Mini Challenge #4 - Ideas thread

[FredH]

G.I.Joe vs Street Fighter was a blast! Now, while we wait for the results for mini#3, what do you think would be a nice challenge for the next mini?

This time, let's hear some ideas that are not character related. It can be either a small environment piece, or a vehicle.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas:)

[xvampire]

gun ..... I mean .... big gun ...

[zann]

Luxury weapons....axe, sword, guns :think:
Vehicle is cool as well!

[Japhir]

200 tris cars :)

[Dario]

maybe not a weapon, but i think a object or environment design would be interesting too. and i'm very much for the vehicle theme!

[Johny]

make a character that reminds you of your favorite instrumental music.

[cookepuss]

Seeing as how Halloween is right around the corner....

"Monster Mash"

Maybe a 500 poly version of your favorite movie, TV, or comic monster/creature.

Lots to choose from...
Michael Meyers, Pinhead, Freddy, Jason, Alien, Predator, Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, King Kong, Zombies, Mr. Hyde, Nosferatu, Britney Spears (oops ;))

Certainly fits with the time of year at the very least.

[Marcus Dublin]

I second that idea, nice one cookepuss!:thumb:


Seeing as how Halloween is right around the corner....

"Monster Mash"

Maybe a 500 poly version of your favorite movie, TV, or comic monster/creature.

Lots to choose from...
Michael Meyers, Pinhead, Freddy, Jason, Alien, Predator, Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, King Kong, Zombies, Mr. Hyde, Nosferatu, Britney Spears (oops ;))

Certainly fits with the time of year at the very least.

[kremrhi]

I like the idea of the monsters. A Halloween theme contest.

[FredH]

The monster's idea is a really great idea.. however, I am sure we can make it the one after the next one so that it aligns better with halloween:D in fact, let's lock that one in for mini challenge #5:)

So, any other ideas?:D

What about an "Armored Vehicle" Topic. Basically, create a heavy armored vehicle. It can be a tank, jeep, helicopter, bike.. as long as it's heavely armored.

[Chippy82]

Seeing as I want to be an Environmental Artist, I like the idea of a mini challenge centering around Environment pieces.

I suggest some sort of foliage piece, like small trees, bushes, etc.

[Vahl]

I second the armored vehicle thing, and the monster one for halloween, but...when will I find some time to work on the main comp entry !!!??? :'( :p

[Inpw]

My suggestion:

Very offen in games main hero must reach a Very Important Item (VII). It may be somekind of magic jewely, or an alien artifact, or an ancient weapon, or even a water chip :)
So the VII is the contest theme.

[Klash120]

Im all fro 'armored vehicle' ~ does that include - maybe - mechs? : p

[TryForce]

Realistic looking animal?

i would like this one.

[YdoUwant2know]

i like the idea of an armored vehicle, but do we want to limit it to current weapons or maybe say future weapons?

the environment piece could be cool, but i don't see how we could get too much creativity with a 500 tri tree. then again, that could be the challenge of it.

[Japhir]

i'd like reastic looking animals! simple yet loads of fun!
also the halloween thingie sounds great to me!
and if it can't be a character/animal, then i really like the idea of Inpw

[toma_li]

how about a steam punk style army vehichle...

kinda like say a tank or a jet fighter or helicopter or something like that, that would be cool.

[LowRez]

An RTS tank, Any style you want any period of time, Rickity steam punk tank for example, WW2 tank, futer tank... anyhting goes,

To spice it up we could say make 3 variteys of turrets for the base unit....

[YdoUwant2know]

RTS tank would be cool, but the three variants of turrets might be a bit much, i thought the point was to be something small and easy to finish.

[seven]

Anything steampunk sounds pretty cool to me.

[Scjohnson5551]

I would like to test myself with 500 tris on a bad ass Vehicle.

[Marcus Dublin]

Yeah I agree with YdoUwant2know in saying that things should be kept simple, these mini comps are meant to be fun little creative exercises for artists. I have to say though that the RTS tank idea is pretty sweet LowRez:thumb:, especially since it can reflect any time period.:)

RTS tank would be cool, but the three variants of turrets might be a bit much, i thought the point was to be something small and easy to finish.

[sinz]

I vote for vehicle as well, I like the option to choose which to create so if those are interested in the tank idea include it as one of the choices....

Let's start it already ;) heh... In the mood to work just finished something I posted over at the count.

We can call the mini#4 armored core haha! j/k

[Antimagic]

that sounds really cool when said together mini#4 armored core:p If it sounds this good when said, it must be a great comp. So when do we start?:inocent:

But, make tanks only one of the options. I might try a bike or hover bike/heli something...

[dudidam]

i agree with vehicle/armored core. but if i may suggest, i try spaceship, alien, devil, or medieval theme.... :D

lets get this started anyway......

