Apparently the random themes challenge and the Amalgam challenge are popular with you guys (and gals). I will definitely revisit them again. However, I'm pretty sure that if I just alternated random themes and amalgam from now on it will start to get stale. So I have created this thread to get some challenge ideas. Also, below you will find the list of themes from the random themes challenge. Perhaps some of you can offer additional theme ideas to add to that list.
Randomizer List:
Note: The description provided is only meant to explain the assignment title.)
1) Horror: Your character has been or is transformed into a creature of darkness.
2) Western: Your character came to be during the height of the Old West.
3) Ultimate: Reimagined for a gritty modern world. This isn't your 616 kind of hero!
4) Child: Any age from baby to teenager. Your character started his adventures at an earlier age.
5) Pirate: Forget modern times, your character existed durring the age of pirates.
6) Post-Apocalypse: Some sort of disaster has ruined the world. Despite that, your character continues to survive. Conversely, perhaps the character came into being in this harsh new world instead.
7) Alignment Swap: Good becomes evil. Evil becomes good. What would your character be like if he played for an opposing team?
8) Movie: Due to the success of a related comic character's movie, you've been given the task of redesigning this character for a mainstream movie audience.
9) Medieval Fantasy: Dungeons & Dragons, Lord of the Rings, Warcraft, etc. You know the drill. The character exists in a medieval world of magic & monsters.
10) Space Opera: Aliens, Space-age knights, Smugglers, etc. Your character exists in a sci-fi fantasy universe or perhaps just a galaxy far far away...
11) Old: The character is just shy from living in the home of retired superheroes. Perhaps this is at the tail end of the character's existence, perhaps how he/she would look on his/her last mission...
12) Robot: The character was built, not born. It's abilities are completely artificial, perhaps being a robot, cyborg, android or other construct.
13) Next Generation: A new person has taken on the mantle of the character. Maybe the character is related, hired, or perhaps just following in the footsteps of a legend...
14) Gender Swap: Make a female version of a male character or vice versa. Not crossdressing but rather what if your character was born of the different gender? Or what would someone else look like if they were mimicking the style? Think Superman/Supergirl or even Captain America/American Dream.
15) Silver/Golden Age: Totally retro. The character existed in comic's past. Part camp, Part innocence, all hero.
16) Pet/Furry: Lycanthrope (Captain America as Wolf), animal hero (Underdog) or perhaps just the character's faithful companion (Krypto)...
17) HEROES: This is a world where the ordinary are extraordinary and vice versa. Just regular people who come upon powers. What would their job be like? What would they look like in a world where the heroes aren't musclebound beefcakes and their identity takes precedence over their abilities?
18) Evolved: The character's abilities have been increasing and adapting. Think how over the years some comic characters gain new abilities or mutate into new forms. Perhaps their powers are forced into overdrive making them freaks among freaks...
19) Magic/Supernatural: All heroes in this world derive their abilities from a magical or supernatural source. Magical items, deals with demons, magical spells, etc.
20) Pro Wrestler: The world has no superpowered people. But the luchadors are the most popular form of entertainment. When you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room... It's for fun...
21) Historic: The catchall category for other historical time periods not covered in other categories. Ancient Greece, the Rennascaince, Ancient Egypt...
22) Steampunk: Victorian era sci-fi adventure ala Jules Verne, Alan Quartermain, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...
23) Megalomaniac: Not just a villain, but the uberpowered bast**d that destroys the world's supers for their cause. If you get this theme and a megalomaniac, just try and push the envelope further.
24) Fascist: Cold and imposing. Where heroes are enforcers and villains are dictators. Everything you'd expect for a Cold-War Soviet Union, 1984, Logan's Run, V for Vendetta, Equilibrium, etc.
25) Failed Clone: Whether the result of genetic experiments, a duplication machine or a magical bolt of energy, the character was duplicated. Only it didn't turn out so well. The character may be underpowered, overpowered, or just plain ugly.
Disclaimer: I will consider every idea posted in this thread. I will also consider everyone's feedback on those ideas. I can't guarantee all of them will be used, however.
Edit: Typo
Edit: Added in some of the randomizer themes suggested in this thread. 5-06-07
Employed: If the had to get regular jobs...
'Evolved' where the character's powers have ascended to the next level, ie prof x with a huge noggin, supes as pure solar power, wolverine as a hulking man beast, ironman as a voltron sized armour etc. the idea could be either to massively increase their powers/theme, or evolve/devolve them several hundred million years.
'Power/theme swap' pick two characters and swap their theme/origins and powers, a good example of this is 'speeding bullets' where kal-el was found by the kents, and raised as bruce wayne, therefore becoming a superpowered batman after their deaths. this is not an amalgam, this is a complete reimagining of themes.
'**** destroys the *** universe', a version of the character who turns evil and kills off the rest of their world/universe. Kind of like a Maestro version of the character
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Future-imperf.jpg
Batman would likely be in a hulking suit of batarmour equipped with all manner of anti-powers defenses, Supes would regress to his cold, inhuman kryptonian heritage.
'TAS'-redesign the hero in the 'TAS' style (yeah i know that sentence makes no sense if you word the acronym out).
Anime: Design what the character would look like if it was a manga.
Magic: In a world where all power comes from magic, even these heroes do.
Pro Wrestlers: There are no superheroes. Just men and women in tights.
Historic: Whether it be Rennisance or Ancient Greece, this hero existed many centuries ago.
Adventurer/Steampunk: Victorian Sci-fi and daring action a la Alan Quartermain, Jules Verne, etc.
I like those, GG.
How about along with the regular randomizer we add styles?
EXAMPLES| Character__ | Subject__ | Style__ |
| Cap. America | Western | Anime |
| Superman | Wrestling | Jack Kirby |
| Madman | Medieval | Rob Liefeld |
Since some people may not be comfortable imitating certain styles this can be optional. When you enter the challenge you can choose whether to use the style randomizer or not.
Here is a list of styles off the top of my noodle...
- Anime
- Timmverse (JLU)
- South park
- Jack Kirby
- Rob Liefeld
-MJB
I would struggle if we added styles of any sort (including anime, although the south park idea goes gold for a whole new theme, IMHO). I'm not all that good at recycling the styles of other people into my own work, not sure about the rest of you.
And, I think, if we do get the choice of our own style, select a style or the randomizer, then theres no real need for it in the first place ... unless people would rather have that extra challenge?
