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The BRAWL Tournament

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The BRAWL Tournament!

We're kicking off a new contest here at Polycount - The BRAWL TOURNAMENT.

Participants will be working from a HUGE list of existing 2D or 3D fighting games to come up with their own 3D reinterpretations of their favorite FIGHTERS or STAGES. Only the best of the best can enter in the BRAWL Tournament so read on to see how you and your FIGHTER or STAGE will be chosen for the BRAWL TOURNAMENT.

And yes, you read that right - this contest is for both character and environment artists!

 

 

 

The Contest

The BRAWL Tournament contest is pretty straight forward:

  • This contest is for both character and environment artists.
  • Participants will choose either a FIGHTER (character artists) or STAGE (environment artists) from any fighting game ever and do a reinterpretation or re-imagination of their chosen FIGHTER or STAGE.
  • Entries for this contest will either be a 3D videogame character or a 3D videogame environment.
  • Participants will create a thread in our Contest & Challenges forum for the duration of the contest. When the contest is over they will submit their entry to the appropriate submission threads and the first round of voting will begin. This voting process - a PUBLIC voting process by the Polycount Community will determine who the combatants are for the BRAWL TOURNAMENT.
    • First round of voting will be from the Polycount Community via a poll to determine the Top 4 FIGHTERS and Top 3 STAGES.
      • NOTE: If we have a large amount of submissions in both categories, we will do the Top 8 FIGHTERS and Top 6 STAGES.
    • After the first round of public voting is finished, those FIGHTERS and STAGES will enter in a tournament: The BRAWL Tournament. In this tournament, those who have entered will have their FIGHTERS and STAGES judged by industry veterans where points are given to each FIGHTER or ENVIRONMENT for Technical Achievement, Artistic Achievement, and Brief Criteria.
    • At end of this contest, once the judges have made their decisions, we will display the results in the BRAWL Tournament tree over the following days until the winner is revealed!
  • Each day after the tournaments start date the winners of each round will progress on to the next stage of the tournament until a single Champion FIGHTER is announced.
  • This contest ends May 6th, 2011 @ 11:59PM EST

 

 

 

Character Technical & Guideline Specs

  • No teams. Single artist entry only.
  • This is a reimagination of a FIGHTER. You are not to recreate your chosen fighter identically.
  • ~12,000 triangles for everything combined. If you go over by a couple hundred triangles thats acceptable. While you do not need to reach 12,000 triangles for your FIGHTER please remember this is not a low-poly contest.
    • Your character, their effects, weapons/items, and so on. Your entire character pack must weigh in around 12,000 triangles.
    • You may use double sided geometry, just remember they're considered towards your final triangle count.
  • 2048x2048 resolution for your textures, combined, maximum.
    • Each texture pass gets this resolution. So your diffuse map(s), combined (if applicable), cannot exceed 2048x2048 resolution.
    • Diffuse, Specular/Specular Colour, Reflection, Gloss, Normal, Bump, Opacity, Emissive/Glow
    • Each of these passes are optional.
  • All real-time or render solutions are allowed. However, the more your submission can look 'real-time' ready, the better. That is, the more it is presented in a real-time solution the better. This is a videogame art challenge, after all.
    • Keep in mind the SUBMISSION requirements below. Some solution may make your submission more difficult to achieve.
    • Unreal Tech (UDK, UT3), idTech, Crysis engine, Max, Maya, XSI, and so on.
  • Lighting your character for your beauty shots (see 'Submitting your Entry' below for more information): Light your character however you'd like. Enhanced or Standard solutions. In-game or baked.
  • Lighting your character for your 'comp shots' (see 'Submitting your Entry' below for more information): No 'enhanced' lighting solutions. This means software like Brazil or Mental Ray cannot be used. STANDARD LIGHTING & SHADOWS ONLY.
  • Post-processes must be achieved within your desired method or rendering. What this means: NO PHOTOSHOP for post-process solutions.
  • Your character will need to be posed. T-poses are boring! (See 'Submission' information below for further details.)

 

 

 

 

Environment Technical & Guideline Specs

  • Teams are allowed. Up to TWO artists maximum.
  • You are creating an environment for a fighting game. Perspective and an open lane for character movement is crucial to successful fighting game environments (See the image below for an example of this). Your final shots must show the environment as you would normally see a fighting game environment. (Read: No three-quarter angles, birds-eye views, and so on).
  • This is a reimagination of a fighting game STAGE. You are not to recreate it exactly.
  • ~250,000 triangles. Over or a couple thousand triangles is acceptable. 250,000 is the guideline we're offering but you do not need to use all 250,000 triangles if your scene does not require it.
  • 4096x4096 of total texture space for each material pass.
    • For instance, that could mean 16 1024x1024 maps. Or 64 512x512 maps. Or a combination of many different resolutions just so long that when they are combined they do not exceed 4096x4096 pixels.
  • Lighting/rendering must be done to as close as a real-time solution as possible. Absolutely no enhanced lighting techniques (VRay, Mental ray, and so on).
    • Unreal, idTech, Crysis, Source and so on are acceptable. Max, Maya, XSI are also acceptable so long as you are using Standard lighting solutions.
  • Lightmaps may be used but are optional.
    • They do not count towards your texture budget.
  • Skyboxes and or painting for your background are allowed and do not count towards your limitations.
  • Post-processing is allowed so long as it is done in your presentation package (UDK, Max, etc.) and NOT in Photoshop.
    • hue/saturation
    • brightness/contrast
    • DoF, blur, motion blur
    • screen effects (vignette, etc) are acceptable but MUST be done within your package
  • DX 11 features for existing engines are allowed.
  • Consider this: If it can be done in todays videogame engines, you can do it yourself.

