Team Chow - Art Soda - [Dan Valkar,Sony,SamC]

[sony]

Note: This is a Team sketchbook/thoughts sharing/ in-fact our works related to team chow.

ART SODA
-Dan Valkar
-Sony
-SamC



I have copied the desc. text so we don't have to get back to description pages.

TEAM CHOW SIX CHARACTERS
DESCRIPTION

For this Team Chow you will be required to design six characters that make up the 'protaganist' side of the game/tv show/ect that we are pretending to create. There will be no villians/antagonists this round.

* Can be changed according to genre. ie, mechanical = magical = steampowered, car = boat = horse, etc.
** You may do two version of this, if you wish.

Characters:

The Hero
- Female, between 20 - 30. Has no memory of anything beyond a year before present.
- Stubborn to a fault, but unswervingly loyal to those she cares about, convinced that she could lose her memory of them at any time she makes the most of every moment.
- Has a tendency to say things before she thinks about them.
- Rumoured to have a second personality that can remember everything from before, a 'dark' side, as it were, with totally different personality traits. **
- A quick learner, but unlikely to pay attention unless something immediately catches her interest.
- Searching for her past but ultimately easily caught up in the present and the worries of others, tending to think of other people before herself.
- Found (to her horror) that she is more than capable of handling herself in a fight, and likely capable of killing.

The Shadow
- Male, between 20 - 30 (should be around Hero's age).
- The only person that the hero has any memory of, beyond the last year (though she can only remember his face), and the only person who might know who she is. He pretends he doesn't know, or refuses to say.
- Seemingly self-absorbed but actually self-destructive, has a tendency to take out his insecurities as malicious remarks on other people.
- Isn't well liked, but doesn't care, or pretends he doesn't.
- Doesn't seem to have any friends except the hero, who he would do anything for, though of course he would never say that. However, though he seems to actively despise the rest of her friends, he cares for them more than he admits.
- Whether he is helping the hero find her memory, or actively hindering her, is unclear. She believes he is helping her. He doesn't necessarily believe that it would help her to find it.
- Often disappears for long periods.

The Protector
- Male or Female, between 25 - 50, well-built
- Found the Hero directly after she had lost her memory, and managed to piece her back together.
- Strong and loyal, but prone to worry. Decided to take hero under wing, and began to notice the very strange energies* and events that surrounded her.
- Completely distrusts the Shadow and the Sage and believes they are actively working against the Hero's interests, but defer's to the Hero's opinion and trust of them.
- Strengths lie in activities done with the hands - higher concepts either are not a concern, or are too hard to think about in depth.
- Honest and blunt, so sometimes seems unkind, but never means it.
- Sometimes wonders if accidently stepped in way too deep into something never meant to be approached.

The Sage
- Male or Female, any age
- Does not come from the same country* as hero. Came from far away to find something, and claims that the hero will lead her to it, though will not say what it is - even whether it is a physical object* or a higher plane*.
- Often seems to be looking through the person that he/she is speaking to, and just as frequently stares off into space.
- Seems to disappear whenever trouble starts, but has saved the hero and her companion multiple times to threats that they were completely obvlivious/unaware of.
- Eats very little and sleeps less, and makes very little noise when he/she walks.

The Technician*
- Female, 18 - 28
- Completely in tune with anything mechanical*. Takes things apart / dissects things with disturbing regularity, and while can usually put them back together again sometimes forgets to do so, to the dismay of her friends whose objects* she 'borrows'.
- Fascinated by all methods of transport*, and has an amazingly large memory for all vehicles* and machines* but not for people or places (they are just not important!)
- Initially hired for one-off job by the Hero and the Protector, but took an instant liking to them and convinced them of her usefullness.
- Not very good in rough situations like fights, prefers cold logic of puzzles, as her size tends to work against her. However, pressed into a corner, she can make her technical* knowledge work to her advantage in place of physical prowess.
- wears her heart on her sleeve and is often very cheerful, but takes some blows very hard (a friend getting hurt, etc). Sometimes flighty.


