Team CHOW II: Random Team 1

[LostFayth]

Members:
AhChu, LostFayth, mimer and skorpi.

Setting:
Back in a time now lost to even the eldest of storytellers, there were two lands. Divided as by the breath on a cold mirror, they existed side by side without ever touching, until the greed and ambition on one side caused a terrible event, fusing the lands together, and bringing both sides of the mirror crashing into eachother.

on one side, the Anai, content with their life and the cycles of their world, having trancended ambition their magics no longer searched for power as much as it strived for cooperation of the living world.

on the other, the Vret, a culture consumed by ambition and progress, their magicians somehow bridged the divide and saw the world of the anai, a more unspoilt version of their own land as an easy price to take by force, just as they had imposed their will on the spirits of their own lands, taking from the land what they wanted.

After the merging of the worlds, the Vret realised they were mistaken in thinknig of the Anai as an easy target. Their quiet composure showed to contain an unbending will to defend their own world, and after a long tome, an uneasy stalemate was reached.

Today, the world is known as the realm of the twiceborn. On both sides exist an opposite number of every living soul, and as this realisation sank in, so did the importance of the individual rise.

Now the need for champions grows ever more important. On both sides, bands of adventurers and paragons of each side are formed with the knowledge that somewhere out there is their mirror image, and that sooner or later, the fate of who will rule the world of the twiceborn will be decided on a battlefield where you will not face your brother, but yourself.

The good will have a asian/naturalistic culture.
(Shinto, Buddhism, Nature gives them what they need, thin, organic lines; matt colors)
The bad will have a Native American culture.
(Signs, symbols, painted faces, bold geometric lines; plane colors)


Characters:
This month's Team Chow is going to be a little different! This time, we are creating fantasy portraits for player characters - with good and evil versions! It's both a wide open brief and a very strict one! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a random team from the options given to you below, and to create 4-8 fantasy portraits that read well together and still look awesome separately. Thus, as a team, you must create a compatible 'look' for your characters.

The rules!
1. Teams of two MUST create at least 4 portraits, teams of three or four need 6 and teams of five need 8. You are perfectly welcome to create more images that the requirement if you feel your team is up to it.
2. You must take a random selection of the choices below. Please don't do 4 elven fighters, or only orcs, for example. Please take a randomized selection. If you would prefer me to give your team a specific assignment, I will generate the selection for you. If I see teams doing more select parties, then I will request you to change to something more random.
3. You must follow the format provided. See it below, please!
4. You must do a LIGHT and a DARK version for each character, please! This means that for each character you need two portraits.
5. You must submit a paragraph about each character. Do a short write up for each character you create. I want to see some interesting, stereotype-breaking stuff here, folks!

Pick one of each:
Gender: Male / Female
Race: Human / Elf / Half-Elf / Dwarf / Orc - (and anything else you can think of!)
Class: Fighter (Barbarians, Knights, Dark Knights, Brawlers, etc) / Thief (Assasins, Rogues, etc)/ Spell Caster (Wizards, Sorcerers, Druids, etc) / Healer (Priest, Cleric, White Mage, Medic, etc) - (feel free to make up something for this, too)
Alignment: Good / Evil (please do both for each character)

Personal choice:
AhChu: Male human Ranger
LostFayth: Female Elf/Fairy sorcerer, about 40 cm in height.
mimer: Male ogrish/orchish bard. a bit of a brutal twist on the musical instruments.
skorpi: Male animal fighter (bear).

Planning/deadlines:
BE SURE TO KEEP POSTING THE WIP'S TO GIVE AND GET CRITIQUE.
Monday 3rd August: Setting/brief/characters set.
Sunday 9th August: Sketches/idea's good/bad finished and critiques given. (+1day)
Monday 10th August: Start on finals drawing and colors.
Monday 24th August: Post artwork, get and give advanced critiques. Idea's final post.
Sunday 29th August: Post up finals in the sketchbook. I'll make the final post.
Final Deadline: Monday 31st August

Reference:
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy)
Dungeons and Dragons galeries. (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4arch/ag)
Dungeons and Dragons concept art by Todd Lockwood:
Races, female. (http://www.toddlockwood.com/galleries/concept/01/female_demikind.shtml)
Races, male. (http://www.toddlockwood.com/galleries/concept/01/male_demikind.shtml)
Elves. (http://www.toddlockwood.com/galleries/dnd/03/elves.shtml)

Lineage II (http://www.freakygaming.com/gallery/game_art/lineage_2/)

Native Americans:
The people. (http://www.nativeamericanlinks.com/thepeople.htm)
People, props, clothing. (http://www.nativestock.com/famain.asp?customerId=27&sKey=XEWPV34W&z=13&lm=2&a=19)
Lots of photo's (various) (http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Pictures/American-Indians-00.html)

Asian culture:
Some Buddhism photos (http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/gallery.htm)

[skorpi]

Let's discuss setting/ genre here.
I think we should decide before round II starts oficially, so we can beginn drawing then.

I think, it's more importnt to concentrate on the visual elements than theorie (it's much more difficult to show it)

[mimer]

first of all, hello :)

It's great to be on the team, really looking forward to this. Saw in your earlier thread that you were discussing wether or not to keep the same setting as in the first team chow, depending on if the new challenge turned out to be the villanious counterparts of the heroes.

Either way is good with me, i think you had a good mix of elements in your last theme.

/Mimer

[LostFayth]

Hey Mimer, glad to have you on the team.

Skorpi, you're right. We had a pretty okay setting and world set down, but what we didn't do was make moodboards and such. Maybe that is a great thing to do now. As far the brief goes. I'll put it in the first post. If you want to change anything or add anything just post it up and I'll change it. Mimer we'd be happy to hear from you if you want to change anything to the world.

AhChu made a good point in our previous SB:
"I think we should sort out the characters earlier on for all so if someone drops out or pulls out we dont have to try and design something at the end."

We could start by letting everyone sketch and design all the characters. And after that's done we could look what's the best one or combine certain elements. After that we could divide the characters amongst ourselves. Btw, how are we gonna do it? Everyone 1 character and 1 collab like last time or are their people with not much time and are only able to do one character. I have all the time in August so I could do two characters. But we'll work something out. Any ideas?

[mimer]

a few ponderings.

With the world setup, blade runner and perhaps the lowtech outlaws from jhonny mnemonic are good templates, as well as some stuff from judge dredd with the megacities and big social divides. perhaps we could work out a palette to work from to keep our stuff unified as well as having the story framework and reference pictures?

had a look at http://colorschemedesigner.com/ which allows you to create palettes and export them as photoshop palettes, something to try out when getting our colour choices down perhaps?

My take on what youve written about the setting so far:

if we are indeed drawing the villains this time round, should we keep them all in the lowtech area of the owrld or should some of them move in the more cyberconnected upper class?

the hidden ones/mages. should we perhaps try to make the lowtechs a bit more tribalistic about technology given that the hidden ones are technological beeings with extraordinary powers, kinda make them the shamans of the tribes,groups of people living outside the cyberspace world of the upper class?

I really like the idea of having an upper class who only travel virtually to do their jobs and live their lives, while the lower classes have to traverse the more dangerous outside world.

I guess we will have to refine some parts of our general idea about settings etc whe we get the brief on the characters, but i think that theres a good backdrop for some interresting characters here :)

[LostFayth]

I have to check those things out you said, maybe they could be great reference too. I don't know about color palettes though, I'd rather pick my colors depending on the character.

The villains could be in the low tech part of the world. They would look like they have been living there for ages, all thorned up and messy. With a lot of hate and evil in their eyes. I can see it happening. I don't know about the upper class. You would get those cocky rich villains I always hate. But it's a cool idea.

As far as I see it, the hidden ones are outcasts too. They tend to do 'bodyguard work' to get some money to buy new parts. The protagonists had one in their team. (The sage, but yeah it could also be a shaman).

We just have to wait what AhChu and skorpi have to say before we make any adjustments.

Also, daestwen said we have to focus on teamwork in this week before the real chow, because it's gonna be a tough one. We have to decide very quick how we're gonna start, divide the characters and who's gonna do all the preparations to do the final post.

[mimer]

with the palettes i meant more in the vein of having a similar base, choosing a similar style in colouring could be a good way to unify the images into the same universe. with a rainy dark universe, a bit of a cold and muted palette makes sense?

i think you had a good muted palette with your last entry, and used the rain, wetness and raingear to bring your entry together, we keep building on that perhaps?

something i put together after looking at the ref sheets from you guys in the previous round, featuring some pics from various dystopian movies etc.

[skorpi]

Finally:

I think color palettes would be a good idea, so the different characters fits better together.

I thougt about design elements. Last round we had this samurai keyword. Let's do this time an other region and use their clothing elements. African, indian, hawaii, ... don't know. Or mybe old fashion, 16th or 18 century when we do the rich ones, so they look really like the uppeer class.

And I agree with AnChu, let's first all sketch all characters, then we can collect lots of ideas.

[mimer]

how about american native (amerind?) lots of really strong iconography there. norse themes could be cool mixed in with futuristic themes, but then im partial as a swede ;)

agree on sketching out all the chars initially when we get them, then we have a really big pool of stuff to choose from when we merge it down to the final six. strenght in numbers and all that :)

[LostFayth]

Okay, it's gonna start soon right? Any idea's for the pallet?

I like the idea of the extra keyword, like in the other round. I was thinking of Egypt's pharaohs. But I'm down with anything else.

Good moodboard mimer. Gotta love blade runner right? :D

[AhChu]

hey guy's, man didn't realize we had a new sketchbook set up and rolling already, pardon my tardiness :P First off welcome aboard Mimer, glad you could join and hopefully we can teach each other some cool new tricks.
okay down to business...
Similar colour pallette is a great idea, Im gonna see if I can track down some examples of a group of characters from the same theme to sorta see how it has been handled.
Im also thinking some good solid character silhouette purahps this time of each character maybe 4 or 5 so we can get a good mix from everyone to combine the stuff together to make some kick ass characters.

