Team CHOW II-Team Coco Meowza

[Sekino]

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Aaaand It's on! Let's fill this baby up with ideas! :)

Since we don't know the brief yet (and it seems there might be some surprises), I was thinking maybe we could start by posting random sketches that show what styles and genres we're each most comfortable with. Perhaps it would allow us to get more familliar with each other artistically and get a better idea how to mesh our strenghts together once the brief is up. (We also could go through all of our sketchbooks, but I though it might be simpler to create a clean slate here)

Any thoughts or other suggestions?

[AsaB]

Whoo, it's up! Most awesome thumbnail, dear Sekino, like I already told you! Haha :teeth:

Yeah, also great idea about throwing in some sketches for introductions. Since one of our members doesn't even have a SB yet, it's even better. Also, maybe a sentence or two about ourselves wouldn't hurt either, just so we get to know each other properly! I think it might also help if we'd write our strengths and weaknesses artistically. It's also good to get an outsider's opinion on those, perhaps I write something as a strength that you guys then point out I'm completely lousy at! ;) In any case, a written and visual artistic introduction should be a good start.

I'm gonna get started on mine!

[3mMajster]

Wow Sekino that looks great! :D
I'm the one without SB.:( And it would be best that I introduce myself first.:)
My name is Milosh Krstic, aka 3mMajster, I am studying for the internet technology, in the free time I like to draw, and play guitar. Recently I started to draw CD covers for bands.
My great love are comics, and definitely favorite caracter is Konan.
Anyway here is one quickie that I did now, tomorrow I'll do a couple more.

[Mat Kaminski]

I'm already skeered of this power house ;)

[AsaB]

Mat, is that a challenge? ;) I assure you that we will try to kick everyone's butts, consider yours now in the danger zone! :D

Ahem. Right. My introduction!

I'm Ása, a 22 year old girl architecture student and I love to draw!
I especially love drawing anything with fantasy, ancient cultures and historical stuff, especially intricate outfits and patterns. I basically love immersing myself into research and then drawing whatever I was poking in :^^: Which is why I can't wait to dive into whatever era/time we decide on and learning all about it!

Arty strenght: females, clothes/folds, portraits, hair, inking, cel-shading etc
Arty weaknesses: males (errm), environments, weapons, sci-fi, realistic painting etc

Yeah, those lists are by far not exhaustive!

Here's something I find very typical of my drawing style, these sort of exaggerated and comic-like figures:
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I think that's it then!

[XanaChama]

Hey guys! This is gonna be fun! I've only done one CHOW, so this will definitely be interesting. I like our team name ^-^

Sketches!~ Sketches!~ Ok, here's some of my stuff, rendered and not (not sure of the requirements):

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[Sekino]

Whoa! Nice stuff up here already! :)

Alright, so I'm a modest graphic designer and illustrator. My first love was comic books, especially belgium/french comics, so being inspired by Franquin, Hergé and Uderzo/Goscinny, I love art based on humour and storytelling.

I believe I'm best at lineart and cartooning. I do love colouring as well. I am most interested in characters and creatures (both humans and animals). I'm fine with environments, I just don't tend to draw them much unless it is requested.

Some quick sketches:

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[AsaB]

Awesome, guys :D
I'm sure we will be able to make something kickass with this bucket of talent :)

So here are just a few wonderings and thoughts:

I was thinking about what would be the best way to organize things. We could take a character each, or we could each do a little on every one. Are there any preferences? I'm personally kind of unsure. It does sounds handy to have a character per artist, but I'm also afraid that the overall mood won't be consistant enough like that. Maybe we could browse the sketchbooks from the last Team Chow to see how people played it then.

Style! Looking at the sketches above, I think we all have a rather stylized ways of drawing. That is, none of us seem to favour realism specificaly--correct me if I'm wrong! I just got the feeling that most of us draw in a more comic or animation kind of style. Is that something we should go for? I think we should play on our strengths in this one, so it's just an idea.

Right. So if anyone has started brainstorming for an era/genre that we could put this into, please post random pictures and whatnot to show what you were thinking about :) Inspiration boards, we need them! I'm gonna do some contemplating.

[Sekino]

Wow, it's looking good already! I like how we really do seem to share several common elements (and that we're probably not going for epic, super-realistic sci-fi game art ;)).

I was thinking about what would be the best way to organize things. We could take a character each, or we could each do a little on every one. Are there any preferences? I'm personally kind of unsure. It does sounds handy to have a character per artist, but I'm also afraid that the overall mood won't be consistant enough like that.

On that note, I think we should allow ourselves some time to experiment a bit instead of aiming at a finished piece right out the gates (as long as our time management is good). We could try to each handle a character first. If the result is consistent enough, we'll party ;). We could also go over them and bring corrections if needed. However, we ought to be willing to scrap our designs and start over if the first attempt fails and not be 'married' to any idea if it doesn't work. So maybe our 'scheduling' could look something like this:

August 1 to 3 (or from whenever we get the brief)- Brainstorm sessions, assigning characters to team members.

August 4 to 7- Semi-finished character attempts, first evaluation for overall style, consistency, etc...

August 8 to 14- Polishing first designs if adequate OR creating alternatives based on corrections.

August 15 to 21- Preparing final submission, presentation, additional corrections...

August 22 to 28- Depending on how well we stay on track, we'll either have a near-finished submission by then OR a nice extra week to panic ;)

Obviously, that's very general and not cast in stone, but I think giving ourselves weekly deadlines might be a good way to keep on top of things while still tending to our lives.

I didn't bother scheduling more brainstorm sessions because I figure we ought to PM or chat with each other as often as possible as we go. The more communication the better.

And, yes, some inspiration boards sound great :)

[3mMajster]

I think that we should stick to this schedule, it gives us plenty of time to design our work.
Actually I agree with everything that Sekino said.
I'll go looking for some inspiration on the internet.

[AsaB]

Yeah, I can't really imagine us producing super-realistic sci-fi stuff! I think we'll probably make something like team GrogroZoo (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=157031) did last round, although I'm definitely not suggesting any copying! But this kind of playful and exaggerated comic-style might suit us better.

Excellent timeline, Sekino! I was also gonna suggest something like that, it will definitely keep us going if we have weekly deadlines to 'worry' about. So every Saturday might be good for that? :)
The final renderings will probably take the least of our times, so let's by all means try to use our time wisely to make a kickass concept and presentation!

And of course, we'll probably go back and forth a few times with the designs! In that case we'll need almost constant feedback and communicating. Is it maybe possible to have some fixed times for a team chat? I know we have different time zones, but it's not much more than a few hours, so I think we'll manage. In any case, we should be able to grab hold of each other easily. My MSN is in my profile and then there's the CA chat as well. Whatever suits you guys!

[XanaChama]

Working from a list and knocking stuff down one by one is efficient, so that's good thinking there with the schedule, Sekino. The timeline is OK by me, most of the stuff actually ends right before school starts for me.

BTW, don't know if you noticed, Asa, but the ChoW team you linked as inspiration also has a Blogger with all the members as contributors. I'm not sure entirely how that would be useful as a team, but you might want to take a look at it for ideas. (http://grogrozoo.blogspot.com) I thought it was a pretty spiffy addition.

Errr, I'm not sure what else to add, you guys are touching a lot of the key points. But in terms of the era and exact theme, I'm trying to leave that to inspiration because I think that'll room for creativity. We can go with something cli⋅ché and overdone (like Japanese culture), but maybe we should start thinking in terms of originality. We could also create something imagined to be the future. A theoretical future perhaps. Or we could take something in the past, twist the hell out of it and make up our own timeline. Just to give some thought while we're all thinking about what mantras/ideas we can center this around...

Y-aaaaaay team!... This is fun. I feel like I'm back in elementary school when stuff like this could actually be bad ass and interesting. It would be cool to do this for a living.

[Sekino]

Alright! First great chat with all five members present :D (Special thanks to XanaChama for saving and sorting out the conversation)

We've got a little preliminary activity figured out (I hope I got everything right, but we probably can fudge a bit; it's just for practice :)). We've decided to work on a pseudo CHOW among ourselves to better pinpoint our style, creative process and working method.

TASK- Each member creates a minimum of one character according to the following brief (we can experiment with more if we have time).

STYLE- Inspired by the Saturday morning cartoons we used to watch, back when logic and/or good taste didn't matter as much as noise, flash and fun. So find your inner 80's Ninja Turtles or Samurai Pizza Cats and think sugary breakfast cereal and sofa cushions on the floor ;)

CHARACTER TYPE- The characters must be object-based, meaning they can be either a single object or several objects combined (yes, fruits count as objects). So no humans or animals.

SETTING- The characters are basically 'normal people' in the way that they live in a world and era similar to ours. They can be neighbours in a small town, working stiffs in an office, tourists, etc... So we're not going for superheroes, fantasy/magic or sci-fi (aside from the sentient objects element).

DEADLINE July 31- This doesn't mean we can only post then; that's just all the time we have for this activity before the real Team CHOW brief. WIPs, inspiration boards, ideas, sketches, let's bring it on. Hopefully, we'll get stuff we can use for the real CHOW.

GOAL- Finding out what styles and method suit us best as a group, getting to know each other better and having a jolly good time :)

I hope that covers it. If you guys have things to add or change to this brief, go right ahead.

[AsaB]

Great work, Sekino! I think this explains it all very clearly, at least it does to me :)
Yeah, the chat was very illuminating, really got things rolling properly! I think we all really clicked well together and agreed on most things too. Promising start, in any case!

After you left, the rest of us got to wondering about organization. I know every team only gets one SB, but if it ever gets confusing or we would need to separate some elements etc, Xana suggested to either get a blogspot or make a social group here on CA for the team. I quite like the idea of the social group if things ever get too busy over here, we could make separate threads there for different elements. But it's just an idea, it's very possible that this one thread will be more than sufficient!

Anyway, I can't think of anything else that needs to be added to Sekino's list above. Let's get started!

[Sekino]

Played around a bit with various objects... So far, individual objects are working better for me than combinations:

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After running out of juice, Spray mellowed out big time and turned to buddhism:

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I'll experiment some more tomorrow :)

[AsaB]

Great start, Sekino! These are all awesome, haha, I adore the clock guy :D

I'm gonna get started on making an inspiration board, but first, here are a few sketches I did this morning. I did also just work with individual objects so far, had a hard time combining them. But this was just a little something to get me started anyway!