The Rabble Rouser
- Male, 20 - 30 (should be around Hero's age)
- Met Hero + crew rather accidently and they helped out of a bit of trouble (which he had gotten himself into and was almost entirely his fault).
- Developed instant infatuation with Hero + told her that he would help her find her memory. Infatuation may or may not be sincere. Hero does not return it.
- Tends to bring trouble with him, or create it when he gets there, as he grates people's nerves.
- Charming and seemingly hollow, but in select instances with the Shadow has shown that he's invested more in the quest than one would think - though perhaps not for the apparent reasons.
- Has good luck with gambling to match his bad luck with people, and never is wont for money - it tends to find him as easily as he finds it.
- Has an excellent memory for faces as well as for numbers.
- Well groomed, but not as flamboyant as one might expect - unless it is on purpose as part of a bluff.


--------

SUBMISSION GUIDLINES

The Final Burning Thread will go up ONE WEEK before deadline. The deadline will be April 30th, at 11:59 pm GMT - 5, Eastern Standard Time. I will accept submissions as long as it is April 30th somewhere in the world, but after this I will close the thread. I am going to give myself 1-2 days to then sort out the poll and the voting, so please be patient.

1. One team member will be in charge of submitting the final entry. How the entry is presented will be up to you, but keep it consistent and coherent.
2. Remember that you will need to submit wips. If you decide to make a group sketchbook for this activity, a link to that will suffice.
3. Also sumbit a list of Team Activity. I want to see how well you worked as a team - who was in charge of what and what each member did.
4. All other ChoW rules apply. If you are not familiar with the usual chow rules, please read the guidlines thread sticked at the top of the subforum. Including, 3/4ths rule, no paint-overs, etc.
5. Please submit files with this naming convention: TeamChow_TeamName_Image001.jpg


This thread is for Wips, General Discussion, Etc.

[sony]

In this thread we will collect links related to this team chow

OTHER TEAM CHOW Threads
--Very well managed thread from yoitisi Link (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154605)
--They are also doing some sort of western post apo things - A Stravinsky Aroma - UCT & ChristianShane Link (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=155319)
--I haven't seen it all but seems interesting link (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154513)


Accessories References
army fashion Watches (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=army+fashion&m=tags&page=3)

Samurai
Cool gallery (http://www.kiku.com/electric_samurai/cobweb_castle/samurai_gallery.html)
some info on weapons (http://www.e-budokai.com/articles/weapons.htm)
VERY DETAILED STUFF (http://www.samuraiweapons.org/)
AWESOME INFO ON WEAPONS *IMAGES* (http://www.bugei.com/category_22.htm)

COSTUMES
JAPANESE STREEET (http://www.japanesestreets.com)
BLOG WITH USEFUL LINKS AS WELL (http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/)

Weaponry as a lot of more than alot thing
link (http://steppes.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=board21&action=print&thread=439)

Others
STAR GATE UNIVERSE just check it out guys! (http://stargate.mgm.com/)

[sony]

Our sodatodo™ list

Priority tasks

-team name finalization
-internal deadlines
-task divisions/Lets decide who is best at what?
-presentation template

-story line
-visual style
-CD* thumbnails
-revisions

*character design

[sony]

Suggested Team Names..

- asoda4u (Dan)
- artholics (sony)
- team houston we have a problem (Dan)
edit - we had alot more options but we are saving it for next ones ;)

Suggestions for the designs

-- scenario for characters to invoke.

Some Navy Army staff
stuck in Atlantic ocean
Have 25 days of food left
Destructed ship
This was there 10th mission as a team but due to dramatic change in weather they got stuck.