Daset message has me curious..
"Guys, it looks like I have something really really awesome to pull out of my hat for you guys on this one, but it means that there might be REALLY large format changes come Aug 1st's contest announcement.

Without giving anything away, I should let you all know that you really will have to roll with the punches on this one and that you should focus your pre-contest work on learning how to work together and getting a good workflow going, rather than preparing too much stuff in advance! ;]"

I have a gut feeling it wont be base on the previous team chow from this message, but a good solid work flow and deadline timeline would be good will keep us in good stead. Cant remember who set it up last time ( I know it wasnt me) but that was great. Okay thats it from me for my first mental dump, im gonna regroup my thoughts into a corrent message......

[LostFayth]

Great hearing from you AhChu and sorry for poking you so much on Facebook.

The silhouette idea is great. It'll make the characters come more alive when they're in a team and we could show their diversity.
Daestwen does have something great for us. I hope it will rock 10 times more then the first team chow.

As soon as we know the briefs and final deadline I'll make another schedule again with our team deadlines. I want to know from you all if you'll be busy with work or have some free time to spend or are even on a holiday with no school/work (like me). With that information I'll be able to create a schedule that suits us all. Glad to hear the previous schedule was working for you.

[mimer]

work schedule for me is basically 4 to 5 days of work each week all of august, ill post up my free days if thats helpful for coordinating stuff schedulewise. when im at work im usually tied up from 5 in the morning til 8 in the evening with commuting, but then again i spend my commute time with my sketchbook :)

[AhChu]

I work mon to fri full time, hopefully no late nights this week, but I will make sure I hit every deadline if I do work late...I will be up early to watch that live stream tomorrow so as soon as that is finished I will be checking to see if the brief is up, I will be online all day tomorrow to start nutting this out

[mimer]

brief is up!

copy/pasted below.


"This month's Team Chow is going to be a little different! This time, we are creating fantasy portraits for player characters - with good and evil versions! It's both a wide open brief and a very strict one! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a random team from the options given to you below, and to create 4-8 fantasy portraits that read well together and still look awesome separately. Thus, as a team, you must create a compatible 'look' for your characters."

linkplease: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=164934

With the fantasy angle in mind, should we perhaps get a clarification if the futuristic urban setting is still ok, or if we need to modify it a bit to suit the fantasy req? I think we should still keep the dark rainy setting since that will keep the pics unified with mood/colours and clothing a bit, as well as settle on a culture/timeperiod to draw inspiration from, like we discussed above.

what do you guys think? keep the future setting or go more classic fantasy timeperiod but keep the dark rainy mood?

So psyched for this, stuff like this is just want id love to focus on and get better at :)

[LostFayth]

I'm all game for a fantasy mood. But wouldn't it be more challenging to go with this setting and create the characters? Just wondering.... But we already have the 'magic' thing going on with the hidden ones. We could add some fantasy stuff like mimer said or adjust a few things. Any idea's? Omg, the brief is sooo good :D It gives us a lot of freedom to do what do best and discover new things along the way.

That said, we need to do at least 6 characters. It will be difficult to divide 6 characters amongst 4 people. Skorpi said she has a full-time job too, so I'm the one with the most time I guess. I'm willing to do two characters. Or we could agree that we all do two characters giving us 8 characters to enter with. But then again...we need to do a good and evil character, so that equals 3 characters with a good and evil side right?....I'll ask in the Topic an Main thread post....

So if we do a character each, that means we end up with 8 characters, since we have to do a good and evil side. It's also important to keep the races and such variated. So who's gonna do which race/class and such. I'll pick last. Take what you think you'll be able to do and I'll do what is left ;)

[AhChu]

just read the brief now, it has to be fantasy, it is to get the ball rolling on a game the community is thinking about making..ill find the thread ..hold on....just stumbled apon it the other day..http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=162285

From the sounds of it we have to produce 6 characters, good and bad version so 12 images all up.

they have got standard races but from the looks of it we can come up with some new ones aswell, and then the classes look fairly generic.

[AhChu]

I say we go for 2 character each, colour pallette cliche cools and darks for bad characters and brighter and happier tones for the light side..fable and black and white did this fairly well, Ill see if they have any useful that might help us

[skorpi]

Ah, briefing is up and since i love P&P RPGs I really love it.

Time management: Unfortuanally/ Fortunally I'm jobless at the moment, so I have lot of time. So it's no problem for me to do a character more.

About setting: I like to do some different than classic fantasy. It doesn't have to be very special but especially in fantasy I hate cliches.
Waiting for answers in the Topic tread, but so far I understand, It schold be possibe, to keep our setting, integreating some more races and a good/ bad schema.

Two color palettes for the good and the bad one will be great.

[AhChu]

Well if we have to stick to the fantasy, which I think we might have to I was thinking of doing a Human Ranger (Except will be more of a special forces unit opposed to a tree hugging hippy) and a warlock, prolly male first the 1st one and female for the 2nd. Unless we come up with something new. Might try and come up with a new race for the warlock just to mix it up abit

[LostFayth]

Okay, we have some answers.

We have to stay in the brief of Daestwen, the High Fantasy stuff. She promises we'll be able to use our brief in the later rounds. We have to do at least 3 characters (equals 6 portraits). Shall we do 4 characters instead? One per member of the team. And, of course, is has to be full body. I'll find the brief and post it up in the first post. ;)

[skorpi]

I would do 4 characters.

Ok, let's think about an interesting high fantasy setting

[AhChu]

what is high fantasy....any different to normal fantasy?...no wait never mind....I found out :P

[skorpi]

Lord of the rings ist high fantasy.
Something like Harry Potter is "just" fantasy

[LostFayth]

So after reading this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy) High Fantasy is what we know from the blockbuster fantasy movies? LOTR, Harry Potter, Narnia and such. We have to do something with that. The high fantasy world could be linked in some way to our world.

We could add something of our own brief to make it a bit more personal. Like the never ending rain?

[AhChu]

okay, lets get those creative juices flowing: as far as setting is concerned the first things that come to mind is.....

Based on continent that is going through a cival war with the two major leaders fighting to become emperor, but the intial conflict was actually started by a third party that wants to weaken the continents defensive compatibilities for their upcoming invasion.

[LostFayth]

Good input AhChu. It could be like Humans vs Elves (stereotype....) . Or we could use the facts Daestwen had given us and use the good and bad side. They both come from the same world. Each time someone is born his/her evil side is born too in the other world. Or something like that. And now the bad side wants to take over the good side to completely rule the world. But there are a special type of species 'insert name here' that are born as superior beings that created the evil side of the good characters to balance the world out so they can live in peace? Or something like that?

[skorpi]

Reference:

Dungeons and Dragons galeries, lot of stuff: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4arch/ag
Dungeons and Dragons concept art by Todd Lockwood:
Races, female: http://www.toddlockwood.com/galleries/concept/01/female_demikind.shtml
Races, male: http://www.toddlockwood.com/galleries/concept/01/male_demikind.shtml
Elves: http://www.toddlockwood.com/galleries/dnd/03/elves.shtml

About good and bad: Maybe we can give them some atributs too, like north/ south, fire/water, light/dark. Ok, these are really chiches, but I don't think, race against race work, since we have to do a good and a bad version of the same character.

[AhChu]

okay how bout some other things, thing we can mix and match and get a really cool backstory history going on.

how bout we list out, 3 differrent sort of setting each..doenst have to be to involved just keep it fairly basic to begin with? and we should be able to pull it together in a cool seeting to be basing our characters in. sort help flesh out the characters history. we only need a basic outline to set our characters up in.

[LostFayth]

1. Good/bad. In a world that is divided with a great barrier. Each side a parallel to the other. Same people, buildings, stores but one is evil and one is good.

(They both come from the same world. Each time someone is born his/her evil side is born too in the other world. Or something like that. And now the bad side wants to take over the good side to completely rule the world. But there are a special type of species 'insert name here' that are born as superior beings that created the evil side of the good characters to balance the world out so they can live in peace? Or something like that?)

2. Water world. The world consists of 90% of water. And they fight to gain the right to live on the land.

3. Underworld. The surface is dead and no one is able to live there due a terrible climate disaster. Everyone live under the world and fight over food/water and try to keep alive. Grow veggies in a dome like building with Earth's atmosphere and such.

4. Waterworld. Maybe same thing as above but under water? And they don't fight over water but for Oxygen?...

When we have the setting, maybe we could think about using cultural references? For each race to have a bit more variety. And when and who is gonna do the color pallet?...:P

[AhChu]

Nice one, okay here goes mine

A - Based on continent that is going through a cival war with the two major leaders fighting to become emperor, but the intial conflict was actually started by a third party that wants to weaken the continents defensive compatibilities for their upcoming invasion.

B- Through an experiment by the sorcery council, they accidentally merged two parallel worlds together with the inhabitants and now sides are being drawn to see who will remain and who will be extinguished ( sort of a modifed version of yours LOST :P

C- aahhh damn writers block......

[LostFayth]

It's about modifying right? ;) We just have to combine the best of every idea. And we have to wait and see what mimer has to say. He has a lot to read and put in as well ;)

[skorpi]

Great ideas :)

AhChu: Why not. Like the last time.

The divined world doesn't work in my eyes, because when tey born at the same time, they will di at the same time too. Ore the worlds sould be more different.
I like the underworld. We could do a lot of characters using other sences than the eyes.

Some more ideas:
i. Two cultures, a native and a emperor culture, historic example: Celts vs. Romans (but wich are the bad ones?)

ii. Or greek/roman gods vs. nortic

iii. Living persons against dead, but if a living person dies, he/ she change side. And when a dead person die the second time h/ she reborn. So maybe you have to fight against your frind who did in the last battle.

