Comicon 2014

D4V1DC

The challenge just went up if anyone has time and or cares.
ComiCon 2014

Good luck all.
Just bringing this up to those interested, lets keep it clean.:thumbup:

bugo

Nice, hope unearthly comes soon as well.

praetus

ummm, Bugo, didn't Unearthly just end....like a month ago? You may be waiting for a bit I think. Don't know if I'll have time for this but it's always fun to see the cool art that comes from it.

bugo

Did it? OH MY, I'm so lost on it.

Shadownami92

Seems interesting, but didn't the Polycount twitter mention a competition coming on it's twitter sometime in the last few days? I'd hate to start working on a model for Comicon only to find another competition popping up with a theme I like better...

Steve Schulze

High res cinematic art eh. That's a curious move. Should make for some pretty impressive entries though I guess.

Super

Such a difficult website to navigate when trying to find the details.

skylebones

I was super excited to take part in this contest again. But the fact it started late as usual tells me it will be poorly managed like past contest.

almighty_gir

i have entered. but my attitude toward it is very different to my attitude toward past "huge competitions".

previously i've entered all full of gusto, and within a few days, or the first two weeks i've run out of steam and i finally figured out why. I've always felt overwhelmed by all of the big gun artists entering... the guys who're art leads with decades of experience kicking all kinds of ass.

so this time i'm basically making my thread, competing with a couple of guys from polycount who i talk to in google hangouts quite regularly, and ignoring everyone else.

i also don't care particularly about the rules, or finishing on time or anything like that. i mean... i will finish on time, but i'm not entering for the competition itself, i'm entering for me, and to get a good folio piece from it.

oglu

almighty_gir wrote: »

... but i'm not entering for the competition itself, i'm entering for me, and to get a good folio piece from it.

same here... :thumbup:

katana

I kind of thought the 'Unlimited poly count' was a bit much. My first thought went o someone with a full blast system able to handle 500K tris with no sweat and a competitor who could only do 10k.

Now I know a 10k can look kick ass and a 500k can look sloppy, but it just got me thinking that the comp slants toward those who can bring the biggest epic piece to the table if they have the resources, programs ect.

Think Star Wars vs. a puppet show.

CapableWizard

Looks cool, although the brief is a bit dull, especially when compared to earlier ones like "Alternative Universe" and the age one. Not sure on the unlimited budget idea either, I feel like it's favouring realistic, complicated pieces over stylised simple ones.. I liked how in the past there was definitely a limit to how complicated your entry could be, and to a certain extent how much time you could invest into the piece. Some people will invest 7 working weeks into some hugely complicated (and pretty much unusable by todays standards) pieces which doesn't quite seem in the spirit of past realtime challenges?

Also it was always interesting seeing the variety of pieces you would get in Dominance War and the Comicon challenges hopefully the budget doesn't funnel everyone towards photo realism and we get some nice stylised entries

almighty_gir wrote: »

i will finish on time, but i'm not entering for the competition itself, i'm entering for me, and to get a good folio piece from it.

If I have a crack at it this will definitely be the attitude I'll take, It's so demotivating putting your heart and soul into an entry only to have it (inevitably) smashed by someone a lot more talented I think the only way I'd be capable of finishing is to completely give up any notion that I'll achieve anything other than a folio piece

D4V1DC

I agree gents the big guns got to be lurking about and the high quality of a few of the designers would ultimately kill all the upstarting/new comers and even some oldies spirit though then again It could have the opposite effect and make them try harder, even though deep within they know they aren't going to have a chance at the top spot.

I was thinking this when i saw the brief, just remembering all the kick ass entries of dom war alone, could only imagine what will happen now that they have no limits.

This can also be really awesome, there will be epic pieces there is no doubt how long they take to appear well that is part of the fun and frustration isn't it.

But like Almighty and the rest just get a good piece out of it and you might end up just surprising yourself, cause in reality think about it would take just one Blur artist to enter to destroy everyones spirit. lol you guys though.

Katana yea i definitely feel that comment, my little rig struggles with 2/3 million, i'd just have to plan really hard and cut the model up a bunch of times to just make the quality bar that might arrive shortly.