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[Pretty_Angel]

That are some really fun ideas, you two! "Spray" makes me smile, haha. x3

I also have something on my mind but wasn't able to scribble it down yet. Still need to learn for my test on Monday! D:

[AsaB]

Thanks Sabrina! Eugh, school giving you problems, huh? Well, if you have the time, it'd be fun to see your ideas!

Okee, I made a quick inspiration board purely for 80's cartoons, just to get the general idea of the designs and colour. If you guys want to dig deeper into this subject, like some particular genre or type of cartoons, go right ahead! I just grabbed the main cartoons, although I'm sure I forgot some. I might make another with personified objects or fruits, but you guys feel free to make some too :)

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[3mMajster]

Great stuff guys!
I just came from work, the boss kept us longer than usual.:S
I'll try to do some stuff tonight, and post it here.
Keep up with the good work!:D

[3mMajster]

Here are some sketches, I'll try latter to add some color.

[3mMajster]

Here is the pen king. :D

[XanaChama]

Thought about making the Soda "Coke the Jihadist" or something like that and attaching an explosive belt. But that may be going a bit too far :P... critiques welcome

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[Pretty_Angel]

@Asa: There's a lot of 90s stuff mixed into your sheet. XD

So yeah, I threw something together. Not much though.

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[AsaB]

Awesome ideas everyone :D

Sabrina, yeah, I actually know there's something that's not strictly from the 80's, but it's still something I consider in the "same package". That 80's vibe leaked well into the first few years of the 90's. I could very much be wrong, though! Anyone feel free to make up a new one :3

[Sekino]

Looking good!! :D

Asa- I think my faves are the blackberry (or cell?), lava lamp and the book reading the book. They have so much personality and movement!

3mMajster- The pencil is great, but I personally get more character out of the apple... like some country bumpkin goin' fishing (and using its own worms as bait= brilliant)

XanaChama- The toaster is adorable! What is he staring at in shock, though? :D And I figure you shouldn't be afraid of your own ideas concerning the can (your address isn't online, right? ;))...

Pretty_Angel- Good start! I think if you added a few more features to the pots (noses, eyebrows, cheeks...) and perhaps exagerrate their outlines more, they would really come across as two distinct 'ladies' and personas.

(Sorry for throwing all the crits in one shot: I'm not sure if I'll be online very often today...)

I've tried my hand at fruits. They ended up being quite anthropomorphized (I hope it won't start a 'frooty' movement or some such)...

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I had to colour this one ;)

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[AsaB]

Thanks for the good crits, Sekino, very good points!
Ah man, your latest is just great. I adore the cherry twins, what a fantastic idea! The tourist couple is great too, although I think the pinepple man outshines his ladyfriend by far, I like how you used the fruit's texture as his own hair and beard.

Sorry I don't have anything right now, my little brother was just returning home from a 2 month trip and the whole day went into chatting and whatnot. I'll get more done tonight :^^: Gonna tackle some fruits!

[Sekino]

Thanks Asa :) Even with what we have so far, I think we can already begin to determine how our styles ought to mesh together and what are our strong points for the CHOW brief.

I'm really glad that we all seem to handle characterization well (i.e. expression, personality..) and we're all rooted in linework. It was a very short exercise, but it's great that we already have something to look at as a group :D Maybe by tomorrow afternoon, we could all put down our thoughts on our work so far; crits, new ideas, concerns (if anyone has them), etc... ?

Oh, and another thing: If you guys have time, perhaps it'd be good to try and colour some of your sketches (except Majster, unless you want to do more). We can judge everybody's lines and design so far but the colouring will be very important to maintain consistency. That way, if colouring ends up being a problem for anyone in terms of speed or comfort, perhaps we could consider some people doing the linework and others doing the colours?

NOTE: I feel I sound bossy as heck! I'm really just writing down suggestions as they pop in my head so I won't forget. Other plans/ideas are most welcome! :)

[AsaB]

You don't sound bossy, don't worry :teeth: It's crucial to talk about all this and the earlier, the better. So by all means don't be shy to share your thoughts.

And I agree, we already have a pretty clear picture of how our styles are. I'm very glad we all seem to be on the same page in these matters, I think they will all manage to mix well together :)

Good idea to have one final thoughts/crits/etc tomorrow before the big one starts, we should definitely get used to other team members critting our stuff! Hopefully everyone will have thrown in a second batch by then so we'll have more to crit.

I did a little browsing in the SBs from the first round of Team Chow and some of the same concerns popped up there. I saw many did take turns, some did all the inks, others the colours etc. I quite like that idea, I personally think I'm much better at inking than colouring! But let's see what the rest thinks :)

[Sekino]

This is how well our 'pre-CHOW' characters work together, in only 3 days (and minor adjustments of contrast and layout) :) Not too shabby for a start :D

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[3mMajster]

Hi guys, great work!
Sorry for yesterday, I haven't been home all day, had to finish some documentation.
I'll try to do some more work tonight.
Anyway need to say some words about your work. :D
AsaB: excellent job, I especially like that roll of toilet paper, it looks so mean.:)
Sekino: I have no words, your work is fantastic, those cherry twins look so mmmmeeeoooowwww.:D
XanaChama: I like that can, especially the face expression , it would look even better if you would add some color.
Pretty_Angel: It's great, I like the plants, maybe because I have a house full of them.:D

[3mMajster]

This is how well our 'pre-CHOW' characters work together, in only 3 days (and minor adjustments of contrast and layout) :) Not too shabby for a start :D

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I think it's sooooooo goooooooood. :D
I must say it again, GREAT JOB YOU GUYS!!!:D

It seems to me that my apple fisher needs some corrections, so I'll try to make it better.:)

[3mMajster]

Here is the apple fisher, hope it's little better.:D

[XanaChama]

I was goofing off mostly drawing my SO's computer chair and turning it into something else as a study. But thought, hey why not make it a character too... it has a laser pointer in it's hand.

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[Pretty_Angel]

Hi there!

Sorry for yesterday -- I don't know how but I totally missed the last posts. I've put the thread on my watchlist, but somehow it slipped through my radar... O_o Won't happen again. >_<

[Sekino]

3mMajster- Good job on the apple! I really like that one; funny fellow ;)

XanaChama- I really like the chair and the rocket is a nice touch!

Pretty_Angel- No worries. As we discussed before, this was just a bit of practice to get warmed up. We all contributed and it's looking great :)

The official brief is coming up around midnight!! :D

I believe we've achieved our initial goal with this bit of practice. We have a better idea of how we each interpret ideas and that our styles are compatible (that's good news!). We'll just handle the brief and whatever is thrown at us the same way.

It seems that the genre will be pre-determined in the brief (Daestwen hinted at it), so I'm sure looking forward to our next brainstorming session...

Cheers y'all!

[AsaB]

Hi guys! Love the sketches, the ideas so far have been fabulous!

The brief is up!
Just gonna post a brief summary:

- Teams of five members need 8 portraits.
- You must do a LIGHT and a DARK version for each character.
- That means we need to design 4 characters, 8 portraits in all.

PLEASE SELECT ONE OF EACH CATEGORY FOR EACH CHARACTER.

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)


So! It's somewhat different from the last round of Team Chow. The genre is pretty specific in this case, that is, fantasy. In the words of daestwen: "We're looking at High Fantasy here, but I don't mind if you blur the culture lines a little bit. As far as style goes, that's totally up to your team. But try to keep it in genre." It looks like need to tweak our approach here a bit. It seems they're looking for humanoid characters, but we better ask daestwen just in case, just so know how our objects/fruits idea is gonna work. I'm still all for the cartoony tactic we agreed on, even though this is all high fantasy, it doesn't mean we need to go down the serious, realistic road. :)

Are people all familiar with this kind of fantasy genre? I definitely am, being a big video gamer and a sister of 3 boys :p If anyone isn't, it's probably a good idea to do some reading to see what we're dealing with.

I think it'd be good if we managed to have another live chat ASAP. Are people free today?

And lastly, here's a coloured version of my beaurocratic blackberry bloke! Made a new sketch. Just to show better how I ink and colour.
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[Sekino]

Awesome! The suspense was killing me! ;)

To be honest, Since Daest had warned not to get to entangled in any genre, I always had thought that our objects-fruits theme was for our group practice only.

And how ironic that uber-fantasy was the very theme we were vowing stay away from! That said, I do love elves and orcs as much as anyone; so it's all good :) I really like the good/evil twist also. I agree that we should stick with linear/cartoon style because it is our main common ground. I'll check for you guys on MSN (I'll be on for a couple of hours).

EDIT: Sweetness!!! I hadn't even seen the prizes!! :D

[AsaB]

I actually really liked that object/fruit idea, if we could've, I would've loved to have taken it further. But you're right, we should come up with something new for the actual brief, it's obviously not gonna work.

Haha, yeah, just was I was thinking, pretty ironic! I like high fantasy, though, I was just prepared to try something new with this, but it's all good :) I'm sure we could put a new and different twist to this all and make something interesting!

Alright, I'll be on MSN soon!

[AsaB]

I haven't come up with any worthy sketches so far, been mostly researching. I made these pictures for me of both races and classes in WoW, and just thought I'd share! Maybe it'll be useful to someone. If anyone has something similar, by all mans post! I know there is obviously much more available in classes and races, but this is a start :)
These are all screencaps from http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

Races
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Classes
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[Sekino]

Here are a few sketches, The first for some elf-warrior (good and evil), the second for some reptilian species' mages (good/evil as well)... Might be all I can post today because I'm now leaving for a wedding :bashful:

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Later! :)

[3mMajster]

Nice ones Sekino, I especially like that wizard, it's so cool. :D
I was busy, so I did only one sketch.
It's an elven mage, I know it's not the style we agreed on, but it just came out of me.;)

[Sekino]

Thanks Asa for the info! :) And nice first sketch, 3m!

