World Building Day 4 HW

The name of this world is Nyami. It is 90% water and 10% ice. Algae and shrimp like creatures is a main source of food for much of the sea life. The larger creatures that live on the ice are mammals that are somewhat amphibian for how much they live in the water too. That is their main source of food, the fish of the sea. The fish eat the organisms, the land animals eat the fish and the organisms eat the animal waste and photosynthesize. Since the planet is mainly ocean, seaweed, plankton, and algae create most of the oxygen and keep the oceans clean. Due to the abundance of these creatures and plant life the ocean from a far look swirled with vibrant blues and greens. With out much other vegetation the entire planet is basically only blue, white, green and grey on the surface, but underneath there are creatures of all colors that match the coral and other species of life under the sea. Yet for this project we are going to focus on the above the sea life, where there are large mammals that live much of their life on the glacial ice. Because the ice is mainly white with hints of blues and grays and a hint of green all of the creatures above match this color scheme.

The humanoid creatures of this world resemble people, but much smaller. Their limbs are shorter, smaller hand and feet that have more thickness, much like blubber on a seal. They also have smaller eyes to help prevent snow blindness from the sun hitting the snow and overall do not have very good sight. Their sense of smell and hearing far exceed that on humans on earth and their ability to withstand the cold is greater. They are extremely pale, almost white like the snow for their veins are further down in their skin to help retain heat. They will also wear the fur and skin of their kills for camouflage for hunting and for protection. They are hairier, almost appearing to have fur, and their hair colors range from pure white to a dark grey. Since they live in a glacial environment they burn the oils of their kills to keep a large bonfire in the middle of their village. This gives them light, heat, a way to cook and dry meat and protection against predators.

World Building Day 4

How intelligent are animals?

Scientifically we have no idea how smart anything is. In science, can you prove something and can someone else run that test and get the same result. Science does not know if animals communicate. We can believe that they do, but there is no proven results. Energetics - do you consume more energy than you use. If you do than you are alive and if you don't you are dead. I've got to eat something that will give me more energy that it took to catch it. It needs to be small enough to not hurt me when catching it and be easily digestible. An alligator will eat a turtle once or twice a week because it is cold blooded, it gets its heat from the environment. Warm blooded animals have to eat a lot more to maintain their body heat.

There is no one at the top. Everyone can take down someone. How much energy will they spend to get their meal? Bears in the forest do not eat all of the salmon that they catch. They do not eat all of the salmon, they eat the middle of it and throw off the rest of the salmon into the forest which fertilizes the soil. Bears have few young where as salmon have thousands.

A polar bear's sense of smell is acute, its the most important sense for detecting prey on land. A polar bear can smell a seal from over a km away. Hag fish are eel shaped marine animas that release goo to catch their prey, hoping it will get stuck. The pistol shrimp can snap its claws to create a sound that will result in a bang that is louder than a jet engine and hotter than the sun. Vampire bats have an anti-coagulant in its saliva so that it can drink the prey's blood till full.

Predators hone in on a specific prey. Lions do not hunt a herd of Zebras, they pick a specific one. Until a lion knocks a zebra down, the Zebra has all of the advantages. Jellyfish just float, thats why they have tentacles to catch food. When categorizing toxicity, we measure based on if it is toxic to us. All spiders are poisonous to someone, just a few can effect us. Seals generally hunt on their back because the surface of the water is light, thus it is easy to see when a fish swims by. Great grey owls hunt in the snow and it must be able to hear a mouse walking under the snow. Its face is designed to amplify tiny sounds, enough to measure accurately where the mouse is. Their ears are also offset which allows them 3 dimensional hearing, thus being able to exactly pin point a sound.

Consider that creatures may have had to adapt. Whales evolved from land mammals, same with seals, where as frogs were water animals that evolved to be on land. For larger creatures, you need to know how fast you need to move and how much your bones can handle.

Humans in colder environments would have shorter appendages so as to not lose as much heat. Blood vessels would be deeper, thus paler with less color on the surface. Eskimos have additional fat on the palms of their hands and bottoms of their feet that keep them warmer when standing on the ice.





Stuff Due:

Planet Skin and Panorama - put in a google folder then share it with Howard. Have name on file gretchenlefflerskin.png / When you send him the email put 'World Building' in the subject line
Extra Credit: description with idea of life forms: record it and make it a wav file (no more than 90 sec) include in google doc folder

Panorama - Make the pixel hight higher, hight being 8 times the hight of the width and keep the sky transparent and see the lifeforms on the planet. A life form with some unique properties.

