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Collaborative Evolution Projects
Topic Started: Jan 12 2009, 07:03 PM (4,139 Views)
Viridian
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Amateur Xenobiologist
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Being new to the site I havn't gotten to know anyone yet, but I was wondering if there are any artists here who would be interested in starting a collaborative-type evolution project.

I would like to begin a project in the same vein as sagan 4, although with a few differences in format.

A few years ago I ran a shortlived project of this kind on the Sporeum forums, unfortunately it failed due to time constraints suffered by some of the artists on the project.

However, over the last six months or so I have been working on a format that would be less reliant on regular artistic submissions by artists and would be able to continue to run regardless.

If there are any talented artists here at the Speculative Evolution forums who are interested in being a part of this kind of project, please reply here or PM me.

Thanks.
Out of nowhere, you are attacked by a snarling, biting mass of felt shaped like a raccoon! This is the single angriest puppet you’ve ever seen, and it’s not cookies that it wants to eat…
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Viridian
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Amateur Xenobiologist
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This is great guys! We're starting to make some real progress with this!

@Zypher: Both your species are great! However I feel that Canis has some good points. They seem a little too advanced. Despite that I think the artwork and concepts are fantastic. The worms are very cool.

@Kaykay: Your concepts are great too. The simplicity is good. I like Canis's "Rock-eating fungus" idea. Could be worth developing further. Still, ultimately it's up to you where your species fits into the food web. And we'd still need a detritovorous fungus. Perhaps a cousin?
Out of nowhere, you are attacked by a snarling, biting mass of felt shaped like a raccoon! This is the single angriest puppet you’ve ever seen, and it’s not cookies that it wants to eat…
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zypher
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Adolescent
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huh... well, for now pretend the legs aren't there...

perhapse they'll be valid in a week or two?

but overall the seem alright?
because there are an infinite number of alternate realities, withen them an infinite ammount of infinite things are possible... infinitly.

two samples of my artwork
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj74/zaraquexon/img016-1.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj74/zaraquexon/img018.jpg

<embed width="384" height="206" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" src="http://www.spore.com/flash/csa_widget.swf?userid=2263016807&username=zaraquex&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spore.com%2Fview%2Fuser-thumbnail" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" scale="showall" name="latest-creatures" /></embed>
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KayKay
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I was thinking that your designs were a little complex too, zypher, if you don't mind me saying. Maybe you don't need to remove the legs, but maybe design a more simplified species, and keep your original one as a descendant?

Viridian: Yeah, I was thinking the fungus could be a whole group of species. Some are adapted for feeding on flesh (living under the surface of the food source) while others feed on rock (living on top of the food source, or in any holes, etc).

They might even create holes in rocks after a while to create habitats for other organisms.
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zypher
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Adolescent
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hmm.. okay, I'll make a simplified species of both.
because there are an infinite number of alternate realities, withen them an infinite ammount of infinite things are possible... infinitly.

two samples of my artwork
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj74/zaraquexon/img016-1.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj74/zaraquexon/img018.jpg

<embed width="384" height="206" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" src="http://www.spore.com/flash/csa_widget.swf?userid=2263016807&username=zaraquex&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spore.com%2Fview%2Fuser-thumbnail" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" scale="showall" name="latest-creatures" /></embed>
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

But keep your original idea for later in the project. It's good.
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CarrionTrooper
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I require more vespene gas?!?
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Hay folks. Done my part of the ecosystem (algae & floating feeders), I'll scan it today if possible.
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zypher
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cool, I'd like to see them!

and yes, I shall most definatly save the originals!
because there are an infinite number of alternate realities, withen them an infinite ammount of infinite things are possible... infinitly.

two samples of my artwork
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj74/zaraquexon/img016-1.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj74/zaraquexon/img018.jpg

