[GeoCat]

I have a couple suggestion that I think would help things a little:

1 week for voting... 2 weeks for voting is an overkill, is way too loooooong, I just don't think its necessary. Gives way too much time for people waiting for the next contest, to lose interest, and find something else to do. In fact, I would go as far as to say 5 days for voting, rolling out the next contest on the 7th day. In other words, let things ride out on the energy of the previous, and keep the momentum up.

My 2nd suggestion:

Make sure the theme has an abundance of reference to support it.

Like for instance: this last contest I think was difficult to get into because there is like hardly any reference for most of the star wars creatures. I chose the Rancor, because its one of the few that had a ton of reference.

I think if it would have been just a Rancor contest, it would have been more accessible.

If going with something more general, than I think its better to have iconic themes where the artist has allot of freedom to spin it... like the "Evil" Witch contest going on right now. Everyone knows Witches, and or has an idea of their own as to what a Witch should be, or could be.

An example of that in a creature contest could be something like: an evil, fierce, or mystical dragon or just a "dragon". Or something along the lines of "cave, swamp, desert, or snow dwelling beast or alien. Everyone has their own idea about what a beast or alien could be: what would it be like if it were from "X" environment, and how did that environment effect its evolution would be the challenge, as opposed to finding specific or proper reference to understand what the creature is meant to be.

Another example would be something along the lines of a frog or amphibious creature etc: Specific enough to give a context, a direction, and find proper reference, but general enough to leave lots of room for the imagination.

My 3rd suggestion, which I think could really take these contests to new heights in participation would be to tap into the abundance of concept art floating around here in the galleries (with the artists permission of course) and or provide a solid concept for everyone to take a stab at, such as what was done with the original production challenge which had a rather large turnout...

just my 2...

cheers!

[MemoNick]

I agree with GeoCat's suggestions.

[GeoCat]

Originally Posted by MemoNick

I agree with GeoCat's suggestions.

It would be cool if we could mix it up from contest to contest: one kind of general like the new Golem, and then maybe something specific from well sought after IP... like "lets see your best ALIEN or Predator", and maybe every third contest (quarterly) we could have something structured along the lines of the "production challenge" for both 3D creature planet and character forge, with 2 months time to finish.

In any case I think they do a great job facilitating and keeping up with these contests! And I apologize if I sound a little hyper critical, just wanted to share my thoughts is all...

cheers

[GeoCat]

Geeze, I hate to sound too demanding here, but I have one more thing I would like to add...

Being that the contests on this forum are relatively active, consistent, and well organized, it would be nice to see the addition of both a 2d and 3D vehicle challenge, a 3D environment challenge as well as a game art (low poly challenge) that mixes it up between vehicles, environments, and characters, quarterly (basically you have 3 months for these).

Adding each of these would be superb, and help cover a wider spectrum of artist and disciplines that are out there... perhaps bring in a little more traffic.

Thanks for listening...

cheers

[Vastarien]

Originally Posted by GeoCat

Being that the contests on this forum are relatively active, consistent, and well organized, it would be nice to see the addition of both a 2d and 3D vehicle challenge...

I think the vehicle challenge is a good idea. Especially for 3D, since I never do very much hard surface modeling on my own.

[GeoCat]

Originally Posted by Vastarien

I think the vehicle challenge is a good idea. Especially for 3D, since I never do very much hard surface modeling on my own.

Yes, if they were to add at least one of these... I would like it to be vehicles!

although a 3D environment challenge would be very nice as well...

neither are things I get to do very often.

[kryssmen]

Hey geocat, thanks for all the suggestions.

I passed on the vehicle and environment ones to the cghub gods.

The reason I started doing less of the joint 2d / 3d creature planets challenges was because of large losses in interest. It was there for the first couple of chellenges but then fell off dramatically... Thats when I changed the format ( which was only a suggested format to begin with).

I will work back into the challenges a 2d creature planets concept joint challenge where the 3d modelers can choose from the 2d artists work ( with their permission). I have a big list of cool things to come but I will work it in.

As for picking challenges that have enough reference... if there isnt any reference then sketch something out. The Starwars universe has tonnes of written reference and descriptions to draw from. Then think of what the creature resembles and start reference that. Its not up to me to find the reference you need as an artist to create your sculpt, use your imagination to find what you need. All I am doing is giving you the idea of what to create and maybe a few images for inspiration. I am not concepting them, thats the task I am giving you.

