creating and drawing creatures

7/29/2019 Creating and drawing creatures

1/7

Teemto Pagalies and other Denizens of a Galactic Zoo

-By Terryl Whitlatch

During the late 1990s, I had the wonderful privilege of being the principal creature designer for Star Warsthe

Phantom Menace. It was a whirlwind experience to be sure, and one that stretched my knowledge of animalanatomy to its limits, and then some.

Among the myriad of creatures to be created for that film (the overflow of which continue to make their

appearances in The Clone Wars) for all sorts of environments and at least three different planets, there were a

dozen podracer pilots.

Most notably, or at least notoriously, was the Snidely Whiplash-like and evil Sebulba. But in addition to him, I

designed most of the eleven other pilots. All of these were from different points of the universe, so they all

needed to be very different from one another; however, according to George Lucas, they needed to be small, lik

jockeys, and be able to drive the dangerously unwieldly podracers, which resembled two jet engines tied by cab

to a capsular pod in which the pilot sat.

They also needed to act as comic relief, and resemble animals. As George often noted, the Star Wars films were

essentially designed for children and young people, as spectacular Saturday matinee Westerns that just happene

to take place in outer space, and to maintain this appeal was very important.

This motely cast eventually included reptilians, shaggy doglike and antelope-like creatures, Dr. Suessian

individuals, and even a gentle nod to Georges good friend and compatriot Steven Spielberg in the inclusion of a

slight variation of the alien from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Teemto Pagalies was one of these creaturely pilots, and a favorite of mine, and I thought Id share some of my

process into his creation.

In order to design believable creatures that need to be able to interact with live human actors, one needs to love

animals and have a solid understanding of their anatomies and locomotion. Also, understanding how animals ar

scientifically classified (taxonomy) is very helpful as this indicates what other animals they are related to, and

hence how similar or different their anatomies are to one another.

What it boils down to is the study and drawing of actual animals, which are far better designs in themselves than

any that I could independently imagine, and to apply those traits, albeit modified or morphed, to imaginary

creatures. That gives them the anatomical authority to stand on their own, and allows us to suspend our

disbelief. Here are some of my studies of actual animals that went into the creation of the pod racers.
http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/06/teemto-pagalies-and-other-denizens-of.htmlhttp://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/06/teemto-pagalies-and-other-denizens-of.html


2/7

For Teemto, I was inspired by the Celebes macaque and moose (face and personality), and dromedary (hind

legs). Some of the other sketches applied to different pilots, such as the antelopish Clegg Holdfast, and the

seahorse-like Adar Beedo.

Here are nonstandard anatomical orthographical drawings for Teemtothe bones, skeleton, and surface

anatomies. While I also did the standard orthos of Teemto (standing weight equally distributed on both feet, ar

stretched out to the sides, and in front, rear, side, even top views, known as the Da Vinci format), orthos done

non-standard poses are also very useful and a lot more interesting to look at, as they show the effects of shifts o

weight and muscles, and add dynamism.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NUeEJOGj3p8/T9FPZgeb4SI/AAAAAAAACCo/0iRbVgB3w4I/s1600/1Animal+study+sketches2.jpg


3/7

Drawings such as these give extra information to the modelers, riggers, and ultimately to the animators, showin

the right amount of give to be worked into the computer models. And not only is there the standard digital

skeletal rig, but also the rig needs to be enclosed by realistically sculpted bones and muscles to avoid the rubbe

suit effect.

All the creatures are designed without clothes, needless to say, and the costumes are added later digitally. Iain

McCaig brilliantly designed all the costumes for both the sentient creatures and humans as well.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--i9a-iDb5jA/T9FPbLVjHhI/AAAAAAAACC4/twmxs1O0vjk/s1600/3Teemto+pagalies+color+ortho52.jpg


4/7

So, here we have Teemto, au naturel, taking in the early morning air, and improving his suntan before the big

race. Most of the color work in the Star Wars art department and ILM relied heavily upon markers for swift

delivery (and this continues to be used today widely in the Industry along with digital techniques), and for these

illustrations Copic markers were used. Here is a detail of the hip area.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s8bnQNWiwdQ/T9FPaDiQCdI/AAAAAAAACCw/LBsSZEY65GE/s1600/2Teemto+pagalies+color+ortho12.jpg


5/7

Ive also included some of the gestural drawings and studies, including Mrs. Teemto, with and without her

dress. And, at the end of the day, what could be better than for a daredevil podracer pilot, to celebrate the fact

that at least some of them survived another race, with a nice spot of Tatooine peppermint tea, and cherry wink

cookies smuggled in from Oxford Mississippi--best cookies in the universe, I know this to be all too true. That, a

also that Sebulbas main personality problem and nasty moods stem from the fact that hes a confirmed sugar

junkie.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MboqNI8jUso/T9FbWGGSqcI/AAAAAAAACDU/zsy9V8IbD2M/s1600/Teemto+pagalies+hip+detail.jpg


6/7
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_ABvirRzDzc/T9FPbga4LhI/AAAAAAAACDA/D3odaUX3m30/s1600/4Teemto+pagalies+call+outs2.jpg


7/7
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--SD9ES3YvEA/T9FPcPcGw9I/AAAAAAAACDI/XapT_mLZ_9E/s1600/5pod+racer+tea+party+scene32.jpg

creating and drawing creatures

Documents