Team CHOW II: The Happy Little Trees

[ALH]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=742171&stc=1&d=1249341533











ALH, Blackcherry,nimzicki,CKLamb

Hello all.

Well, it looks like we got us a fantasy project along the lines of the CA game.

6 characters with a good/evil variation for each = 12 total.

How i think we should split it is 3 characters with a 'good' base and 3 with an 'evil', then sex them up for their opposite side - a kind of medieval superhero/villian story with a twist.

A crooked old witch may transform into a fluffy gumdrop beauty pagent queen every full moon , a dashing hero may disguise himself as a disfigured monster as a means to get into the dark lords fortress etc.

This means one of their outfits will make a statement- I AM HERE FEAR/TRUST ME- think catwalk chique, rediculous hair, shoes that are impossible to walk in, little to no practical armour- and the other will be more 'realistic' - furs, leather etc.

This can lead to some interesting characterisation - is the character ashamed of their other half? Do they embrace it, or is it temporary? How do they prevent others from finding out their secret identity? How/why/where do they change to their elaborate costume? Do the 6 know each other? Are any of them related?

I'll put together a mood board soon- monday possibly- I want to get my CHOW out of the way first.


Any thoughts?

edit- Misunderstood the portraits/characters thing!

6 PORTRAITS, 3 CHARACTERS.

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

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)

[blackcherry]

Hey Guys,

This sounds like an awesome brief to me. I just read through what ALH said on it above and I totally agree about the whole characterisation thing, I reckon this should be quite fun to do and should produce some really great contrasting designs!

I think before we begin on any characters we should discuss it as a group and get some mood boards and brainstorming on the go, share ideas and the like.

Also on the issue of how we're going to do this I think we really need to get a good idea about each other's styles, strength and weaknesses etc. As it's important that our designs fit together and our styles match, or at least are close enough to work, if we're all going to take a character each.

In response to nimzicki's message I think taking a character each would be the best way to approach it ideally, but if our styles are drastically different; the style of drawing, linework, colouring etc then the final outcome isn't going to be great. So not sure how everyone wants to approach this. Maybe we should do some sketches of something and see how they match up, samples of each others work?

Personally I love the whole designing stage, I usually generate a load of random rough sketches (most of which are not always seen) which I then refine into much more readable drawings. I tend to lean more towards a stylised, cartoon style of drawing rather than realistic. I sometimes ink my line work or use illustrator but I'm more than happy to use the pencil lines instead. Colouring probably isn't my greatest strength compared to some of the artwork that's seen on this forum but it's not too bad. I use both Photoshop and Painter.

So yeah my approach to this would definately be on a whole stylised apporach in order to really exaggerate and capture character in the designs. How about everyone else?

I'll probably do a moodboard over the weekend as well as brainstorm some character ideas for both good and evil sides :)

[ALH]

I dont know how CHOW usually works, but i would think matching styles is not as important as matching *design*?

So long as it fits it shouldnt matter if the styles are more individual - Take Amanos art for Final Fantasy 7-

http://www.elevenland.com/amano/images/tlaImageSketchFF7CloudAndAeris.jpg

The characters are recognisable, have the same armour, hair etc, but the style is wildly different to Nomuras final character portraits.

Thats not to say we cant have good art direction of course, just that this project is more about designing good characters than designing the look of a game :).

Personally i plan on doing a bit of style exploration - I recently finished working on a couple of similar fantasy RPG projects and wouldnt want to steal ideas from myself.

That said, there are some crossovers with style and design.

We need to think about our audience. Who is the game for? who do we want to attract? Casuals? Children? Teenage Boys? 'Girl Gamers'? Fellow artists? Will there be big boobs and rippling abs or do we want to go the safer JRPG route and make sure everyone has fabulous hair and big shiny eyes? Do we have something profound to say with these characters, or is the tone more comical? What is our platform? Will the characters be animated or static?

These kind of questions should ideally be answered with mood boards, we show our cards and smash them together to create a style everyone can handle :)

[blackcherry]

Yeah i see what you mean about style and design but if you look at the work from the last team CHOW though you may see what I mean about mixed styles not working with some groups. The most successful final results were from the teams with the characters that worked well together as a group (i.e. they all had the same look about them, design, theme etc).

What i was trying to illustrate is if you have a character line-up for a game then they all need to work well together. Therefore the final presented result will all be of the same style/type of design.

For example I have books such as 'The Art of the Incredibles' etc. and there's multiple designs by different artists for all the characters but the final presented set are all of the same look. Same with FF even though Amano did concept artwork for the game, Nemura designed the main art for the characters.

Whereas the essential design of the character is the most important part, when they're all tied into a common theme for a game, animation etc they need to work as a group. I mean you couldn't have the Incredible style characters mixed with the style of say FF: The Spirits within. That's the point I'm trying to illustrate with style (on an extreme scale in that case). Have I made any sense?

Anyway I've rambled enough, lol. Personally I'd like to take a more stylised approach to this such as the designs for the Incredibles, Shrek etc, but I'm open to what everyone else's opinion is on it :)

[ALH]

For example I have books such as 'The Art of the Incredibles' etc. and there's multiple designs by different artists for all the characters but the final presented set are all of the same look. Same with FF even though Amano did concept artwork for the game, Nemura designed the main art for the characters.



Exactly!

The pixar art books are exactly what i was thinking of there- a loose (but unified in design) series of concepts with less of an emphasis on 'final style this is what it would look like in game'. I..kind of thought we could leave that part out for some mindboggling reason.

But if the general rule for these things is towards a tight 'final' we should absolutely aim for that.

Hurrr a durr. I think i was just caught underestimating my team by simplifying the objectives before we've even STARTED...*headdesk* :(.

We live and learn- this will be my first time in this situation of building art as a team, I had set the style of the last project i was on long before other artists joined, i look forward to working it out as a team this time round :)

[nimzicki]

Hi team,

Apologies for being a bit late to the party, just catching up and the characterisation thing sounds like an excellent way to put across some real personality. My only worry is are we still on brief by making the good/evil sides look as different as a prince/demon (obviously I know that was just an example :)) ? My first reaction is that its fine and its up to us designing the characters to show that they are still the same character.

I don't feel that the style difference isn't a major factor yet, do you guys have any good examples of your usual character design? I haven't got a strong developed style yet but from looking through your work ALH I can see that you have got quite a strong style.

This is a character design im currently working on (nothing to do with CHOW, just thought it would help if you guys knew where I am at) Not spent too long on it yet:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/CharacterDesign1.jpg

Hope that doesn't disappoint haha.

[ALH]

CKLamb (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/member.php?u=111908) Has joined the party! :D


As for being late - You've not missed much, im still grinding on my current CHOW myself so i've not moved mentally over to this yet ( thats probably why my ideas are all over the place )

My mind is kind of falling asleep atm, so forgive me if this next bit makes no sense or stated the obvious-

I personally believe style is not something you can set from the off, it requires as much research as weapons or armour. I based a lot of the style of Tweetlord (http://frenchbird.wordpress.com/tweetlord/) on playing cards, which i couldnt do again without getting into trouble- but did do research into lots of medieval and eastern folklore art looking for inspiration for costumes etc. Theres a lot to gain from looking at these styles, especially when trying to break away from the high fantasy norm. Characters who wouldnt look out of place on a stained glass window, for example, would be an interesting stylistic direction to go in.

Like i said previously.. At these beginning stages, alongside pondering roles for our characters, we should do our research, get some moodboards up - you never know what you may find :)




Edit- Pasting from the PM since we acquired a new member :) -



We have to bear in mind that these characters need to be linked together in some way visually- something thats actually more do-able if we're only doing 3.

If we link their stories this should make linking their visuals a breeze- they could be members of the same party, for example 3 traders with one acting as the beefneck bodyguard, one being an attractive female distraction/lure, one being a master salesman with a pocket full of magical potions etc.

This will also give us a better base to work from compared to each of us creating a warrior which happens to live in the same world as the others (much like creating ones own character in oblivion etc :p)

It also introduces the how/where/why which is conducive to an interesting plot and potential gameplay/quest scenarios - are the group are friends? Have they been forced together for some reason, Perhaps they are cursed and are physically/magically leashed together? Perhaps one refuses to leave the others until he/she gets back stolen goods? Perhaps its a love triangle? What if one character is the child of the other two?

Finally- the good/evil side of things seems to be more of an aesthetic palette swap for the context of a game- i personally wouldnt really want to split the 3 into 2 warriors and THE DARK EVIL BARON WHO MURDERED THEIR FAMILY, because i think we can get a more original visual/conceptual character dynamic going if they 'just so happen' to be 3 evil minions or 3 good guys. Or 3 brothers, one of whom is a bit of a twat but they must work together .

[CKLamb]

Howdy.

After reading up, I DEFINITELY think we need to have a cohesive style/design from the start. The hodge-podge look doesn't usually go over well in the polls. That being said, my personal inclination is towards naturalism, but I'm up for anything. I think we should each post some style sketches and start comparing notes. Obviously, each of us will add a little personal flavor to the style, but in the end I think it needs to look like it came out of the same box.

Currently, I've been playing with color and brushwork. I don't really use imported texture or image overlays that often, but I'm capable of doing so if that's what we need. I'm checking out sketchbooks as much as I can, but if you wouldn't mind posting your latest piece here it would be nice to see what we all have to offer.


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[CKLamb]

Oh, and for style exploration how about we pick a very common fantasy staple:

1. Human Knight
2. Dwarven Warrior
3. Elven Mage

etc. I personally think Human Knight would give us plenty to play with on style exploration.

[nimzicki]

Glad to have you on board CK, been browsing your work and im very impressed :) The piece I posted is my latest one, I would say I lean towards a more realistic style.

Im going to get started looking up some reference pieces that help with what we have so far. Now that we have an extra member, are we going to move on to 4 characters or will we be splitting 3 characters across all 4 of us?

[blackcherry]

Welcome to the team CKLamb :)

I agree with CKLamb on having a cohesive style/design from the start because that definately worked out best in the first Team CHOW and it just looks good.

I think we could probably do 4 characters now if everyone thinks that's a good plan?

For samples of my work, just have a look at my site/blog. I generally span between very cartoon like to a more sort of semi-realistic look, but I can be quite varied. I rarely go totally realistic looking though as I like the stylised look.

So what's the plan now? Are we going to get some research and reference together to start with?

Oh and are we all going to draw a human knight so we can see how we'd all interpret it?

[ALH]

Oh and are we all going to draw a human knight so we can see how we'd all interpret it?

I like this idea, I have no objections to doing 4 characters too.




I have an oolldd example of an orc i did a year ago here (http://typocity.deviantart.com/art/Ork-Ho-v2-107115285) for the sake of a less cartoony fantasy example...my skills have improved since i did her, but she serves as a good example of the kind of asshole character i like to play with.


I enjoy adding a bit of sarcasm and dark humour to my non-toon characters, and i tend to make them a little repulsive (even if theyre 'good') because i find that more interesting to draw. I daresay i could rustle up a kickass withered old crone - creatures are my thing, so the more twisted the character, the better. A dashing hero would be more of a challenge for me, but vertical difficulty curves are part of the fun - im glad this is a good/evil task for that reason :D!


Snow Yellow (http://frenchbird.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/snoyello_v2-copy.jpg) is a more recent example , but not full body....and i just realised half the links on my portfolio are broken, great. Been applying for jobs all this time and didnt even notice. GRR.

[CKLamb]

A couple of things:

1. We have a team of 4 so we need 3 finished characters (a total of 6 portraits). My suggestion is we each do two characters (three if you can), and from that we can cut down to 3+, depending on quality.

2. So, seeing no major objections, let's do a style exploration with the human knight. Given the need to push into production, let's all have something turned in by August 4th. (Doesn't need to be polished, but it must convey your stylistic idea.) Give this a bit of effort because if it is the one we are going to go with then you can finish it up and have one portrait down.

3. Lets all try to post a mood/reference board by the end of today. If you don't usually work from reference, you might want to start. (Especially if realism/naturalism isn't your strong suite.)

4. Deadlines need to be created and met. If you can't meet them consistently, you have to be cut loose.

5. This Team CHoW is obviously tied in with the IP Massive Black is developing through the community. Keep this in mind at all times. This work could boost your career in many different ways.

6. There are teams that are all-pro or near all-pro, check out their activities constantly. If you aren't up to competing with these people you really need to ask yourself why you are about to devote a month to this activity. I am very competitive and I hope you are too.

7. I'm a natural organizer and editor, so I can be a bit involved. If I paint-over your work or hound you I am apologizing in advance, but it comes from an earnest place. I want us all to do very well both as a team and individually.

This was posted on the topic thread to get the ball rolling (By Zhanglu of Massive Black):


740446


I want you all to view this as your opponent. Take the knight exploration and attack this piece with it.

Edit: Thanks for clear up LostFayth. And, actually looking back at the first post ALH stated that clearly too. Seems everyone took it the wrong way there for a moment.



CKLamb, The Happy Little Tree with a Big Stick

[LostFayth]

A couple of things:

1. We have a team of 4 so we need 6 finished characters (a total of 12 portraits). My suggestion is we each do two characters (three if you can), and from that we can cut down to 6, depending on quality.


Let me make it clear. I was confused about this too. No, you do not have to make 6 characters. The brief says 6 PORTRAITS which means at least 3 characters. You're welcome to do more characters. I thought I had to save you guys some work.

Good luck with the chow all!

[ALH]

Lostfayth- theres a lot of confusion over that, i was about to make a comment on it myself - but CKlamb has made a point about cutting it down which i think is very important. The more characters we do in prep, the more scope we have for our final portraits.

CKlamb- Im glad that you're enthusiastic and honest about your organisational editorialness. Strong leadership is important, and im glad you came on board with directives in mind. I'm a little too unsure of my authority to set others deadlines, though I'll probably rear my incessant nitpicking face once i've observed the team in action a little better and found my feet, so you wont be alone in any hardline approaches. I suspect we may have arguments at some point, but the good kind that gets things done :p .

The competetiveness is a fantastic thing to hear. It is so on. 8)

On another note- Do people have any objections to having regular team meetings on skype/msn/IRC ? I find that that IM interaction can get things flowing faster than VB posts, its a faster way to share sketches, brainstorm and it can help keep a team together, without having to F5 CA all the time.

(Though obviously updates would still be posted to the thread)

[CKLamb]

Mood Board:


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[nimzicki]

Here is some of the stuff thats been inspiring me with this:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/moodboard.jpg

Agree on the IM thing, whats best for everyone? IRC?

CKLamb - im with you all the way, I want to take this as seriously as possible as I see this as a fantastic opportunity to improve so the more paintovers/advice etc. the better.

[ALH]

MSN is best for grabbing my attention personally because im never off the thing... though its kinda crappy for groups. We used Skype with Tweetlord, and one of the innovative things about it is that the chat room never ends, even if you turn your PC off or lose connection you'll get updates of what was said in the group since you were last on - and can go back and browse the group history over X amount of days without having to manually save them.

I was working with a team on the west coast of america, so it was a very handy way to beat the time lag and re-read things said to me at 3am.

No board yet from me, just finished off my CHOW168 ( got sucked into the background SO bad ), getting on to it once i've sorted out some blog stuff. Nice moodboards so far!

[nimzicki]

Skype sounds like the way forward then, since 3 of us are in the UK but CK is in the US, having it log the chats is a great feature, whats your username?

[ALH]

Skype- AngelosLH
MSN- morganlegerbil @ hotmail.com

Be sure to say who you are if you add me on skype, i've had pervert spambots attack me on it in the past, theyre a pain in the ass. HELLO I AM NEW, HOW ARE YOU? ...DO YOU LIKE THE SEX?

