Team Chow II - Team Milk of Amnesia

[fluorine]

Member: Burtzum, Fluorine, Maoi, and Nightblue

[fluorine]

A small logo to put on the corner of the piece.

[fluorine]

Some Tibetan costume I collect over the years. I really love tibetan costume, it's bold and primitive.

[fluorine]

this is miao people, they'er famous for their skill with silver.

[fluorine]

this is アイヌ, 虾夷人, a minority people live in the north of Japan. I really like their patterns.

[fluorine]

This is 高山族，native people in Taiwan. Their costume is very similar to South east asian people.

[Burtzum]

colors, shapes, textures. inspiration boards. I like to draw from nature for costumes, vehicles, architecture, anything really.

http://burhtun.com/TCHOW2/refsheet3.jpg
http://burhtun.com/TCHOW2/refsheet4.jpg
http://burhtun.com/TCHOW2/refsheet1.jpg
http://burhtun.com/TCHOW2/refsheet2.jpg
http://burhtun.com/TCHOW2/urchin.jpghttp://burhtun.com/TCHOW2/bone.jpg

[Nightblue]

You dudes rock :|

Posting some animal photos, many of which taken by national geography.

[Moai]

Hey, team members! Some great reference has been posted already. I'll add to the pile.
I periodically raid Wikipedia for costume and cultural references. Here's some stuff from South and also possibly East Asia.
Most of what I'll post is from Wikipedia. Some of the images I've gotten from reference threads here on CA. If any of these images are copyrighted, I apologize.

[fluorine]

cool faces! I love different faces.

[Moai]

And now for some people and artifacts from Mesoamerica and South America.

[Nightblue]

Sweet, Moai! Glad to have you aboard :) been following your work since I first got here.

Ready to kick some ass...

[fluorine]

memo to Moai~

all three of us are on MSN brainstorming tonight, hope you can get on with us tomorrow night~ we're like constantly asking, where's Moai? when will he get on MSN with us...so...here's my MSN ID:

feifei_w[at]hotmail[dot]com add me so we can chat.

anyway, just a short memo for you, so you'd know what we're talking about... between constant sidetracks about various unrelated subjects (such as frog legs, grasshoppers, some guy's girlfriend, star war, MMO....) we did come up with some sort of idea:

1, instead doing people, it might be interesting to create a humanoid (or non-humanoid) alien race. So it'll be some kind of sci-fi theme.

2, this alien race could be a combination between feather/fur and fish/reptile.

3, we want to mix up different ethnic costumes with this race (that's why all the costume reference).

4, this reptile race is cold blooded creature, but living in a cold environment, so they'll need constant heating system, or they'll be easily frozen to death.

that's about what we came up with tonight... so we decided to go and draw some concept sketch and see if this idea works. If we can't come up with cool sketches, then we need to change concept.

and we also come up with something that we decided to stay away:

punk, steam punk, goth, high fantasy (you know the lord of the ring type, pointy ear fantasy), general european style, Mass Effect style space marine, Blade runner style...

and Burtzum specially emphasis on "weird". we want to create something unique, weird, mixed up, mismatch, bizarre...

so that's about sums up what we brainstorming tonight...Hope you can join us tomorrow~~~I'm sure you'd have some cool ideas as well.

and once again, those faces are cool~~~

[Nightblue]

Random alien sketches over lunch... trying to get my mind out of cliches.

[Moai]

Thanks for the memo, fluorine. I just installed MSN messenger and created an account, so I'll join you guys tonight. My handle on there is corytregoart[at]live[dot]com. I've already added all of you guys to my contact list, and I'll be online pretty much the rest of the day, probably.
The alien idea sounds cool, and I'm totally with you guys on your ideas of style and genre. I have a few alien races that I've already drawn that I feel might work, but I'm guessing that you guys probably want to create something new for this activity. So, I'll sketch out some new ideas today and post them later.

Until then, here's some Tauregs, Masai, and other tribes from Africa. Only a few images this time.

[fluorine]

random sketches #1

[Moai]

Here are the alien designs I was talking about earlier. I have no problem with us using these or modifying them. Or, we can make something new. Makes no difference to me.:)

[fluorine]

more random sketch #2, 3

[Moai]

Here's some doodles!
Very interesting designs, fluorine!

[fluorine]

Another quick random sketch. just to play with primitive and sci-fi.

[Nightblue]

Doodles of nakkid aliens. Clothed ones comes later, maybe.

[Moai]

A pencil/digital sketch of some sorta humanoid alien. It doesn't really fit the tribal/high tech aesthetic we decided on, and the interlocking ring motif on its garment looked a lot better in my imagination than in practice. But oh well! Just adding it to the pile.
Cool aliens, fluorine and Nightblue.

EDIT: Reading the topic and guidelines, our initial direction is in the trashcan anyway. Growl.
So long, bipedal aliens. Adios, high technology. We hardly knew ye.

[fluorine]

Moai, that alien is totally cool!!! that being said, we're totally screwed with our initial theme/direction.

Well, since I can't find you guys on MSN and whine about this round's high fantasy theme, I'll just post it here.

So we all read the briefing for this round, and I hope I'm not the only who felt just a little bit disappointed...as if we actually *need* more pointed eared gender-confused elven cleric. But not like there's anything we can do about the topic. So let's see if we can still have some fun with this one.

I was thinking, maybe we could do some really cheesy Anima Style high fantasy characters, like those in Final Fantasy series. you know, high school kids saving the world, the girls wearing huge armor but with belly area totally exposed...that kind of silly style. I think as long as we stick to the AD&D rule book, we should be able to get by with "style".

Or we can do different ethnic, like African American elf, or Chinese drawf...just try to break away the "all white cast" of most High Fantasy stories.

Looks like the costume is pretty much limited to medieval/celtic/general european/LotR style. So I think if we can tweet it a little bit here and there, give it more ethnic look that might be interesting.

As for work flow, I think the most natural way is that each of us pick one character, race and class, make sure we end up with 2 male and 2 female. So each of us end up doing 2 portraits for this character, and we'll have 8 portraits all together.

It might help if we can come up with some kind of coherent background/world setting, it'll help to connect the characters.

I'll go ask Daestwen if we can do different poses, like moving, walking, sitting down...or we have to stick with standing pose. Although since we're doing good and evil side of the same character, it's probably near impossible to have a composition that have all of them fit in together. So I think at least have the two side some how interact with each other.

Bottom line is, this is not straight up "character design" we're doing here. I mean, there's no character sheet, no expression sheet, no breaking down sheet...What we're doing is straight up full panel illustration. So I think Illustration is to tell a story. Maybe we can push from this perspective, and have our character tell a story of themselves and the world they live in.

Add: one more thing, I just noticed the banner, Good and Evil. That seems to be the focus of this round. Showing the same character in different alignment. maybe we should be focusing on that as well.

[fluorine]

Here's a quick sketch I did this afternoon.

[Moai]

I was disappointed with the topic as well. But, we can still apply creativity and originality and make it work, no problem.

To respond to your thoughts on style, I'm pretty strongly against going in an exaggerated, Anime-influenced style. I think going in the second direction you mentioned--high fantasy with strong non-European influences--is much more interesting, more fun, and more similar to what we'd already had planned. That's my view.
I'll most likely be available sometime tonight to chat on MSN. I also think planning out some sort of world and backdrop would be helpful.

[Burtzum]

Well here are the doodles I had done for our primitive sci-fi idea. I was bummed about the topic also. But I think we can still make this weird and interesting. It will just be more difficult. I have some ideas. And I think we can still keep our influences. We need to chat on MSN. Also I'm with Moai, I am against going anime with bellies exposed etc. Bleh.

http://www.burhtun.com/TCHOW2/primitivescifi.jpg

[fluorine]

Memo for tonight's discussion

1, Cory has established a nice background story:

In the beginning, there're 2 deities, the god of light and god of dark. they dominate 2 parallel universe, in one universe, the light god won; in the other universe, the dark god won. Eventually, these two universe start to merge, forcing the two side of the same character facing each other.

2, we decided to go with the direction of tribal people meets animal. We want to keep the feature close to their conventional race (human, elf, dwarf...etc.), but we do want to have an animal/insect undertone to make the design look more interesting. draw elements from animals, insects, that's looks appropriate to their living environment.

3, There's nothing specific assigned to anyone yet, everything is OPEN. sketch up characters from whatever race you find interesting, combining whatever elements from animal, insects, various different culture. But always keep in mind of form and function, make it realistic, and practical.

4, We'll have to decide what exactly each of us wants to do by the end of next week, which is Sunday August 9th. We want to decide the world setting, character background story, character gender, race, age, class.

5, We can go crazy with our design but do be careful with "high fantasy" requirement. Don't get too far away from the stereotype. it might be a good idea to ask Daestwen to look at our preliminary sketch later this week, and see if the direction is good. the last thing we want is creating bunch of awesome characters only end up being rejected.

