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More from *thomastapir

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:iconfuturezoology: #FutureZoology
 :iconfantasy-beyond: #Fantasy-Beyond
Also Known as Creativity-Beyond

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March 14, 2008
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:iconthomastapir:
Idea for this was a tripedal alien herbivore in the rainforest of a tropical planet illuminated by a hot blue sun. (Obviously I'm big on the tropics, and UV-saturated environments in general!) It was part of a concept I was working on for a planet with such high humidity that the land megafauna would be more like fish than terrestrial vertebrates. It played into a lot of other concepts I was working with at the time, such as high-metal environments, toxic and electrical defenses, etc. (I'm a big fan of David Brin, as well as Wayne Barlowe.) Anyway, the wildlife on this planet relies on an active radar sense rather than passive visual organs (the high levels of UV radiation may have something to do with this). The yellow spot on the upper body segment is thus a radar aperture.

The creature is a 3D model created in Ray Dream Studio. The surface shader was taken from a scanned photo of a tang or surgeonfish, while the bump map was created from a scanned photo of a piece of turquoise (most notable in the "veining" across the creature's hide). The background is a heavily cropped and Photoshop-ped photo from a book on Australian rainforests.

I wish I had a bigger version to share, but the original CGI model was lost in a hard drive crash years ago. : (

UPDATE: I stumbled across a bigger version hiding in my old "Wallpapers" folder, so here ya go!
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:iconchaosdiabolico:
*ChaosDiabolico Apr 21, 2012
Hmmm... interesting.
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:iconchaosdiabolico:
*ChaosDiabolico Apr 16, 2012
Out of curiousity, where did you get the name "Triped Browser" from? And why did you give it that name?
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:iconthomastapir:
*thomastapir Apr 21, 2012
Triped because it's tripedal (having three legs) and browser because it consumes leafy vegetation (browsers eat leaves from trees versus grazers eat grass or other vegetation at ground level). Not the most imaginative name, of course!
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:iconthemaster64:
Mood: Amazed ~themaster64 Aug 14, 2011
are you from WA cuz i would like to meet you if possible but if not then thats fine btw awesome alien creature
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:iconcharanty:
*Charanty May 30, 2011
Interesting idea although i highly doubt that on the planet that orbits hot blue sun life could last long enough to evolve into something complex since such type of stars usually doesn't live long.
Or we can suggest that it's a blue dwarf that is just a little bigger and hotter than our sun. In this case it may work.
PS
You have mentioned some "Expedition" several times. What's that?
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:iconthomastapir:
*thomastapir Jun 1, 2011
Only the BEST BOOK EVER!!!!!
[link]
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:iconcharanty:
*Charanty Jun 1, 2011
Book?! Must.Read.
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:iconthomastapir:
*thomastapir Jun 1, 2011
Indeed!
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:iconvasix:
~vasix May 20, 2011  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Is this a huge megaherbivore or something?
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:icontektalox:
Mood: Joy ~Tektalox Sep 28, 2010  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
An alien with a weird body who lives in a weird enviroment. Very nice!
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