[AhChu]

Nice going peeps, some really funky ideas, see what mimer comes up with aswell. So do you guys wanna pick ya class, and we might aswell start finding some refs like last time. Maybe find some colour palette images that strike ya fancy aswell and we can use the ones we decide as our base

[LostFayth]

I really like the third idea of yours, skorpi! That would be a curse to live forever and always keep on fighting. I like it a lot :D

You're right AhChu, better get the things done we could do. ;)
I was thinking of a female character. Elf or Fairy...Although I wonder how a 50-50 would look like :D Probably some kind of Spell Caster, but I want to play with that idea for a bit. What about a 10cm fairy wizard who knows some kickass magic xD I have to think on it a bit.

Almost forgot! I posted a schedule in the first post (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2359572&postcount=1). Check it out and tell me if it'll work for you. We can play a bit with the deadlines. It's okay if you miss it by a day. The deadline on the 29th is set. I won't change that.

[AhChu]

Sweet deadlines look good, well im going to crash now, it's 2.15am here, but will be look towards starting fresh tomorrow after the LIVE stream. night guys

[skorpi]

I'm not really in the mood to decide, so if you guys want do decide class first, I do what lacks.

What's about everyone sketch every character to search for ideas?

[LostFayth]

AhChu, I envy you....I want to see that class too. But I can't pay it, since I payed for the color theory class last week. Have fun and good night ;)

[mimer]

id say we go with 4 chars too, gives us opportunity to each focus on one good/bad pair.

I think that the dark rainy world gives us a good base to build the colour palette on, it gives us darker muted colours and some harsh highlights etc. its an easy palette to imagine and i think we can find a base of colours to start us off with, then choose complimentary colours depending on what theme we go with for the characters themselves?

1. law versus villains:
the classic fantasy archetypes, but put them in a setting of lawmen versus criminals. city guard, police, paladins for the good guys, and a band of criminals,mafa types, big heist squad for the baddies. we can still keep it high fantasy but an urban setting within a big city. it will give us an opportunity to make them realy look like a team with insignias, colours etc for the law and tatoos, tribal markings etc for the villains?

2. Opressive evil versus the resistance.
putting evil in charge, with the baddies more stylish, clean and in control of the world, the good guys a more ragged, worn and covert group, fighting to overthrow the ruling evil. gives us a good distinction betwee the two characters, lets us work with two very different styles in clothing and looks.

3. the posessed.
two armies of twins, separated by posession by either angelic or demonic forces, now locked in war for their respective puppetmasters.
lets us focus on the good versus evil look, and can let us use the same attributes for both sides but twisted in different directions.

[mimer]

when focusing on the individual chars, lets see how we can twist things up. lets look for the original take on fantasy creatures and not go an elf archer, better a female orch archer carrying a bigass siege crossbow :) we all know the willowy female elves, so how about an elf who got around to weightlifting and now works as the ripped barbarian warrior of the team?

lets not forget about all the different beasties in classic fantasy either. nothings stopping us from using were-creatures, minotaurs etc i think. if we want to.

[LostFayth]

Team Thundercats is doing something with animals of this world. With that they're getting highly original. Your suggestion using fantasy beasts could be used in our team too, mimer. I like the original take you suggest with using (almost) illogic combinations in either character or atributes.

This is a brief I came up with using everything I like from our idea's. Just my take on this project.

Evil reigns the world. Every person had its bad/good side living somewhere in the world. The world used to be divided in two: Good and Evil. Thanks to the council of Wizardry in the Evil world the two (parallel) worlds has merged into one, because the evil beings want to take on both of the world. They always sought new ways to improve themselves by inventing new magic, armor and technology.

The Good never had so much interest for power nor improvement. So they lived in a low tech, yet happy world. Where there were no wars, diseases and hunger. They know only good magic and know how to use the elements in a good way. The Good have a gift the Evil does not have. They can summon Godlike creatures to aid them in battle with the Evil, because they are pure of heart. These creatures resemble the nature the Good cared of.

The cause of the two worlds merged together has gone beyond understanding of both sides. The truth is that when a person is killed, dies or is murdered it return to live, but on the other side of the balance scale. (Good -> Evil, Evil -> Good). None of the creatures alive understand why this is happening. This results in a eternal loop of battling with each other until the worlds are restored to their original state.

Hah...how do you like that. It gives a lot to play with and we could add a lot of other things like attributes or crazy combinations with character - attribute/weapon.

Your input please :)

[mimer]

I think its a cool setting, explains the world, gives a reason for the duality and gives us some differences between good an evil to work with (evil are into improving their status and power with advances in the "technology" of the times while good are more naturalistic and have a connection to the natural worlds and its powers.)

I think that the last paragraph might not be necessary to the visualisation of the characters though? right now it reads a bit cryptically, and the first two paragraphs do a great job of outlining the backdrop for the two groups.

So, if we go with this backdrop, our two groups will essentially be eachothers mirror images, two classic adventuring teams dungeons and dragons/fellowship style with four different "classes"?

so do we list 3 preferred characters each and then if nothing conflicts and we get a nice mix with our first 4 choices we go with that? and negotiate some second choices if we all want to do minotaur wizards as a first choice? ;)

also, should we pick one cultural or other reference point for both sides or go with one for good and one for evil? ie should we base attributes,colours, weapons etc off of only culture A for both sides, or should the bad guys be culture A while the good guys take inspiration from culture B?

[LostFayth]

Thanks for your input. It's not our final brief, but it's something I came up with with our idea's combined. The last paragraph is not needed to visualize the characters, yes, but it does give some more information we might be able to use.

It would be fun to see the same character in a evil highly sophisticated way and in a low-tech, more in touch with nature way.

I have to think a bit about which characters I would love to do. One of my choices would be the fairy/elf character I mentioned earlier. She's around 30cm in height, probably bigger and is able to fly thanks to her wings. So I think a small, flying creature will give some good variety in the characters as in the group silhouette.

I was thinking to do a culture A and a culture B since they're from different worlds.

But we're getting to much into details. Let's see what AhChu and skorpi says. We have to all agree on a setting right ;)

[AhChu]

Okay here is a colour palette board (light at top dark at bottom) and some funky image refs.

[LostFayth]

I went trough my concept art reference I have and I found the next images for the colors and general mood of the worlds I described.

Good:
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Evil:
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These are the choices I made for the characters I want to do. From most fave to least fave.

1. I was thinking of a female character. Elf or Fairy...Although I wonder how a 50-50 would look like Probably some kind of Spell Caster, but I want to play with that idea for a bit. What about a 10cm fairy wizard who knows some kickass magic xD I have to think on it a bit.

2. Male dwarf, but something that really doesn't fit a dwarf. Like a healer class.

3. Female human, magician with some kind of illogical wand to do her magic with. Animal referenced clothing.

[mimer]

i like those two moodboards, makes for two distinctive sets of characters. from the look of those two moodboards were moving away from the rainsoaked world, which i think is probably a good idea. less muted colours makes for better distinction between good and bad sides, leaving the dark and moody stuff for the bad guys.

ive been doodling a bit on a brutish bard, so heres my 3 preferences for a character

male ogrish/orchish bard. a bit of a brutal twist on the musical instruments.

some type of female rogue, i could use some input and brainstorming on how to make this one interresting. perhaps experiment with age? make an old wizened female thief instead of the usual lara croft bodies of classic fantasy painting?

a healer/priest sporting two versions of beeing undead. a ghost for the good guys and a lich/zombie type for the baddies.

[skorpi]

You were busy.

LostFaith: I like your brief, there are very interesting elements to play with.

some inputs:
-The good use magic in a kind way, they are "fiends" with the element, while the bad only control them with diagrams, symbols, magic signs (so we have a clear visual element)
-Maybe only the bad use metal, the good have a technological level of stone age.
-Another visual paint, how does the world looks? Like a middle age europe? (boring) Maybe we heve a lot of big and small islands they fight for. Clima? Mediteran?
Or what are the cultures behind? Key elements? Good using raund shapes, evil sqared.

I like the mood boards.

Characters I like to do:

1. A female insect mage/shaman
2. An animalman fighter 8wich animal decides on the culture we choose)
3. A human child thief

[LostFayth]

We have all so different characters. I wonder what AhChu will come up with :D

You have a good point there skorpi. The good characters are friends with the elements and are being given the chance to use the powers of the elemental spirits. Maybe we could use this to show in their clothing and stuff they have (weapons, jewelry). The evil force the elemental spirits to be summoned. I wonder if that gives them too much of an advantage since they already have a higher technology and much more powerful weapons.

I have an image in mind of the 'good' world and how they live. I recall seeing it somewhere but I forgot where. I've got to do some more research. It clearly shows what I was aiming for. One thing is for sure, the bad are far more better evolved then the good,

[EDIT]I can't seem to find it. I'll try and describe what I had in mind. They mostly live in natural environments. Built their houses in trees. Not like a tree house. INSIDE a tree, think of Winnie the Pooh. They use simple yet good materials to build their houses if they don't live in a forest. Mud, wood, stones, clay, anything they can find in nature. Think of the town where the Hobbits of Lord Of the Rings lived. Something like that The dwarfs could live in caves or built their houses on mountains. They would be living in nature. In small communities, no cities and such. I've added some pictures to make it more visual.

It's a good think to start thinking about cultures for either side since how the culture will reflect their appearance. I was thinking of something from a warmer climate for the good and something sophisticated for the bad.

http://www.cornbread.org/FOTRCompare/small/fotr_02_dvd_small.jpg
http://www.somewheredifferent.com/images/egypt/siwa-shali-house/gv-house-tight.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_3zmUmmIE1ko/RwFZDaBkqLI/AAAAAAAAA3g/BGjZ0rQqpQc/s288/P1010023.JPG
With some other kind of door.