-OR-

NEXT POST

[sony]

Research board for current war scenario

--Its the time when WW3 is taking place

[sony]

Thumbnails - Hero

[Dan Valkar]

scenario concept

-arabic
-african, native, colonies age, etc
-western
-pirates
-barbarians
-victorian age
-medieval age
-samurai
-roman, greek, egipcian...ancient cultures

we can mix them up to build a scenario or timeline for the characters

for example i would like some:

western-samurai-mechanical-scifi theme

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/457/teamchowinsp.jpg

[sony]

western-samurai-mechanical-scifi
-->sounds fun

Okay lets finalizes our team name. i liked just word 'soda' its more intact :j

[Dan Valkar]

i turned ur war scenario into a more post nuclear or post apocalypsis theme..mixed with the western stuff.....

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6371/moodboard2.jpg

[sony]

--I also liked "art gunslingers", but i kinda stuck when i look back at suggestions with soda its seems fresh to me, so lets go with "Art Soda".

--So our theme is western early post apocalyptic and as the most guns weaponry is destroyed so we have kinda mixed, but samurai style as a primary skills with guns handling as a secondary one.(OR Vice verse we **need to lock this:)).

[sony]

Terms related to samurai culture
Samurai Weapons

* Tessen - The Iron Fan
* Jutte - The Iron Cudgel
* Manrikigusari - The Metal Chain
* Shakuhachi - The Bamboo Flute, The Bamboo Club
* Kansashi - The Deadly Hairpin of the Samurai
* Katana - most popular sword
* Shuriken - throwing darts of the Samurai
* Kama - Kusarigama - Left Hand/right hand VERY INTERESTING SHAPE

[sony]

I did this quick sketch to get the ball rolling.

[Dan Valkar]

sketch of the shadow...he has a big backpack of "things"(often disappears for long periods)...he carries his sword and his gun....i made him with a robotic arm...cause i want half robots dudes!!!!!! XD....so maybe the scenario its in a distant future.......

[sony]

Wuhu!

[sony]

-----

[Dan Valkar]

the sage...lack of accesories but...the main idea is there

[sony]

I like the twist of red Indian as a sage.

The Rabble Rouser

[Dan Valkar]

btw, i really like the hero costume, cool design...maybe ill work on it too, give her my perspective...

[Dan Valkar]

the hero..

[kelly x]

these are awesome!!!

[Dan Valkar]

maybe could help....

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9887/allhatspic.jpg

[sony]

these are cool refs for hats.

For the hero, her feet looks very big in proportion.

here's technician

[sony]

All-ezz

[sony]

Dan: Do you think that the hero should have robotic arm, it may look strong but also make her weak in term of the origins of human, purity i mean. what you think?

[SamC]

I'm liking the theme. I think the Rabble Rouser and the Protector designs need to be developed more to show more gear and characteristics of both genres. Also, some of the heads are too small? I'm not sure what you guys have planned to do next, but assigning certain characters to certain people seems like a good idea. Where do you want me to start ? :P

[sony]

Sam: I think you can come up with RR design.

characters proportions; your suggestion in feets for every character.

[SamC]

Rabble Rouser. Will work on the protector now. I really think we should sort whose doing what so we don't end up with duplicates of the same character.

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[Dan Valkar]

hey! nice costume design on the RR sam...

i was workin' on the Rabble Rouser too.. :P

and if we gotta pick 2 CH to work on, ill choose the shadow and mmmm maybe the hero or the RR...

[sony]

Hey guys nice RR-ezzz :) I think the facial feel/proportion are looking better on dan's design.

Dan; you should do sage :) you have came up with nice idea on that.

samC: the costume is looking like its really samurai with less western feel, may be need to push bit more towards western, what you say Dan

Yes, we need to distribute the characters for execution(in terms of designing not hangin' them or electrifying) :p i can do technician and hero by blending dan's design elements, i will ask you more on your though abt the ch. SamC you can do protector and rabble rouser by taking your and dan's design on him.

