From Wolf to Dog

Creature research:


I have looked at a couple of documentaries on the domestication of dogs into wolves:

Mankind the story of us: Domesticating the dog

And man created dog: A national geographic presentation

Natural world: A wild dog's story

I looked at this final video to to find attributes and characteristics of wild hunting dogs that could translate to visual traits of my design. I also wanted to see the relationship between packs of wild dogs, and if ose relationships have any effect on the way they look. Other than the sustaining of wounds (which would create distinguishing marks and scars on the body, there is little other than the color/ pattern on their coat to distinguish many pack animals.  Individuals within a group can look very similar, and are (to our perception at least) just one random member of that race. I think this can be a way to differentiate between a creature and a character. a character is a specific individual, where as a creature could just be an example of its race, un-distinguishable from its contemporaries. However, to develop a bond with a creature we the viewer/ player would have to be able to identify its characteristics, thus making it more a character than simply a generic member of a species, in that way the player can start to form more of a bond with a npc creature.

There is however something else that this made me think about when considering how i would design my creature, the size.  In nature the dominant animal in the pack is usually the largest, this means, that visually, it would not make sense for (with a predator at least) the assisting hunting animal to be larger than its character counterpart, as by most logic, if it wer, it would simply eat any smaller character as it would receive no benefit from a mutialistic relationship.  larger predators tend to hunt on their own, though their are of course always exceptions. 

lions... not ideal candidates for domestication

 This is simple a rule in nature, and some would not say it is necessary to take into consideration when creating art, but i think it is important to allow the viewer to suspend their disbelief, and if the design has some grounding in reality, just by means of our own expectations and pre-conceptions of how things "should" look. 

Considering this i think it would keep the design of my creature reasonably smaller than my character.