Monday, November 15, 2010

2D PAINT Challenge (w/alternate)

All, for the next challenge, and to keep us on our collective toes, a 2D Paint challenge is in order. Several of us have gathered behind a friends monitor here and there and marveled at a well done concept painting, whether it was theirs or some other artist' painting, gloating over the awesomeness.

I know there are a few folks who would like to keep modeling; considering some of us are undertaking Mudbox training, as such, if you would prefer to do another modeling challenge, there's an alternate project if you'd like to opt out of the 2D Paint Challenge. Details follow.

Details:

For the 2D Paint Challenge you will need to adhere to the following rules, but these are by no means "constraints".

• Your painting is required to have an environment evocative of a particular mood. You must utilize devices like fog, light and shadow, color to produce this aspect. Maybe some rule of thirds, composition use what you know.

• Your painting must have one character or focal point. If there is a character, it must be posed in context to the environment, a straight up stand is fine, but put some dynamism in there somewhere. This challenge is not necessarily focused on character design, but it can be a component to the overall finished piece.

• Your painting must be an illustrated narrative. Whomever looks at your finished work should be able to tell you what they think is happening. If you want to put an Easter egg of some sort in there or personal meaning, that be great but it should be 'Epic'.

• Your painting should focus on a particular genre. SciFi is fine, historical, Video Game Industry.

I encourage you to treat this work as a pretend freelance project. Take it seriously and give your colleagues here at work something interesting to look at, and more importantly, give yourself a finished piece you can throw in your own reel.

ALTERNATE PROJECT: Model a low poly video game character.

For those of you who want to model:

• Use the software suite of your choice. Preferably, if you're training, use that program.

• Polygon Limit: The max polygon limit is 1200. Whomever gets really lower than that and has an awesome design will not 'win', but earn, a heartily applied slap on the back signifying a congratulatory overture.

• Your character has to have the appearance of meticulous detail. Please reference Final Fantasy characters (one of a plethora of examples).

• Your character should incorporate a bump map at the least. I'm implying that you should go for more detailed surface maps, especially if you want the detail.

• Your character should have all the virtues of being an absolutely memorable character; exhibiting silhouette, gesture, presence.

Same deal. Ultimately this project makes you better in some way and it's yours. Give your colleagues something to appreciate.

_____________

This challenge officially starts MONDAY the 22nd of this month and is due the 17th of December. You can start early as in NOW.

-B

4 comments:

  1. I know I've been not participating much in these, but I'd like to do the paint challenge this month. >_< Hopefully I can actually do something this time around D:

    although, Brian, you might wanna up the poly-count a little.. like maybe 1500-2000 polys seem to be the norm now-a-days for game characters :3 Some are upwards of 3000 from what I'm reading.

    http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-2155.html

    Kinda a neat forum discussion there...

    Good luck everyone!

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  2. Haha, now that I look at the dates though, even those are super old posts... I'll see if I can find a more updated one later...

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  3. James had suggested a very low poly count. It wouldn't be much of a challenge if you didn't have to work around the count either way. For those of you who want to do that challenge, meet and decide on a number that actually 'challenges' you, and give it a go.

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  4. well, I'm just wondering if 500 is too low (of course it depends on what you're modeling)...

    But here's a more updated forum discussions:

    http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-564463.html

    http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=510619

    I understand the challenge, but also think of what the current constrictions are in game engines and hardware are important to producing a piece you may want to use in a reel.

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