So lets finalize as we are short on deadline now :p


EDIT- One more thing we need to think is our backgrounds(location), where they should be photographed :P

[sony]

What you think of this comp guys i think as a team we should work on a collective one illustration and proving that we can work as a team :)

[Janos]

I love the mood boards, though I found the navy/atlantic ocean scenario fresher, western is always fun. I would say you should try and make it a little more interseting. Atm its looking as godd as a very normal western. By being post-apocalyptic you could end up in the "wild-wild west" style, which would be a bit of a let down. Put in some fresh ideas, maybe some more emelemnts.
The group shot is perfect with them walking, though all of them should be really walking/kicking up dust. Also maybe add a destroyed skyscraper to add interest on the horizon.

Cheers guys, and good luck!

[SamC]

Dan: Sweet design, really sums up the RR. Watch out though, the head looks really really small.

Initial protector design. I think I'm probably pushing him in the wrong direction, but felt he should be more of a traditional samurai since he's strong and stuff. But I can make it more western if you guys want, just really want your feedback
653937

[Dan Valkar]

yeah, sam, maybe more wester and less samurai...ill post later a short description of every character storyline

in the meantime, i think the protector should be around 50, be tall, and strong, no muscles anyway...just "big" ...like the character gabriel from HBO carnivale, but older of course....

oh btw, i added the carnivale show concept to the storyline, but its just a context...well maybe the protector and the sage are more related to it

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2594/gabriel.jpg

[sony]

sam: Brief: charming and seemingly hollow. I think he opt to have hollow thing but charming is N/a for me. Yes less samurai is better. I did some research on the weapons for samurais just go though some link on the second post of this thread. :)

Dan: brief: well built. My only concern is that such characters looks huge instead of well built. it me a negative for us. Having a story line would be cool thing to share :)


Besides this i think you guys have skipped my last post about composition thing. and the decision about assigning character please go through my last couple of posts. and get back and share your thoughts :)

[SamC]

@Dan: A brief story line would be helpful for me to follow, otherwise I'm fairly stuck as to what it is you want, but keep it brief. We need to be quick :P

@Sony: From a technical standpoint, having all the characters in the same scene would be extremely difficult. The pictures will need to use identical lightsources and colours for the whole piece to work. That is presuming we are going to make final colour paintings?

Also, I don't understand. You quoted the brief for the RR? Overall, I'm fairly confused as to what you guys want me to do with these designs because I'm getting mixed messages :

the costume is looking like its really samurai with less western feel
most guns weaponry is destroyed so we have kinda mixed, but samurai style as a primary skills with guns handling as a secondary one.

[Dan Valkar]

The Hero: She has no past. Came from a distant world or space colony based. .-“U fell from the sky”- said the sage when he found her in the desert, with different clothes...

Nightmares and violent visions stalks her dreams...sometimes when shes awake too

After the sage found her, she joins to his carnival crew...now they travel together.


The Sage: Came on board of the A.C.R.A(ancient cultures rescue ark)..a space ship also called the noe’s ark....

He grew up in this new planet and now travel with a carnival show, telling the fortune.

He takes the hero as a god’s sent and as a sign to keep searching the truth in his quest

The Shadow: Unknown past, he’s a wanderer, presumably he came with the hero

He hides something and probably had a relationship with the hero once .....

He shares a robotic arm with the hero, thats one of the reasons why she trust him


The Protector: also worked in the carnival, he’s really the one who saw the hero and rescued her(the sage then shows up, cause he “knew” she’d come to him)

He loves the hero as a daughter cause she reminds him a loved one.....so that is why he protects her


The Technician: Once hired to fix up some wrecked ship of the carnival caravan, she stayed and now travel with them

She was very interested about the robotic arm of the hero

The Rabble Rouser: Once an idealist and a man of justice, now he lost his faith and only cares about money and drink

A great pain and revenge seeds grow deep in his heart, but no one knows it(his past is unknown too) cause he’s always joking...

He fell in love with the hero, but she seems not interested in him

He met the crew in the show, he tried to cheat in a gambling game ..

[sony]

--> If we chose the light sources and define our color ranges we can get to this level. this will show that we are team not individuals. We may have to tweak little bit for the final illustration but it will pay off, trust me. and it will be a good exercise.