[LowRez]

YdoUwant2know and Marcus, The 3 turret thing was just a snippit I added cause in my head I had a nice image of rendering 3 tanks while thinking about it. 1 would be fine for mini comp. :)

[YdoUwant2know]

No worries... I did not mean to come off sounding harsh or anything. I know how easy it is to get excited for a comp. I already have about 20 idea's bouncing around in my head. I just want to make sure what ever it is I can finish it in time and still be able to get a least a few hours sleep. :D

[TryForce]

No worries... I did not mean to come off sounding harsh or anything. I know how easy it is to get excited for a comp. I already have about 20 idea's bouncing around in my head. I just want to make sure what ever it is I can finish it in time and still be able to get a least a few hours sleep. :D

When you're excited about something and additionaly addicted to it, you won't get a good long sleep :lol: :lol: :approve:

[poopinmymouth]

I vote we raise the limit to 650. 500 actually makes it harder, because you have to spend so long optimizing to the limit. 650 would actually make it faster for me to do.

In addition, 512 really doesn't belong on a 500 (or a 650). I don't know of any game engine anywhere that could push 512x512 maps on characters, that could only push 500 triangles. It should really be a 256x256. You don't get 512's till you're in the 2,500 triangle range in game engines. Plus, if we're having to struggle so much just to get the model made in 500, why all the extra space on the texture?

Next comp, I vote 650 triangles, and a 256x256 max texture resolution. That would be much more consistent with actual game engines, and it would be faster modeling wise, and more challenging texture wise.

http://www.mr-chompers.com/images/poop.gif (http://www.poopinmymouth.com)

[kremrhi]

I agree with mister poppin on this point

and for the mini comp I propose Antigravity Steampunk Vehicle :paper:

[miezis]

yup, poop is right! and i'd like to make the mentioned tank! i'll finish this time! i promise!!!

[tokidokizenzen]

armored vehicle!

[iceblazer17]

Evil Pumpkins or other halloween creatures...bats, witches, gohsts....

Otherwise, maybee some vehicles

[Rogerknightly]

something established would be great, its nice to have an establised design to fall back on. its another time saver

[Tiax]

maybe a little enviroment for 3rd contests winner char. i mean , if its feilong for example , ppls can go for a dojo or chinatown , or sibiria,kremlin etc for zangief....(i'm talking about really small env. , maybe a little bigger than a pedestal) or not just for winner , for any char. it can be a fighting stage for street fighter too. it would look lovely to see both contests winners in a render for sure :)

actually armored vehicle sound nice too

[bin]

how about vehicles from movie series,, like batmobile, herbie etc =P

ar maybe famous vehicles,, not only from movies,, for example like... errrr..
Leman Russ Battle Tank perhaps ?

[Eclipse]

I love the idea of famous vehicles, sounds like a lot of fun! I also really like Tiax's idea of a stage or small enviro. Just my two cents tho :P.

[Deto]

I like the idea of vehicle, but I'd rather have more or less 'open ended' topic. Like the challenges seem to have been before.. Soooo I'd rather not 'be forced' to do heavily armored vehicle, but maybe more like vehicle of some theme? Okay this isn't anymore openended.. :D

About Poop's suggestion. I think 500 tris is good, but the 256x256 sounds like a good limit :)

EDIT:

I know this is a bit stupid suggestion... Buuuuut how about we had some kind of 'guideline' to begin with? For example some random nameless (So that people can't do just that game's pieces. Mebbe song is revealed when the voting begins?) game soundtrack piece (some 10 secs lenght one) and we had to create something fitting to the theme? :)

[cookepuss]

About Poop's suggestion. I think 500 tris is good, but the 256x256 sounds like a good limit :)

Yeah. 500 doesn't seem so bad. 600 would be better, but it'd almost feel like cheating, especially when we've seen people do so much with half that number. If you think about it like you're working on a handheld game with a limited screen area then you begin to realize that so many of the smaller physical details become unimportant. 500 seems fine to me, generous in some regards. The optimization issue isn't that bad as long as you plan well. It's not like you're trying to make the cut from PS3 level spec to a PSP one.

As far as 256x256 goes... more than makes sense. Again, if you're looking at handheld spec-ed game then it seems a mite generous since so much detail won't be seen and so little memory is available.

[Deto]

I'm not very very aware of limits on handhelds -> regular pc -> high end consoles. But the 500 tris does seem a bit high for handhelds, and low for high ends. Then again 256x is a bit low for high ends, but as you Cookepuss said, its a bit too much for handhelds.. Where as 512 is way too much, more for the higher ends?

