The feel of toothless here is so unique. The shark like ridges to reduce drag is such a smart idea. Personally I think the live action redesign could have benefit from concepts like that. Real life elements and adaptations might have aided in grounding the dragons in realism and helped them fit in next to the actors.
All the dragons from the HTTYD stream. Detailed images below.
The designs from the original movie are basically perfect, which is why I didn't really dare to touch them... until a certain trailer dropped recently.
I'm a spiteful creature.
Anyway. Some ground rules. I tried to make these creatures overall a little bit more realistic and grounded without robbing them of the inherent whimsy that the originals had. All of them are tetrapods, so only 4 limbs max.
Nightfury
These guys have no more functional limbs to move on the ground. They are living stealth bombers. Silent fast fliers.
On the ground they flop around similar to seals, forming small colonies on top of tall cliffs.
Red Death
At a certain size it becomes unfeasible to fly for even a dragon. The Red Death stays on the ground using it's heavy armor and enormous size when raiding other dragon nesting colonies. it'as wings are more like spurs, to injure rivals in combat.
Gronkle
The original had a hummingbird style in flying , something that doesn't work for an animal of this size. My compromise is to make the wings rather stout and being able to be folded a lot.
Nadder
Easiest design, take a unfeathered theropod and combine it with a bearded dragon.
Shellfire
This was the last one I made on stream, it is one of the (in my eyes) worst designs from the shows, so a nice challenge to make it work a little better.
This guy is now a filter feeder, using its large horns to funnel water into its mouth.
Zippleback
Multi-headed dragons are really tricky. In my design I made one of the heads a parasitic male, similar to angler fish, that hitches a ride on the back of the larger female.
Monstrous Nightmare
One of the most classic dragons from the original movie. Lots of crocodilian influence here. The osteoderms on its back have pores from which it produces flammable secretions.
Razorwhip
A fast an agile dragon, but the original doesn't really show that in the head shape and all these spines don't help. I put some tapejarid influence into it.
Rumblehorn
The massive neck of this dragon doesn't work well in terms of aerodynamics, unless it's an inflatable display structure ;)
Whispering Death
The giant maw of this dragon is an even greater challenge, but when you give it the gular pouch of a pelican eel and turn these eyes into eye-spots, it works quite well.
And of course the Terrible Terror!
As you can see it's in my case a close relative of the nadder.
A very alien looking landscape.
Lesly Derksen
These little dudes are not only chillin' but also warming themselves in heated cubbies to help them beat a fungal infection!!
Photo from the article in Science.
Research abstract: Nature
beautiful expressions!!!
MILES! + some old spideys from 2019 | patreon