The Beast - Questions and Answers

r13 · Jan 2016

Any questions you have about the contest should be posted here. The Allegorithmic folks will be watching here and providing the answers.

The most common questions will be added to this post along with the replies.

leonano · Jan 2016

Are two person teams allowed to attempt the contest?

Jerc · Jan 2016

No team allowed on this one, sorry, since it consists in mostly one main asset.

Overmind5000 · Jan 2016

Are we permitted to use a Work-in-progress asset we put on the backburner? I can imagine use of completed past projects is out of the question, but I don't know about those that were incomplete.

Cai · Jan 2016

can it be a female beast ?

PyrZern · Jan 2016

Can the Beast be a fan art of other established things ??

Like, a character from Warframe, or ogre from Warcraft, or Hydralisk from Starcraft, or Isis from Ragnarok, or something.

Jerc · Jan 2016

The Beast can be pretty much anything you can think of that fits the profile, female beasts or fan art are welcome

Overmind5000 The asset is supposed to be an original creation. But nothing prevents you from starting off a base mesh you may already have lying around somewhere.

Harlyk · Jan 2016

Can we submit more than one beast ?

Johnny_Wuu · Jan 2016

Can we make hair or fur for the character? For example, to make a werewolf and to make it alived, we have to use hair and fur tools in maya or zbrush etc.
At the last stages, we need to use renderer like Vray to render the hair or fur out.
So, can that be allowed?

rohMizuno · Jan 2016

is vertex paint allowed?

SergioSantos · Jan 2016

Can we make "the Beauty and the Beast" instead of just the Beast?
I'd like to create both, the Beast and the beauty in the same pedestal,
otherwise the topic doesn't have any sense... it would be just a regular monster without the Beauty.

Saf · Jan 2016

Can we use someone else concept art?

jecastej · Jan 2016

Hi there! I'm sorry for a very pedestrian question but how do I upload an image from my desktop? The icon says "Image URL" but in the preview the image does not shows.

loretah · Jan 2016

Can we include the beauty with the beast?

Jerc · Jan 2016

Harlyk One beast per contestant.

rohMizuno It has to be actual textures, but nothing prevents you from painting polypaint and baking it to a texture at the end of the process.

Johnny_Wuu Hair and Fur must be part of the 100k triangles limit, so it would have to be modeled or baked down to geometry, no render-time fur please or the poly limit won't make any sense.

SergioSantos loretah It's the Beast only. One of the interesting aspects of this contest is the suggestion of Beauty, through the small backstory posted with the asset, or through subtle hints on the pedestal, something belonging to Beauty maybe, or in the Beast posture or action. We also thought 2 characters would be too much for a lot of people to handle in the contest timeframe.

alitocarioca · Jan 2016

Hello I have a Image a WIP of my Beast for the contest but in the way I am new I don't know how to post and where to post it please can you help me ?

Jerc · Jan 2016

I think you need to reply to threads several time before you are allowed to post you own topic.

weilun · Jan 2016

hello
may I ask more about the pedestal?
is it a place for beast to stand on top of it?
can it look like a land or something else?
any reference for it?

letmekhush · Jan 2016

Can we follow the concepts which are already available online? like concepts from Adrian Smith or Frank Frazetta ??

roMizuno · Jan 2016

thanks Jerc!
a couple more questions here..
-is height map/tessellation allowed? (im pretty sure not, but donset hurt asking)
-can we use the Alpha channel from our maps for extra information? or we are limited to the RGB channels only

WvB · Jan 2016

Hi,
i'm a little confused about the texture rules
"4 x 4096 texture sets maximum (can be split further: 1 x 4096 = 4 x 2048, etc.)"
does 1 set contain anything from (albedo,normals,roughness) or are all those considered separate sets?

Jerc · Jan 2016

weilun The pedestal can be anything from a piece of land, the floor of a room with some furniture, a cloud...
letmekhush Yes you can get inspiration from existing concepts
roMizuno Tesselation/subdivision is not allowed, again to keep the poly limit relevant.
Yes, alpha is of course allowed, any kind of map is pretty much allowed.
WvB A texture set is anything used in a material, so it can be a siungle diffuse but it can also be an albedo+normal+roughness, etc.
So 4x 4096 means 4x 4096 materials, no matter how many channels are used in these materials.

TomGT · Jan 2016

Do objects that hint of the Beauty (furniture, clothes, locket, etc) that are placed on the pedestal, count towards the character's tri limit or the pedestal's? Ideally I would like to have it counted as part of the character's equipment so I can work with more triangles for the said object.

Amaury · Jan 2016

Can the beast be a human that is actually a beast inside ?

Jerc · Jan 2016

TomGT You could count it as part of the Character if it makes sense. If the beast is holding an item in his hand or looking at an object, then yes. A piece of furniture or decor should be part of the pedestal though.
Amaury Of course!

Oscarini · Jan 2016

Is overpaint, color correction and other rendered image enhancements made in Photoshop allowed?

PostProcess · Jan 2016

A semitransparent spirit silhouette next to the beast is allowed as a prop?

risu · Jan 2016

Since tessellation is out of the question, I'm guessing POM is out as well? (although it doesn't add to the polygon count like tessellation).

risu · Jan 2016

Also, do all base textures have to be 100% original? Or can we use existing substances/smart materials for example from the Substance Painter, Substance Live or Substance SHARE in our process to create the final texture set?