[CKLamb]

Skype- cklamb

[blackcherry]

A moodboard from me :) Also I'm all for the whole deadlines and competitiveness etc! I've got msn, but what's Skype? I've never heard of it. Is it another type of messenger?

http://www.biscuitofdoom.net/tchow/THLT/moodboard1.jpg

Oh and things that may be quite inspirational for this challenge,

Images and Artwork from the following:

Final Fantasy Games
Guild Wars
Warhammer
LOTR
Disney
Wizards of the Coast

And other things along similar lines.

[ALH]

It looks like each moodboard has at least one image that i've plucked out for my own here (and didnt include because this moodboard is large enough as it is :( ), its a good sign :). Especially that pop bottle armour in CK's board! Thats exactly the kind of thing i like to see :D

Some of the examples i have here are very much modern- im not saying with this i would emphasise a modern style, as we know the CA game is still very much in the realm of high fantasy, and it would be bad to stray TOO far from that. I'm thinking more of taking the usual shapes and twisting them via a modern sense of theatricality and individualism so that we're not just putting a few spikes on the same armour as everyone else.

I like to imagine encountering these people and being able to tell immediately that they are from strange lands (or are just strange in the head) Unusual fabrics, skins from unknown animals with special properties, to deal with harsh environments, or specific jobs ( what would a dragon handler wear to protect him/herself? What about someone who lives at high altitude, a desert, or places which flood on a regular basis?)


I like the idea of pictish warriors in particular, painting/tattooing themselves up to be intimidating to their enemies and to give them strength through powerful symbols. Their armour (or lack thereof) may not actually protect them, but it doesnt matter, because the suggestion of an armour, that the gods/devils have chosen them is enough. And i mean, these guys lived in SCOTLAND, it never stops bloody raining there, and its cold as all hell. the picts must have been hardcore.

edit- i just noticed this board is kind of rubbish in terms of colour schemes and actual...mood. Theres a lot of stuff i left out, may have to recompile a second one for mood mood and not just ' heres some weird stuff that may be inspiring'.

edit2- browsed other teams. Mind is too sleepy to comprehend. Moodboard..inadequate. Tomorrow it all starts for real.

[CKLamb]

Ok. Quick post before I call it a night.

There are four major classes: Fighter, Spell-Caster, Healer, and Thief, with a multitude of subclasses. Considering there are four of us, we should make sure we have all classes represented in some fashion or another. My proposal is that we pick a class we would like to do in the order in which we joined up. So, I'll get whatever is left-over after you three pick. This first character will be each of our main entries, meaning it must be finished. If you are closing in on the first one, or are SUPREMELY confident that you can do multiples at once, then you can do a character/class/sub-class of your choice. (Though if your main doesn't get finished there will be some complications and repercussions.)

That being said, I know we haven't had time to go to in depth for character development, but I was thinking about the idea of stereotypes and playing on the idea of good and evil. To make it a bit more fun and complex try to give it a nice twist on which of the character portraits is evil and which is good:

Ex. A dark knight with a heart of gold vs. a religious zealot of a paladin (what is the fine line between good and evil when it comes to intentions)

My knight is coming along, hopefully I'll post my sketch tomorrow sometime. As far as the skype thing goes, I've never used it but I did download it and am willing to try it out if that is what you guys/gals want to do.

Edit: Oh and we need to establish a schedule of deadlines tomorrow.

[CKLamb]

Actually, I'll post a progress shot, and update it as I finish tomorrow.

Edit: Lower limbs are kicking my ass at the moment, I'm leaving it in BW (Unless I have time to finish it later in the competition.)


741267

[nimzicki]

I love that look of arrogance on his face, looking forward to seeing your next stage. Getting started on mine this morning, will post my progress later.

Added CKLamb and ALH on skype.

[ALH]

That being said, I know we haven't had time to go to in depth for character development, but I was thinking about the idea of stereotypes and playing on the idea of good and evil. To make it a bit more fun and complex try to give it a nice twist on which of the character portraits is evil and which is good:

Ex. A dark knight with a heart of gold vs. a religious zealot of a paladin (what is the fine line between good and evil when it comes to intentions)


While this certainly can be done with an individual character, or with some nods towards it... the idea itself is rather tenative for spreading across 8 portraits, it doesnt rock the boat enough. That is to say, the image of a happy overlord is only different from a regular overlord in his expression, because once you change his armour to flowers and fluff he ceases to be a dark overlord. Do this over 6 characters and that one friendly overlord loses his impact.

Stereotypes are something to be avoided unless being approached at a wild stylistic angle, if people dont get the joke, the concept fails, and youre left with a stereotype.

To circumvent stereotype a new ground has to be laid. For example. If all of our characters come from a desert environment, that automatically changes things up. Armour has to be lighter, they may carry water with them at all times, have special shoes for dealing with hot sand etc. This gives our characters a common theme.

It does mean that the characters theoretically will all come from the same place (or at least be travelling through it with their own ways of solving the problem)- but this helps to keep their visual design flow.

On top of this we place our good/evil/grey area.

You have brought up the point that good/evil is an opposing viewpoint not a race however - not every evil character has to come from the pits of mordor - your 'bad paladin' fits this nicely.

On that- We should not try to define 6 different cultures, thats too much work. A 'good' culture and an 'evil' culture and then the characters via each would work well. Attached are two different images, i was going to do a full moodboard of this, but it may not be nessecary right this moment.

Exploring the nature of good vs evil-

One is honeycomb. Its structured, even, stable, fair, predictable, protective, pure, sweet, geometric. It has been lovingly crafted.

One is nerve cells. They are unstable,unpredictable, constantly growing /losing new connections, tangled, confusing, abstract. They are without rules, its anarchy.

These two systems are opposing both in their visuals and their structure - one may consider itself good and the other evil.

The honeycomb could be a utopia where everything is beautiful and nothing bad happens within the city walls, or it could be a big brother hellhole where individualism is snubbed, and everyone is forced to follow the rules or be rejected from the commune.

The nerves could be a vast empire grabbing new land. Leaders are overthrown on a regular basis, and you never know where your next meal is coming from. Or it could be a vast connected individualist network, where everyone has access to the main hub, where you can do what you want, build your own path without 'permission'.

A character from honeycomb may be a twat or a saint, but either way he is going to suspect and be afraid of a character from nerve.
Wether we approach good/evil as a paladin from honeycomb, the same paladin if he was from nerve or a honeycomb paladin who is nice, and the same guy who is out for blood' is the matter at hand- though methinks theres room for both, if one culture can simultaneously be good and evil.

It would be interesting to see both sides of 'honeycomb' though... think propoganda, the allied version of the nazis vs their own intended image. Theres no denying the nazis were evil bastards, but thats not how they portrayed themselves in order to be voted into power...


EDIT- CK, i cant seem to add you on skype, it tells me you cannot be found :s

[CKLamb]

ALH- Plenty to digest in that comment. More on that later.

nim- Can't wait to see what you get the ball rolling on.

Personally, I want to move my sketch into a more baroque or high renaissance look.

Be sure to pick a class asap, the quicker we start dividing the work the faster we can move.

[ALH]

A collection of geometrics and swirlies. Celt, pictish, delicious honeycomb. My knight is gonna be STYLIN'.

[CKLamb]

ALH- I completely understand your apprehension on stereotypes, but I do believe cliches and stereotypes are very fertile ground for reinterpretation and new ideas. Don't get me wrong, I am all for creating something absolutely new and different then what has come before, but you are just as dependent on introducing it in a visually compelling way as in playing with stereotypes. I've seen all sorts of imagined stuff that just falls flat, as if the creator just picked the most skewed elements possible and put them together to be "creative". It all tends to get lost in the mass of other "creative" stuff produced by illustrators. Visuals, in the end, are what make or break the idea. By the way, since you started the team, you get first pick of class.

blackcherry- skype seems to be just like any other messenger, with a few additions, if you download it and make an account let me know.

[ALH]

Dont get me wrong, im not at all against using the base framework, just a little cautious about trying to be 'ironic' with stereotypes instead of like..actually trying to change them, or thats the impression i got? I've tried that before and its bit me on the ass.

TBH im struggling like crazy to do a knight here. I really wish i could come at this with a clean slate, but its only been a month since i finished Tweetlord, and i was overworked on it so its still all in my system. Instead of a world of possibilities i just see a bunch of walls, jamming my flow. Its really hard to distance this particular high fantasy from that particular high fantasy even if this is miles apart in terms of style...and im not even that big a fan of high fantasy ;_;.

I wouldnt have signed on to the CHOW if i knew what the topic was beforehand, but im still up for the challenge and so long as i distance myself from bloody medieval armour things should be ok.

As first i claim mage/spell caster/potion brewer. Wether s/he will be human or not im not sure, its something ill have to play with, but s/he will hopefully be some degree of crazy and possibly semi nude.

EDIT- its likely whatever i do will change from base mage btw, i may crossover into something like creature handler/summoner if thats an acceptable variation? Anything to avoid treading over old ground. If anyone can actually think of a relevant class for me which is NOT warrior/thief/ranger/cleric/mage it would help a lot.

[CKLamb]

Yeah, go crazy on the sub-class. As long as magic/voodoo/mojo is their primary means of support I think you're fine. Just try not to overlap into healer territory to much.

[ALH]

Just try not to overlap into healer territory to much.

Oh dont worry about that, im a fighter not a lover ;)

[CKLamb]

blackcherry- I think you're next, fighter, thief, or healer?

BTW-MSN: lambck@yahoo.com

[blackcherry]

On the subject of stereotypes, I don’t think we should TOTALLY avoid them as I think including some elements of a stereotype image help to successfully portray messages about the character to the viewer, whether that’s through expression ,colours, clothing, features and other elements.

I’ve downloaded Skype now. My contact name is: jellybeanleo (yes there was some on my desk at the time!)

I’ll add everyone now so we can communicate.

I’ve also started on the knight. Sketched him last night, going to scan my drawing in now and go from there so I’ll post more on that later. Looking forward to seeing everyone's work. I like your CKLamb, its very different to mine. This could be interesting!

I’m all for making a start on the actual thing soon, as I’m travelling to visit family on Friday and may not have continuous access to a computer for a few days, though I will definitely have my sketchbook and I will be able to keep up contact over them days through the forum but it’ll be off a different computer so there probably won’t be msn or Skype.

I should get the bulk of the drawing done in that time so when I’m back I can get them on here for you guys to comment and go from there.

Aside from that, any thoughts on a common theme/setting for the characters? On the subjects of characters I’d be interested in exploring some spell casters, I’m thinking along the lines of wizard – Necromancer to start with and... fairies maybe? Depends what sort of overall theme we’re going for I guess.

Oh yeah, another thing I was wondering about the whole good-evil thing. Is it a good/evil version of the particular character or of the type of character? Does that make sense? This may have already been answered so I will check the brief again also.

[CKLamb]

I believe it is a light/dark version of the same character. I'm approaching it as if these characters had a defining moment in their lives and the portraits depict the two possible outcomes.

BTW: Blackcherry is on the healer class.

Nim- Fighter or Thief?

ALH- Don't get to high strung on it, you'll get yourself into a creative block. Just do what comes out natural and you can go from there.

[nimzicki]

Fighter please, unless you have a strong preference to that class yourself?

Ill get my progress posted asap, spent most of the day stuck in traffic trying to get to the airport :/

[CKLamb]

Alright, that makes me the stinky thief. Sweet!

[ALH]

No worries, ill bitch and moan til the cows come home but still keep at it, and end up talking myself into having some fun too.

Rough one, saved it when it was small. I would usually do a bunch of variations, but i've had to get myself over the 'omg not fantasy again' hump today. Actually looking forwards to exploring it again now :)


We are the beast knights who say NI!

Warming to this kind of character, thinking of changing from mage to barbarian version of steve irwin- punches bears out cold, puts a harness on em, rides into battle and uses their babies as a pullover.

edit. ok. his legs are like..yeah. gonna tweak him, i was going to leave it as crappy since its 'just a warm up' but thats no excuse, it should never be an excuse.

[CKLamb]

ALH- Sweet looking design! I know you might be itching to switch up primaries, but that might make things a bit confusing for the rest of us. Does that mean Nim has to do a Spell-Caster now?

Let's try to stick with our current classes/archetypes, and if you want to try something in addition to it, by all means go for it. Just make sure your primary gets finished.

I guess we need to figure out how we want to approach the overall grouping, are each of these characters completely unrelated or are they part of a larger over-arching story or narrative? Being that the assignment is to create both a light and dark version of each character it might be hard to create a coherent narrative. Perhaps we could take a group of adventurers and place them at a turning point in their lives. So your description could cover a history and present condition of your character while the portraits convey where their lives could take them, depending on their decisions. Hopefully that made some sense....just a quick thought.

Edit: We should probably set up an IRC meeting for tomorrow.

I found a picture of our "mascot":

742143

[ALH]

Tell you what, ill stick to what i said, else by this time next week i'll change my mind AGAIN.

"Perhaps we could take a group of adventurers and place them at a turning point in their lives. So your description could cover a history and present condition of your character while the portraits convey where their lives could take them, depending on their decisions. Hopefully that made some sense....just a quick thought."

Awesome. I expect we'll all be doing base 'neutral' versions of the characters anyways for the sake of development, right? its good to get your starting point down.

Would the turning points be global, with each character responding to the same event, or more individual? eg global- as a group they encounter a dragon, with a distinct outcome- win or lose, town is saved, town is burnt down etc - and decide how our characters would react to this - each bearing the scars/victories of the same battle.

Or individual- A character chooses to save/ignore a drowning princess, and later on in life they meet the other characters to form a team of heroes/villains ?

[ALH]

Had to be done.

[blackcherry]

First off I love our new team image! :D lol, especially how ALH has edited it! Awesome!

Also I love your knight ALH, it's looking very cool, makes me reluctant to post mine, as it's nowhere near as good or as finished. I'll still post my progress before I call it a night though.

Oh and if we do decide to go with it just say so I can divert my attention to researching some reference for my chosen class of character and start some designs etc. Until then I'll hack away at it.


Would the turning points be global, with each character responding to the same event, or more individual? eg global- as a group they encounter a dragon, with a distinct outcome- win or lose, town is saved, town is burnt down etc - and decide how our characters would react to this - each bearing the scars/victories of the same battle.

Or individual- A character chooses to save/ignore a drowning princess, and later on in life they meet the other characters to form a team of heroes/villains ?

I think there needs to be something that ties our characters together, a certain event that would affect the outcome of their role, or the choices they make as a result of a certain event. Either way that seems like a great idea. This wouldlink them under a common theme then, which if played in a game would be a cool concept as it could be the choices you make for your player character which would affect whether they became good or evil.

On the subject of theme too, what sort of overall look and feel are we going for? Is it going to be classic fantasy? more modern? etc.

I've juse re-read the brief too and it says:

"fantasy portraits that read well together and still look awesome separately. Thus, as a team, you must create a compatible 'look' for your characters."

So judging by the work I've seen from all of us so far, the look of our characters are pretty different. Not sure how everyone wants to combat this? Guess seeing the knights would be a good start. Here's mine:

742291

Not finished yet. Would like to have spent more time on the drawing but with needing to have it done soon and colouring being of my weaker areas I figured I'd better put more time in there. I'll get some more hours in tomorrow. Oh, and any tips, pointers on colouring are always appreciated!

[CKLamb]

Actually, I think the fact that we are kind of spread out stylistically might be a boon. If we can blend the graphical with the natural in an interesting way, our work could really stick out. (Hopefully in a good way.) That and it will get us all out of our comfort zones.