I finally got around to making a moodboard for the style I'm thinking about (optional, again). Here are a few examples of line-based characters that are dynamic and fun as well as lavish. The key is to have crisp, detailed lines and to have them complemented with rich colours (this board is for a visual style, not a theme):

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As far as the theme is concerned, aside from the mandatory classical fantasy stuff (represented here by Dark Crystal ;)), I believe we had discussed incorporating some African or desert cultural elements. I'm picturing some semi-desertic savanna, hence why most of my characters so far have bare feet... among other things... ;P

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(I'll make a more detailed moodboard for theme if I get around to it. But I think we all get a good idea of what desert/african feel is... If we're still up for that)

Here's a quick example of colouring; I'm thinking rich, warm colours and the characters having colourful skins (orange, purple, green...):

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Thoughts? Other ideas?

[Pretty_Angel]

Dammit - Firefox ate my text! D: So here the short version:

Love your sketches so far - especially the lizard wizard. :^^:

I finally wrote my test in German civil law yesterday so that I have more time on my hands! Yay! So far I did a bunch of sketches but I still need to scan and refine them. So give me another day, please? :D

In general I think it could also help if we finally could decide on a theme or golden thread or something. As much as I love drawing random fantasy creatures/characters I think it would help our working process if we have a goal to work on. I'm pretty much open for the idea on doing non-European-centred designs. We should also decide some basics like What kind of races shall we use? Classic fantasy stuff or made up ones?

As so far I'm with you on the style and colours, Sekino. Warm rich colours for the good guys and perhaps cold rich colours for the baddies? Though I'd prefer to make the baddies not too dark and evil themed. The last thing we need is having a bunch of goths or something in the end. ;)

[3mMajster]

Nice mood board Sekino, and the lizard wizard is cool.:D
I also agree with Pretty Angel that we should decide on what races and classes we should use, so I think a new chat will be perfect.
I'm waiting for a new PC, it should arrive tomorrow, and who knows, maybe there will be a new tablet.:D

[Sekino]

One more; kinda troll-like with some gazelle features...

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I agree we should determine exactly what 'races' will be in our lineup. We could also post suggestions here and choose from them. Actually, I thought that the first sketches would serve that purpose: We'd all show various ideas for characters and then choose from the ones we like best (or mix the best features)... I'm all in favour of another chat session before next week, though.

[XanaChama]

What medium(s) and program(s) are you using for a majority of your sketches, Sekino? I like what you've got so far. I'm still brainstorming (and have gotten some input from my SO as well), so I'll likely have something up soon. I guess we are going for more cartoony, more stylistic approaches?

[Pretty_Angel]

XanaChama Yeah, seems so. Though I'd actually prefer if we could meet up a little in between cartoony and realistic. :3

Ok then, here are some quick sketches - nothing special so far.
(My sketches look always terribly messy and not a good as they could be. Sorry)

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Very random ideas so far and not many details. :(

[AsaB]

Hi guys, what awesome stuff you have already!

I'm afraid I've nothing to show right now, unfortunately some stuff on the other side on the internet had to take priority for the last several days. But I'm all yours now!

Ok, so decisions. :) Here is what we need to tackle, so I'm just gonna write out my thoughts and sort it out.

Theme
I definitely agree that we need to nail that theme ASAP. I did manage to do some researching and brainstorming after our chat, but I must admit that it was hard for me to just pump out sketches without a theme frame. I started a few sketches but they all ended up as uninteresting and generic fantasy fluff.

I'm very inclined on doing something non-euro and explore more exotic cultures. So far I'm liking the desert/savannah ideas, loved those ideas and moodboards you put out there, Sekino! But shouldn't we fuse it with something unusual and create something completely ours? I just wanna stay cleer of it being an Assassin's Creed lookalike, that people won't immediately think of that when they see our stuff, or something equally popular of the same theme. It has to be unique :) But we knew that already! However, I don't think it'd hurt to look into other cultural areas outside of Africa while we're still deciding on a theme, there are many other interesting cultures out there. Possibly some that haven't been used a lot in fantasy already?

Style
The moodboard Sekino put out it pretty close to what I had in mind. I love the dynamic and exaggerated poses and overall style. Sabrina, I know you're not too keen on making it "cartoony", but I think we should be able to pull of a stylized look without people not taking it seriously or finding it somehow less ambitious, if that's what's bothering you. And those pictures Sekino posted, I think those characters are not your generic Sunday cartoons at all, while I'd personally use the word cartoony for them, I think they're beautifully designed and obviously demanded great effort. We'd just need to find that common ground. Am I making sense? ;)

Races
Alright, so when we decide on a theme/concept/world for our characters, we need to start thinking about the races. Not nearly all the fantasy races are humans, although a plenty are humanoid. Or would you guys prefer going down the creature/animal road? I know the Thundercat Team is doing that. Obviously we can too, it's nothing new in the fantasy world, I'm just thinking if we could something that'd make it more unique?

When I mentioned the Africa theme to my brother (the "lesser gamer", but he knows plenty!), the first thing he mentioned was what kind of races we'd have. "Orcs, undeads etc don't seem African, so would you use giraffes and lions for races?" Haha ;) We'd obviously not do something as blatant, but he has a point. Could we "africanize" (or whatever theme we use) the already existing races, or is that pushing the boundaries too much?

Light/Dark
I know it's still kinda early to think of these, but there are so many things to wonder in that aspect. Which of the two would be the "default" condition, if there is one? Could we somewhat blur the lines between light/dark so people would be unsure of which was which? That's something I personally find interesting but I'm also concerned if that's not considered following the brief properly, so we'd need to do it correctly. But it's food for later thought.

Also, I think we'd need some common factor in all characters that changes between those two states. You know, do we just make them 'light' by adding rainbows and butterflies and then 'dark' by putting in skulls and smoke? ;) I was thinking of doing something more subtle and that'd actually make sense and be logical (in a fantastical sense, though!). Obviously this all also depends on the whole world concept/theme we've yet to nail. But we should definitely think of this aspect of it when designing it.


Alriiight, that's it, sorry for that huge wall of text! Normally you would've gotten this in smaller bits over the last few days ;) But this is what has been brewing in my head since our chat. I'm sorry I don't have anything visual this time, neither inspiration pics nor sketches, but I promise I'll have something tomorrow.

Maybe it's even time for a new chat? Tomorrow possibly? :) In any case, I think we're all on the same page here and I'm positive we'll make something kickass out of this!

[JailHouseRock2]

looking soooo good ladies!

[Sekino]

Hiya! Thanks for the visit and encouragement, Matt! :D

Alriiight, that's it, sorry for that huge wall of text! Normally you would've gotten this in smaller bits over the last few days

No, no; I think that's great! Frankly, a nice well-organized lenghty post is great for exposing ideas withouth interruption. Chat is good because it's instant but it also only allows for a few short phrases at a time so thoughts get a bit fragmented...

I know you're not too keen on making it "cartoony", but I think we should be able to pull of a stylized look without people not taking it seriously or finding it somehow less ambitious, if that's what's bothering you. And those pictures Sekino posted, I think those characters are not your generic Sunday cartoons at all, while I'd personally use the word cartoony for them, I think they're beautifully designed and obviously demanded great effort. We'd just need to find that common ground. Am I making sense?

Makes sense to me, anyways ;) But I also think it's important to be working with a style we all have faith in. So if there is a need to reconsider our style, we ough to address it early on. However, I gotta say I hesitate to automatically favour a 'game concept art' style just because it's the most popular style. Ilaekae once posted a great little spiel on the topic and it really resumes my position on the matter (and it saves me time to quote it ;p):

Because of the type of forum this is, with its stress on hyper-realistic and/or "painterly" rendering (important in context), many solutions that go outside those narrow parameters often suffer in the polling process because they "don't look like what we expect." The polling for ANY Challenge, from TDs to P.O.W.! should involve voting on the solution to the given problem above all else, and not an automatic knee-jerk reaction to a specific visual image type.

I think what's most important is to enjoy ourselves creating something that we'll be proud of as a team, not as much anticipating votes or responses alone. With that in mind, we still have time to experiment if there are other styles you'd like to explore (by next week, we'll have to be set though) :)

Light/Dark
I know it's still kinda early to think of these, but there are so many things to wonder in that aspect. Which of the two would be the "default" condition, if there is one?

An idea I had was to use a crest or symbols that each side would use on their weapons/clothing (like spirals for 'light' and 'spiky' for evils... only not something so lame). So we wouldn't resort on colours alone to determine the clans (meaning the good guy could still wear black, stuff like that). Suggestion only ;P

"Orcs, undeads etc don't seem African, so would you use giraffes and lions for races?" Haha We'd obviously not do something as blatant, but he has a point. Could we "africanize" (or whatever theme we use) the already existing races, or is that pushing the boundaries too much?

Sounds great! I really like the idea of inventing creatures totally from scratch yet without having straight anthro versions of known animals. For instance, there could be a race with giraffe markings and some characteristics but without looking like a giraffe... I think the most critical aspect of the brief is to stick with proper classes as opposed to species (as long as they have a relevant background), but I could have misinterpreted this.

Okay, I'll stop writing for now because two glasses of wine make me verbose and not very sensible :P

[Pretty_Angel]

AsaB Yeah, it's also hard for me to nail down useful ideas without those final decisions. :(

Theme
I think the most popular by far are Eurocentric fantasy games. Everything else is quite rare or hasn't been touched at all. So if we're doing something outside of Europe it should be quite easy to come up with something original. We just need to make a decision. :D

Style
Please don't misunderstand me - I don't want to push our style towards a generic conceptart style. It's just about finding a compromise. The examples shown by Sekino (precisely the one with the Chinese guys or that Pocahontas) are actually what I meant with a style that's somewhat between cartoony and realistic.
I hope that clarifies it. It's probably just a problem of semantics here.

Races
When we decided on the theme we could do some cultural research and just do what Tolkien did: Take mythical creatures and adjust them to our needs. I also like the idea of modelling European fantasy creatures into something foreign. Like there are some kind of tiger/lion-centaur that they have in Aion or a giraffe-centaur concept that is saw for Guild Wars Nightfall.

Light/Dark
You're right about that! We should think of some kind of symbol like Sekino mentioned. Perhaps some kind of flag or banner.
Though this would lead us to another question: Should the characters look like they are from the same faction/army or rather like individuals? If it's the first we'd need to determine certain criteria for the armour design.


So in the end it all boils down to one thing: We need to decide what theme to do ASAP! When do we want to do that? In a new Chat? If yes, when? Or here in this thread? Everybody suggests a theme and we take the one that's fine for all?

