Character Concept Voting for February 2015
polycounter lvl 12
Feel free to post your thoughts about this in this thread, along with the votes and the concepts. Do people want to continue this ? Should we do anything differently to improve the challenge itself ?
- We will decide on what will we be working on for this upcoming month.
- Anyone can participate in the voting process, even if he or she doesn't participate in the Monthly Challenge itself
- You can vote on multiple pieces. Simply post or quote them in your reply/replies.
- PLEASE DO NOT post a concept art of multiple characters. Different people will work on different characters and that would beat the purpose of this.
- You may post interesting concept without actually voting for them. Simply state so when you do.
- If you want to discuss about the pieces, don't quote the images.
- The goal is to get better and to make stuff. So, pick challenging and fun piece (?)
- You will decide character budget on your own term. So don't base concept piece on low budget. Determine budget on the concept instead.
- If you already contact the creation of certain concept art, please state so as well (thus we don't all contact the poor guy with the same question). Usually I take it upon myself to contact the artists for permission.
- Voting ends on the 29th, 2pm US time West Coast.
- The actual challenge itself starts on 1st day of next month, in its own thread which I will be creating then.
- Note that I MIGHT pick two or maybe three concepts for next month. But if I do, I will not pick more than one of the same kind. (No 2 hard-surface pieces or 2 dude-in-armor pieces)
Here are two concepts to start from. Let's see more cool stuff !!!
"Drifter"
"White Knight"
"Drifter"
"White Knight"
Replies
Half Man. Half Bear. Half Pig.
google Marko Djurdjevic
i know because im also working on a model based on his concept
i love his work and attention to details
i love this
Good find :poly142:
I second this.
I don't think you should cop any flak for saying that, you were very polite and it only takes a glance at your artstation page to see that you're a really advanced character artist who is speaking from years of experience and hard work.
I guess for me, doing these challenges isn't about becoming a better artist, it's about seeing what I'm capable of with my current skill set (and picking up free tips from people who are a little further along than me).
And of course, being inspired to upgrade my skills when other people in the challenges make nicer characters than mine
I plan to spend more time on the Comicon this year, actually. Many times big challenges are great sources to learn and to grow fast. Just have to keep showing cool shit to attract audience.
Oh, and ArenaNet Internship artest is right around the corner too. Like, right after Comicon :P
For a one month challenge, I think it would be more constructive to have small sculpting themes like hand studies, foot studies, a bust etc.
If you want to do full characters, I think a quarterly challenge would be much more appropriate.
As for the concepts, I'm really liking that bearded dude. I just don't see this kind of character happen in one month for me, though... Unless I were to take off from work and live in a cave for 4 weeks straight. :poly122:
I think this would be a great idea, even in addition to the full characters, like how the monthly environment challenges have a full environment and also a smaller prop.
Anyone reading this wanting to get into the industry/better jobs/improve workflow, 1 month is more than enough to make anything that's been posted here so far, even working in off hours.
http://youtu.be/tp5XAzamk1o
Every character in this cinematic was made, starting with a supplied basemesh, in a little over 2 weeks with the exception of 2 due to feedback. That is modeling AND texturing and half the artists were working after hours. This is the kind of production demands you should to try to aim for.
Obviously people starting out or only a year or 2 in are not going to be able to match that and that's fine, that is some of the motivation to do these types of challenges as locking yourself into a month is a great way to force decisions and get used time crunch.
I do my best work by far under a time limit because it forces me to work smarter and by extension, faster and if there was any single thing I would say to anyone who wants to do this challenge it would be USE A BASE MESH to start with.
Just cause I have to say it, this is not an attack on anyone but more of an encouragement to give this thing a go with better preparation and advice from someone who has been around for a while
I'm sorry, but couldn't disagree more. I think you need to learn how to hit the quality level first, and then worry about how to do it faster. I don't believe you can learn to push the quality by doing fast work, I think you need in-depth work for that.
Also, speaking from my personal experience as a character artist, not all companies use such short timelines. For the ones that do, I imagine they have to kit-bash a lot.
http://maxgrecke.deviantart.com/gallery/
this is rad!
... And I want to apologize for not being the pro/guru/expert in 3d despite me running it
I agree that the concept keeps getting more and more complex, but I think that's what attracts people. The excitement of working on it. I mean, if the concept is quite plain, then I wouldn't feel so energetic either
Though we indeed could have a primary concept that is exciting and complex, and secondary concept that's easier (maybe just a bust, or a cartoony creature or something). And the Primary might get 2 months working time. But then it would overlap with the next month still
Or we set it up so that an odd month has complex and simple concept, while an even month has two simple concepts, and no complex piece. Then repeat.
Thoughts ??
I like some discussions going, because that's the only way for us to figure out if this monthly challenge works or not.
So, thoughts ?
Anatomy
Full Character
3 Concepts each month , a little something for everyone.
Speaking of which, will we see a comeback of the Noob challenge this month?
And ofcourse, I still stand by my suggestion of doing anatomy studies of single body parts. Each month could have a different body part as its theme. You could either do the full character, where you pay special attention to said body part. Or, if you have less time, you could do just the anatomy study of the month.