Maybe the conflict could be global and personal? Perhaps this band is united through conscription into an army, set forth to battle some seemingly unconquerable force that is threatening their world/land. And, let's say two of the four grew up in the same city/town/village. (Cliche Warning) Those two happen to be a boy and girl... boy loves girl...girl doesn't love boy back his whole life, instead she falls in love with party member 3...if boy can't get over it maybe it consumes him and twists him into something vile and hateful...if he can then maybe love is still out there waiting for him. So you could see how easily this war could be fought both on a inter-personal level and global.

[nimzicki]

Not as far as I wanted to be but since you guys have already all posted I guess it would be rude not to show my hand on the knight:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/HumanKnightWIP.jpg

My idea (which brilliantly, I haven't managed to lay out all that well yet) is that the good and evil side of the knight is always there. The armour itself is a cage for the demons that consume him, with restraint he keeps them locked up within the armour and they are visible as a sculptural element. I am trying to make it the armour also look as if it is a cage for the knight himself too.

On the evil side, the armour (er, the idea sounds lame when I write it but meh) is more of a living entity, with the demons coming to life and attacking everything around him, friend or foe.

In my head this could allude to two different stories. If we are to take CKLambs (mind if I call you Corey?) idea of good and evil being two different outcomes of an event, the good side could be a triumph over his demons and they are locked away forever and the evil side is when the demons win. Or it could be that the good and evil sides are constantly conflicting and the evil side can come out at any moment.

Anyway, ramble over, where do we go from here? I think we need to decide on some sort of time period that can help bring certain visual elements together, I like the renaissance idea that was being thrown around, could lead to a lot of nice sculptural elements and small details? Are we decided on classes now or is that subject to change?

[ALH]

'The armour itself is a cage for the demons that consume him, with restraint he keeps them locked up within the armour and they are visible as a sculptural element. I am trying to make it the armour also look as if it is a cage for the knight himself too.'

Loves the idea of his armour being a cage rather than protection, i was looking into this myself but didnt get very far with it.


As for era- daestwen has knocked back everyone who asks if they can make it modern etc-

high fantasy tends to be around late dark ages / early medieval [...] there are lots of other cultures that had 'middle ages' that weren't in europe. :] I think as long as you stick to the same level of technology, regardless of culture, it should be fine. Just think of the "Men from the East" in Lord of the Rings. :]


We need to read up on the era tbh, and see what was REALLY going on then that has been overlooked or romanticised since then. I saw a documentary on st patrick which gave a pretty good summary of what happened to britain in the dark ages -

Everything had order in England, we had roads, forts, christianity, protection by the romans. Scotland was walled off to the north, Ireland was full of druids ( who st patrick introduced to christianity )

Then things got bad in Rome, the soldiers were called back, and people had no protection from barbarians etc. Paganism crept back in full force in England and there were a bunch of invaders, angles and saxons etc, who brought their languages and cultures over. St Patricks cronies started their own crusade via the west coast of scotland, and he and his monk bros used the tactics St P developed in converting the irish celts ( integrating the pagan festivals with the christian easter etc) to take on the picts.

From there they travelled downwards, slowly trying to take the north east, setting up camp on holy island- an island off the coast of Northumberland which is only accessible at low tide. They build a bigass monastary- the ruins are still there today- and recruited monks to further their message, in a somewhat safe location.

From there they spread out along the coast. We have a really early nunnery here, and theres another big ruined monastary across the river. I didnt actually know the one we have has so much history until the documentary too, i always dismissed it as just another random church.



..I think we should probably ask for the exact dates daestwen is after for these things, so we know where we stand.

[blackcherry]

In regards to era, even though it has to be old style does it need to be based on actual factual time periods in our history/worls?

Lord of the Rings had its own world, history and time scale. Couldn't it be based on something like that as long as we keep it to that sort of theme and nothing sci-fi related wouldn't that be ok. Fantasy afterall is about creativity.

Oh and what's happening with the knight now? Do we all still need to finish it by tonight or shall we start working on our chosen class?

[daestwen]

no exact dates, per say, I'm sorry to be so vague. :] More a general idea... for europe i would say about 500 to about 1200-1300 hundred would be fine, but there are some people taking elements from the 17, 1800's and I think that's fine too, but you want the feel of something old and legendary, I guess is what I'm trying to say. :] I'm trying not to be *too* specific for a reason. Just please keep firearms and other modern weaponry to a minimum, and no contemporary references and you should be fine!

And no, it doesn't have to be directly linked to our world, of course, but lots of people like to use it as a starting point. :]

[ALH]

In regards to era, even though it has to be old style does it need to be based on actual factual time periods in our history/worls?

Lord of the Rings had its own world, history and time scale. Couldn't it be based on something like that as long as we keep it to that sort of theme and nothing sci-fi related wouldn't that be ok. Fantasy afterall is about creativity.

Remember, LOTR was based on old myths. If we look at the same myths we can come up with something original using them as a base, instead of looking at someone else looking at the old myths and trying to reinvent it second hand. (though in the case of tolkien, thats way more than second hand!)

Theres so much freaky stuff in old myths anyways, the dark/middle ages had some wacky ideas about how the world works, especially the worlds outside 'civilization' and a whole scientific method based on how to test if someone was a witch!

[blackcherry]

Ok that's great! I like the old and legendary route, that's fantasy to me! Don't like the idea of modern technology for this anyway. Old style fantasy all the way!

As for looking into old myths, legends etc. I think that would be a great idea. They're always a source of some good inspiration! :)

[ALH]

Im actually browsing through a book called 'grisly tales and ghostly trails' and its sequel right now to look for some weird old folk tales and myths from the north east. The sequel deals with the whole of the UK from what i can tell, i havent actually read it in that much depth- the first one was my favourite book as a child, and has some really odd stories in it about places im familiar with :).


..And most of them are deliciously bloody :3

Theres this one story of a blacksmith on the scottish border who has two sons. Every night a warty old witch snuck into their room and put a magic bridle on one of their necks which transformed her victim into a horse, she then rode around on his back all night. Well, the blacksmith got suspicious, because every morning one of his sons would wake up strong and the other exhausted. So one night he hides in the boys room, and when the witch comes in he grabs the bridle and puts it on HER, transforming her into a horse. He rides her over to the smithy, nails horseshoes into her hooves and sets her free. The next morning they find the old witch lying in a ditch, bleeding out, with horseshoes nailed into her hands and feet.

[CKLamb]

742626

So we all need to take a hard look at our sketches and see where we should be stylistically.

My style guide would be as follows:

1. Close to natural proportions for height 7 1/2 to 8 heads. (unless you're doing a dwarf or other size specific race)

2. Focal areas like the face, hands, etc. should be fully realized and rendered while the rest blends into a more stylized and graphical style (hard lines and color blocks like ALH's design)

3. Use slightly exaggerated body shape, like cherry's design, to relay character. Maybe not as exaggerated as cherry's, but enough to notice.


I personally would like to see, era wise, a play on some medieval/renaissance/baroque/asymmetrical fantasy designs. Also, ALH's design really has me wanting to grab them in cold weather gear: think furs, layers, metal. However, skin can still be exposed as much as necessary, maybe your character just likes it that way.

[blackcherry]

That is one weird tale but also crazily interesting! I like stuff like that. It would be awesome to illustrate! I'll have to check out some local folklore books actually, could be useful for future reference if not for this!

Also I've started putting together moodboards and research for the healer section now I'll post them later.

As for the knight, I think mine is the weakest of the lot so think I'm going to leave it there rather than spend the whole day painting it when I'm not even happy with where it is now. It'll just dishearten me. I think I'd be better off moving on and focusing on my chosen class, if that's cool with you guys?

[blackcherry]

742626
My style guide would be as follows:

1. Close to natural proportions for height 7 1/2 to 8 heads. (unless you're doing a dwarf or other size specific race)

2. Focal areas like the face, hands, etc. should be fully realized and rendered while the rest blends into a more stylized and graphical style (hard lines and color blocks like ALH's design)

3. Use slightly exaggerated body shape, like cherry's design, to relay character. Maybe not as exaggerated as cherry's, but enough to notice.


I personally would like to see, era wise, a play on some medieval/renaissance/baroque/asymmetrical fantasy designs. Also, ALH's design really has me wanting to grab them in cold weather gear: think furs, layers, metal. However, skin can still be exposed as much as necessary, maybe your character just likes it that way.

This sounds good to me! I think I can work to that. Also I love the idea of the whole winter/cold weather theme/look. That could be interesting to explore and would be another way of linking our designs.

[CKLamb]

Feel free to start working on your primary. We need to have initial thumbnails and sketches finished by this weekend.

[nimzicki]

Im in all in for the style guide, however, first thoughts that hit me without working anything up is how well will the full rendered parts flow with the more graphical parts? Im slightly worried that forms might not end up reading as well, can you think of any examples that employ this style or are we trail blazing? :)

[ALH]

1. Close to natural proportions for height 7 1/2 to 8 heads. (unless you're doing a dwarf or other size specific race)

On that- from what I can tell reading these old myths so far, there are a lot of extremes in the descriptions of mythical folk and heroes, so it would be interesting if our characters are wild in terms of scale to each other (even if they keep the 7-8 heads proportion) One robin hood like character i've stumbled across here is described as being 6'8 tall!

Elves, in such a contrast to how they are portrayed in todays media that it seems we're all forgotten their origins- are described as being tiny little helpful pixie folk, living in vast underground rabbit warren cities etc.

It may be worth checking out myths on elves/pixies etc for the healer character, they seem to be a creative bunch, more than happy to help humans, until the humans set dogs down their rabbit holes and slaughter the lot of them, then they either hide away forever or get nasty and cause mayhem.

Methinks its time we reclaim the tiny elf and get rid of this ' just a good looking pointy eared version of a human' nonsense!

[nimzicki]

Oohh one more thing, we've decided on classes (I think) but has everyone decided on race? We need to make sure we get a good variation going...

[ALH]

Im in all in for the style guide, however, first thoughts that hit me without working anything up is how well will the full rendered parts flow with the more graphical parts? Im slightly worried that forms might not end up reading as well, can you think of any examples that employ this style or are we trail blazing? :)

Its a speedpaint technique, you only render whats important. I see more of it in horror than fantasy though, which (quick concepts aside) seems traditionally much more focused on detail, though i say that as someone who has a much bigger collection of horror images than fantasy :p



Some graphic stuff -

http://fiduciose.cgsociety.org/gallery/300381/
http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-08/pop-prince-speed-paint.html
http://pspmedia.ign.com/psp/image/article/683/683681/metal-gear-solid-digital-comic-working-title-20060125114916424_640w.jpg
http://crazypumpkinsnest.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/mgs-art-conceptsm.jpg
http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/67079/solid6_qjpreviewth.jpg

Ashley wood = om nom nom nom. Ungodly win.

http://www.ashleywoodartist.com/

[nimzicki]

Thank you for the education :)

[blackcherry]

Oohh one more thing, we've decided on classes (I think) but has everyone decided on race? We need to make sure we get a good variation going...

Yeah I was wondering about this too, What's everyone thinking? I was leaning towards though I could go for elf just as easily now I'm thinking about it.

I suppose we could decide on this after establishing some initial ideas.

Also I agree with having a variety of scales for the characters. My initial idea so far has mine being pretty tall, though I'm trying to gather some helpful research and visuals first before I rush in and become too set on something without exploring first.

Oh and Ashley Wood Art's awesome! Going to check out the other links too now :)

[ALH]

Looking up some alternate races from celtic myths (since we're allowed to add new ones :3) and stumbled across these ugly seaside folk-

Fomorians

The word fomóire is believed to derive from Old Irish fo muire (Modern Irish faoi muire), "under the sea". This, combined with their association with glass towers in the western ocean, suggests a connection with icebergs. However the mór element may derive from a word meaning "terror", whose Anglo-Saxon cognate "maere" survives in English "nightmare"

They are sometimes said to have had the body of a man and the head of a goat, according to an 11th century text in Lebor na hUidre (the Book of the Dun Cow), or to have had one eye, one arm and one leg, but some, for example Elatha, the father of Bres, were very beautiful. Bres himself carries the epithet "the Beautiful."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomorians

List of mythical species ( includes giants, little people etc) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_species_in_folklore_and_mythology

[CKLamb]

I guess everyone should write a character brief. Don't worry about overlapping with someone else's idea at this point we just need to pin down a direction.

My current idea for Thief is:

Race: Some kind of half-breed: 1/2 Human, 1/2 Elf, Goblin, Orc, or something

Physical Characteristics: about 5'4-5'9', lithe, cuts an angular silhouette(maybe slightly hunched over), pointed facial features, pale translucent skin, purplish black lips, large toothy grin. Conceals most of his features to hide his mixed heritage.

Defining Issue:Coming to terms with heritage, unreturned love, or isolation.

Feel free to start sketching at this point. Think about your thumbnails and where you want to go with pose and gesture.

[ALH]

Mage


Race: Human, though studies in the dark arts of a long lost race of god like creatures.

Physical Characteristics: Old enough to seem out of place in battle, posesses deep visible scars from a 'traumatic event in her past'.

Defining Issue: Traumatic event in past still haunts her. Has to come to terms with her own mortality. Some suspect she may have gone senile quite some time ago, and that there never was an 'event'.


- Some see her as a wise woman, versed in an encyclopaedic knowledge of the dark ways, she is often called upon to rid towns of their imp problems.

- The event in her childhood is what made her focus on learning dark magic. At the moment i'm thinking a corrupt dogooder did something to a loved one and she is out for revenge, or perhaps she was a victim of a kidnapping, attempted witch hunt/ virgin sacrafice etc. Plenty of kidnapped maidens out there, must have sucked to be a girl back then knowing you were likely to be picked off by a dragon once you hit puberty. Plus, what happens if youre rescued and its NOT happily ever after?

Kind of want to avoid making it a 'ladette' feminist statement, this isnt WOMEN CAN BE KNIGHTS TOO JUST LIKE THE MEN LOOK AT MY WONDERBRA, THAT MEANS IM LIBERATED *belch* GRRL POWER!

More Ripley than Princess Fiona. She is disturbed by what happened to her, She may not WANT to continue fighting, but cannot give up. It waned as she got older, it doesnt sting so much, but at some point she will be reminded of what happened and it will push her over the edge.

[blackcherry]

My idea so far for the healer is:

Gender: Male
Race: Human or Elf (haven’t decided yet)
Defining Issue: A decision of allegiance / bad choice / something related to power.
Physical Characteristics: Tall (over 6ft), Angular features and form, Slim build, long limbs, long hair.

As for age, I’ve been thinking of maybe distorting this slightly depending on the path he choses. For example if he goes towards evil his appearance may be distorted due to his dabbling with the darker side of things, or it may even expand his life line and keep him youthful. However if I do do this I would keep certain defineable features the same so he can be clearly identified in both.

Will do some research and sketches and write the brief over the next few days.

Oh btw, Have any of you seen Heroes the TV show? If so something I found interesting in that was the man with healing powers (he can heal injuries, disease, give life to flowers and also mental scarring), Linderman, is basically a mob boss who's manipulative and has no problem with having people assasinated.

Thought that kind of links in to the sort of twist on stereotypes we were talking about before.

[nimzicki]

Race : Elf or Orc
Gender : Male
Class : fighter
Defining issue : as I wrote before, demons trapped within the armour, evil side brings them to life.

Will post first thumbnails tomorrow...

[ALH]

So we have..

A thief who feels isolated
An old mage who has to come to terms with her past/future
A healer with power issues
A posessed fighter


This is gonna take one hell of an event to get them all together.

A lonely thief sounds tragic, and it would be nice to see a play on some sort of self-punishment in his manner- he steals because he thinks he is bad, because he is ugly, because she doesnt love him, because he is alone, because he steals, because he thinks he is bad...


