Ideas

[BiG ToE-3DT]

need ideas for Comp #28:dance:

[Oltskul]

box of chocholate? you never know, what you get :D

[Noodles]

Something truly low poly, like 3000 max.

[roel]

a new animal species?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

I think we should do a bust, either human or animal.

[Buzzy]

hmmm... it seems to me that a bust would defeat the point of the low-poly challenge. Busts are by definition just show pieces....but low-poly art is all about functionality...so the two kind of clash. I'm not 100% against it though. It could work....but you'd need VERY strict limits, otherwise it wouldn't be low poly....like 1000 tris and 512 textures. A bust with a 5000 tris would, in theory, be attached to a body in the area of 20k....not very low poly at all.


Or, we could do a really specific idea. For example, Demogorgon from the D&D universe. That would have the benefit of being able to easily compare the entries.


I wouldn't mind doing a vehicle either:
Bike - any sort of motorcycle, bicycle, dirt bike, tron cyberbike, unicycle, whatever.
Wagon - any sort of vehicle that would be animal-drawn

[Oniram]

how about something like re-creating an old character. like a game character from any of the nintendo 64 or ps1 games. keep the poly count low but allow pretty decent sized textures for a better recreation.

[dhin]

I like the bust idea, there are a lot of ways you can go with it and it could be used for like an environment of what ever.

Maybe do something in its various stages of decay / destruction. Like 3 phases: new/perfect, slightly damaged, and mostly destroyed.

[Oltskul]

and some Space theme?
but real animal, shoud be realy fine....

[FrZnChAoS]

pick a single major game franchise (metal gear, WoW, zelda, final fantasy, etc), artists must create a character/monster that fits the theme/style of the series/genre. would make entries more easily comparable.

[MattColes]

Vampires in modern day?

[silverflame]

Self portrait then it would be easy to get source material and to compare accuracy

[Oniram]

self portrait seems cool.

[revanto]

How about something damaged? Meaning that instead of having something in new condition, have a model in a decayed or destroyed state. It's a good test of low poly skill.

[omnicypher]

self portrait with a robotic limb would be cool, or the three stages of decay environment would be fun as well.

[tb1alexc]

An animal that lives in space / on another planet?

[Noodles]

How about making 2 characters, like a team (Batman and Robin/Ren and Stimpy), keep it really low poly and small texture size since there's two characters to make.

[Oltskul]

How about making 2 characters, like a team (Batman and Robin/Ren and Stimpy), keep it really low poly and small texture size since there's two characters to make.

whop.. nice idea :) like 512tris and 256texture :D

But i like Revanto´s idea

[Pedro Jatobá]

Totally agree on making a team of 2 famous characters... it would be a nice challenge....

And a enviroment one , the pedestal of it...

[poopipe]

pick a single major game franchise (metal gear, WoW, zelda, final fantasy, etc), artists must create a character/monster that fits the theme/style of the series/genre. would make entries more easily comparable.

that = portfolio material


i like

8k and 2048 :D

[Chung Wong]

I second those specs as poopipe says, they equal portfolio work. As for ideas, maybe your own take on an existing character, a bit like Frznchaos's idea but more open ended. I'm watching black lagoon and would love to make a realistic grown up version of the lead character :) along with those pistols

[AutopsySoldier]

That sounds like a great mini!...I would lean more towards metal gear/gears of war kinda games....personal taste.

[Buzzy]

Since a few people seemed to like the idea of self-portrait, why not pick a game and make yourself fit that world.

Buzzy Goes to Hyrule! Buzzy Takes Black Mesa! Buzzy Does Dallas....er....ignore that last one.

[FrZnChAoS]

i think having some limitations makes entries more comparable and tests the skills of the artist to fit a style and theme, which is much more likely if you were with a company or working on a larger project with people.

[Oniram]

or it could go the complete opposite way without limits. a professor of mine gave us an assignment on our first day of class that was very strict as far as limitations go..it was pretty hard, but then he gave us an assignment with absolutely no limits at all. it was actually a lot harder because each person was forced to think on their own, which requires more of an individual rather than following guidelines. of course some limits should still apply, such as polycount and texture size, but why not make it completely open ended. one theme to do with whatever each person chooses.

[lampshadehead]

How about a civilian alien? Instead of a main character or a hero/villian it would be a supporting character. This type of character you might see walking around the alien city or trading post or whereever in a sci-fi game where different alien races meet.

[AutopsySoldier]

"Buzzy Does Dallas" LMAO!...OH man...so unsuspected!

[lost_soul]

100 % agree with FrZnChAoS idea. MGS or Splinter Cell series is better because these series have more restriction about boss/enemy rather than fantasy theme like FF or Zelda series.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

I like the idea of putting yourself into a game.

And the whole game restricted theme as well.

Only problem is, how do we pick a game. Some may say, I never played that game, how can I take part, the answer, google it. But still, how do we pick a game.

ideas:
top games of 2008
or top games of 2007
or whatever, then after we get an idea, we can focus it down to one game.

