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.
No worries guys, all your submission will be valid and entered in the contest! :) I want to thank you all for the hard work and sweat you all put into this contest, a lot of great looking and inventive entries! I will post a global thread with all the final entries later this week.
@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…