[mimer]

i was thinking about native american for the baddies. not something thats been done much before, and some strong design elements with facepaint, feathers, opals etc.

i like the idea of keeping the good guys naturalistic, in tune with elements and letting the bad guys go more destructive, perhaps use fire and more metals, smoke etc for them? putting the native american culture in a setting like that could prove an interresting mix? we can still kepp the bad guys more sophisticated and advanced and just borrow the aestetics from he native american culture.

Shinto and buddhism has always struck me as something that stays in tune with nature and belives in a conciousness in the natural world around them as a whole. perhaps keep the eastern influences from last round for the good guys? then we get a reference points for a lot of the archetypes, like priests, monks, warriors and even assassins/thieves?

heres some native american stuff i put together that i think could work for the bad guys.

[LostFayth]

I also like the two sides the native Americans have. They look very harsh and evil(?) but they too are one with nature. If we combine it with evil power aura's and things like that it could really REALLY work out into something great. And we could use a lot of signs and symbols skorpi mentioned.

There we go again with the Asians. What is it about them that makes them so interesting. And yeah, it's a good point. Buddhism and shinto are great things to keep in mind. They are always thinking about staying in peace with themselves and nature, just like the native Americans.

I really like the combination. I think we have to go with at least the native American stuff. :D

[skorpi]

I like the ideas you come up with. I think there's a lot of visual stuff we can work with and also create something new.

Some cultural references:

american native: bold geometric lines; plane colors
chinese/ asian: thin, organic lines; matt colors

maybe we can work with these atributs.

[AhChu]

Awesome stuff guys, I think we have got heaps to work with here to be making some pretty cool designs.

"The good use magic in a kind way, they are "fiends" with the element, while the bad only control them with diagrams, symbols, magic signs (so we have a clear visual element)" liking this idea.

I would'nt to much bout landscape setting coz it might hinder some really cool things you might come up with. Digging the American Indian style to. well lunch break is nearly over with so back to work for me........

[LostFayth]

Okay, I've changed the first post. I've added the brief with all the extra information we've come up with. I also added a list of the characters we each picked. Since skorpi and mimer have three characters to choose from I would like to know which one you've picked. And AhChu, I'd like to know which character you had in mind to design.

Maybe it's also a good idea to find references with images for native Americans and the other stuff and post the link up so I can include them in the first post. Moodboards are great, but we each design a different character, so it would be nice to compile your own moodboard from the images we all find and use them as a reference for your own character.

[skorpi]

I'll sarch for more references, but I propose also, to interpret them in a open way. We don't want american native against asians. Since we have a good and an evil folk.

I think, I do the animal man fighter, since Lost Faith already do a femal magician. At the moment I like to make hin a bear man/ werebear or something like that.

Finally References:

Chinese clothing:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/asienkostm2.jpg
Japanese clothes:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/asienkostm.jpg

American Native costumes:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/amerikakostm3.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/amerikakostm2.jpg
South america:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/amerikakostm.jpg

Asian fighter/ monks:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/krieger1.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/krieger2.jpg
Native american Fighter:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/krieger3.jpg

Bears:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/baer1.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/baer2.jpg

[mimer]

im going with the male orch bard.

[AhChu]

Man those are some cool ref images...cant wait to start scribbling at lunch today :)

[mimer]

i put down some colour choices from the stuff weve talked about so far. made two palettes along with some summation of the two sides designwise, tell me if you like :)

I think we need to do what we discussed above and actually get some mutual palette choices for both sides to keep the individual pictures relating to eachother. then we can of course branch out to fit our own styles and charachters, but a similar palette copuled with the cultural refs for both sides with help make this awesome.

also made two assemblies for myself for the orch bard im going for. going for a mohawk and heavy drums, possibly a big lute-type instrument for the baddie and a fluteplaying serene bard for the good guy, both appendaged with some form of bladed weapon.

[mimer]

some quick stuff, two of the bad guy, one of the good guy. the evil one is turning out a bit metal atm...

[LostFayth]

Wow guys! Those are amazing. Skorpi, I really like the reference you found. The clothing charts are outstanding.

The color charts are cool, mimer. I like your silhouettes. The musical instruments are really good.

I was away all day. I had a great day out. I'll start tomorrow with my sketches. :)

[skorpi]

@mimer: Great color palettes and briefs. Thank you :)
I like the body language of the two, shows much about their character. I prefer the drums, but I think, it's to early to decide XD

@Lost Faith: The cloth refs are from a costumebook i bought long time ago and never really used it. So I'm glad, I can use it now XD

Some scribbles I did today:

[LostFayth]

Hey guys....I was doodling and doing some pose sketches when it came across my mind that we haven't decided if we're gonna do backgrounds or only and really focus on the design of the characters with a simple background.

The last lineup looked messy. I know, it was I who made it. But shouldn't we focus on the lineup already?

...just a few thoughts...;)

EDIT:
Well. here are the doodles I made.

743530

And some thumbnails sketches with two of the poses I thought could give some nice results. The bad fairy/elf is flying away looking down on a village she just put in flames.

743534

I think I'm doing to much with the environment rather than focusing on the design. That's what I'm gonna do next.

[skorpi]

I propose, we make simple backgrounds. A simple landscape, so the character is in focus.
And i propose, all do the character on atransparent layer, so we finally can mounting them together better.

[mimer]

I agree, lets all put our characters on a separate layer and then set them on a simpler background to showcase them together, unless we feel we have time to do a more elaborate bg for the team picture, then we can all have a bit more freedom to do a bit of background for our own individual portraits as long as we keep it in line with the overall themes?

sketches looking good skorpi, perhaps even putting him in a full chieftain headress of feathers would look imposing?

some refinement on the sillhuettes. been looking at gorillas and other big primates and think they might fit well to base the orch heads off, beeing capable of both lookig really fierce and serene.

[skorpi]

@Lost Faith: Don't forget that your image has to be in a high format.
I don't know, how her personality should be. Her body langugage at the moment says im harmless. Maybe she could sit there more self confident.

@mimer: Thanks for adivice. I'm trying different designs at the moment.
I think the position of the drums son't work at the moment. The way he wears them makes him play like that (http://www.hessen-militaer.de/mizi_englisch/images/trommler_rascher_300.JPG) I think he can play more powerful if he play with only one hand like this (http://www.musikschule4222.at/fotos/2002-03/Bilder/caravan-dance-group.jpg) or if he place hte drum on the grount and play then with both arms.

[mimer]

good points skorpi, heres a version with one bigger drum

lostfayth: i think with the fairy we'll have to see the scale for the group picture, perhaps thatll be easier to compose if all the characters are standing on their own, ie not resting or sitting on anything? especially for a small character like the fairy but overall for the group too? The fairy can be flying or standing, but i think for the group composit it will probably be seen best if its in midflight, since that will give you more freedom to move her around to make a good group shot?

perhaps use butterfly wings for her? that will give you a lot of options to display imagery for the good and evil character? (think the moth picture on the silence of the lambs cover)?

just rambling away, i think my main point is that we should probably focus on expressing the charachters through their own looks rather than their surroundings and backgrounds?

[LostFayth]

Thanks you two! :D You're right. I need to keep in mind that she will be composed in a group later on, so I guess I'll just do a full frontal body drawing.

I made a whole a4 page full with silhouettes/thumbnails. I love almost dry markers, you can really layer the ink :D I'll post them up tomorrow. I already have some favorites.

Mimer, it getting better and better. Are you gonna stick with these two or look for other options as well? Not that these two are bad or anything. In fact, they're really strong silhouettes and the design is working too :D

[mimer]

i really like those two, but i think ill try some other versions out tomorrow just to keep from getting stuck on something too soon

[LostFayth]

Okay, I've scanned in the silhouettes to show you all. I used an almost dry marker accidentally and it gave some great effects.

744530

I also two funny concepts to let them be more in touch in nature. Just to have a bit fun.

744520 744529

And lastly, I put some of the silhouettes I liked and put some more detail in them. One way or another I had the Native Americans in my head almost all the time. I guess it shows. I need to convert it more to armor. Right now all the baddies are wearing typical Native American clothes.

744528 744522 744523 744524 744527

I'd like to hear from you what you like the most. I can combine stuff of course. Comment please. Can you guess which ones are my favorite? ;D

[skorpi]

@Lost Faith: I like the last one :)
I had the same problem with the combination armor and american native clothing. Not to easy, but i'm sure, we find a way :)

Still painting some costumes, i show them soon :)

EDIT:
First designs, but I'm not really confident, I think i have to draw some more :)

[mimer]

well, if we dont want to, we dont really have to combine the clothing in particular with armour. thats a bit of a clash, perhaps take the iconography and style from the native american cultures rather than thinking whole garments since were doing a rather advanced race in terms of armour and clothing?

like the sketches, keep em coming :) i like the animal headresses actually since she is supposed to be a magician? at least for the native american baddies, the animal head headdress would work for their shamans. which would fit with her magic class? perhaps go with a fox for the asian theme, although i guess showing their faces is paramount.

skorpi: love the colours, some more knightlike armour on the top row mixed with the native american pieces perhaps. the good guys also have a good palette of colours, and i like the design on particularly the first one, but they dont read as warriors as well as the top row does atm.

heres some alternative poses and bard instruments i scribbled on my commute from work today. all comments, ideas and crits appreciated.

[LostFayth]

skorpi Wow girl, you have really outdone yourself :D Those bears really look nice. The Bad bears look great. The first and second from the left are in my opinion the best. They scream FIGHTER, so that worked :mod:. I think a little of blue does really magic. Maybe try that too in the other two?

The good bears have some nice color variation.
Bear 1 is looking like a nobleman with some fine clothing that could be really expensive. He would make a nice priest.
Bear 2 reminds me of Goku. xD He fits the brief. Everything he wears shows he's a strong warrior.
Bear 3 shows he's not a warrior. I don't know what he could be.
Bear 4 is a combination of Bear 1 and two: A noble and rich warrior.

mimer Nice instrument :O I like the pose where he's sitting on one knee and plays his flute. Nice and calm. The flags on the sketch in the lower left corner made me lol. It's a bit too much, isn't it? :P

AhChu Haven't heard anything from you in a few days. You must be very busy. Good luck with the workload man. You're still in right?

