Monday 12 September 2011

Beware the Jibbon Swarm

The idea of a swarm of nom-happy creatures is hardly new, but it's always fun to work on your own version of a classic!

I've been thinking a lot more about the physics of creatures recently (a fairly strong physics and maths background always helps!) and I tried to portrait some of this with the 'hinge' mouth. The base of the mouth has very few, thin muscles capable of opening the mouth, while the upper 'teeth' actually work as a small series of electro-magnets with the power being drawn from the 'fan' tail. The teeth can be activated (forcing the mouth to close) by a pressure-plate-esque entity on the roof of the Jibbon's mouth.

This all works together to ensure the mouth generally hangs open while the creature is happily flying aorund, can be forced open if needs be, however if generally forced shut if the Jibbon's mouth becomes too full. This is necessary as, since the creature is so small, the mouth acts as both the entry to, and the main body of, the digestive system. Basically, the mouth is also the stomach.

Also, the basic composition of this piece is the basis of it's almost RPG element, 'You find a nearly ruined scrap of paper on the floor of the jungle, shortly followed by an increasingly loud buzzing sound..'

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