Ökenlira - Project Veldtline

June 26 2025

Welcome to Project Veldtline! A massive collaborative art project currently involving 35 artists, all working together to build a game level set in a fantasy Scandinavian canal city with 1800s aesthetics and Turkish influences. The goal is to provide each member with production-style experience and a strong portfolio piece.

I’ve joined the project as the Lead Creature Artist, working from the prompt “a herbivore.” From this, I’ve begun designing what I’m currently calling The Veldtline Camel (name still in progress).

I'm also stepping in as a Producer for the project, overseeing all organizational aspects- including managing the Miro board, Notion workspace, and Discord server.

Ideation - June 17

The initial prompt was "a herbivore that could attack", I decided to narrow this down to something that could be functional within this society such as; a cow, mule, horse, ox, camel, or goat.

I liked the idea of the eyes being connected to a larger structure, but wanted to move away from the deer look. After seeing some incredible 3D concepts from another artist on this project Tristan Lacuseta I decided to shift gears and start concepting this creature in 3D instead.

01 - June 22

Our first proper concept pass. For this I decided to combine 3 key creatures. The camel, the Parasaurolophus, and the Southern Ground Hornbill. My idea is to combine the trumpet head type function of the Parasuarolophus with the neck sacks of the Hornbill, to create a musical creature functioning similar to that of a bagpipe. After chatting with the director of this project, we are also imagining that this horn function can be used in the world to make instruments for the characters.

Paired with the body of a camel, that has been bred to best hold a saddle (which I am very excited to get to make some props for this fella!). I'm also trying to push that this came from a warm climate, but is evolving to adapt to a colder climate, using elk, goats, and cows as my inspiration.

02 - June 30

After my initial submission, my feedback notes were to add an extra eye.

We've changed up the shape a fair bit, as I wanted to push for something that felt more "elegant" looking. Leaning into the ram horn, we're getting more into the details and trying to make something that feels real while maintaining the magic.

03 - June 30

Digging into more of the details! I've added more holes along the horn with the idea that as this creature grows it's tune will change, and the sound can be changed manually by the creature or a human by shaving each of the notes down.

Also! We've officially came up with a name for this fella. Ökenlira, meaning "desert lyre” a Swedish-Turkish hybrid.

04 - July 4

The body is going to be covered in fur, so the face, horn, and neck are all gonna be the focus area for sculpting work. For this I've been trying to dissect how this horn instrument is going to practically work an how this creature is controlling it. After talking to the director of this project, he mentioned that the function I was trying to come up with was similar to the sent glands of the Muntjac deer.

05 - July 10

For this submission I wanted to ground this guy in more believable structure. So the focus was refining the horn, and figuring out the skull structure that can support the two eyes and the elongated nose. We're also making the camel humps more realistic.

06 - July 17

Refining shapes, pushing for realism.

07 - Aug 7

Lots of new things happening recently, so progress has been slow, but happy to have an update :)

08 - Aug 21

We've added another set of horns, as I was trying to think of how this fella would defend himself beyond just headbutting, along with giving some more solid structures for the ears to be attached to. Plus, I think it makes the silhouette more interesting. Beyond that, are secondary shapes are locked, so we're properly digging into some finer detail and pushing this fella forward.

To be continued...