(If that's the case, we'll just go with it, and screw the requirements. we all end up with some cool portfolio pieces anyway)

6, some ideas include: elf-insect-desert-thieves. mole rate dwarf, monkey human, seagull human, crayfish org....once again, we're not drawing a org that looks like a crayfish. but rather a org that looks like a conventional org, but has armor accessory facial structure that borrows elements from a crayfish.

That pretty sums up what we have discussed tonight. Sorry if I missed anything... Please post your sketches, thoughts, ideas... This is the most exciting part of creating concept art, let's go crazy and have fun.


PS: I just read the briefing again, looks like we CAN create our own race and class. So there's more room for us to get weird and crazy.

[fluorine]

Here's something I came up today.

Race: Swamp Giant (=Org)

Class: Battle Bard

Gender: Female

[Nightblue]

flourine: That's really cool! I think her pose would look more dynamic if she looks up at the camera :)

Random face sketches. More to come, for realz.

[fluorine]

I updated the pose, Nightblue, thanks for the suggestion.

also add 2 facial designs.

[Nightblue]

Failed DnD Character #1: Snizzik the Goblin Barbarian

The ferocity of a cornered lynx, the power of a trapped squirrel.

Tried to give him some snake features but ended up with a blizzard-ish goblin... ugh... next.

[Moai]

All right, this is the direction I think we should go in. Weird. Tribal. Colorful. Humanoid, but blending the characteristics of many different types of animals. NOT a simple human-animal hybrid, but a new, unique species. I do not think we should go with plain humans.
Perhaps the technology is too much in the stone age to fit with the high fantasy genre, but that can easily be fixed by incorporating some metal objects, I think.

[Burtzum]

I think we are getting somewhere now. I actually like the idea of their weapons and such being more primitive than the other races. They are orcs after all. Orcs are stupid. Same for magic, I'd like to see them take a shamanistic/spiritual and/or music-based approach to magic rather than brainy high wizard magic.

I also love the idea of natural armor! So that their clothing-based armor is more for show and light than the other races because they are naturally hardy.

Orc. +10 natural armor. -5 intelligence. Matches cliche high fantasy feel for the race. But this way is unique!

:geekg:

I would like to see them perhaps a little more bulky so that they feel more orcish. Also maybe a little more clothing/armor even though they are naturally armored. I think it overall needs to be a little more orc-like to sell it as an Orc. How to do that while keeping the originality I'm not sure. It will be difficult to find the right balance but I think you're on the right path. Now I'm getting excited about this project again.

[Nightblue]

I'm thinking maybe we should work out a story, rather than putting too much focus on making new races. We could even use some of the original high fantasy races, just make sure the way they dress is weird enough to match the odd new ones.

This is a character design assignment after all - heavy on personality, personal history, and all that. Race is part of the identity, but imo it's just as challenging to create unique/new characters with conventional races as making cool new races that make logical sense.

[Moai]

Thanks, Burtzum!

I would like to see them perhaps a little more bulky so that they feel more orcish. Also maybe a little more clothing/armor even though they are naturally armored. I think it overall needs to be a little more orc-like to sell it as an Orc. How to do that while keeping the originality I'm not sure. It will be difficult to find the right balance but I think you're on the right path. Now I'm getting excited about this project again.

Nightblue felt the same way. I'll play around with the design some more, especially the head.

Edit: Nightblue posted while I was looking at the thread.:)

[Nightblue]

I'm not a good writer, but here's a frame of a story. Feel free to ditch it and write better ones :)

Four character A, B, C, and D - and their dark versions -A, -B, -C and -D. one for each of us.

In his early adventures, Character A has once come in contact with the dark mirror and seen another dark, terrible world through it. Terrified, he goes into hiding and lived like a regular villager for a few years, until Character B, seeking the secret that's hiddin in the mage's tower, tracked Character A down. Character A was reluctant to help at first, but was compelled to do so by character B through charm/reason/whatever. As A and B make their way to the tower, they met characters -C and -D, who tried repeatedly to stop them. A and B eventually found the dark mirror in the mage's tower, but had to fight -C and -D in front of it. A and B both got pushed into the mirror, and they came out in a darkened world, where they found their bizzaro versions -A and -B being the dark lord that is seeking to destroy the land completely. They also gained unexpected help from C and D, the good version of the villains they met in their world, and the four banded together to ultimately defeat -A and -B.

A and B can be traditional high fantasy races, and C and D can be new races. These characters can and should be different, but there need to be unifying elements on A, B, -C, -D as well as -A, -B, C, D to make them look like they are from the same worlds. (for example - say the real world has a color theme of bright-ish red and yellow, the shadow world could be less saturated or cooler colors, etc)

[fluorine]

I did some more sketch, based on insect/sea creature silhouette.

I agree with grace, I think we need to focus on the general background and personality here, instead of creating an exotic looking race. We're doing "characters", not "creatures". If we could come up with a story that we all find interesting, then we might be able to create characters with strong personality.

[fluorine]

Ok, I read Nightblue's story several times. It's a pretty good frame so far, and fits into Moai's light/dark parallel universe setting.

1, character A used to be a famous wizard/warrior/cleric (whatever class you want to put her) from a good family (maybe even royalty). She's a good friend with the Mage who processed the dark mirror, a portal connects the dark side. They grow up together, and eventually fall in love. The Mage however, processed the dark mirror for too long and eventually turns evil. Little by little she felt that something is wrong with the Mage, and eventually witness his crazy experiment. Disgusted she tried to run away, but instead hit something resulting the experiment goes wrong, and the Mage got sucked in to that dark, terrifying world. and because of the unexpected event, the mage's tower and the villages around that area was destroyed, inhabitable, filled with monsters (good place to level up~) Feeling betrayed, guilty, personally responsible for Mage's the tragedy and the death of all those people, she went into hiding, throw away her fame and wealth, living amongst common people. Character A is the normal hero type, his AD&D alignment is Lawful good, which makes him suitable for Paladin or Ranger. Her counter part -A is Lawful Evil.

2, The reason character B was searching for the dark mirror wasn't revealed in the beginning. He was constantly changing the story. I pictured this person was lay back and cynical on the surface, cracking inappropriate jokes at the most inappropriate moments, as if he doesn't care anything or anyone, especially himself. He build a war around himself, and always disguises his feeling with jokes. But deep down, he's holding a terrible secret and obsessed with the idea that only the dark mirror can help him with it. (and no...I haven't figure out what exactly is this dark secret). A and B would be a complete opposite in personality. A is the hero type, honorable, respectful, caring, sympathetic, always willing to help others. B is practical with street smarts, looking after only his own interests. the Only reason B team up with A is because she's the only one who actually see the dark mirror and presumably know how to make it work. B's alignment is neutral good. his counter part -B is neutral evil.

during the course of the game, A and B will have some chemistry. B doesn't know A is the Mage's Lover.

3, Character C and D was created by the Mage who used to own dark mirror. When he fall to the other side, C and D, serving as his slaves were left behind to guard the mirror, after knowing A and B's plan, they work relentlessly to stop A and B from reaching the Tower.

4, On the other side, the Mage first seek out his own counter part, trying to distroy him, but the first attempt failed. The good mage with his good minion +C and +D run away. Knowing A and B is going after his mirror, the Evil Mage seeks out their counter part -A and -B, hoping they will stop A and B's course.

5, the Evil Mage eventually managed to kill the Good mage. +C and +D escaped.

6, loosing their home and Master, C and D went on a revenge trip towards the Evil Mage and his minions. and on their way, they ran into A and B. after some initial confusing (even fight), they end up combine forces.

7, the 4 eventually defeat the evil ABCD plus the Mage, witness the merging of 2 worlds, and become new gods ... YEAH~~~totally Baldur's Gate Style!

8, if the 4 characters are supposed to form a team, they should carry out traditional AD&D classes:

-A front line fighter/Paladin/Barbarian,

-A offensive Wizard/Sorcerer,

-A defensive Cleric/Druid (healer)

-A Long range/sneak attack Thief/rouge/ranger (also responsible for unlocking treasure chest and disable traps)

[Moai]

So, here are my thoughts on the story and character outline that Nightblue posted. I've already shared these with her on MSN.

-Character A is now an older character. His discovery of the dark mirror took place many years ago, when he was much younger. He is past his prime and perhaps a bit grave and haunted by what he saw in the mirror. Despite his age, he is still very powerful. Perhaps a spell caster of some sort?
-Character -A is also old and powerful, but evil. I haven't really figured him out yet, though.
-Character B is young and ambitious, forceful and persuasive. I imagine character B as female.
-Just as character B persuaded character A to seek out the mirror again, so did character -B pursuade -A to make use of the mirror. She acts as his adviser, but is actually quite manipulative. The villainous plot, whatever it is, that revolves around the mirror is probably her idea.

I'm still thinking about how C and D and their counterparts fit into this.

