LPC: Time 2 Die
polycounter lvl 17
Just what the hell is this contest!?
Our goal with Time 2 Die is to create a low-poly competition with loose rules so that its as fun to create the artwork as it is to view the final results. The only limits will be on the art work on an individual level, the final frame and what it entails is entirely up to you and your partner, if you choose to team up.
Team up? What are you on about here?
For this contest, you're more than welcome to enter a low-poly Survivor and/or Zombie individually as a piece but what we'd LOVE to see is a collaborative effort between character & environment artists and see who can portray a 'ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE' story: Your SURVIVORS are defending their SAFE HOUSE as its under attack by ZOMBIES (small group, huge horde... its up to you).
So, if you'd like to make a SURVIVOR, ZOMBIE or SAFE HOUSE and submit them separately that is up to you. However, we'd love to see these elements combined for some seriously bad-ass zombie stomping!
Rules:
- It's the Zombie Apocalypse. Either create the SURVIVOR(S), ZOMBIE(S), their SAFE HOUSE or package the entire thing up and tell a bad ass ZOMBIE story.
- Up to 2 people may work on this and will be judged as such (either individually if submitted by yourself or as a team, depending on how you submit your work)
- 1 character artist & 1 environment artist per team
- You may get your concepts from anywhere or anyone, but they will not count towards the final judging. The sole purpose of your concept is to drive the project
- Diffuse + opacity texture ONLY
- Any lighting method you'd prefer is acceptable, within reason
- No advanced methods like GI baking, ambient occlusion, or even light maps
- Shadow casting (ray-traced only), omni/directional/spot lights are fine
- Your skybox texture does not count towards any of the spec limitations listed below.
- Be sure to think about how you handle this. An extremely high-res skybox may contrast your low-poly scene too much and not properly portray the background.
- Absolutely *NO* post work in Photoshop for effects, atmosphere, touch-ups
- Bloom, HDR lighting, colour correction, etc. is not allowed.
- Adding text or a letter-box is fine
- You must have a WIP thread in the Contests & Challenges forum
- Format your subject as such: 'LPC Time 2 Die - [name]'
- You must show progress in your thread in order to be considered for this contest officially
- And before you ask us... FAST ZOMBIES or SLOW ZOMBIES, we don't care. We just want to see some F*CKING ZOMBIES!
- If a member of the Polycount Admin & Mod team should win this contest, they'll give their T-shirts away to whomever wins second place.
Submitting your entry to the contest:
- There will be a thread stickied where you will submit your entry
- List your name (and the name of your team-mate if applicable)
- The name of your scene (or survivor/zombie/environment individually if applicable)
- 1 post in this thread per individual entry / team entry
- 2 beauty shots @ 800x600
- jpeg or animated gif if you'd like
- character & environment technical sheets
- posed character + wireframe
- entire environment overview + wireframe
- overall screen shot
- all props laid out
- texture sheets shown for characters
- combined texture sheet for environment textures
- DO NOT SHOW YOUR CONCEPTS/REFERENCES
- The specs listed below are outlining the MAXIMUM resolutions. If you'd like to go lower, by all means - please do!
Character specs, per survivor/zombie:
- Survivor(s) or Zombie(s), or both
- Roughly 800 triangles total PER CHARACTER, this includes player model + accessories and/or weapons.
- 128x128 maximum per character model
- 64x64 per accessory/weapon
Environment specs:
- Must show the SAFE HOUSE of a small group of survivors
- Showing its surrounding area is a bonus, but not a requirement
- Roughly 5000 triangles total for the environment
- 512x512 maximum texture usage for entire environment
- 128x128 maximum per individual texture
Effects/Particles/Atmosphere specs:
- 256x256 total for all effects/particles/atmosphere artwork
- triangle count is unlimited
Entire scene (character + environment) specs:
- There aren't any so long as the individual elements are within their limits, which are defined above.
- You can have as many characters in your scene at once
OK, I've done the work and I'd really like to win. Wait... I will win something, right?
Ya, you bet! We're going to give the winner 2 Polycount t-shirts: 1 Classic Polycount shirt from 'back in the day' and 1 'I LOVE PC' t-shirt. This will be either for the individual that wins or split between the winning team.
Dead Line:
Dec 14th, 2008 11:59pm PST
Now go make some f*cking zombie goodness...
Replies
.. now any environment artist wanna team up ?
oohoohhh pick me! i got tons of free time at work and seeing that the computer at work doesent have enought power for my high-poly need it would be perfect for an lpc
Smoke can be chalked up under a particle effect so look @ those specs
eg. removable limbs, head, headgear etc
as long as it fits into the appropriate texture sheet and poly limit?
i wanna try this, but i doubt i have this much time on my hands.
schoolwork angers me lol
good luck to all who participate!
sounds awesome!
so do i HAVE to make an opacity for the smoke/haze or can i use max's or the unreal editor's fog/volume fog to make it
"Any lighting method you'd prefer is acceptable"
I don't really see how this fits with a Low Poly challenge. It kind of goes against the inherent restrictions and limitations found in all other aspects of the contest. Won't this mean somebody with exceptional rendering skills can simply compensate for some extreme shortcuts they took in the modeling and texturing stage, such as completely leaving out any painted in/vertex baked GI or radiosity; then having a pretty high class lighting package carry all the weight for them?
: | DIRP
Uly, sure. But GI bakes with low-poly art will look like balls. I'll define that part of the rules a bit more as you brought up good points.
been watching over the shoulders of people from work tho, seems intense! (not as intense as NHL09 that is my current lunch-addiction
Im particularly interested in seeing wireframes.
I´ve never worked with things this lowpoly before (or done that many characters although i am getting into it) so im curious on the whole thing. Browsing through the lowpoly thread as we speak.
ae.: I covered it in the rules
I think it has to be reinforced but it´s up to da bosses.
What does "Roughly 800 triangles" mean?
805 or 850?
Seems like it opens it up a bit.
no idea if i should do zombie or survivor
"heh im probably the only one inte the world who is yet to play this game"
so this is a game?
Good question. I would also like to know what it means. What's the use of specifying a polycount if you say "roughly"?!
IMO, allowing teams, but then only allowing each person to do specific things, is kind of unbalanced, considering a lowpoly character takes a lot less time/effort than a whole scene.
Great! In that case I will use 899 tris and defend the reason fer every one of em! :poly142:
Can someone explain this? Other than that, I'll be good to go, thanks.
you cannot exceed a resolution of 128x128 for each texture your environment consists of