I think what MJB was suggesting was that when you enter the challenge you either volunteer to get a random style if you want the added challenge, or you simply do the randomizer as usual. You wouldn't pick the different style you'd use, only pick if you wanted to be told what style to do it in. As a purely voluntary thing that wasn't forced on every participant, I think it has promise. Obviously, if no one chooses to be told what style to use, it would end up a standard randomizer with no harm, no foul. Unless someone can give me a strong reason why it shouldn't be offered, I think we'll try it in the next randomizer.
BTW, most of those randomizer ideas are pretty good.
Well, Kirby or Timmverse I'd be fine with, but I wouldn't want to have to emulate those other suggested styles... Thus I would never choose style randomization for fear of getting something I hated instead of liked. Although, that would be a neat idea in and of itself, for a paticular challenge. Maybe not style but using a specific artist's feel to redesign a character. For example, a ton of straps and useless pouches for Jim Lee, or big guns and torso but no feet for Liefeld.
Back to theme and... I'm having a tough time thinking up something that isn't close to something already said.
How about...
Soviet Russia: In American you watch Heroes... In Soviet Russia hero watches you!
Just to clarify: This thread isn't just for additional categories for the randomizer, but actual challenge ideas. We have the randomizer and the Amalgam. Is there something else you guys want as a challenge, or will everyone be satisfied with alternating the randomizer & Amalgam each month?
So a challenge is something like draw a pic in a day or only with your left hand or only with charcoal, and the randomiser (AUS spelling!) is a theme?
I prefer to keep it theme based, and i don't even mind doing the same theme a few times with different characters.
A challenge is ok, but if its too restrictive you may scare people off.
Quote from: Carravaggio on March 02, 2007, 08:41:56 AM
So a challenge is something like draw a pic in a day or only with your left hand or only with charcoal, and the randomiser (AUS spelling!) is a theme?
I prefer to keep it theme based, and i don't even mind doing the same theme a few times with different characters.
A challenge is ok, but if its too restrictive you may scare people off.
At the risk of putting words into someone else's mouth, that's not what Pyroclasm means. The whole "Randomizer" thing is a single example of an "Artistic Challenge"; artists are challenged to come up with pictures based on random themes. Most people in this thread have ben suggesting additional themes for the "Randomizer" challenge. Pyroclasm would like people to suggest entirely different challenges, as well.
Thanks, Alaric. That's what I meant.
Here's new challenge ideas that I'd like to get feedback on:
Name Challenge-- Each participant enters by making up a character name. The names then get randomly distributed. The task would be to design a character to suit the name.
Power Challenge-- Each participant enters by listing a power or power set. These then get randomly distributed. The task would be to design a character based around the power.
Edit: Frellin' typos...
I really like these, the primary reason being it would challenge us to create new characters. that's always a good thing!
How about a variation of Spud's old 30 minute challenge he and someone had.
One name is given to all who enter. Then everyone would draw their version of that character.
Example: Miasma ([size=0]yes I'm using a former FR member as my example... sue me[/size])
Everyone who entered would have to draw their version of a character named Miasma. Lots of original ideas would be spawned.
-MJB
Seems not much different than last year when a random character was chosen from a list nominated by the participants. Everyone drew their own take on the character. That was fun the first 2 or 3 times, and then no one wanted to do them anymore. IMHO, it appears that giving each person their own "personal" challenge works a little better.
How bout a power randomizer where each person chooses their own physical appearance, but gets a random mutant power, and has to draw the character in costume, and choose a name. Everybody can submit mutant power ideas at the start. No ubers.
We could do avatar nemesis, where you get a random name of another participant, and you have to create a nemesis (hero or villain) for that person. then we could get to know each other's avs, as well as expand their universes. It's always nice to get some input from a second brain, as well.
Quote from: Revenant on March 02, 2007, 02:58:33 PM
We could do avatar nemesis, where you get a random name of another participant, and you have to create a nemesis (hero or villain) for that person. then we could get to know each other's avs, as well as expand their universes. It's always nice to get some input from a second brain, as well.
i REALLY like that one, Revenant
Quote from: Alaric on March 02, 2007, 09:49:27 AM
Quote from: Carravaggio on March 02, 2007, 08:41:56 AM
So a challenge is something like draw a pic in a day or only with your left hand or only with charcoal, and the randomiser (AUS spelling!) is a theme?
I prefer to keep it theme based, and i don't even mind doing the same theme a few times with different characters.
A challenge is ok, but if its too restrictive you may scare people off.
At the risk of putting words into someone else's mouth, that's not what Pyroclasm means. The whole "Randomizer" thing is a single example of an "Artistic Challenge"; artists are challenged to come up with pictures based on random themes. Most people in this thread have ben suggesting additional themes for the "Randomizer" challenge. Pyroclasm would like people to suggest entirely different challenges, as well.
Um...thats what i said, randomiser=theme/flavour, challenge=set of conditions/restrictions that dictate the creative direction of the image and/or how it is produced
Pyroclasm: I like both those ideas, especially as Rev said, it allows the creation of new characters.
Quote from: Carravaggio on March 02, 2007, 03:51:07 PMUm...thats what i said, randomiser=theme/flavour, challenge=set of conditions/restrictions that dictate the creative direction of the image and/or how it is produced
Uh, that's not what I said, however. A challenge can be a theme/flavor (for example, the entire challenge could be to draw a character in "Golden Age" style), and the Randomizer itself is a challenge, even with no additional conditions/restrictions. The point is to come up with possible new challenges in place of the Randomizer, not additional criteria for using said Randomizer.
I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding you, but it looks to me like you're making a distinction where there isn't one.
As I see it, the use of the word 'challenge' is just to point out that it isn't a competition, but something to do for the fun of it with no real reward (apart from the reward of participation. You damn well better make the most of it!). Just a more fitting word.
If not that, then the challenge of it is to keep to a theme, like the randomizer.
Is that right?
And thanks for clearing up the earlier comment - I understand now, and it is a good idea.
Quote from: Carravaggio on March 02, 2007, 03:51:07 PM
Quote from: Alaric on March 02, 2007, 09:49:27 AM
At the risk of putting words into someone else's mouth, that's not what Pyroclasm means. The whole "Randomizer" thing is a single example of an "Artistic Challenge"; artists are challenged to come up with pictures based on random themes. Most people in this thread have ben suggesting additional themes for the "Randomizer" challenge. Pyroclasm would like people to suggest entirely different challenges, as well.