And now some thoughts about the issue of designing a strange new race and focusing on the story.
Of course the story is important. Of course creating strong characters to go with that story is important. That's the main point of this activity, as we all know. However, it is my assertion that the goals of creating a solid backdrop and interesting personalities and of creating interesting new races are not mutually exclusive. Nor do I agree that what I'm doing in creating these new races is simply creature design, rather than character design. I'll admit it, the "swamp orc" I created up there is more of a generic member of his race than a unique individual. However, once I have the look of the race established, then I can modify that base to create any kind of character I please. I can make a young, wistful, traveling swamp orc. I can create an old, weary, bitter swamp orc. Or any other character type you want. Creating the look of the race is just the initial stage of designing the character.
Plus, since this team was formed (or at least since I joined it and started partaking in the discussions), or idea was to create a new race and then make characters from that race. Before the topic was released, we planned to create a new alien species and have our characters be members of that species. Once we got the topic, we decided to take the generic high fantasy archetype and tweak it, changing the races to make them more interesting and unique.
I was really excited about that idea. Burtzum has made it no secret that he also wants to go strange and unique and different for this activity. Why the about face? We of course need to focus on the backdrop and the roles the characters will play in the story. But does that mean we need to abandon the direction we were going in earlier? I don't think so. I think our earlier idea, the creation of new races or modifying existing fantasy races in interesting was, was what made this project fun, and what made our approach different from the rest.
I say we stay with it.

(Cool designs, fluorine. I like the moth girl!)

[Moai]

Once again, someone posted while I was looking at the threat and writing up my own post. I'll have to compare fluorine's ideas on the story with my own. But now it's time for sleep.

[fluorine]

[Edit]:

I just read Moai's post. Sorry if I sounded bossy from time to time, I didn't mean it to come out in such a demanding way.

I understand you feel strongly about creating a new race, and none of us here suggesting that we couldn't go with that direction. It's just from time to time, we kind of get too excited and carried away with lobster org or frog goblin or insect elf and such. That's why I think what Nightblue did is great, come up with a story, so we can be more focused.

I like your version of the story, an older mentor male + a young eager female; a young manipulative evil princess + an older equality manipulative advisor both with their own agenda. I think this would work.

But I also think the Mage and his minions would work. I make C and D "man made" creature/character, so that we can have a more plausible and logic reason for one or two "new race", so you guys can have fun, and we can still stick with the high fantasy rules.

I guess one possible scenario could be: -C and -D is actually creation from A, the older mage when he's still young and adventurous. But -C and -D come out evil, so the older Mage A try to destroy them, but they run away. So on the flip side, we could have the evil version of Mage -A, created 2 good characters +C and +D, and wants to destroy them because they're useless wimps LOL...but +C and +D run away...or something.

[end edit]

More thoughts regarding the personality and possible class:

1, Character A is probably either a paladin or a cleric. Like Lady Aribeth from neverwinter nights. one of those truly goody two-shoes character. I'd probably find a character like this annoying...but hey, every RPG has one of these, don't ask me why... Because of her high class family background, she lived the well provided life. Even when she went on hiding, she still lives pretty good. So she doesn't really approve of B's "low class" manners. She's genuinely good hearted and caring, but she does has some aristocratic arrogance and self-righteousness (which makes her even more annoying...GEE....how stereotypic!)

Character -A would also be from a noble house (or royalty) of the dark world. She probably process great wealth and power. I guess part of the reason the Evil mage seek her out is going after her money and influence in the dark world.

2. Character B is probably the Thief/Rouge/Ranger type. now that I read his story, he looks a lot like Prince in the new Prince of Persia. The practical cynical, joke cracking, insecure type. He's charming in a Han Solo kind of way. He's probably a womanizer as well, running into "old girlfriends" almost everywhere they go. A wouldn't be happy with it....LOL

-B is some bandits leader of sort, or a mercenary, he got hired by A or by the Mage. The practical nature in B became an obsession for wealth and procession for -B. the cynical became cruelty, and insecurity became ego-centric.

3, OK, if I'm an evil mage and I want to create 2 minions...what I'll do.....hum....I guess I'll first create a brute, carry heavy stuff, guarding my treasure chest, beat up prisoners, and terrifying the village around. Mwahahaha~~~~~

Then I'll create a beautiful obedient servant taking care of more delicate tasks, such as clean the house, cook dinner, do the laundry, and ...*Beep*... in the night. You know the sexy evil secretary/french maid type.

I guess that pretty much sum up C and D, beauty and the Brute. Because they're created creature, you creature guys can have some fun here.

[Nightblue]

I completely agree with you, Maoi - having new races would make it much easier to be unique. What we didn't realize before the topic was revealed was that (to my understanding) the characters should be as diverse in race as possible. Creating 4 new and viable races is a tall task to fill, and having them to be too out there will make it hard for them to look like they are from the same world (this could be solved by making them from related species).

I have no problem if we want some or all of the races to completely depart from the traditional humanoid races either, but let's just go ahead and make up new names for them - it'll only open up comments like "that doesnt look orcish enough for me" etc if we do.

[Moai]

Thanks for your posts, fluorine and Nightblue. I appreciate what you have to say and agree with most of it, and I'm glad you both still think it's a good idea to create some new races for at least a couple of the characters.:)


I like your version of the story, an older mentor male + a young eager female; a young manipulative evil princess + an older equality manipulative advisor both with their own agenda. I think this would work.

But I also think the Mage and his minions would work. I make C and D "man made" creature/character, so that we can have a more plausible and logic reason for one or two "new race", so you guys can have fun, and we can still stick with the high fantasy rules.

I guess one possible scenario could be: -C and -D is actually creation from A, the older mage when he's still young and adventurous. But -C and -D come out evil, so the older Mage A try to destroy them, but they run away. So on the flip side, we could have the evil version of Mage -A, created 2 good characters +C and +D, and wants to destroy them because they're useless wimps LOL...but +C and +D run away...or something.
3, OK, if I'm an evil mage and I want to create 2 minions...what I'll do.....hum....I guess I'll first create a brute, carry heavy stuff, guarding my treasure chest, beat up prisoners, and terrifying the village around. Mwahahaha~~~~~

Then I'll create a beautiful obedient servant taking care of more delicate tasks, such as clean the house, cook dinner, do the laundry, and ...*Beep*... in the night. You know the sexy evil secretary/french maid type.

I guess that pretty much sum up C and D, beauty and the Brute. Because they're created creature, you creature guys can have some fun here.

I was actually coming to the same conclusions about C and D, in that one should be a smaller female character and the other should be a large and brutish character (that'd give me a chance to use my 'orc,' hehe!). If they are man-made, that would also explain why they are still around, even after many, many years have passed and character A is now old.

So, now that I've read that you like my version of the story, fluorine, here's some more thoughts on it. I've incorporated a few elements of your version, as well.

Character A is of the spell-caster archetype. Unlike most spell-casters we see, though, he is young, adventurous, and tough, and always on the move. Traveling from place to place can be lonely and dangerous, though, so he decides to create/summon some companions for himself. He creates C and D. C and D are members of certain 'types' of beings that spell-casters can create in this world, just like there are certain specific types of golem in other fantasy worlds that spell-casters can create. There are precedents and procedures for successfully creating these types of beings.

A creates C as a female companion and lover. She is small and beautiful, but he also created her to be quick, stealthy, and fierce if necessary, since his traveling lifestyle is a dangerous one. D is a much larger and more monstrous type of entity, high on physical strength but not too high in intelligence. Despite his fearsome appearance, though, he very loyal to his creator and is more of a gentle giant, though he will of course fight to protect either A or C.

In his travels, A hears rumors of an old ruin, a dark and ancient tower, standing solitary out in the rocky wastelands. At the top of this tower is an extraordinary artifact, a mirror of black crystal that allows one to travel between worlds, provided one knows how to operate it. Over the years of his travels, A has amassed a good amount of knowledge of this mysterious tower and mirror, and believes he knows where to find it, and how to operate the mirror once he gets there. A, C, and D set out on a quest for the tower.

They arrive at the tower--probably with lots of sidetracks and misadventures in the meantime. Because it is a place of old, dark magic, strange creatures populate it, and they must be battled before the party reaches the top floor, just like in any decent RPG. They reach the top floor, and come face to face with the black crystal mirror. It is large, a perfect sphere eight feet in diameter, and built strangely. A wonders if this is a creation of man, or of some other force. The runes lining the mirror are just as he'd heard described, so he begins the spells and incantations to activate the mirror. C and D stand by, ready to enter the other world and see what is there.

Meanwhile, in the dark world, character -A is a young and adventurous spell-caster, ruthless and uncaring. He travels from place to place, seeking power. He creates two companions to aid him on his quests. He creates -C has his sex slave, basically. She is just as ruthless and heartless as he, and would gladly kill -A if he did not hold such power over her. -D is a monstrous brute, vicious and hardly even sentient, at times barely under the control of his master. Despite their cold and murderous natures, though, -C and -D share a sort of bond, probably because they are both creations of the same master.

In his travels, -A hears rumors of an old ruined tower, out in the rocky wastelands, with an extraordinary artifact at its top. He brutally interrogates scholars and raids libraries for clues on how to find this place. Eventually, once he has a good idea of where the tower is and how to activate the mirror at its top, he and his slaves venture out to find it. Some time later, they do, and battle to its top floor. -A sees the mirror, black and menacing, somehow inhuman. Its runes and features match its description, so he begins the spells and incantations to open it.

