[Factions Ep. 2 - 9 Vigos - I19 - Cerea - BS] Flight of the aryx

[Ross Fisher]

*Your entry has earned 11XP*

The Aryx ran wildly. Koh's pursuer was only just behind. The bird was faster, but the being had the power of the Force. And it was relentless in pursuit.
Koh had no idea where to go. He had never been more than a day's ride from the homestead. All he knew was what the old lady said; "Don't let them get their hands on it."
The cube glowed red in his hand. Just like his pursuer's blade. He couldn't hide in a settlement. Nothing good could happen there. And he couldn't outrun his pursuer for much longer. 
All he could hope was that somehow he would see a way to destroy the cube and divert his pursuer's attention. With grim realisation, he turned his mount towards the lava fields.

Seed part was the palm tree trunk section, which I have used for the top of the pallisade wall, and for the thighs of the aryx. I had a lot of fun putting this together, and I'm very happy with the way the legs work in particular. The model isn't exactly "swooshable", but it can be held upside down without any movement, which is pretty satisfying. I hope you like it!

[JoeChu1980]

WOW! Wonderful!! So interesting application of that roast chicken! And you are fast one in this EP

[Ross Fisher]

@JoeChu1980 Thanks! Glad you like it! I was pretty happy with the connections. 

[BEAVeR]

Wow, I love how dynamic that looks! I can totally picture this being the moment in a movie or video game when the slow motion kicks in to show off how awesome the scene looks.You really managed to sell the emergency and distress of the situation through the motion.

First of all, there the speed with which our protagonist is dragged along, indicating that he's trying to get away from something as fast as he can: it even juts out of the footprint of the build as it is too small to contain its energy. Every single part and every angle of posing in the bird and the character shows forward velocity. I especially like how the foot the creature is pushing off against is already curling away from the ground and how the leg is already tilted forward, ready to release its energy. And then there's the brilliant touch of tilting the bird's head ever so slightly, to indicate that every last muscle in the body is working. You seem to understand its biomechanics exceptionally well. And if the posing in itself isn't enough, you also manage to sell the bird's speed through your parts usage, which is more than just some NPU just because of the novelty factor. You selected parts with very organic shapes on them, and especially ridges and folds. They really look like tensioned muscles and tendons, mimicking the hyperdetailed and sharp look of athlete's bodies at the peak of their performance. Even the more conventional parts like the binoculars have this tendon-like look and you avoided the usual rectangular parts as much as possible as they would ruin that look. That is just a wonderful achievement. With such a small creature build, you've really taught me a lot! If there would just be one thing'd I change, it would be to make the binoculars and clip plates at the feet black as well to make the angles less noticeable and to avoid adding too many colors that take away from the "realism" a bit. And maybe it would be cool to replace the tuft of hair on the bird's head with a minifig beard piece or something, because it sticking out at such a sharp angle messes a bit with the aerodynamic look.

The bird is only half of the story though. You also get some real intensity from the bad guy. If his pose wasn't threathening enough (maybe putting one foot on top of the ballustrade would look even more epic), I adore how the building buckles under the weight of his jump. The smooth, flowing nature of it really makes it feel like a sureal shockwave is emanating from him that warps everything around him. The only thing that seems to be unaffected by all of this drama is the landscape. I feel like you could have upped the tension just a bit more if the entire environment interacted with the motion, as it would make it look even bigger. For example, the shrubberies could have been tilted a bit as well as those stalks (maybe even with a gradient: the one furthest from the action bending the least) and the bird could have kicked up some sand while its front foot would dig into the soil more. And maybe you could even do something truly unique. I just noticed that the baseplates you built everything on have a slight curve, which actually kind of amplifies the action here: the ground itself gets warped by the tremendous forces on display. Imagine really embracing this effect and somehow making the ground even more curved. It wouldn't exactly look realistic anymore, but it would look awesome as hell!

And then we haven't even talked about the wonderful worldbuilding touches you put in, like those mushrooms growing at the base of the pallisades or the fact that on one side of the road the plants are different than on the other side instead of homogeneously mixed, implying some kind of agriculture... So much to unpack in such a small build, I love it! Do keep sharing your electrifying builds!

[Ross Fisher]

@BEAVeR Thanks! I really appreciate your comments! I felt like I didn't really hear much feedback at all about this build, so this is really great.

I have to admit that I think you might be reading a bit too much into a couple of the happy accidents here. For example, I think the tilt of the bird's head was designed to make it look better on camera, rather than to emphasise the motion, and the curvature of the baseplates is just because I am a terrible person, and bend them in order to remove parts easier. 

However, I do appreciate the constructive criticism as well. It does look a bit weird that none of the plants are impacted by the action when everything else is, and I accept that the colour scheme on the bird is a bit off. 

This has left me reinvigorated, thanks!

[goatman461]

I really like how the part blended with the hood. The turkey body throws me a bit, but great motion to the build.