Mushroom Forest

As I was looking at overgrown plants and forests I began to think about the trees themselves. I didn't want them to be normal like the ones we always see, I wanted them to be something different. I started to look at different types of mushrooms and they are like miniature trees, so why not have them tree sized? maybe even bigger. The idea of a mushroom forest has been done before, however I don't want them to be the basic shape that seems to occur everywhere. By looking in depth into the types of mushroom and their attributes I will be able to find a suitable one to my liking. I quickly drew out some different species of mushrooms and already there are a few intricate and unusual shapes.

Amanita Jacksonii - this is quite the average mushroom shape, but what drew me to this however was the way it emerges. It's almost as if it is breaking out of it's shell like a baby bird would do. I like the idea of having these within my environment to show the different stages of the mushroom growth. To me it looks quite alien anyway and would very well suit an alien planet.

Like I said, I was also looking at the specific attributes to mushrooms and I came across one that was nicknamed 'Destorying Angel'. This mushroom as the name suggests is quite serious, it has toxic attributes and if ingested the result is severe illness and sometimes even death. We may only be building an environment for our game level, however there still needs to be a back story that goes alongside it. A possible idea could be that the ship crash landed on this planet due to some mechanical fault on the ship, the planet itself seemed quite deserted and to try and survive the pilot ate some smaller mushrooms (maybe even the fruit the mushroom trees give off), however little did he realise they were poisonous.

Obviously the more complex design of the mushroom looks more visually appealing and interesting, however I think it would be too hard to texture when it comes to it. I will have to bear this in mind when it comes to designing the final mushroom tree; I want something that I will be able to achieve yet will appeal to the audience.