Check Out: dananddna

You may already know him from his rendition of the Glyptodon, widely copied and edited by other creators. But dananddna has several creatures worthy of notice, from the awesome ceratopsid Krontoria to his perfect recreation of Alien Planet's Unth.

While we can still identify some earth animal influences on its creations, seems that he focuses mostly on original alien designs. Wich means: lots of deep sea inspired creatures. And this guy is one of those creators that can blend organically the parts offered by the SCC.

So go check out dananddna's profile, and leave a comment if you like anything!

Theme Set: Parkaboy's Dinosaur-insect Hybrids

I've had a few busy days, and have little time to search for good content right now. So I'll take the chance to promote my creations a bit more. Here's a collection of my dinosaur-insect hybrids:

Theme Set: The 200 DNA Points Challenge

As suggested by wydraz, I'm posting some of the critters from his 200 DNA point Challenge thread on the official SPORE forums. Check the thread for more or click the thumbnails for direct Sporepedia links.

Creator Tip: Using mouths to create unusual head shapes

Step 1: Put a Carcharebear mouth on your creature (you can try with other types of mouth, too).

Step 2: Holding "Tab" for additional handlers, rotate the mouth 180º horizontally. The actual mouth should be concealed by the body; just a featureless head should be visible.

Step 3: Insert another mouth in the "front" of the head. Remember that the new mouth piece will be attached not to the "head", but to the body, so resize and position as needed for a seamless blend.

Step 4: You can now put any kind of detail part you want in the thing's face. Make sure the "call" animation doesn't screw the illusion, though: if the mandible shows when the creature open its mouth, add a few parts to conceal it.

And voilá!

This is one of my own tips. You can check it on my Deimogon, and look for others in my profile.

Check Out: MindMuncher

If there's one creator that will help you populate your galaxy with plausible yet interesting creatures, that guy is MindMuncher. He may not win a comparison to god, like AhavoRaboTaco did in a recent PC Gamer review, but he definitely deserves some attention.

Lots of good looking aliens that animate well will add variety to your game, if he becomes your buddy. Not only variety, but balance, since he also makes many of the so called "fodder" creatures.

So what does he has to say?

"I try to make outlandish but for the most part, functional beasties. I've never and will never make a robot or other non-biological thing in the creature creator. I like alien creatures, but not anything generic. Oh, and I like creatures that fit well together. I mean that as in, I'd never stick a giant spitter on somethings butt just to make it a better predator, unless it fit how that creature looked and felt"

So go check out MindMuncher's profile, and leave a comment if you like anything!

Theme Set: Miscellanea

No time for picking up a theme right now, so I'll just run the section with a few creatures I wanted to showcase.
In the first row we have some of WeatherMAN23's creatures. The second has three from smjjames'. And finally, the next 3 creatures are DaMuncha's.
Click the thumbnails for direct Sporepedia links.

Theme Set: Hydromancerx's "Aliens"

Tired of humanoids, insectoids, mammaloids or pokemonoids? Then you should check out Hydromancerx's collection. While not exactly a defined theme set, this bunch of creatures is just a taste of this creator's inventiveness when coming up with cool, exotic - yet plausible - organisms (there's also plenty "earthly" creatures there, too). Click the thumbnails to access each creature in the Sporepedia.

Creator Tip: How to make a creature that crawls with its hands

Step 1: Start by adding a slackwrist to your creature's elbow (or the last joint before the hand). The "Ctrl" key will allow you to attach limbs to existing joints. Your creature will actually be crawling on the elbows, but the movement of the hands will make them appear to be pulling your creature along.



Step 2: Remove the second segment by dragging the center of it away while holding "Ctrl". Now add a foot to your new limb (stumplestilt or buckfoot work better). Use both the morph targets (arrows) and your scroll wheel to shrink the foot as much as possible. Suctoped doesn't get as small, but it should work well if your arms are really beefy.



Step 3: Drag the elbow down to cover the foot as well as possible. This will be difficult if your arms are skinny, but do the best you can.



Step 4: Angle your hands straight down using the rings that appear when you hold the tab key, and move them as close to the ground as the editor will allow. You may be able to get a little closer if you scale the hand up after positioning it.



And voilá!

This tip was suggested by whosawhatsis. See for yourself how it works on his Crawlopus!

Theme Set: MindMuncher's Basic Creatures

While most creators try to stick as many parts as the complexity meter allows in their creatures, there's also those who believe in simplicity. MindMuncher is one of them, and he has many simple creatures, made using less than 300 DNA points, usually labeled "basic" or "fodder". Those are creatures designed to fill the gaps on your alien ecosystem, after all, not every creature has to be a killing machine that looks like a christmas tree.
Click the thumbnails to access the creature on the Sporepedia, or check MindMuncher's profile to leave comments.