TLDR: I'm 3D modeling an Andalite and I'm trying to nail down their anatomy. Exobiology is kind of a thing for me. Yay for strange hobbies.
Warning: This is a very long post. Stay to enjoy the rant and by all means leave feedback, but I have a lot of random thoughts about aliens and no one to talk to about it, so lucky you guys. I posted some of this on Reddit and Tumblr, but I figured I'd out all my thought processes in this post.
Okay, here we go.
I've been procrastinating on redoing my portfolio for way too long, and since I've recently gotten back into this series (and haunting the subreddit), I thought it would be a fun pet project to try to 3D model an Andalite (on top of writing my fan fiction).
The first step for this kind of project would be to nail down the anatomy through a series of concept sketches, and I thought it might be cool to put this to the board and see what kind of anatomy we end up with, as I think a lot of us have a different head canon of what an Andalite looks like.
Now, all respect for Romas Kukalis, who did amazing illustrations for the series, but I personally want my Andalites to be more obviously alien than simply blue or purple centaurs. This is a species that evolved very differently from life on Earth and I don't want to copy and paste human and deer anatomy. It would be easier, by far, but that's not where I want to go.
I did a lot of image searching for fan art and I included the ones that really caught my eye.
Lackofahttp://lackofa.deviantart.comhttp://lackofa.tumblr.comThis is a clipping of a larger piece on Andalite evolution and various primitive states (hence the lack of stalk eyes or tail blades). What really caught my eye was the way that Lackofa was able to capture the elements described in the books, but execute a creature design that was very alien and a far departure from Kukalis' imagining of Andalites.
I especially like how Lackofa designed recessed arms and reduced the humanoid elements. Further, the seven-toed hoof was, I felt, a very intelligent choice, given that Andalites are described as having seven fingers. The detail sketch of the Andalite foot-mandible was also very impressive, as it really reinforces the idea that this is both a real animal with biology, but is obviously non-terrestrial.
Veit Stanzhttp://veitstanz.tumblr.comFor the most part, this design is not very far removed from the Kukalis version, but I was very impressed that just reimagining the fur of the Andalite could make the whole creature look much more alien. There is almost a creepiness to this design that is missing from the Kukalis standard.
Virginia Greenehttps://www.instagram.com/virginiagreeneart/Like Stanz, this design is similar to the Kukalis interpretation. But her design on the skull caught my eye, as did the details in the hooves. Further, the addition of "gills" in the ribs and other line decisions add understated hints that this is an alien creature. I really liked her take on the tail blade, and the barbs above the hooves.
Victoria Chastanhttp://vickie-believe.deviantart.comThis drawing is obviously meant to be more of an animated style, but I was nevertheless intrigued with her artistic choices. The feather-like quality of the hair, the larger eyes, and the decision of the ear placement all work. This concept was intended as a baby Andalite, and the cuteness factor is definitely cranked all the way up. But I was especially keen on the way she interpreted the stalk eyes as far more robust and stable than most Kukalis-inspired designs. The thicker, more tubular stalks sells the biology that there is an eye with nerves, with musculature, et cetera.
Alex Rieshttps://www.artstation.com/artist/abiogenesisThis concept is clearly not an Andalite. In addition to a basic Google image search for Andalite concepts, I also looked at other alien drawings and specifically ran a search for hexapod concepts. This one was one of my favorites. Obviously the design is lacking a tail, fur, and so many of things associated with Andalites, but this is a roughly ungulate design (though lacking hooves) that - much like Lackofa's design, includes the "arms" without forcing a humanoid torso. It wouldn't be hard to adapt this concept into an Andalite and it offers valuable insight on how far I can push the definition.
And finally, we come to the Venezuelan poodle moth. I included this for a few reasons. For some reason, looking at those overly large black eyes amid the white fluff, it seams to really sell that this would be a creature that speaks telepathically. Also, I came across a comment by a Tumblr user that envisioned Andalites with more insectoid qualities. With the Taxxons also in-universe, I would be hesitant to really push for too much insect attributes, but this moth is just too cute and I could see making a case for making the Andalites less obviously mammalian.
This is just a thumbnail sketch, but it gave me a good skeletal anatomy for Andalites, and right now I'm working on some soft-tissue designs. I figured Andalites would have an internal anatomy somewhere between arthropods and vertebrates (an idea Lackof actually tried recently). I've designed the "human" torso as something of an elongated neck or thorax. I'm having trouble working out the tail. It needs to be long enough to whip past the torso, and it's something I'm going to have to work out later, I guess.
And here's one my first test renderings. I'm still working out Andalite ears, but I'm otherwise really happy with the way this turned out.
I came up with a way to account for the Andalite "jaw" as being a highly sophisticated respiratory function. Life on the Andalite homeworld is described as having very little biodiversity and I've attributed this to their planet having a thinner atmosphere and slightly less sunlight. This would also explain why the plant forms on their planet are said to be so highly evolved. The three-slit nose and "jaw" work together as something of a biological gas mask and the Andalites would have a lot of evolutionary adaptations to absorb oxygen from a thinner atmosphere.
I figured the lungs would be housed in this proto-torso. I thought the segmented sections would look very cool and moth-like as they inflate and deflate, but without doing the test animations, I'm still on the fence about it.
