Polycount - Generals - [Daz]

Daz

Oh what the hell.....

"Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God, how I love it."

-General George Patton

Neo_God

Sweetness! I don't know how Polycount is going to loose this one.

lorddon

Good lord! Daz now too?
Ok, whereTF is SouL? With him our victory will be not only probable but certain.

-LD

Spark

Awesome to see you joining in this Daz! Can't wait to see what comes outta this.

Spark

MoP

You can do it Daz
Make us proud!

Daz

Very quick playaround in OC. Not sure where Im going with this yet. The obvious disadvantage of a mount is Im effectively halving my polys for the general. Still, 2,500 for each should be managable

MoP

wow nice quick start there
check your PM's

Asthane

[ QUOTE ]
Very quick playaround in OC. Not sure where Im going with this yet. The obvious disadvantage of a mount is Im effectively halving my polys for the general. Still, 2,500 for each should be managable

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah! But you see, it says you have unlimited specs for the platform

KDR_11k

Also you can have an optional vehicle in addition to the platform and general. But I suppose that makes the vehicle something that won't be voted on so I'd leave the mount as part of the general. Anyway, we can use normalmaps, 2.5k should be enough for a lot of detail then.

Asthane

Or hey, you could even make the mount part of the general

Er, wait, Rockstar already has a more awesome demon than I could ever do, I don't need centaur competition too >.<

Mark Dygert

Luke you must go to dagobah to complete your concept...

gauss

yeah the mount's going to make the pcount budget tighter, but it also helps make it easier to show that he's a big badass general. i'll be watching you Daz, heavyhitters like you aren't allowed to flake on this compo!

Daz

aight, the Luke comment made me go back to the drawing board, probably for the best. Scribbled this up this morning:

Soon after Commander Pterra lost his wings in the Great Battle Of The High Plains, he was promoted to General. He uses a custom modified version of the SkyWing II for extremely fast transportation around the Battlefield. It has a holographic HUD for total observation of the War. Any controversy surrounding his newly appointed rank was quickly dispelled when it became clear that his tremendous tactical instinct, speed and ferocity proved fatal for any adversaries.

Cubik

Hmm, you could intergrate that flier with his head and upperbody placing the main parts on his back, engine thrust a bit back, while strengthening his wings to allow them to change directions.
The HUD doesn't really work when he has to look down on his flier, might place it on his head where is usally is placed (or on the windshield). However he could be a sneaky high-height assasin-bomber and the flier might be see-through. Or make him more feral, right now he looks a little like a mischievious uncle.

Having a hard time seeing where you want to take this right now, but I'll definatly constantly check your progress on this since I know what you have made in the past .

Daz

I haven't really 'designed' anything in ages so any past work is a bit irrelevant as a point of comparison. I dunno about feral. Dog themes seem to be prevalent elsewhere in the contest, but the other stuff is good food for thought thanks. I'll have a re-think.

Cubik

Meant feral as in ferocious, dirty and mangy, not the actual dogs.

Daz

ah ok.

?

JKMakowka

Very honest oppinion up until now?
Team up with a great concept artist

Daz

Whilst that would be the easy option, and of course get me a better result, thats not what this contest is about for me. In the job Ive had for a long time, Ive not had to do much in the way of conceptual design.
So entering this is about pushing myself, revitalising long lost ( or non existent ) skillsets and above all it's meant to feel like fun, not work. If I were to just make another model well duh, I can make models. That's a known quantity.
But thanks for your er 'critique'. Very useful. I'd look forward to seeing what you come up with, but you're probably too busy trolling the boards in an attempt to discourage people enough to give up.

rawkstar

hehe dude, just come up with something cool, i totally agree, thats why i love contests, theres no one here to tell you what to do and not to do, just make up your own thing

Ninjas

I think these are cool and I wouldn't get down on yourself yet. Just keep working the concept. I like the 2nd one you posted because it has some cool original ideas in it, and it is something other people aren't doing. What I think it needs is to be bigger and more badass. I think that the size of the character's head makes his body and vehicle look small.

JordanW

Daz, i look forward to seeing what you can design, one thing you may want to try is getting straight up loose and messy with your initial drawings, it can help you find interesting shapes and such. I really wouldnt worry about making as refined of drawings as your previous two posts at first. Simply drawing silloutes with a thick brush in PS or painter can help with this process as well. Anything that will get your focus off of the small details and more on the overall feel and shapes of the character.

poopinmymouth

One thing that really helped me was to think of the characters motivation, and the universe she lived in. Maybe try to come up with an idea of an interesting setting or character archetype first, and then slowly start to refine the looks and rules that would apply, and let that guide your shapes and ideas.

