Using Shapes & Patterns To
Define A Fictional Species By Neil Blevins Created On: May 4th 2022
Updated: Sept 4th 2024
When working on a Scifi or Fantasy project, and you need to create a
new species that feels coherent and believable, the first stage I
usually go to is to define the species Shape Language, Patterns and
Symbols. From there, so many other design choices just fall into place,
and the final results tend to be more consistent. So
this lesson is a discussion of one of my latest environmental concepts,
and showing how Shapes, Patterns and Symbols were used to define and
strengthen the story and design of this species.
You have two choices with this lesson, watch me discuss the issue in
the video below, or read the full text.
The Origin Of The Project
So first off a
little explanation of the project. I can't give you too many details
yet, but a few years ago I was approached by a friend to help with with
making some images for a project that combines technology/scifi with
the baroque. For those who don't know, the Baroque is
a style of European architecture, music, and art of the 17th and
18th centuries and is characterized by ornate
detail. Here's an example of some Baroque furniture:
As a fan of the 1984 Dune film aesthetic & artists
like Juan Gimenez, I jumped at the chance to work on the project, &
started developing this alien species called the Venrusi.
Beyond purely the baroque, I decided to also incorporate some elements
of other art movements, such as some art deco, and a touch of Southeast
Asian architecture (places like Thailand and Myanmar). This provided me
with a number of design elements:
There would need to be lots of gold in the architecture.
Ornate details around the edges.
Spires.
Things would have a very vertical feel to them.
Here's the finished architectural concept of a palace.
So those design decisions got me started, but now its was time to go
deeper, and to get that richness I needed the shape language of the
species, or what are the most common shapes that will make up the
species architecture, furniture, even patterns on clothing.
Shape Language Example: The Dwarves From
Lord Of The Rings
An example
I have used before is the dwarves in the Lord Of The Rings films. The
design motif and shape language for the dwarves were
diamonds, triangles and angular gem shapes. Not only did those shapes
represent the gems the dwarves mined from the ground, but it also
represented their physical bodies, they were short, wide, stout, and
immovable from the ground (like the pyramids with their solid
triangular base). Knocking a dwarf off their feet is tough, and so are
these shapes.
Shape Language Example: Historical Art
Movements
The same logic applies to real world design movements.
For example, notice below how each of the 3 design movements "Baroque",
"Art Deco" and "Art Nouveau" can be simplified into a few simpler
shapes that influence the shapes in furniture, architecture and art.
Space Baroque Project
So after some thought and some random sketching, I settled on the
following shapes that would occur again and again in the Venrusi design
aesthetic.
There would be 5 main shapes in the Venrusi vocabulary, the Star, the
Pill, the Spindle, the Flower, and Ribs.
Of these 5 I decided the star would be the most prominent. But why?
Frequently when creating a species you'd write a back story and then
find shapes that solidify that back story. In this case, I hadn't
worked out an entire back story yet, which gave a chance for the art to
influence the story. So I decided that while the alien planet has a sun
at about the same distance as our own, they also have a neighboring
star system that is far closer than our own neighboring system, and so
they have a rather large star in their sky. It shines so brightly, it's
easily seen during the day and night. In ancient times, the star was
worshipped, and so many of the planet's symbology revolves around this
star. Art solidifying the story solidifying the art.
The 2nd most important core shape would be the flower, since organic
shapes do help sell that baroque
feel. But that choice also helps define the planet. If the planet were
a desert planet, or a planet made of jello, then there would be no
reason to see flowers or leaves
in the architecture, it wouldn't make any sense. So by including the
flower as a core shape, I am basically saying there must also be
flowers on the planet.
Next came patterns. While I wanted patterns that gave that baroque feel
of intricate detail, what would the elements be that made up that
detail? Or in other way, from far it should look like baroque
detailing, but close up that detail could look different than standard
baroque detail. I decided to stick with some of the plant and flower
motifs, but then added to that some patterns based on the star.
Also notice the ribs here as well. Ribs are a nice repeating pattern in
nature (like the rib cage of an animal), and so that form is a favorite
of mine for long repeating patterns. But I avoid the exact same element
repeated to infinity, I'll usually do a repeated element say 3-10
times, and then add a different element to break up the pattern a bit.
Like for example, look at the 3rd from the bottom, a whole bunch of
dots, but then some larger shapes at the beginning and end.
Next is the Symbols and Logos. These are slightly different from
patterns, patterns are shapes that repeat again and again. These would
appear as singles, like say on a flag or a door. Again focused on the
stars and flowers.
Then I decided the image needed some language for signs and such. Since
it's an alien species, written english or even something like ancient
roman numerals wouldn't make sense, so I started building up a
character set for the Venrusi. I decided to base it on twisty vines.
That works with the flower core shape, and also helped define the type
of vegetation that would exist on the planet. If I pursue this further,
I may make the language into an actual working font.
So now back to the environmental concept. This was my flow...
I came up with the basic story of the species.
I then gathered a lot of reference photographs.
I then started doing a rough painting of the architecture.
After it got to a certain point, I stopped and focused on
defining the shape language, patterns and symbols above, based on the
reference and the stuff I had already scribbled in the rough painting.
Now that I was happy with this shape language, I went back to my
painting and started removing any shape language that didn't conform to
the ruleset I just made. And I started adding more symbols and shapes
to the painting that further showed off the shape language.
So it wasn't a linear thing (and rarely is in the early stages of
concept), I didn't define a shape language then paint a painting, I
defined some shapes, did some rough painting, refined my shape
language, then finished off the painting. For future paintings I'd more
likely not do much more inventing, instead I'd stick with the direction
I've defined. But since this was a first painting, I could have more
fun inventing and adapting to come up with that good mix of shapes and
story.
Here's my painting again, the red outlines show places I've used the
shape language, patterns and symbols.
Conclusion
So hopefully this shows you how you can take some key shapes and use
them to create a visual language when you want to invent your own alien
species. I think following this process will help you create more
believable designs, as well as coherent designs, whether it's for a
film, a videogame, or even books / rpgs. So give the technique a try
next time you're exploring a new scifi or fantasy world!
