New concepts will be chosen at the start of June
Previous Challenge Thread
The Bi-Monthly CHARACTER ART Challenge | April-May
hero character
Welcome to the Bi-Monthly Character Art Challenge!
How it works
- Every new challenge, 3 Character Concepts will be provided
- Pick one concept to work on for the duration of the challenge and post your progress here!
- Complete a 3D game res model of your chosen concept
Guidelines
- Help other artists grow! When you post an update, also leave a critique for someone else. Share knowledge you have learned
- There are no software restrictions; you're welcome to use as little, or as many different software packages as you like.
- There
are no polygon or texture restrictions, it can be a 3,000 triangle hand
painted model or a 100,000 triangle current gen model. Just make sure
the final result is a game model, not a sculpt!
- You are welcome to cross post on different sites (Artstation, Facebook, etc.) for additional feedback
- Before starting your character, break down the concept and plan your work accordingly. Being able to effectively estimate how long it will take to complete a project is an important skill, especially for freelance artists.
- Your final presentation should be posed and rendered in any real time engine. (Marmoset, UE4, Unity, etc.)
- Don't be afraid to ask questions, but don't hesitate to find the answer on your own - chances are, the answer to your problem has already been answered within these forums
- If you feel anything should be modified or added to these guidelines, please let me know!
Resources
- Polycount Character Wiki
- Polycount Tutorial List
- Monthly Character Art Challenge Pinterest Boards
- Polycount Character Art Challenge Facebook Group
Concepts
Please credit and link to the artists when posting on other sites!
Daniel Anders by Chocoshrooms, drawing by sandflake-adoptables
(Please credit both if using this concept)
(Please credit both if using this concept)
How concepts are chosen:
- Trying to keep it consistently one male character, one female and one other non-human (robot, creature, humanoid, etc)
- Trying to keep the 3 concepts look like they are part of a theme or could fit in similar universe.
- Concepts must be full body and clearly drawn. There shouldn't be a lot of guesswork on what the details or proportions are. Turnarounds are a good thing to have, but not required
- Concepts shouldn't be too complex or too simple to allow people to get them done in the time-frame while also finding something interesting and giving a challenge.
- Must be able to link back to the original source artist to they can be properly credited, places like Pinterest can lead to link rot. If I cannot find the source or original artist, the art will not be used
- If
you are a concept artist and want your concept removed or want to
create a concept for a future challenge please feel free to contact me.
- If you have any suggestions of themes you would like to see in the future, send me a message!
Replies
Maybe If you pick something interesting and visual appealing someone can actually participate in this challenges
I have been noticing that most of illustrations are either stylized , anime or asian looking maybe some variety will help too
Also if this is for beginner character artist starting a model from illustration in a wired forshortening pose is probably not a good idea (ortho or multiple views could a much better choice )
Also regarding these points:
I have been noticing that most of illustrations are either stylized , anime or asian looking maybe some variety will help too
Also if this is for beginner character artist starting a model from illustration in a wired forshortening pose is probably not a good idea (ortho or multiple views could a much better choice )
I hope that clears some things up!
Let examine 3 concept art/illustration : first some emo magician flying/laying dude , that could easyly be turn in to 3d
Second fashion model/business lady multi arm monstrosity ,there is simple not enough place to connect all this extra arm , whole thing wont work in 3d (I checked this artist and he have rather disturbing stuff like stabbing female in the face and fetish to sharp objects so maybe double check who you promoting next time )
Third icecream biker girl , I guess there is nothing wrong with her if you ignore mini motorcycle bag but it contradict one of guide lines of how concept is picked "Concepts must be full body and clearly drawn. There shouldn't be a lot of guesswork on what the details or proportions are."