Because the light and the dark work are equal and opposite, A and -A's quests occur at the same time, and they open the portal at the same instant.

All hell breaks loose. With the portal between worlds open, dark energies and air currents swirl around, and strange beings from beyond appear in the tower. A and -A see each other, and being the intelligent men they are, immediately grasp the nature of each other. However, each thinks that the dark energies and creatures appearing in the tower are the work of the other, a malicious attack, when in fact these things are just the natural by-products of opening a portal between worlds. C and D, seeing their master in danger, leap through the portal to attack -A. Meanwhile, -A sends -C and -d to attach A. C, D, -C, and -D cross through the portals at the same time. In the chaos, attacked by both their opposite's creations and the bizarre creatures of the portal, A and -A lose their hold over the energies of the portal, and the portals close. Under the onslaught of (-)C and (-)D, as well as the creatures from beyond, A and -A are forced to flee the tower, using their magic to help them escape.

A is distraught, for his best friends, his creations--not to mention his lover--are trapped beyond the portal. However, with the creatures from beyond occupying the tower, he cannot go back to free them. -A is infuriated at the loss of his slaves, but knows that he lacks the power to fight off the beyond-creatures and reopen the portal to retrieve them. Both A and -A share the same character flaw: in the face of such insurmountable odds, they give up. His heart broken, A goes back home and leads a simple and lonely life, haunted by what occurred in the tower. -A returns home as well, his confidence broken by what occurred in the tower, and takes up a solitary and bitter existence.

-C and -D barely make it out of the tower alive. Unable to pursue A, they wander the wastelands for a time. They eventually end up in a sort of marshy country, where they make a living by robbing and killing travelers. Because of their bond, they stick together, and because they are artificial creations, they do not age.

C and D also barely escape, and also spend some time wandering, lost. They eventually make their home in a sparsely populate marshy country, earning a living by defending travelers in that area from thieves and murderers.

Many years later...

B is a young traveler, adventurous and tough, and of an ambitious and forceful nature. In her travels she hears rumors of an old and abandoned tower with a fantastic magic mirror at the top. Though generally good, B is also somewhat greedy, and thinking there must be fantastic treasure in the other world, she decides to seek out this mirror. She also hears of the one man in living memory who had traveled to the tower, A, and seeks him out. After much searching, she finds him living a simple and solitary life. He warns her against attempting to open the portal, telling her of the bizarre creatures that appeared, and how his friends became trapped in the dark world. However, B tells him that the monsters are not a problem, and unsheathes her sword. It is the legendary White Blade, which can smite any dark beast, slicing their flesh and burning them through to the core. She tells A that reopening the portal is his only hope of rescuing his friends from the dark world. A is convinced, and they set out on another quest to the tower.

News of their journey spreads. -C and -D capture a lone traveler in the marsh. Pleading for his life, he tells them of two other travelers that they could capture and rob, which would bring them much more of a profit than killing him; these travelers are, of course, A and B. -C and -D kill the traveler anyway, and set out for the tower. When A reopens the portal, they plan to kill both him and -A, their previous master.

-B is, like her counterpart, an adventurous young traveler, but of a manipulative and ruthless nature. She hears of the tower, and of the one man who had been to it, -A. She finds -A living alone, a bitter and angry old man. He tells her that the powers of the mirror are too great for them, but then she unsheathes her sword. It is the legendary Black Blade, which can smite any beast, rending their flesh, poisoning their blood, and blackening and shriveling them to their very heart. She tells -A that reopening the portal is the only way to have his vengeance on A and to regain his slaves. With -A convinced, they set out.

News spreads. C and D hear from a traveler that they are protecting that a notorious magician and a female warrior with a legendary sword have set out again for the mythical tower. Realizing what this means, C and D also head for the tower, hoping to be reunited with their master.

A and B reach the tower. B's sword makes short work of the dark creatures living there, and A is delighted to find that, with his greater age and wisdom, his magic returns easily to him, and is more potent than ever. They reach the top, and A begins to open the portal, with B standing at the ready. The exact same thing happens with -A and -B, so I won't write it again.:)

-C and -D follow them up the tower, preparing to ambush them as the portal opens. C and D follow -A and -B, ready to escape back into their world.

The portal opens. A, B, -A, and -B see each other, and immediately know each other. B and -B spot the legendary weapons that each is holding, and their greedy nature kicks in. They move forward to battle each other. At that moment, a new round of dark creatures from beyond floods out of the portal, and C, D, -C, and -D spring into action.

What happens next? That is for you, the player, to decide.

[fluorine]

Character list so far:

character A

Assigned to Nightblue

What I've written so far for A, feel free to take whatever element you think fits in your idea, and disregard the rest (or all of it~~~)

A could be young and adventurous, honorable, brave, confident (sometimes overly confident) in his talent and ability. He can be arrogance, because he rarely fail. Because he rarely fail, he doesn't take failure too well. That's why He end up hiding after the event on the mirror tower.

A could also be portrayed as an old cynical mage. Despite being bitter, old A is still honorable and dignified. Deep down he still held that confidence about his talent and capability. When facing lesser people (enemies or friendlies), he has that natural sense of superiority shows.

A could came from a upper class family, maybe even Royalty. That adds up his superiority complex with a very well controlled aristocratic arrogance. Even in hiding, he lived a rather well provided life. He wouldn't give up any luxury (which he consider to be a necessity).

Character B

Assign to Fluorine

Character personality breakdown:

character B has a tough life. She was born an orphan, grow up in the mean street. She learn to steal, lie, cheat, mug, rob, escape punishment, and when she can't escape, she learnt to take punishment with some dignity (mostly because she knew tears and begging wouldn't work). She's a surviver, she get by with whatever she can put her hands on. When she's little, the bigger kids of the street gang took care of her; so when she grow older, she take it as a natural responsibility to take care of the younger kids.

She formed a tight little circle with other street kids and consider all the grow ups and kids with good family as outsiders and therefore enemies. She has a very straight forward black and white good an evil perspective towards the world.

(still working on it)

Character C

Assigned to:

Character personality breakdown


Character D

Assigned to: Moai

Character personality breakdown

Keep in mind that we need to have diversity in our characters, so far we're doing pretty good with gender and race, let's keep it diverse in regards to class as well.

[Moai]

Some head design variants for character D. Working out the base anatomy before going into characterization.
I had an idea about character C also, so I'll post a sketch of her too.

[Moai]

Also, since we seem to want to go Tibetan as far as aesthetics go, here's some refs from my Central Asia folder.

[Burtzum]

rant:

I guess I'm the only one who isn't feeling the dark dimension vs light dimension, dark mirror, etc idea. I was never fond of the caricature version of good and evil put fourth by your average fantasy story. Much more interesting to me is something more grounded and based off of reality. A struggle over resources for example. Maybe the "evil" factions are expansionist, destructive to the environment, genocidal, fanatically religious, etc. People who only care for themselves or who care solely for the advancement of their own people, at the expense of everyone else and the environment. Greed. Intolerance. Lack of consideration for others. That is evil to me. And it truly exists. There are varying reasons why people fall into these acts. They are not simply pure evil. That is too simple.

I can't identify with he who is evil simply because he likes to be. Or the saint in shining armor who helps people whenever he can and who battles the forces of evil because... they're like... evil and stuff... But I can identify with characters who are humanized in that they are not pure evil, they are just flawed in a very human way. Or characters who are not goody two shoes but who end up in a situation which allows for no other option but for them to stand up and defend what they think is right.

A Nazi officer is more interesting than a 'blood demon god from the darkest more fiery abyss of hell', or, Mr. Assassinpants who assassinates people because hes evil and assassiny.

/rant

brainstorm:

Maybe one faction of one race wants to flood the swamps with salt water for some reason. This would of course kill off Moai's crayfish orcs. Maybe these evil doers even get a faction of orcs to side with them somehow, so you have a faction of orcs who are fighting to destroy their own homelands and their own people. For monetary gain perhaps. Or a promised high position in the aggressor's society.

Each race could have a faction that wants to exploit the land and other people. These factions coalesce to fight the good guys in an attempt to carve up the world to their own benefits. Divide the worlds riches amongst themselves. Redraw the map.

/brainstorm

more rambling:

I think it would be awesome if you could tell who was good and who was evil, yet there were compelling reasons to join either side.

Also, I feel like parallel dimensions kind of makes things too extreme. Too black and white. Here is the good dimension where your good self is, here is the evil dimension where your evil self is...

I always thought the whole idea of alignment was that it was a spectrum, and that anyone can fall if nudged, and sometimes one can even rise if they have the willpower. The good and evil portraits of a character are the same character, just representing how the player wants to chose to play the character. Good and Evil dimensions I feel takes away the choice and the roleplay. The player is no longer evil because of whatever story he has imagined for his character, he is evil simply because he comes from the evil world.