Um...thats what i said, randomiser=theme/flavour, challenge=set of conditions/restrictions that dictate the creative direction of the image and/or how it is produced
You are not saying the same thing. The randomizer
is a challenge (which dictates what theme to use). The Amalgam is another challenge (which dictates what character to use). The new ideas I posted are yet other challenges (one dictating the name to use, the other dictating the powers). All of them create a set of conditions that guide the creative direction of the image, and each has a set of rules that restrict how it is produced.
The "randomizer" is called that only because I liked that better than "Redesign your chosen character according to a randomly assigned theme challenge". None of them tell you that you can only produce something in one specific fashion, but they all tell you what you are supposed to do, and what you are not allowed to do.
Notice each of the threads is called "Artistic Challenge", not "Random Theme of the Month". That's what they were last year. Apparently everyone hated that. This year, it's all about challenging artist's creativity.
No one is suggesting that you can only use a specific medium or that you can only draw the character in a specific pose.
Are you saying you don't want the challenges to change each month? That all you ever want to do is be assigned a random theme?
I don't think that will happen, because like I said at the beginning of this thread, it will get old.
I don't think we are understanding each other. I don't know how else to explain it.
How about this . . .
there's a common theme amongst the challengees . . . like "medieval" time period . . .
and then an "added element" like the that the character is either in a specific style or the character is an avatar of someone here or an established character . . . but that element is given somewhat at random.
I'd quite like to see a few more challenges based around avatars rather than mainstream characters. I would enjoy that a few bits more.
I have found that most challenges involving avatars end up "unfair" in some fashion. People tend to nominate the most popular board members, leaving others ignored. Also, each person has their own feelings as to how they like to be portrayed, and some may not actually want to have their character retooled. That's not to say avatar-type challenges are not possible...
With that said, I had been contemplating a couple involving "avatars" but do not have them ironed out.
Step 1 would be to get signups among the artists for one week. That way we will know how many avatar slots need filling.
Step 2 would be to allow that number of avatarless board members to nominate themselves for the project (This would probably require a crossposting in alternate avatars and general discussion). This process will probably take place while another challenge is occuring. Obviously first come, first served.
Step 3 would be to randomly distribute the avatars-to-be among the participating artists. They would then have a month to design the avatar. To be fair for their hard work, the ones who signed up to receive an avatar should use it as their board portrait for a minimum of one month after the close of the challenge.
Another way would be to create a thread that would indicate that if someone wants to allow their character used they can add them to the thread. Then, I could distribute avatars randomly without concern for popularity/notoriety, or other aspects of the avatar itself.
Quote from: Pyroclasm on March 03, 2007, 01:21:59 PM
Another way would be to create a thread that would indicate that if someone wants to allow their character used they can add them to the thread. Then, I could distribute avatars randomly without concern for popularity/notoriety, or other aspects of the avatar itself.
I like this idea. Avatars that have been used once could be placed in a temporary bin so that the next avatar-based challenge hasn't had the same names repeated. That can be recycled then as well.
I was gonna suggest using the avatars of the nominators, but thats unfair in itself.
Quote from: Pyroclasm on March 03, 2007, 01:21:59 PMAnother way would be to create a thread that would indicate that if someone wants to allow their character used they can add them to the thread. Then, I could distribute avatars randomly without concern for popularity/notoriety, or other aspects of the avatar itself.
[2¢] I think this version of the avatar idea would generate more potential suckers....er, uh, I mean "candidates" ( :D) than the first one. The downside I see happening with the first one is just not enough interest/participation from those that are avatar-less. Having more av's to choose from than artists to draw them is better than the opposite, challenge-wise. [/2¢]
Quote from: Carravaggio on February 28, 2007, 05:50:29 PM
'Evolved' where the character's powers have ascended to the next level, ie prof x with a huge noggin, supes as pure solar power, wolverine as a hulking man beast, ironman as a voltron sized armour etc. the idea could be either to massively increase their powers/theme, or evolve/devolve them several hundred million years.
'Power/theme swap' pick two characters and swap their theme/origins and powers, a good example of this is 'speeding bullets' where kal-el was found by the kents, and raised as bruce wayne, therefore becoming a superpowered batman after their deaths. this is not an amalgam, this is a complete reimagining of themes.
'**** destroys the *** universe', a version of the character who turns evil and kills off the rest of their world/universe. Kind of like a Maestro version of the character
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Future-imperf.jpg
Batman would likely be in a hulking suit of batarmour equipped with all manner of anti-powers defenses, Supes would regress to his cold, inhuman kryptonian heritage.
I don't know how I missed these, But I really like them!
They'd be fun whether done with mainstream characters, or the AVs of participants.
I like having a "bin" where the already-done avs can be retired until they've all had a go. Then we can start again next challenge... But in order to have your avatar drawn in a challenge, you also have to enter the challenge.
i get it now. the entire thing is an artistic challenge, and the theme of the month/randomiser was one of the challeges. this thread is a call for more challenge ideas, not more categories for the randomiser. there were a few posts above that referred to the randomiser as a 'theme' that additional criteria and challenges would be added to/optional. that confused me. it sounded like a theme+a challenge.
well i like the randomiser, i'm happy for more categories to it. a lot of the other non-randomiser challenges sound somewhat limiting.
i agree with Rev, i'd like to see more stuff incorporating AV's as well, and i think its fair for entrants in the challenge to have their Av's included. i've see ones where long inactive members got a redesign, when they clearly didn't need it, while active, contributing members got the shaft.
i doubt i'd participate in the 'imitate another artist's style' category. its a fine idea, but not my thing really, but don't hesitate to use it if people like it, i'll just take that month off to rest :)
We would not have any challenge that focuses on forcing you to draw in another style. We are only considering it as an optional offer to an existing challenge if a participant wants the additional difficulty. I don't think it will be popular, but I'm not going deny it to those that like a tough challenge. Again, the style thing will be optional, so you need to ask for it or you will get your regular assignment as usual.
Like I mentioned in a previous, I won't run a challenge where avatars are nominated. They tend to be unfair. The only way I'll do it is if people sign up their avatars to a pool that I will randomly pull from. I would also not limit the avatar pool to people who enter the challenges. Doing so would only make the challenge "elitist" and that is not what they are about.
