Alien Idea Development

This is the worm like alien I've been developing. It is amalgamation of ideas from different animals. It borrows from crustaceans like crabs or lobsters in that it has a thick shell of sorts, though it also has scales and horns. I've toyed with scale and like this one best - just about big enough to swallow a man whole. It makes it seem more natural in the sense that it isn't impossibly large, or at least a little more similar to what we know on Earth in the form of sharks and crocodiles.

I played around with this design in particular as I liked the idea of the skin on it's face having hard cartilege like plates that function like giant scales. These are capable of moving almost like car mud tire flaps but remain mostly stationary. The ring or crown of horns around it's neck or head are a sort of defence mechanism that it has since outdated with it's size - they aren't so practical, reflecting on them now, but they look intimidating.

A close up of the face I did, as I wanted to sort of finalize the design on where the plates were and how big they were. In the end though, I didn't like it that much as I feel that the eyes are too high on the skull and that it still looks far too humanoid in terms of facial features.

I borrowed from Jurassic Park in the moment the alien flares out it's plate to intimidate. I also increased the scale to see how it looked bigger.

Here I experimented with ideas for eyes, inclusive of the shape, iris and pupils as well as the skin or flesh around them, as well as the horns I wanted to surround it's head / neck. I also experimented with tail ideas, as that also currently plays a part in the animation.

I produced a digital design but I am unsure if I will go ahead with it as follows. The rest of the alien seems relatively plain or normal compared to the head, and so I will have to look into making the rest of it more interesting somehow.