 

 

 

The Rules

What does that above stuff mean exactly? We're happy you've asked!

  • You must be a member of Polycount to enter. It's silly to even say this 'cause really how else would you show your entry? I know right? Just in case, you can register here.
  • For your entry to be considered for this contest, your FIGHTER (character) or STAGE (environment) entry must have its origins from an existing 2D or 3D fighting game. From there, you will develop or update the character or environment to your liking.
    • For instance:
      • Backstory changes reflected in to your reinterpretation. (E.g.: Ryu from the year 3,030. Mortal Kombat's "The Dead Pool" STAGE reimagined in to swamp of acid. The backstory itself isn't important to winning this contest, just the direction or inspiration you to take for your chosen FIGHTER or STAGE)
      • Use a different art style or design philosophy for your FIGHTER or STAGE  (E.g. Cinder redesigned and visualized with Streat Fighter 4's visual style, Capcom vs. SNK's 'Pro Metro City' recreated with a water-colour inspired visual style.)
      • Both!?
  • All artwork must be original and made specifically for this contest. No artwork previous created before this contest will be considered for final voting & judging.
  • Environment artists will likely need the majority of this time to create their STAGES. While 7 weeks is plenty for character artists to bust out a FIGHTER. So, you're welcome to submit more than one FIGHTER if you wish to do so. And yes, if you have the time and energy you may enter more than one STAGE as well.

 

 

 

Presenting & Submitting Your Entries

Creating your entries will go as follows:

  • Character artists will create a thread in the Contest & Challenges forum with the prefix of [FIGHTER] added to their thread title.
    • Your thread title must contain the prefix, the game your FIGHTER appeared in, your FIGHTER's name, and your Polycount user name.. (Example: [FIGHTER] Killer Instinct, TJ COMBO, Greentooth). If you can put your FIGHTER's name in capitals, we'd appreciate it. It's no biggie if you forget ;)
    • Inside of this thread you will show your work-in-progress shots as you develop them.
    • NOTE: Your entry will NOT be considered if you do not show your development process along the way.
    • For reference you must include an image of your original FIGHTER selection as they appeared in the chosen fighting game.
  • Environment artists will create a thread in the Contest & Challenges forum with the prefix of [STAGE] added to their thread title.
    • Your thread title must contain the prefix, the game it is from, your chosen STAGE's name/description and your Polycount user name (+ your partner's user name if applicable). (Example: [STAGE] Virtua Fighter 4, GYMNASIUM, Greentooth + Pen 15 Tank). If you can put your STAGE's name in capitals, we'd appreciate it. It's no biggie if you forget ;)
    • Inside of this thread you will show your work-in-progress shots as you develop them.
    • NOTE: Your entry will NOT be considered if you do not show your development process along the way.
    • For reference you must include an image of your chosen STAGE selection as it appeared in the chosen fighting game.

 

Submitting & Presenting your Entry:

When it comes time to submit your entry, there will be 1 single thread for you to post your submission images to per category (One thread for FIGHTERS, one thread for STAGES). When it's time, you will post your contest submission images in that thread. Your submission images will be as follows:

FIGHTERS (character artists):