Quote from: Pyroclasm on March 05, 2007, 08:43:02 PM
Like I mentioned in a previous, I won't run a challenge where avatars are nominated. They tend to be unfair. The only way I'll do it is if people sign up their avatars to a pool that I will randomly pull from. I would also not limit the avatar pool to people who enter the challenges. Doing so would only make the challenge "elitist" and that is not what they are about.
Fair enough. I already see a lot of posts to the effect of "i'd like to participate, but i can't draw," which is unfortunate, cos participation is key, not ability (as you've said many times).
Although if done positively, i still think it could work. i saw a bunch of people sign up for the amalgam challenge that i've not seen post art before. i'm therefore assuming it was the content of the challenge that go them motivated to try something outside their ususal sphere.
wouldn't the idea of an AV redesign/nemesis etc. be even more motivation to get involved? even newbs could get in on it and participate, I'm not trying to be argumentative or anything. i just think there are some cool characters on this forum, and it'd be fun to utilise some of them beyond simply nominating them for the names list.
Regardless, i look forward to seeing the new challenges you cook up for us, pyroclasm...
cook...pyro, fire guy/cooking...eh?eh?
Bah, tough crowd... :P
Quote from: Carravaggio on March 05, 2007, 09:12:18 PM
wouldn't the idea of an AV redesign/nemesis etc. be even more motivation to get involved? even newbs could get in on it and participate, I'm not trying to be argumentative or anything. i just think there are some cool characters on this forum, and it'd be fun to utilise some of them beyond simply nominating them for the names list.
That comment that I bolded is an example of what I'm talking about.
Some Cool Characters Exactly. Not all the characters are "cool". Many of them don't have any more depth to them than the one image used in a portrait. So, if participants nominated other people, they would most likely nominate a) the really cool-looking ones b) The ones with the most interesting potential c) the ones belonging to a prolific & popular poster d) a friend. And as I've seen before when I ran the Skinning Challenge, it will always be the same batch of avatars with a few variants. (Probably because those few avatars meet most of the above criteria.) That leaves the board members who really believe their personal character is the coolest, flapping in the wind. Also, what if "Board Member Z" doesn't want anyone "improving" upon his design or would take insult to their character given a "trailer trash" template? Would we then have to PM every nominated person and tell them what the assignment is going to be, and if that's ok with them?
I'll leave avatars to voluntary participation and random chance, so no one gets the shaft.
Speaking as a non-artist who has occasionally participated in artistic and skinning challenges, I really, really like the idea of having an "avatar permission" thread, from which avatars can be randomly assigned for challenges like this- the same idea (with a different thread) could work for skinning challenges, too. I also like the idea of an "avatar's enemy" challenge- I don't think itshould be phrased as having to be the avatar's arch-nemesis, though- it should be up to the person the avatar actually belongs to whether the character created is their arch-nememis or just one of their enemies. Having other people create enemies for someone's avatar could be a lot of fun- anyone remember the "create an arch-enemy for Kid Freedom" contest?
Quote from: Alaric on March 06, 2007, 06:44:53 AM
Having other people create enemies for someone's avatar could be a lot of fun- anyone remember the "create an arch-enemy for Kid Freedom" contest?
Yeah! I can dig that! :thumbup:
Had a different idea for the Amalgam randomizer - participants choose a mainstream character, and get randomly assigned a Freedom Force member. You have to then create an Amalgam character combining the two. In the case of too-obvious similarities (you pick Captain America and get assigned Minute Man) we'd either reshuffle, or you can go with it, but make it a bad guy instead.)
Quote from: Revenant on March 06, 2007, 08:34:07 AM
Had a different idea for the Amalgam randomizer - participants choose a mainstream character, and get randomly assigned a Freedom Force member. You have to then create an Amalgam character combining the two. In the case of too-obvious similarities (you pick Captain America and get assigned Minute Man) we'd either reshuffle, or you can go with it, but make it a bad guy instead.)
When I first read this (*just* before I got to the Cap example), the first thing I thought about when you said "similarities" was Nick Craft & MJB.....each has the health of a sick chiuaua! :lol:
Listen, there's been some talk of avatar stuff... I think the answer is fairly obvious.
If you sign up for the challenge, then your avatar is now in the pool. When you sign up you will provide a picture of your avatar, and any information you deem necessary. When you randomly assign avatars, you check them over to make sure nobody got their own. If they did, simply swap their's with the next one down.
I do like the "create a random villain from their rogue's gallery" thing. I think that could be very swell. If the person isn't really into it, they could never bring it up, but for some people... well they might be inclined to include it into their avatar's mythos.
OR, there's the classic evil Bizzaro world version... but that's really part of the randomizer. You could do a special avatar edition of the randomizer.
How about updating FF characters for modern times? People always seem to like doing that, or redesigning them for whatever time period you want (being assigned?), or doing their origins not with the Energy X factor but with blah blah something... Okay, maybe not that last one.
by the way, I second the pro-wrestler theme that Sword mentioned
It's already on the list. See the Challenge #15 for the current list.
For the Amalgam challenges, I've been focusing soley on the Marvel & DC universes mainly because that was where the concept is derived from.
I was wondering what people thought of these additional versions of the challenge:
1) Participants name a comic character regardless of universe. They are given a random avatar to make the Amalgam.
2) Participants name any two comic characters regardless of universe. They keep the first, the second is randomized.
3) Participants choose two characters from differing universes they intend to Amalgamate. The twist is they get a theme from the randomizer table.
I like the second idea best... seems to be the easiest to implement. You should throw in a condition that says that the second, randomized character can't be from the same fictional shared universe as the first one though. So if a dude has, say Leonardo the ninja turtle as their first character, and then gets, I dunno, maybe April O'Neil, for his second character, the challenge organizer has to re-roll until the artist gets someone from a different fictional universe.
The third looks to be the most interesting in terms of offering up a challenge, but it all depends on how clear the themes are... like say, my idea of a "Bruce Timm/JLU" or an "anime/manga" theme might be waaay different from somebody else's... it would be better if the themes were to revolve around simpler concepts... like say, one theme would restrict the artist to using a monochromatic palette, for example, although I don't know how well restrictions like that would be received by the participants.
Quote from: zuludelta on May 05, 2007, 02:20:09 PM
I like the second idea best... seems to be the easiest to implement. You should throw in a condition that says that the second, randomized character can't be from the same fictional shared universe as the first one though. So if a dude has, say Leonardo the ninja turtle as their first character, and then gets, I dunno, maybe April O'Neil, for his second character, the challenge organizer has to re-roll until the artist gets someone from a different fictional universe.