[AsaB]

I think Sekino's right, it does seem easier and more efficient to bounce off ideas here in the forums. It's easier to articulate somehow, everything happens so fast and we easily steer off course in the chat! I think we are making good progress, in any case :)

Theme
Okay, so is everyone liking going down the non-eurocentric road? I'm definitely up for it! So far the African theme has been getting some good responses, it seems. Should we maybe just decide on it to get it over with? I'm fond it that one myself, I think it has plenty of interesting opportunities and is something fantasy hasn't really delved into so far.

However, Africa is a big continent with a plethora of cultures and tribes, so just picking "Africa" isn't the end of our problems! I'm making a vast generalization here, but you can roughly divide Africa in two sections: North Africa (in Sahara, considered a part of the Arab world) and Sub-Saharan Africa (savannas, jungles etc). I made two quick inspiration boards to demonstrate my point, both with a few keywords regarding what cultures/tribes reside in these areas. I actually think so far I've seen more of the North African vibe in most of these sketches, with that kinda sand/desert feel to it. But we could also merge these and create something new!

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Style
That quote by Ilaekae was fantastic, Sekino! I wholeheartedly agree with him. I'm all for doing something different than the usual run-of-the-mill hyperrealism. However, like Sabrina just pointed out, I think this was all a matter of semantics, I think we are actually on the same pager here after all! Maybe cartoony isn't the word here but rather comicbook-like? I suddenly felt so after looking at Sekino's moodboard up there again.

Races/Classes
Yes, having something like giraffe markings or elephant horns or whatever is characteristic of the theme we choose is exactly what I was thinking. Rather some subtle hints instead of making a huge giraffe creature or the like! I believe we should think about fusion here, since we definitely need those classic fantasy elements to not derail from the brief too much. So merging those with something exotic and new is the way to go here? And of course the classes are super important too, we need to think of all those aspects when creating something new.

Light/Dark
Ooh, I love the idea of having some symbols or crests! And flags! Yeah, we could design the world's flags, probably one for the two factions, light/dark. Having something more understated than "evil colours" is definitely good, yeah. And absolutely, I think the light version should be allowed to have dark colours in them, so they don't come across as light or dark purely by colour choices, like Sekino pointed out.

Sabrina makes a good point regarding factions vs individuals. I was also thinking of that. I think we need to depict them as distinct individuals but yet with that something in common. They don't necessarily have to come fromt he same faction. I mean, look at Horde vs Alliance in WoW, although there are 5 races in each, they all have distinctive looking characteristics but are on the same team. Is that something we could tackle?

[Pretty_Angel]

Theme
Ok then, my personal choice would be the Sub-Saharan Tribes. We could do some pretty cool stuff with war painting, accessories and such. I'd also say that we could still spice it up with some Arabian influences. I just love the draperies of their clothes. :D

Good/Evil
I think it would be more interesting if we have individual characters. Though we could use symbols or some kind of other detail (war paint?) to make them visibly a member of the same faction. That's probably a good compromise.

Races
I'd like to have at least one human, then perhaps a mixed creature and a mythical creature of sorts. The latter would need some more research, but should be possible. It could also be some anthro. :^^:

Classes
The classical 3-man-band in RPGs is consisting of a tank (warrior/knight/whathaveyou), a healer (shaman/monk) and a damage dealer (sorcerer/mage). Also quite common are supporter/dd classes like ranger/chanter/bards (or whatever they're called) and some other caster classes like mesmer/hexer/necromancers/etc. So the easy way to go would be taking the 3-man-band and one random pick of the rest. I don't know if we really want to make up completely new classes. Though we could make some mixes/hybrids.

[XanaChama]

Ooooh, I like the African style. But then again, I already kinda borrow some elements from it my art sometimes, so yeah... LOL I'm fine with rendering.

[Sekino]

I hope I didn't put you on the spot, Sabrina. Just wanted to make sure that if anyone felt doubtful about the style we're aiming for, to express their ideas before it's too late in the game. All 5 of our honest opinions count :) And I do love realistic concept art and don't think it's generic/boring, just that a lot of people tend to try cloning that style.

Theme
The moodboard is great, Asa. I really like the mix of desert Bedouins and Sub-Saharan African tribes. I agree we should concentrate on that feel.

Races/Classes
Again, love the idea of African animal features. Are we going to also include one or two humanoid characters for variety? I was thinking they don't all need to look like animals, kinda like elves don't look like orcs but still can be in the same lineup (does that make sense?). Then again, I really like the creature aspects, so anything goes as far as I'm concerned. Same with classes, as long as they look varied enough.

Light/Dark
I'm pretty sure that the brief implies that the good/evil versions are indeed the same characters, only as alternatives. I guess they're some sort of 'dark mirror' image of each other. So while they can have different symbols (factions) and minor feature differences, they pretty much have to have similar characteristics only 'dark' and evil. Am I getting this right?

They don't necessarily have to come fromt he same faction. I mean, look at Horde vs Alliance in WoW, although there are 5 races in each, they all have distinctive looking characteristics but are on the same team. Is that something we could tackle?

Yes, I think it would be more interesting to have very varied races/tribes. I'm thinking a bit like in LOTR where you have so many radically different species yet they for alliances (evil or good). A common characteristic would be nice. But overall, I was thinking widely different shapes and sizes could be visually interesting...

XanaChama-What medium(s) and program(s) are you using for a majority of your sketches, Sekino?

Sorry, I missed that ;) I use ink for sketching then tablet and Photoshop for colours.

[Pretty_Angel]

Sekino No worries! with generic I just meant it's like a "all the cool kids are doing it" thing - like in that wonderful quote you brought up. :^^:
Light/Dark
I'm pretty sure that the brief implies that the good/evil versions are indeed the same characters, only as alternatives. I guess they're some sort of 'dark mirror' image of each other. So while they can have different symbols (factions) and minor feature differences, they pretty much have to have similar characteristics only 'dark' and evil. Am I getting this right?
That's also how I understood it. So basically we need to think of 4 different characters and then simply do one good and one evil version of them.

Otherwise I'm also with you when it comes to variations. The more the better! :D

[AsaB]

Theme
Ok, it seems we are settling for Africa! I hope to hear from Majster soon to get his thoughts in. But I think mixing those two African groups (the two moodboards I made) could create something new and interesting. Maybe we could vary the emphasis between these two groups between characters, like the rogue (or whatever) has more Sub-Saharan characteristics while maybe the warrior is more N-African. I think that might spice things up a bit.

Races
I agree we should vary these and definitely visually as well. So we can have both huge creatures and small with different silhouettes. I too want at least one human but I'd love to play with the rest and combine things! As long as remember to have some 'pure fantasy' in the core it should be alright to make those classes more African. So maybe the lineup would be like this:
- Human
- Humanoid (Elf/Dwarf/etc)
- Anthro (maybe Orc with some added themed elements)
- Mythical creature - (Maybe something very African and new?)
Also, some races are what is considered purely "dark", like undead and orc. Since we do both light and dark versions, we need to think of those dark guys too. It just seems like we have thought of 'light' as default so far, can't forgot to nasty guys too. It could be interesting to create the light version of undead, death knight and so forth.

Classes
We need to start deciding which classes we're going for. I liked the line-up Sabrina brought up earlier. To recap, we'd basically we'd be doing:
- Strenght (Warrior/Paladin/etc)
- Healing (Druid/Shaman/Monk/etc)
- Magic damage (Warlock/Mage/Sorcerer/etc)
For the fourth one, how about Stealth? That could be anything like Assassin, Rogue, Thief or possibly Ranger or Hunter. I believe that one would be quite different from the other 3 classes so far. Thoughts? :)

Light/Dark
You guys are indeed right, we design 4 individual characters with both a light and dark version of them. So they need to be recognized as the same character in these two versions. I like the idea so far to have emblems that symbolize the light/dark aspects, but we also need to convert more parts of the character/outfit/gear/hair between these two parts. Maybe we could make something like a "convertion chart" so that those characters who have, say, anything with green leaves on them as light will have those leaved but burned in the dark version. Okay, that was kinda lame, but do you see what I'm getting at? :P

[Pretty_Angel]

@Asa
I'm all for Stealth! I love playing Ranger classes, haha.
For the good/evil variations we could simply make some kind of digital paper dolls. :D

[XanaChama]

Realistic RPG characters:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/18/24138746_52ba5f92ef.jpg

Maybe we're thinking more esoteric for the theme? That would be cool, and interesting style element. Don't forget to think about the NPCs from games, like from villages when considering adapting the style to something unique as well. We don't usually consider those things when looking for unique elements. Just a thought.

It may or may not be useful, but you don't necessarily have to render all the way to achieve that effect that maybe Chow is looking for. Older RPGs didn't necessarily have realistic art either. Like Grandia, Chrono Trigger, Lunar Silver Star, Chrono Cross, etc. They also had very interesting story/character development. All that should matter in the long run is the feel, approach itself strong? A lot of art is realistic these days, but not all of it is.

[Pretty_Angel]

XanaChama lol, sweet photo! And I agree NPCs are a good source for inspiration! :D


Ok then, now that we're pretty sure about the African theme I started to do some photo studies. Not much for the start since it's getting late here, but yeah... I need to get a feeling for the setting. Masai have pretty awesome coloured clothes! :meow:

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[XanaChama]

PA, we shouldn't probably go completely African. But borrow elements from it. That's why I suggested NPCs as a maybe inspiration because they borrow elements from real world cultures and have a unique approach with it. I do like the approach you're taking with the clothing. Maybe we could make it a more flashier, stylized approach to this altogether? <3

I'll post some sketches when my hands stop shaking. LOL I need some food/drink here. Argh!

[3mMajster]

Hi guys, sorry for missing the whole thing yesterday, but I wasn't home whole day.
I agree with all you guys said, and there is nothing I would like to add, you already said all I wanted to say.:)
There is only one thing, to draw.:D
I'll post some sketches latter.:D

[3mMajster]

Here is a quick one, don't have much time, and I'm still waiting for new computer.:(
Ok it's a rhino/warrior. Sorry if it's little blurry, I don't have scanner so I had to shoot it with digital camera.:)

[XanaChama]

There was a thing yesterday? huh. I'm still trying to draw out my ideas but I'm running into problems. I have a generalized idea in my head, but haven't figured out the details yet. Another question, are we going traditional fantasy with this at all?

