Behind the Scenes: Bio Concept Creation Part Two (Patreon)

Now it's time for part two of the Bio Dragon's concept creation process. In the first part you saw the process that eventually led to the scrapped Bio design. Now, here is how we created the final version.First, we decided to try something different and purchased two concept images we liked from members of our discord community and a tail concept made by one of our developers, Brigade. We really liked aspects of both of the designs and decided to see if we could combine them (with some tweaks) to see if we could get a base we liked....Oh boy, we got a noodle.We tried to do some fixes and turn the undefined pasta noodle into a more ferret like body. This is the point we knew we wanted the new bio to be a nectarivore, so we wanted the tongue inspired by nectar eating bats. After those edits failed, we worked with another member of the community to create a character reference that took the original concept images and made them into one dragon. While we weren't happy with the overall body that these edits created, we did like the wings, doodads, and danglies on the model. We decided to keep these through the rest of the changes.Since none of the developers liked what we dubbed the "dog" body, we tried something very different and looked to geckos for inspiration. Using a body concept from the third community member, we tried to shape the body into a gecko over the course of several days and edits. We also gave the model tail danglies and tried to perfect the uwu face. In the end, we gave up on the uwu face and tried for a face inspired by a Day Gecko. While this design, aka the "gecko" body, was cute, not all the developers felt this design would work well for the bio so we tried another body style.This led to the first version of the "bunny" body, using a Jackrabbit as the main inspiration. This first version was.... well... awkward. Not even a head inspired by the adorable Micro Dragon could save this one. So, after a few failed edits we moved to other body edits. At this time the developers were feeling quite burnt out and turned to our discord staff for help. After discussing with our staff, we decided to go back to the bunny body and try again.Since rabbits rest flat footed but walk on their tip toes, we decided to give the Bio a resting pose on his heels. We also decided a fawn face instead of the "sexy" face would be more appropriate for the Bio. We also worked to perfect the body at this point to make it less emaciated looking.Something was still very wrong with the face, but what could it be? And then it hit us.... he needed cheeks (and not sexy eyes). With the addition of cheeks, the bio's face went from creepy to cute and we finally liked it. This is also the point Parrot snuck in the bum doodads without Jao noticing, but don't tell him. Now we created a pose for the concept image and began the next process; creating the color and pattern.The first take on the pose was okay, but something was wrong with the feet. So, a few late game tweaks and we made them more like rabbit feet and less like dog feet. Now, we tried different skin concepts before creating the butterfly inspired concept you see on the final design.Finally, after months of work and help from the community and staff, we created the Bioluminescent Dragon. We hope you all like the final outcome and we appreciate everyone who helped create this awesome dragon.