in chocolate...?

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  5. Cricket, Flamingoes and, ballroom dancing! What's not to love?! I would so get on with this character. We even have the same dislikes.
    Sx

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    1. Then it's a date! May be I should set up my own version of The Very Mistress's "Fag, Hag, and the Odd Slag Dating Service"?

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    2. Speaking of FHandtheOSDS, I just happen to have a post on that topic coming up in the near future.

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    3. How serendipitous. Maybe my Aperception Quotient is higher than I thought - Perhaps not quite as high as Svjolweir's, though...?

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  6. It's fish, isn't it ? Outside the fish's natural habitat, the can of oil. Your phantasey is admirable.
    BTW I always thought that these crystal skulls are film props.

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    1. Well, Hollywood did at least do something about the glut of crystal skulls they had hanging around - they made another Indiana Jones film!

      And Svjolweir would like a word about the "fish" comment (he likes eating them, but does not like being compared to them)

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  7. "Tribbles! Damn it, Jim. Tribbles!" — Dr McCoy

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Tickle my fancy, why don't you?