[Pretty_Angel]

XanaChama: Depends on what you mean with "traditional fantasy" . So basically, yes it'll be fantasy but the armoury/weapon/creature design will be heavily influenced by African cultures instead of European. So since it's fantasy it doesn't have to be an accurate depiction of African tribes - it's fantasy, go wild! :D

3m Great idea! :D

[Pretty_Angel]

Just dropping some stuff here.

Some studies with reference used:

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And some character sketches:

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[3mMajster]

Those are some nice studies there Pretty.:) Keep up with the good work!:D

This is a monkey necromancer, I'll try to do a troll like creature, like Sekino suggested me.:)

[Bendragon]

Hey Sekino! Love the troll n elf sketches. Wish you n the team good luck!

[Sekino]

Hey Bendragon! Good to hear from you :D Thanks for the good words!

3mMajster- Nice rhino-warrior sketch! Character wise, I feel he's a bit too 'human' aside from the rhino head... It would be great if he had a more 'extreme' silhouette, like stockier with a heavy back (almost hunched) for more rhino-ness ;) We could definitely work with it... I also really dig your monkey necromancer. Pushing that concept a bit more could be interesting!

Pretty_Angel- Great studies. I love the warrior sketch (the one on top). The second one looks nice as well but I get an outright Arabian feel from it, not as much African...

The centaur-creature is a great idea! I hope you won't mind, but I played around with the idea a bit trying to get it a bit less deer-like (especially the ears: I do believe one of the other teams have a deer-looking species). I mixed an elf-feel with a gazelle/satyr...

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And that's just a straight-human warrior sketch:

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Next step-

I think we probably have enought ideas by now to narrow down the concepts we'll work with as species/roles. If you all agree with the options, we ought to vote 4 from the following tentative ideas to polish them off (settle on their exact features, accessories, symbols, etc). Let's not forget we'll have to find names/backgrounds for each species we create...

A-Ape-based creature/Wizard
B-Rhino-based creature/Palladin or Warrior
C-Gazelle-based creature/Rogue or thief
D-Reptile-based/Healer
E-Human/Warrior

I could see any combination work. Just for kicks and get the process started, I'd vouch for A, B, C, D (just because it sounds like one colourful lineup! If anyone would rather keep a human in there, I have no problem with it either...) and, since we haven't been very clear on gender yet, C and/or A being female. What do you guys think?

[3mMajster]

First of all they look great Sekino, I think it would be nice to combine details from the human warrior(bracers, sword,...) with a gazelle/satyr, it would be perfetct.:D
I also agree with you for the combination of our characters, A, B, C, D. We should stick to the animal like characters.:)

New PC have arived, so it's time to do some drawing.:D

[Sekino]

Good idea about the gear for the Gazelle, 3m! Glad to hear you finally got your new machine :) I'll wait to hear what's Pretty_Angel's take on the Gazelle char before working on it more, since it was her idea.

Okay, just another quick clarification: Despite the fact that we're steering away from human characters, we can't go too deep into the 'creature' end either (Daestwen mentioned something about that today). Having them animal-based is fine but we need to keep clear humanoid features. For example:

The lizard-healer character: I'll rework the design to make it a bit more shaped like a dwarf. Right now, it might be a bit too animalistic.

I'd recommend pushing the monkey-wizard to more human proportions (clearly walking upright, shorter arms...)

The rhino ought to be some orc-like character, so perhaps a bit more human features on the face... More like some rhino/human mutant.

Being half/human, the centaur is pretty safe, I think...

I'll try to post quick doodles of what I mean because I realize it's not exactly clear.

[AsaB]

Awesome sketches, everyone! The gazelle and rhino ideas are both spot on and suit their classes perfectly :)

Lineup
Lineup is definitely closing in, think we're nailing all those characters down! My only concern is that the reptile character isn't distinctly African enough. It's possibly too blatant or an obvious choice, but what do you think of having some more "classical African" animals like zebra, lion or hyena instead? I'm just brainstorming here :) Although I agree that a reptile creature fits the role of a healer/magician, I'm just wondering whether said animal fits the group, it feels a bit like an outsider compared to the other three.

Races
About choosing the characters (out of those 5 Sekino listed), I have to agree that having the first 4 is a good group. I had initially always wanted to have at least one human and well, I still wouldn't mind it, but I suddenly feel the group loses some of its dynamics by including one non-animal based. If I remember correctly, Sabrina was quite keen on having one all-human, so we'll have to make sure everyone agrees :) But I'm fine with either!

Gender
I agree that the stealth/gazelle should definitely be female. As for the others, I'm somehow having some difficulties picturing the ape-wizard as female, but probably because I keep getting Rafiki from Lion King in my head when I try! And didn't we agree on having it 50/50 in gender? :) In any case, definitely female on the gazelle! I'm gonna do some sketches and experiment with the genders on the others (although I believe the rhino is definitely male!), see which one I think fits. In fact, I'm gonna try to do much more sketching in general. Sorry guys, oddly enough, it seems I prefer to plan all the pre-work verbally instead of visually. But it's definitely high time I bring out some visual stuff too!

Method
I agree with Sekino from the PM that we should try to assign different tasks to all members. It seems very efficient and gives the final pieces a more consistant look. I think we should first nail down just what those jobs are (sketching, inking etc) and then everyone can shout-out what they personally feel most confident in and prefer doing. I wonder if those separate works should be strictly 4? Or, because of the difference between those jobs (i.e., colouring is more time-consuming than sketching), maybe one could do 2 jobs while another does 1? What do you guys think? :)

[Sekino]

I see your point about the reptile. Now, there are lizards in Africa and I was thinking it could offer a break from the mammals... However, it might be very well breaking the 'rhythm' of the lineup rather than adding variety. I'm absolutely not attached to the idea. But we'll need to think of another option fairly soon, if we go that way. Perhaps we can go with the human after all?

I'm somehow having some difficulties picturing the ape-wizard as female

LOL Yeah, it took me a while to think which other character could be most likely female... Then I just pictured the male character's potential wife :P So I could see some wrinkled-faced monkey mixed with a bit of an old, wisewoman look. It might be different to not have all females depicted as classically 'attractive'. Then again, I don't think the brief specifies a gender quota anyways, so we could only have one female...

Method

Yeah, we ough to describe this more in detail because that will be next week's step... Okay, here's a suggestion of how it could work and get everyone involved:

Final character designs- 4 people (2 on 'good', 2 on 'evil'): Making the final, single portrait for all characters. These sketches should have all features, details, posture, etc. as they are the base for the final result. I though perhaps 2 of us could work on the 'good' lineup and 2 on the 'evil' team.

Inking- 1 or 2 people: What I call 'inking' here is the process of going over the linework of the final designs and making sure it is evenly clean, crisp and of similar detail. It doesn't dramatically alter the original design, just evens out everybody's lines so the look is more uniform (eliminating blurriness, correcting varying line thickness, etc...).

Background design- 1 or 2 people: I put this step before colouring because the colours will depend on the background and lighting. I was thinking someone could create some background features, landscape and such for all the characters to be featured against (instead of an empty white). I figure it would be savanna features like dry grass patches, sand, rocks and baobab trees... Basically, creating a unique environment for all our characters to fit in, again, so everything is uniform. The background ought to be simple and subtle since the focus needs to be on the characters. But it would add a nice atmosphere.

Colouring- 1 or 2 people: This is about laying the colours, lighting and shadowing on top of the linework. I know 2 people is very little for such a big job, but the colours have to be consistent. The blending and choice of tones ought to remain uniform throughout; and since most people tend to have widely differing colouring techniques and styles, we can't really take a chance on having a final result that clashes. This would be the final step.

I hope this setup allows for everyone to get involved and still get a consistent final result. Any differing/further ideas are most welcome.

[AsaB]

I realize there are indeed reptiles in Africa, I was only concerned about the overall feel to the group :) You do have a point, though, I somehow didn't realize that all others were all mammals! Maybe it'd be alright to keep it as it is. Like you said, it'd be interesting to have it with some dwarfish features (instead of strictly human), so I think that could prove as an interesting mix! If the others won't object, I think we should probably just stick to it after all, we really need to nail down those characters.

Yeah, we definitely don't need to be super strict about keeping it 50/50 gender-wise if we feel some characters work better as males. But when you described your idea of this old and wise monkey-lady, it suddenly came to me! I think possibly something like a big voodoo/shaman lady could work. I'm too all for making them quite unusual and not fitting the traditional beauty-code.

Method
You listed the jobs nicely above! I too was thinking of these same 4 categories, I was just a bit unsure of how many would take care of each. The way you put it seems very fair and rational :) Okay, so all of us would do something in the first character designs, I like that. I don't mind which one I do, light or dark. As for the other jobs, I think I'm personally most confident in inking. I believe there are others in this team who are far more capable in colouring than I am, so I think I'll just stay away from that!

I know I'm thinking far ahead, but one thing we nonetheless need to address early in the design process is presentation. I'm talking about the way we present the final portraits. Are we gonna have them strictly 'regular', or could we maybe design a border around each and with an extra column with extra info about the character and their world, possibly some extra poses, sketches and such?

Remember how the team (yeeet again) GrogroZoo presented their characters? They had them as characters from collectible cards (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H-WvFtT6zns/SfytZM3CRxI/AAAAAAAAAIM/jIsyIuMGmjA/s400/GrogroZoo_TChow_hero.jpg). I thought it was neat! I'm definitely not suggesting copying that, but I like the idea of having some sort of frame that unites the presentation of the characters.

So should we add another category to the job lists? Ooh, or maybe, instead, it could just "ride along" with the other existing groups? That is, the persons taking care of sketches would also sketch it and then the inking person ink it etc. I'm just throwing stuff out! Did anyone have something in mind already for the presentation perhaps? :)

[Pretty_Angel]

Aww man, you were really busy here last night! Sweet! :D

Sekino Love the satyr concept! Also had that in mind on a certain point but decided to try the centaur first. I also like 3m's idea. We should go for it!


