I do like the plant idea, Jojon! It's a fresh idea, and it looks great too.
The more controlled restructuring of the tornado works as well, although considering the fact that these lanterns would go (I'm assuming) in the jungle a wilder look as in ABguy's design would certainly be possible as well.
But I
really like the plant idea. Now, the only thing that I would change about your lantern, Jojon, would be the overall shape; it reminds me of the shape of a modern, streamlined streetlight with the simple cylindrical base and the conical cap over the tornado. Looking at other garden lantern designs as the standard, it would seem that a garden lantern's shape ought be decorative first and functional second. The textures you used definitely made the lantern feel more decorative and old-fashioned, yet the shape felt modern, somehow...Did anyone else feel that, or is it just me?
I also threw together a quicky model of ABguy's design for us to take a look at in 3D; it's still pretty rough, as you can see (no sense in spending a lot of time on it in case we end up using a different design).
- Show Spoiler
I think it's great that we are brainstorming and improving our ideas; the tough part will be in narrowing our choices down to just two lantern designs!
A plant with tiny leaves that have a very interesting shape might be a good choice.
Just one note on using tiny leaves...You might have noticed in Uru how there is an outline around leaves, for example those in Negilahn? This outline is apparently unavoidable for our particular graphics engine situation, and while it isn't so noticeable with larger pieces of vegetation, it will stick out more and more if thin, tiny, or finely separated leaves are used. Just a heads up, something to keep in mind.