HYBRID ANIMALS
 After completing spirit animal quizzes and self reflection, students create a self characteristic hybrid animal consisting of two or more animals.
Source images are collected and combined, with creative commons imagery, into one seamless composition that creates a sense of space and a brand new habitat for the animal to reside.

Formal and technical considerations...
hue (color), saturation, texture, shadow, brightness, light source, Dodge and Burn to change lighting! Depth, sense of space, scale of animal(s) near = large ...
far = small, layer modes, layer masks.

​I chose the bat and the gorilla because the bat represents a sense of grace
while also being cunning and the gorilla because of its strength, humble and gentleness. They both show my quality of grace, strength, humbleness and being gentle. To blend the two animals together I used the healing brush, the burn tool, the dodge tool, and the color mode of the paintbrush tool. This animal lives in rural, developed suburban areas mostly parks. It stays around areas that people are common to be found and will eat whatever food they leave behind. The most successful part of this picture was my ability to blend the two animals together in an almost seamless manner.

     I chose to combine an owl, a deer and a beaver into one animal. I chose each animal because  they represent different things. An owl represents darkness, such as magic and mystery. An owl can also be associated with the night time since they are nocturnal. The owl represents my love for night time. During the night is my favorite time of the day because throughout night time, anything can happen. In native tribes of North America, the deer represents a messenger, an animal of power, and also sensitivity, intuition and gentleness. The deer antlers represents myself being a female. Females are known to be sensitive and gentle. We are seen as the weaker gender, however if males had the chance to become a women for a day, they wouldn’t be able to handle everything we go through on a daily basis. Lastly, I added a beaver tail to my hybrid animal. I added part of a beaver because in Native American cultures the beaver represents wisdom. So by combining part of the beaver, the deer and the owl my animal symbolizes a little bit of everything. Each part outweighs the other. For example, the owl itself represents darkness so having part of a deer combined as well, together they represent that everyone has a little darkness in themselves it just depends how you use that darkness.
     Tools I used to blend the animals together were the burn tool, changing the opacity of certain objects, changing the hue/saturation.  
     The environment of my animal is just like same as a regular owl would live: the woods. I chose to stick to the basic environment because all three of the animals I used are able to survive in this.
     What I think is most successful about my animal is how real the antlers look on the owl. The brown color of the antlers goes along with the pattern the owl has. The browns match perfectly.

The name of my hybrid animal I’ve created is Liger. I’ve chosen a tiger and a lion to work with because they are very strong, smart and even some of them can be trained to be very friendly, they can be entertaining and much more.  A lion represents me by how they can be extremely entertaining like if you go to the zoo and there’s a lion in one of the exhibits, they can be very entertaining that will have a crowd of people watching them mainly the lions that are trained to perform.  The tiger I’ve chosen represents me with the strength of a tiger representing my passionate personality and a tough skin to represent me also. I’ve used a lot of the paint brush and changed the opacity to all certain levels to attempt the shadows on this to become most realistic as possible so that when you look at it, it gives dimension.  I’ve used the blur tool in some spots to make the fur be realistic, and actually look like fur. I’ve also changed the fur on the head to make it look younger than the original picture having darker fur all over, but I changed it to become lighter to make my hybrid animal look younger and I’ve also changed the background with the paint brush to give a certain time of day and I have blurred the background to make my hybrid animal pop out, and show that its the main center of attention in this creation.  This animal seems to live in the bland land type of area with woods and a ton of fields with tall grass type of environment. The shadowing, and fur of the dimension with this hybrid animal is the most successful piece in my opinion.

​My hybrid animal is a leopard and an owl. I put the lowl on the jungle because leopards can live in the jungle. The owl represents wisdom and the leopard represents strength. I love the way my project came out and how realistic it looks. I liked the experience of this project and figuring out what my spirit animals were. I thought that was very cool.I feel like a learned a lot on how to blend and darken and lighten my projects and make it look better. Overall I am very proud of my work with this project.
​

I have chosen to make a Maguar, which is a mixture of the body and face of a Jaguar and the wings of a Macaw. I have chosen these two animals for many different reasons and I have also chosen the background and also the 2 different animals for a specific reason. I have chosen the Jaguar because it represents a power to face a fear. I like to face certain fears, therefore I think the jaguars a perfect fit for me. Also, a Jaguar is somewhat fast, but also at the same time it is not the fastest which kind of compares to me. I have also chose the specific background of an exhibit at The San Francisco Zoo because it is 2 really rare animals that should be in zoo and taken special care of. I have also chosen the Sloth and the frog because that is the food that I would imagine a Maguar would eat if it were real. I chose the Macaw because it represents a directional guide. I personally think of myself as a good person who can lead each other in the right path. Also i know directions to and around a place very well.   

I chose to combine a panda and a turtle for my reflection partly because I got them as answers on the spirit animal quizzes, and partly because they do represent me as a person. Pandas represent a relaxed and laid back attitude, while turtles represent intelligence, which are both qualities that I associate myself with. In order to blend the animals I used the healing brush and spot healing brush to texture the turtle’s skin to look like panda fur. I also used the polygonal lasso tool to select and cut out panda paws which I turned into flippers, and used the healing brush to combine with the turtle’s body, as well as using the burn tool to add shadows to the flippers, and give the flippers in the background depth. I chose a coral reef with bamboo for the pandurtle to live in, because pandas are associated with bamboo and turtles with tropical oceanic environments. I had to use the dodge tool on the coral to brighten it and fit the bright background, and I used the color burn brush on the bamboo to tint it blue as if it was under water. I also added a shadow to the pandurtle by creating a black layer in the shape of the pandurtle, decreasing the opacity, and adding a blur. While parts of the panda and turtle could have been blended better, I think the head and the flippers were quite successful, and the shadow of the pandurtle helps to add a lot of depth to the image.

