Exploring the Art of Monster Design: Learning from Rodrigo Sousa's Playground 

IM SO HAPPY THAT ANIMATION IS GETTING SPOTLIGHT LIKE THUS THIS IS SO AWESOME IT DESERVES SO MUCH ATTENTION

Amazing video! I'm unable to answer all my emails but happy the making of helped you! I think using your real life fears and experiences are good ways to add originality to your designs, and mixing characteristics from different creatures/ things into an uncanny mix. Cool designs and have fun designing!!

I love all these designs! The human face bat is probably my favorite. Very unsettling :)

I really enjoyed this! The cricket spider is my favorite. Imagine that thing scuttling at you 😭

Omg wow I really loved this video! And I cant wait to see your comic!

Hmm. The designs are neat and could definitely be scary. However, I think (this is a preference but, an overall desaturation of the monster would make them feel scarier.

Really cool design, gotta say the pumpkin hippo mix was my favourite :D

I really like the Spider Cricket design, but i think Something that could increase the horror of it would be to make the human element a bit more human. Like making the hands skin colored, Imagine a hand popping around a corner waving at you. Then the rest of this horrific thing lumbers out, each arm being a different skin tone. It also feels like it could use maybe one other creepy human element.

I love videos Like this! It's so cool to see your process!!!!!

I thought the same thing. I like Playground and Rain World because of the creature designs lol

Great video!

I'm glad more people are starting to find playground, also very good video!

Love your creative process! 🤩

This was so cool! I’m also super intrigued by playground and can’t wait to see what comes out of it

I definitely feel like your sketches do the shapes and monsters more justice, otherwise these are some really great ideas and I like your execution of them!

Hey! Lovely video it was interesting to watch :D I have some feedback for you regarding the monsters, please do ignore the comment if you're not open to criticism. Depends on what you're going for, but imo your monsters are too "stuck" in the original object/animal you went with. In playground, i think the creatures are much more mixed and transformed, making you confused as to what you're looking at. For example, I think your first monster kept too much bug attributes, if you take off the human hands it could be a regular bug. Maybe adding humanoid eyes (on face or not) and gut in its abdomen wouldve helped with the horror, i think its too buggy because it lacks a .. "fleshy feeling". XD For the bat and the hipumpkin, both keep their original inspirations too much, as in the bat keeps its bat ears and wings, when they couldve been displaced, transformed and deformed as well. Maybe the hipumkin wouldve been more disgusting (as in horrifying) if its melt was more shiny, to make it glue-y and sticky, maybe even adding gut in it to make it more like a living being/creature (?) would horrify me dfjjfksjkd And instead of keeping the wood on top of its head it would be displaced, add more of it even, maybe it could do like a net, or even legs, or moving roots moving like venom XD some of it could come out of the mouth as well to trap and bring catches to itself. The comment i mean to make overall is that I think you will improve if you go crazy!! References are amazing and needed to create monsters, but i think you would benefit a lot from straying apart from them. (while still retaining things so people do understand the (aah yes thats kinda like this animal)) Hope this was helpful and good luck have fun with your art!!

When you filled your whole monster in black and set it aside, I remembered that silhouettes are ALSO important in creating (well... AnYtHiNg). But especially when creating new shapes and designs out of thin air, silhouettes can be a great starting point :)

Subbed love this ❤ gonna check out your stuff more😊

I've only seen a cricket spider once, it was a decent size but I actually find it as a positive memory. It was so different from other bugs up here in the north east, like something you'd expect to find in a equatorial jungle right in the back yard.

Interesting designs

Interesting

I think, with making monsters it works best if you use something you're afraid of or a common fear that people have. The human aspect of a lot of monsters in media might come from the Uncany Vally. If anyone wants to I'd suggest watching BoroCG's video on what makes a good monster design. Also I really like your designs! :D

48 subscribers is a crime

Ruodrigo sussas

The designs are really neat, but your colors are what kills the creep factor. One reason the other monsters work is their muted colors; everything is grays and whites. When the creatures are fleshy, it's gory, mixed with blood and puss. The most colorful out of the mix of the Playground is the octopus, but again, the colors are subtle; light pink and fleshy colored. Just my two cents from one artist to another!

You just gotta be really creative, and also need a loooot of drugs.

Great video!