Races/Linup
I have a problem with that human ape idea. I fear that it can end up like a terrible caricature quite easily (or it'll be something like Planet of the Apes - I'm not sure if we really want that). So I'd suggest simply take a human character. I'm usually not that pc but I think it would make things a lot easier - especially since we're suppose to make rather human characters anyway.

I think I agree on everything else. The tasks sound well organized that way. As I said I'd rather stick to drawing /painting parts and skip the inking. ;) I'd be fine with slapping some paint on the background and characters as well. So just tell me what you need.

[3mMajster]

Great idea on sharing our tasks Sekino, I agree on everything.
About races: I think all animal like lineup would be best, and human character among all animal based characters will result in loosing our dynamics. That's only my opinion.
I'll try to do some background designs today, both for good, and bad characters.:D

[AsaB]

Alright guys! Somehow we started communicating via PMs lately, but I thought it'd be convenient to recap what has been going on there.

3 or 4 characters?
I like how Sabrina put it in the latest PM. Quoted for convenience:
If anyone doesn't really like the sketching/drawing part, then we could just skip that and make 3 characters. Otherwise I'd say everyone picks a character and starts drawing. When the sketches are done we can still decide to scrap an idea that probably does not work as well as we thought. If everything is fine and we have enough time we could also decide on doing 4. Fair deal?

I think that'd work. What about the others? :)

Who takes who
Eh, stupid title :P But yeah, we had started to claim the characters in the PMs, so here's what we got so far:
- Sekino - Reptile/healer
- 3mMajster - Rhino/warrior
- AsaB - Human/wizard?
- Pretty_Angel - Gazelle/thief?

Sabrina, since you hadn't 'made your claim' yet, I just put the gazelle on the list above, figured you might maybe prefer her, since she was your idea. But if you'd rather do the human, I don't mind at all! I think they're both interesting characters :)

[Pretty_Angel]

Who takes who
Eh, stupid title But yeah, we had started to claim the characters in the PMs, so here's what we got so far:
- Sekino - Reptile/healer
- 3mMajster - Rhino/warrior
- AsaB - Human/wizard?
- Pretty_Angel - Gazelle/thief?


I could do both. What would be easier for you? ^^ Oh and, Idk, but wouldn't it make more sense to change the class of the Gazelle? Perhaps it's just the wrong association I have with "thief", haha. Now that I think of it I'd love to make her a wizard/shaman since Satyrs are some kind of wood spirit. I'd imagine them doing some magic with plants and perhaps summoning spirits or something. What do you think?

[Sekino]

The list sounds good. I'll get started on re-designing the reptile dude (I'll 'Africanize' it further, too ;)).

Pretty_Angel- I believe it might be better to cover as many different classes as possible with the 4 characters. We already have healer/wizard class characters, but I don't mind changing my character to a thief if you feel you have good ideas for a healer.

[Pretty_Angel]

Ehm... for the list we have 2 caster classes - a healer and a wizard/sorcerer. I actually like your healer lizard so my suggestion would be that we should rather change the human character (if that wasn't clear). Humans are quite flexible anyway. ;) But I first want to know what Asa thinks of that. :)
If you think the Human should stay the wiz/sorc then I'd suggest make the Satyr rather a kind of hunter than a thief. Haha, it's not that I don't have enough ideas. :D

[Sekino]

Okey dokey, let's hear what Asa wants to do with the human (I was under the impression she would go for some shaman-like wizard woman, but I don't know anything anymore :P).

I can't really work on my final sketch until Sunday (leaving for the weekend) so if there needs to be a change on my side, just let me know. Otherwise, after Sunday, my reptile is officially a medicine-man ;)

[3mMajster]

I allready did some sketches of my rhino warrior, but I'll post them on sunday, have to go now to the beer fest, and tomorow is my birthday, the beer is waiting for me.:D

[AsaB]

I'm all for changing the class for the human! Sabrina, go right ahead if you'd rather make your gazelle a satyr-like sorceress :) Since I agree that Sekino's reptile character should be a healer, how about my human will instead take the gazelle's original class, namely thief or ranger of some sort? I'd definitely love to work with that :)

Okay, so is that final, then? That'd be nice to know so I can start the sketching!
Updating the list:

- Sekino - Reptile/healer
- 3mMajster - Rhino/warrior
- AsaB - Human/thief
- Pretty_Angel - Gazelle/sorceress

Majster, no problem, man, you enjoy your birthday and that beer :D Looking forward to see your sketches!

[Pretty_Angel]

Since CA tells me you posted that yesterday, Happy Birthday, 3m!! :hugsmile:

Asa Deal! :D

[AsaB]

Sabrina - Coolies! :teeth:
Alright, I'll start tomorrow sketching for my human. I'm still kinda unsure whether to go in the thief/assassin area or the ranger/hunter one. Not even sure on the gender yet. Any preferences from you guys, regarding the group dynamics and such? :)

[Pretty_Angel]

Since there are two male and one female you could go for a female character if you want. I don't really see why we should make females a minority here.
For the question of thief/assassin vs. ranger/hunter: That's a hard one. I like both ideas and I think both would fit into our team. In the end I'd say go with what you feel most comfortable with. :)

[AsaB]

Thanks for the input, Sab! Yeah, I too was thinking of making it a female, but just wanted to check.
As for the class, I'm kinda divided, I really like both kinds! I'll just explore them both and see what works :)

[Sekino]

Hi guys :) Just a heads up: I was wondering if everyone would be ready to post their character portraits (good + evil), say, by tomorrow evening?

I'm suggesting it because I realize next week is the last week to prepare the final presentation. It would be great to be able to finish the inking/cleanup this week and have all of next week to do the colours (I suspect that will be a lot of work).

How does that sound?

[Niva.]

Sekino, I really like that two legged fawn character (elf + gazelle/satyr) She looks great and very unique. I'd love to see that character pushed a bit more and perhaps in a more dynamic pose.

Also I like THIS (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=747963&d=1249905413)sketch, many of your works right now don't necessarily look like video game characters I'd like to take roaming around a hostile world and kick butt with. For example the digital paintings of the black humanoid characters in #66 posted by Pretty Angel simply look like portrait studies and not necessarily fantasy characters.

Anyways, keep pushing guys, cheers!

[AsaB]

Sekino, sounds like a good plan! I'll be sure to kick my ass a bit and finalize them :)

[Pretty_Angel]

n1va Thanks a lot! Yeah, those studies where just that - studies and no real character ideas. ;)

Sekino Sorry, I was kinda busy the last days. But you're right, we should hurry up! :D

So here are my ideas for the Satyr character:

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(sorry for the sketchiness - I hope it's ok?)

I basically stayed close to Sekino's character design and added a bunch of accessories and tried some more dynamic poses as n1va suggested.

When you think of a fantasy RPG you usually have different armour sets consisting of headgear, jacket, pauldrons, gloves, pants and shoes or something along these lines. Usually you also have accessory like earrings, necklaces or rings. For the different classes these things vary a lot. So for the Satyr the set could look like:
Head - face paint
Jacket - wrap top
Upper arms - bracelet
Gloves - some more bracelets XD
Pants - loincloth
Shoes - more fancy bracelets lol
Weapon - staff
Offhand - magical focus
In addition: necklace + earrings

As for now, I can still change some things. So let me know if you have any ideas.

[Sekino]

That looks great, Sab! :D I really like the costume elements. The 'sketchiness' doesn't hinder me for the inking, if you want me to get started on it. I will add a few details in the process (more definition on the clothing and accessories, etc...) but most of it will remain the same...

Actually, I think I'll start on it now and post the result ASAP so you guys can see my idea of 'inking' and makes sure you like how it turns out. Besides, I can't scan my own character yet because we're getting the printer fixed (it's an all-in-one machine- booo). But no worries, I'm getting it back this afternoon ;)

[Pretty_Angel]

Thank you very much! Feel free to add or correct anything you want when inking. One thing that's somewhat bugging me is that their faces look too different for my taste. So I'd be glad if you could correct that when inking. :D

[3mMajster]

Nice work there Pretty.:D
I'll post my character (good and bad) latter tonight, have to study little. :)

[Sekino]

Okay, my printer is toast but my scanner is back :P I tried inking with the Wacom but it looked like a feathery mess, so I traced over my screen with thin paper instead so I could use ink... hehehe

I hope I didn't change it too much; I traced most of the elements-

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So here are the exact changes I made:

-Altered a few minor proportions here and there
-I made her face a bit rounder and the features bigger to better see her expression
-Added details to the clothing and jewellery...

I figure details like the facepaint, fabric patterns and the motifs on the staff (that staff is awesome BTW!!) would look better painted in with the colouring since they're not solid edges. I inked patterns on the bracelets so they'd look engraved or carved as opposed to painted.

I also kept a larger PSD for the colouring, if needed.

Um, yeah. So that's the inking for ya ;) Any feedback/changes? I'll check back before continuing (I have some work to do anyways). I'll post my reptiles soon...

[3mMajster]

That's looking great Sekino!:D
No changes are needed, this is perfect.:)
Here is my rhino warior, I think this should be a good version, the bad version should be done tonight also.
What do you think guys about it? If you think I need to change something please tell me.:)

[Pretty_Angel]

Sekino Sweet! :heart: There are a few little things that are bugging me though:

the hourglass silhouette is a bit extreme imho
the connection of the leg to the hips could also need a little smoothing
the shoulder looks a bit wonky
is it just me or are her upper arms of different lengths?
the bracelet on the arm looks a tiny bit wrong

Heck, I made a quick paintover:
756538


3m Wow, the Rhino looks cool! My only critique would be that the arm he lifts up looks much longer than the other one.

[3mMajster]

And here is the bad guy.:) I'm not to happy how it turned out, I'll fix it tommorow, to tired now, must go to sleep.:D

[Sekino]

I corrected the details you pointed out, Sab (You can see it in the original post: I replaced the old image instead of posting it here) :) About the arms, if I measure from the top of the shoulders to the inner elbow, they seem the same to me (give or take a couple of mm because of position, maybe?)

Nice rhino, 3M! :D I really like where you're going with the evil version, too (the shakles are a cool touch).

Also, I was playing around with ideas for the final presentation. I think each character is supposed to have its own image (i.e. they're not all on the same image in a lineup like last CHOW).

