Dominance War II - return of concept general GAUSS
polycounter lvl 18
drifting, but not dead. COME ON YOU SLAGS!
hi kids! it's Dominance War time, and i know what you've been thinking: how could gauss possibly help out--he's in the middle of traveling around the world, after all, and the new rule about one entry per person seem to preclude his involvement like last year. what solution could there be in these dark times?!
while it's true that i am traveling, and in Thailand (where i'm at now) there don't seem to be many polycounters or easy available wacom tablets lying around, all hope is not lost. for starters, i've been banging away at my sketchbook for a while now in anticipation of this contest, and given the chance i'll get them scanned. or photograph them and have someone format and post them, if it comes to that.
but what about the new team rules? how can help out so many needy souls, if i can't team up with more than one person?
fortunately for us all, practically none of you bastards really even paid much attention to my concepts in the first Dominance War! hardly enough to call it a proper collaboration, at any rate.
and more to the point, Fred himself, the guy organizing this contest, has been solicting sketches in his own thread, without any hint of teaming up. so if you ask me, nothing has changed. i have no doubt that as before, you'll invariably ignore my concepts to some degree due to your own underdeveloped aesthetic sensibilities, and there'll be no problem with the teammate issue! (was that snarky enough for you?)
most importantly, i am still very nearly a genius in most all respects, so i don't see how not having access to a computer most of the time should stop me from helping out as much as i did last year
while the posting will be few and far between, i'm going to make a point of critiquing and suggesting as much as i can, just like always. if i can't always paint a picture to help, i'll still paint you a picture... with words. like, woah.
so for starters, here's some inspiration:
(click to enlarge)
that's all the concepting i did for the first War. there's a lot of ideas that either weren't followed through on and may prove inspiring for your effort this year, or some general styling cues that you might find worth investigating in order to make your character look appropriately polycount-y. you can check out my original Dominance War concept general thread as well, to track the evolution of some ideas.
additionally, the concept tag thread is really fun to look at (and participate in!)--i helped out a lot of people last year using this very same methodology. if i'm not able to 'tag' your concept for this year, why not ask someone else whose skills you respect take a crack at a concept tag? it's like asking for a paintover... but somewhat more free-form in execution
so for now, all i can leave you with is an exhortation to carefully iterate and consider your concepts as much as you can before you start on a mesh: i firmly believe it's a case of garbage in, garbage out with videogame characters. meaning that if you start with garbage, you'll end with garbage. it might be normal-mapped, well proportioned and generally well executed garbage at the end, but it'll still be garbage. look at all the winning entries from last year: something they all share in common is strong vision that was carefully executed, and (in several of them) iterated several times during the concept stage. look at mr. kite's Beef, one of my absolute favorites from last year: if he'd just gone with his first idea, Beef would never have been born at all. so please, take your time and think things through before you start 3d modeling in earnest.
"sketching" might even mean doing a simple mock-up model in 3D, if you're not much for sketching, by the way. early consideration will pay serious dividends later on.
hi kids! it's Dominance War time, and i know what you've been thinking: how could gauss possibly help out--he's in the middle of traveling around the world, after all, and the new rule about one entry per person seem to preclude his involvement like last year. what solution could there be in these dark times?!
while it's true that i am traveling, and in Thailand (where i'm at now) there don't seem to be many polycounters or easy available wacom tablets lying around, all hope is not lost. for starters, i've been banging away at my sketchbook for a while now in anticipation of this contest, and given the chance i'll get them scanned. or photograph them and have someone format and post them, if it comes to that.
but what about the new team rules? how can help out so many needy souls, if i can't team up with more than one person?
fortunately for us all, practically none of you bastards really even paid much attention to my concepts in the first Dominance War! hardly enough to call it a proper collaboration, at any rate.
and more to the point, Fred himself, the guy organizing this contest, has been solicting sketches in his own thread, without any hint of teaming up. so if you ask me, nothing has changed. i have no doubt that as before, you'll invariably ignore my concepts to some degree due to your own underdeveloped aesthetic sensibilities, and there'll be no problem with the teammate issue! (was that snarky enough for you?)
most importantly, i am still very nearly a genius in most all respects, so i don't see how not having access to a computer most of the time should stop me from helping out as much as i did last year
while the posting will be few and far between, i'm going to make a point of critiquing and suggesting as much as i can, just like always. if i can't always paint a picture to help, i'll still paint you a picture... with words. like, woah.
so for starters, here's some inspiration:
(click to enlarge)
that's all the concepting i did for the first War. there's a lot of ideas that either weren't followed through on and may prove inspiring for your effort this year, or some general styling cues that you might find worth investigating in order to make your character look appropriately polycount-y. you can check out my original Dominance War concept general thread as well, to track the evolution of some ideas.