Well....skorpi inspired me to do some sketches in color as well. I was spending too much time on each sketch and then I tried to do some real fast sketches and they came out a lot better than the long ones. Well, a few of 'em did.

745431

I like 5 - 7 the best. 5 was done in like 2 minutes and I changed 3 into 7 in a couple of minutes. It's funny how thing turn out sometimes.

I was thinking....wouldn't it be interesting if I made her into a bug-like fairy. More like a pixie. But a bit more human than the usual pixie. Big round eyes, small nose and mouth and maybe a pair of antennas? Or she could be wearing some head garment with bug eyes, much like I did with the deer. Think of it as a crown or something like that.

Oh, I'll get started on the baddies. :)

[mimer]

heh, yeah, i agree, the flags are way over the top :)

of your designs lostfayth, i think i like nr 3 best atm, because of the interresting details on the clothing. i like the idea of experimenting around a bit with with different insecs/bugs for her look.

Something ive been thinking about, regarding our world decription so far. I really like the basic premise, two paralell worlds brought together by the "evil" more expansionist side for conquest, but I think we need to tighten it up a bit.

Heres what ive been thinking, based on what weve done so far and the ides weve had for the two different sides.

"Back in a time now lost to even the eldest of storytellers, there were two lands. Divided as by the breath on a cold mirror, they existed side by side without ever touching, until the greed and ambition on one side caused a terrible event, fusing the lands together, and bringing both sides of the mirror crashing into eachother.

on one side, the Anai, content with their life and the cycles of their world, having trancended ambition their magics no longer searched for power as much as it strived for cooperation of the living world.

on the other, the Vret, a culture consumed by ambition and progress, their magicians somehow bridged the divide and saw the world of the anai, a more unspoilt version of their own land as an easy price to take by force, just as they had imposed their will on the spirits of their own lands, taking from the land what they wanted.

After the merging of the worlds, the Vret realised they were mistaken in thinknig of the Anai as an easy target. Their quiet composure showed to contain an unbending will to defend their own world, and after a long tome, an uneasy stalemate was reached.

Today, the world is known as the realm of the twiceborn. On both sides exist an opposite number of every living soul, and as this realisation sank in, so did the importance of the individual rise.

Now the need for champions grows ever more important. On both sides, bands of adventurers and paragons of each side are formed with the knowledge that somewhere out there is their mirror image, and that sooner or later, the fate of who will rule the world of the twiceborn will be decided on a battlefield where you will not face your brother, but yourself."


It gives us a more detailed backdrop, as well as incorporating the stuff weve so far said about the two cultures. It also gives us a bit of a background as to why these bands of adventurers are forming?

I like the basic wolrd that weve got now, but i feel we can benefit from hammering out the details and erasing any question marks we have about the backdrop, since it makes it that much easier to use for our characters later in the process? This is my version, What do you guys think?

[LostFayth]

Headshot! You did quite a good job to incorporate all the info and you made a story out of it. This is detailed stuff and it tells why the world is what it is.

Number 3 is made from one of the silhouettes I had detailed in post #68. Hence the details. I might use number 3, but with more saturated colors, something like 7.

[skorpi]

@mimer: Nice sketches, but I like the first you did most. On the other sinde looks this lute with blade really cool.

And great brief.

@LostFaith: I like 3,4 and 8 most. And go ahed with the bug designs, that could look cool.
I think, some very light ribbons or something floating in the air will make a good effect.

Thanks for the critic and input. I overwork the designs. I think, I have to descide first, what kind of fighter I do. Doing the desings i thougt of something like Shaolin monk, but thats quite different from a rouge.

[LostFayth]

Well, that's two votes for number 3. It was also my favorite silhouette in post #68.

I made three designs for the bad one. I actually wanted to quit after two, because it already was what I had in mind. The third one is with the bug idea in the back of my head, but I'm gonna explore that idea some more. I want to show it in her face for the greater part and of course her wings.

746291

Don't get confused by her skintone. I just used a skintone instead of grey, since there is so much grey in the color pallet

EDIT

Oh god....it didn't take long to realize the bug eyes thing won't work with me...I guess I have to try something else or drop it....

746349

I guess big human eyes should do the job.

[AhChu]

Heya guys, nice work so far...great story mimer, really liked that fusion of ideas into a cool story.

Lost Some wicked thumbs ya got going there, and those silhouettes are awesome.

Skorpi Your bears are coming along well, the bad ones look bad ass, might have to beef up the good guys and give them armor...looking forward to your next round of pics :)

Anyways here is what ive been working on so far....I think my Ranger character is starting to look more and more like a fighter. Might have to start bringing it back more and actually give him a bow...oh well. Funny thing when stop and loked back and the character had evolved to look like Snake Blisken from Escape LA..cracked me up :) Cant really see it but I had an idead of the bad ranger wearing his fallen foes faces as a mask....."It puts the lotion on or it gets the hose again" :)

[LostFayth]

Looking damn fine AhChu. A mixture in classes is okay I guess. You'll end up inventing your own class.

The fifth pose could be a nice one for the good character. Noble and confident. The second pose had some good action lines, it's bad ass. Guess which one would look good standing like that.

The fourth head is in my opinion the best. It reads very well and is has a good feel to it.

The silhouettes.....man! Those are sweheet! :D Both characters in the middle work the best in my opinion. The good one has a archer feel to it. The bad one just rocks! I want to see him as a final. Great detail and nice tattoo thing going on. :D

You could add a bow and some arrows to indicate that's really an archer. Or add an animal and it'll become a ranger. Good job :D

I just picked up this (http://www.amazon.com/Shells-Corals-Icons-Albertus-Seba/dp/3822832529) and this (http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/photography/all/45214/facts.edward_s_curtis_native_americans.htm) book. The first one is about shells and corals. I think I could do something nice with it in terms of patterns and necklaces and other stuff. The other book is just great. It has over 100 pages filled with photo's of Native Americans. It's a good way to get the creative juice flowing. If you're able to grab that last one, DO IT! :D

[mimer]

lostfayth: i definitely like the third one of your new full body sketches, i like the blue, and the insect headdress that youve got both in that and the fourth head sketch, its a nice variation of having a wolf or bearhead as a cowl/headdress that you often see in various cultures, the american natives among them, for the baddie it shows the willingness to kill something in nature to wear as an ornament. having some sort of turquoise stone on her wand, if oyu choose to go with that, is also a good idea i think.

Ahchu. I like the bald look better than the full beard and long hair i think. perhaps if you braid up the hair it would work better? the bald look along with some native american facepaint like some of the dark you have on his eyes now looks cool. i like the first one on the left on both the first and second row for clothing. perhaps a way to make him more rangerlike is to use more furs, make him look like an active hunter/skinner. have some animal furs of small animals hanging from the belt along with an actual scalp from an enemy?

glad you like the background story :)

[LostFayth]

It's funny how you like the last one. It's really something I did in a few minutes without thinking to much about it. You made a good point. In that book I bought today I also saw a lot of dead animal heads on their heads as garments. I might go with the third one, but I'll sure introduce more greys to it.

[mimer]

anchu, for your ranger, you might want to check out some pictures of mongolian eagle hunters (they use bigass tame eagles instead of falcons) and some mongolian and other asian archers?

lots of ranger inspiration around for native americans probably, since so much of popular history deals with their skills as hunters, trappers and scouts etc. gonna try to work some more on my sketches before i attend the composition class tonite (yay) and post some more final sketches tomorrow.

[LostFayth]

Skorpi could it be this book (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Costume-History-Francoise-Tetart-Vittu/dp/3822850950) you got the pages out? You said you have a book with all kind of clothing. EDIT I guess it's not. xD Could you give me the title and isbn number. It doesn't matter if it's in (Swiss) German. It's all about the picture right :D

mimer I'm gonna join the class too tonight. I can't wait! :D

[skorpi]

@LostFaith: I like the design in the middle and the right hairdress. 8 eyes looks cool to, but i think the good one would look to scary with.

About the book: It's called "Kostümgeschichte in Bildern" it's german, but i think, there exist an english (french and italian) version too, the color pages have titles in all 4 languages. ISBN: 3-572-01231-7, Orbis Verlag

@AhChu: Nice sketches. I really like the one with the skulls.
The fallen foes faces as mask is great horror stuff.
Are those all bad guys? If not, i would try do to give the good guys a more asian look.

I give them nor armor and tested some colors.
I think, he's a lycantroph, and can change form. Human- mixed form- bear.

[mimer]

those designs are killer skorpi, id say definitely keep working on those lines with this char :)

im afraid time is running away from me, and ill be missing in action more or less over the next 3 days. going back home and leaving my computer behind. ill be sketching all i can while im gone though and put the scanner to good use when i get back. im fairly certain ill go with the intense drummer boy that ive got for the baddie, but with the good side im a bit torn between the bladed lute thingy and the flute player. the flute player probably has the more interresting pose though, so im leaning towards that.

even though im not going to be around my tablet or my own computer i might get a chance to pop into the thread, so any feedback or ideas on the direction of the bard is much appreciated, big details or small :)

[skorpi]

@mimer: Thanks :)
Why dont give your bard two instruments? I look forward your final desings. :)

Something conceptional about my bear. (I should begin with some compositiontumbs soon)

Race: Therianthroph: Human who can morph into an animal form.