[Buzzy]

I agree that we should probably pick one of the top games from recent times. That will give us the best chance that people will have actually played the game...and recently enough that its still fresh in their minds.

So, some of my suggestions would be:
Gears of War (perhaps setting ourselves up to fail with this one)
Dead Space
Fable
Prince of Persia
GTA (I'm not really fond of this idea...too boring and mundane, but it was a smash hit)
MGS
Conan
Warhammer
Mirror's Edge

[FrZnChAoS]

for me personally big toe i always find research is big point of my time at the start of a project. and i often google resources and material so i can understand a subject better. so if say it was some series like world of warcraft which i never have actually played. i would spend some 20-40 minutes understanding the art direction/style before attempting a concept.

probably could just have a secondary poll, or a few moderators decide on it. its impossible to make everyone happy.

[Perversonality]

I have a fairly silly idea which might be quite cool...

Create a single screen mock-up for a classic style arcade game

I'm thinking something along the lines of Bubble Bobble, Frogger, Space Invaders, Pacman and so on where the whole playing area was on a single screen. This gives people the option to recreate an existing game or come up with something new

As a minimum you would have to create a main character, one enemy unit, some kind of collectable item and the actual level parts all in 3d, but then the "winning pose" would be a flat representation of the level, with a beauty sheet so that you can show off the models in 3d. A budget of 5000-7500 triangles and 1x2048x2048 map "set" for everything

Could be fun...

Edit: check this out to give you some ideas of what you could base your "game" on: http://www.classicgamesarcade.com/

[Orrin Hogan]

I agree that we should probably pick one of the top games from recent times. That will give us the best chance that people will have actually played the game...and recently enough that its still fresh in their minds.

So, some of my suggestions would be:
Gears of War (perhaps setting ourselves up to fail with this one)
Dead Space
Fable
Prince of Persia
GTA (I'm not really fond of this idea...too boring and mundane, but it was a smash hit)
MGS
Conan
Warhammer
Mirror's Edge

I like this idea, a few more game suggestions I would also include:

Portal
Bioshock
Halo 3
Halo:ODST (that way you could pick a game no one has played yet but have a general idea about.)

and for another seperate idea all together, how about a small aresenal for example like most games have you start off with a pistol/rifle what if we we're to come up with a few weapons. ie: knife/pistol/rifle/rocket launcher

[tb1alexc]

I like the idea of putting yourself into a game universe... how about using the mario games? they have a really cool style, and everyone knows mario...

[AutopsySoldier]

From the games listed above these are the ones that I like better:

Gears of War
GTA
MGS
Bioshock

But really, I'm down for any challenge. I regret not doing this past one.

[Noodles]

If you want to put yourself into a game then we should be able to pick whatever game we want. Everyone doing the same game would be boring I'd imagine.

- I'd like to see material from a wide range of games...

- Clash of game art styles would make it more interesting IMO.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

the clash of styles is what we are trying to avoid.

having everyone do the same game, means the same style, this also means judging will be easier. It wouldn't be fair if someone did Gears of War and someone else did Sonic the Hedge Hog, Even if both look great, there is going to be huge chance that to more realistic Gears of War character will win. Also, with a tri count of 8,000 and textures at 2048, the Mario/Sonic characters would be wasted.

In the end, the limits will depend on the style.

[Noodles]

Well then maybe a list of games to choose from that all have similar styles?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

we could do that, get a group(s) of games that all have about the same style, then when we vote, it will be for the style of game, instead of the game itself.

[CaseyD2K]

Hey everyone, I like where this is going! I have been itching to do a competition for a while now! The last time I participated in any contest was the Mega Man villain contest back in the day! I am really hoping to jump on something here and actually take the project to final!!

As for input: I saw a GTA contest over at GameArtisans.org a little while back pretty sweet looking results: http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/mini/12/view_entries.php

What if you take classic characters from games like Bubble Bobble or Dig-Dug and make 3D versions with Nintendo DS specs? Limit it to classic Sega/Nintendo/TurboGrafx/etc games that have never received a 3D treatment. Everyone participating can post their title pick and we can vote on whether or not it fits the parameters and the moderator has the final say! Or something like that?

[revanto]

When I saw the name "Prince of Persia" I thought that maybe it would be cool if we had a cultured theme IE Pick a culture and create a work richly artistic within that culture. So, just say you had Arabian Nights or Egyptian or American Indian then that might be interesting in itself.

[AutopsySoldier]

I think if we're sticking with next-gen specs, it'd be cool to do a gears themed contest, Cog Vs. Locust, kind of challenge. Isn't Dominance War just around the corner? Maybe do something smaller right now, then a month before Dominance a big, Cog/Locust for practice?

[Oniram]

how about a game that has yet to come out. that way no one has any advantage over anyone else?

[AutopsySoldier]

Oniram- What did you have in mind?