additionally, the concept tag thread is really fun to look at (and participate in!)--i helped out a lot of people last year using this very same methodology. if i'm not able to 'tag' your concept for this year, why not ask someone else whose skills you respect take a crack at a concept tag? it's like asking for a paintover... but somewhat more free-form in execution
so for now, all i can leave you with is an exhortation to carefully iterate and consider your concepts as much as you can before you start on a mesh: i firmly believe it's a case of garbage in, garbage out with videogame characters. meaning that if you start with garbage, you'll end with garbage. it might be normal-mapped, well proportioned and generally well executed garbage at the end, but it'll still be garbage. look at all the winning entries from last year: something they all share in common is strong vision that was carefully executed, and (in several of them) iterated several times during the concept stage. look at mr. kite's Beef, one of my absolute favorites from last year: if he'd just gone with his first idea, Beef would never have been born at all. so please, take your time and think things through before you start 3d modeling in earnest.
"sketching" might even mean doing a simple mock-up model in 3D, if you're not much for sketching, by the way. early consideration will pay serious dividends later on.
Replies
as i've stated previously, and in my own wip thread. it isn't that i'm incapable of coming up with good ideas, and following through. it's that my sketching skills don't live up to the vision :P
Hitlermech ftw!
Pretty please with some sugar and a cookie?
I want to put some stylized images of the previous winners in my final piece. Is that allowed? I mean, the face of Mr Rockstar's General Corum on a flag, or something.
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This question is probably best asked in General Discussion, there are a few threads in there about the DomWar. Or better yet, head over to Game Artisans where most of the Dominance War action is happening and ask Fred personally if this is allowed. You'll get a more thorough response and quickly.
Gauss... Good to have you on board dude. I think without you last year, Polycount wouldn't have faired so well. Your crits and comments were invaluable and look forward to more words of wisdom from you.
-caseyjones
Heeeeellllp!
I don't know but i been told (i dont know but i been told!)
Gauss concepts are sol-lid gold! (gauss concepts are solid gold)...
COMPANY... HALT!
ABOUT FACE!
PRESENT PEN!
DRAW CONCEPT! Double time it, now!
since i'm a concept guy i thought it appropriate to help stimulate people when concepting is most important, which is at the beginning of things. and so here, in case you don't feel like reading all the posts i made today, is a short summary of my most oft-repeated advice giving:
-sketch and thumbnail--don't rush! as i say in this thread's first post--garbage in, garbage out. i know, art is very exciting, and you just want to get a concept you like and then paint it up in color and then get straight to modeling... but if you don't take the time to refine a good quality concept before you get going, you have no hope of having a good model. a house and it's foundations, etc. etc. you know why this is important.
-don't marry your first girlfriend. you remember her, right? when you were like 13? (or 37?) is that really who you want to spend the rest of your life banking on to see you through? of course not. and so accordingly, you also shouldn't get married, which is to say, too immediately invested or committed, to your first idea or concept. you want to have a good look at several good ideas before you put serious time into any of them. and if it turns out the first one was the best after all, what's the harm? you've proven that it's a good idea, and probably refined it along the way too. but chances are...
-your first idea is probably the most boring. not always; sometimes the muse strikes and your first idea will indeed be your best, but probably only because you were secretly harboring it for quite a long time. but generally speaking, whether it's your concept, or some particular aspect of your character concept (the hair, the armor, the gun, etc.), your first inclination is probably not the best, because in all likelihood it's just going to be you regurgitating something you've seen before. formulated yet another way, the most obvious solution to a design problem is also often going to be the most boring, or the most cliche, in almost all respects, probably bad.
this is not to support sheer novelty just for novelty's sake, but you've got to have something interesting to hold your viewer's attention. they have probably seen so, so many spacemarines in their life already, that when they see yours, with all the same characteristics and little design flourishes, their eyes will glaze over and they'll click over to the next thread.
okay, so ends a ridiculous day for a very wordy gauss. i won't be around like this every day, there's no way i could possibly manage to reply to everyone again even if i really wanted to (and my wrists are telling me i really don't), so here's where YOU come in. if everyone just drags up a random older thread every once in a while, then we can keep everyone feeling together and relevant and interested in their share of this competition. because at the end of the day, despite the hefty prize packages, it's really about building a better, more cohesive community.
also, to make fun of other forums with pages and pages of 'i'm in! reserved spot!' posts with no pictures and no replies.
No really, thanks for taking the time out today to write so many post and giving us all good advice.
http://www.dominancewar.com/2/readbrief/index.htm
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Feb 5th Update - Concept Artists do not count as a member in any team. However, they must put their Name and contact info (email and/or website) on their concept sheet(s).
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I know I asked about this to you in another friend but hell if I can remember which it was in.
Sorry if ya knew already.
Welcome back!