Ursos can morph into a bear and a mixform between human and bear. He can stay in each form, al long as he want. The transformation take 3 minutes. Clothes don't transform, so if he change from human to mixed form wearing clothes, they will tear.
He use to stay in human form for his allday life. Meeting with friends or at official partys. In his human form, he is like all other humans, without any special abilities.
When he's travelling in dangerous places (and thats often, since he's figthing for his people) he prefer the mixed form and wears armor. Alltime ready to fight.
In this state, he is stronger than a human, faster and better protectet trough his fur. he can't speak al well as in human forn, but good enough to say easy things. And he understands the other peaple very well.
The bear form has best senses. He can fight too, but not hold weapons or something like taht. He can't speak, but understands other people still.
He use to stay in this form only for spying.

He's a berserker. If he lose control over his anger, he automatically transform in the mixed form and begins to fight. If no enemy is around, he can atack his own people.
Fortunally he's a cosy person. he like eating, relaxing and listen to music. But he's loyal to his people too, so he learns to fight and decided, to help as good as he can.

Forms:

[AhChu]

"Fortunally he's a cosy person. he like eating, relaxing and listen to music"

That cracked me up, nice work :)

[LostFayth]

skorpi I like the left one of both the good and the bad. Good colors, good balance. The story sounds believable. I saw him come alive in front of me....and yeah...he likes to eat...what? People? :P

I have the same problem as mimer. I'm at day two of a gouache painting workshop so I can't do much about the team chow. And Thursday is a special day, so that's not gonna work either. (Check out the bottom of the forums' main page on Thursday to see why :P). So I'll start sketching on Friday. I'm not gonna put her in some kind of illustration. (like the last time) Just two character designs to show off the design.

Hope to get back soon! ^_^

[skorpi]

skorpi I like the left one of both the good and the bad. Good colors, good balance. The story sounds believable. I saw him come alive in front of me....and yeah...he likes to eat...what? People? :P


*lol* maybe the evil one. :D

EDIT: Some thumbs:

[LostFayth]

Hey guys, it's been a while. I'm ready to continue now. I have everything I had to do finished. Now it's back to the chow :)

skorpi Good thumbnails. They read very well. I'd pick the top left for the good one and the bottom right for the bad one. They both read good and there isn't much perspective nor overlapping going on which is good to show the design. The bottom left works too for the bad bear. His body language reads anger and evil, so that would be a good choice too.

Speaking of body language....I suck at it. I never seem to be able to deliver a message with my characters. I'd love to hear some good advice from you if you know a good website or book which shows and describes all kinds of body language.

Well...I tried to create two poses for the characters I picked. I decided my fairy is gonna be a spell caster. I tried some thumbs and went with the ones I liked.

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For the good fairy I wanted to show she's innocent and shy. She's not really confident but she is kind.

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The bad fairy is completely the opposite. She's brave, confident and always ready to fight. I made her proportions more 'heroic'.

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Don't mind the feet on both of the fairies. I will add wings when I'm finished with the sketches and transfer them to Photoshop. Is there anything wrong with the anatomy? The good fairy seems off one way or another...

[LostFayth]

Okay guys. Finished the final drawings.

I haven't decided yet what I'm gonna do with her hair.
Good:
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Bad:
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I'd love to know what you think before I start on the final rendering in Photoshop.

[mimer]

skorpi: like the first in the top row and the last in the bottom row for the group picture perspective i think, although the middle one in the bottom row is a kickass action shot :) I think your work is coming along really nicely.

lostfayth: I think youre definitely on a good track with using the poses to show her different attitudes. right now i think her good pose is looking a bit too much like she needs to pee though ;) perhaps use her head and arms more than her legs? perhaps a downturned head looking up through her eyelashes for the demure one and an upturned cocky chin looking down her nose at you for the bad one? The wide stance on the legs is working well for the bad one i think.

right now both dresses look very similar in fabrics etc, perhaps some more elaborate armour for the bad one, those arms could use some vambraces perhaps.

heres some more ideas im tossing around. liked the blade on the lute thingy, so tried to incorporate it into the flute, which i think is the more interresting instrument posewise. tried some different positions and arrangements for the drum too. gonig for a wide sumo-stance for the bad guy. so not happy with anything on his upper body in this sketch though.

really cool work from all of you so far, this has got me thinknig about drawing to a much greater degree on a daily basis than anything ive done in a long time :)

update one, reworked the drummer a bit

[LostFayth]

Thanks for the input.

The good fairy looks like she really needs to go to the bathroom. :P I'm gonna play with her legs to correct that. I think her non confident look and the fact that she looks off in the distance rather then looking us in the face shows that she's not certain of herself. Right? Her arm is turned in, towards her.

I most certainly agree on the bad fairy. She needs more metal on her. It's rather funny to think of a spell caster using magic over physical attacks to wear armour. I wanted to show her use of metal in her wand and necklaces. Maybe I can add more metal accessories to her dress.

I like the idea of making the flute into a weapon. The blade looks like it could cut trough flesh, but it doesn't disturb the design of the instrument.

The second drummer looks still good to me. It's the one you started with and the one that's most appealing to me. Just throwing idea's to you: What do you think of a topless bad goblin. He could wear shoulder pads or something like that, but overall his upper body is naked. That gives you a good opportunity to play with the paint the Native Americans use to frighten their enemy.

You could also make the drum sticks (?) look like they're weapons. The bard used them to smash the heads of the enemy if he needs to. I like how they're chained to the drum. He could also use the sticks to swing the drum around and bash into the good guys.

[AhChu]

heya guys, long time no post...looks like everyone is coming along well.

LostFaith cool drawings, if ya having trouble with a good pose, usually do a trawl through the photograph section on deviantart...sometime you kind find some real gems. or you could try this http://www.posemaniacs.com

Skorpi I like those new thumbs, especially the one with him dozing :P would be cool to see a mid transformation thumb, but the first of the bad one thumb looks really strong.

Mimer Neat pics, he looks really bad ass, but I think the drum should be a bit higher up on him, especially if he drums the army into battle, do'nt wont to tripping over it now in the heat of the moment :)

Cheers for the advice Mimer, those eagle hunters are so wicked..so here is a new post with that in mind....think im gonna try rework both ideas into the finals..I really like the idea of the bad rangers taking the faces of their enemies..and gonna add Ravens or vultures as their pets & Eagles for the good guys.

[LostFayth]

AhChu Thanks for the advice. I usually start out by looking for good refs on deviantart, but this time I wanted to construct something of my own. Just to see if my knowledge grew or not.

I like the way your ranger is heading. Can't wait to see more of him :D

I changed the leg of the good fairy. Now the dress looks a bit off...:\
I also added her hair and a head garment, with antenna's! :D I know her eyes might look a bit manga-ish right now, but that's the feel I'm trying to get. Big eyes, lots of light reflecting in 'em, making her look cute. But I want to go for a more bug feeling. So I guess the eyes will end up black with a lot of light in them. The head garment is gonna be some kind of leaf.

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[skorpi]

Sorry guys, I wasn't active recently. I'm glad, you like the same thubs as me :) Finally, I thik, I chose the left ones, because, in thouse poses it's easier to put them together with the other characters.

LostFaith: I like the body language of the two. I hope you dont mind, if I paint ofer your drawings a little, because their hands look very confortable. (it's really sketchy, so I hope you look through)

Mimer: I really like this flute and the drummer pose is much better now, the second looks very agressive :)

AhChu Good start. Only thing to keep in mind is the example pic in the main thread shows the whole body.

About the final pics: Like last thime, let's give them the same porportions. Still 600x800 pixels by 72 dpi for the finals here?

[LostFayth]

Thanks a lot skorpi! I'm gonna rework the parts you painted over. I tried putting the right arm in a downward position like you painted when I was sketching. I liked the upward position more. But I see there is a problem with the thickness of her arm. I'm gonna fix that.

Well....tomorrow is the 17th. That means we should start thinking of the finals and how we're gonna present it. The 600x800 format is fine with me. I think we shouldn't worry about the individual images. It's the (two) composite images we should worry about. Are we gonna put them next to each other to show scale on a general background? We could play with scale if we do so. Something else would be difficult to do because we all have different poses and angles. How do you think we should present it and what kind of background are we gonna use?

EDIT

Changed some things and added some stuff to make it look better.

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ooh! I spotted some mistakes again. It's funny how everything looks good when you finish it and it looks off when you see it after a while. Gotta fix that tomorrow.

[skorpi]

LostFaith: I just thougt how I would hold a staff (I glad, nobody looks at me, when I do strange poses XD)
I think, the evil fairy looks a bit stiff this way, but Of curse, it's your descision. And the arm of the good one is to short (her right)
I always see my mistkes when I finally scan a pic and then ists often to late :( Digital painting has his good sides :)

EDIT: I can do a background for the composition pics an also place them in.
Any ideas, how the landscape could look?

[LostFayth]

Hehe, glad you can't see me either. I also strike a pose and try to figure out how I look or use the mirror. You're right about the stiffness. The right arm was one of the mistakes I saw later on. I still need to fix that. The hand looks too small too.

The funny thing is I also see the mistakes I made when I scan an image into the computer. While I'm working I tend to make a few photographs with my cell phone to get a different point of view on the drawing and fix the bad parts.

You're welcome to make a landscape. I wonder how we should present it. Are we gonna make two separate line ups or one line up with both the good and evil characters. Maybe you could do something like two worlds merged together. On one side a nature based world and on the other side a sophisticated world. They're merging into on another in the middle.

[skorpi]

I would do two different lineups, if not, the pic may be to long.
But thinking of it, if we really put the characters together this way, we need to paint them all in a simular light sutuation, or it will not work.
so question: takes it to much of your artistic freedom, if it all have to look similar?

EDIT: and something to look at :)

[LostFayth]

Good stuff skorpi. I like the blood stains. Makes me wanna get start painting my own characters.

I don't know about the lighting. I usually do a top left light on my concepts. I wouldn't mind changing it. We should have decided that earlier on. But no, it wouldn't take away my artistic license.

BTW
Are we gonna use lines or make it without any lines making it look more painted?