[MattColes]

Oh Deus Ex 3, I'd love to design a cyberpunk character!

[dhin]

I was thinking that a vehicle challenge might be fun. If themed for one of the games mentioned it could be neat. Have a category for it like space/sci-fi, realistic/modern, or fantasy/medieval and a game or movie based artistic style could make it sort of interesting.

[tb1alexc]

Nice idea Dhin... I'd like to have a crack at a vehicle

[lampshadehead]

Yeah! A vehicle would be a totally different challenge for people. That would be super awesome. I vote for that :D

[Chung Wong]

I'm pretty game with a vehicle challenge, but I'd like to know the specs first. I'd be really interested if it was somewhere in line with the GT4 specs. But that could put a few people off... but I feel that it would be a real challenge and a great learning experience. What does everyone else think?

[lampshadehead]

What type of specs is GT4?

[Buzzy]

do you mean GT4 or GT5?
GT4 is probably in the area of 30-40k tris (thats a bit of a guess)
I believe GT5 is something like 100k+ tris... that includes full interior, brakes, wheels...hell, they even modelled the engines in the ferraris

GT5 specs would only really be for professional vehicle modellers.....extremely demanding.
Even GT4, as Chung mentioned, is a bit of a tall order for most

[Chung Wong]

Whoops, I mean gt5 specs.. Blushes

Regarding specs, I'm not too sure, My guess is between 70k to under 200k and 2048 maps

Buzzy, you're right, I'm guessing it would be really demanding but that's what makes it worth it :)

[lampshadehead]

I think anything between 10 and 30 K with 2048 maps would be doable for most people, probably. Vehicle doesn't necessarily mean a car though, you could make pretty much anything with 30k tris

[Chung Wong]

Yeah, they are good specs, but I think it would be cool to keep it a bit more open ended so people can choose. Mind you, the higher the spec, the more work and I only finish about 50% of my comps... But it would still be nice to have the choice. But then again, the gap between the specs would mean a big difference in result's and from earlier reading, I think BiGToE wants everyone to work off similar specs. What does everyone think? When's poll going up?

[lampshadehead]

I actually finished my entry for the last come for the first time ever, lol. So I'd love to start the next comp as soon as possible. w00t

[CaseyD2K]

Are you specifically talking about a GT style cars competition or just any car?

[Chung Wong]

I'm thinking any vehicles in general

[lampshadehead]

How about a twisted metal style battle car with those specs? That'd be super awesome!

[AutopsySoldier]

If we are doing vehicles, I think lampshadehead's idea is pretty sweet. I also like the GT5 idea but I don't know how many would want to model just a car...I know I would, but a Twisted Metal style would probably draw in more entries. Isn't there a next-gen TM game out/coming out for PS3?

[FrZnChAoS]

I would be careful with challenges with high requirements. often hurts the number of finished entries. next gen vehicles would be cool to do but I dont know how many people have experience modeling such high dense models.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

this is going to be a tough poll.

[Buzzy]

Oh man BigToe, 2 more posts for the platinum award!

[Pedro Jatobá]

Ready to the next challenge.

[Orrin Hogan]

I had this idea on the way to work today, though it might seem a little late since most people are set on vehicles already(which I don't mind either) but what about a pin-up style character?

[Buzzy]

I don't think anyone's set on anything yet. In addition to vehicles, there was a lot of discussion about doing a self-portrait in the style of a chosen video game. I'm game for either one. Although I pretty much model vehicles at work all day, so I'd rather do something else like a character.

[CaseyD2K]

I like where people are going with the vehicle idea. This morning I was thinking something along the lines of a Speed Racer type character and accompanying vehicle. But a Twisted Metal style Vehicle sounds awesome! It could even be a self portrait. Create a Twisted Metal style version of yourself and a vehicle to be added into Minions battle race! With this competition the overall game style is set and people can build a character and a vehicle. Sounds fun to me!

[Darchand]

I had this idea on the way to work today, though it might seem a little late since most people are set on vehicles already(which I don't mind either) but what about a pin-up style character?

Yeah I had that idea before to. I am all for this one. I also like the vehicle idea's especially a twisted metal one. Either way sounds like this next one should be fun.

[Tetsuya]

The next gen racing game? o.O
character + their vehicle/mount

personally i'm thinking robotic horse with wheels, and a cyberpunk knight

we could always have something like blassreiter's style
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/lostty_2006/blassreiter1_74.jpg
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff263/geese2000/blassre.jpg

[lampshadehead]

Character and vehicle may be a bit much for some people, but we could have a 2 part comp like the last one. Do either a twisted metal driver, or a twisted metal vehicle, or if you're BOLD try to finish one of each :O

[CaseyD2K]

I would love to do each! If time permits it of course! I would love a Twisted Metal theme too!

[FrZnChAoS]

i think its time for a poll, hopefully soon? I want to get fired up on something at this point. Im sure most would agree.