I really want to see a Dazpants original, so don't listen to numbnuts, I mean Makowka. 8-)

Daz

OK good tips guys thanks. I used to have ideas and be able to draw once. You know, a long time ago, B.E.A

Will play around some more tommora. Going out to get drunk now. Perhaps that'll help and I'll do some scribbling later.

okkun

Being stuck in a production environment for too long does bad things to your traditional art skills, I can't even get close to my drawing skills from 10 years ago.

Lol, I just wrote this post on focusing on silhouettes and not fuction but I guess I should have read all the posts..

So, anyway lots of rough sketches first, I try to do atleast 10 thumbnails before I even pick a general direction(then I usually screw up and start modeling before I'm done, which is a bad idea). If you've done that please post it, doesn't matter if it's complete garbage doodles, we all know you can do the art.

Mark Dygert

I like the first concept you did, I didn't mean to scare you off the trail. I was mostly commenting on the fact that it was so undefined and vague. It does look a touch like a tauntun, but then a tauntaun looks like a furry T-Rex. i really think you should revisit the first concept since it is unique and just needs some love. If you remove the side horn coming from the jaw it would take care of my main tauntaun concern.

Suggestions to help get those creative thoughts flowing again. (since I seem to have killed them)
You might be able to combine the two ideas you have going now? Instead of a flyer put him on a dino like thing? I see him standing on its back not sitting. Or sitting like a jockey would? Maybe put him on a mini throne surrounded by a force field, kind of like the pope mobile. Or how about drop the mount and have one of those chariots they used to carry kings and queens in? The type with 4 man servants on each of the 4 corners. But instead have jet thrusters on each of the corners. Or maybe it could be like an old horse drawn coach but more of a hovering mobile command unit (with no horse, but has a driver?). Have a little tower he can crawl up inside to survey the battle. Gun ports and cannons on the sides? It could be like a modern day civil war wagon.

Something people keep forgetting is these are generals not the troops fighting. Yes great generals have fought along side their troops and on the front lines before, but mostly in History. This be the future people... They don't have to be surrounded by power armor and have eye scars. I have yet to see a psychic who uses their mind to give troops orders telepathically. Some hot psychic chick maybe with alpha channel waves coming from her head? She could have blood coming out of her nose and an intense look of concentration.

It might even be refreshing to see a concept like the brain bug from StarShip Troopers. Something with no fighting prowls at all. The only thing that makes it a general is its brain and tactical sense. But I guess everyone on both sides wants to make a general that gets their hands dirty or rose thru the ranks (read: power armor with eye scar). Those types of generals get sniped by mine.

It might be best to keep your brains off the swords of the enemy.

arshlevon

i find the problem with sketches ( me not being a concept artist and all) is that they never quite come out like they are in my head. and i know whatever might be lacking i can make up for in model and texture. but you cant always convey that idea to other people, so where they see a lacking concept, you know exactly what you mean, even if you didnt spend time rendering every nuance. i have zero patience when it comes to drawing, i forced myself to render out decent concepts for this comp and it was the most unpleasent expereance ever. i have so much faith in your skills you could of posted a crayon drawing of a glow in dark monkey masturbating on naked old man and i would thought, damn i cant wait to see him model that. because i know the edgeloops are going to be perfect, and the texture is going to be spot on.
i am sure whatever you come up with we will like.
*cough*mecha-connery*cough*

JKMakowka

Lol, way to go Daz (lighten up a little will ya?).

I was just beeing a heretic to all the Daz fanboyism around here (yeah I really admire your skills too) and conteracting that was done to make your realize that your concepts posted in this thread are not so great... it's all for Polycount, right? (And harsh critizisem will make you work harder ).

P.S.: I am chickening out and don't even enter anything. Too much other stuff to do right now (and I suck).

JKMakowka

Ok after reading your comment in the other thread ('just give up') I will make some constructive critizism:

1. Concept: as already mentioned too stereotypic starwars-ish
2. Concept: The glider looks too 'bad 60ties Sci-fi parody ish' and overall it lacks mass. All of it seems flimsy and the creature looks more like one of those 'shoot down a dozen' annoying flying creatures you would find in a Unreal game than a general.
3. Concept: That seems like a good mount or something, but not like a general at all. And if it was a mount, it would be way to big compared to the general, thus shifting the focus away from the main point of the contest.

Ideas suggestions etc:
Go for a more gritty realistic approach as there is already to many deamon/fantasy/strange alien/perverse mutation entries in this competition.
What about a general of a mercenary army from a distant outlandish human colony or a space pirate like fleet?
What about taking up current space suit designs and morphing them into something more futurish (wenn looking really ancient and run down/fixed a lot, it would maybe fit to the background storys above).

Or what about something Battletech/Mechwarrior like? (the stand could be the top of a mech or something like that).

