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2D Community Noob Challenge October 2013 (1)

Vysuki
polycounter lvl 9
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Vysuki polycounter lvl 9
Welcome to the 2D Noob challenge!

This thread is for those of you who wish to improve your skills in concepting / 2D in general.

This will start as a once every 2 weeks challenge and on the beginning of each new challenge I will post two entries, the most creative idea and the best technical. This is subject to change depending on feedback from you guys and gals on what you feel is an appropriate time slot.

Add Vysuki on Skype and I can add you to the 2D challenge group chat on there.

The Challenge!

We're starting off simple to begin with, concepting a melee weapon as this doesn't have to use perspective.

Rules:

  • Starts the 1st of October and ends on 15th of October.
  • It can be sci-fi, fantasy, whatever you feel like going with.
  • It has to be a melee weapon useable by a human size character.
  • It can use magic (for example, you could have it on fire) and it can also use chains or be extendable if you wish.
  • It needs to be finished as digital but your starting / designing steps can be traditional.
The reason for this is traditional is harder for answering questions as workflows for different media vary and it would be difficult to learn together.

It would be preferred if you can show your initial idea generations and post any development pics.

FAQ:

Q: But I've Never Drawn in my life!

A: Well now is as good a time as ever to start. If you don't usually draw or haven't started then I would suggest [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgDNDOKnArk"]this[/ame] video. It's 30 minutes long but gives you a bunch of practice work that is great for giving you that muscle memory and experience for drawing.

Q: Ok what should a weapon concept final look like and where do I learn painting in photoshop?

A: http://ctrlpaint.com/library/ Is a great place to learn digital painting for beginners.

Below is what we're hoping to aim for (from Art Of Ty's deviant art page)

endless_eclipse_weapons_by_artofty-d5ngt0k.jpg


Any other questions feel free to post them here or add and talk on skype.

Replies

  • riceart
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    riceart polycounter lvl 10
    this one looks promising and pretty easy
  • Calvin
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    Calvin polycounter lvl 10
    I think I'll give this a go, I've been meaning to practice 2d!
  •  Chris Bruin
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    Chris Bruin polycounter lvl 10
    I'm in for this, let's see how much time I can afford though...
  • bZero
    This is a brilliant idea and has inspired me to participate but I'm off on holiday soon, dam it.
  • SmilingMountain
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    SmilingMountain polycounter lvl 7
    Sounds, like fun, think I'll give this a go :)
  • AlexCatMasterSupreme
  • ANDEWEGET
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    ANDEWEGET polycounter lvl 6
    2D noob challenge creating concepts for next months 3D noob challenge? :D
  • FutureNoir
    Hey everyone!
    I'm a noob to this site and want to get it right. Do I post my progress on this thread? Thanks :)
  • riceart
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    riceart polycounter lvl 10
    ok, so i started first :), I sketched few fantasy swords and decided to paint on them. I went with a theme of Fire for a hand painted low poly models. Wow/torchlight/dota "style" i think ;P
    feniks/dragons/fire im no sure about colors, these are my personal preference red/green/orange. Feedback would be appreciated. At the end i would like to choose favorite one and push it as far as possible.
    ibchhd.png
    1zojkp4.png
    regards
  • Rokugan
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    Rokugan polycounter lvl 7
    Nice concepts riceart ^^ I really love the last one, I think with a rework of the blade you could really pull of something beautifull. Atm the blade is kinda uninteresting (I suggest also making the blade a little longer ^^ just my opinion tho)
  • AlexCatMasterSupreme
  • Vysuki
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    Vysuki polycounter lvl 9
    @Riceart: Great submissions, the line art shows you're thinking about form as you generate your ideas.

    I love the designs especially the oozing sword.

    For the fabric wrap round the bottom it feels like it's flat and not over lapping at all. The areas where the bottom lip of the fabric is overlapping the next section below you can use a slight highlight as its usually lifted away more than the rest of the fabric (can paint over if this explanation is bad).

    The blade on the oozing sword feels very thin as there isn't much of a gradient from the sides going inwards, was this an intentional part of the design maybe?