Power issues with a healer is very poignant, he basically has the power over who lives and dies, even moreso than someone wielding a sword, because they cant choose to 'undo'. Thats a lot of responsibility, especially if you alone have this power. I can see someone turning into a total asshole with this too- making a spectacle of healing and charging big bucks for it, selling vials of 'healing water' that he has blessed but are actually laced with an addictive drug, or a poison which requires a more expensive 'antidote'.

Nimzicki, can we have a little more about the fighter? Why does he have demons in his armour? What happened to him to get to that point? He seems a little flat at the moment, i cant really place a personality.

[nimzicki]

Everyone has issues that they don't always talk about, my gf could have power issues for all i know :D I think to sell our characters the visual link needs to be strong.

[ALH]

Everyone has issues that they don't always talk about, my gf could have power issues for all i know :D I think to sell our characters the visual link needs to be strong.


Our characters need to be interesting enough for people to care about their plight, their visuals are just the icing on the cake, without foundations theyre just eye candy , and there are much more experienced chocolate makers in this competition. Concept is VERY important ;)

[nimzicki]

Yeah..I was kinda only kidding :)

[ALH]

We have been plotting, and things are starting to become pretty epic-


CK says:
we just need to give them smattering of hope in the descriptions
a smattering...

(ALH)( ´ 3`) ( °д°) Σ(ﾟДﾟ ) says:
the hope comes with their life changing event, if all goes well theyre fine, if it goes bad its down evil alley



On Nims idea-

The initial idea has a lot of potential, hopefully he can take it somewhere. I was thinking, perhaps his character is burdened with responsibility. The armor is like some kind of A-Bomb, used by his people in desperate situations.
(ALH)( ´ 3`) ( °д°) Σ(ﾟДﾟ ) says:
thats not a burden of responsibility, more the burden of being a puppet, of being restricted in freedom..which goes with the cage. nice.
CK says:
what if he volunteered?
(ALH)( ´ 3`) ( °д°) Σ(ﾟДﾟ ) says:
then he wasnt aware of what it would do to him,. even if someone tells you what it will be like, theyre not going to tell you the whole truth, or noone would volunteer
if the suit takes over and is something he has to constantly mend he is a slave to it
if he takes it off everyone is fucked, if he keeps it he has no life
yey he got depressing
perhaps he is the cause of the event which changes everyones life, because he certainly seems the most powerful in terms of destruction

CK says:
From a technical point, the demon/armor is a huge epic artifact. An average or even above average adventurer wouldn't come into contact with it. So in essence his character would have to be epic, while everyone else is support.
unless they're like standard issue in some army.
(ALH)( ´ 3`) ( °д°) Σ(ﾟДﾟ ) says:
but if its been forced onto him because he was tricked it becomes a little more manageble

CK says:
don't forget the undies!
(ALH)( ´ 3`) ( °д°) Σ(ﾟДﾟ ) says:
lol
perhaps he found it as a child and tried it on for play fighting, then he couldnt take it off, and his quest is to try and get rid of it
but of course he finds out he cant
and people notice its power
the good guys and bad guys could both be trying to recruit him/set the demon free
CK says:
maybe this could be a tie in for your character and his
as old and crusty as your character is she has to have at least some knowledge on it. maybe he seeks her out or she has some plans for him
actually maybe your character has plans for all of us?
(ALH)( ´ 3`) ( °д°) Σ(ﾟДﾟ ) says:
she does have a way with demons through her knowledge of the dark arts
perhaps so, though we'd want to avoid a gandalf situation
unless we WANT a gandalf situation
she would certainly be interested in hanging round blackcherrys character to help extend her life
CK says:
the thief could probably be easily manipulated given his anxieties
(ALH)( ´ 3`) ( °д°) Σ(ﾟДﾟ ) says:
perhaps the thief has been sent in by an outside party to try and acquire the armour, but he doesnt know that when he tries to remove it all hell breaks loose?
i imagine if a pretty lady/man winked at him/her they would be putty and eager to please
heck if anyone shows them human kindness
such as healing a wound...
CK says:
hrm, this is getting coherent.
(ALH)( ´ 3`) ( °д°) Σ(ﾟДﾟ ) says:
i would imagine my character would relate somewhat with the thief, as life as an old woman can get lonely, everyone she has ever known has died, but she hangs on because she must 'finish her plans' because she is afraid of death
and theyre not exactly the prettiest members of the group
CK says:
very true
outcasts by ugliness alone
(ALH)( ´ 3`) ( °д°) Σ(ﾟДﾟ ) says:
it certainly fits for the healer to use their power issue to control the thief


To summarise-

Nimzicki is a man with a problem. He has a terrible burden to carry, one which could have catastrophic consequences if he cannot keep his armour - or his mind- together.

People have noticed this.

Blackcherry is a Healer with a lust for power, and what could be more powerful than the ancient demon armour? It speaks to him like a siren, and even though he knows in some ways that this is a bad desire, he MUST have it at all costs.

CKlamb is a desperate thief, who just wants to be noticed, who wants to experience the warmth of human kindness that he has been for so long without. A certain healer shows him this kindness...and entrusts CK with a task, a task which will test his abilities..to steal the demon armour.

ALH is a wise crone, versed in the dark arts, but is terrified of death. She senses the re-emergence of an armour so ancient that she thought it had been lost forever. It scares her..but she is intrigued, if she could just find the man who was trapped inside, she could talk to the demon, she could find out why it is back, what it wants..ask it about the event which traumatised her as a child. But she is old, she doesnt have the strength she used to, despite her magical skills. She visits a Healer..and he seems to share her curiosity about the demon armour..


Therefore...

GOOD END-

The Healer sees the torture that nimzicki is in, and, with the help of the mage and thief, heals the mans shattered soul, so that he may carry the burden without pain. The mage takes down the demon and stares death in the face. It frightens her no longer. The thief has made a close friend in his encounters with the three, and feels less alone.

BAD END-

The Thief carries out his duty and breaks the armours seal, but is unable to complete the job, as the demon bursts out. Terrified by what he has done, his life spirals into darker depths. The Healer becomes a twisted power hungry maniac after seeing the enormity of the power of the demon suit. The mage witnesses the demonic disturbance from afar and is flooded with memories of her own past, driving her insane. The man is consumed by the demon.

[blackcherry]

Just quickly looked over the plot and I'm not sure what my healer character would want with the suit really....What if nimzicki's guy was seeking out my guy to try and get aid for his problem? That would make more sense to me.

I've got my guy as being power hungry. but I see it more in the sense of he's just intoxicated with his own god-like power and can't get enough of it. He likes being able to play god and have people indebted to him.

Not that I'm trying to spoil the whole plot you've cooked up, but would that still work? In a way the healer could also be the source of the plot as he could likely solve most people's problems if he can restore life, heal any injury or illness and cure mental problems.

Anyway will probably re-read it again and chat about it tomorrow.

Also i've made a load of character notes on appearance personality, turning event etc, so i'll post them tomorrow too and go from there.

[ALH]

Double post to split these up a bit.

Black and Nim, you need to solidify your races.

I would suggest Nims character be somewhat innocent and inexperience looking, as this would be a good opposite to my old crone and would also be something one would not expect to see in the face of someone wearing a massive demon infested armour - especially if theyre an orc! This doesnt mean he has to be a whimp- look at football players like wayne rooney, or other particuarly rough looking chavvy kindss- Im sure you've seen a few- someone who could quite easily could batter you with their bulk, but whose face betrays their youth.


I think it would be fitting for blacks character to be as beautiful as possible in their neutral state, and a little vain. Though this may be cliché territory, power over ones own appearance can bring power over those who desire the same looks, and a magical healer would be more than able to perform a beautifying treatment that we would have to go into surgery to fix- just one touch, instant facelift.

I imagine him as being a little like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho in as far as taking good care of himself and placing appearances over everything, though obviously he would be slightly less messed up in his 'good' form.

For his 'evil' side It may be worth looking into the specifics of that slightly inhuman identikit facelift/botox/bat brow face that people of a certain age seem to aspire towards nowadays, to suggest he has been giving himself regular 'surgeries' , but theyre just not doing the job anymore- look up the more extreme examples- Jocelyne Wildenstein, Pete Burns, MJ etc - far more horriffic than any ogre in many cases!

http://www.awfulplasticsurgery.com/

[blackcherry]

I'll happily go with elf if your doing human, though I'm thinking elf like LOTR elves so they still resemble humans more or less but just live longer and have cool ears :)

As for appearance my idea is the dark version being very vain. American Psycho guy is a good example, another for me would be the guy dressed in white with the rose in Azumi - perfect in appearance but clearly crazy. Also the whole white outfit but evil was pretty cool. Good side, I've got him pinned as much less vain and preferring to blend in more.

This will be clearer when I type up the notes I've made and post them.

[ALH]

Just quickly looked over the plot and I'm not sure what my healer character would want with the suit really....What if nimzicki's guy was seeking out my guy to try and get aid for his problem? That would make more sense to me.

I've got my guy as being power hungry. but I see it more in the sense of he's just intoxicated with his own god-like power and can't get enough of it. He likes being able to play god and have people indebted to him.

Not that I'm trying to spoil the whole plot you've cooked up, but would that still work? In a way the healer could also be the source of the plot as he could likely solve most people's problems if he can restore life, heal any injury or illness and cure mental problems.

Anyway will probably re-read it again and chat about it tomorrow.


Oh yes, of course things can change up a little- So long as theres some interaction between the healer which makes the thief to go to the suit it still works- the healer may just want to help and be so arrogant about his power that he doesnt see the danger, or he may express a curiosity with the man in the suit, which inspires the thief to get closer to the man in order to impress the healer.

I was thinking ( since you mentioned linderman ) he could desire the suit to use as a weapon to set up a disaster so that he appears to be the hero- like how Linderman set it up for Peter to blow up- but you know your character better than I do- and that i guess isnt as good a reason as him genuinely caring, even if he is corruptable. (Its also too obviously lifted from other stories, haha )

It doesnt work so much if nim seeks healing directly, though it will be something he craves. Its better if he is kind of bewildered about this, so that the ball gets rolling by chance encounters of people all seeking something, rather than a direct ' i need a mage for this and a thief for that and a healer'.

My character would be too afraid to go to the suit directly, and may urge the thief along in his exploration of the suit once they meet, but the thief must be intoxicated by the healers beauty, so that the thief and the mage meet- each is linked together.

Homosexual thief? That would be original :D!



Edit- For clarity, since I hurr a durr didnt make my point like a spaz-

Its important for my character to be human, because its the human maidens who get raped and pillaged and stolen by dragons, the mage has lived her life terrified of this kind of thing happening to her/happening again, which doesnt really work if she is an orc or an elf. Though she will be so old and crooked she wont resemble much of a human anymore :)

[nimzicki]

Nice to see my idea sparked such a story, thanks guys :) My initial idea was to roll with a more innocent looking face, howevveerrr, if I was to go too youthful looking, it kinda makes it hard to portray that the suit is a burden, I mean, that kind of worry is going to age you pretty damn quickly.

It will be pretty hard to portray an anguished, yet innocent looking child, I was thinking more late twenties homeless/heroin addict..erm...orc? :)

[ALH]

I mean, that kind of worry is going to age you pretty damn quickly.

It will be pretty hard to portray an anguished, yet innocent looking child, I was thinking more late twenties homeless/heroin addict..erm...orc? :)


Nah, 20s is perfect, its young enough for the burden to look massive, good metaphor for someone struggling to accept the responsibilities of adulthood too.

It would please me to no end to see a heroin addict orc in demon armour with a 'WILL SCOURGE 4 FUD :(' sign.

It would also go to explaining how the thief knows his whereabouts- passing by the drug den in a bad part of town, he notices something shiny, demon armour would be hard to hide under even the baggiest of smocks and shawls :)

Each character has their own anguish, yet each has the potential for immense power. These good/evil differences are going to be so dramatic :)!

I would suggest we put together more character specific moodboards, in particular addressing the good/evil sides- place in them what would make your character want to be on the side of good/evil, what would make them happy, get some refs of expressions, shapes, textures, colours, poses which would emphasise their specific problem/personality/aspiration

We're talking photos or your own exploratory drawings this time, not other peoples art (unless its relevant to the mood) - they dont have to be fantasy specific either- something abstract could be useful for establishing a series of shapes for the graphic side of things, the image of an ornate bird cage could help in defining the look of parts of the demon armour etc.

Collect many images, then whittle it down, show us the 3-5 which would absolutely personify your character

Hopefully what will happen when we do this is establish a group moodboard (as opposed to the others, which were more about style/setting), with images representing each character together before theyre 'together'. If you see something which you think is perfect for someone elses character, be sure to suggest it too- the more we step in each others shoes, the more cohesive this is going to feel at the end.


..Now i need to go buy paper, because i ran out in the middle of the last CHOW..

[blackcherry]

Not sure if this will work with the plot, but these are the notes I’ve made so far about my healer character. If it needs tinkering to fit the plot, or whatever then I’m open to suggestion.

I'll put together some character moodboards later too and get some more sketches done to post.

--------------------------------------------

At a young age the elfin healer believed that the use of his powers would help build a better world. He moved to a town and began aiding people in whatever way he could. Initially they revered him for his amazing gift, people flocked to see him, he was their saviour! That time soon passed as time went on. As he watched the many years go by while he used his powers to selflessly to help others; curing, healing, restoring life, he began to question his abilities. Moral issues with his god-like power began to go round in his head; did he have the right to play god? He often wondered if his powers really wee for the greater good, as years later the world was no better than it ever was.

Due to his amazing ability the healer was used by the people who took advantage of his gift. Some were extremely grateful and thankful for his help but the majority saw what his gift could provide and began to take advantage of it. They became selfish and demanding. As a result he lost his faith in humanity and began to build up a distain for people.

Worn out and weary with the lack of rewards for his services the Healer was faced with a choice. He could retreat away from humanity while continue healing others if and when the occasion called for it, keeping his identity a secret with the reward of knowing he was doing good or he could begin using his power for a price making people indebted to him in return for his help. He could extort them just as they had him and establish himself in a powerful position so he would no longer be used by others.

Good outcome:

Moved away from humans and large towns to an isolated place in the forest away from others except for his kin.
Likes gardening and grows a large variety of flowers and herbs.
Makes herbal remedies and cures which he uses indirectly to help people.
When venturing amongst others, he cloaks himself in a robe to prevent him from being identified and manages to pass by un-noticed. If he ever does step in to help or cure someone he departs from the scene quickly afterwards.
Has the friendship of a variety of wild animals around his home.
Though still remaining a good person, he has lost faith in the greater good of his power. Despite his amazing power he does not believe that it really helps people in the long run. He also does not believe that he has the right to chose who lives and dies.
Deep down he does still care about the people, and would still help someone in desperate need if he believed he could help.

Bad outcome:

Intoxicated by his own god-like power.
Distain for humanity and others. Has lost his faith in people.
Is consumed by his own hate and power and as a result has forgotten his original intentions of using his gift.
Established himself as a revered and feared ‘religious’ leader with his own army of devoted followers who enforce his rules and ensure that devotion to him is secured and people keep their debts to him in return for his aid.
Vain and rich.
Cares more about himself than others.
Will only use his gift if he can benefit from it.
Grows a selection of poisonous plants and herbs as well as making remedies for situations when a punishment may be needed or to be used if needed to restore faith etc.
Likes animals, has a crow and cat.

[ALH]

Remember, you have to fit in a way his life is effected by meeting the other characters, we dont want to have every characters story being ' and then he moved away and lived un/happily ever after', because that goes against the team aspect of this - and doesnt really make for a good 'game' plot.