[Panurge]

Creatures from Hieronymus Bosch land could be awesome. Super zany. Either never before seen, or something already depicted. Lots of room for creativity and imagination there. Kind of similar lines would be goetic demons. Either look in a book or perform the ritual and see what turns up.

[Metatronic]

@kryssmen D&D is a great inspiration. I especially like the idea of constructs, beings created out of otherwise inanimate objects.
Rock, metal, wood, fire, dirt, etc. It's pretty open-ended, so there would be a lot of room for creativity.

[AJL]

I think the way these contests are voted are flawed.
At the moment you have it set up so anyone can vote which I feel actually detracts from any artistic accomplishment for the 'winner'.
If you had a select few of actual artists (by this I mean named judges beforehand) vote or even the moderators I believe the results would be more accurate and the winning piece would be the best artistically and not just the one that was able to get the most votes.
They manage to do this on other forums and even provide explanations and critiques to the top 3 which is something I feel is very helpful for anyone learning and trying to master new skills.

Anyway just my thoughts.
Cheers

[SCWatson]

Hey AJL,

Thanks for your thoughts. You've got some good ideas.

One of the things about the challenges is that participants are encouraged to learn from each other, and the mods (who are not prevented from taking part). The concept is to exchange ideas in a safe, open format where everyone can skill share and critique each other.

Having dedicated judges for the challenges is a challenge unto itself. Moderators don't always have the time, and getting outside judges is truly a herculean task. At the end of the day, the Poll is just for fun. It's not really meant to reflect anything other than "this was the piece that popular this week."

The main action is supposed to happen in the development of the concept in the dev thread. The best way to make sure that this happens is to participate in asking question and providing critiques, but as a piece is being designed and at the end in the Poll thread.

To that end, I'll see about having a note added to the Finals/Polls Threads encouraging this.

Thanks again,
~S

[akunzel]

Hi
I am a new member to CG Hub, but I would love to just have a regular 3D creature challenge, just focussing on concept design sculpting (a couple of hours in ZBrush, Mudbox Modo, whatever).

That doesn't mean an artist couldn't finish it to a high degree with textures/shaders etc if they wanted too and had the time.

Ideally it would be good to be able to sculpt in 3D, render it out and do a paint over in Photoshop; a 2d/3d mix but I don't know if that sort of thing is allowed?

It would make it easier to run the challenges more quickly. If you took a design sculpt and had to render entirely in 3D you would probably need to re-topologize in Topogun, then UV, then texture, set up shaders lights etc...do fur/feathers if needed, it all gets fairly time consuming and may restrict the design process due to this and other technical challenges.

I quite like a lot of the challenges in the 2D Creature Forge and I just saw on a thread in the 2D Creature Forge that I am allowed to use any medium, including 3D...so perhaps my suggestions are already possible in that challenge and not needed here?

Other than that, I would be happy to sculpt any creature but prefer original and interesting ones.

Cheers,
Andrew

[Zentrope]

I get your point where you just want to focus on the design process and the overall output rather than tumbling yourself in the technical stuff. In challenges like 3D Character Forge we accepted clay renders till now but that have changed in the current one (Post Apoc.). It might change in future as well(Vice versa)


The purpose of 3D challenge is to work with 3D tools and not work with Photoshop(2D)...We already have other challenges for that!
You can work and render in Zbrush itself or any other software but paintover is not accepted...Only compositing!

But thanks for the feedback, I might someday blend it in something new with other Mods

[akunzel]

Thanks for the quick reply.

It makes sense to stick to the 3D pipe for this challenge particularly since any medium including 3D is allowed in the 2D challenge. I'm really glad the 2D challenge allows this, its a great way to pump through some ideas and get design feedback.

For a 3D challenge it would be kinda cool to be able to take a creature that you had designed as a 3D sculpt and finish it in a 3D production sense, focusing on good topology, UV's, textures, shaders, lighting and comping. Showing the results of each stage of the process along the way and allowing a month or so to get there.

Perhaps you could run a 3D design challenge where a 3D sculpt is good enough and then follow it with a 3D pipe challenge to fully realize that creature as per the previous paragraph, just an idea. Not sure how popular it would be, I'd certainly be interested.

Cheers,
Andrew

[Zentrope]

Beware...Not all challenges allow use of 3D as a base!

Specially Illustrated and Drawing Jam...(100% 2D)

I like the idea about the 3D pipeline challenge but that would only make 3D generalists happy..But I would like to do something different this time...So BEHOLD