The third looks to be the most interesting in terms of offering up a challenge, but it all depends on how clear the themes are... like say, my idea of a "Bruce Timm/JLU" or an "anime/manga" theme might be waaay different from somebody else's... it would be better if the themes were to revolve around simpler concepts... like say, one theme would restrict the artist to using a monochromatic palette, for example, although I don't know how well restrictions like that would be received by the participants.
The themes are regularly used in the "Randomizer" challenges. You can find an updated list at the beginning of this thread and at the start of Challenge 15's thread. Themes refer to character types, time periods, etc. rather than art style. So for option 3, for ex., if the participant declares wanting to combine Spawn with Emma Frost, the randomizer might tell them they need to make the amalgam come from a Victorian Era.
I actually found number one to be easiest to implement since it doesn't matter what the first character's universe is since the second would be an avatar pulled from the permissions thread (The Freedom Reborn Universe, if you will). The only thing I'm worried about is the poor turnout for the last avatar challenge. People asked for it, many signed up, and very few actually made the art.
I found the second choice to be the hardest one to implement because of not knowing what would be placed first or second. If participant 1 names Marvel then DC, and Participant 2 names DC then Marvel, the only possible combination would be Marvel/Marvel & DC/DC. If each participant would have named 2 of the same universe it wouldn't be an issue. However, add in more than 2 participants and a true "random" would be hard to do. I would probably be forced to "tweak" the results manually. Probably the easiest way to fix it would be that both names are randomized.
Here's yet another idea. Instead of randomizing the characters:
Participant 1 names the chaaracter he is keeping, and one for the last person who signs up. Participant 2 names one she is keeping, and one for Participant 1 to use. Each person repeats, naming their keeper and assigning one to the previous poster. Once the challenge officially starts, the last person to join has to combine their choice with the one Participant 1 assigned them. Each person just makes sure the character they assign to the previous person is from a different universe.
Here's an example:
Participant 1: I'm using Superman, and the last person needs to use Silver Sable.
Participant 2: I'm using Nick Fury, and Participant 1 needs to combine Superman with Juggernaut.
Participant 3: I'm using Witchblade, and Participant 2 has to combine Nick Fury with Green Arrow.
So on and so forth.
I like the idea of crossing a mainstream character with an avatar. Hopefully not limited to just Marvel and DC. I know, I took a while to do my avatar. I just wasn't having any luck, but I would love to give it another shot.
As for your current idea... How about this? Participant 1 names his/her character and the character for the last person. Participant 2 names his/her's and the character for the SECOND last person?
Of course, you run into the same problem of both possibly being from the same universe, but I don't think that is really that much of a problem.
Also, I notice Carravaggio is doing these 30 minute challenge things. That might be an interesting idea to look into.
Quote from: UnkoMan on May 06, 2007, 06:16:16 PM
Also, I notice Carravaggio is doing these 30 minute challenge things. That might be an interesting idea to look into.
Each artistic challenge runs approximately 30 days. Carravaggio is doing 30-min speed sketch/design that would not work well under the umbrella of a month long challenge. Another thing that didn't work well before was giving everyone the same assignment. In addition, I'm not inclined to take someone's ideas if they themselves did not suggest it in this thread.
May I humbly suggest that people could re-design a DC hero or villain as their opposite, to work in conjunction with my own quasi-challenge?
Heroes NBC character design challenge:
You pick a character from the show, aaand...
1. You have to draw them as a costumed superhero/villain
2. You can opt for an art style or theme as an additional challenge, i.e. Western, Cyberpunk, Victorian, Timmverse, etc.
Got a new challenge idea...
In the vein of heroes and villains like Batman, Catwoman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Black Cat, etcetra... They're based on members of the animal kingdom, even though they fight crime the urban jungle.
the challenge I propose is that each challenger picks a powerset and nominates an animal, and then gets randomly assigned an animal from the nominees. They have to design a hero with their chosen powers, who models themself after that random animal, or has traits of the animal. I think it would be cool if the name of the animal is used in the character's name somehow...
One thing I thought of was the possibility of silly animals being nominated for comedic value.. Like the Wombat, Peacock, Chihuahua... you know what I'm talking about. Maybe the entrants could specify a "no silly animal's, please" clause if they so choose? Ehhh.. maybe the wimps should have to do it anyway.
I think a "No Furries" clause would be in order. I think the key would be that the characters take the name an model themselves after the creature rather than them being a hybrid or humanoid animal. (For example the difference between Batman & Man-Bat.) I think perhaps the powerset should be up to the artist while they are assigned an animal from the nominations. Sounds promising.
Yes that's exactly what I was thinking -- they don't necessarily have to be a hybrid human-animal; they could just be like Batman, whose costume is modelled after the animal.
Maybe the powers should be chosen after the animal is assigned. Otherwise you'd get things like "Electric Wolf" or "Fiery telepathic Elephant"
It would be really neat TRYING to force powers onto certain animals... But ultimately, yeah... choosing your own powers is better. I really like that idea though.
How about this one... A random origin blurb and random powersets? By blurb I mean like "bit by radioactive animal" or "stranded from another planet" or something. Actually, I could see potential for problems, but it's still interesting.
Quote from: UnkoMan on July 09, 2007, 10:57:41 PM
It would be really neat TRYING to force powers onto certain animals... But ultimately, yeah... choosing your own powers is better. I really like that idea though.
How about this one... A random origin blurb and random powersets? By blurb I mean like "bit by radioactive animal" or "stranded from another planet" or something. Actually, I could see potential for problems, but it's still interesting.
Hmmm... Super-Skrull runs into.... Earth-Skrull!
Lost as a child on a backwater planet, an infant Skrull is raised by loving human foster parents to man... uh... Skrullhood to become the defender of Truth, Justice, and the Terran Way!
That actually has some crazy possibilities... like if he became a SHIELD agent, and had access to all that advanced technology.
Although bitten by a radioactive platypus...
I used to do a challenge in the Chat Shack with Tater Tot where someone would suggest a name, and we'd both run off and design a superhero with that name. It was neat to see how two people interpreted the same information.
So for a full challenge, everybody signs up and suggests a name, then you pick half of them which are the most interesting and assign names to a pair of artists. If there's an odd number of people, give one to three people.