At least though it would be a first cinematic piece for most if they end up trying for that though then again unless your piece is super complicated or sci-fi/tech hard surface that actually transforms in the end.
I don't see too many people going 300k+ final piece, Not everyone can afford $6,000.00+ rig to play comfortably in and imagine the zbrush file for that final shit... Anything over 100mb gets me nervous of loosing the zbrush file altogether.

If there is a pc contest it would be strictly coincidence eh?
I'd like it to be after this one in all honesty i'd hate to miss out on It and feel like it would be in poor taste seeing as many have known about the Comic-con returning and i have not even heard about 1 word about the PC one.
Just saying cause it is true, this is the first time of me hearing about It.
If you guys can hold back i'd love to enter that one too, but whatever you decide i guess I'll have to pick and choose.

Jason Young

I don't think polycount should worry about whether their contest overlaps. Considering you never know when a gameartisans challenge will actually start, it's impossible to really plan around it. And realistically, polycount comps are better managed by a long shot, so they should continue doing what they're doing.

leslievdb

Am i the only one who gets really motivated here by seeing great artists enter these things? I'm never in it to win it but i've learned a lot just entering competitions and trying my best.

Also the better pc == better art doesn't make much sense since one of my favorite pieces is still that stylized link by damien canderle. Just a good design should go a long way.

http://www.maddamart.com/blog/wp-content/gallery/game-art-gallery/damien_canderle_comicon2010_oldlink_beauty.jpg

anyway this is my topic for those interested, http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/threads/62301-Comicon-2014-3D-Ravenslayer-Edward-Elric-%28Full-Metal-Alchemist%29

Sukotto

I just gotta think of a character I want to do. This year's theme kinda just seems like a mishmash of the last two but I'll join either way

I think some people WILL get carried away and have super dense geo but that does not equal a better character. I think a lot of the newer artists will fall into the pit that more polys=better and will suffer.

And now all this talk of a new PC contest has gotten me all riled up

Neox

katana wrote: »

I kind of thought the 'Unlimited poly count' was a bit much. My first thought went o someone with a full blast system able to handle 500K tris with no sweat and a competitor who could only do 10k.

Now I know a 10k can look kick ass and a 500k can look sloppy, but it just got me thinking that the comp slants toward those who can bring the biggest epic piece to the table if they have the resources, programs ect.

Think Star Wars vs. a puppet show.

thats just nonesense, a good and experienced artist will always create better artworks than a beginner, no matter the limitations. look at the past challanges, be it here or on GA, the winners usually are experienced artists. better hardware will not create better artpieces, and in most cases, as this is a game artist forum, those artists will have gamingrigs, only a few people really will have one hell of a beast to work on.
On top of that, zbrush is still only 32bit, it will never use more than 4 gigs of ram, so this playfield is pretty even

Shiniku

I'm excited to enter! last time one of these was run was the first year I started focusing on characters, and it was a big milestone for me. I know I've improved a lot so I'm stoked to do it again, although I've got so much else going on right now it's going to be hard to devote much time to it. Dunno what I'll do just yet, the theme hasn't really inspired any cool ideas for me yet. Ah well.

katana

Neox wrote: »

thats just nonesense, a good and experienced artist will always create better artworks than a beginner, no matter the limitations. look at the past challanges, be it here or on GA, the winners usually are experienced artists. better hardware will not create better artpieces, and in most cases, as this is a game artist forum, those artists will have gamingrigs, only a few people really will have one hell of a beast to work on.
On top of that, zbrush is still only 32bit, it will never use more than 4 gigs of ram, so this playfield is pretty even

I appreciate your input Neox and certainly respect your work.

If you notice my paragraph i did say "It got me thinking..."

I didn't say I subscribed to that thinking.

That said, I do agree with your overall assessment.

Steve Schulze

I can't see the unlimited polygon count making a great deal of difference - a low poly model with a decent normal map will look much the same as a high res one. The textures and lighting are going to be what really seperate the entries here.

nufftalon

Jackablade wrote: »

I can't see the unlimited polygon count making a great deal of difference - a low poly model with a decent normal map will look much the same as a high res one. The textures and lighting are going to be what really seperate the entries here.

I agree with you 100% Jackablade:)

Mask_Salesman

Hmm re-inventing stuff is cool and all, but I'd wanna make something new. Then again I'd want the time to do either in the first place.