    The first sword looks neat and pretty clean. probably the best technical of the 4 (although close to the oozing sword as those bubbles are well done.

    The third sword feels like the blade should be longer from a design point but good job on the form of the of the center piece with the gem, the handle and that right eagle/crow/demon-ish thing.

    The last sword feels very classic fantasy especially the colour scheme, not too much to comment except it could look really good if cleaned up!

    Overall great job!
  • Vysuki
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    Vysuki polycounter lvl 9
    @AlexCatloverextreme:

    Hey it's great that you did! Never knock your first tries, everyone has them and they're the stepping stone to getting better!

    The fire effect has a great shape, if there were some more oranges and yellows it could feel hotter, at this resolution though the blade on the other side is looks like it's melting. (Perhaps this could be a great way to take the blade by creating a 2 element sword, ice one half, fire the other?)

    Without knowing what resolution you work on I'd suggest, from the picture, working at a high resolution so you can paint big forms without worrying too much on clarity.

    The form on the handle could be adjusted to read more round but good job the on the subtle lighting from the blade onto it though!
  • riceart
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    riceart polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks Vysuki, oozing is my favorite too :) I''ve read your comment after todays update but some of your points i find myself
    1. first sword, i changed color on wrapping cause some people from skype group was saying that green does not look good, im not sure about blue. This was my fist color before adjusting in gimp grrr. Im glad that you like it and i like it to but in my opinion it is solid without "wow" effect.
    2. second, bone/slime, my favorite one, cleaned blade a bit
    3. i removed fenix head, and i think that it looks better
    4. moved from adjusted colors to the orginaly painted and cleaned a bit

    im still having problems with color choice, studied Marks tutorial
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EL-ySlQIZY&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLzDE6rf7BxBIqHRgUJFR7vGouetkQM4dW"]Color Theory Tutorial - How to create a good color palette - YouTube[/ame]
    but still cant figure how this works, even his examples do not match explained method
    feel free to say what you think about it
    FkZU9Kp.gif?1
    14ec1o0.png
    @alex, think as if you would have to model this and what would you like to know about. At the moment im not sure how would i approach modeling this. Make it bigger and remove this flame effect cause at the moment it is less important.
    regards, and sorry for my lame english ;)
  • levigilbert
    riceart wrote: »
    ...
    Your color looks much better in the latest version. I am by no means an expert on color, but ive been trying to get better at it and this is some of the stuff i have picked up:

    First off your color choices look like theyre all complimentary color schemes; blue and orange, red green. I think this is why the first sword looked better after you changed the handle to blue instead of green. I dont know if this was intentional or not, as you move forward you should try for more intended things in your work.

    Play with other color schemes as well. analogous, split complimentary, triad, etc.

    Also remember that value is always going to be more important than color. value is what makes the piece read and work. I had trouble with this when i was first messing with color and it's still tricky.

    When i have some time this evening i'll make some examples of a bunch of stuff i think is important with color.

    Cheers!
  • Vysuki
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    Vysuki polycounter lvl 9
    The first I'd have to agree, the blue contrasts the orange/red hues more and makes the handle pop a bit more.

    The rework on blade 2 makes the form far more readable great job with that. It's a shame that some of the broken features have gone but I could see why you did that from a model creation and player aesthetics point of view.

    I love the trim down on sword 3. It gives the appearence that the blade is longer too along with its rework its great. If the colour scheme was blue / yellow I could see this as a wow-alliance type of weapon but it works ok as it is.

    The fourth is a nice improvement. With the clean up and the increased saturation on some of the colours it pulls it away from the old 80's-90's style fantasy painting weapons and definitely makes it look more fantasy game weapon.

    Question about the fourth, your vision for the balance weight at the end of the handle in a game, would it have a small glow with that yellow type stone?
  • JaySmitt
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    JaySmitt polycounter lvl 13
    Started with some quick silhouettes:tumblr_muaj6qW2kh1qiyx2io1_1280.png
    At the moment I'm feeling 3, 5 and 10 to progress further. I had no sort of design process in mind, pretty much just scribbled some lines and started to erase and re-paint sticking with whatever looked mildly interesting.
  • Rokugan
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    Rokugan polycounter lvl 7
    Given the fact that I'm kinda scared to partecipate cause there are some impressive works, I decided that learning is more important so here we go :D

    I started with some sketching and then added values, I will need to refine it a lot. I would be glad to get critiques to improve this.