I don't think there even needs to be a very developed story or world personally. You can write a good bit about a characters personality without having to define everything so much. Isn't that what the character blurbs should be about? Personality? Not story... story will play out in the game.

I always liked the games that didn't overload you with back story. Like Morrowind. You start off on a prison ship. Why are you there? Don't know. Why did they release you? Don't know. Who were you before? Who knows. Who will you be now? You get to decide as you play.

/more rambling

[Burtzum]

hmm thats a big wall of text. I guess that can be condensed to:

1) I'd rather draw cool looking characters and then try to figure out what their story is rather than try to construct a story and written descriptions for the characters and then try to stuff the drawings into those corners and make them fit. That approach I feel will just stifle creativity.

2) I feel you all are trying to define good and evil too much. Leave that up to the game designers and the players. And the writers! We are all visual people here. I don't know about you, but I'm no writer. This is a concept art challenge. Visuals take precedence.

3) These characters don't even have to have any relationships with each other or exist in the world at the same time. They are templates that the player chooses from. Thats a key difference from the last TCHOW which was very much about relationships.

Also, in the last TCHOW my team bothered to come up with a story. It was about a cataclysmic event that ruined the Earth and in the process "Seeded" the moon and made it habitable. There was also an atmospheric "bridge" connecting the Earth to the moon that people could travel through via hot air balloons/airships. None of this came across in the character designs or added anything to them that unified them. The only thing that unified them was our decision in the very beginning to give them all some sort of sea shells in their costumes. All time spent working out a grand story was time wasted.

[fluorine]

Daestwen:I wouldn't worry too much. think about it like joices that the player can make for a character - either they can play the character good, or they can play them evil. Rather than two identical people who happened to be opposites on that spectrum and live in the universe at the same time, they are the same person who could take two different life paths. :]

So I guess the previous story about two parallel universe is out of the question. Burt suggest that we could just come up with personality, and no story at all. I think I finally get a grasp of what exactly they're looking for in this contest.

I think it's like in the traditional AD&D forgotten realms games like Baldur's Gate, or Neverwinter Nights, at the very beginning of the game, when the players know little about the game, the player will come to a screen where you either create your own character, or choose from several preset characters. Recent console RPGs tent to give only preset characters to choose from, easier to control during game play, and can add character specified side quests. The preset characters has a default name, but the players can over write it with their own.

So I think that's our approach for now.

I think we still need to come up with a character break down, include:

A default name

Gender

Race

Class

Brief personal background and personality description. Something we can eventually use for our character description for the final piece.

[edit] I just realized there characters doesn't need to be related...and they could be from whatever race/class we created, as long as we keep give it a mythical feel. I've been searching images online and there's like whole section of oriental class on wizard of the Coast website. So I guess that's what I'm going to do with my character. I want to combine a Chinese/tibetan mythical creature with my character, create a new race and class. [end edit]

[daestwen]

Hmm.

This contest is very strange for me so far, to see myself quoted in so many places and my words given so much weight, both in and out of context!

I took the question posed to me originally as from someone who was worried about the amount of work that they were putting in and wanted to know if they were over complicating things.

Yes, you can simplify it to what I said, of course.

That being said, i think creating back story and worlds is wonderful and an important design process that is sadly overlooked by many people, and I would never want to discourage you from that approach.

Whether or not that backstory will shine through your characters is about how you approach the character creation after that point, not whether or not you create the story at first. Even if you don't write the story down, you can definitely tell when a team has a unified world in mind, an writing stuff down only helps that.

Both the winning teams last time had very unified designs that really tied the characters into the same world. There are many approaches to this, but I think it's a little early in the contest to be slamming a method to do this.

Sorry for my interruption guys, but I really hate to be misunderstood this way. :/ I hope I've made myself a bit clearer!


Ps. Chow is a great place to hone your skills. Just ask Trevor or Poshspice or any of the regulars here, it's a good place to show how well you can work. I am hoping that Team Chow allows you to showcase not only your artistic skills, but also your teamworking and process skills, and to hone them in the meantime.

[Nightblue]

Thanks daestwen!

well, at least we have a general design direction - tibetian/tribal style with the japanese patterns etc, if I got that right. Hopefully by the end of the work week we'll have the races/classes figured out so we can move forward.

here are two mages - human and elf.

[fluorine]

here's my design of the night, half elf assassin. I'm not sure what i should do with her ear, so I covered it up...LOL. I'm torn between go with the traditional race, and create my own humanoid race.

But Tibetan mixed up with Japanese style works pretty well for me.

PS, I just realized I didn't turn pen pressure on! for all these time, I'm using wacon without pen pressure on!!!! I'm an idiot!!!

PS2, after seening Nightblue's mage, I start to wondering how primitive we're talking about, because apparently, Nightblue's mage and my assassin is about several hundred years away from each other.

[Nightblue]

Thought we were doing tribal? :\

Honestly, I don't care which direction we are going for. It'd be my challenge to myself to make my character work within whatever time period we decide to go for, as a game concept artist must learn to work within limitations.

But exactly what are we going for?

[Burtzum]

Hmmm. Good question. Well in high fantasy I usually think of grand sets of full body armor. But you can easily incorporate tribal design aesthetics into that sort of armor and have it look more interesting than a standard plate mail suit. Before the brief was released we were doing high tech sci fi influenced by other cultures, tribal garb, traditional garb, etc. Now we're just doing high fantasy with those same influences.

I like the rows of horizontal lines running down your second character's clothes. I also like the trinkets and what seems to be furs and grasses in the clothing designs. All of those things can be used in a metallic armor design.

At the same time I don't think every race needs to have the same tech level or the same design sense. Orcs can be more primitive than everyone else for example. That makes sense to me. They can be more tribal looking while elves are more armored and arabian looking, meanwhile dwarves are even more heavily armored and more tibetan influenced... etc. to reflect the different parts of the world that they are from.

We were thinking orcs are from the swamps. If we end up using the natural body armor idea Moai came up with (I love it), then their armor can be more sparse and tribal than everyone else. We can even still give them metallic armor sections if we want, maybe make it look like roughly cast metal. beaten metal. you know? not super smooth armor. Orcs don't have patience or dexterity to make beautiful armor with smooth contours.

We were thinking elves in the desert. Arabian influences would make sense. Dwarves underground and/or in mountains. Tibetan and Mongolian influences maybe? These races can have more fancy pretty armor.

just my thoughts. On the 9th when we start to figure out exactly who is doing what, we will need to make final decisions about these sorts of things to have everything make sense to the viewer.

[Nightblue]

Ahh, tribal in style rather than tribal in tech level - that makes perfect sense.

It's not difficult to tech up... in fact, i had to force myself to tech down. No complaints here :)

[Burtzum]

also don't be afraid to use other materials in the armors. I think we were thinking of making one of the races coastal. They could have lots of shell influence. crustacean influence. shark tooth trinkets. etc.

Right now is the time to be super creative and interesting. I have today and tomorrow off of work. Woot. Time to draw.

[Mat Kaminski]

I'm excited to see where this team goes :D

[Moai]

also don't be afraid to use other materials in the armors. I think we were thinking of making one of the races coastal. They could have lots of shell influence. crustacean influence. shark tooth trinkets. etc.

I'm planning on sketching some dwarf-types with stone armor. Not the most practical, but unique, and fitting for a race that prides themselves in their strength and ruggedness.
Digging your thoughts on the various possible cultural influences.

Nightblue, cool sketches! The only problem I see is that the twist is too pronounced in the elf's pose.

Daestwen, thanks for visiting and sharing your thoughts!

Matte_Art, thanks! I hope we don't disappoint.:)

Edit: Here's some quick sketches of an elfin character, somewhat mantis-themed. The costume design was fun, which was nice, since I was just talking to Burton yesterday about how difficult costume design can be. A possible problem with the design is that, though she is an armed and combative character, she is also completely unarmored. Another problem is that her portrait looks creepy.:x
Also, in flagrant violation of fantasy art tradition, this female character has no breasts to speak of. But that's more because I didn't want to deal with how those protrusions would deform the fabric of her costume than an aesthetic choice.:D

[fluorine]

Another quick sketch of an Female Assassin character. I try to giver her some snake character, and because snake has no visible ears, she doesn't have visible ears either. I'm still no sure how tribal/primitive we are going at, just through in some ideas. I borrowed a lot of different elements for her design. it's really hard to say her period...

As for the race, I think she's somewhere around an half-elf, between a human and an more snake looking elf kind people. So she's half breed. her body is only partially covered with scales.

[Burtzum]

taking a shot at crayfish orc.

[fluorine]

I love his face Burt! I can totally see that face going good and evil.

[Moai]

So, a few of the main character/race ideas I remember discussing a few days ago are orc/crayfish, elf/mantis, dwarf/molerat, and human/bird.
I've done the first two. Here's my stab at human/bird.
He's a beach-living character, and his class is probably a summoner. Again, no armor, but this time I think his magical and spiritual power makes up for that.
There ya go.