World Building Day 3 HW

My World: Nyami

Nyami is a world that is made up of 90% oceans and 10% glacial caps on the 2 polar ends of the world. Algae and shrimp like creatures is a main source of food for much of the sea life. The larger creatures that live on the ice are mammals that are somewhat amphibian for how much they live in the water too. That is their main source of food, the fish of the sea. The fish eat the organisms, the land animals eat the fish and the organisms eat the animal waste and photosynthesize. Since the planet is mainly ocean, seaweed, plankton, and algae create most of the oxygen and keep the oceans clean. Due to the abundance of these creatures and plant life the ocean from a far look swirled with vibrant blues and greens. With out much other vegetation the entire planet is basically only blue, white, green and grey on the surface, but underneath there are creatures of all colors that match the coral and other species of life under the sea. Yet for this project we are going to focus on the above the sea life, where there are large mammals that live much of their life on the glacial ice. Because the ice is mainly white with hints of blues and grays and maybe a hint of green all of the creatures above match this color scheme. I feel that the main inspiration for these creatures from our world would drive from polar bears, penguins, arctic foxes, and seals.

World Building Day 3

Creating Carbon Based Lifeforms

Everything in design has a function to serve. In terms of a coconut, it is grown up high in a tree and must survive a fall to the ground. It must also float or travel to get to other places. It is a primitive sailing craft to be able to get to other islands/areas. The salt and water will become acidic which will eventually crack open the coconut along the seam to open up and plant a seed. Once the shell opens up, it becomes compostable which gives nutrient to the seed as well as catch dirt which will allow for the sed to grow. In nature you need to be able to serve multiple functions in order to survive.

Cultures are place based. Think about this location, those are the resources that the culture will have. Who's going to be in my landscape that could become a motif? What are the colors, you cannot make colors that do not exist. Some one gets to eat, someone gets eaten. Overall ecosystems are corporative. Birds will eat fish from the top of the ocean, fish eat organisms at the top of the ocean, and organisms need nutrients that the birds defecate. Everything has to stay in balance.

Biotic which is the living source and the abiotic is the nonliving (water source). Deserts have little biology due to the harshness of the environment where as green forests tend to have abundant life due to the resources available in that environment. How is the predator and who is the prey? How fast do things adapt depends on their reproductive cycle. What kind of plant is the primary energy, who's going to eat it, who's going to eat them, who;s going to die and become food for the organisms?

You are going to design a nitch in your planet. You will zero in on one area of the eco-system. What is the primary creature in that ecosystem and what are the sub species that help that organism? Think about this area being in balance.

World Building Day 2

What kind of world I would like to build

World 1: Aquarious

Similar to earth, but with the planet being 95% water

Resulting species are all marine or amphibian, maybe with one race being land dwelling

They would resemble humanoid-marine life

Not really mermaids, but they could build a similar society to that of legends of Atlantis if they are not primative

Perhaps there are different tribes that resemble different marine life, they live in different climates

For the land dwellers they could resemble Polar Bears or Penguins in the arctic areas, since they would rely on marine life for food

In warmer climates, I feel that they would likely be amphibian, similar to a frog or possibly Bird like to fish

diversity of eco systems - not a lot of - yet 5% is interesting - di-conomy of 2 different worlds

Life could be created undersea, there is a whole range of lifeforms there, but there needs to be challenges in environments
       - Arctic zones - Could have a land race, penguin, seal, polar bear like creatures
       - Swamp, marsh - part of the kind of land, lots of mud and plant life, but still mainly water/ this could contain amphibian like creatures and aquatic creatures
       - Ocean zones - main, average aquatic zones
       - Deep ocean zone - pitch black and deep - resulting in blind creatures who will most likely be primitive and use light as

Tilt = Seasons = angle equals the extremeness of seasons

Swamps and wetlands - needs water and a way to drain, some sort of drying

Large moon = interesting tides

My World Texture - Description

Offset in Photoshop - filter, other, offset (mess with the pixels - 8,952 > 4,096) (1:8) (480)

Planet that is 90% water with the only land being the frozen icecaps on the polar ends. The creatures that live in this world are mostly aquatic, but on the Arctic caps there are mammals that thrive in cold weather and fishing. The animals that live on the ice caps would resemble polar bears, seals, walrus, foxes and penguins. The primary plant life would be seaweed and plants that grow within the ocean. There would likely be a large fish population that feeds on the micro organisms that photosynthesize near the top of the water, the land animals would then feed mostly on fish and the smaller land creatures, and when the creatures defecate or die they would become a nutrient for the micro organisms. The land creatures would be more evolved to be able to have cultures of their own that would likely resemble northern eskimo tribes, but they would have thick fur and blubber to be able to survive the freezing climates.

Water life and larger animals on the land. Krill live on the under side of the ice, there are organisms that live within the ice. Krill and plankton will be the main oxygen and organism life source. The blooms of this will show the population of the shrimp - red or green - can see from space. Birds and penguins are south pole and polar bears at the top. Core can = heat with volcanic vents. There needs to be energy captures, krill and plankton taking sunlight for photosynthesis. Society can take place underwater, but for the panorama must be on the ice.