Alex Ries is a concept artist from Melbourne, Australia. He did not work for Unknown Worlds Entertainment during the development of the first Subnautica, but was employed after commenters on his DeviantArt page said that his art looked like it would fit in Subnautica. After contacting Unknown Worlds Entertainment he was hired to work on the game in the role of creature design. He made a majority of the designs for the creatures in Below Zero.
Notable among Alex Ries' art is his fictional species of alien creatures; the Birrin as well as detailed descriptions of their planet and the local fauna.
Alex is also keen on paleo-art and natural history, artwork of this type can be found here.
Alex confirmed on Twitter that he has returned to work on Subnautica 2[1].
Trivia[]
- Alex has been interviewed about his work on Below Zero by YouTubers on multiple occasions.
- YouTuber 1 Up Nerdcore interviewed Alex over general details about his work on the game, and his life. The interview can be found here.
- YouTuber Curious Archive interviewed Alex, specifically over many of the creature designs that were ultimately scrapped from the game. This interview can be found here.
- Early screenshots that were revealed for Subnautica 2 feature creatures with designs that are reminiscent of Alex's style and designs, suggesting he's already begun work on concept art for the game.
Artwork[]
.jpg "Penguingo (BZ).jpg (321 KB)")
Pengwing (Final design)
.png "AlexRies-PenguinFoot (BZ).png (1.6 MB)")
"Alien Penguin Foot Detail"
Pengling variants
.png "AlexRies-PenguinVariants (BZ).png (1.53 MB)")
"Alien Penguin Variants"
.jpg "Alien Penguin B (BZ).jpg (72 KB)")
"Alien Penguin"
Early "Alien Penguin"
Early "Alien Penguin"
.jpg "SquidShark 06 (BZ).jpg (150 KB)")
Squidshark 06 (Final)
Squidshark (Early)
.jpg "EarlySquidshark (BZ).jpg (147 KB)")
Squidshark design (Early)
.png "Brute Shark (BZ).png (2.11 MB)")
Early Bruteshark
.png "Alex titanholefishsymbiote3B (BZ).png (2.03 MB)")
"Titan Holefish Symbiote 3" (Final design)
Unknown Fauna
.png "Alex seal01B (BZ).png (2.25 MB)")
Pinnicarid close-up
.png "PinnicaridBody (BZ).png (1.93 MB)")
"Pinnicarid Info Sheet" (Final design)
.jpg "Pinnicarid-Alex Ries (BZ).jpg (152 KB)")
"Pinnicarid"
.png "Alex sealVARIANTS02 (BZ).png (1.63 MB)")
Color variants of Pinnicarid C
.jpg "EarlyPinnicarid (BZ).jpg (143 KB)")
Early Pinnicarid sketch
Later Pinnicarid sketch
Final Snowstalker
Early Snowstalker
Snowstalker A
Snowstalker C
A later Snowstalker design
Ice Peeper final design
Unused variants #1
Unused variants #2
Unused variants #3
Unused variants #4
Earlier Ice Peeper design
Final concept art
Initial design, prior to being elevated to Leviathan status
Mouth details
Early design for the Void Chelicerate
Ventgarden concept art
Ventgarden Body Details
Ventgarden Interior Biosphere
Ventgarden "Central Plant" Details
Ventgarden Apical Organ
Ventgarden Foot Details
Early Ventgarden Sketch
Shadow Leviathan final concept
Front view
Near-final concept
Earlier version of final
Earlier version
Alternate mouth designs
Intermediary design
Ditto, mouth open
Scrapped alternate design choice
Head shots of scrapped design
Ditto
Older concept
Early sketches
Early sketches
First Shadow Leviathan concept
Ice Worm final design head-shot
Final body design
Ice Worm final head variants
Earlier Ice Worm design
Earlier still
Ice Dragon 13A
Ice Dragon A
Ice Dragon 11A
Frontal art of the Ice Dragon
Ice Dragon eye concept
Attack concepts
Alternate attack concepts
Ice Dragon early sketch
.jpg "Grabsquid (BZ).jpg (126 KB)")
"Pygmy Crabsquid" (unused)
Earlier Sea Monkey head design
.jpg "Cheeky Creature 1 (BZ).jpg (112 KB)")
"Cheeky Creature Variants" #1 (unused)
.jpg "Cheeky Creature 2 (BZ).jpg (179 KB)")
"Cheeky Creature Variants" #2 (unused)
"Triops"
Triops variants
Trivavle variants
"Globefish" (Adapted into Trivalve)
"Small fish 6" (Unused)
"Small fish 7" (Unused)
Final Discus concept art
Discus alternate designs
Brinewing infosheet
Brinewing details
"Small Fish 4" (Partially unused)
Cryptosuchus final concept
Crypotsuchus alternate designs
"Predators" (partially unused)
"Bulldog Trapjaw" (unused)
Bulldog Trapjaw mouth details
Arrow Ray variants
Several small fauna species (unused)
"Rainbow Fish 2"
Rainbow Bug (unused)
Alternate design for the Kitewing
Kitewing behavior
Alternate Kitewing behavior
"Subnautica Small Fish 3" (unused)
.jpg "Crested ReaperAlex (BZ).jpg (292 KB)")
"Crested Reaper" (unused)
.jpg "Shard 01 (BZ).jpg (191 KB)")
"Shard 01" (unused)
"Ice Breaker" (unused)
"Thalassacean" (unused)
"Shardrunner" (unused)
"Lightspinner" (unused)
"Electrogami" (unused)
"Shockstar" (unused)
Predators A (unused)
"Painted Jellywing" (unused)
"Predators Various" (unused)
"Small fish 02" (unused)
"Ascender Worm" (unused)
"Gardener Eel" (unused)
"Ventspider" (unused)
"Sand Spear" (unused)
References[]
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