Here's an idea, sticking with the comic-book/cartoony feel (I used my old reptile sketch because it was already coloured- and I quickly pasted some savanna pic which would preferably be drawn instead, so it's just an example):

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At the bottom could be the name of the race and the info on the character, I guess...

Thoughts?

[AsaB]

Awesome stuff guys! :D
Sabrina and Majster - I think your character are all very interesting and they read well together. I like how you both made the two evil/good versions similar enough to be obviously the same character, that's definitely fundamental! So yes, awesome stuff :)

When everyone has posted theirs, we should paste them all into the same image and see how they react to each other--also, we could maybe play with size a bit, like I can imagine how the Rhino warrior would be quite the big and bulky guy!

Sekino - I really like your inking style, you did a fabulous job on Sab's gazelle :) I'd also love to do some inking, I'm only concerned that my style is somewhat different than yours. I also do it in Photoshop, which already gives it a different touch. Maybe I could try to emulate your style so it'll read better? Edit: Or I could try my hand at the same gazelle you inked and we could find a common ground between us? :)

As for the presentation, I really like what you did there! The savannah and overall colour scheme are both really good. I'm not entirely sure about having a faint copy of the charcter in the back is working, but maybe if it have less opacity it would be better. Just seems a bit distracting! But I generally like it :) We should definitely put some extra info about the character in a special column, at the bottom or something. Preferably with some interesting info, maybe just a few sentences long bio, or even the name of the char? Pondering our loud here :)

Anyway, here are my sketches! So will these that everyone is posting be the very final ones? I wouldn't mind but I'd probably have to sharpen many of the textures and accessories etc. I'm a bit worried that the Good one isn't as obviously African in her head accessories, maybe I should change her hairdo? Oh and she's supposed to be leaning against the rock, her pose is a little awkward without it in the background!

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[Pretty_Angel]

Sekino Much better! I looked once more into the arm thing and I finally found out what's throwing me off.

I checked the pose once more (in front of a mirror with a broomstick lol) and your additions made the way how she holds the staff a bit... painful. While you turned the shoulder a bit towards the front the arm still has the same position and thus looks as it is bent a bit more backwards as you'd naturally hold it. (The most comfortable would be also turning the arm towards the front as well. Which is actually the way it is in the original sketch.)
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Anyways, the main reason why it appears to be this way is because the head is not in the middle of the shoulders. So correcting this the whole pose looks more balanced:
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That doesn't solve the problem with the arm though. Turning it a bit forward might do the job.


3m Looks good so far. I can provide some more critique when you're done. :D

Asa I really like your ideas! :D For the first one, the hairdo could really need a bit more African feel. Even without the rock her pose seems to be okay. For the second one the pose needs a bit more work. It looks like she's stumbling forwards. Also, her hand holding the bow looks unnaturally twisted.


Presentation
I really like your idea, Sekino! Though I'd agree with Asa about the faint copy in the background. For the information I think that highly depends on how much we want to go into world design. We'd need to have a basic idea about the world and the conflict to provide further information.

[AsaB]

Thanks for the pointers, Sabrina, I'll try and do something about the Good hairdo and the Evil posture (haha, odd sentence). There's definitely room for tweaking, I think in fact that we should all make comments about each others designs to make sure everyone's happy with it :)

That being said, I thought I'd drop a few for the ones that have been posted :)

Majster
I think your Rhino warrior is super cool! I think my only real concern is maybe not enough difference between the Good and Evil? I know I said earlier how much I liked how similar they were, but on a second thought, I think there's a little more room for pushing the differences. Overall I think they're great, but here are still just a few suggestions:
- Possibly making the Evil more bigger/bulkier/rougher physically than the Good one? I realize they're supposed to be the same character, so obviously nothing drastic, but I thought it might underline his orientation.
- I like how the Good one has a skin coat, that really fits, but I wonder if the Evil one should have something not as 'smooth'? Possibly a cliché, but I just picture something a little more spikey. Also, a suggestion from my Gamer Brother (yes, in caps), he thought he was missing a pair of big shoulder pads :P (He was, btw, really loving the character!)
- For the Evil, some war paint on his face and body? In fact, the Good one could pull that off as well, but possibly something less aggressive than his Evil counterpart.
- Maybe having some slight differences between the Good and Evil weapon. Nothing drastic, as always, but I think it's important that it'll be a little different.

Sabrina
I don't think your character needs many tweakings, overall I think the design is great :) I love both of her hairdo's and she definitely strikes me as African. I think the only thing that concerns me is that she doesn't immediately strike me as a Sorceress (or Mage was it?). I think just a few alterations and/or additions to her outfit might easily remedy that :) A few suggestions:
- I think both versions could have some extra bags or stuff that holds "magical juju" or potions and other cool things.
- This is possibly just me, but I think she (and all characers, really) might have a little face or body paint :D It seems very African and might unite them. We could possibly make them all have the same symbol, even! Just a little something?

Yeah, I think that's pretty much all I have for now. By all means crit my Ranger too if there's something bothering you :)

Obviously, however, we don't have a lot of time and if there'll be any major changes, we need to do them fast. I just thought we might use a couple of days to fine-tune the characters and make small adjustments, which is why I think it's important everyone has their say on every character, to make sure everyone is happy with the overall designs :)

[Sekino]

This is possibly just me, but I think she (and all characers, really) might have a little face or body paint

Just quickly because I just noticed this ;)- The satyr does have body paint. However, I didn't ink it because I figured we'll add it in the colouring process since it's paint and not an outlined form...

I do like the idea of having every character with body paint. Although I did envision the reptile having natural skin markings, a bit like a salamander's only more geometric, but it can go both ways. We definitely ought to paint theme up nicely when colouring :)

[SMILEFACE]

WOW ALL YALL ARE HOT! OOHH'an yer arts hot too :D:D:D

[3mMajster]

Ok guys here is the bad rhino warior, so what do you think?:)

[AsaB]

That is just kickass, Majster, I love it! I hope the others are also content with the changes you made, I think you did a great job :) Like I said in the PM I sent out earlier, it'd be great if you could post your final images in higher resolution, similar in size like Sabrina's sketches above, it'll make inking easier :)

[AsaB]

Just quickly because I just noticed this ;)- The satyr does have body paint. However, I didn't ink it because I figured we'll add it in the colouring process since it's paint and not an outlined form...

I do like the idea of having every character with body paint. Although I did envision the reptile having natural skin markings, a bit like a salamander's only more geometric, but it can go both ways. We definitely ought to paint theme up nicely when colouring :)
Yeah, of course, we won't ink the paint, I didn't think of that when I looked only at the inked version of the satyr!

I really like the idea of having the salamander's skin markings natural, it'll look good compared to the others, whose paint isn't...well, permanent!

Anyway, I did a quick colour experiment. I researched the colours that are mainly noticable in African tribes, but those are the prime colours: red, yellow and blue, along with white and black and some brownish ones.
The secondary ones (orange, purple and green) were hardly, if ever, used. So I used these primes ones as a basis for this palette. I thought maybe each character would include all 3 prime colours, but only having 2 as most prominent, so they won't all be similar.

I actually thought afterwards that we could have some correlation between the Evil/Good versions: as in, maybe all evil versions have red more prominent and good blue.
But like I said, I thought of that after I did this image, so that's not used there. Just an idea.

I also did a quick body or face paints on most of these, but these are just ideas!
Oh, and Sekino's reptile healer isn't included since she has yet to post hers, this is just what we have so far :)
And lastly, I changed my Good Ranger's hairdo, it seems more African to me now.

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[3mMajster]

Hi guys I couldn't post finals sooner, sorry.
I was at the studio all day and night, good news is that the recording is over and it went well.:D
Anyway here are my two rhinos in higher resolution.

[3mMajster]

I played with colours, and here is what I came up with.
I'm not to happy with the bad rhino's belt, any ideas guys?

[AsaB]

Thanks for the big pics, Majster, I'll get started on the ink :)

As for the Evil's belt, I agree that some minor adjustments could help. Maybe keep it more in line with what you had going in the earlier version of him? I quite like it there, at least. I'll start inking the Good dude and will keep the Evil's belt on a separate layer if we need to make some heavy changes, but that should preferably be quick, if not today :)

Oh, and the colours look good! The red bodypaint is pretty rad. I like the idea of having his armour gold (bronze?) instead of metal, it goes well with his skin. Overall, very nice, this is probably very close to what we'll end up with!

[AsaB]

Here's the Good rhino warrior, all inked and ready :) Feel free to point out anything that's off, or whatever. I know Celeste and I have slightly different inking styles, but I don't think it's enough to be something to worry about. Once the colours are there, I doubt it's noticable.
Sabrina, I'll send you the .psd file.

I'll do the Evil version later today, gotta do some studying first!

760532

[Pretty_Angel]

Great job, Asa! Just some minor things I'd like to have fixed:


different length of the arms
the fingers on the handle are not in line


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[AsaB]

Ah yes, you're quite right. I had already done some adjustments in the arm length from Majster's original, but I guess it wasn't enough! I'll take a look at these :)

EDIT: Fixed the errors, just edited the post above with the updated inked version!

[Pretty_Angel]

Much better! Thanks. :D If you want you can send the psd - the first one arrived safely in my inbox.

[AsaB]

Cool :) Already sent you the updated version in email!

I'm pretty much finished with the Evil version, but I'm wondering whether I should ink all the decorative patterns in his armour etc. You painting people! Would you think that necessary? I could also keep it on a separate layer, for convenience.

[3mMajster]

Great job Asa, also can't wait to see painted version, Sabrina I have no doubt that you'll do it great.
I'll try to do some backgrounds.
Go team Go!!!:D

[Pretty_Angel]

Thanks, Asa - but you sent me the jpeg! XD

[Pretty_Angel]

Ok then, my first colouring attempt on the Rhino:

761338

Opinions? Critique? :^^;:

[3mMajster]

WOW:D
Excelent work Sabrina!!!
I wouldn't change anything, except maybe colour of the body paint, I think red, or white would look nice. :)

[Pretty_Angel]

Glad you like it! :D
For the body paint -- what do you think of this?

