Revamp: Galactic Serpenth, 10/6/14

I personally have to say that I really do love this new Galactic Serpenth.

->

The hair on the new on is a HUGE improvement. Actually, most of it is a massive improvement, overall. I wouldn't say that the old version was fierce looking, either. I think the old one actually looks a little dopey compared to the new one. The tongue was too thick, throughout. The belly scales were shaded strangely, and in many places, you couldn't tell what the body was doing.

As for the eyes, you say they look more reptilian in the old? I say there is no one single eye-type for reptiles. Some have slits (most pit vipers), others have crosses (boa constrictor and their relatives), and a great many have rounded pupils (most colubrids, the Ball Python, both the Eastern and Western Hognoses).

I personally don't see the problem you're having with the nose, myself. However, as mentioned before, there are hog nosed snakes. I don't really think you could have been any more rude about that, honestly. :/ IF they went with a hognose, it would have been more like that of the Madagascar Spotted Hognose (Old world species of snake), with a slightly upturned nose.

I LOVE that this guy has his tongue positioned in the approx spot that the tongue slit would be in and not in the glottis this time ( ;o ; I'm so happy about this, you don't even know! Thank you for using my initial feedback!)

The dorsal (belly) scales look great, too, and I do think they work better in the silver color, though, if they and the tongue were swapped in color, you could literally call him a "silver tongued serpent"-- This can easily be done with a simple recolored overlay.

I will admit that the right wing does look a touch strange, and I think it has more to do with the Serpenth turning his body the further down we go, which does give a slightly broken wing appearance there.

Overall? THIS GUY IS SO AWESOME!!

To the artists (specifically whomever is working on the Serpenth), I will be as gentle as I can be with this.

I was looking on SubetaLodge for a new color for one of my many Serpenths (I kinda love snakes) when I spotted what I view as a pretty common anatomical flaw that people make with snake mouths in particular.

On the Blacklight and Spectrum Serpenths, the mouth hangs open giving us a great view of the inner workings of a snake's mouth. This poses a challenge for many artists due to the specialized organs that a snake has evolved to have, and our poor serpenth seems to have a case of Tongue in Glottis.

The glottis is basically an airway that allows a snake to breathe when they're eating. The tongue actually comes out of a slit slightly further down in the mouth, like so. I am not trying to come across as bitchy with this critique, as the art is wonderfully done. It is a major pet peeve and an anatomy flaw that I believe comes from simply being unaware of the workings of a snake's mouth. I am very glad that we have a pose showing the inside of the mouth, I just wish it were more correct, anatomy wise.

Thank you to the artists who do read this. Its just that the Serpenth is literally the only pet I enjoy here, so yeeeah... I'm going to give feedback on them. If the artist would ever want to talk to me about snakes, I could easily provide custom references from any of my 7. :)

I don't think that Chibi Pets are supposed to be baby versions of our Pets, they're simply in Chibi style with oversized heads etc.. :)

Ah. I always took the chibi pets to be baby-ish... but thats actually... worse. @- @; Like, the chubby could easily be ball python or blood python based, but then the head needs to scale up, too. -flail-

Wow, I totally see what you mean with the spectrum one. I didn't have a clue about that in snakes until I looked at your helpfully-provided image of a real snake's mouth and...oops. Yeah, the poor spectrum Serpenth can't breathe properly, right? :( It would be nice if this could be adjusted...and not have the staff just go "oh it's not based on real snakes, it's a Serpenth, they're not supposed to be able to breathe." or something.

Thank you. As I said in my post, the Glottis is an air passage that helps the snake (which, we know Serpenth is DEFINITELY based on) to breathe when they're eating. I feel that if you're going to give them a glottis, lets not put the tongue in it, since the tongue definitely does not come out of the glottis. In fact, when the mouth is open, the tongue rarely, if ever, comes out. :X But I won't get into that.

Idk what precedent this sets if staff fixes the serpenth's tongue. I mean will we see threads about every anatomical error on pets then because I'm sure we all have our particular pet favorites? ;l I don't want to dismiss your feedback at all, it's just something to think about. (aw poor serpenth can't breathe ;O; I did not know that about snakes, thanks for the random fact of the day for me.)

Nearly all chibis have huge heads. If anything, I'm bothered by "Chibi=Baby" analogy.

Recent examples. The Serpenth's bigger head and all of this confirms that it is the stylistic choice made my staff, to have the heads disproportionate because....it's chibi style!

I know in the past anatomical errors were fixed, and either way, I figure its a great resource for the artist so they can not make that mistake again.

Honestly, I see them and think babies. Sorry, not sorry. If they're meant to have "big heads" then the Serpenth's head should go up in size, rather than being the same exact size as the neck. That doesn't happen in snakes. The neck is (aside from severely overweight) smaller than the head.

