September 2025 Show Off Thread - Choose a Theme From the List

[Agent0013]

Stezza, that is an awesome video, and song. Im a singer songwriter myself, and from what I heard of your song, (all of it), you are awesome! I recognized several characterrs in your images, from at least the 1960s and later! Wow! What a ride down memory lane!

Thank you for sharing that!

[Stezza]

Thanks for watching 

glad you enjoyed it :-)

[Agent0013]

Have you ever noticed that most alien intelligent species in science fiction are basically humanoid? I mean they have a head on a neck and shoulders, two arms, and two legs, attached to a torso, and they stand and walk mostly on those two legs, just like Earth humans do. In some productions in which various types of aliens are depicted, even those that are supposed to be distinctly non-human, that basic symmetry and stance is still like that of humans! Granted, playing a alien that is not like a human at all is going to be difficult for a human to do! But, even in the few early productions, before the advent of 3D art, aliens could be believably depicted. Stop motion productions were made using the single frame method of animating, in which you would pose the figure one frame at a time, advancing the pose each frame, and after you had enough frames, you would splice them together to run as an animation; and the best of these did look pretty real. Still, it was a long and difficult thing to achieve, so when a production needed to have aliens in it, most of them were humanoid, so that an actor could be made up to look not completely human, but enough like a human to allow him or her to perform the scripted motions. Even in TV productions like Star Trek, at least 90% of all aliens had the basic symmetry of humans.

Now we know of some other species here on Earth whose intelligence just might rival or even surpass our own. Some of the most intelligent types are aquatic, and have distinctly different symmetries, which could not be depicted by any human actor! This genus is known as the 'Cephalopods', and includes 'Octopi', Squid, and so on! All of them are invertebrates, meaning they do not have skeletons. Their appendages are tentacles, some of which are lined with suction cups that give them a surprising amount of grip. Scientific studies have revealed that many of them actually use tools that they take from their natural environments to perform certain tasks! Tool use is not something that is instinct driven; it requires the user to have enough cognitive ability to figure out ways to do the things they want to do. Another indicator of high intelligence is the ability to observe one's environment, see and know what is what, and where it is located, and then plan actions that will achieve a desired result. We humans used to think we were the only living creatures on Earth that could do that; however, let me tell you about the following discovery.

A marine life laboratory, had several aquariums containing different species of marine life in each. One aquarium contained live crustaceans, and another which was a good distance across the room from the first one contained an octopus. In the first aquarium was a specific number of the crustaceans, which had been recorded in the logue of the lab.

The next day, when they open the lab again, everything seemed to be as they had left it the night before, until they counted the number of crustaceans in their designated aquarium. There was one less than they had counted the previous day. They wondered if they had miscounted the previous day. The octopus was still in its own aquarium. So the routine of end of the day procedures was maintained.

When they returned the next day, another crustacean was missing! They had made sure to count them correctly by means of having 2 or three do the counting separately, and their numbers matched perfectly! But why was only one going missing each night? There was nothing else out of place anywhere in the lab! They needed to figure out what was happening in the locked up lab at night! Was one of the staff returning after hours and stealing just one crustacean each night? Was that person playing a prank on the lab staff? How were they getting in?

A series of hidden cameras was installed by one of the scientists, because he was determined to catch the culprit! Well it did catch the culprit, but that culprit was not human! The footage showed that the octopus would crawl out of its aquarium, slither across the lab floor to the other aquarium, climb into it, and eat one crustacean! Then it would climb out of that aquarium and return to its own, and act as though it had not done anything!

Think about the level of intelligence that would be required to come up with such a plan, and to implement that plan flawlessly! It is a level of intelligence that rivals that of the smartest humans! For thousands of years it was thought that the only species on Earth capable of practicing deviousness was humans, but this discovery proved that  to not be the case!

So I have decided to make my non-humanoid alien species a type of cephalopod, which I am calling Malevoi. They are a devious species of malevolent intent. At DeviantArt I used their free AI to generate three images showing the point of view of human starfighter pilots. I wrote stories that are told from the perspectives of those pilots. Each story is not very long, but they are all tied together around  an alien attack on human colonial space, None of those three images depict the Malevoi, but the stories do mention that species.

As I could not find a figure that could be used as that species, I decided to piece together some of what I have in my content library for DAZ Studio and Poser. I chose the tentacle item from the V4 Creature Creator Product pack, a Pufferfish which I heavily modified, and modeled a beak addon in Wings 3D. Using shaders and certain texture images I made in AmberLight, I was able to give the resulting creature a well detailed skin texture. This image shows the creature against the backdrop of the Great Nebula in Orion; M42. It is my plan to make models of the Malevoi spacecraft, which can only be operated by their own kind! I will also be doing images of Malevoi with different skin patterns and displacement textures!

You can see my AI images, and read my stories here:
https://www.deviantart.com/agent-0013/gallery/all
The title of the stories is "What Starfighter Pilots See in Battle".

Check this monster out!
 

[Stezza]

octopusses are amazing

phew... looks like I and the Carrara cube survived the rapture....
but now what about the impending invasion of the Martians in November...
the cube today was transformed into a Martian visitor and his space ships both boned and morphed...... will we get to see Christmas this year...

[Agent0013]

And the Martians say "AK!...Ak AK!"

I like your new image Stezza! Awesome!

[SofaCitizen]

Been trying to think of a good scene for a fairy for a second submission for this month but not had much luck. However, I finished an animal render for Llola's thread on the Daz forums and have just seen animals is included in here too - so here is a Koala! :)

[Agent0013]

SofaCitizen, this just might be my favorite for this month! That is so cute! Very well done!

[Agent0013]

My image titled "Alien Cephalopod Intelligence - Malevoi" has won SAOTW at The Fantasy Attic! I was not expecting that! I just got through making a list of what I want for my prizes. Just need to send DarkAngel the list in a PM. 

I also have one of my contributions for the October Give Away almost ready. A just need to make textures for it, write my promo and my readme, then Zip it up and send it to her via my FileZilla account. Got another one almost done also, but still need to do some UV maps for it.

Anyway, I'm posting a screenshot of the first one here so you can have a look at it!

[Llola Lane]

Hi Gang... sorry I missed the whole month of September :(... Life has been rather hectic with Dad in a nursing home and mom not able to drive anymore... We are doing chauffeur duty these days... I have not done any rendering in the last few months.  I will TRY and post something for October... Hopefully a new thread will be started shortly... I've not been getting notice reminders... BTW.. well done one and all.. I've enjoyed seeing all your artwork.. Back to checking out the drone flying over our house!!!  eep... hugzzzz

[SofaCitizen]

Ooops! I think I might have not got (or missed) a few post reminders also. So thanks for your comments on  my image, Agent, and congrats on your competition win on the other site :)

Sorry to hear that things are still a little troublesome and stressful, Llola. Real life does have to come first and so being there for your family is very important. Make sure you can still take a few moments for yourself every now-and-then when you can tho!