Designing the Everlux for Flight Rising
In November of 2024Ā Flight RisingĀ released the Everlux dragon breed.
Designing a new dragon for Flight Rising is always an interesting challenge. The dragons need too be unique, fit into a square, and have enough surface area across both their bodies and wings for separate patterns (genes) to go into both. This breed originated from the Light Flight, and we wanted to explore a more alien dragon design. I came up with several concepts for the breed, but a heavy-set caterpillar inspired dragon is the direction we ended up going in.
Before proceeding with a final, I decided to do some studies from reference to learn a bit more about caterpillar anatomy and how their segmented, soft bodies worked. I did several studies from photographs of monarch butterfly caterpillars. I took the opportunity to draw in my sketchbook. Up until this past year, I have not been doing a lot of practice studies, and since picking up the habit, Iāve found that I observe more carefully and learn more by drawing on paper. With digital art, it is very easy to cut, move, and warp drawings after the fact. With paper, I was required pay attention to get the proportions as accurate as possible from the get-go, and I think it helped me to draw more mindfully.
With some practice under my belt, I proceeded to tighter drawings that fit the Flight Rising dragon style and template requirements.
And here are the final templates used for the game! Between the drawing and final stage, the FR art team provided helpful feedback on the hatchling. It was determined that the pulled up leg was busy and read poorly, so it was streamlined for the final. Getting an additional pair of eyes on something is always a good idea!
Iām so excited to see this post!!! Anyone Iāve spoken to about flight rising can attest that Iāve been wanting to see more of the design process, artistic worldbuilding, and creature design that goes into the site. The dragon designs can be quite complicated (/pos) and it can be difficult for me to get an idea of what theyād look like in a 3d space so i can draw them, which is only one of the many reasons why I love this post. Looking forward to my flightās elemental event at the end of this month and flight risingās anniversary in june! šŖ“āļøš“