    Sketch:
    4JRo0.jpg

    Blocked values over the sketch:
    4JQxo.jpg
  • Luka
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    Luka polycounter lvl 5
    nothing special from me (plus a shitty phone picture) but its a start.

    FUZ2ele.jpg

    im thinking of continuing the swordman and heavy
  • Rokugan
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    Rokugan polycounter lvl 7
    I'm very tempted to call it done ^^'

    4KKxJ.jpg
  • JamesArk
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    JamesArk polycounter lvl 10
    Bunch of very quick thumbnails for now, gonna work on it some more over this week.

    ptYOM1u.jpg
  • AlexCatMasterSupreme
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    AlexCatMasterSupreme interpolator
    JaySmitt wrote: »
    Started with some quick silhouettes:tumblr_muaj6qW2kh1qiyx2io1_1280.png
    At the moment I'm feeling 3, 5 and 10 to progress further. I had no sort of design process in mind, pretty much just scribbled some lines and started to erase and re-paint sticking with whatever looked mildly interesting.

    I like 13.
  • FutureNoir
    Hey!

    This is my design for the Melee weapon. I wanted a brutal and spiky weapon that could cause a lot of damage if hit by it. I went down the fantasy route and came up with this Skull Mace, made from Iron. I used the net for reference images and sketched the mace in Photoshop. Then I blocked in the colour and set up a shadow layer and a light layer. After that I added one last layer for small detail and then found some nice old Iron textures which I overlayed the object. Here is the final image...

    Hope you all like and any critique would be really grateful! Thanks :)
  • Rokugan
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    Rokugan polycounter lvl 7
    Hey Noir, nice concept you got there :) The only thing I could think of is that the mace could use a handle ^^' atm it looks kinda uncomfortable to wield.
  • FutureNoir
    Hey Rokugan! Thanks for the feedback I will go back and look at seeing if I can get a handle in there. I know what you mean though, I couldn't decide if it needed it or not :)
  • FutureNoir
    Ok, thanks to Rokugan's feedback I've modified the handle of the face so it wouldn't rip a warrior's fingers off ha! Thanks again Rokugan! :)
  • Rokugan
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    Rokugan polycounter lvl 7
    You are welcome! Now I can see that wielded with both hands, smashing some skulls >: D
  • AdamOstridge
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    AdamOstridge polycounter lvl 6
    Hey guys! I'm going to do a batch of swords from high sci-fi through to high fantasy. So far I've just started roughing out the silhouettes and started refining a couple but hopefully I'll have more worth showing shortly :D (Also need to work out some better designs for a couple and sharpen up the metals so they read a little better)

    dGa64OJ.jpg
  • AlexCatMasterSupreme
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    AlexCatMasterSupreme interpolator
    I really like those holy shit.
  • Maximiliaan
    Theres some nice desings going on here!
    Thought i would contribute, wanted to make a weapon for necrolyte from dota 2 anyway so might as well design it myself.

    Cardinals-sythe_zpsef4e6716.jpg

    critique much appriciated!
  • Fashoomp
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    Fashoomp polycounter lvl 10
    I'd really like to improve my drawing, so I'm going to start sketching concepts. I'd like to share a trick I learned in Photoshop to mirror draw.

    Start drawing a half of the weapon. Convert it into a smart object, then copy the layer and flip it. Line up the 2 halves so it mirrors properly. Then, double click one of the two layers (depends if you prefer working on the left or right side), and it will open your smart object in a new photoshop window. Pull out your window so you can see both the whole object, and the half. Any time you draw in the smart object window, you can save, and it will update.