[Burtzum]

I dig the bird themed human sketch Moai. Has a bit of a Native American feel. very cool. Maybe give him that stereotypical Native American arched "beak" nose. I like his recessed eyes too. I've had someone tell me I look like a bird before. An eagle specifically. I think its the large nose combined with recessed eyes/protruding brow structure and eyebrow shape that makes me look angry all the time. I also have thin lips that have somewhat of a beak like point in the center.

EDIT: painted swamp orc some more. hes still in his undies though...

[fluorine]

Here's a bard design.

I'm not so happy about her, looks too... ordinary, nothing interesting. I'm still not sure whether to go with conventional races or creating a new race...seems like everyone is doing some kind of hybrid...I feel more compelled to do something that's conventional but make it different somehow.

[Nightblue]

Cool sketches! The new sketches look a bit lower tech though. Do we want to go full-out tribal?

Sorry for the short comment - must sleep :P Did a new quick and dirty turtle dwarf sketch - this one is probably the good twin.

[DIMAGYAN]

great! really interesting designs so far!

[fluorine]

OMG.... after 7 episode of X-files, half pack of chocolate, hitting my head to the wall several times....

I finally finally get the feeling I want!!!

ah....that feels good~~~~

I have a strong feeling this is the character I want to do, but let me sleep on it. If I'm sill feeling it tomorrow, then this is it~

[fluorine]

face, good vs. evil... and as always, the evil side is just more fun!

[Moai]

So, I was planning on drawing more of a dwarvish character, but I got sidetracked into reading about Japanese weaponry and the history of Middle-Earth on Wikipedia.:rolleyes: Reading about Japanese weaponry and mythology led me to draw this character. He's an Oni, an ogre-like being of Japanese folklore. The third eye on his forehead really isn't a traditional feature of Oni, but it's a common feature for gods and demons in Buddhist cultures.
On to the next drawing!

[fluorine]

Worked a bit more on the face. I'm not sure with her skin color and color scheme. I think it's probably better to give the good version normal skin color, and some bright spring color scheme, and give the evil version pale skin, dark color clothing. But that would be too ordinary, something people expect to see. I feel that maybe, I can give the good nice vibrate color clothing, and the evil side pale skin, dark de-saturated clothing plus some vibrate red.

Moai, I like your orc, he goes pretty well with my assassin in style~~~

[Burtzum]

doodle doodle

[Moai]

Burtzum, your ideas on Dwarf head structure are very similar to mine, as may (or may not) be evident in this sketch.

A dwarf! Like I remarked in our conversation today, his body is nice and Japanese, but his head looked like it came from somewhere in the former Soviet Union...Oh well!

So, yeah, I'm gonna be gone this weekend. I won't be uploading any sketches or chatting in Messenger, but I will probably have internet access for at least some of the weekend, so if one of you could post any decisions or major discussion points in this thread, I'd appreciate it.:)

[Nightblue]

flourine: coming along nicely! love her make-up. her hair seems a tad high (the front part that is pulled tight against her scalp). Really digging the colors.

burt: Nice facial studies! Funny... he looks like someone I know :P

moai: totally like the japanese demon guy. His horns reminds me of this deer thing with horns or fangs growing out of its face, don't remember what it's called. I really like the costume you have going on on the dwarf.

Still don't have a solid idea... more doodles.

[Moai]

(Logged in from a Seattle hotel :))

Thanks, Nightblue!
Cool batch of sketches. To me, the sketches on the middle row are the strongest, both in design and in silhouette.

[fluorine]

nightblue, I like the guy right in the center.

I'm working a different version of my character...then I'll alter the one I had and make her the evil side~~~ Hopefully we will all have a character by the end of this week, so we can working on bring them together.

[fluorine]

Here's the half elf rouge/dancer girl, the good version.

I'm working on the evil version.

[Nightblue]

flourine: Looking sweet! I love her hair, and the pose is very cool.

developing the thumbnail that's slab in the middle. Right now he's straight-up human, and may stay that way till I can think of something cooler.

[fluorine]

I like this strait up human, love the color, love the shoulder plate. even at this early stage, I can see some personality showing. Is he gonna be a paladin? one of those lawful good kind? or Ranger, the chaotic good?

I really don't think you need to add animal/creature elements just for the sake of make him look weird. Let the boys worry about being weird, LOL. Maybe it's the helmet and armor, he feels really Aztec/central American to me. I think we need to start thinking about how to bring our characters together, either by color scheme, small accessories, or recurrent patterns. Especially we're doing a band, so maybe we should give them something similar.

Oh well, everything is looking preeeeee~~~tty good so far.

[fluorine]

Here's the evil side, I change the face and some small accessories to match the good side.

[fluorine]

together...hummmm....The evil side looks older....maybe I need to change the face of the good side.

[FalyneVarger]

The evil side might look older from scowling more. :3

[fluorine]

Little changes here and there: face, weapon, accessories.

[fluorine]

OK guys, the first week is over. This is what we have so far:

1, I decided to do a dark elf rouge/assassin.

2, Nightblue (from what I knew) decided to do a human (don't know class yet).

I'm not sure what Moai and Burtzum is up to, so you guys need to put on something, or come up to MSN so we can bring everyone on the same page. I think it is important that we make sure everyone has picked a character, pose some kind of design up, so we'll know we have diversity as to race, gender and class.

After we decided on what character we're going to do, the next thing is to refine our design, add common elements so the design looks coherent, looks like all these characters are from the same world. I'm going for a Japanese/Chinese look, Nightblue is going for tibetan. Nightblue will add some Japanese pattern on the fabric, I'll do the same with my character, so we'll have something in common. Another good way to bring everything together is by color scheme. One good example would be Jessibean's team, their color is very well designed, very traditional.

Then we need to think about presentation. If we're all agreed with the band idea, then we probably need to bring in some instrument element to our design. My girl could be the dancer (she's holding a fan, I guess that sort of make sense). If you feel that the band idea is too distracting from your design, or you don't feel like bringing in instrument element to your character, we can think of something else.

Also, do we have time to do character turn around sheet? I think that would be neat to have something like that showing, make our presentation look professional.

Well, I think we're doing a pretty good job so far, let's keep up the good work!

[Moai]

I'm back home!

Nightblue, that character is looking nice. Coherent costume design, nice colors, good personality. The far leg is a little too short, even taking foreshortening into account, but overall it's quite nice.

Fluorine- I'm liking your designs a lot. Very sexy, and I like the way the designs and accessories contrast in the good and evil versions. I'm glad you decided to cover her up a bit more, too.:D Makes the design more believable. At this point, my only worry is that the designs may be too complex, to many separate bits and accessories. However, another part of me likes the complexity. I think, though, that you should be careful when designing the colors for all these costume bits, so that they eye isn't confused and pulled in too many directions.

As I've said, I was in Seattle this past weekend, which was why I was not available for any discussions and did not post any new designs. I have one more character idea to draw before I decide which one I'm going for.

As far as common design characteristics go, here are my ideas. East Asian design influence and patterning. A red-gold color scheme; this fits with the last few colored designs that have been posted (including mine :)) and also with the East Asian theme. Perhaps darker and less saturated colors for the evil versions.

I've stated my opinion on the band idea in messenger a few times, but I don't know if everyone's heard it yet, so I'll post it here again. I feel that adding a musical element to each character could work, potentially very well. The musical instrument chosen and its design could contribute greatly to character and personality, and be an interesting way to connect all the designs. However, I don't think that music should be the defining element for every design; for most of the character designs, it would be more of a background element. The reason for this is that I simply don't like the idea of every character being completely musical-based, and because to have every character be a bard or musician would go against the randomness and variety that are part of this activity's requirements.

I think we potentially have enough time for a turn around sheet. A week for the turn around, a week for the light portrait, a week for the dark portrait, more or less. It might work.

I'll be available to chat on Messenger sometime after 7 ish in my time zone, probably.

[fluorine]

Thanks Moai ~ Too much accessories has always been one of my problems, which end up making my design too busy. I'll remove some of the little things.

I think rich red and gold (fall color) would work well with out oriental approach, Here's a color pallet i found online. I think one good way to have coherent color is that we all choose color from the same pallet.

I agree with your interpretation about the band idea. I think we should go towards that direction, if necessary, I can add an instrument to my character as well. If we're happy with the band, I think the poster presentation would work, like those old sideshow/carnival ads. The poster is actually from the 50s, but you get what I meant.

Looking forward to see your new sketch~

[Moai]

Another quick character sketch. I'm not exactly sure what he is. I picked some colors from that poster Fluorine posted.

[Adrian Wilkins]

hm dg the ideas you guys come up with 0_o
that last character is very unique, love the trollish behaviour andthe gear is stellar! :D

[fluorine]

A very lame attempt to learn from Adrian Wilkins and his totally awesome movement design (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2383730&postcount=123)

I didn't realize until I finish...she didn't even use her primary weapon....ah...... :nohope:

[bakadoodle]

Flourine - seeing you work makes me pant.
Amazing stuff, big fan :)

[fluorine]

Another movement study~~~I try to get the camera angle consistent...for the most part...LOL~~~and she get to use her primary weapon! yeah~

another big "THANK YOU" to Adrian Wilkins!!! I didn't know doing movement can be so much fun~~~

[Nightblue]

haha, movements definitely are fun... like the good ole days of art crusade, before the judges vanished :P

flourine: the designs are really coming together, and the lady is EVIL! eek!

moai:The new one is super badass. Curious how the good side will be :)

tried to push my warrior towards east asia/China. Also doodled an evil version. Not happy with either of their poses/anatomy, so these will likely serve as nothing more than design sketches. The bottom lighting of the evil guy is looking rather fun to do though!

