Four thousand creatures, each walking through a world of its own.
Every frame is rendered in 3D by a renderer written from scratch, then counted down into real pixels. 128 by 128, 32 frames, a loop that never stops.
Fifteen one of ones
Drawn by hand as single pieces. Their colours, their sky and the thing on their head appear nowhere else in the four thousand.
Ten worlds
Five studies
The renderer with the colour taken away. Each one gets fewer shades than it needs, so the form has to carry it.
How a ZUGH is made
No AI and no stock parts. Each character is a shape described in code, lit in 3D and then cut into a handful of hand built colours, one pixel at a time.
DepthThe raytracer finds the shape.
SurfaceEvery pixel knows which way it faces.
RampThe light is cut into a few shades, never blurred.
FrameColour, sky and outline land. Then it walks.
One rule holds it together: a planted foot never slides. The ground moves one pixel per frame, so the foot moves back exactly one pixel per frame, and the build checks it.
The collection
4,000 ZUGHS and no two alike. Ten heads, ten hats, ten kinds of eyes, twenty skies and a palette drawn for each one.