Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 2
This course will look in the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. It's aimed at people that have some modeling experience in Maya but are having trouble with complex objects.
# 1 21-08-2009 , 02:23 PM
Dango77's Avatar
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Surreal Game Character

I have an idea for a short challenge if anyone is interested, it was inspired from reading about 3d art created not for practical use or realistic properties, but alike to painting or hand drawn art, "just for arts sake!"

The challenge would be....

A game character for a fictional game entitled: Salvador Dali-Mind Games!

The idea of the game would be a street fighter style beat 'em up, but you are in the mind of Salvador Dali, and the characters are parts of his mind fighting to be the next idea for one of his surreal paintings.

The rules would be as follows:

2 week limit, starting from one Monday, running onwards (to give time to come up with an idea, create and render, and fit in with other projects/commitments etc.)

Modeling and texturing required.


No background, just game character, rendered on a plain background. (so the focus of the challenge is totally on the character)

Can be either posed or in T-pose (posed would probably get more votes obviously)

The character isn't to be straight from a Dali painting, remember it's a charater he hasn't yet painted so it must be new, just alike to his style. Kind of as if he was living in the present day and was musing on his next work.

Each entry must have a W.i.p., wireframe screenshot, and final render for final entry. All started in a seperate thread in the part of the forum, with Challengers name,and characters name if given.

That's it, if anyone's interested just post a reply etc, and we'll work out a start and end date!


Last edited by Dango77; 21-08-2009 at 02:26 PM.
# 2 21-08-2009 , 03:52 PM
mastone's Avatar
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Love the concept of the idea , i find it a bit restricting in a way and i would place restrictions such as these instead of the ones you placed on the challenge;

Create a maincharacter for a game;
-Max polycount(triangles) 3500 -margin until 3800-.
-Can be an existing game character, but an original get's -more points.
-texturemaps maximum of 4 with a max resolution of 1024 pixels.(colormap, normalmap, specular and so on)

No restrictions on look

Final entries must be presented with;
conceptart(only selfmade, if you grab an image from the net you will be disqualified)
wireframe screengrab with polycount
texturemaps
finalrender(can be made with scenery to add to the character).

each of the above can have a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 4 points and in the end there will be a vote amongst members winner of that poll get's another 8 points.

I would also suggest prolonging the challenge to about a month.

I think this way you"ll get more competitors, restricting to a Dali look only would cramp a lot of peoples style

# 3 21-08-2009 , 04:15 PM
Dango77's Avatar
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Mastone: Your ideas for the restrictions on the challenge are good, that would sound alright to me,

The only thing I will say is, that the overall changes you made make it a little bit too like the main challenges set by the Admins, the challenge wasn't meant to be strictly Dali, more just a surreal character for a beat 'em up, making it just any kind of game character kind of detracts from the idea I had, and what results would follow.

Not too bothered about getting loads of people to enter either, more of an excuse to do this kind of model, and anyone else that wants to join in can!

But thanks for your ideas, will probably change the restrictions part to something similar to what you wrote depending on who actually wants to take part and what their opinions are.

Cheers!

# 4 21-08-2009 , 05:22 PM
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I like the Dali idea. I would join in if that were the case.


Environment Artist @ Plastic Piranha
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# 5 22-08-2009 , 11:44 AM
honestdom's Avatar
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arrgh... Dali makes me want to puke in my hand.

I think if you have an idea for a character you should model it. I agree with Mastone that its a bit too specific.

If you want to do a short challenge make it something simple like model a piece of fruit to look realistic. If it were 2 weeks i would suggest model a head, which you should also make as realistic as possible.

Making things up and modeling them is fine if you have some time and experience to do it. I think as most of us are starting out in maya, so realistic modeling using proper reference images is the thing to do. Its pretty difficult to give criticism on something completely fabricated.
As i've not been doing maya for long i haven't got much in my portfolio and I'm sure some people are in the same boat. If you are looking for a job in this industry then modeling something real is what you should be doing. (this may not be true for games.)

# 6 23-08-2009 , 11:10 PM
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Joopson, I'm up for it, but will put it on hold for a bit, got another little character I want to do first, a bit of a case of too many ideas cropping up to fast!

But I'll re-post the same challenge as soon as I've got this one done and take it from there. I'll look forward to it though.

# 7 24-08-2009 , 03:41 AM
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Sounds cool to me.... School starts for me on the first, but I will have enough free time for this user added image
Should be fun


Environment Artist @ Plastic Piranha
www.joopson.com
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