[fluorine]

my dark elf girl resting~~~just a quicky for nothing....LOL.

Nightblue: Design is coming alone pretty well, bottom lighting almost always make thing evil/creepy/interesting~~~ I like your good human though, he looks like a "boyfriend" type, positive, reliable, good sense of humor~~~ I think if it's a RPG game, the lawful good human paladin might have something for the chaotic good dark elf rouge....yeah~~~

so now we have a dark elf female rouge, a human fighter/paladin(?), a orc, and....Don't know what burtzum is up to.

[Lexius]

Very cool team, real nice stuff. I just saw this picture, it looks great.
Do you guys know this is handmade or something from nature "itself"?

http://burhtun.com/TCHOW2/urchin.jpg

[Burtzum]

Do you guys know this is handmade or something from nature "itself"?


Made by nature, killed and positioned by man. It is two sea urchin skeletons, one placed on top of another.

[Burtzum]

hey dudes. apologies for my absence. here is a sketch riffing off of Moai's samurai dwarf.

[fluorine]

Burtzum, he looks pretty cool~ I like the helmet on the left, the bird skull might be a bit too much, and not very practical.

[Nightblue]

Burt - looking cool! I like the first helmet also. It's a really neat shape. I've just realizing that we have many a melee class... maybe your scan be the shaman? :P If not, I'll try to make a mage or something to make sure our entry is varied enough.

flourine - the sketch is quite nice. I like the background a lot.

Digging into the goodly warrior. Do not like his legs and feet... will look for reference tomorrow.

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=750904&stc=1&d=1250139416

[fluorine]

Thanks Nightblue~

The goody two-shoes human warrior is looking good~~~~I'll see if I can have my good dark elf rouge date him~~~LOL, but what happened to his helmet? I like the wingy design before. Now it looks a bit too....ah....too round....(lacking a better word for it).

I was just thinking, maybe we need to give our chracter names, I mean, I can't always go like "My dark elf girl" or "your good human"....I sounded like a pimp or something.

[Burtzum]

I've just realizing that we have many a melee class... maybe yours can be the shaman?

Ok, I'll make him look more like a shaman after I get home from work tonight. I'll try to sketch an orc shaman as well. Then you all can tell me which one to do for my characters. Sound like a plan?

I was just thinking, maybe we need to give our chracter names

Names can be fun. Was it you or Nightblue I was talking to on MSN about how much time we spend in the beginning of a game picking names and working on the look of our characters? I spend hours at the 'make your character' screens.

Currently having fun coming up with names for characters I play in a MMO called Asherons Call. I gave myself some rules for naming: they must all start with 'Bur' (an element of my real name) and the last name must be a variant of 'Locrian', which was the name of my original character back in 1999. :geekg:
Burzi bin Loqrian (mage character from the desert)
Burzu Lokrianji (melee martial arts asian character)
Burza Locrisun (european archer character)
Getting harder to think of more names following my rules. Hrmm. Burhti al Loqrian. Burht von Locrien. heh. fun.

Anyway.... Should we give each race its own naming conventions/rules? Or just don't worry about it too much and just come up with something cool sounding and leave it at that?

[Moai]

Burton- Very cool design, man! I'm digging the muntjac-like skull headdress. Unlike the others, I don't prefer the plain skull over the one with the bird beak; I feel that both could work equally well. I'm looking forward to what kind of shamans you cook up.

Nightblue- It's shaping up well!

So, here's the good troll twin. I made his hair more flowing, his expression more open and less glowering, his horns more antler-like, changed his sword, and made his armor more cloth-based and more purely samurai, whereas the evil version was more samurai spliced with Lord of the Rings orc. I'm trying out a few different color schemes; your opinions would help here.

As far as names go, I don't know how useful coming up with naming conventions for each race would be, since we're only doing one character per race. So, I'm thinking just go with what sounds cool, and give each character's name a distinct flavor.
As for my own character's name, I've found that I've started thinking of him simply as the Bastard.:shrug:

[Burtzum]

just got off work. Realized we don't have an archer/crossbow/thrown weapons guy. Also don't seem to have a stealthy assassin or thief type. Fluorine's character seems like the backstabbing type, but way too many dangling bits to fill that roll. Too noisy for sneaking around. She just back-stabs you after sleeping with you I guess. Maybe Fluorine's can be the bard type character. Since she seems to be the one most interested in the instrument idea. And also I think she mentioned her character used to be an entertainer of sorts. Moai's seems to be the most assasinyish at the moment I guess. With the fairly light armor and bare feet. And third eye with night sight? infra red? boobie vision?

Hmm what if his third eye is usually closed and just open when he needs it to see through blouses? Kinda like that annoying granny character in Farscape:

http://www.burhtun.com/TCHOW2/noranti.jpg
I'm not sure if they ever explained why her eye is sometimes closed/open/half open.
or maybe the good guy's is open cause hes all enlightened and all that, while bad dude's is closed. I kinda like the nightvision idea though. Hrm. enough rambling. I work on shamans now.

[fluorine]

LOL, my character is actually going for a dark elf rouge/assassin type. and I think if you're fast enough, it doesn't really matter if you make noises, you can just jump in for the kill.

But I'll reduce her accessories, don't want her personality get lost in her costume.

And, remember guys, we kind of agreed to make it a band, so my character is the dancer, you guys need to come up with something~We're the traveling thief/assassin/merc band, how happy~

I'll see if I can come up with some environment, I did a quick piece this morning, but not sure if i get the feel right. Are we going for a more urban/civilized setting or a more rural/primitive setting?

I haven't think of any cool name yet... for all the RPG character I named, there's only one rule, start with letter "F", I know...it's pretty lame.......LOL. I think I'll give her a Chinese name.

[Moai]

For my character's instrument, I'm planning on a shakuhachi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakuhachi). For his environment, my current idea is to have him descending some old, decayed stone steps in some mysterious Japanese forest type environment, shadier and mistier for the evil version and lighter for the good version.
As for character class, I dunno yet.

[fluorine]

A quicky (crappy) environment for my character, an old oriental town.

Moai, I really like your character, he looks sad for some reason, and I like how the human emotion coming out of a rather "monster" type of character.

[Moai]

'Nother color scheme. I did this one a few days ago, but never posted it.
To answer Burtzum, I'm not sure what his third eye does. Spirit vision? Second-sight? Foresight? Hindsight? I dunno.

[fluorine]

Just a little memo for Burt:

For the final presentation, we decided to do a dyptic mirror image of the good and evil. The instrument elements still applies, but just as an accessory. Good and evil side should looks similar but with little variations in color, pose, clothing, accessories, as if you're looking into a mirror but see another version of yourself. And the two images should have their own composition so they'll look like complete portraits by itself, but together they'll form a new composition.

Nightblue suggest some kind of frame to bring this two images together.

Here's some examples by Clamp, although they're anime/manga style, the format is what we want for final presentation.

[Nightblue]

coming along nicely, moai :)

Flourine, nice environ shots.. I'd better give some thoughts to my background as well.

messed more with the warrior. I think I'll fully render him out after all... it seems to help me add more life to his design as I go.

[fluorine]

Nightblue he's looking good~ The armor is really nice. and I like the skull on his belt, maybe I should add some skull or bone elements on my character. and the horn is looking really good.

But I still think his helmet is a bit too round on the top part, would be nice to add some decoration elements to balance it a bit.

[Moai]

Looking great, Nightblue!
Urgh...loads of other art projects jumping at me at once. A freelance job (:)), a logo design for a friend, and a birthday drawing for my cousin. I'll try my hardest not to let Team ChoW get lost in the mix, but frankly it's a lower priority than these other things.:S

[fluorine]

a rough color composition for final piece.

[Nightblue]

nice compositions, flourine! Love the poses. I wonder if it would showcase the characters better if the composition zooms in on them a bit more.

[fluorine]

Thanks nightblue. I'll zoom in on the characters more.

[Nightblue]

warrior design final, with pose fixes and defined weapon and other forms of clean-up.

I started messing with compositions and I think I found a good pose... will post when I actually have something other than stick-figures to show :)

[fluorine]

great work~ I need to keep up~~~ :D

[Burtzum]

ugh. past week has flown by.
http://burhtun.com/TCHOW2/dwarves.jpg
R_xmQIyiHO0 _TUVGlxegcU

[fluorine]

I'm glad you're still with us Burt, you got me worried a bit there~~~

Love your dwarf. I love the overall design of the left one, but I think the helmet of the middle one is stronger. And I really like the shoulder plate of the right one.