Consider his 'life quest'. What does he desire most of all? Good/evil is the means to the characters desire , not the end of their quest. A man desires jewels. A bad man steals jewels, a good man works hard and earns them. The 'life changing event' is something that changes the characters mind about something, they learn from it and it changes how they go about doing what they do.

Perhaps your character gets over his issues with morality when he sees the value of his powers in healing the 'worthy' sick - ( as the demon armoured man was truly helpless) - stops being so self centered and worries about the starving children, the plague ridden poor? Perhaps he joins the army in order to heal the casualties of war? This keeps him moving, which stops him from being taken for granted, and it makes him a viable 'adventurer' character.


Try to think of the team as a bunch of adventurers who go on to quest together for a while after they meet, either as a team of noble warriors or a bunch of little bastards.

[blackcherry]

That's ok, well I can just edit my description later to fit the overall plot, but you get the idea I've had for my character from it.

I'm a bit confused about the two portraits now though...Are we going to do like a before/after thing for the character then? Because in most games none of the characters really go through totally drastic changes and I think our potraits need to show a significant difference to be effective.

[Vorace]

sweet stuff :)

[CKLamb]

Vorace- Thanks, mostly a bunch of words at this point, but hopefully we'll pull it together.

Team- I'm currently hand sketching all four characters for purposes of ideation and sharing ideas. If you have any for my Thief feel free to share.

[blackcherry]

Quick intial sketch to start. Got some head shots on the go too. Figure I'll get the face sorted first but after doing a quick full body sketch I couldn't resist!

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May alter his body structure a bit through the design process but for now :)

[ALH]

Blackcherry- Its early days obviously, but while you're playing with basic silhouettes- i'd recommend you do some research into expressive poses to help sell your characters good/evil status. Watch an episode of Americas Next Top Model and listen to what Tyra says about the models being fierce for the camera, and the kind of crits they give at the end of an episode - the advice they give is great wether you're posing a character or yourself, especially the episodes where the poses and expressions are a little subtle/obscure.

If it helps, do some hyper exaggerated cartoon versions of 'behold, you are nothing to me, i choose who lives or dies' (or whatever youre trying to say) to get the gestures down, then put a layer over the top and cut away at it.



On a Random group note- I got a Job interview invite today, which i have to sort out over the next couple of days. Its quite a journey to get down there so i'll be gone for a couple of days possibly some time next week/the week after.

[nimzicki]

CKLamb - very eager to see how what direction you're going, ill try to get some stuff done for the thief too.

ALH - congrats on the interview, wheres it for? If you don't mind me asking that is :)

[ALH]

The interview is for a GUI role at Climax down in Portsmouth. I only saw the ad on gamesindustry.biz last night at 2am ish too, was shocked to get such a swift reply, especially a positive one!

[ALH]

Some thoughts on common elements-

Wool -

It was mentioned earlier that a northerly direction could be interesting to venture into, with furs etc. I wonder if we could do something with wool? Despite my character being elderly I didnt consider the links to a fondness for knitting until now. While a character wearing a jumper with a christmas tree on the front may be slightly cheesy (and not that middle agey), Sheep farming/knitting are both things that have been around for a very long time, yet i've not seen much of it in fantasy costumes - and when wool does pop up it tends to be brown and basic.

But this is fantasy, who's to say the colour of a sheeps wool cannot be changed by magic? As our characters stories interweave, it would be interesting to see what we can do with a common woven theme. Garments which have been knitted in particular have a visual structure thats not too dissimilar from chain mail, and woven reeds could be used as flexible covering for gaps in armour to allow for character movement.

Thats not to say every character must be kitted out in full woolen regalia ( though my 'good' mage will possibly have a lot of woolies :3 ) - But as a linking element, a scarf, a shawl, an armband of knitted material could be a visual link for all of these characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knitting has some examples of the kinds of shapes used in knitting, its all very serpentine, and reminds me of celtic vines. Theres a lot of potential for graphic photoshop brushes this, and 'knitted' patterns are a big thing in stylised gaming visuals atm- look at LBP's Sackboy, evnironment textures in Super mario Galaxy, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts etc

Editing this in a bit to add some visual examples, i've literally just had the idea and need to delve further.

[ALH]

Speedpaint of 'thief' character using knit pattern brush made from - http://www.halfknits.com/patterns/knit-one-below-bee-stitch.JPG

[nimzicki]

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/OrcWIP.jpg

Quick sketch, trying to get the armour looking right. Taken main shapes from Renaissance armour and tried to add in a sculptural Baroque element to keep it detailed and a noble element to the good side. Im going to move onto incorporating the demon parts now, anyone got any thoughts?

[ALH]

Hey nim, could we get some silhouettes going on before you leap into specific detail? Do a guy standing in a neutral/ortho pose, copy/paste him at least 4 times and do a different armour variation on each, pure black,no linework. Then we can give some direction so itll fit in with the rest of the group, and each pick out which we think is the strongest so you can incorporate bits from each one for your next pass.

I would actually advise each of us to get some silhouettes down before saturday/sunday so that we have a good variety. Things will obviously shift about a bit by the time they get to final, but this is a very important stage, ESPECIALLY for a group of characters who will be seen together and if we skip though it our characters wont be as dynamic as they could be.

This is a pretty good tutorial for the kind of process im talking about- http://forums.megatokyo.com/index.php?showtopic=1715168

[CKLamb]

Obviously in progress, I'll post a few more phases before I move on to the other characters. Then I'll switch back to thief and do some variations on the finished sheet. I'll switch to silhouette if that helps everyone else.


744569

[nimzicki]

Love that portrait.

If we're going to do the silhouette stage then it really needs to be done before the weekend, designing the specifics of my armour for instance is going to be a long process after finding that silhouette.

Ill go on to that now though if it will help everyone.

[nimzicki]

Silhouetteage:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/silohuettes.jpg

[blackcherry]

Some nice early pieces of work flying around.

CKLAmb: Really like your head studies so far!
nimzicki: Some really nice silohettes there. I think with this being a medieval fantasy style theme, we'll probably have to avoid making it look too techy or sci-fi ish though, which some imply to me, but that could easily be altered when developing the armour in more detail.

I'll try and get some of mine up by the end of the night if I have chance after I'm done packing. I'll start on some silohettes tomorrow. Will we need to do different silohettes for both versions of the portrait?

I mentioned this earlier on in the thread, but just to recap I'm going to be visiting family back home over the next few days. I'm going to be travelling all day tomorrow but by next Friday I'll be back to having access to my own computer.

Before that time I will still have computer access so I can keep updated with the forum and I should also have a scanner at hand too so I can scan in some sketches and give/receive feedback. However, I won't be able to do any digital work, which will be annoying when it comes to stuff like silohettes :/ but I should get a lot of design work done.

I will try and check the forum daily in this time!

Also are we still going with an overall cold/winter environment theme with the characters in furs?

[ALH]

#6 i feel fits the character best at the moment, as the mass on his upper body looks very heavy. slimming down his legs a little would really emphasis the bulk, as being a weight he must carry, but also a nod towards the heroic proportions.

The others dont really tell me enough about the person wearing the armour, they appear slightly demon-y or armour-y, but thats about it. The asymmetrical shape of #11 did grab my eye however, and the cage atop the head of #3 helps to sell the notion that his armour is a cage.

[CKLamb]

Nim- Nice silhouettes so far, I'd try a few more that were a bit less bulky, think a little bit about practicallity. #11 and #8 appeal to me the most at this point.

Cherry- I was still wanting to do cold weather type gear, so I'm down for it if everyone else is

ALH- I really like the idea of wool. I think i would use it more as a insulation layer though, with bits of it poking out here and there.

[nimzicki]

I thought #6 was too bulky and bit too much "RAH DEMON ARMOUR" personally, I like #7 for its asymmetrical look, its not as bulky as the others and it gets across the demon taking over the human (well, orc) element pretty well in my opinion.

As for the cage elements, I agree, I would like to try and put that across in other details as well, use of chains etc. which is hard to portray in silhouette but ill have another crack at it.

Like CK, with all my other elements going on, the fur would be more of an insulator for my character too.

[CKLamb]

If you're not sure on the orc, you could go ogre, giantman, or some other type of race.

Thinking about the wool a bit further, it would be a good material for noise dampening too. Like in the joint and arm pit areas, no squeaky leather or crickety metal to give you away.

[ALH]

On the wool- im not saying have entire outfits made of wool, in terms of literal wool it would be just an accessory here and there, an armband or something as a sign of rememberance for the 'event' for example, that each character wears to show they will never forget that day.

In terms of graphical wool, im going to pack together this wool brush and do a couple of variations if you want to have a play with it.


I had a play about with imagining a demon armour, this is by no means a 'final' in terms of how i would do it if i was doing that character, more of a suggestion of the kind of things i would do personally to suggest the burden etc.

The wool here has made it look like he is wearing a skirt made of entrails :D

[CKLamb]

Alh- I really like the off-kelter organic nature, though I think he'd be a shambling mess in a fight.

Edit:And I've been kind of thinking of the armband type of element...I was thinking maybe some type of animal pelt(with head included like your knight design) that kind of represents that character as a cloak/skirt/scarf/etc. I'm doing a two-headed snow fox cloak for the thief as an example.

[ALH]

Alh- I really like the off-kelter organic nature, though I think he'd be a shambling mess in a fight.


Thats the point, it makes for an interesting animation set, unpredictably lumbering everywhere while trying to hit you, its intimidating, makes him hard to hit, one hell of a boss fight!

....Obviously it would have to be toned down a bit for an adventuring game character. O:-)


Each having an Animal pelt? Very nice. Ties them together in a more obvious visual way than an arm band, a bit like each having their own pet except the pet is dead and now a hat scarf combo. They could be like a walking anti PETA.

If they all have carcasses of furries on them in some way it would suggest that they have taken part in the great anthro war of AD666.

[CKLamb]

....you're evil.

A little more scribbling, definitely to upright. I think the cleric or crone is up next.

744770



Oh and there was this guy named Diego he did a painting or two...

744797

[ALH]

...I come from a horror place, it leaks through at times :geekg:

[CKLamb]

Thumbnails due by Sunday night. Light needs to be polished and ready to rock by the 14th or 15th. I know ALH and Cherry have some time issues, if you can either push it out early or hand it off to one of us for finalization we can stay on track.

Bonus points if you surprise us with another finished off character.

Also, we need to think about format for submission. This isn't something we want to do at the last minute.

[ALH]

I think your thief is WAY too good looking at the moment, the nose/ears/lips may be large compared to a human, but his chiselled face structure is far from repulsive. He doesnt look goofy enough to be ashamed of his looks. Are you going to make him more hideous along the lines of the horrifying specimen in the portrait?

[CKLamb]

A lot of the oddity is going to be in coloration and some smaller details. I think repulsive is kind of so/so...I was thinking he'd look like a killer. Something that'd put the fear in you...not so much disgust. I think disgust can be overcome by people, fear is a lot harder. I mean some people just give you the hibbie jibbies just being near them....like they just might turn around and slit your throat.

Edit: But I think I will try a repulsive portrait too.

[ALH]

You should check out the mug shots on the smoking gun, most are kinda goofy or drunk looking, but some of these guys really look like they could fuck you up, its subtle in the face, but if you can capture it your character will have huge impact.



pic related.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/

Surprisingly the mugs of infamous murderers and gangsters dont actually look that threatening, a little 'off' perhaps, but not THAT scary compared to some of the petty guys.



Also- I've put a bunch of knit patterned brushes together, basic stuff, not modified much past their photos (some still have the sharp edges) but if you dual brush them and play about with scattering some interesting things happen. Feel free to edit them.

Make for bloody awesome chainmail brushes if thats something you want your character to wear, probably good for hair braids too.

http://typocity.deviantart.com/art/Knit-brushes-132391896

[CKLamb]

Rush Limbaugh ftw on creepiness.

[ALH]

Rush's mug looks like a sitcom version of satan. I like gary buseys shot, he looks like an evil clown mob goon, as opposed to his usual look of terrifyingly insane evil clown.

More brushplay, loving the smokey shapes some of these make.

....her hair will probably not be an 80s power perm in the final.

[CKLamb]

New Moodboard for the characters, costume, color, etc.

745062

[CKLamb]

Quick sketch of the healer and spell caster. I thought a bullwhip might be an interesting weapon for him.

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[ALH]

Elizabethan Ruffs are a bit modern for the time periods we're taking about, advance with caution- work the shapes back into the dark ages.

Other than that, great moodboard for colours.

Watch some Blackadder, i think the kinds of goofy costumes here are more like what we should be going for.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2C23DF380BB3720B


Some witchyness. Love the faces of these old asian women. Looking at Pre Raphaelite fantasy paintings for an idea of who my character could have been in the past so i can bring some elements of that into her present.

Found an illustration of a healer too!

[nimzicki]

Ah jeez, its far too early for some of those pictures :p Nice reference though.

[ALH]

get used to old lady boobs, i fully intend on my evil witch burning her flapjacks into everyones mind :D


Having spent this morning watching blackadder S01- i reccommend ep 06, where edmund gathers a group of evil warriors for a nefarious plot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVbn3upF7g8

[CKLamb]

Hrm, when no one said anything against baroque influences I thought it was up for use. Maybe I can do an altered collar that at least conveys the idea.

EDIT: BTW It is getting very close to Sunday, I don't see many designs up. Let's get to crackin' people.

[ALH]

Hrm, when no one said anything against baroque influences I thought it was up for use. Maybe I can do an altered collar that at least conveys the idea.

Yeah, i probably should have spoken up- I like baroque in terms of the darkness of the art, but having that kind of specific collar places characters in a certain era in fashion & culture that most people can easily recognise, which kinda pwns the medieval timescale. If you can take the silhouette and reimagine it so it doesnt look like it came from the 1500s+ though, then awesome.

[ALH]

Faces, general exploration and getting to grips with a saggy anatomy. These started to go towards cartoony at the end as i explored the shapes and tried to get a child-like 'cute granny' thing going on, though i think that direction isnt right for this project.

Where does one race start and another begin with fantasy stuff? if a human is particuarly squat or ugly do they become a dwarf? I guess its down to proportion, so i'm going to have to bear that in mind as i do variations later on.

...Or change my chars race to some sort of gnome/troll/dwarf- also a possibility, even if it messes with my backstory - i'd rather have anatomical freedom to give us something different than pay a direct service to my own concept, though i'll see what happens when i go digital.


Also- I need to put together a portfolio/presentation in flash before my interview next week, which may take a while, so i'm going to go off this for a couple of days. i'll have the silhouettes here on sunday, but team CHOW cant be my priority while i sort this stuff out.

[CKLamb]

What?!? You're going to pick some...some...company over CHOW! I'm beginning to question your dedication to this team. Seriously, what are you thinking?!?

BTW:I really like the rounder faces in your setup. Good luck on your interview stuff!

[CKLamb]

Starting some color studies. (Kept the collar, just because this is more of a personal piece, my thief won't have one. I promise.)

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To tired to finish this up tonight. I'll give it a whack tomorrow then get some designs done for my thief.


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[Mark Tarrisse]

Nice stuff so far guys,

I really like the mood and colors of this one (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=746138&d=1249704798)

Keep on rocking ! :)

[ALH]

I ADORE the mood of those two, they may not be 'final' in terms of costume, but they really sell bleakness and evil without the usual 'halloween' colours (purple/blue/orange) that one almost expects in evil fantasy characters now.

The presentation with portraiture poses is one which could be an interesting way to tie them together, like wandering into a big musty old hall which is decorated as if the characters once lived there. If everyone has the same still life somewhere in the image, for example, it could be an extra nod to their character. The thief may steal a couple of vegetables, the fighter may toss the entire setup on the floor in a manly rage, the mage may levitate them, the healer may smush them together into a healing tonic etc.