    I'll try and do a picture tutorial in case that wasn't clear :D
  • Optinium
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    Optinium polycounter
    Didn't even realise this challenge existed... Oddly enough it was a challenge I've also set myself for the month (and to model some of them). Here's 2 sheets I did the other day, feedback welcome :3

    Ya5C0RS.jpg?1
    gQSusN6.jpg
  • Fashoomp
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    Fashoomp polycounter lvl 10
    Here's my first batch of concepts. I played around different brushes for each one to try and get different ideas, it really helped me pull out shapes. I had a lot of fun with these. I'm gonna dive into painting one of these.

    IWpUQFA.jpg
  • noHero
    First post

    Was having a bit of fun with my designs, but I thought that a saw blade would be more appropriate rather than a spinning wheel of boots or spoons :)
  • Rokugan
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    Rokugan polycounter lvl 7
    Aw, that spidey looks so cute! But it would totally be the scariest weapon ever >.< demn spiderz.
  • thebamboobear
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    thebamboobear polycounter lvl 9
    Haha that spider is so fluffy and cute! xD

    Also, nice concepts everyone :D
    @Optinium: I like all of them, but my fav one is #3! I can picture a rogue using that weapon ^^

    @Fashoomp: That's an interesting process of concepting. Can't wait to see which one you pick :)
  • riceart
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    riceart polycounter lvl 10
  • TayloredChaos
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    TayloredChaos polycounter lvl 6
    Hey everyone,

    Saw this challenge and it looked fun. Since its October I figured I'd go with zombie melee weapons. I tried exploring some different categories of weapons, sticking with a theme of "found" parts. Here's my silhouettes.

    p7iEgO8.jpg

    C&C is always welcome. I think I'm partial to the bat and utility sets right now. I'm going to try to render out some next while pushing the design a bit more.
  • noHero
    @Rokugan: scariest weapon until someone comes up with a stick with TWO spiders on it. Then when will it end!?!

    @Optinium: really liked your design style so I attempted my own.

    polycount_upload_02.jpg
  • JaySmitt
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    JaySmitt polycounter lvl 13
    Latest update before hitting the sack, I plan to render a sort of chrome material for the sword along with a subtle ivory colour and texture. So far I'm happy with overall design, decided not to concept any other swords since I need to make the most of my time for the 3d noob challenge.
    tumblr_mukxa73xgl1qiyx2io1_1280.png
  • noHero
    polycount_upload_03.jpg
    if the image doesn't show what am I doing wrong?
  • Prism
    Got some great feedback already, but no time to spend on it atm. I see plenty of examples of how it should be in this thread. I had a lot of fun participating.

    WhfOJaM.png
  • HammerFist3D2D
    Guys you are totaly awesome. My personal favorite is optinium. One question, can I model some of them?
  • Optinium
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    Optinium polycounter
    Of-course HammerFist go for it :)
  • Elod.H
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    Elod.H polycounter lvl 11
    Wow, this thread is amazing... my 3D senses are tingling like MAD.

    Optinium: snlkfhsakf sklshgfed ... i don't even know what to type :) freaking awesome concepts.. hhooooly ...
  • SmilingMountain
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    SmilingMountain polycounter lvl 7
    @Optinium: Love those concepts, my personal favorites are number 1 and 3 from the second sheet.

    @AdamOstridge: Really liking these, especially the sci-fi ones can't wait to see how they all turn out.

    Looks like I'm a little late to this party :) here's my contribution for this month a new piece and a couple of older ones.

    PCweapons1_zpsf0d11bad.jpg

    PaintedSwords3_zps7e1ad7fd.jpg

    paintedknives_zps86742072.jpg
  • MGrecke
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    MGrecke polycounter lvl 7
    Wow I have totally missed this thread and it seemed really fun! So even though its the last day I wanted to make some quick concept for this! Hope thats fine!

    Optinium I have seen your stuff before and those are crazy! love the 3D models even more! :)sword_by_go_maxpower-d6qldtz.jpg
  • Vysuki
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    Vysuki polycounter lvl 9
    Awesome job to everyone that has taken part so far! Today is the last day and I'm on GMT so I'll be posting the next thread at some point tomorrow.

    If you have any ideas you think would make a good challenge feel free to send me a message with your ideas.

    Also how did you guys/gals find the 2 week timer, long enough or to short?
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