[skorpi]

I usally use a top left light too. And it will be good, if all characters are portraited by day. Little color adjustments are no problem, if the rest fit together.

And without lights was what most said :)

[AhChu]

Looks good skorpi, and I agree for no lines, trying to push that painted look

[LostFayth]

I've put the base value down for both fairies. It's gonna be something to work without lines. I've never done it before. But hey, it's all about learning new stuff.

skorpi, I went with your comments and changed the bad fairy's arm. You were right, looks less stiff.

I went for darker values for the bad fairy (low to middle key) and lighter values for the good one (high to middle key).

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[mimer]

so, working on the back of a worklist on my commute home, this is the look im going for with the flute player, and i guess, the facial base for both characters.

[skorpi]

@Lost Faith: Of curse, it's total different painting without lines, but you can that, and you have help here :)
Look forward your next step.

@Mimer: I like his peaceful look.

Backgrounds for my pics (the one for the good need still work). What do you think, does a landscape like tihs would work for the composition with all characters? Ore are there good ideas to make the landscape look more special?

[LostFayth]

Looking good mimer. The character is taking form with each update. I like where it's headed.

Nice backgrounds skorpi. The second background really shows how I had visualized the world in terms of color. The first background isn't bad, but I think the colors are a bit too saturated.

Skorpi and I talked over MSN and one thing we came up with is to do collaborated backgrounds for the final line up for both the bad and good characters. It's not something you HAVE to do, but if it sounds cool, you're free to join.

We were thinking of getting a base layed down by someone. And the next team member adds a few things he/she likes or changes/corrects something else. By doing so we end up with a background the whole team made instead of letting one person decide. It'll also be something to do to get your mind of the characters.

This is an example of a base background using skorpi's images.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/5774/worlds.th.jpg (http://img529.imageshack.us/i/worlds.jpg/)


I know mimer and AhChu are really busy with work and all. If you don't want to do it, it's fine. Maybe you could throw some ideas at us, or things you want to see back in the image and we could use them.

[skorpi]

my bear so far :)

[LostFayth]

Looking good skorpi. I really love his expression! :D

I wanted to share a WIP of the good fairy with all of you :).

[skorpi]

@LostFait: She looks sweet. Maybe you can add some fildes, so the clothes looks less stiff.

I was apinting today, started the good bear and did some sketches of the human head, how he could look like.

[mimer]

you guys are really coming along good with your charachters, im gonig to be awol over the weekend, got my 30th birthday coming up, ill be sketching but i wont be much on puter to upload anything til next week.

[AhChu]

Nice work guys, sorry for the lack of posts but it has been pretty busy at work and some late nights, but wil lbe rocking and rolling this weekend after my game.

Colab backgrounds sound like a really cool idea, im keen for some of that action aswell :)

[LostFayth]

Oh man, completely forgot about adding creases and folds in her dress! :S Thanks for reminding me skorpi!

The good bear is coming out great. He still looks like he's floating above the ground. But I'm sure you'll fix that.

I added color to the good fairy. I'm planning to do the darkest darks next followed by the details I need to add. Maybe I'm gonna add some highlights and rework the colors to make it look better. I just added flat colors over the values.

[LostFayth]

Guys I just found out about something:
The final image must be around the format daestwen posted (ratio). The size can be changed a bit. Her example was: 469px × 709px. So we have to keep that in mind. If we don't keep to the format we won't be applicable for the prizes and we don't want that right!

I don't know if we need to create line ups. I'll pop the question.

[skorpi]

@Lost Faith: Looks good so far. I think some yellow highliths would look god on it.
And of curse i make the good bear standing on the ground :)

About ratio, Daestwen wrote about 2:3 ratio, I propose, we do 600x900 :)
And if we find the time, lets do the group picture.

Yesterday I had no mac but a moleskin and pencil (without ereaser XD)
So I was drawing the human form of both characters, trying to give them the same face but different character.

[AhChu]

Alright, hopefully will finish render of bad ranger tomorrow night, got to tweak the position of his legs but that is no biggie. Ive used a desaturated version of skorpi's background for placement, then will post up the good version..maybe him picking flowers :) oh the good ranger will have an Eagle..should be cool

[LostFayth]

You're really creating depth into your character, skorpi :D

Looking good AhChu. He's bad ass!

I think I've finished the good fairy. No wait....I call it finished. I have to get started on the evil fairy if I want to make the deadline.

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I asked daestwen if we need to make a line up. We don't have to.

Oh and it might be a good time to start thinking about the character's history and description. We need to post a few lines about the characters in the final post.

[skorpi]

@AhChu: I like it.
Some Critics: I think, his right underarm should be exactly horizomtal, thats the angle i woud use it a bird is sitting on it. His left arm is a bit to long and I think, he would look stronger, if he stand with the feet mor outward.

@Lost Faith:
I like the leave structure :)
Some Detail: Take a look how her hair isaroud her ear. At the moment, the ear looks as if it was stuck on the hair.
And about her hands, if you are holding something, the forefinger is in an different angle than the other fingers (just try out) It's not much but it make tha hand looking much more natural.

I'm nearly finished with the good bear. Just some more details and I thing, I have to give his belt a different color.

[LostFayth]

Thanks skorpi, I'll try to change it.

You're right about the pink belt. It draws to much attention. Maybe if you desaturate it more it could work.

I changed the face of the evil fairy.

[skorpi]

@LostFaith: Not bad, but the lines looks a bit like tears, better you draw them a way she looks angry.

[mimer]

running to catch up with you guys :)

going to have a day off on wednesday, which is pretty much put aside for nailing these two bards, heres some colour work for the bad guy, along with some improvements, hopefully, on the anatomy and pose.

[LostFayth]

Skorpi, I don't get what you mean... Do you mean the vertical lines or the horizontal lines?

Looking good mimer. I hope you can make it, the day off comes in handy :D

I wanted to update you guys with the evil fairy.

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EDIT
These are the colors I'm gonna stick with. I might make a some adjustments (lighter/darker) and I have yet to figure out what colors the feathers will be. She doesn't have many metal attributes. I didn't think it would fit a Spellcaster.

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[skorpi]

@mimer: Good pose but same with the feet as AhChu, let hinm turn them a little bit outward, that gives him more weight.

@LostFayth: I was writing about the vertical lines. Sice she have a nice round face you can use the face painting to give her some more accent.
I agree, she don't need much armor. And sice she's flying, she has to be light.
I think, her head is shorter than the one of the good fairy. But maybe it's just becouse their different poses.


Today i was working on the bad one. There are still some details to paint, but it's almost finished. Critic?

[skorpi]

ok, guys.
We dont need to post all chracters together, but we can. Here are the backgrounds (or the basic if someone like to add Details ore change things)
High resolution files on deviantart: background good (http://skorpi.deviantart.com/art/Background-II-134806719) and background evil (http://skorpi.deviantart.com/art/Background-I-134806413)

Feel free to use and change how you like.

And now, I start painting details. Seems like I wouldn't have a computer from tomorrow until sunday evening. But I'm sure, I can finish in time :)

[mimer]

love the backgrounds, might steal portions of it for a backdrop for my chars :)

heres an update on the baddie, stupid setback today with computer crash stealing 2,5 hours worth of work, but getting there.

[skorpi]

@mimer: Damn computers. Looks good so far, but a little stiff. Mabe you can give him a little twist, paint the shoulders not in the same hight.

[AhChu]

Okay guys here are my finals, I don't think I will be able to make any more changes as I fly out to wellington for the weekend tomorrow, but feel free to tweak them if need be. Thanks heaps Scorpi for the awesome backgrounds, the worked a charm. Hope you guys like, I would have to liked to put some more time into them but I have been sick with the flu all week :( I tried some new techniques out on the good ranger, which worked really well, but there was a few frustrating moments for a awhile.

Bio - Rangers are regarded a special forces unit, usually wokring in small teams or by themselves they are able to disrupt or even disband enemy armies through the use of Gorilla tactics. they don't believe in the honor of battle just what ever it takes to achieve the objective. Through their training they are trained with a personal animal and the bond they share makes the two very lethal weapons.
The Rangers that twist on over to the darker side of things are very unstable, and usually skin the faces of the fallen foes just to wear them in the following battle to unnerve their opponents.

Mimer- Ya dude is coming along nicely will be looking forward to your finals.

Skorpi - that is one bad ass teddy bear, the only crit I would say is to add a few extreme highlights and darks just to punch the image out a little more :)

lost Can't wait to see ya evil fairy, show me her badness I dare ya :)

[LostFayth]

mimer Go, go, go...it's coming together, can't wait to see the finals. I'm sorry to hear your computer b*tched, I hope you can make it.

AhChu I hope you are all better now. The portraits look great, you've outdone yourself. Can you post both characters without a background (maybe in a psd or png file) so I can put together the line up without cutting your character ;)

Okay, another update, hope to finish it today.

EDIT:
Forgot to add the latest one.

[LostFayth]

Okay guys and gal, I finished it ^_^
I'm quite happy with both of the characters. I feel like I've grown a lot during the chow. Although I did not work completely out of my comfort zone, I think this is a good step :D

My finals;
Good:
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Evil:
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Go team!

[mimer]

just a quick post saying im still very much on track, but seriously swamped with work. update in weekend, got all of sunday off from work thankfully.

[AhChu]

Bad ranger clear cut (http://jj-mc-alister.deviantart.com/art/Team-Chow-Clearcut-135263381)

Good ranger clear cut (http://jj-mc-alister.deviantart.com/art/Good-Ranger-135263892)

[LostFayth]

AhChu, the clean cuts don't work. They are a .bmp file and bmp doesn't support transparent pixels. Could you save it as a .png file.

EDIT Never mind, I solved it. :)

Aw man, just two days left :D

[mimer]

bad guy nearly done, and good guy coming along. hate to leave it this late for you to put the final entry together but Im afraid i wont have this finished until late afternoon on the 31st. I think ca supports attaching psdfiles, would you prefer that if its possible with the char on a separate layer to the background? size 600 by 900 pixels?