...Though possibly a little too complex and irrelevant for this project, especially considering the deadline.

[blackcherry]

Hey guys, quick post. I've arrived at my destination. Got some sketches done and I've found a scanner. Need to get a lot of things fixed up though so I can get my sketches online and get some feedback.

ALH: Love the facial studies for your character.
CKLamb: Great work on the character studies :) Also great mood board thats gonna come in hands.

Hopefully I'll get some work on here soon. Wish I could touch it up a bit in Photoshop but its just gonna have to be rough and raw I think!

[CKLamb]

Thumbs coming tomorrow.

A few designs, I want to do one more round with a touch more layers and baroque elements.

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[CKLamb]

Thumbnails people. Don't forget.

[ALH]

DEM THIGHS

Hold horses, costume stuff by the end of the day ( the say ends at 3am right ? :3).

Proportions are so funky on the sketch, knees are too high unless she is tiptoe, but eh. it was fun to wrinkle her up.

[CKLamb]

Cripes, did you have to have all those lines leading to the crotch?!? I think you can get away with some proportion smudging as she is very old. Can't wait to see your costumes.

[ALH]

Cripes, did you have to have all those lines leading to the crotch?!?

Yes,yes i did :D

[CKLamb]

Costume update. Working on thumbs now.

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[nimzicki]

Tried working on this earlier one a little bit for my own amusement and see if I could get it to go anywhere, im still fond of the slightly OTT armour to convey the importance of it:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/OrcWIP3.jpg

Also trying to work out other costume options, using CKLamb's straps/buckles idea to try and convey the feeling of being trapped but keeping everything a lot more simple:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/thumbs.jpg

CK - im most fond of the top middle and bottom left ones put of your batch, very interesting shapes without being too fussy/cumbersome.

ALH - crotch lines and all, I am suitably freaked out, also interested to see where you are going with the costume.

[CKLamb]

Doris- I really like where your last two are going, proportions need a little tweaking, but they look very promising. I agree with you on the two that I find most interesting in my batch, I'll probably keep playing with the other ones until I get five full designs that I like.

Edit, actually I like all three looking more at them, they could use some more refinement to push them a little further apart.

[ALH]

Those are looking promising Doris! You're doing VERY well for someone who has only been doing this for a short while :)



3 old witches. I wasnt really intending for these to be good or evil, im just playing about to see what happens. Since she is a mage dealing with dark magic she is going to have a base of 'evil' even when good, the challenge comes in pushing either side.

General theme is drapey things and fur with a 'monster' silhouette to make her more intimidating to her enemies.

Its slightly weird to design costumes for an old woman, the usual rules for males and females do not apply, its kinda liberating.

[CKLamb]

ALH- While I like all of theme, FUGGIN' Number 3 FTW! If you could incorporate the animal piece from number one that'd be cool.

[ALH]

i knew you couldnt resist old lady beaver ;)

[CKLamb]

Oh yeah...that does it for me.

[blackcherry]

I really like the style you guys have all got for your characters. Here are all the sketches I've done for mine so far. No digital software to follow the trend I'm afraid, so I'm not going to be able to get that done til next friday...If you could just give me some feedback on my sketches and point me in the right direction I'll just have to go at what I can with traditional mediums.

On proportions, CKlamb, your thief guy looks to be very tall, I think he'd be better a bit shorter, I think it would suit his role as a thief much better. From what I gather ALH's is the shortest character, nimzicki's will likely be the broadest, I think mine should be the tallest as the eff (tolkien style) and your should fall in inbetween. Just a thought.

I realise these drawings are not as far along as you lot, I'll develop what you think's best. I've got some rough head designs here, some figure propotions, and just some experimental sketches for poses, costumes, weapons etc. The digital ones I did before I left.

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I could probably knock out a drawing in the style of yours if you want me to? but it would have to be done in pen for now. Sorry if the scan's are not great!

[CKLamb]

Cherry- I get what you mean about height, I was originally going for half-human/half- elf, troll, or something, I'm leaning more towards half-elf/half-troll (though he looks 90 percent elf right now). So I think he'll have a little height, I'll just need to hunch him over a little or something. And on what you've posted, some nice posing (a bit to much super-hero/villian though, think of subtlety) While I understand he's an elf, you've got to add a bit more masculinity to him. Right now I am reading this as female for the most part. Also, think about the materials and clothing styles, fur, leather, etc. Good start, however, hopefully being away from digital will work out.

team- okay, enough jabber, finals for your first portrait on Friday (Cherry we'll help you get as close to possible to an end), post your compositional rough drafts asap. we'll all help each other over the week. If we fail to meet this deadline, it may very well be a death knell for the project. On that note, have a nice day.

Deadline Projection:

August 14th, 1rst Portrait Due
August 15th, Group Critique
August 21rst,2nd Portrait Due
August 22nd, Group Critique
August 30th, Completion of Formatting and Refinement
August 31rst, Turn in Project

[ALH]

I dont know if i'll be able to make that 14th date, I have a lot on this week and wont have my intous with me when im down in Portsmouth. Gonna see if i can get my graphire hooked up and get a little done on the train/evening, but no promises on 'final' stuff. Sketches, speedpaints, sure.

Additionally bad news RE my schedule- going up to the Edinburgh fringe next week with my sisters,couple of their friends and cousin- just for a day, but a crazy action packed day where we get up at 6am, wander round all night and get the train back home at 6am the next day hopefully intact. 19th/20th methinks. Sucks for this group chow, but i couldnt turn down a trip to the Fringe, its one of the absolute highlights of the year alongside Animex and my Annual trip to/through London :p.

Ill fit the two in by the end of the month, mark my words, i may just lag a little for the specific dates.

[CKLamb]

Just do your best. This is all self-inflicted anyways. :P

I should have a rough sketch of my composition up tonight( tomorrow morning for you all).

[CKLamb]

Whoot, I finally had a breakthrough! Haven't had that feeling in a while. This doesn't really relate to my character anymore but I thought I would share. It's amazing how a 10 minute paint-over can totally change your outlook on how to paint.

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[CKLamb]

Okay...so I spent all night working on my new technique...composition sometime tomorrow.

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[Adrian Wilkins]

sup guys??!

I really dig the previous shapes! and for the last guy I really like out the planes of his face are reading really really well, its also gotrecognizable character

keep it up!

[CKLamb]

Adrian- Thanks for the support! We really appreciate it. Actually, I'm not sure how the hell you have time to post anywhere with how much work you've been churning out for your team!

Team- Considering Cherry is out of town and everyone seems to be huddled away from the boards lets extend the deadline from the 14th to the 16th. Past that and I'm not sure what to do, because our main obstacle will be getting them to look cohesive, which is going to take some time.

[nimzicki]

Adrian - I can only echo what CK has said, your team are absolutely tearing it up!

CK - I think thats fair, deadlines are creeping on us so quickly, gives me time to work up a couple of different things I guess, added a bit to my earlier sketch:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/orcwip4.jpg

I've just now realised i've managed to draw myself into a corner where its possibly starting to look a bit too much like zhanglu's example piece *sigh*

[Lege1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyli59EbOM4

HILARIO!!!!!!!LMAO!

[blackcherry]

Just to let you guys know I'm travelling back tomorrow or today rather seen as its now gone 1am, starting at 8am. I won't be home until the night though so I doubt I'll post again until sometime on Friday. I'll try and catch up you guys then and post what sketches I have. I'll be back to having access to my own computer from that point then so should be able to get more work done and crack on with the project deadlines!

[CKLamb]

Cherry, that's good to hear, there is definitely work to be done! Check skype every now and then.

My basic pose. From here I'll play with the head direction and hand/arm gestures. Ultimately, I want to do something very simple and character driven. No crazy illustrations, just straight portraiture. There will be a background, I just haven't decided on indoors or outdoors.

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Doris- I did a quick paint over to play around with your design, noticed a few things: increase the size of the face (way to much skull not enough face to cover it), flip it back and forth horizontally (you'll notice you've got some symmetry issues), increase the leg length (once you increase the face you'll see the lower body issues a bit more clearly). My own suggestions, I dropped the shoulders, changed the lower stance, elaborated on your current elements (turned the fur piece into more of a mantle, and started adding more buckles around the armor.) I tried staying within the design you posted, but if you've got other ideas let me know.

I was going for a "look if you want to f'king fight then let's do it, if not bug tha f'ck off" look.

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[nimzicki]

Damn you're up early. Muchos thanks on the paintover, thought I would show you what I was up to before you posted that:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/orcwip5.jpg

I worked up the armour a bit more to make that more of an element, I think that in your paintover its perhaps looking a bit more fabric heavy and its perhaps looking a bit too similar to your dude? I love the stance though, do you think you could maybe help me work out the lower legs too, it's something I struggle with a bit and I don't want to end up with another one of your son's poo poo dances...

Another thing I was toying with was having the straps etc. feeding into the guys arm in places instead of just wrapped around it to emphasise the armour etc. being there by force rather than choice, do you think thats too much?

Agree on all proportion issues and ill take up your pose too, I was thinking our final presentation could take the form of a gallery wall with these portraits framed and hanging? I dunno, just throwing it out there as an early idea.

[CKLamb]

Yeah, I can help with the lower stance, and I jumped from my sketch to yours...so it's pretty damn close looking to mine, like you said. Feel free to contact me via msn or skype today.

Edit: The portrait gallery idea is definitely doable, I've been doing shaped frames with my other sketches (circular, arched, etc), so it's only a step or two away from that idea.

[nimzicki]

Hopefully you don't mind, im working on top of your paintover at the moment, learning a lot from it so thank you again. Ill get a little bit more done and skype you up in a bit.

[nimzicki]

Gone a bit quiet in here :o Alrrightt, here's where I am with roughly painting over my paintover from CKLamb, hopefully I haven't destroyed all your hard work:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/orcwip6.jpg

Urrmm, ignore the legs. Trying to get a mix of where I was going before but keeping in with the same sorta style you've got going on Corey. Let me know if you spot any issues, otherwise ill keep ploughing on.

[CKLamb]

Nim- That's looking damn good! You really cleaned up that mess I called a paint over into something. I'll play with the lower half some tonight, between the two of us we should be able find something that works.

[hala]

hey guys cool stuff going on in here :) you guys rock the silhouettes! ballin'!

[CKLamb]

Quick sketch-up of the portrait gallery type setup...very early ideas as you can see. Btw, if the deadline thing is a motivation killer, let's ditch it. I don't want to impede anyone's workflow or happiness.

I know it's kind of super obvious but I was thinking of doing a mirrored image for the portraits, one light one dark. Obviously my example is a very simplistic version ( gestures, costumes, etc should be altered.), but I think you get the idea. This should allow us to burn through the second portrait once we finish the first.

Hala- Thanks for dropping a line! You guys have some crazy shit going on over there, nipple pulling and what not.

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[CKLamb]

I'm really in the mood to just start churning all kinds of stuff out...

Update on my healer sketch.

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[CKLamb]

I'll start doing mirrored portraits for all my sketches and start color work tomorrow. In all I should have 8 sketches going, plus one more character I want to fit in. How many more days do we have?

[nimzicki]

oof, so much to see, ill comment more in a bit but we have 15 more days I think.

[ALH]

CK- the portraits back to back? AMAZING. If we all coordinate our poses like that this shits going to be so ballin itll hurt.

Nothing from me from the past 2 days, my journeys were too much. Someone jumped in front of the train just in front of mine on the same line on the way back and i was delayed for 2 hours, and not the useful kind of 2 hours where i could get things done, the its too hot and i have no space kind of 2 hours.

I have some things to sort out today too, it never stops. But im hungry for some painting, and if nothing gets in the way, im going to grind some stuff out.

'Crunch' is not a word any of us should be afraid of :p

edit- ehehe i have a chow green guy, awesome :D

[Ninjerk]

I just have to say it: CK, your work is looking outstanding, especially with the posing.

[snootchy]

wow nice progression you guys, all the way from the write up of the story to the visuals, it's coming along together really nice, keep up the hard works peepz!!




TEAM Chönyid bardo! (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=164711)

SSG 69 :heart: ARTGASMIC FORCE
Mission: To push our skills to evolve to the point of giving you visual orgasm.
Eon (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107005) l grenappels (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99577) l snootchy (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=112991) l Peetaer (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=111899) l bleupencil ( http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=134180)

[nimzicki]

The mirrored frames are all kinds of awesome, glad you like the gallery idea and I didn't screw up your paintover haha. How were you thinking of having our finals displayed, just one long horizontal set with the order good/evil good/evil etc. or having all good in one set and all evil in another?

That would be awesome if you could help work up the bottom half of the fighter, im liking the way its going at the moment though.

[ALH]

I personally think good/evil good/evil will have the most punch, that way if they are lined up it will be like the good fighter is about to have a scrap with the bad thief - it will emphasise the contrast :p

[nimzicki]

That's what I thought too, just having them all at a decent size is gonna be one wide ass canvas :D

[CKLamb]

That's cool if the gallery piece is super wide, it'll be like a real gallery. You'll have to walk along it and look at the pieces as you go.

Edit: Rich, we can do both versions of the gallery, then go from there.

[trevor]

lookin good so far guys!
the portrait set up will work nicely!

[blackcherry]

Back home now so I'm going to try and catch up with my design work as much as I can tonight and update myself with the work you guys have been doing. Just been doing some work on the 'good' version of my character, looking into costume etc.

This is some costume research I did that fit the sort of ideas I had in my head. I'll probably look into some more clothing designs/patterns too to develop it.

http://www.biscuitofdoom.net/tchow/THLT/gdhealer_costume_board.jpg

These are my design silos:

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I was thinking of giving this version a crystal staff, nothing too fancy though. Yes or no?

Going to do the same for the other version now and then probably do some head studies and then some poses for the potraits before I move onto playing with colour. So I'll probably post again later!

Also I really like the wool brush used earlier. Is there anywhere I can get my hands on it to have a play round with it?

On the subject of potraits:

I personally think good/evil good/evil will have the most punch, that way if they are lined up it will be like the good fighter is about to have a scrap with the bad thief - it will emphasise the contrast :p

I'm really liking this idea :)

[ALH]

Brushes are here- http://typocity.deviantart.com/art/Knit-brushes-132391896

A little worried that the healer looks too much like a warlock/mage atm, there needs to be a distinct line between the two- eg mages mainly use magic from within themselves and say/write curses, healers mainly use potions and magical tools (like your crystals) Theres crossover, but we should not be able to mix the two up even if the mage is in white holding a flower and the healer black with a crow on his shoulder.


Ideally we need to be able to see just from the silhouette that this man is a healer. You may want to look into the history of medicine, and lean towards costumes which mimic that of a surgeons scrubs- aprons, face masks, gloves etc. A plague doctor would be a good example of the kind of thing you could go towards- bizarre solutions to the problems of coughs and germs and fluids. The healer needs to be protected from these things.

You should also check out Humourism- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism

Humourism, or humouralism, was a theory of the makeup and workings of the human body adopted by Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers. From Hippocrates onward, the humoral theory was adopted by Greek, Roman and Islamic physicians, and became the most commonly held view of the human body among European physicians until the advent of modern medical research in the nineteenth century.




Humours are basically the fluids, urine, phlegm, blood etc. It was felt these needed to be ' in balance' in order to be healthy, and there were some rather strange ways of balancing them- blood letting, prescriptions of certain foods etc.

[blackcherry]

Taking what Sarah said into account, I've done a bit of a re-design. I didn't look into medicine but I did look at more religious figures like monks. I quite like the hooded robe. I added in a few ropes and packs then which could contain herbs, potions etc. Also I took away his staff, made him look a bit too much like a wizard.

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If this is more along the right lines I'll probably do a better more developed version, with better attention to detail.