Because of user feedback? Welp, nevermind then. c:

Fairly sure. May have been a LONG time ago, but... Still. n. n As I said, if its changed, wonderful, if not, then its still something that the artist can have in mind if she tries to do an open mouth snake again. I view the change as a best case scenario, but if it makes the artist more aware of the anatomy of these awesome animals, thats good too. :)

I am always a bit bothered when users expect the make believe Subeta species to have the exact anatomy of the real world animals that they are modeled after.

There is nothing wrong with these in their current state in my opinion. You are being nitpicky

Except if you're going to give an animal a glottis, you don't put a tongue in it. Thanks, Jessyta, but that is your opinion.

Honestly, I agree that things like that should be taken into consideration a lot more. Before I would have been all for staff just excusing anatomical errors by making them a constant in pets and making them different, but after reading the Subetapedia entries on the pets, it's pretty clear that most pets that look like irl Earth pets are meant to be based as closely to actual animals and based off of actual characteristic and anatomical certainties. I think the problem with the OP, though, is that it gives actual constructive critisicm on one pet, but then transfers to a complaint because it seems like you don't fully grasp the concept of Chibi pets, so you're asking them to change it because you don't like it rather than there being something wrong so then your first comments become discredited as well. But yeah, I agree that anatomy should be cloesly looked at at least for the Subetapedia entries. Maybe there's a reason that it's like that, idk, but I do feel it should be explained because honestly something better might come from it if there was a fun and logical-ish explaination for things like why Cadogres have inconsistent necks or Felis have quadruple jointed hind legs. :P

You're right in that I don't quite understand chibi pets, and after I was told that they're meant to have big heads, I suggested that the chibi might need a slightly larger head since it isn't quite... right. If thats exactly what they meant it to be, though... well, I can't say that I particularly like it, but whatever.

As for the Spectrum/Blacklight, any self-respecting herpetologist would realize that that is a glottis... which is not where tongues come from.

I agree with the tongue, most certainly. But I 100% don't agree with the chibi. Because it's not a baby. Chibi comes from the Japanese word that basically means small/little/miniature/tiny/runt/what it means exactly I don't know but those are all various meanings I have found that tend to mean the same thing. In art, it's simply a miniature version of a character, but not as a baby. A quick Google image search directed me to this nice example. Those are not baby versions, simply a stylized, small version of them.

And as I stated several times, if its supposed to be "big-headed" or "mini", then its still not quite... right. However, looking at many of the other Chibi pets, they're all very baby-like, so that IS an honest mistake, which I have responded to many many times here.

Even so, the head is still of the wrong size for the body, as in snakes the head is not the same size, unless they mean for the Serpenth to be worm-like rather than snakelike? (Which, from what I can tell in all other arts, is not the case)

The head, for that body, would actually need to be larger.

Not all chibi's do the big head thing, but instead go for a very 'squishy' appearance. So yes, it's still in line for how chibi's are done. The main thing about chibi's is that they are stylized small versions of themselves.

I really don't think its a matter of, "This is a chibi, so anatomy doesn't exist."

I have art done of snakes in a chibi style... and they still retain a snake-like appearance. As I said, the current chibi serpenth doesn't look like a snake, but rather more like an inch worm/caterpillar with wings and a mane. Its an easy fix, really, simply by making the head slightly larger.

Image to illustrate a chubby snake that shows the head to neck ratio, Another chibi snake.

Or it could simply be the unnatural pose. idk. >> Something seems wrong with it.

Anatomy exists, it's simply a differ kind of anatomy, done in a certain style. It's not meant to win any awards for realism. Yes, the stylized version IS very similar to a caterpillar. But, being a chibi, doesn't necessarily make it incorrect. Those are not chibi snakes. You are still thinking of chibi=baby. Which is wrong. Stop arguing something you don't seem to grasp. Chibi Snake riding a chibi snake (or dragon) Snake Snake Snake Snake Don't look up an actual image of a snake, or something meant to be more realistic, and call it chibi. That is not how it works. This is not a real snake. Trying to force it to be more realistic in every aspect is wrong. Yes, the mouth is a great point. No, your idea of chibi is not.

Quote by Tarawr

On the Blacklight and Spectrum Serpenths, the mouth hangs open giving us a great view of the inner workings of a snake&;s mouth. This poses a challenge for many artists due to the specialized organs that a snake has evolved to have, and our poor serpenth seems to have a case of Tongue in Glottis.</p>
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<p>The glottis is basically an airway that allows a snake to breathe when they&;re eating. The tongue actually comes out of a slit slightly further down in the mouth, like so.
I am not trying to come across as bitchy with this critique, as the art is wonderfully done. It is a major pet peeve and an anatomy flaw that I believe comes from simply being unaware of the workings of a snake&;s mouth. I am very glad that we have a pose showing the inside of the mouth, I just wish it were more correct, anatomy wise.</p>
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Details from real anymals could make fable-anymals more believeble and interesting. That's my opinion.