Meanwhile, Back on Earth...

I built the set completely out of scrap wood, and the couch is upholstered with a sock. It's pretty cool what a band saw, paint, and hot glue can do.

Thousands of miles away from Terralibi, on the planet Earth, I've been doing a few things with claymation. I'm in the process of making a short with the tentative title, Pizza!, and I began shooting yesterday. After a full day of animating, my little clay figures were becoming disfigured and mushy, so I thought I'd take a few pictures while they're still in there prime.

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Hey, for those of you interested in seeing these little guys start coming to life, check out what Mike did! He's a genius, disguised as a Mike.

http://michael-oshins.blogspot.com/2010/02/nomad-der-man.html

Sheiladerdale, Unshielded

This is a Sheiladerdale, also known as Sheila. Sheila's love aquatics and sea creatures. They often paint deep sea fish wonderful colors or sculpt amazingly beautiful coral and algae bushes. Sheila's also make molds and pattern pushers for starfish and sea horses and give sting rays tail cuts (so they don't get too, too long). Sheila's also like painting, sculpting, and designing sea shells. Some of their best designs they send out to shores to see what humans think of it. Good responses (when people take the shells) encourage Sheila's to make more of that kind.

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Meet Yilhomner

I don't exactly remember how I named this guy- the only thing I know is that the "hom" in the middle comes from the homo in "homo sapien": human.

This is a Yilhomner. Yilhomner monsters may look familiar to human form but be assured, they are nothing like humans. Each part of a Yilhomner is it's own form and creature. This Yilhomner depicted is fully structured, but many times they will be missing multiple parts. The parts always come back to the Yilhomner, however, there was one incident where a testiniso didn't return; it turned out that it joined a human road show as the most bendable creature on earth.

Out in Nomad's Land...

Since I've been spending a lot of time trying to raise money to travel, I thought this guy would be appropriate to introduce. He is a Nomadian- a traveling monster of the 93th century. Nomadians have no homes, they simply walk everywhere. Each journey they make shows up on their shoes. Old Nomadian's shoes are crammed with routes and destinations. Nomadians love beef jerky and jelly beans. They serve as a compass for other monsters and will tell you shortcuts if you give them beef jerky or jelly beans. Nomadians also love to look at the stars and carry telescopes with them at all times. Some Nomadians follow the stars and create new paths that way.

Happy Birthday Zak!

I don't mean the awesome Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode where they throw Zach a surprise party, today actually happens to be my older brother Zak's 21st birthday. So, in celebration I'm posting a monster I made that reminds me of him.

This is a Lardrex. Some are intimidated by Lardrexes but they are very relaxed monsters. Some may be scared away by the wandering "chin whisker smile" (abbreviated CWS) but this is a Lardrexes way of showing emotion. When the CWS is placed where it is in this particular photo, the lardrex is happy. The CWS also turns upside down to be a frown, wanders up to become an eyebrow, can spread on top of it's head as hair, or even scatter out to form a fancy design. Lardrexes love oat bran, oatmeal, and egg white powder and they move by bouncing.

Updated Update

All of you interested in seeing the ways my characters are coming to life, check out Michael's newest milestone in turning the Arbarb Cambiat into a real boy! It's pretty freakin cool to see how far it's come, if you ask me.

http://michael-oshins.blogspot.com/2010/02/arbarb-update.html

Labyrlock's Unlocked

The name Labyrlock is a junction of the words "labyrinth" and "lock." To unlock a Labyrlock's knowledge, you must take the time to go through it's labyrinth.

If you watched my video about hiking the Inca Trail, you might have seen a quick glimpse of a Labyrlock. If you didn't watch my video, you should. And then tell everyone you know about it.

Anyway, Labrylocks are very sneaky monsters. They are usually seen sneaking around at night, and they'll only talk to you if you get their round through their maze. (Their round is the little black ball sitting in the top left corner of the sketch above). Labyrlocks have a wealth of information, but very few monsters take the time to figure them out.

A Labyrlock's favorite food is sugar snap peas. Many think it's round is actually a pea and that if one were to eat it, they would be haunted for the rest of their lives by their closest friends deepest secrets.

Hello Peru?

Kind of off topic, but this weekend I was devoted to starting a kickstarter website to help me raise money to go to Peru and hike the Inca Trail this spring. The website is based off a rewards system, so the more you give, the more you get. I'm offering some pretty sweet hand made (and personalized!) cartoons and animations, photos and trinkets, etc. for your support. Definitely check out my video, it's only like a minute long and it pretty much tells you all you need to know. And if you look on the right hand column of the link below, it will give you a more detailed overview of all the awesome rewards you can get. Even if you can't help, pleeease pass the word along and help me hike the Inca Trail!!!!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/613249377/if-i-could-hike-the-inca-trail

The Original Arbarb Cambiat

The name Arbarb comes from the word "arbor" meaning tree, which is what the paper that this guy resembles is made out of. Cambiat comes from "cambiar" the spanish verb meaning "to change". Essentially, the Arbarb Cambiat translates to "Changing Paper."

Here's my original sketch of an Arbarb Cambiat. Arbarbs are usually nice creatures, but you also have to be careful. Arbarbs are generally seen in this form, although they are known for their ability to re-grow some part of their shell if it were to be cut or ripped. Also, their facial features can be mixed around easily and their color can change by the minute. Arbarbs are often used in security gangs and as undercover agents. They move by the wheel on their back. The wheel blows air on their backs, propelling them forward.

Check out the Arbarb Cambiat animated at http://michael-oshins.blogspot.com/2010/02/potent-again.html

Picture This

This is similar to our clock, but in Terralibi there are only 4 "hours" - morning is on the top left, lunch is top right, midafternoon is in the bottom left and night is on the bottom right.


So here's my sketch of Terralibi, I'm also including a cross-section and sample of a common timekeep (the equivalent of a clock). Enjoy.

Welcome to Terralibi

Just so we're all on the same page, Terralibi is pronounced Tur-AL-i-by. This is the world that all of my creatures in my Monster Encyclopedia live in. It's nothing at all like the Earth we live on, although the Map may make it seem that way. For starters, in between each land mass is a super pliable molding clay type substance- a cross breed between modeling clay and corn starch. On warm days it's sandy, on cold days its soft warm and moldy, and it's a sandpapered fleece texture on days in between. The ground of the land masses themselves are made up of tiny glass-like beads. The beads can never break, but they do absorb the temperature of the air so on warm days it's very hot, on cold days it's very cold, etc. The beads also make a euphonious clinking sound that jingles when you walk on it. All the beads are loose and would be extremely massaging to human feet.

Time in Terralibi is known by scent. There are no exact hours, only 4 time periods: morning, lunch, mid-afternoon, and night. In the morning, the air smells like rain- a little dewy, but more fresh and sweet. At lunch, the air smells like cinnamon cigar smoke. In the mid-afternoon it smells of lemon and peach, and at night the air smells like apple-y mountain fog and coffee.

I'm going to post skeleton sketch of a map of this land- only to be way further developed, colored, and written upon. The compass directions X, C-P, Z, and P are the equivalent of our N, E, S and W. They stand for Xurious, Counter-Peripheral, Zoddy, and Peripheral.