Flesh to Clay, Clay to Flesh Part: 1

Well now that the holidays are over I wanted to give everyone a taste of our favorite little monsters that will be snatching up your loved ones.

During this little design tour over the next few months, I will be going over the steps we take to bring a creature from design to living breathing creature.

1. Design
2. Thumbnails
3. Roughs 
4. Colors and final 2D art
5. Turn around

Now on with the show!

"STEP 1 DESIGN"

How we thought of these little twisted bastards.

This all started when I was trying to come up with a monster to really put some fear into my weekly D&D game. So while sitting around searching through my books I stumbled upon this idea of how creepy the shadows of sculptures, pots, vases and just objects in general are at night. I felt that the shadows of these things caused the mind to connect dots that are just not there. Yet there you are wondering if that shadow on the wall in your bedroom just moved. Now I can't take all the credit for this idea since film has been doing it for decades, but I wanted to take it farther. I wanted create a merge between what is really there and what really isn't in order to create paranoia in my D&D players. 

So after these little bastards made there first appearance in my D&D game, and the players saw the havoc they wrecked, then they proceeded to check every single vase, planter and pot for these nasty monsters and then I knew some day I would have to bring them to life in the 3D world.

....and here we are.

Race: Goblinoid, magical creations
Weight: 200-220 lbs.
Height: 3'- 4'1"
Eyes: Black and green beady eyes that shift and dart everywhere.
Description: Creatures born of murder and magic. Known as the stealer of children. 

Personality: Known for their vile tempers and thieving ways. Clayglins are extremely sneaky and when they are in close they rely on their brute force to beat their victims to a bloody pulp. They look for the largest thing they can use as a weapon and merge it with their arms. Everything about their personality is bigger means better, means more harm, means more chaos. When stealing something living that is their size or smaller they suck them into the clay pot on their back, holding them there as a prize. If things get ugly they use that creature (usually a baby) as a shield between them and the person trying to kill them (the parents or law enforcement mostly) Most of all Clayglins know their weakness to silver and because of it they steal every piece they can find before attacking a home, city or even a caravan. Many times they will hide themselves as a piece of art on a shelf or even as jar for holding foods or liquids to make their way into a home quietly stealing all the silver and leaving with any children they can get their hands on for a blood sacrifice. Since they work for Red Caps so often they have taken up their idea of blood equals power. They use the amount of blood they have as a way to judge who is the strongest in their tribe but this really grants them no power at all.

Physical Appearance: Small hunched over like a ape. Their arms are made of clay and over sized for their body. When looking at their hands they fingers are short and blunt. Since their fingers are not as nimble as they once were, they rely on force to open locks and things they can not manipulate. The clay goes across their backs and a vase or jar sits between their shoulders molded in to their bodies. Their faces are the same as most goblins, long noses, beady eyes, pointed ears usually torn and warn but most of all sharp teeth and a mouth as wide as their heads when they smile.

Special: Clayglins can hide themselves in their vases for an indefinite period of time. This allows them to be bought and sold in markets or even show up in food stuff deliveries to homes and restaurants.

Background: Not many know the true story of the clayglins and how they where created by a twisted Doctor trying to prolong life by using materials to replace parts of the body. He believed by using metals, clays and other materials we could extend human lifetimes, but really he was one of the first to research soul binding just in a reverse manner. He would build around the soul slowly replacing the body versus binding the soul to a new body. Once he found the Red Clay Fields, he noticed that this material had the blood of what he though was the soldiers soak into it over the ages. Really it was the blood of a goblin war that drenched this old river bed and in turn cursed his final works.

Now clayglins roam the Red Clay fields as body snatchers for the dark fey and for their twisted amusement. Many of them have formed tribes based on the vases attached to their backs.

Secrets: Now see I can't share this can I!

Note to the Artist: These little creatures are mean as mean can get. Savage and nasty to the core. I want their faces to show their personality as much as possible. If they do not out number someone with silver they will try and hide and ambush them. These should be the things that bump in the night and you never come back. Also they can grab weapons and merge them into their bodies making it nearly impossible to disarm them short of death.