Aw hells yeah
I guess you tried to give characters for different levels when there was a main concept and a "smaller" one, but I noticed it went a bit overboard at some point with too many characters and some too complex.
I think it's nice to have a character that's not too simple to get inspired and learn from the most experienced that go for that one, as long as all beginners don't go for the complex character because it's the coolest one, and don't finish or have a too hard time and don't learn well.
As for the suggestions, there could be a new "complex" character each month, but that we could work on for two months. Well, we could work on it as long as we want, of course, but just making it clear it doesn't have to be done in one month, and maybe saying two months as a goal so that people can aim for something, or so that they don't stop working on it because it's been too long.
And the simpler character, or bust, or part of a character being there just for the current month.
There could also be a separate monthly anatomy noob challenge
Isn't there a common anatomy practice thread ? I'm not sure.
I'm also for taking the time to learn and do the work properly with a decent quality level, and speed will come naturally with practice.
I'm a bit against all those speed paintings, or speed sculpts, at least for beginners, because a majority of the aspiring artists watching these videos that are still learning are trying to do the same thing, where speed is actually not the goal, but a consequence of knowledge and practice.
Oh, and I asked my buddy Leo if he we could use his concept, he said he was cool with it
I agree that a month long timescale for a full character is a bit too short. (At least if you want to do other things in your free time too, which is why I haven't really participated in the challenges after the first one). It wouldn't be a bad idea to extend it to two months (so it would make sense to rename it as the bi-monthly full character challenge).
Do we want to vote on the bust as well as the complex piece ? Would that make voting too complex itself ?
Hmm, a stormtrooper's helmet might be fun to make... though it might be more of hard-surface than character bust...
What about :
1 simple cartoon
1 complexe realistic-ish
1 body part
December (i think, not sure) had two different concept, a realistic one and a cartoon horse one. That was a really great exemple of choice.
[EDIT]
I really like this. This is a really great compromise.
I think this is a good idea. Doesn't have to be gender specific. Just one month you do the arm, then next month leg, next month torso, next month head, etc. Keep voting for the concept, body parts don't need voting imo.
On another note, because a concept is a complete character, it doesnt mean everybody has to do the whole thing. You could just do the bust of the concept and it would be really ok, especially for beginners.
As for anatomy, just like there is the hard surface weekly challenge we could have our anatomy weekly challenge. It could work like choosing 1 picture and making a specific bodypart that stands out of it, each person is different so we could have a lot of variation even if we do the same part of the body another week. I am not sure if it's too overwhelming.
Good for practicing speed, refining full workflow, and trying new styles.
- Practicing anatomy transitioning from one segment of the body to another in multiple poses, presenting both "fleshed" pieces and an escorche to study muscle structure.
Trying to do both at the same time would probably just have people either rush one or more aspects and learn bad habits. And if some people pick one goal and some pick the other within the same challenge thread, then do people feel that goes against the idea of all working on the same thing to practice together and learn from each others mistakes/discoveries?Good for improving attention to detail, identifying anatomic landmarks, and knowledge of anatomy.
How many unofficial Polycount mini challenges are there now? Monthly Environment, Monthly Guns and Vehicles, Weekly Hard Surface, Monthly Character off the top of my head. Are we flooding the 3d showcase forum?
Nah, I actually think it might cut down on the number of separate threads and keep things nicely grouped. It also creates nice little hang-out spots for like-minded people.
Just like i've seen people get huge improvement thanks to the hard surface challenges, by their own merits of course, but also because of "practicing smart" is part of practice with another people with same goals who can see your mistakes so you can fix them faster than practicing alone.
Another thing, why don't we have this (and hard surface challenge) in 'Contests And Challenges' part of the forum? If anything it would be easier to find and look at past contests.
For the Anatomy Challenge, it could be monthly, or even weekly like the Hard-Surface one.
That's what I did in November because of Riot's Contest too. (I did half body bust in ZBrush. So not game-ready either.)
That's actually a great idea.
And then if you still want to do full characters, maybe do it every other month, an exercise piece, and the other a full character.
I agree, i didn't participate, but this idea was really cool.
Yeah that's it. Can be 2 month for both too, who cares anyway and it will make things way easier to manage. Just give choice to people on either to do a bust or a full character.
I'm all for weekly/monthly anatomy challenge too. That would be fantastic. If you guys are willing we should make this happen. We could set up a bunch of rules for it.
Or should it overlap by a month ??
If it's some other objective like just focusing on getting stuies done of anatomy sections, or busts, that's another set of time frames.
Right now, if you guys commit to doing full characters, either choose more manageable characters to maintain the time frame, OR allow for more time.
btw, good on you for keeping this up Assani.
Though I find the talk interesting. I'm not sure if its been mentioned yet, but if I could make a suggestion of posting like a set of images which scale in difficulty (three images which scale from what would be considered 'beginner' to 'advanced'). Then again, I suppose that's what the bust vs. full body is about.
Regardless, I do enjoy going back here every now and then to see how things work out and develop.