About the challenge itself its a good idea (I use to do participate in similar challenges back when cghub was still alive) but currently its not very popular and almost nobody is finishing their model My data is from the last 4 challenges so I don't know if this was the case before
Maybe 2 months is too long and ppl simple forget to finish or just leave it for later as there is more time and challenge is not a priority, you could try to change challenge duration to month or 2/3/5/6 weeks to see what will work best
I am sure more ppl get discouraged when they post few times and no one reply/comment .There are a lot of experienced artist here maybe few can donate 5-10 min a day/week to help others
Also this is a challenge with no winner/loser or much point of participating especially if non of more experience artist are willing to share they knowledge , ppl could just do your own stuff , maybe adding some small incentive to those who finish will be enough for ppl to participate like : professional portfolio review or professional tips on how to improve and how/what you have to do to became the artist you want to be or just flashy avatar saying your are the king of character challenge for a month
One more thing style doesn't really matter you could take on of those and turn in into realistic 3d model if you want . Story is whats important for a character ,maybe this should be part of the challenge making backstory for your character so you know him better and start caring
Above 3 characters are take out of context no backstory they don't even have names ,as I said before subtitle could give some idea about link between them ,also few line for each where are they coming from what is their connection why are they in the challenge
Looking forward to seeing what people come up with!
Hey, I was going to point out that I have an issue with recent char. designs in the challenge as they all appear to be a male warrior, a female warrior and some robot thing. There are so many more characters I think people would find interesting. For example a trashman, a tennis player (sport themed maybe), rock climber, tuba player, etc.
However, I see this month the theme has finally headed in a different direction and I am eager to catch some free time to participate. Hope we can keep the diversity going and stay away from the more generic game characters, at least for a while
The artist has an incredibly large body of work and most all of it is very down to earth and tasteful, I don't know where you got "fetish" from at all. I also can't seem to find the piece you mentioned re: stabbing a woman in the face. It certainly isn't a recurring theme in his work.
Such shameful work on his portfolio like a few storyboards for Vanity Fair and Huawei, 10 comic books, and a bunch of nice varied character designs. No idea why you're jumping to slander this guy.
Anyway. I like the concepts chosen this time around, it was refreshing to see some nice clean character design work for the female half, and the more pop-art concept from Sandflake is cool (though... I will mention that the creator of the design is not actually Sandflake-- This is just a commission to draw a character from Chocoshrooms [DA], who I hope was asked for permission too).
I agree that the Goddess of Misfits not having a front-facing ref is... Kind of a tough ask. It's a really out-there concept, so asking 3D artists to interpret an entire front-facing side seems like a recipe for trouble.
These critiques and arguments aside I really like the choices this time around and hope some people find the time to join in!
I don't normally ask, mostly due to putting these together the day before or the day of and I'm trying to keep these going roughly on time. I'm strict about always make sure there is a source though, and if an artist did have a policy about not using their designs or contact me about a design that's being used I'll be sure to respect their wishes. Since this whole thing is being done purely for learning and fun (no prizes or money are involved) there usually aren't issues if credit is given. I understand that it's not always the most desirable situation and asking is best, if people feel really strongly about having concepts that require permission first, I will make an effort to pick stuff ahead of time and get people's permission from that point onward.
@Blendermonkey Glad you dig the concepts and thanks for the suggestion! I'll look in to the sports theme for the next challenge!
Maybe, it is possible to resolve it in 3D. Not sure if the original artist even knows what it would look like detailed with a front view. The problem would be how the eye slots in the forehead.
The forehead is nearly a flat plane on a female. Looking at Indian art they mostly place the eye vertically above nose. But, this is horizontal.
Right now I just have the initial sculpt in zbrush for the body and hair. I am planning on just sculpting the pants on in zbrush. The rest are just low-poly models in maya.
I want to start this soo much.. but I think I won't be able to finish it in time
Also If I start this I must abbandon the project I'm working on now
but I waaant thiiis !!! What should I do??!!
As 'Hard to Interpret the face" really? aren't you all artists, interpret it how you see it. challenge yourselves. also you all can check the artists works and interpret the face from his other works.
@Gam3B0y Don't worry the, the challenge will be here, you can always pick it up later! I always try to encourage people to go beyond the deadline if they want to finish a piece, you can even post here if you want. Your current project looks great, I would try to finish that first as it's already so far long.
Hey! thanks for encouraging words )
I'll definitely try
BTW, is there any rules how I should model the character? can I use base mesh or kitbash from other character I made (for example use pants of different character, etc..)
PS: sorry for big ammount of questions!