  • Create a reply in the FIGHTERS SUBMISSION thread. State your FIGHTER's name, the game they appeared in, and include an image of that original FIGHTER from that chosen game. From there, you will include your submission images:
  • You will submit 2 beauty shots, 1 'comp image', 1 'spec image' and 1 texture image for your texture passes.
    • Beauty Shot #1 and #2
      • Must be on an a 1680x1050 image.
      • Your character in their entirety must be visible.
      • Your name, your Polycount Member name, your characters name, and the fighting game they originated from legible within this image.
      • Pose your FIGHTER however you'd like for these two beauty shots. With that said, T-poses are boring. This is a fighting game competition so get creative!
      • Must adhere to the lighting guidelines for Beauty Shots noted above in the Character Spec list.
    • Comp image
      • This picture will be used in the winner announcement images. This will NOT be used for final judging.
        • Winner announcement images will be FIGHTER vs. FIGHTER with a contest STAGE as the background.
        • Think of it as if we're mocking up a fighting game using contest FIGHTERS on a contest STAGE.
        • After the contest (or even during) if you'd like to super impose your FIGHTER on another members STAGE, you're more than welcome to do so. Those images, however, will NOT be used for voting in this contest and is to be considered for your own personal use only.
      • As such, we'd like it to be as high a resolution as possible without exceeding 1920x1080.
      • This image must either be in PSD, PNG or TGA format image where your FIGHTER is on a separate layer (or masked in an alpha channel)
      • This image will contain your character, posed in a fighting stance. (Ready to attack, attacking, jumping, however you'd like them to be.)
      • No background, text, image filters and so on. Just a clean image of your posed FIGHTER separated from the background.
      • The easier you can make it for us to mask your FIGHTER from the image, the better!
      • Must adhere to the lighting guidelines for Comp Shots noted above in the Character Spec list. This character may be used with an environment that is being lit and presented entirely in a REAL-TIME engine. If your character is lit with enhanced lighting on a real-time environment, they will look out of place.
    • Spec image
      • This spec image will contain a wireframe example of you work.
      • On the same image, please include a front & back view of your FIGHTER
      • Your total triangle count for your FIGHTER must be legible on this image.
      • Your name, your Polycount Member name, your characters name, and the fighting game they originated from must be legible within this image.
    • Texture Example image
      • This will be a single 512x512 image that shows all your texture passes. So if your FIGHTER was created with a DIF, SPEC, NORMAL and EMISSIVE, your 512x512 image could be split in to 128x512 vertical columns; one for each pass. We don't need to see the textures in their entirety, just proof/samples of each.

STAGES (environment artists):

  • Create a reply in the STAGES SUBMISSION thread. State your STAGES name/description, the game they appeared in, and include an image of that original FIGHTER from that chosen game. From there, you will include your submission images:
  • You will submit 2 beauty shots, 1 'construction image' and 1 texture image for your texture passes.
    • Beauty Shot #1
      • Your stage must be made as visible as possible. Try and not block the view with too many foreground elements, if any.
      • For this shot, try and have a body-level perspective on the environment. (4-5 feet off the ground, perpendicular to your environment).
      • Choose from one of three 16:9 resolutions (the higher the better!):
        • 1920x1080
        • 1600x900
        • 1280x720
    • Beauty Shot #2
      • Your STAGE must be made as visible as possible. Try and not block the view with too many foreground elements, if any.
      • For this shot, try and have a ground-level perspective on the environment. (0.25-1.5 feet off the ground, perpendicular to your environment).
      • Choose from one of three 16:9 resolutions (the higher the better!):
        • 1920x1080
        • 1600x900
        • 1280x720
    • Construction Image
      • This construction image will be a pull-away/angled shot of your environment, or a birds-eye view, so people can see how you layed out your art work to be a fighting game STAGE.
      • Your total triangle count for your STAGE must be legible on this image.
      • Your name, your Polycount Member name, your STAGE's name/description and the fighting game it is originally from must be legible on this image.
    • Texture Image
      • This will be a single 512x512 image that shows all your texture passes. So if your STAGE was created with DIFs, SPECs, NORMALs and EMISSIVEs, your 512x512 image could be split in to 128x512 vertical columns; one for each pass. We don't need to see all of the textures you made, just proof/samples of each.

 

 

 

 

Judging

Judging for the BRAWL Tournament will not begin until after the initial public vote. The public vote will not happen until the contests deadline is met. Judging for this contest will be a points system for 3 areas of videogame art creation:

  1. Technical Achievement - Poly flow, deformation, face modeling, optimizations, usage of your triangle limitation, resourceful use of your limitations, and so on.
  2. Brief Critia - Did you simply recreate your FIGHTER or STAGE or did you take the time to re-imagine them while still keeping true to who or where they are. (Ken with Mech Boots isn't really a stretch of the imagination. However, Ken as a Space Cowboy ala Firefly or Han Solo is quite the reinterpretation.)
  3. Approach & Execution- How creative were you as an artist? How is the overall look and feel? How successfully does it compliment or contrast your selected FIGHTER or STAGE?

 

Prizes

Prizes for the BRAWL Tournament are fairly simple: There aren't any.

If you entered this contest for some cash, a gift card, some t-shirts or hardware then you've come to the wrong place. At Polycount we try and push each other as artists and superficial items will not be your motivation this time around. Will we have prizes in the future? Perhaps, but for now Polycount's BRAWL Tournament is for the sake of videogame art alone.

 

DISCLAIMER
All characters, environments, screenshots and IP's depicted here belong to their respective owners and are shown as examples only.
Any and all 3D characters, 3D environments and images created by Polycount Member's for this contest are owned solely by the artist and are submitted to this contest as fan art. Polycount or Polycount.com does not, and will not take ownership of any submitted materials on or within its domain. This contest is FREE to enter and is not for profit.
We're simply videogame artists who love creating fan art.

 

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