Just because currently everybody is doing a strange zbrush alien doesn't mean you have to do also.

gavku

Dude if your after ideas there's heaps that no one has touched: A more marine like hybid (I know there is a crab) but I mean like an undersea general. I'm also surprised that no one seems to have gone toward a necromancer/dark magic angle.
Also what about the little guy with supreme intelligence..alien or otherwise.

kite

I think your first concept has juice, it just needs some twist to differentiate it from SW. Perhaps role reversal? the beast is a horribly distorted human (or a whole family of humans) and the rider some kind of lizardy type thing. Optionally try making random silhouettes, they're a good quick way of busting out of a creative block.

BoBo_the_seal

Yeah the dino-rider kicks ass

- BoBo

-kube-

I agree, would love to see the mounted character.

danr

i completely understand where daz thinks he's at ... after so long with my head stuck up a schedule or a bug database, i can't even begin to pluck a non-generic concept out of my head, i must have thrown out about 10 so far. However, i'm thinking :

agree with what others ^^ have said about the dino-rider. It has a classical, inspiring, (anti?)heroic feel about it, that seems more in keeping with the contest theme than some of the self-consciously wacky ideas that are knocking around the place, especially around my desktop.

To my mind, there's nothing wrong with a well-worn theme if it does the "war general" job down to a tee. And as long as your bloke isn't wearing a parka and the mount doesn't go "munner munner munner" while it's running along, i'm sure you'll be fine

Daz

OK thanks for all your help guys. Definitely some good thought provoking stuff in here. Dan's right though. After a week of trying desperately hard to come up with something original, you're just too conscious of it and can't think straight. It's the same feeling as not being able to sleep 'cos you're too conscious of the fact that you can't sleep!

Some more scribbling and I'm still not too much closer to finding something that I like enough to sit down and spend days creating. However, something is compelling me to model a skinny humanoid and there are enough fatties elsewhere in the contest, so I think I'm leaning toward the evil skinny Nazi SS thang with Napoleonic and Mad Max influences thrown in Might do a more finished sketch or might just start making stuff.

MoP

daz daz daz that new one is awesome! i like the idea of a freaky thin dude, and napoleonic and mad max influences are only gonna pile on the quality
go go go! get a solid design down and flex your meshing muscles, knock us all for six!

Ninjas

There is nothing original under the sun, and if there is it probably sucks or someone would have thought of it already (on the other hand, some people could say my stuff is pretty generic). The point of doing a comp like this is to work on a character you like! This new stuff looks interesting.

okkun

These latest ones have way more attitude, not as original maybe but I agree with what Ninjas said. I also like that they seem more rough, I have to kick myself to not start filling in details.

Josh_Singh

one thing I will say for originality, It's overrated. Do something cliche and do it better than anyone's ever done it, and it's not cliche anymore. It's magic.
I fear your skills Daz.

Mark Dygert

Nice! I think you are really starting to hit a groove. I feel your skills starting to shine thru this last series of sketches.

I just finished watching a special on The Learning Channel about feral children. I think it would ROCK if you had a doctor patient combo, sort of brains meets brawn, trainer meets wild animal. Maybe have it take on a more twisted theme and have the doctor do evil experiments in sort of a Return to Castle Wolfentien sort of theme? His entire army could be a patch work of dead bodies, chemical treatments and brainwashing His prize creation, mount and most lethal weapon being his fiercest of monstrosities?

Scott Ruggels

Skinny S.S. dude! with napoleonic flair, but then think about the environments he's going to be in. Can he get in and out of a small hatch>? can he hold a conversation with other officers? does he look like a leader of men/women/monsters?

It was the production environment that srove me into my own little universes in my head, sort of a reflex from a stressfull homelife and a loathing of school at the time, just updated. I have places for my mind to water and enjoy the flowers, trees, clifsand giant monsters, but yeah my drawing skills have deteriorated quite a bit. I used to make money as a comic book inker if you can believe that,. but yeah, you need constant practice to keep the drawing skills up.

Scott

Scott

Daz

Got bored of drawing so started fleshing out a head. I think I'll go back to concept once I've a head I'm happy with

Daz

Ok haven't had much time to play with this. Revamped the face. That last effort was nowhere near evil Nazi Gestapo type. Everybody knows that thin lips are inherently evil!

MoP

They certainly are! He looks much more evil now, lots of character... nice work

Valandar

The faint smile and squinty eyes are just CREEPY...

Tulkamir

It's called a pedosmile

(Great model btw, deffinatly has the look for an evil general going on so far.)

Zcubed

Oh man, Tulkamir beat me to it!

This is looking great, Daz. I can already see a lot of character in the face. I'm expecting nothing but the best from you after watching that killer demo reel .

arshlevon

tons of character there Daz, awesome.

Daz

Blocking out some basic shapes and proportions back in maya.

Hey Nosferatu! Napoleon called and he wants his costume back!!1

poopinmymouth

I'd hit it.

Daz

Isn't it past your bedtime young man?