[QUOTEAlso, I don't understand. You quoted the brief for the RR? Overall, I'm fairly confused as to what you guys want me to do with these designs because I'm getting mixed messages :

just after this quoted text i have written "or Vice versa we need to lock this". after wards we did locked it as guns first. sorry for the misunderstanding.

Sam: In this team chow; Firstly we had to set our genre and style as were are open to chose this part and we had decided
-Western
-samurai
-mechanical
-post apocalyptic

in ascending order, Secondly we have to be careful about the brief given by chow management.


Dan: noe's ark :rocker:---------- Fantastic job :drinkup: for character short write ups

though We need a solid story for the mechanical arm.

and what you think of one illustration for all character line up?

[Dan Valkar]

mmm..sony, i dont think that we need to explain every aspect of the character, i mean, we r not makin a tv show or game or whatever, thats why i keep the storyline brief....

the context is a distant? future, another planet, a colony, some characters were pathfinders, and other arrive to begin the story......

the robotic arm its just a cool thing to me, but mainly something to connect
the hero and shadow stories...something to say: "hey they have something in common, but ist a mystery, maybe at the end of the first season we'll know"


i just hope the storyline helps....

[sony]

dan; by story for mechanical arm i meant a bit logic or scenario and yes it is a cool thing to incorporate. okay, so lets get back to what we should be working on from today is who is doing which character.

b/w i will post a colored bg plate to set all the characters.

[sony]

WE can place more western objects in BG and foreground as to enhance the mood, and setting our character in the space. This is 3000 px (by) 2250 px color blocking it could be refined for final.

[SamC]

Sony: I suppose the only way to get this to work is to send you the .psd files so you can extract the layers and not have to play with white edges..that is if we're not working straight onto white. Could you pm me an email to send the file to? You'd have to go over all the edges and stuff though. Cool background :D


How come you guys aren't posting the WIPs of your characters?


My design for the RR. I'll ditch the lines and jump into painting once you guys give the design the thumbs up? Also, do you guys want the protector more 'big' and less samurai?

654734

[Dan Valkar]

i like the design sam, the only thing thats botherin' me its the hat, try to find some bandito hat references or other mexican hats, maybe a gambler hat could do da trick, dunno....

in the other hand, i think that the weapons he carries should be hidden, cause he wanna look harmless or pacific.....

sony: the tec girl...should have more accesories, more gadgets, and i dont get the western vibe from it....the headphones r ok btw...maybe make'em look more futuristic or a little cyberpunkish, and a lot of gadgets, backpacks, bags, etc.....

[sony]

SamC: thank :), I think he looks like 4'5'' , he should be atleat 5'11'' or 6'.
Regarding the protector; he should be like a big/huge ,well built, scary person, you know those kind of guys; when you see them first time you don't wanna mess with them at any cost.

b/w that a good idea of sharing psd-s. sendin you email add.

Dan: good points, I wants to add gadget, thanks for reminding the word cyberpunk-ish; i was kind of lost at this. :) that's good to work in team.

Lets finalize the characters we are working on. I am working on hero and tech girl.

[Dan Valkar]

ill skecth some protector the way i see it, to guide u a bit sam...

[SamC]

Dan: As much as I'd appreciate that, it'd probably be better time-wise if you cracked on with your own designs :S hope you don't take offense

[Dan Valkar]

offended, but alive..anyway something like that, obviously with more personality :D

oh btw, i think he doesnt have weapons, maybe gloves, some tools, but no weapons

[Dan Valkar]

the sage wip

[Dan Valkar]

this could be a cool way to present the CHrs....