I like Spud's idea. I also like the animals thing, at first it made me think of the JLApe (and other DC comics) where the heroes became apes. That would be neat, but not all of us can draw animals.
Here's an oddball mixing: take an existing hero and redesign them as another archetype (class). Archetypes/classes would be such things Brawler, Tank, Psionicist, etc.
So you could have weird things like:
"What if the Thing was a Brain?"
"What if Batman was a Brute?"
"What if Flash was an Energy Blaster?"
Quote from: psychopanda on July 10, 2007, 04:58:10 PM
I like Spud's idea. I also like the animals thing, at first it made me think of the JLApe (and other DC comics) where the heroes became apes. That would be neat, but not all of us can draw animals.
The Name Challenge was added to the list of upcoming challenges back in post #13 when I first mentioned it. :P
As for the animals, that's exactly what that challenge
won't be. No Furries. Just guys (and gals) who take on the animal name but are not animals themselves (other than human animals). Solves the not being able to draw animals problem. ;)
I think it's time to do another Randomizer.
Seems like all the suggestions so far are superhero-centric, which is to be expected from this board, obviously. How about a challenge that involves drawing scenes based on vaguely descriptive, random phrases? Like say, phrases like "world's biggest loser" or "last day of school" or I dunno... "too much tofu" or something. I bet we could come up with a pretty interesting list. Participating artists are free to skew their work towards superheroes, of course, but it also leaves open the possibility of doing non-superhero influenced images.
Oh, so sort of like Marvel's Powers, where they imagined the superheroes as everyday-schmoes? That sounds interesting. Of course, I might have the wrong end of the stick.
Quote from: Sevenforce on July 13, 2007, 04:28:01 PM
Oh, so sort of like Marvel's Powers, where they imagined the superheroes as everyday-schmoes?
Ahhh... not quite. More like the art class exercises I had when I was in grade school. My art teacher (who also happened to be the janitor/school handyman/substitute music teacher!) would just come up with a random phrase or sentence and just let everybody run with it as a theme. Maybe we can do something similar, maybe use some of the filters/criteria outlined by Pyro to give the work some direction.
How about a team-up sort of challenge?
The first thought I came up with, was having one person write the background on a character and another person drawing it (they could work this out at the same time, or maybe someone does one part before the other?).
You could also do a layouts/finishes idea as well or sketch/color.
If you do a layout/finishes or sketch/colour sort of thing would you get to choose which side you sign up for?
Granted, this could cause problems of too many for one, not enough for the other.
Quote from: UnkoMan on July 19, 2007, 08:14:46 PM
If you do a layout/finishes or sketch/colour sort of thing would you get to choose which side you sign up for?
Granted, this could cause problems of too many for one, not enough for the other.
If it was me, I would have preferences but be open to anything. But for the pairing of others...I can see where this could be a problem. Not all people play well together or even want to play together. The other problem is time, like if one person has to wait *forever* on the other person. I think it's a cool idea, but it's Pyro's game and he might not want to deal with all the issues behind it. ;)
This sort of thing would probably work best as an "option". Like the random art style or random theme that can be tacked on to a Challenge.
Edit to add: the whole idea sprang partly from the assembly line comics approach. It's interesting to see a Ditko layout pencilled by Byrne or vice versa. In cases like Byrne/Austin or Miller/Janson, the pairing was often better than the sum of its parts. Another part is that there are so many great people here at FR, that I think it would be fun to collaborate. It might even give the chance for someone who doesn't draw to team-up by writing the back-story.
There really is nothing holding you back from teaming up with another participant, or even recruiting someone who didn't sign up. For example, in one of the Amalgam challenges, I was asked to team up with Blkcassanova in our concepts and execution since I had a Batman part, and he had a Robin part. So that's where Black Bat & Collosal Boy came from. I don't think it's beyond a reason to share the art chores either. What I don't think would be good is forcing anyone into a pair up. It reminds me of "group projects" in high school. One person might do all the work, and the other one chooses to be a slacker. It's hard enough for some of us to finish our own pieces in time. How messed up would it be if your partner doesn't finish until a day or two before the next challenge, or worse, never gets around to doing anything?
So long story short...Team up with people if you want to, but you won't be forced to do so.
Now the hopefully fun part...
We've had a request for a random art style in the current challenge. I've got a few I used the last time it was asked, but I think I want to add a few more to add a little more "randomness". Hope you guys can help. An art style is not going to be a specific artist, unless that artist is the epitomy of the particular style. For example, Bruce Timm is what I think of when I think of "Animated Style". Here's my current list. (All suggestions will be considered, not all will be used.)
1. Anime/Manga
2. Classical Art
3. Classic Comics (Kirby, Ditko, etc.)
4. Bruce Timm/"The Animated Series"
5. Humorous Cartoon (South Park, Simpsons, Family Guy, etc.)
6. 90's X-treme Comics (Liefeld, Lee, Silvestri, etc.)
7. Peter Chung (Aeon Flux, Riddick: Dark Fury, etc.)
8. Frank Miller (High Contrast B&W, i.e. Sin City)
9. Classic Magazine Illustration (Pulp Art, Time, Life, etc.)
The Classic Comic style really should include more of the greats, like Steve Ditko, Curt Swan, Wally Wood, Alex Toth, etc. You could also make a 70s style with Neal Adams, John Buscema, or an 80s style with John Byrne, George Perez, Mike Zeck, etc.
Thanks for the cooperation clarification. I think I might toss a hook out there for this next Challenge.
Modified the list.
Also added
8. Frank Miller (High Contrast B&W, i.e. Sin City)
9. Classic Magazine Illustration (Pulp Art, Time, Life, etc.)
Couple other suggestions for this list:
Mignola (http://yaabal.free.fr/pages/Zimages/mignola/image/Mignola05.jpg) (maybe thrown in with the Timm style).
Dan Brereton (http://www.wordballoon.com/images/brereton-nocsfamportrait.jpg), really unique, likes to use paint in his work.
Alex Ross (http://www.superherostuff.com/OtherItems/Images/spiderman_classic_alex_ross_poster_2.jpg) (speaking of paint).
Boris Vallejo. (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/5714/CentaureBorisV.jpg)
Walt Simonson (http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/9/93/Simonson_Thor346-pg17.jpg), known for his linear style and awesome sound effects.
