Kranion – The Sci-Fi Parasite
Kranion channels the unsettling energy of classic science-fiction parasites — equal parts facehugger, headcrab, and baneling.
Created by Leo Blanchette, this rigged alien creature comes in three fully realized variants:
- Drone – a base crawler for swarm or ambush scenes.
- Soldier – armored with facial plating and defensive spines.
- Plague Spreader – featuring translucent poison sacs for grotesque attack animations.
Each version shares the same core topology, armature, and texture workflow, allowing creators to swap or hybridize designs effortlessly inside Blender or Unity.
Technical Overview
- Formats: Blender 2.90 (.blend), FBX, OBJ
- Polygons: 1,362
- Vertices: 1,448
- UVs: Overlapping unwrapped UV layout
- Textures: 4096×4096 color, normal, and roughness maps
- Rigged & animated (Unity-ready)
- Game ready for Unity, Unreal, and Blender
- Rendered in Cycles
- Includes showcase backdrop
Texturing and Workflow
All textures were authored in Substance Painter, with separate PBR maps for albedo, normals, and roughness.
The material setup replicates organic wetness and parasitic translucency through subsurface scattering and micro-specular detail, allowing light to roll naturally across the creature’s shell and membranes.
The armature system is dual-layered — “Armature 1” drives subordinate rigs through constraints, enabling synchronized multi-rig animation. The included Blender file keeps this modular for independent export.
Use Cases
Kranion is ideal for:
- Real-time strategy or horror shooters where parasitic aliens play swarm roles.
- VR/AR simulation scenes requiring responsive, low-poly assets.
- Cinematic renders that need grotesque, animated creatures with believable wet shaders.
The three included variants give flexibility for enemy tiers or infection mechanics in gameplay.