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3600/wildbunchposterlg.jpg

[sony]

dan: that's a nice comp/presentation. we just need to ensure that it doesn't look like home made family portrait. :)

[SamC]

Dan: Hey man, will try and put this as nicely as possible for you. Usually when working in a team you need to not be so controlling and allow other people to develop their ideas on their own and work with that. We're a team, not your employees. Putting restrictions down that aren't on the brief seems silly to me. Why doesn't he have weapons? He may be big but it's not like he can take a sword or a bullet. But for your sake I did copy the design you gave me and added a few things I felt were suitable.

I think the photo would be a good idea, it'd mean we could all work solely in black and white values and then apply a yellow overlay. It'd save a lot of time spent on messing around with colour (which I don't have at the moment.)

My protector. I'm going to presume that since Dan's design got the thumbs up this will too..because I'm strapped for time to change it.
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[sony]

sam: I think the design is going in right direction :) my only concern is with the height proportions i did some proportion adjustment. about the weapon its always cool to have one for such characters or at least ability to grab any thing and start smashing. the brief from chow management says "Strengths lie in activities done with the hands - higher concepts either are not a concern, or are too hard to think about in depth." so, with the hands it mean; he can grab any thing or just the hands so first to give him strength of hands. I think just a more aggressive stance will work fine. you are doing good job :yayca:

[sony]

hero: Guys i want your input about her face and work over the face through lines will be good way to help me.

[Dan Valkar]

i like what u r doing guys....

sam:first of all, im not the boss here, i only made suggestions and throw some ideas, im really sorry if i "sound" controller.....but, i always put words like, "something like this", "i think" (its different than "it is") damn im feelin' like a bad dude :(


anyway, the protector looks ok to me, the hammer looks cool, do whatever u want, and yeah we should work b/w..................and dont hit me, but, he's wearing boots?...look like spartan greaves...MAYBE u COULD try some samurai, or more western footwear

[sony]

I have changed the stance previous was awkward :lifedrawing:

[sony]

Hero colored

[Dan Valkar]

yeah, the first pose was puppetly weird.....but check more japanese girls faces..

good work!

[sony]

technician new stance and wardrobe.

[sony]

Hero new face!
Technician d-colored,

Sam & Dan: how we are going to get these in one? waiting for your lovely designs.

[sony]

All CD's for poster style

[SamC]

Sony: I'll try and send you the .psd's for tonight. The protector will only be in values, do you want me to do a quick colour overlay to help him fit in?

[sony]

SamC: okay send it with just a color overlay version, i will clean it up for the final presentation.

[Dan Valkar]

good work sony...nice sheet.. we'll disscuse it when we have all the Characters finished...remember that now the deadline its may 2....

the sage wip

[sony]

dan: that good news! okay we will discuss. that thing attached to his wrist is looking odd, it will be too heavy to hold that much weight with arm wrist. may be shift the weight to his shoulder.

[Dan Valkar]

what thing?...oh i see... its not attached, he's cripple, he doesnt have legs, so he moves in a sort of hoover vehicle, kind of a futuristic wheelchair.. :P sorry if i didnt mentioned that...i figured out that based on the "makes very little noise when he walks"...well i assume that the vehicle its quiet ;D

[DStraX]

cool indian guy:) it'll be good when you finish it ;)

[SamC]

the deadline its may 2

Since this is the case, I'll send them when they're done instead of tonight.

[sony]

what's up guys its 1st now. only one day left.

[adammelo]

I really like the direction you gents are taking, much different from the other chow teams, hope too see the finished product and keep up the goodwork, im routing for ja.

[Dan Valkar]

hope tomorrow finish this one and the shadow......aghhhhhhhhhh :nohope:

r u guys done???????????...

[SamC]

I'm gonna have to leave my RR as it is and i'll try and speed through the protector.

Dan: With the .psds you're going to send to sony, make sure the character is on a seperate layer with clean edges, so he can easily just be moved onto the new background without sony having to delete all of the background stuff.

[Dan Valkar]

i know sam, i know, so no problem...

[Dan Valkar]

aghhhhhhhhh :nohope:

[Dan Valkar]

close to be the final..... no time!!!!!!! im not really happy with my chs but...

damn!!!!