Abstract/Montage, something like Bill Sienkiewicz (http://ajvermeulen.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/sienkiewicz_art.jpg)
Dave Johnson (http://www.drewgeraci.com/images/superpatriotbig.jpg), not much of an Image or Manga fan, but I liked this guy's stuff a lot. Geoff Darrow is pretty similar in the American comics meets Manga style.
Funny Comics Style (Sergio Aragones, Fred Hembeck, PVP, Captain Carrot, etc.)
Edit: had to take off before I could finish, adding a few more ideas.
I think there's a bit too much specific artists here (which pyro said he wasn't going for), and to be honest... while good a few just don't really stand out to me.
Now, Mignola I'm alright with. He's like Timm crossed with Miller, and amazing, and easy to do with ink.
Alex Ross? Well... I'm almost inclined to hook his under "Classical Art."
Brerenton? Friggin' fantastic, and I love him... but a bit hard to duplicate with ink. Still, I am tempted to leave him.
Walt and Dave? It's really just comic book art now. Extremely good, granted, but not THAT much standing out.
And Boris Vallejo is just painted.
If I did throw out an artist's style I'd like to see though, it would be Ben Templesmith.
That being said... I think Montage is an awesome idea.
Funny Comic Style could essentially be Humourous Cartoon, however... Funny Animal Style? Basically you design your character as an actual character, then redesign them as a funny animal parody of that character. Like the spectacular Spider-Ham.
Or how about Underground Comix Style? You know, Crumb, Spiegelman maybe. A very '60s vibe. Not too much, though. Got to be family friendly. Actually, maybe that nixes Ben Templesmith.
Also, I think pulp art really is its own genre, isn't it? Unless Time and Life did pulp style covers, that I don't know about.
How about throwing in different artistic movements? Pop art. Dadaism. Deco. Ones people should know, obviously, and that could translate. Or how about "child like"? Try to design the character as a child would, and draw thusly.
Okay, enough ideas for now.
Boris did a comic book story in, I think, Fight The Enemy #2, from
Tower Comics.
Need to dig that out sometime...
Quote from: UnkoMan on July 31, 2007, 10:24:11 PMTry to design the character as a child would, and draw thusly.
Um, that's my default style. :P
It would be kind of neat to draw stick figures with crayons though.
Anyways, good points. I was trying to think of different styles at first, but Pyro had listed specific artists (like Frank Miller, Jack Kirby) so my brain got side-tracked thinking of other artists that have their own unique voice. I had thought about Crumb, but wasn't sure what the style would be called. I was thinking "alternative", but "Underground" is perfect. Looking back, I agree, Alex Ross and the other painterly styles would be really hard for most people to do.
Ok, just giving a preview for the idea for October's challenge.
October is the month for my most favorite holiday ever, Halloween.
October's challenge will be another Amalgam challenge but with a twist:
Each participant will name one monster (movie, mythical, literary, etc.) and one non-monster (comics, movies, etc.). I'll probably toss in a few extras in the mix just for some more randomness.
Each person will get a monster and non-monster to combine together. Anyone who wants more than one assignment to combine into a "battle" or whatever can just ask when they sign up.
Sign ups will start on the 23rd and assignments given on the 1st. Just posting this here in case anyone has a suggestion for tweaking this challenge, and to maybe get you looking forward to it.
I am the guy that loves to over-complicate things so feel free to ignore this.
How about adding a "situation" to the mix? Example you get Superman as the hero, Zombie as the monster and sleep away camp as the situation.
-MJB
The situation idea sounds sort of neat, but I think we should try just monster amalgams first. If it works, and were're all still around, situation for next year maybe?
As for "non-monster," that's very vauge. Are we sticking to superheroes or just anything? What if you end up getting Marty McFly and werewolf? I've already seen that movie, man. What if somebody says, like, "homeless person" or "construction worker" or something? Should it be an established fictional character?
Quote from: UnkoMan on September 16, 2007, 10:19:29 PM
As for "non-monster," that's very vauge. Are we sticking to superheroes or just anything? What if you end up getting Marty McFly and werewolf? I've already seen that movie, man. What if somebody says, like, "homeless person" or "construction worker" or something? Should it be an established fictional character?
It's always an established fictional character, and it will have to be something readily identifiable. Because of their costumes superheroes/villians are best, but some people may want to do an identifiable non-"superhero" character such as "Indiana Jones", "Cobra Commander", "Lara Croft", "Neo", etc.
Next month's challenge is going to be a Reverse Randomizer as suggested in last month's challenge thread. The basic idea is this: Participants sign up by choosing their theme from the randomizer list. I will hand out random character assignments to each participant.
As I've done on a couple of previous challenges, I will give two random characters to each participant. The characters will hopefully be quite different from each other. This will give the participant the chance to make a choice: a) Pick one or the other b) Do both or C) Create an Amalgam of the two.
I'm hoping if anyone has been contemplating additional themes for the randomizer, that they list them now. I will be starting up signups for next month's challenge next week. A little early, yes, but next Saturday I will be driving up to stay in a cabin in North Carolina, and won't have any access to Internet until I return on or before New Year's Eve.
If I can make a broad suggestion: all the challenges are essentially the same thing-- costume design challenges. Try picking some radically different artistic challenges, like "draw in a completely different style than you usually do", or "illustrate this page of comic script", or "do a sequential that emphasizes and communicates speech without a single word of text". Something that's actually challenging, and not simply a variant on "design X costume with Y modification".
I did something along these lines with my "too many cooks" thread, and people really seemed to respond to it. We got quite a few non-regulars popping in and trying their hand at it, not necessarily because it was a particularly good idea for a challenge, but simply because it was something new and unusual.
The other thing I think that worked well for it was the lack of sign-ups. You just drop in and, if something piques your interest, you make an entry. And if not, you wait for the next one. That's one thing I've noticed about the FR community over the years, we suck at commitment. ;)
It just seems like the challenges are getting into a rut... it might be worthwhile to do a dramatic shake-up.
Essentially, that was why I made this thread.
Quote from: Pyroclasm on February 28, 2007, 03:02:07 PM
However, I'm pretty sure that if I just alternated random themes and amalgam from now on it will start to get stale. So I have created this thread to get some challenge ideas.
