Stylized Opabinia

Created for a weekly challenge with the theme "Alien". My mind wandered into thinking about terrestrial life and how much diversity can be considered quite alien compared to the menagerie of creatures in the current epoch. I had also been wanting to rig and animate something so I had begun modelling with the eventual goal of rigging and animating the creature as well.

The subject is an Opabinia Regalis, an arthropod from the prehistroric Cambrian era and probably the posterchild of Cambrian fauna generally, next to Anomalocaridids. With five eyes and a grasping barbed (not modelled, went for a beak like shape instead) proboscis, I felt it an appropriately alien subject for the challenge.

Nothing particularly fancy was done here modelling wise, but I did try for a "cute" stylized look which I think I had nailed fairly well. Some people had favourable compared the final result to Spore, which I've never played ironically enough - Opabinia Regalis looks like something someone messing around in Spore would have made. The animation was kept simple, though I did intend an undulating wave initially, it turned out to be a fair bit more complicated to do than I anticipated. In the end a looped "swim" cycle conveys the whimsy this little guy is full of well enough.