Axel Alba L. Morcillo- PORTFOLIO 2022

Welcome to my Entry!

This is my first time participating in The Rookie Awards contest, i'm so excited to show you what I have been working on. Hope you like my projects. Enjoy!

The purpose of this project was to design an avatar with which to feel identified. A persona to use as images on my social media and as a 2D animation on my Twitch streams.

KHÀ is a combination of two of my favorite creatures, dragons and budgies. This, mixed with striking colors full of contrast and a flowy shape, makes this persona stand out wherever is placed!

I love birds and this was the perfect opportunity to start working on a design,  I wanted a creature that could fit into this three characteristics: it had to be fluffy, dynamically shaped and autumn themed. I believe this little animal fits the rol, what do you think?

Oki-Piko is a species of bird that lives near bodies of water around the savannah. These birds are considered symbols of good auspiciousness as, wherever explorers spotted them, it mean that water was nearby and their thirst was about to be saciated. However, this little birds are hard to be seen, as they hide in the tall yellow grass near lakes and streams, running away fast from whoever disturb them.

This design was previously presented in "Stranger things" contest and ended up as a finalist!

I thought that there were already enough creatures that exceeded or equaled the size of a human, and I considered it more original to create a being with a size significantly smaller than that of a human being. I also thought that all creatures had individual thinking and the ample capacity to face the characters. For my design I was looking for a creature based on the hive mind, a swarm of small mutant insects that could parasitize the human bodies in order to keep their species alive.

The body would be similar to that of a dragonfly, as it is wide and has enough space to support the large moth-inspired wings on which the large eyes of this insect will be found. I had a conflict between whether to put large legs like those of mosquitoes, leaving them with a torso enough to attach to a person's neck or adding a tail to help them when moving. Finally I decided to keep the tail inspired by a centipede, as it could be used to cling tightly to the neck, strangle, support itself in the trees, among other uses. I consider that the design of the wings is the main focus of this design because, by parasitizing the human, it is these wings that will cover a large part of the surface of the skull, replacing the functionality of human eyes with those of the insect.

These are the uniforms hunters use to explore and hunt on their missions. Left one is used when solo hunting, in order to stay hidden  among all the vegetation; right one is used when hunting in groups  using their mask and stilts,  their clothes are made with the same materials as the mask: cloth, fur, bones and wood.

For this prop design I wanted to explore old weapons used in ancient civilizations and mix that knowledge with a bit of fantasy. In this project I also wanted to practice texture rendering so I made sure to use diferent materials to build it. 

The weapon which I used as inspiration is known as "falcata", a type of sword typical of pre-Roman Iberia. The handle is made of wood and reinforced with hair and grass so the hand doesn't get hurt attacking the enemy; the body is made out of gold with two big gems in the center and the blade is made of rusty iron, sign of having been used for a long time. Feathers are placed around this sword depeding on the handler rank.

One of the two props that forms the equipment of  my hunters. This mask, along with the fur cloak, make up their camouflage suit. Normally, this suit is to be worn by 3 or more hunters: one wears the head, leading the party; the rest hide in the cloak, following the leader, ready to hunt. 

As this suit and it's size resembles a real animal, with it, hunters can go unnoticed as other creatures will not see the intruders that are inside the costume, mixing themselves with the ecosystem around.

This tool help hunters conceal their footprints as well as completing their camouflage suit, making them tall enough to cover themselves and the structure of the stilts from the animal's sight.

Draken Wars is a worldbuilding project I’ve been working on for years now. Meet Mithr, a halfwyvern halfhuman that will soon become a hunter in a new place, where many adventures awaits. Along with Snekkja, their superior, they will face tragedy, comraderie, unfolding secrets and most important their own personal growth.

Mithr carries a very mysterious sword, holding inside a very important secret for them. It was given by their commander, with very mischievous intentions.

Hunters, depending on which weapon they choose, their equipment has to be adapted to better movement in their missions, and they must be provided with survival supplies such as herbs and food and a hunting knife, among other things.

Lacriam, the main creature of this project, is a species of wyvern that protect the entirety of the isle system where the story takes place. Unfortunately, they went extinct after war between humans and Lacriam happened, or so they thought. A monstrous baby was found, next to the Mother Lacriam, hunters that took them called that creature Mithr.

Lacriam are not the only feared species, each biomes have always dominant creatures that protect their territory, Ragno species protect dense forests located next to the hunter’s base; Votk’Eri species protect snowy and rugged mountains. There are many more species which are to be discovered by our hunters

Rooms are given depending on your rank, if your are just a hunter you will be living with other for to six people, sharing a wood tent with very few facilities; if your are a high rank hunter, which there are just a few of them, you are given a small tent just for yourself, with space to put some facilities, this tent is equipped with an upper floor where they are responsible of monitoring the surrounding in case they have to plan a strategy against a sudden attack; the commander gets their own three room tent, one for reunions, other for studying and the last one just used to sleep and privacy, when a gathering between high ranks and the commander must be done they are to be reunited in the reunion room in the commander’s tent, so she stays aware of everything happening in her base.

These are some of the environments in which I have worked for the final project of my master's degree "The tsar's secret"