[skorpi]

I'm back :)
And I dee, you wer busy :)

@AhChu: I like the two, especially his characteristic face.

@LostFayth: Good job

@mimer: you can upload psd. files, but only light ones, I dont know, if it works without loosing quality.

LostFayth: If you dont have the time to finish the group picture tomowwor afternoon, I have. So, if there's a problem, just send me, what you have and I'll finish.
I too like to work a bit on my charactersbut I finish defently tomorrow.

[LostFayth]

Mimer, You can save it as a .png file with no background and as a jpeg with background. That will make it more easy for me to put the character in the lineup. I don't think the file size is supported by ca.org. Tomorrow afternoon should work for me.

Skorpi, Thanks for the concern. Everything will work out of you can finish it tomorrow as well. I already started saving the files with the right name and I've added AhChus and my characters to the lineup. I've also collected the stories.

I have no classes after 15.20 tomorrow. I'll check as soon as I get home and keep checking until I have everything I need for the final post. Once I have everything I'll post it up and let you guys know. It's gonna be okay. :)

[skorpi]

@LostFayth: Well, I'm couriaous how the alignement finally will look like :)

To put all together:

Gender: male
Race: Therianthroph: Human who can morph into an animal form.
Class: Warrior

Character description/ Race details: Ursos can morph into a bear and a mixform between human and bear. He can stay in each form, al long as he want. The transformation take 3 minutes. Clothes don't transform, so if he change from human to mixed form wearing clothes, they will tear.
He use to stay in human form for his allday life. Meeting with friends or at official partys. In his human form, he is like all other humans, without any special abilities.
When he's travelling in dangerous places (and thats often, since he's figthing for his people) he prefer the mixed form and wears armor. Alltime ready to fight.
In this state, he is stronger than a human, faster and better protectet trough his fur. he can't speak al well as in human forn, but good enough to say easy things. And he understands the other peaple very well.
The bear form has best senses. He can fight too, but not hold weapons or something like taht. He can't speak, but understands other people still.
He use to stay in this form only for spying.
He's a berserker. If he lose control over his anger, he automatically transform in the mixed form and begins to fight. If no enemy is around, he can atack his own people.

only the good one: Fortunally he's a cosy person. He like eating, relaxing and listen to music. But he's loyal to his people too, so he learns to fight and decided, to help as good as he can.

only the evil one: To be a berserker is a real problem for the bad-tempred Ursos. Fortunally for his people he looks like someone who should be botherd, so worst case is rare. And he use his anger to fight against the good people.

Since he's born in both "worlds" he's practically the same person, even looking the same.

File links without background: Good (http://www.helenaerni.ch/good.png), Evil (http://www.helenaerni.ch/evil.png)

Finals:

[AhChu]

Nice job Skorpi, those finals look really cool, love the strong colours, but must say the good one is my fav even if he does wear a pink belt :)

[mimer]

ok, finals, so sorry about the extreme lateness, couldnt be helped this month im afraid. Could not for the life of me get png files down to the right size, so i hope you can work with these jpgs with a white bg.

descriptions:
good
Amongst the orchs, the son of krath the bladeforger started hearing the whispers of the world all around him. The whisper can be shaped around a man, filling him with joy, a will to fight or a desire to live. Arath uses his flute, traditionally bladed in the way of the orchs, who are pragmatic about things like musicians on the battlefield, to rally his fellow soldiers.

evil:
In the dark mines of the excavated mountains of krath the iron forger, His son wielded heavy hammers, striking into the hearts and roots of mountains until suddenly he started hearing the pulse of the world around him. Taken in as a war drummer, Arath disrupts the pulse of the world to cause fear and panic around him, while beating his enemies down with his macelike drumbeaters.

[skorpi]

@mimer: Nice job. :)
the white backgrund will work, I think. Then, I' going to post the finals :)

Lineups:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/Team%20ChoW/lineupGood.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/skorpi/Team%20ChoW/lineupEvil.jpg

[mimer]

great work on the final entry :) Man, if this taught me anything its to be way more organised in my work and keeping it on a tighter schedule. Great work everyone, that lineup looks really cool.

[LostFayth]

Ah mimer, you got me al worked up last night. I was really sleepy and tired. I pmed skorpi to make the final post and daestwen what to do if you were late. You almost gave me a heart attack xD

It's great that everything worked out!

Man it's been a killer month. I have learned a lot from you guys and the brief we all came up with was really great. Lets see what happens in the poll.

Thank you guys and gal! :D

(skorpi, you made some great modifications I hadn't thought of ;))

[skorpi]

I agree, it was an interesting month. I like working with ou guys :)

@LostFayth: Yeah, i took some freedom to change one of your backgrounds and change positions of the characters (what was you thinking about hiding your fairy putting her before the most unfavorble part of the background ;) )

[AhChu]

Hey guys, even for a crazy busy month its been a blast and I think you guys did a great job, time to start cracking back onto some studies in prep for the next one :) stay in touch

[mimer]

yeah, sorry about that, I nearly gave myself a heartattack over the last two evenings, really kicking myself over procrastrinating like that. *goes to drool over all the cool stuff in the finals thread again*

And now of course work gives me 4 days off, like i didnt need that last week ;)

[LostFayth]

Mimer...work can be a b*tch sometimes right? :P Now you have 4 days to drool over all the images. :D

Speaking of which...there is a lot of great competition isn't there!? :o

[skorpi]

True, there are some really great entries. So I agree with AhChu -> *going to study*

[mimer]

I was thinknig it might be a good idea to do a roundup of what we think we did well, and what areas we need to develop more in terms of this team activity?

perhaps each of us put down 3 constructive points on things were happy with, and 3 points we think we need to work more on, or could have done differently to get an even better result? I think we had a good level of constructive criticism going n the thread, and I think that having some sort of roundup now that we have the whole process to look at could be a good thing.

What do you guys think?

If we decide we want to do this, havce a deadline on, say, tuesday the 8th for posting up some final crits for the team effort as a whole?

[skorpi]

@mimer: Good idea but not so easy. I give it a try:

Positiv:
- We had a great start, searching for ideas and reference material, that was very inspiring.
- We had a good feedback culture, one of the most important paints, working in a team.
- Even if Ahchu and mimer hadn't much time, they worked hard (it was easier to finish for LostFaith and me, because we had more time) and we finally could finish the challenge. Looking at the Team list and the list of teams who finished, that's nothing selv-evident.

Negativ:
- Maybe it were better, we did a whole group meeting at mns or something like that. from the chat with LostFaith I can say, that this can be really helpful to create ideas but also to lern something about the teammember. (But of cuse I know, it's difficult to find a time everyone can join, even if Ahchu lives in really different time zone)
- maybe it was better, to start earlier with the finals. Desing precess is important, but it's also a pity, if in the end the time lacks to finish properly.
-other teams create presentation frames, looking at the final thread, that's a detail, making a group looking more homogen and loking good. So, maybe we should have thought about the final presentation earlier (but I also like the lineups, in that poit, we succseed)

[mimer]

ok, heres mine.

good: an organised start, lots of ideas and i think there was a good structure in the beginning that helped a lot.

good level of activity and constructive crits from everyone, which made the end result that much better.

we came up with two solid concepts for the two cultures and we made them shine through in our designs, that went a long way towards prsenting two groups that looked distinctive and like they belonged with eachother.

things we could improve/do differetly/add.

i agree on the chat meeting, im not adverse to odd hours as long as im free the day after, im used to holding weird hours to talk to people in other timezones anyway :) this could definitely be a good idea to improve the team process.

I think we can push the details, originality and wowfactor more. we had a solid base concept for both cultures, and we definitely made them both show, but we could push the details more, find those original details that make a charachter stand out and catch the eye even more.

I can mainly speak for myself here, but i defnitely ended up doing basic work to finish the broad figure, especially on the flute player, when i should have been focusing on refining details etc the last portion of the month. In short, my personal planning sucked, and not just due to time constraints. I think you lot did a much better job than me on that, but overall, if we can i think that the good planning we had in the beginning is something that we really should keep up all the way through, that way last week will feel less stressful. I know im definitely not doing a repeat on that last week if i can help it :)

[LostFayth]

Whoops! First deadline I missed! I was not aware of the feedback. Here is my 2 cents.

Good:
- Great team vibe. It was pleasant to work in the team because of the way we addressed each other and no one was trying to force someone else to do something.
- Everything came into a creative process from the moment we got the brief. Even before that we were thinking on how to improve the previous brief.
- Which gets me to the last point: The amount of feedback was good which resulted into a great team activity which was fun and consistent.

Need to improve:
- An important thing we missed was like you two said, the team meeting. It would have been great to get together the first time and set some important parts up right away. Which brief, who's gonna do what and how are we gonna do it, things like that. It happened anyway, but in a course of a week. A lot of time went away. It's also what skorpi said, because of the frequent chats we had I get the feeling our characters grew together. The four characters of our team do fit, but I see overlap with our two characters. It's something we should pay attention to next time. (That was point two :P)
- Next time we should pay more attention to our personal schedule. Who has a lot of time, who doesn't and divide the tasks according to that.


But guys, it's not only about putting the good and the less good parts down. It's also important to think HOW we're gonna improve.

- We have to work something out for the first chat. I know AhChu and skorpi use yahoo to chat and I have msn, so maybe we could use those instant messengers to get together at a time which is suitable in this timezone and AhChus timezone.
- Maybe it's also fun to experiment with passing a character around. So we have at least touched one character as a team. If it works we could do it for every character.
- We have to look at personal schedules and plan to start on finals sooner.
- Besides coming up with concepts for the characters within a brief we also should start thinking about presentation methods from the get-go.

I guess that about covers it. Great to be a part of this team :D