[fluorine]

rough color comp for the good character. I don't like the new pose, so goes back to the old ones. Change the costume a bit, simplified the accessories, and get her covered up a bit more. Recently I was criticized of having too much detail, so I try to keep everything simple this time, stick with one or two base color for my character.

Background looks pretty bad for now...LOL, but I'll make it look more sophisticated.

[fluorine]

A new layout:

Here's a new composition for my good character (OMG...she's still nameless!!!) Anyway, I was talking to Burt, and he decide to do a simple mountain background. I'm not sure if we're going for the graphic/decorative background or we're going for a scenery of sort. So I did another layout design. For the evil side, i'm just gonna do the same composition, only it's gonna be a night scene.

We need to decide this fast, whether we're going for a scenery background or a graphic background, because the lighting and color would be completely different. and the deadline is near, we need to move fast.

[Burtzum]

I like the bamboo forest idea. I think it is stronger than the graphic background. It can lend itself more to mood and giving a feel for the character. A bamboo forest can be serene and beautiful and delicate but I can also see it easily being creepy with dim light and mist and crotchety skeletal looking bamboo... some perhaps broken with sharp edges...

oh, and here is my masterpiece I showed fluorine earlier:

http://burhtun.com/TCHOW2/badgood.jpg

[fluorine]

I was thinking about the same idea with bamboo, so the good side is the beautiful summer morning kind of feeling, and the evil side is creepy foggy night with bottom lit lighting.

And burtzum, your master piece is just wonderful~~~you even give the good side some flowers, how cute~~~LOL.

[fluorine]

I didn't realize today it's 25th...deadline is next week~~~ And I only finished 1/3 of the good side.....

[Nightblue]

bad... friggin.. ass, both of you...


Because of time constraint, instead of doing a drastic pose I decided to improve on the existing pose. Composition attached... more on it tonight.

[fluorine]

pose is good. After all, we're doing portraits, not full panel illustrations. I think the current schedule is 26-27: finished the good one; 28-30: finished the bad one; 31, 1: clean up small things, get paintings unified, submit the work at the very last minute.

what do you think?

[Nightblue]

sounds like a nice, last-minute plan :D I'll try to get my linework done tonight, and maybe even color block if I'm lucky.

[Nightblue]

sketch... colors later, hopefully.

[Burtzum]

10 hour work day sucks. 9 day work week sucks. broken air conditioning in middle of August sucks. $340 fraudulent charge on credit card sucks. Shitty week. ugh.

On the positive side, I have fri and sat off of work. I think I'll do very rough compositional sketches tonight and tomorrow night after work. Then bust out my two paintings on my two days off. Which would leave the last two days to give crits to each other and try to make all portraits belong together.

heres a combo of previous sketches...
"Under sun and sky, outlander. We greet you warmly." <-- Morrowind quote

[fluorine]

That's what I get done today.... tomorrow is the right arm, cloths pattern, little accessories and background.... and hopefully I get to start on the evil side tomorrow night

[fluorine]

The good side~ Finally has a name Fei Mei (red charm). The bad side will be Cang Mei(Blue charm).

Name: 绯 媚 Fei Mei (meaning: the Red Charm)

Race: Elf

Class: Thief

Age: 65

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Personal History: Fei Mei is an Elven thief. Her village was raided by slavers when she's a little girl, and she was sold to a Bar owner. Because Fei Mei is pretty, she was forced to learn dancing to entertain her costumers.

She ran away from her Master, but because of the slave mark on her left shoulder (which she covered up all time with shoulder plate or at least a piece of fabric), her own people won't have her back. To survive, she learnt to steal. Eventually she joined another traveling bards group. They traveling around put up performance. Fei Mei was gathering information to find out who raided her village (sounds like a nice character side quest~)

Fei Mei has a rather sassy personality. She's playful, flirty, can be wicked at time, and have a problem with the authority, but she has a genuinely good heart. She's very smart, like all elves. But she refuse to learn any magic, her little show down with her people who rejected her. Due to her past, she's specially against slavery and always go out of her way to help women and children run away from slavery.

----

It's almost the final piece. I'm not sure what kind of frame we're going to use for the team, so just black frame for now.

[Nightblue]

flourine: Looking great! :D Love the colors. The face and shoulder armor look especially good.

Color block-in for today.

[fluorine]

I love the evil side~~~he's totally cool~~~

[Moai]

Hey, girls and guy. The WIPs and designs you're posting are looking great.
It's only fair that I tell you guys that I won't be finishing mine. My freelance job ate all of my time this week, and packing up and moving will eat all of my time over the next few days. It's breaking my heart that I have to do this. Really sorry, guys. It was fun.

[fluorine]

No problem Moai, I understand you need to take care of more important stuff in life. I hate to lose you though~ It's been fun working with you, maybe next team chow we can team up again.

[Burtzum]

No problem dude. Thanks for playing with us, all that you have posted for this project has been good work.

Nice progress ladies. Hopefully I can pull mine off. Looks kinda bleh right now.

Back to Photoshop....

[Nightblue]

Moai: No worries :) Don't forget to share your work when the NDA is up! Also, I really hope you finish the piece after deadline when you have time - the character is coming along really well, and it would be a perfect addition to your creature-heavy portfolio IMO.

One down, one to go.

[fluorine]

Nightblue: he looks so righteous... I think he'll get "righteousness modifier" (like strength+4 or Charisma + 8 ), and the evil enemy will drop dead just by looking at his sunny and righteous face~~~LOL.

[FalyneVarger]

I really like the fan-wielding thief! Good luck making the deadline!

[Burtzum]

Heres how the good dwarf is looking so far. Trying to get bad dwarf to same level, then polish them both.

[CKLamb]

I've been keeping up with you guys from the sidelines, great stuff! Burtzum, I had to breakdown and post because that is just to beautiful to not tell you. Great mood and pose. Very understated, yet strong! Keep it up guys, best of luck tomorrow.

[Nightblue]

Burt: Looking great! I love the painterly feel :)

evil version.

Character name: Shemu

A goodly warrior that hunts down the evil that plague people all over the country, or a seedy guard who serves his evil monarch in silencing the people via force?

More background stories tomorrow during lunch I hope... 2 paintings in 2 days, a pure last-minute panic effort. Now I sleep :)

[Moai]

Very impressive effort, Nightblue! Nice contrast between the good and evil versions; using rounded shapes in the good and sharp points in the evil works well. And don't you worry, I will be adding some characters to my portfolio very soon.:)
And Burt, awesome colors. The pose works well also; the whole thing feels very calm, serene, self-assured.

[fluorine]

Here's my evil dancer~

Name: 苍 媚 Cang Mei (The Blue Charm)

Race: Elf

Age: 65

Class: Thief

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Personal History: Cang Mei is an Elven thief. Her village was raided by slavers when she's a little girl, and she was sold to a Bar owner. Because of her beauty, she was forced to learn dancing to entertain her costumers.

After years of abuse, Cang Mei finally managed to kill her Master. Wounded during the killing, she ran to her own people for help. But because of the slave mark on her right shoulder (which she covered up all time with shoulder plate or at least a piece of fabric), her own people won't have her back. To survive, she became a mercenary, kill for money. Eventually she joined a Merc group, they disguised as a traveling band, put up performance from time to time to avoid attention; accepting contract killing job in the back. Cang Mei was gathering information to find out who raided her village (sounds like a nice character side quest~), so she can kill every single one of them.

Cang Mei is cruel. She doesn't believe in good and evil, she only believe in money. She is seductive, love to play catch and release. She's very smart, like all elves, but because she lack of proper education and training, she can only use minimum necromancy magic.

[fluorine]

OK~ we're on schedule :D We have another 2 days to figure out what do we want for frame and presentation.

Here's simple frame, I guess we don't really need to go fancy about this. I'll think of something tomorrow.

Think of all those little details i put into this thing...now in the final jpg version I can't even see it~~~damn!

[Burtzum]

Evil assassin lady is hot.

Ugh. Fell asleep last night. Gonna do what I can before work. I get back home at 9pm EST. I think its still today in Hawaii until 3AM EST. So I've got a few last hours after work. Argh.

[fluorine]

Here's a frame, don't know if it's too busy. I think maybe we could just go with the simple black frame.

766818

[fluorine]

character bio sheet:

[fluorine]

character bio sheet 2

[fluorine]

Our logo

[fluorine]

Burtzum's final piece~~~ yeah~~~ we made it!!!

[fluorine]

character line up

[fluorine]

final piece of the puzzle~ Burtzum's character bio sheet

[Burtzum]

hah cool, I like the way my dude's faces/expressions look in the team logo. If only there were a couple more days left in the month. And all that time spent with costume details in the sketches didn't make it into my actual paintings. Argh. Ah well. Was fun. Learning stuff.

[Nightblue]

Thanks a lot for all the work in putting together the presentation, fluorine!

It's been a fun ride guys... spectacular! We did end up being very last-minute despite of trying not to be, but somehow we pulled it off nonetheless :D