When I began this project my finished product had to be slightly over or under 6000 polygons, it also had to fit into the landscape of Durotar which is a rocky dessert environment in World Of Warcraft. I had to think about what character I could create which would easily fit in the range of polygons and the environment. I began to think of ideas; Lizard, Roadrunner, Spider, Scorpion, Meerkat and Baboon.
Because World Of Warcraft is set in a fantasy world its creatures and characters are far from the norm. So i decided to develop sketch's for lizards but with slight mutations some had a human upper body with spider legs. Others were basic lizards with dry branches growing out there backs with cactus spikes. I thought this is too generic, I want my character to stand out from the rest. Something which looks strong and fierce.
I began to look at Gorillas, although they aren't seen in deserts in our world, they would fit into a fantasy world if developed correctly. I looked at gorillas which were already present in WOW. Below are some examples.
The above examples are gorillas which are currently in WOW, the first example looks very similar to an everyday gorilla we see in our world. However, the second example seems to be a gorilla which has adapted to the cold or snow environment. I liked how they had done this however I didn't like how it is the same model just textured differently.
I started getting sketch's together and began to get an idea how I wanted my gorilla to look. I had to constantly keep in my head how could this animal adapt to the dessert of Durotar. I sketched a cactus gorilla, rock gorilla and a tree trunk gorilla. The rock and cactus gorilla would fit the environment best. I decided to chose the rock gorilla as I felt i could create a much better gorilla from this adaptation.