But I believe we're more aiming to the 'angry medium' (Amount of tris and size of texture no one is happy with, or wants to be higher, or smaller for that matter). Cause that number is, well, hardest to get. Its harder to do nice 256x (in theory) and 500 tri model, than it is to do say 250 tris model with only 128x map or 1000 tri model and 512x map :)

Or it is just what we're used to.. Very very lows or high end low polygons :)

[TryForce]

1000 tri model and 512x map

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

although denno if i will join in anyway, but this limit sounds acceptable for me

[Deto]

Aaah, it was just an example where to fit 512 and how its much more easier to do than 500 tris model :D

I wouldn't want 1000 tri minicomp... There's fullscale comps here for that :)

[poopinmymouth]

Yeah. 500 doesn't seem so bad. 600 would be better, but it'd almost feel like cheating, especially when we've seen people do so much with half that number. If you think about it like you're working on a handheld game with a limited screen area then you begin to realize that so many of the smaller physical details become unimportant. 500 seems fine to me, generous in some regards. The optimization issue isn't that bad as long as you plan well. It's not like you're trying to make the cut from PS3 level spec to a PSP one.

As far as 256x256 goes... more than makes sense. Again, if you're looking at handheld spec-ed game then it seems a mite generous since so much detail won't be seen and so little memory is available.

That's the thing though, 500 doesn't fit in anywhere. DS needs way less ( I know, I've made DS characters) More like 200 tris max, with 64x64 textures. Psp can jump up to 3-6,000 triangles, but with 128x128 texture size max limits. The only games that ever had 500 tri characters are earlier RTS PC games. I understand that 500 is a challenge, I've already completed one of these challenges and I was able to make exactly what I wanted in 500. However, rather than seem like a good challenging number based on logic, it seems like an arbitrary number that falls just too low to make really nice stuff. Even an extra 100-150 would allow a lot more freedom, and much, much, nicer portfolio pieces.

http://www.mr-chompers.com/images/poop.gif (http://www.poopinmymouth.com)

[cookepuss]

DS needs way less ( I know, I've made DS characters) More like 200 tris max, with 64x64 textures.
I don't disbelieve you. Not at all. As much as I love my DS, most of the games don't have that console quality (polish-wise). Sadly, we've all seen enough 1st & 2nd party devs push more than that on the DS, making their games N64+ like. The power is there. Not PSP-level, but enough not to look like Jaguar stuff. :) You're right though. The "average" DS game pushes embarrassingly low numbers.

Most of this stuff depends on genres too. You're going to push a lot more with a fighter or raycaster than you would with a free roaming Lara Croft ripoff.

Psp can jump up to 3-6,000 triangles, but with 128x128 texture size max limits.
Yeah. With such texture restrictions, the upcoming God of War PSP game is a miracle come to life. Lots of beautiful near-PS2 looking stuff.

[Scjohnson5551]

Then how about this since some like the 500 limit and some like 600 lets do it in 3 stages. Like if its a stage 1 mini Challenge its 500, stage 2 600, stage 3 700. Then for the texture us any size up to 512 on all the stages. Then there will be a variation in the comps instead of doing 500 all the time.Rotate each stage every Challenge. Then if you don't like the size in that weeks challenge you can wait till new Challenge and know that it will be higher or lower. Then in your portfolio will show you can do three different levels and if you participate in the Main Challenge people can see you can do high polys too. If you Pick size on what consoles or hand held's use the it can get hectic this way still under control and there is variation in models but not to hard and not to easy.Oh and the prizes stay the same as well they are good because in some of the other Challenges i have seen you get nothing.:thumb:

[FredH]

Scjohn:eek: It would be cool to keep things as simple as possible so that entries can be incorporated into the archives easily (still under construction:inocent:)

So, everyone would like a vehicle comp eh? k, next mini starts next wednesday. Enjoy your weekend.. and if you haven't been working on your naruto challenge... you got this weekend:thumb:

For polycount and textures, ok, as a test, we will increase the polycount to 650, however I would prefer to keep the texture sheets at 512. Sure, it's not technically correct, but it's a good small size for practicing today's high res texture demands.

[blankslatejoe]

650 polies...512 texture... vehicle...sounds fun!

[YdoUwant2know]

I'm really looking forward to Wednesday. :D

I'm with Fred on the texture size. While not "technically correct", the mini comp, as i see it, is meant to be something fun that we do not only to improve our skills, but to have fun. Its an opportunity to get creative with your models and see what you can push out. 512 is just the right size in that it forces you to be creative, but does not make things too difficult.

[Gunnahan]

great suggestions so far.. #5 should definitely be halloween.

i like the item and musical intrument one too.

vehicles i havent done at all, so that wouldnt be my prefered one, but surely again a challenge.

what popped into mind is a dimension/time-travelers collected artifacts?
things he would take from the different worlds to decorate his home or put in his showcase. that could include the instrument / VII idea and maybe furniture too.

cant wait for the next comp to start.