​The name for my hybrid animal is a Dolar Bear, which is a combination of a dalmation, and a polar bear. I chose the animals I worked with, because I have always liked polar bears since I was a kid, and I chose the dalmation, because the first dog I had was a dalmation. The dalmatian is important to me, because it was the first pet I really grew to love. I used the healing brush, burn tool, dodge tool, and the paintbrush tool. The environment this new animal lives in is a cold, snowy area. For example, Antarctica. I chose this area, because polar bears come from a cold climate, and since the body of my new animal was a polar bear, I decided to use the habitat of the polar bear for my new animal. The thing most successful about this piece is the print added to the polar bear’s body.

For my hybrid animal project, I chose to combine a lady bug and a dog (labrador retriever). Both have significant meanings in my life; since my birthday is a week before Halloween, my parents dressed me up as a lady bug, one week old, for my first holiday. My memere has always had a thing for ladybugs, and has called me her “Kylie Bug” ever since that first Halloween. It spread throughout my family, and has been my nickname throughout my life. For me, it was kind of a given that I would include a lady bug in this project as it is kind of a part of me now. The other animal, a lab, has a significance in my life as well. From the age of three, I’ve always had a lab as a pet; first I had a chocolate one, now I have a yellow labrador retriever. I am such a big dog person and believe that they really are a part of a family. Both of my dogs made, and continue to make, positive impacts on my life, so I chose to combine the puppy with my lady bug. I used the “lighten” layer mode in order to blend the red pattern on top of the dog fur. Then, I used the eraser tool, with softened edges, to create the black spots on the dog. My hybrid animal lives in a forest-like environment, specifically on leaves. Bones surround the environment to give the Lady Dog a source of food. The most successful part of the project was the animal itself. I feel the lady bug and the dog are combined realistically and look like they are one.

I chose a shark and a butterfly because the shark represents my love for the ocean.  My middle name is “Oceano” which is ocean in Portuguese. I am also an Aquarius. I feel somewhat connected to the ocean because of these reasons.  I chose the butterfly because my grandmother’s favorite animal was a butterfly and whenever I have a soccer game outside during warm weather I see a butterfly on the field.  It makes me happy knowing that my grandmother may be watching me do what I love most. I used dodge and burn across my entire project. I darken the areas where the two animals joined together.  I also used different kinds of brushes to create from scenery where the butterfly wings covered the water. The Monarch Shark lives mostly in the water since it still has gills however it can fly out of the water to catch birds, fish, etc.  It can fly only for a short amount of time. The most successful part of this piece was the color way, I feel like it makes the entire piece come together and it is easier on the eye.

I chose a bear because I can relate to them a lot in the sense that they are fat, hairy, and lazy. They love to sleep and eat fish, two things that I love to do. Bears are the animal that I feel I relate most to. I chose to incorporate moose antlers into in because there is something quite abstract about antlers. They can make anything look majestic, like my hair on good days.

I used smudge to make it look like the bear’s feet are in water. I used lasso tools and selection tools.

The antlered boose lives in a mountainous area full of rich forests and clear rivers full of salmon. The northern lights can be seen for almost 24 hours for majestic purposes.

I feel that the setting of the piece fits well with my animal.

The name for my hybrid animal is the Monarch Lion. It is a combination of a Monarch Butterfly and a Lion. I chose these animals because I’ve always loved butterflies and when I took the spirit animal quiz it told me that my spirit animal is a Lion. I am strong and courageous like a Lion and I am also peaceful and quiet like a Butterfly. I chose the grassy background because I wanted the Monarch Lions to seem small and bug-like. Most people are grossed out by bugs and Lions are a majestic animal so putting a lion in a wet grassy area goes against what you would expect. I made multiple lions because lions stay in groups called prides and they all have a job, doing this made it seem like more of an ecosystem. I added a mushroom to the picture originally there was only one. I also added shadows all over and centralized the light source to make the flying lion the point your eyes draw to. I feel that this was the most successful part of the piece.

It is pretty self-explanatory: a deerdog is a cross between a deer and a dog. I decided to work with a deer because antlers simply look cool on anything and they are very elegant creatures. They were a very appealing choice for me. Deers represent me because they are both delicate and passive. I also decided to work with a dog because I just really like dogs. They are very friendly and fun. They represent me because I enjoy spending time with people, even when I have to go out of my way to, and I’m sadder than I should be when my friends have to go.
    I used the blur tool a lot because it makes everything look realistic, as that was what I was going for. I also used the dodge and burn tool to create shadows and create very faint sun rays (similar to a lens flare but not a lens flare). I adjusted hardness regularly for those two tools. I also used the eraser tool, the transformations found in the edit settings (I used warp to narrow the snout), the sharpen tool (I used it especially on the dew drops dripping off the leaves), and lastly I played around with the blend modes and the opacity of layers to blend the deer texture onto the dog fur.
    My deerdog lives in wooded environments because both deers and dogs like forests. I wanted to portray a calm mood (I just have a feeling that deerdogs would be gentle creatures) so I only added luscious evergreen leaves on the side to keep it simple. I also made the dew drops stand out more than the leaves because that way it seems like it’s morning. The blurry trees in the background and the bits of sunlight going through add to the tranquility of the environment.
    The most successful thing was how I changed the original dog. At first, it had a much broader face and thicker fur. Using photoshop, I morphed it to resemble more like a deer. I also like how green the background is. It contrasts nicely to the color of the deerdog’s fur. However, I do regret removing the ears. I didn’t have time to add them back, and I lack the knowledge of how to do it efficiently anyway.