The first episode of “Dark Rising: Warrior of Worlds” calls for an attacking horde of Klangathrian Krabbs (the smaller sized version of the giant crab that appears at the end of the feature “Dark Rising 2″). This was actually the first creature I tackled at the starting of pre-production. I initially thought they should be crude and simple since there would be a hell of a lot of them and they would need to render quickly. I even went as far as a few render tests (see video below), but as I moved on to the other monsters that will be needed for the production I realized that simpler isn’t always better.

Version 2.0 is pretty much the same design, but with a little more character. From the sketches you can see that both started off with standard crab claws, but I eventually went with T-Rex style hands (like the larger version that came before).

Since the Krabbs would be spending most of their screen time with live-action actors, I spent some extra effort making sure the textures would work under natural conditions. You can see these rendered tests as well as steps along the road in the design phase in the video below.

Next up, a break from characters to work on energy beams and portals before starting work on the giant cockroach and assembly of the destroyed world.

Stay tuned!