I'll work on my other version tomorrow too. I've got some sketches to touch up ready. I've done a costume board for him.

http://www.biscuitofdoom.net/tchow/THLT/bdhealer_costume_board.jpg

He's probably going to look more like CKLamb's idea of the healer, though maybe with some sort of 'religious/cult' symbol on his robe to sort of symbolise that he's turned his gift towards extortionate means.

[CKLamb]

Cherry- I think your second set is showing some promise, a bit more nuance. Be careful about the hood, ALH's character already has one, it might get repetitive. Nice refs to work with though, I especially like the all black get up towards the far right.

Quick color pass on my thief. I'll hold off posting updates on that one from now on, don't want to ruin the surprise. At this point I'll go in and balance it out with some cooler colors and then detail/texture work. I'll see if I can get my dark counterpart up and running tonight, too.

Didn't get to far on my dark sketch, pushing for a grackle look where as light is fox.

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[ALH]

Very nice CK :).

As for the healers hood/cloak, i feel it obscures the character too much, we cant really tell that this character is any particular race/age/gender without looking closely at the face- remember, in a game situation we may only ever stare at the back of his head, or he may resized too small for us to see his features in much detail. I would suggest at least cutting some holes in for the ears or emphasising his body shape ( Slender? Portly? Heroic? ) to try and break the shape up a little. Perhaps even give him some crazy pointed shoulders to suggest an otherworldly anatomy.

I know his 'good' version is hiding himself in shame, but at the moment he is doing *too good* a job of hiding, right now we cant tell who he is and what his objectives are, and we cant really tell if he is good or evil without having read the backstory.

[blackcherry]

ok, well I'll have another go at re-designing him but if it's still not right after that then I'm going to be a bit frustrated because I'm getting pretty lost with it all. I don't know what your image of my character is so a quick sketch or something would give me a better idea of what you think would work etc.

Not only that I'm getting really concerned with the fact that I'm behind already and until I get the design sorted I can't get myself up to speed... so the more time I spend on this the less time I'm going to have on the actual pieces which is what I'm really going to need the time on :(

[ALH]

rushing out the house in a mo, quicky, little things to tweak in feet etc, but this is general pose for 'good'.

OOH ME HIP HINNY-

[CKLamb]

Looking good Sarah, any ideas on how you're going to handle the background?

Cherry, don't get to antsy about the amount of time left, I think you still have a little wiggle room to play with the design and get two finished portraits (especially considering you can build upon your first finished one).

Rich, how's that color work coming,:wip:?

[blackcherry]

Ok, here's another shot at the 'good' healer. I ditched the hood after seeing ALH's character had one and I've gone for a more peasant/tribal/natural look for the healer. Kept the cloak though. The silos could probably do with a bit of touching up but I just wanted to get the general idea across.

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I was thinking of creating a kind of symbol for him. This could be used on both versions. I though the symbol could be on the cloak of the bad version as an emblem for the 'cult' he's formed around his gift, and I was thinking it could possible be on the good version's face, as in some sort of tribal paint? Just a thought. I think it might work. Maybe he needs to go more tribal looking?

Let me know anyway!

I think I'll work on the dark version tomorrow. He should be easier to finalise and then I'll come back to this one. When I've got the appearance down then I should be able to get the actual portraits started.

ALH: Really like the start of your character. She's looking good!

[ALH]

Background for good would be something along the lines of indian summer autumn-y, some dappled light from trees or something for mood without going too colourful. Evil would be the same but closer to winter, trees all gnarled like witches fingers, ground a little muddier- perhaps even standing half drenched in water if im feeling frisky. Mabes a bit of ruins of some ancient stone circle in both to emphasise her own ancient-ness. She is in the autumn of her years etc etc.

Edit- Yey, That elf is looking far more elfin now! Still a little gender ambiguous perhaps, but I think you can get away with it considering he is a member of a mythical race.

Pushed around his features a little with liquify to man him up a bit while still keeping that kind of anime girlyboy thing going on, may help?

[nimzicki]

Hey sorry for my absence today, I haven't been at home today so not managed to get much colour work done, ill post up where I get to tomorrow though. I was down in London at the V&A Museum, looking at all the armour they had and fashion pieces that were relevant to our stuff to get inspired, I can't believe i've never been before, such a beautiful place...and free!

Also saw the 7 Raphael Cartoons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Cartoons), such an overwhelming collection of stunning work, so inspiring.

[ALH]

Evil version sketch. From the start i'd planned on her evil version having a more action based pose/demeanor than the good, but i dont think that fits with the 'mirrored portraits' theme, and kind of makes her look more pissed off than actually evil.

Gonna tone her down, though im itching to get a start on this good portrait for now, I think doing that will give me more insight into the character and how to evil her up in a more subtle manner.

On an unrelated note, I hate how flat this is, this is what I get for diving in before warming up. *slaps wrist*

[nimzicki]

Afternoon Happy Tree's. Made a start on colour work, this is my pretty much my first colour piece over so taken palette cue's from CK's piece so we can keep some consistency. Still got some design bits to work out, trying to figure out weaponry at the moment, im liking the adapted morningstar though...

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/fightercolour_wip.jpg

[nimzicki]

This is fun :E

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/fightercolour_wip2.jpg

[ALH]

'Good' Mood tests with backgrounds..possibly too colourful?

[nimzicki]

I like the left hand one the most, probably because its the most subtle.

[CKLamb]

I think if you could strike a balance between the first two, that would be a good starting point.

[blackcherry]

I agree with CK on the colours. I really like the first one (the one on the left), I think it suits the whole look we seem to be going for the best, but I think it needs to be a bit warmer.

They all look awesome though. The one on the right is really striking!

[blackcherry]

Some silos, poses and costume designs for my bad healer. I'm liking the last one the best overall I think, except the expression needs to be a bit more arrogant. I also like the costume for the very first design though, so bit unsure. Thoughts?

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I've got a rough sample sketch drawn for both versions ready for the portraits. I'll post that later when I've touched it up a bit, so it's more readable. Can't wait to get stuck in! :D

[nimzicki]

I like the 4th costume the most personally :)

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/fightercolour_wip3.jpg

[CKLamb]

I'm nursing a massive hang-over at the moment, but I should be up and running tonight. If you could all e-mail me a scaled down psd of your current wip I would appreciate it.

lambck@yahoo.com

[nimzicki]

On its way to you now.

[ALH]

Changed the arm when i shouldnt have, looks crappy now, gonna repaint it later. I've been rather demotivated on this, I should have had it done in a day, now i'm getting frustrated with it. I've been too distracted by whats coming up tomorrow, and am pissed at myself for not getting it done quicker.

I may leave it as is and move onto my evil when I get back on thursday, fresh eyes in the last week should mean I regain my mojo for finishing her off.

Edit- Nim- thats really starting to take shape, awesome :). He's meant to be non-human though right? I would argue for making that a little more obvious in his anatomy, even if its just skin tone or fangs or something. At the moment those pointy ears suggest a degree of elf, which is dangerous territory considering we have 2 elf like creatures already.

Cherry- I like the third one here, because its more tailored, though the pattern/mail/etc on the last one (with the rose) is an interesting fabric choice.

[CKLamb]

I didn't want to overkill the exposure of this piece, but I could use a couple extra eyes to evaluate this, I've been staring at it to long. (Still working my way down as you can see.)

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[DIMAGYAN]

Interesting designs! Nice variety of characters too.
Those last two portraits are looking good.

Keep it going.
Cheers

[nimzicki]

Thanks ALH, yeah the skin tone/facial structure was something I was worrying about and still need to address, just been putting it off so far.

Corey - I love it, the only thing that stands out to me so far is the lips, he's got a sort of pout and lip stick thing going when I glance at it.

Edit - Went for a red/brown skin tone, changed up the face a bit, rounded off the ears, not so elfy now:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/fightercolour_wip4.jpg

[CKLamb]

ALH- I really like the pose and soft expression. The overall color is a little to warm, you may need to go back in and intermix some cooler tones. Also, The wrinkles and cracks in her face seem a little to stylized, go back to your references and play around with it.

Cherry- I tend to like the second set of designs you created, the long coat and cape set up. I like the idea of something stylish and kind of dandy. I'm so/so on the symbol, the hand symbol kind of reminds me of Lord of the Rings, the white wizard's army. I'd do something that is more like an embroidered insignia that can be incorporated on his clothing as an embellishment, on the chest is a throwback to superheroes.

Nim- I think the rendering on the breastplate is coming along nicely, the skin color needs some reference, it's kind of muddy at the moment. Also, I don't exactly feel like the straps look like they are a part of his armor, they seem like they're added separately. I think you need to push this around some, it's kind of suffering from genericism at the moment. BTW, thanks for emailing your psd, I'll send you some suggestions and notes today sometime. I'll play with the lips on mine some, I wanted to add some freak factor to him, so it was intentional, but maybe it's a little much.

[blackcherry]

ALH: Looking good. I like the different textures and patterns on her costume. The colours are looking a little bright compared to Nimzicki’s and CKlamb’s though.

Nimzicki: Your piece is coming along great. The face looks a lot better now that you’ve added some more detail. The armour is also coming along nicely. I like the beginning of what looks like a demon head on his left shoulder.

CK: Really like how your portrait is developing. I like the colours and the addition of the tree in the background, looks good. I agree with Nimzicki on the lips. I also think the skin needs more detail so it’s not so smooth looking.
As for my piece, I totally forgot about the hand symbol being in lord of the rings!! Ahh! No worries I’ll have to alter it or come up with something different or simpler. I think he needs some sort of insignia , as I see him as being a sort of ‘cult’ leader type, but yeah I’ll try and steer away from superheroes.

--------------------------

This is the beginning of my ‘dark’ portrait:

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Very early stages, I'm working on the shading and getting the details in now. I’m considering a vase of dead flowers on the table with the one in his hand being 'revived' . We shall see how it develops, I might scrap it as the portrait develops.

I’m not sure on colours for him yet. I’m thinking possibly light coloured hair though? Not only to add variety to our group but also because the light colour might help associate him as a healer.

When I've got the image rendered enough in greys I'll start playing with colour and lighting.

[CKLamb]

Quick paintover suggestions, I never received psds from you two so I'll just post them here, rich you'll get something in the mail soon.

ALH- I toned down the warmth and color with a saturation layer. Then I went in and softened the forms, hardlines should usually come in at the end just in the deepest of crevices. This version is probably a little to sweet looking, but you get what I'm saying.

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Cherry- On the head, the face is to scrunched in and you've got a lot of cranium floating around. On the clothing, try to scale back on the sizing of things (such as the huge buttons, gloves, and boots, super thin legs and arms) Try to pull away from the cartooning at this point. And, going over your brushwork, try to use larger brushes to develop form, smaller brushes tend to get streaky.

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[CKLamb]

Going to go for at least one extra character, the gnomish summoner.

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[CKLamb]

I'm not going to lie the canine anatomy is kicking my ass.

Doris- By December! Mark my words!

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[nimzicki]

I'm not going to lie the canine anatomy is kicking my ass.

Doris- By December! Mark my words!


Hell I don't doubt you, you're kicking ass on this :) That summoner is at least seven kinds of awesome.

Thanks for the paintover btw, ill have another crack at it today and try and beat it into submission, I need to make the demon armour thing work though, its all pretty basic at the moment, hmmm....

[Mark Tarrisse]

Hey CK Lamb, maybe you could change the pose of one of your thieves, I think one is good and one is evil, if so, I think you should change the pose of one of them, so that it is clearer to read. For the moment your evil seems to me more good than evil. But love the composition, the colors and the mood its a really nice piece, so is the summoner :)
ALH nice char, really like it :)
nimzicki nice char too, but try to add a bit of highlights, he seems to be a bit flat for the moment.
Anyway good work team ! keep it coming !!

[blackcherry]

CK Love the summoner character :)

Oh, forgot to say, thanks for the paintover too. I'll keep it as reference and take what you said into account!

[ALH]

great progress so far people.


CK- your portraits are nice, but very dark - i suspect this will change as things develop, but watch out for that leg area, its so dark atm that it reads as a blob.


Im still pwnd from being awake 24 hours yesterday, i can barely type without crazy typos so i dont know if ill get much done today, perhaps i will regain some energy later on, but atm i seriously need to veg out.

[CKLamb]

Mark- Thanks, I'll definitely change a few things up on the dark portrait.

Cherry- No problem, discard any suggestions you don't care for or agree with.

ALH- Which one? The Thief or Summoner? (and on the summoner are you talking about the wolf?) Actually this brings up a good point, what might be reading on my monitor might not be on everyone else's (my current settings are for graphics, so everything is a little brighter), so if this is a consistent problem I can increase the brightness on my work a little.

[ALH]

ah yes, brain is still mush so not clear- on the thief.

Oh, and if youre struggling with wolf anatomy- the head should be more slimline, with less of a cranium. The arched back doesnt really fit either, but it still reads as a fantasy creature, so i wouldnt worry about too much. I did a quick push around to show what I mean, kind of hard to tell what sort of pose you're going for to figure out the legs etc though.

[CKLamb]

ALH- Ah, I see what you're talking about, that back boot is pretty sloppy, when I go back over it I'll fix it up, I'll be doing slouched boots when I get back to them. Thanks for the touch up on the beast, I'll definitely slenderize the head, and actually increase the size so I can justify all the bulk behind her. (I think it'll look right once I fix the head, I'm going more for coyote, thus the bushy tail)

[ALH]

Coyote you'll need to slenderise things even more towards the fox side, and really push those ears in length. The creature you have atm is more like a bush dog or arctic fox or something.


http://www.caninest.com/images/bush-dog.jpg

Oh god look at this little fella, he is awesome, he could fuck you up if he wasnt so obviously small and rodenty. It seems I was thinking of Raccoon dog not this guy, but he is awesome, you should do one of him.

[CKLamb]

Dear god that's an ugly critter. Anyways, I'll get the beast right one way or the other, as long as he doesn't stand out over her I'm happy.

Edit: Changed the head up there on the canine, I think it's doable now.

[nimzicki]

Not sure if its just the early brushwork but the canines shoulder blade looks too high and close to the spine? Looks like it needs to come down a lil more to me.

The brightness on your pieces look spot on with my monitor but thats set up for graphic work too...

[CKLamb]

I'll take care of the canine issues, I just want to start seeing some finished work out of everyone. We need all portraits finished within six days so we can at least work on format for three or four days.

[nimzicki]

Addressing a few issues that CK brought up, also trying to work out the design to fit with the back story more and remove itself from the bland mediocrity that it was in. Do you guys think this is better?

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/fightercolour_wip6.jpg

[ALH]

Asian'd her up, she was too 'angled', I want her to have that kind of mischievous, almost child like rounded face despite her years without the typical hooked nose witchyness. I'd have explored that further if my schedule hadnt been so pwnd, but while Im 2 weeks behind Its better to stick to my mood boards D:. She may change again by the end, but at this point I need to move on to the next portrait..and ARM ARM ARM.

I know this is still too saturated, but its easier to desat than sat up, so its something I dont want to worry about until I have more important things finalised. Project has been such a shambles on my side, still pissed at myself for not sticking to my usual workflow, but i guess its been a learning experience as to how I react to the schedule suddenly changing, when in a group project, especially a group with an artist with far more portraiture experience competing against people with even more professional experience.... I dont think i've fared as well as i should and Its stressing me out when it shouldnt.

[CKLamb]

ALH- Thats looking really nice, I get a very fairytale like feeling from it. And, now that the face isn't as severe, the warm tones feel more inviting. I think before, it was a bit more like the warmth from hellfire.

I've started to push into color on this one. I want to be finished up with it by either tonight or tomorrow midday. Thieves should be done by Sunday night.