<embed width="384" height="206" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" src="http://www.spore.com/flash/csa_widget.swf?userid=2263016807&username=zaraquex&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spore.com%2Fview%2Fuser-thumbnail" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" scale="showall" name="latest-creatures" /></embed>
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CarrionTrooper
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I require more vespene gas?!?
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http://carriontrooper.deviantart.com/art/Nimbus-Concept-001-110399835
Here's my concepts, very very simple in concept (hey, this is early life)
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ChumZar
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Entheogenic Shaman
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So what spots are still unclaimed if any?
"Hard-wired to conceive so much we had to stow it. Even needs have needs; tiny giants made of tinier giants. Don't wear eyelids so we don't miss the last laugh of this show."
-Modest Mouse
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Finally! My struggles with the evil hardware are over, and I won! Surface algae, 3 others
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

CarrionTrooper: Good concept. But wouldn't having the jet propeller on the same side as the mouth be more of a hindrance than a helper?

The32ndPie: could you give me some more info on your creations?
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Viridian
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These are all looking good.

For final versions it would be good to get coloured, non-annotated images. The look I'd like to go for is a kind of "Nature Encyclopaedia" theme, with species drawn in such a way that it is easy to see different features and with short descriptions accompanying each image to describe the depicted species.

@ChumZar: So far I don't think I've seen any slow-moving crawlers. Feel free to produce ideas for other niches as well though.
Out of nowhere, you are attacked by a snarling, biting mass of felt shaped like a raccoon! This is the single angriest puppet you’ve ever seen, and it’s not cookies that it wants to eat…
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ChumZar
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Entheogenic Shaman
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Okay I'll take the slow-movers and if I think of another niche I will post it.
"Hard-wired to conceive so much we had to stow it. Even needs have needs; tiny giants made of tinier giants. Don't wear eyelids so we don't miss the last laugh of this show."
-Modest Mouse
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ChumZar
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Entheogenic Shaman
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I did the slow-movers:
Posted Image
In case you can't read what it says, which you probably can't, here are the specs:

1. Goopy Monstrosity: Basically a multicellular white blood cell. It reproduces via mitosis where the "brain" splits into two and each half takes some of the goopy tissue along with it. It is able to control the movement of the goopy tissue using little branching nerves that sprout from the brain. The one seen in the picture has split into two brains and is likely to divide soon.

2. Cancerous lump: An asymmetrical lump. It has a very primitive nervous system with eyes scattered randomly across it's body. Underneath it's body grow muscly vein-roots that it uses for eating, olfactory reception, and transportation. It reproduces by budding.

3. Nonagram Creeper: The most complex of the crawlers. it has nine legs that it slowly pulls itself along with, and a mouth on the bottom of it's body. it has three long 3-pronged tongues that it uses to pull in detritus. There are nine olfactory receptors around it's upper half, one between each pair of legs. it sprouts many spore nodes from it's head for reproduction, scattering spores wherever it goes that eventually grow up to be adult Creepers. It is basically a starfish analogue.

4. Hairy slime: Most closely related to the Goopy Monstrosity, this lump of gooey tissue slides around absorbing detritus. The hairs on it's back serve as a means to "cheat" at scavenging: When it senses the presence of another organism (via movement, heat, or by-products of advanced chemical production), it launches all of it's little hairs in every directions. When the hairs stab into something, they inject a powerful toxin, killing the organism for the Hairy Slime to feed on. After several minutes, the hairs will all begin to grow into little Hairy Slimes, this ensures that if a hair doesn't stab into anything, it will still serve some sort of purpose. The Hairy Slime can also reproduce by mitosis when necessary, and if the presence of an organism is not detected for long enough, the Hairy Slime will eject all of it's hairs in an emergency attempt to preserve it's genome, and with luck, find a sneaky little organism that escaped it's detection.

BTW I added some more detail to these descriptions because the ones on the page were meant mostly for notes.
"Hard-wired to conceive so much we had to stow it. Even needs have needs; tiny giants made of tinier giants. Don't wear eyelids so we don't miss the last laugh of this show."
-Modest Mouse
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Chumzar: good concept. Especially mitosis (keep that in mind everyone. Mitosis will probably be the dominant reproductive method at this time).
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