[iceblazer17]

Sweet, now all I gota do is get ahead on my homework this weekend so I can spend more time on this new mini comp thats comming wensday...and playing halo 3 :inocent:

[cookepuss]

great suggestions so far.. #5 should definitely be halloween.

Not to pimp my own idea, but yeah. I love the idea of a spooky theme. It's the one time of year you can indulge in the insanely macabre and not look like a wacko. :2thumbs:

The idea of the vehicle for #4 sounds great, especially since I'm not diggin' the Naruto theme for the longer comp. Just wish I hadn't joined too late for the SF2/Joe mini challenge. That looked like serious fun. :s

On a personal level, I like the idea of mini challenges more anyway. I'm one of those people who's always pressed for time. Every time I've tried to enter longer comps, life & work has always gotten in the way. I usually get about 2 weeks in before I get too busy to finish. Mini challenges are right up my alley. :) This stuff I can get excited about.

[rocky77]

the vehicle sound a nice idea, haven't made one till now (except for one tutorial about nurbs in max :doh: ), it would be nice to make it armored, but as armored as the designer sees fit, and it would be nice to live the time period open. :thumb:
on the other hand - anything asset related would be nice, like a surroundings of a character (nice one! :) ) or some other structure.
all in all it would be fun anyhow :D

[iceblazer17]

We could almost even give it a little more specification and creativity at the sametime. Take a character like Toad from super mario, his go-kart is a mushroom on wheels. Maybee take a character outside of mario kart and develope a go-kart for him or her. Like Solid snake comming to life in S.S.B.B. Im sure we could make a sweet go-kart for him.

Well thats one idea, Im not super super crazy about, but i think it would be fun. If anyone could build off of it, feel free!

[cookepuss]

Lots of old 20th century properties are being given 21st century updates for movies and games. Of those, a lot them feature well known vehicles. Updating old school movies & TV vehicles could make for a fun topic.

What about designing the 2008 models of some well known TV/movie vehicles?

EXAMPLES: Knight Rider, Spy Hunter, M.A.S.K., Road Warrior (Mad Max), Inspector Gadget, Batman, Tron, Speed Racer, Back to the Future, Herbie, Ghostbusters, Munsters, Dukes of Hazard, etc.

A good example of a 2008 redesign might be the BttF time machine. A 2008 update of the time machine might look somewhere along the lines of a Sci-Fi enhanced McLaren or Gumpert Apollo.

[YdoUwant2know]

I'm still voting for the "armored core" idea. Heavily armored tanks, trucks and the like.

i don't the redesigning of tv classics would work all that well with the poly limit. might be something to do in one of the large comps. i just think it would be too difficult to make a time machine with 650 tri.

[Gunnahan]

what i liked about the past mini challenge was the possibility to choose from a variety of things to do (i.e characters from the two subjects) that could be combined into one game if people chose to. so setting something more specific then just "vehicles" is probably a must.

make it "armored", "gokart", "bycile" or whatever.. just let people mind be able to wander and come up with creative ideas. part of the challenge is the buidling in itself but the more impportant part is the creativity and the ideas that go into it.

and after all we are all about games here.. so when it comes to vehicles i would love it to be something we could make a racing game out of.. just be crazy and different. so i would suggest we stay in either landborne, flying or floating or maybe spacecraft. and point it in a certain direction, so maybe it should be just racing , or just combat... already have a few ideas in the back of my head for the armored theme, but still look forward to what the comp will be about. dont stop your ideas, we already have great suggestions for months of minicomps to come :-)

[Deto]

How about heavily armoured vs light and quick? :) sort of the last comp, GI Joe vs ... (blank out, don't remember)...

Option for those wishing to make lumbering heavy battle stations and options for those who want to 'challenge' them with speed ;)

Edit: Another idea, probably used before too, dunno it... 'You the Comic Book Character', sort of caricature (is it written like that?) version of you +1, messed up details, things you do as extremes and so on

[seven]

Lots of old 20th century properties are being given 21st century updates for movies and games. Of those, a lot them feature well known vehicles. Updating old school movies & TV vehicles could make for a fun topic.

What about designing the 2008 models of some well known TV/movie vehicles?

EXAMPLES: Knight Rider, Spy Hunter, M.A.S.K., Road Warrior (Mad Max), Inspector Gadget, Batman, Tron, Speed Racer, Back to the Future, Herbie, Ghostbusters, Munsters, Dukes of Hazard, etc.

A good example of a 2008 redesign might be the BttF time machine. A 2008 update of the time machine might look somewhere along the lines of a Sci-Fi enhanced McLaren or Gumpert Apollo.

this is pretty freaking awesome IMO

[toma_li]

lol what have i started lol. yeah sounds cool.

[nikudy]

i like the idea of armored vehicles too ( including mecs, although i would exclude mecs with humanoid form ).

i like also the idea of a theme given through a song, a poster, .etc that the vehicles should adhere to.