[ALH]

Haha, yeah, that was an in progress face, She was very gnomish to start with, so i humanised her, but I had made it way too dark and was trying to lighten her up, was approaching it in the wrong way and all it seemed to do was make her look creepy.

Good/evil side by side here. Even though its only been a short while since i was freaking out I feel a little more on top of things now, and I think flitting between the two to touch problem areas up and detail where necessary will be more fruitful than the alternative. I'm going to tone down some of the mess around her feet on the evil version, the discharge obstructs them more than i'd like, and add some friendly magic to the 'good'..of course now i desaturate things so I can get a better contrast :)

I can stealthily put something across her (admittedly crappy atm - its gonna be SOO much grosser) nipple area if people have a problem with it- the shirt falling down thing is meant to show the horriffic bitemark scar which has been picked at and made fresh by whatever event turned her evil - the same scars will be on the good version, but in a more subtle form.

The blue streak was just meant to emphasise her crazy, painting half of your face with some sort of neon isnt a neutral act, its threatening, and perhaps she now also follows in the face painted cult of the evil healer.

Nim- do you have any sketches of what the evil version of your demon armour will look like? I'd like to hint towards the demon itself in the evil version of her crotch pelt

[ALH]

Browsing though some of the others threads has left me slightly concerned with our own portraits in an area i seem to have neglected to crit this far-

CK- your thief's design and rendering so far is very nice, however, in his current form...i'm not getting thief from him, at all. At the moment I would think he was perhaps some sort of elfin soldier or guard as he stands very alert and upright, theres nothing all that sneaky or devious about him outside of his pointed anatomy, the character himself doesnt tell us much. The fact that his good/evil versions are pretty much identical means we dont get much insight into his personality or how he is different beyond a palette swap.

Note that im of course not suggesting a wild action pose- the group theme is more subtle- but we also need to be able to see a fair chunk of this mans story without reading his blurb, integrate it into his costume and weaponry if needs be - this is first and foremost a character design task not a portrait illustration one.

I know you probably have something awesome up your sleeve that i've not seen yet as i've been away, If you have any of that behind closed doors hit me up on messenger so my concerns can be alleviated!

[CKLamb]

Duly noted. The "dark" portrait, at the stage posted is just a color shift, I'm changing his gear to more troll-like weapons and attire. The "light" portrait is supposed to be elven in nature. A play on his duality. As far as being thief-like, I was approaching it more from a gaming stance. He's a dexterity based character. So if you were to take him out of the context of our plot and just present it as a player character portrait he could fall under several different categories: thief, assassin, duelist, ranger, brigand, etc. I didn't really want to do the skulking thief with a big dagger type setup because of the limitations of interpretation. I'm not sure if you've played many of the black isle games, but my favorite player character portraits from their series often straddle several different possible classes. Remember, our actual plot isn't a part of the contest scope, it just helps us conceptualize. All that being said, I will try to incorporate something that hints towards his current purpose as a thief, but portfolio-wise I'd keep his purpose more ambiguous.

Edit: At this point I just hope we make it to the finish line.:teeth:

Edit2: Being a half-breed troll/elf, I envision him spending a lot of time out in the wilderness during the day hours and spending only late night hours within city walls. So, I think I've envisioned his class to be a hybrid ranger/thief.

[ALH]

So if you were to take him out of the context of our plot and just present it as a player character portrait

I think this is where we're crossing channels, I'm approaching this from more of a ' this is a specific NPC/side character who the protagonist either encounters in a quest, has as part of his party or hears tales of in the lore ' direction. Even though the CA game is one which will very likely rely on the more interchangeable kind of character portrait for something like its battle system, its still important to tell a story with your character, to make them a person worth getting to know instead of another blank NPC.

Interchangeableness and straddling many classes is good for an MMO, or for defining a player 'type' but for a key story character (which we must assume our characters are if not just so they stand out in voting ) in a 'single player game' it can be rather dull. Oblivion. Everyone looks the same. snoozefest.. Your thief doesnt have to be hunched over clasping a dagger to tell his thiefy story, but *something* to show us who he is is nessecary, so that at the least he is a character worth telling tales of and not just an avatar.


Remember, when the actual game is made, if any of these characters were 'chosen' they would be changed to fit the overarching world anyways, Its better to give too much character information than try to be so ambiguous that they fit into every slot.

That felt like a lecture good lord, i hope it doesnt sound like one D:

[CKLamb]

Ah, I see where you are coming from, I was hinging on this, which is like the third or fourth sentence in the brief:

This time, we are creating fantasy portraits for player characters - with good and evil versions!

I'm not thinking in terms of NPCs. I'm thinking of instances where the player has an idea of who and how they want to play, they then select from a variety of portraits provided.

Edit: Would have been nice to have this conversation like 2 and half weeks ago, yes? Lol.

Edit2: I sure hope my design stands out, or I've been wasting some time!

BTW: Have any of you checked out the guidelines again, Manley just stated that a third or so of the teams weren't in compliance. I'm not sure if we'll need the framing and gallery style setup, they seem to only want portrait style (vertical) images with size specifications about the same as zhanglu's. Which, I think, should buy us more time. If that's the case.

[blackcherry]

Thought I'd post to show you guys where I am with both versions. I'm struggling a bit with picking colours...which may sound stupid but it seems to be a stage that always causes me problems. I'm probably just too fussy.

Good healer:

758568

For the colours, I was thinking light coloured clothing in warm tones. For his cloak I was thinking of having it made up of feathers? or if not I guess fur or fabric. I was planning to go for a sort of tribal look? Any thoughts before I start on it. Background's very rough, and I'm open to suggestions for it, but I think an outdoor scene would be good, but nothing too complicated.

Dark healer:

758569

I've developed him a bit more. For colours I was thinking darks reds, black/greys, dark greens. Unsure about the background.

I'm also wondering what colour to do his hair, but I guess I can play with that at a later stage.

As the whole painting process is my least confident area I'm a bit unsure of how to tackle this with the time frame left. I've probably got myself into a bit of a panic to be honest so any advice, tips etc on how to tackle this stage would be great!

Oh and seen as we're not going for the whole portait look now has this changed anything about how we plan to present it? Are we still going to go for the back to back look? only not so fancy with the frames etc.

EDIT: Due to the whole 'rules/guildelines' points that have just been raised, is this going to alter our designs at all? Are we going to need to make their role more apparent now?

[ALH]

Ah, I see where you are coming from, I was hinging on this, which is like the third or fourth sentence in the brief:

This time, we are creating fantasy portraits for player characters - with good and evil versions!

I'm not thinking in terms of NPCs. I'm thinking of instances where the player has an idea of who and how they want to play, they then select from a variety of portraits provided.

Edit: Would have been nice to have this conversation like 2 and half weeks ago, yes? Lol.



Haha, yeah, it would have been handy. I guess I should have printed off the rules and re-read them a million times, normally i'd have picked up on something like that too, drat. Next time I do one of these i'm making sure i do as much as I can on paper, doing everything digital makes it too easy to forget things buried away on page 1.

I will plead that my crit still stands though, he looks pretty but even without personality cues to make him a true 'character', its hard to tell that he is a thief right now, and we dont want to appear to have two close range 'fighters' ..


From the topics thread-

daestwen
'This isn't directly for the game project no, more to inspire those working on it and get their heads in the game. :]'

:p

[ALH]

Blackcherry, i dont know if it was said in thread of on msn, but our general colour scheme is warm and earthy somewhat monotone and desaturated. Stick to browns and warm greys for now and we can help reign in the rest.


I think we're due for a team meeting to help round up these things...

[CKLamb]

ALH-I will definitely take the crit into consideration as I pull towards a final image. But just to play the devil's advocate, a thief is a viable close range fighter...muahahaha...okay enough wasted energy on backbiting. TO WORK!

Cherry- For the outside scene think about the time of day it is, blue sky and green grass can actually be very hard to do and be taken seriously. Think maybe dawn for good, dusk for evil? Play around some, we'll help if you need it!
EDIT:About the format, just stay on course, just know that you don't need to paint up a frame for it.

[CKLamb]

Skype meeting on the 22 at 8pm your time?

[ALH]

Should be good for me unless something crazy pops up again, but im not anticipating anything this time..

[blackcherry]

Should be fine for 8!

[ALH]

Good team meeting everyone!


Heres my update on evil side- considering textures etc- 'evil' is far more reptillian and harsh, while 'good' is going to be all velvety and huggable, like a little teddy bear.

Totally should have done evil first, this is so much more fun than the good side of things. I recommend everyone does one then pimps out the opposite while its still in development, especially if you're stuck for where to go next, it really gives you a sense of perspective as to how you can adapt your character - as it stands, my 'good' version has fallen to more of a base role, and is set to get even more snuggable :3.

If anything comes up this week to throw me off my mojo now that i've got it back...>O

[ALH]

This thread needs more boobs and furries.

[CKLamb]

Summoner Wips. Really rough ATM. Light will have a bear-like creature. Trying to quickly get them up to specs so I can spend some time on the creatures.




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[blackcherry]

The summoner's looking awesome CK :) really like the look of both versions, dark especially.

Here's my progress. Good healer is almost done, need to finish off a few bits and then touch up/correct certain areas and sort out the background.

I'm working on getting the dark version to the same stage now, so I should have a day or two for finishing off and touching up then. Need to make some adjustments along the way so he resembles the good version a bit more.

761759 761758

[ALH]

ooo! The good healer has turned out well, very fairytale. I could picture him attending a church fete and doing a bit of morris dancing. Possibly too colourful to fit in with the group? but we'll be able to judge that a little better when theyre all lined up.

I would suggest a few more twigs were brought over to the evil side, possibly his belt/satchel, since the moment theyre TOO different from each other, to the point of looking like different characters, perhaps brothers.

[CKLamb]

Cherry- I really like where your good healer is going! He looks festive and full of life. I agree with Sarah about the color, but it's not that big of an issue I don't think. Do you plan on adding a small background in the dark portrait?

[blackcherry]

Thanks guys! I'm glad you like the good healer :) If it is a little bright, I can always tone it down at the end. Guess I may have overdone it with the whole summery, happy feel, lol!

ALH: Yeah i agree about the dark version thats why I said I'll need to match him more as I go along. I've been working on it today. I'm going to alter his cloak to be similar to the good versions, and I've added in a the belts and a bag now. Going to give him some sort of head deco as well I think. So far he's looking a lot better. I'll post my progress soon.

CK: I will add some sort of background in for both of them. I'll paint it in for one of them then duplicate it across and make alterations to suit. I probably won't do anything too fancy though, some small bushes/plants or something along them lines.

[nimzicki]

Looking good cherry :)

And me, bbllarrgghh, changed a bit since anyones seen this I guess :

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/fightercolour_wip8.jpg

[CKLamb]

Looking good Doris! Be sure to flip and fix, I think you'll find a thing or two to tweak. The background is looking better too. Maybe add a few more touches with the yellow on the armor to balance out that purple. I'm interested in where you'll take it in the dark portrait. More doom, less gloom?

[ALH]

Evil is pretty much done, minor tweaks aside - Its lost vibrancy as its gained polish. Good is being pushed around, the pose doesnt have the same warmth as the original and still needs cute-ing up a notch.

[secret_science]

YES!!!! Saggy old woman teet! My absolOOT favorite!

[CKLamb]

ALH- Sweet! BTW, I'm going to do a winged creature for the good summoner! Any suggestions? (I'm going to shorten that staff considerably and turn it into a staff/perch)

This will be my last update until I am complete. Long line-up that needs to be finished!

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[snootchy]

looking great fellas, work through the hurting, no pain no GAIN!!!!

Doing great keep up the hard work all!




TEAM Chönyid bardo! (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=164711)

SSG 69 :heart: ARTGASMIC FORCE
Mission: To push our skills to evolve to the point of giving you visual orgasm.
Eon (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107005) l grenappels (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99577) l snootchy (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=112991) l bleupencil ( http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=134180)

[SMILEFACE]

YEAHHH HAPPY LITTLE TREES THat RRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOGOGO!!!!!!!

[ALH]

I knew nipples would draw in a crowd :D


CK- how about a kakapo? Theyre not exactly the most frightening, and they cant fly, but they have a woodland cutesyness.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1040511180315_2002/12/27/wide_kakapo.jpg

Though if you want to show the character as being very small in scale, something like a finch/tit/wren would be good.

http://www.birdholidays.fsnet.co.uk/images/tenerife-blue-tit.jpg
http://www.hiltonpond.org/images/WrenWinter04.jpg

Goldfinches in particular fit with the colour scheme

http://larelle.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/goldfinch.jpg

[nimzicki]

A Finch! And you called that bear a pussy!

[ALH]

that bear was a stoner, the finch has a pointy beak of death.

[blackcherry]

ALH: Your character looks awesome, both versions! I like the evil one the best though. Also I really like how the background connects both together, looks really good.

CK: That's a lot of designs you've got there! Good luck if you're going to attempt to do them all.

On the background are we going to have it like ALH's so it links both versions of the character or just keep them similar? I think connecting would be kinda cool if we could do it. It would be a good way to present them.

Here's my dark elf now. Got him looking kind of wintery to counter the summery look of the good version.

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I'll probabably post next when I consider both versions finished to get feedback for any possible adjustments

[ALH]

They gel much better now! I'd edit the feet on the evil version though- he appears to have gone up a couple of shoe sizes!

[CKLamb]

Maybe a whole cluster of small birds?

[nimzicki]

HULK STAND VERY STILL.

Err, very, very early progress but progress nonetheless. Peace and love tree friends.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/Fighter_evil_WIP1.jpg

Edit: Corey, yeah a cluster of small birds, not crows though, they are evil mutha's. Would an owl be too played out? Mmm...yeah, scratch that.

[CKLamb]

Rich- It's good to see that your love of half-naked men is being utilized in your work!

[nimzicki]

I was thinking of chucking in a crooked bone penis to appease ALH :p

[ALH]

I was thinking of chucking in a crooked bone penis to appease ALH :p

Thats cool, but personally i think you could [This comment has been removed for vile suggestions]


On his armour- I would reverse the direction of the plating on his arms so it points towards his elbows instead of his wrists, this would be more practical in terms of how it folds to protect the arm, and also means he would be able to punch his arm through someones torso and have it hanging there impaled as the scales fish hook the corpse.

I reckon he would look good with some piercings and muddy bits, and a bit of necrosis around the areas where the armour has embedded itself into his flesh.

..And dont google search necrosis if you've just eaten.


CK- A small flock would be cool, I for one would be running in adorable fear if someone summoned a bunch of sparrows to come fly round my face and peck at my soft bits.

[nimzicki]

Comments duly noted! Its all very much subject to change atm as per:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Nimzicki/Digital%20Painting/Fighter_evil_WIP2.jpg

And yeah I realise it currently has massively homo erotic undertones given hes wearing nothing but a cheeky grimace, purple boots and some er...bone. :/

Edit: oof, compression is blurring my previews like hell but you get the idea.

[ALH]

And yeah I realise it currently has massively homo erotic undertones given hes wearing nothing but a cheeky grimace, purple boots and some er...bone. :/



I like that he is homoerotic, it certainly gives him a 'new' quality that one may not expect to see in an orc- he is strong yet soft, its a nice juxtaposition, and makes him look more burdened than if he was like GRRR I AM MAN. That demon on his chest is looking fierce though, in a good way, if he was a bit ' hello sailor ;)' we would have more of a problem :p

[ALH]

changing faces of the good mage :3

[CKLamb]

ALH- Cool, that's a nice balance, happy but not guffawing.

Rich- Where you at on the dark?

Team: Almost there!

[Muscari]

i'm looking forward to what you guys are going to present, the designs are really coming along, and that last line up with all 6 characters works really well :P