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[3mMajster]

This also looks good, but when I compare them, yellow looks better, it metches the whole African mood. So I think the yellow should be the final. :D
And sorry for extra job Sabrina, but I had to see how it looks.:)
EXCELENT JOB!!!:D

[AsaB]

Excellent work, Sabrina, I really like it! :) The use of texture on his skin is great and I love the cape. And nice touch with the blood on his weapon ;) As for the body paint, I think the designs themselves are awesome. I agree that the yellow is better than red, yet I can't help but wonder if just white would be best? :^^;: Because there's already so many warm yellowish colour in the picture, I think it might pop more out.

This is also close to what I had pictured for the background :) Just some subtle and kinda blurry landscape, but yet obviously African. Maybe adding an Acacia tree (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=opera&rls=en&um=1&q=acacia+tree&revid=365523090&ei=niuUSqClK9SD-Qbdg7mxBg&sa=X&oi=revisions_inline&resnum=0&ct=broad-revision&cd=1) to be 100%? ;)

Alright, so I finished the Evil version of the Rhino. I did some adjustments from the original, but nothing major, mainly lenghtened his body and feet a bit and some tweaking in the decorative designs, especially on the armour.
Thoughts?

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[3mMajster]

Nice work Asa!!!:D
There are just two little things that have to be fixed, first his left hand needs to be a little thicker, and the second thing is the top of the weapon.:)

[AsaB]

Thanks for the headsup, Majster, I'll take care of it first thing tomorrow! :)
But "top of the weapon", you mean just the pointy tip at the very top, or all the blades?

[Pretty_Angel]

Ok then, variant 3 with white paint! :D

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Pick your fave!

[AsaB]

Ooh, nicely done! I personally prefer the white one, I think it looks great :)

[3mMajster]

That's the one Sabrina, good job.:D

And for the bad one, I tought just about the pointy tip at the very top, it's little of the balance.:)

[Pretty_Angel]

Since I don't have much to do right now (Gimme lines to colour! XD) I just scribbled down some ideas for the ranger poses. Perhaps they are useful, Asa?

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(I know the 2nd one is just some half-assed mess.)

[Pretty_Angel]

The evil Rhino. Not sure about the colour theme. Need feedback! :D

764101

[AsaB]

That looks fantastic, Sab! <3

I love how you made the atmosphere here much colder and darker, as opposed to the warm and bright colours in the Good one. Perhaps something we should keep in mind for the other characers?

So yeah, as for me, I honestly don't see much to change! I wonde maybe about having some body paint, though? It could also be white, then it could be that common link? Just a thought!

It's cool how you added a blur effect to the chains, I feel as if he's stomping towards me! Cool effect!

The background is also good, I had also imagined it being a more desolate and darker scenery. :)

[3mMajster]

Nice work Sabrina, it looks great!!!
The more I look at it, it looks better and better.:D:D:D

[Pretty_Angel]

Final versions of the Rhinos?

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[Sekino]

Okay, apologies again for the crappy week (my better half and myself have discovered we've got yet another thing in common: We totally stink at planning large-scale formal events...).

Without wasting any more time, here are the inks for the evil satyr and good ranger (are these big enough?):

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And Asa, if you still want to play around with the reptile, here is a sketch. If there is not enough time, it doesn't matter (or we can use this one as-is; I got it more clean than I thought).

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Sab, the rhino looks awesome!! I really love the colour scheme, especially on the evil version.

I only have two concerns: I find the background a bit overwhelming (perhaps having the characters stand taller above the horizon would allow for more negative space around them so they're more 'isolated'?). The other thing is, although the blurring effect is interesting, I'm afraid it might make the drawing itself look blurry, especially if the effect isn't used on every single character. Aside from that, I think it's looking great! :D

So I'm finishing the evil ranger and evil reptile (if he's needed). I am at home now so I'm not leaving my drawing board ;).

Also, Sab, if you want help with the colours, could you let me know which characters you intended to do next? I could colour a couple as soon as I finish the inks.

[3mMajster]

Nice work Sekino and Sabrina, I realy like the lizzard wizard!!!:D
I need finished characters to do the presentation. It takes a little of time to do it, so when the characters are done, I'll finish presentation.
GO GO GO TEAM!!!:D

[Sekino]

I've tried some colours with the Ranger character. I didn't include a background so 3M can drop the character for whatever setup he has in mind ;) If there are any crits for colours/linework, I can correct them tomorrow, no problem :)

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[Pretty_Angel]

Ok then, coloured the small lines from the evil satyress - zebra style! :D

765616

And some more versions of the evil Rhino!

(1) with minimal blur
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(2) without blur
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Pick your fave. :^^:

[Pretty_Angel]

And the good Satyress! :D

765919

[Sekino]

I think both satyresses look fantastic! :D I'm really looking forward to see how the final presentation will come together.

Here is the inked and coloured Evil Ranger. I tried to maintain the bluish/darker colour scheme of the other evil characters:

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I'll see if I have time to put together the Reptile Healer (or if Asa had time to work on it). If not, we'll stick with 3 characters :)

[Sekino]

Here's a potential team thumbnail, if you guys like it :)

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[Pretty_Angel]

Sekino - I like the thumbnail! Works well, I think. The rangers look great so far. For the evil ranger can you fix the eyes? The right eye's size just differs too much from the left eye's. It looks a bit awkward.
Also, can you add a background as well? Or is 3m supposed to do this? Whoever wants to fix this - pls do it now, because having 4 portraits with background and 2 without would be a pity. Or send the psd files to me. It's just 5 minutes of work. :D

[Sekino]

Hm... I'm not sure; I thought 3m wanted to create a background for all the characters (for the presentation), but I could have misunderstood. I'm working on adding one just in case (but I might post the result only in the morning because it's almost 2am :P)

[Pretty_Angel]

I you haven't noticed, I was adding simple backgrounds for all portraits I was colouring - it's simply easier and faster that way. :^^:

Anyway, I tried to make the jewellery a bit more prominent as you suggested. What do you think?

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Looking forward to seeing the final result. And good night! I'm drinking my morning coffee right now! :D

[AsaB]

Hey guys! Love what we have so far. You've probably seen my PM by now as to why I haven't been around for the past few days :(

Um, so I posted some ideas in said PM about world/character description. I was also thinking, do you guys think it's necessary to post said info/description/names/etc on the actual character portrait? I think it might become kinda cluttered. So then we'd just write down the description in the final submitting post. Or what do you think?

In any case, I'm gonna try out some templates/borders that could go with all characters--isn't that something we want, btw? I could try both regular ones (just encircling the portrait) or larger ones that also include the info. Coming up soon!

Oh, and also, regarding the blurring: although I still like it, it gives an interesting sense of motion, I think Sekino has a good point, it's probably a bit odd having it only on one portrait. So maybe drop it?

[Pretty_Angel]

Just noticed - the portraits should be submitted with a 2:3 ratio. Fixed the portraits to fit the requirements.

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Sorry, should have seen that earlier! :^^;:

Sekino, can you check the rangers?

[AsaB]

Good eye, Sab! It'd be a pity to get disqualitifed over silly little details in the final submitting :)

[Pretty_Angel]

Haha, yeah that would suck! :D Also we need to think of naming convention: TeamChow_CocoMeowza_Image00X (the satyrs and rhinos are 001 - 004)

[Sekino]

Whew! Good call on the ratio...

Here are the Rangers, with the correct ratio, file name (005 and 006) and a background:

766706

766655

[AsaB]

These look really good, Celeste! I love the colour schemes. Excellent work :)

My only concern is that the Light version is kinda leaning back on something, but there's nothing behind her! However, I know it can be too cluttered if we add something directly behind her, it can take away from the character. So I'm not sure. Maybe you could try adding something really sublte and see if it works? If not, we'll just stay with it like it is :)

[Sekino]

Since the other characters don't have large elements around them, I figured it was better to keep her free. But I altered her a bit so her center of gravity is more forward, so hopefully she looks more like she's jogging than leaning ;) (I changed the above attachment)

[AsaB]

Oh cool, this totally works! Jogging lady on the run, I buy it :teeth: Nice work!

[3mMajster]

Ok guys here it is, I like :), but what do you think about this?

[Pretty_Angel]

3m Wow, I like this a lot! It's fitting the theme perfectly. Good job! :D

Now for some tweaking:

1) [Group] Should we use the names of the races that we established in the descriptions?

2) [3m] I suppose you can provide a larger version of the set picture? It's a bit tiny right now. :3

3) [3m] Can you provide larger single portraits for the presentation? So that we can align them like Portrait - Description - Portrait - Description and so on?

[Sekino]

Sweeeet!!! That looks fantastic! It really shows how well the characters mesh with each other (the colours are great!)

[3m] Can you provide larger single portraits for the presentation? So that we can align them like Portrait - Description - Portrait - Description and so on?

I totally agree with that. Besides, I think the presentation is supposed to be one separate image per character (and it will indeed be cleaner to have the description underneath each portrait).

So, yeah; A higher resolution of each 'card' as seperate images would be great.

And we'll need to update the races' names as well. My only other crit is the font; it seems a bit too 'Times New Roman' for the style. Maybe something a tad more tribal/grungy would fit better?

As mentioned before, I can post the finals in the final thread. If you can post the high res images, 3mMajster, I could also alter the race names if you'd rather.

Great job!!!! :D

[AsaB]

Alright, fantastic work 3m! :) You nailed the African theme!
I've got no further comments, Sab and Celeste already voiced my concerns. :^^:

To reply to Sab's PM earlier (our communication is scattered between PMing and this thread, sort of confusing :P), it seems like this is it, then! That is, after a few tweaks in the template above.

Celeste, don't you have everything you need for the final submitting now? You should have all the final versions of the descriptions by now (another PM from me just now!).

[Sekino]

I only need the bigger framed portraits (the ones on the single image above just seem a bit too small to be cut into individual images, I think). Also, 3M is changing the races' names as we speak :)

Aside from that, I do have the descriptions; and do we agree on the team thumbnail I posted last night?

[AsaB]

Okay, so this is all falling into place :) Most cool!

And yep, I liked your thumbnail, let's use that!

Alright, I really think I need to go offline now and rest my eyes, my head is started to spin :/ I hope there's nothing else I need to do, if not, just email me :)

Aweesome work, team! We totally nailed this! :sungod:

[Sekino]

Seems under control, Asa! Thanks a lot for all the work despite the nasty cold :D

Cheers and have a good night! :)

[3mMajster]

Ok here are the big ones. :D