Jerc · Jan 2016

Oscarini Paintovers and Photoshop tweaking is not allowed but most renderers and engines have some pretty comprehensive color correction features integrated and that's allowed.
PostProcess It is kind of pushing it but if the "ghost" is subtle enough not to be considered a full on character, that could work, find the right trade off!
risu Grey area here, I would say parallax occlusion is allowed as long as it doesn't affect the silhouette of the object.
You can of course use any content provided by default in the tools or grabbed on Substance Share. Make sure to include credits in the description if you used Share assets.

vickgaza · Jan 2016

As in the final submission a short 100 word story is required. Will this narrative be taken into account by the judges when determining the relevance of the final images to the theme ? Or what`s the general purpose of the text

?
Thanks in advance.

Cersei_Lannister · Jan 2016

Jerc said:
Oscarini Paintovers and Photoshop tweaking is not allowed but most renderers and engines have some pretty comprehensive color correction features integrated and that's allowed.

Just to make sure, does this mean we can use Marmoset's Post Effects on our realtime renders?

Zielarz · Jan 2016

Hi, I have few ideas and one of them concerns using mirror. The only solution for me in marmoset is to make copy of model - not exactly copy at least not the whole model. Is it allowed for this type of use?

Jerc · Jan 2016

vickgaza Yes, the text will be taken into account as it can add to the piece in different ways.
Cersei_Lannister Yes.
Zielarz Yes, since the character would still be unique in the scene, even if "technicaly" duplicated.

Goeddy · Jan 2016

hey, does the character need to be created in t-pose or can we straight up model them posed?

Jerc · Jan 2016

Goeddy It's totally up to you!

DavidMacias3D · Feb 2016

I notice that you answered a question saying that no render-time fur could be used. Just to be sure, it would ok then to do something like hair strips right? Thanks!

Jerc · Feb 2016

Yes, hair modeled as cards or polygon strips are allowed, pretty much any method that would be practical in real time.

WvB · Feb 2016

Another question, since my character wil be wrapping and curving itself around a large rock with lots of vegetation can I consider the rock itself to be part of the character polygon limit?

(vegetation will be part of the pedestal limit ofc)

Microchip · Feb 2016

I have a few question: i'm thinking of usign Unreal Engine 4 for the rendering, i'ts possible? If yes, can i use particle effect (counting as part of the pedestal)? If i made snow on the pedestal, for eventual snow (made of separate mesh) on the character which polycount (and texture set) i have to follow? Thanks in advance

Jerc · Feb 2016

WvB The rock, along with the vegetation, would have to be part of the pedestal in this case.
Microchip As long as the particles are subtle and add to the mood of the scene without being too central, yes, particles are fine!

TouchYourFace · Feb 2016

How do I add photos into my forum post? I cant seem to find the option for it haha

TouchYourFace · Feb 2016

I also have one other issue, I cant see the point of the competition if people can use old models. Whats stopping me from buying a model, or asking someone who's a really talented 3D artist to send me one of theirs? Wouldn't it make more sense for everyone to start a new model a post updates as they complete it. There is basically no way to prove that anyone completed their own models with the current system. Sorry about the rant just kinda seems like an oversight.

Jerc · Feb 2016

Characters should be made especially for the contest of course like with every contest. Using an existing rough base mesh or an existing concept art as a starting point is permitted though. If people "borrow" models from someone else, it will be pretty easy to spot by looking at the wip threads.

Spencer_Holmes · Feb 2016

I am having problems uploading images to Polycount. I am not new and I have done it before. It seems to be a recent thing. Whenever I comment on someone else's thread there are many options to upload an image but when it is my own thread there is only one option - image URL. I can upload an image to this thread but not on my own. I don't know how I am going to compete in this contest if I cannot show people my work.

Spencer_Holmes · Feb 2016

TouchYourFace said:

How do I add photos into my forum post? I cant seem to find the option for it haha

I am having the same problem, but no one seems to be able to help...sigh

Jerc · Feb 2016

Try using http://imgur.com/ it's my image hosting website of choice, easier to use than attaching images to your messages directly on Polycount.

KristaW · Feb 2016

Okay, I am having the image issue as well. I am familiar with how to upload images to polycount and I am familiar with how to put an imugr link up to display an image but that isn't working either. I even tried writing out the html for it but that just gives a broken image icon

I can go to my other threads on Polycount and post images just fine.

EDIT: I got it to work finally with just writing out the HTML. For anyone else having this problem switch to HTML view. It's the </> icon above. Then paste:

Johnny_Wuu · Feb 2016

I can't upload images on imgur.com

show:
Oh no! We encountered an error:
Hmm.... Something strange happened. Try again?

And also can't sign in
show:
{"data":{"error":"Imgur is temporarily over capacity. Please try again later."},"success":false,"status":500}
Also can't sign up!
The Username always report error nomater what I typed.
show:
There was an error. Please try again.

go crazy`````

Could you please recomand another website instead ?

phantomstudio666 · Feb 2016

Hey, my updates doesnt appears, i upload 2 images with coments and need to be aprobed, whats happend? my entry calls "The Andes Beast"

Zolizzo · Feb 2016

Hi! I have a question regarding the pedestals. I saw they cannot be wider than 2x the beast itself, but how about height? Like can I for example (as part of the pedestal) have a brazier or a pillar, next to my guy if they are taller than himself? I don't know if I would go there, but I'd like to know if I can't

cheers, and thanks for hosting this cool contest!

The Beast - Questions and Answers

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