Turns out most of the people who chimed in so far seem to prefer to stick with the character design element. When asked about trying new things, most suggest more character design challenges. :blink:
The challenge signups are there so people can help contribute to each other's assignment, giving each person something different. Without signups, everyone gets the same assignment or I give out assignments with no interactivity. When there were no signups and everyone got the same assignment, there was a distinct lack of participation. If someone can come up with a challenge that can be different for each participant, features participant interaction AND allows each of them the full 30 days to complete it, I'd be more than happy to consider it. :thumbup:
Ok, next month's challenge is going to be pulled from one of the Freedom Reborn calendar themes. Each participant will nominate two different movie posters. Each participant will be given two movie posters chosen randomly from the nominations. You can pick one or the other to do. Your assignment is to create your own version of the poster: It could be parody, a faithful replication or even an "homage" done in your style. You can include any characters you wish, whether normal people or superheroes(mainstream or avatar). The posters should be fun & recognizable.
Hope the couple of people who don't want to do character design will participate.
I'll post this one up for signups Thursday.
If you have any tweak suggestions to make this more interesting, post them here.
Tried doing something that wasn't a new character design. It pretty much bombed. Unkoman posted his piece (which was great) and that was it. I'm still trying to finish mine (problem with my trackball right now), but no one else has indicated any progress.
Hopefully this month's more freeform challenge without signups will work better. Otherwise it might be back to Randomizer and Amalgams since those seem to get people excited.
I'd like to hear from the artists who participate. What kind of challenge do you want to see next? Want to go back to the character designs or do you have something else you'd like to try?
The one before that bombed too, though. It wasn't super heroes also.
For me, personally, it's just due to being busy. That's why I haven't joined the latest one. I don't know about other people. I do like the challenge not just being super hero costume redesigns. I liked doing the poster one, even if it took me a little while to get to finish it, although that was a little broad. Personally, I like a more specific challenge. For example if it was JUST sequel or JUST parody or whatever.
Personally, I'm at a bit of a loss at to what else to do for a challenge. Redesigning an '80s cartoon might be fun. But it's still basically costume design. You could try the forced style change, I guess. And then just assign random characters to be draw as they are, but in that paticular style. Have people suggest character and style for these ones. How about draw an ad for a paticular product or something? I dunno...
Thanks for the input, Unko.
I don't really want to do a style change challenge since so many people had negative opinions about that when Meej suggested it. That's why it's been something you had to volunteer for. I know you like the forced style, and it doesn't bother me, but it seems to be a no-no among the others.
So you think I've been giving too much leeway in the challenges recently? I need to be more specific?
Here's a couple I've been planning to implement but now I'm not so sure:
1) Photo References - I'd post up 5 different photographs of people. Each person signs up by picking one of the photographs. They then get a theme from the Randomizer. Their assignment is to draw any character/non-character using their chosen image and fitting their theme. For example, the image chosen might be a woman holding a broom. The randomized theme might be "Medieval". Perhaps the entrant then decides to draw a D&D-style character holding a quarterstaff...
2) Secret Identities - Similar to the Origins challenge in which participants make up a character from a simple description. Only this time it is the character's civilian persona described. For example, "Your chosen character is a millionaire playboy who hides his personal demons through his facade of being charming, superficial and frivolous." So the entrant has to decide what kind of character they might be when they don their costume.
Quote from: Pyroclasm on March 02, 2008, 06:57:35 AM
Tried doing something that wasn't a new character design. It pretty much bombed. Unkoman posted his piece (which was great) and that was it. I'm still trying to finish mine (problem with my trackball right now), but no one else has indicated any progress.
Hopefully this month's more freeform challenge without signups will work better. Otherwise it might be back to Randomizer and Amalgams since those seem to get people excited.
I'd like to hear from the artists who participate. What kind of challenge do you want to see next? Want to go back to the character designs or do you have something else you'd like to try?
I'm still working on Sheepdog and Puma. Unfortunatley, I've been snowed under in real life, and the few things I've completed were actually nearly done before that. Okay, except for Kirby Hulk, but how could I resist that? Or doing Elizabeth Montgomery in a mini-skirt? (need to finish the Barbara eden skin for Green Genie sometime) Anyway, my lack of participation hasn't been from lack of interest, I just didn't want to sign up again and find myself a couple of months down the line with nothing by some sketches. I wanted to do the movie posters-I did a spoof of "The Attack of the 50-Foot Woman" for an article in a Champions fanzine, and it was a lot of fun. However, I wasn't sure I'd get anything done so...
Speaking of Champions, I run a game. This time of year (from sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas to around Easter) attendence always falls off due to family stuff, school, work, and so on. Then too, we have Mardi Gras, which is hard competition for a simple little RPG.
Both the Secret ID and Photos idea look good. As for styles, well... I used to be able to mimic some styles, like Kirby, Steranko, Ditko, Kane, very bad Neal Adams, but not Manga. My style is, I'm afraid, stuck somewehre in The Silver Age. But your offering the Style Challenge as an option-that is good. Anyone who wants to try it is free to, and those who don't, won't.
Yeah, that's true. Then some people get stuck with a style they can't quite pull off. I never finished my "classic magazine illustration" picture, although I had sketches somewhere around here... I just needed to find the time to make it look painted in photoshop.
I like creating character based off a civilian personality. Some people complain about too much super hero related stuff, but... well it is a super hero forum and honestly, I love to draw them. If you look through my sketch book the majority is super hero type characters. And I do like reinterpreting costumes. I don't really think it's that bad an idea.
Maybe we could just start a new, seperate type of challenge. Just an open redesign. We could first build a list of characters (left over from all the other times we listed characters), and then a random theme gets picked. A person calls dibs. They choose a character from the list (or get assigned), and draw them in the random theme. They also add a new character to the list, and choose the next theme. They have a set amount to do their drawing (a week maybe) otherwise dibs is opened up again. If they do post, it continues using their theme and another random. Forever. Then you have character redesigns for people who like those and you can start doing other things for the monthly challenges.
I will without doubt join these artistic challenges, when I become good at drawing!
You don't have to be good to join. Even if you draw scribbly stick figures, as long as you make an attempt. Who knows, you may surprise yourself.
Stranger Than Fiction- The idea for the hero must be utterly strange. Out there. Avant-Garde if you will.
Examples- The Hero Of Those Annoying Cheap Erasers That Just Smudge The Pencil About
Here's an idea for a Style Challenge. Tried to work something out that didn't pigeon-hole anyone.
Each entrant nominates a character or series that is normally rendered in a certain style. The nominations would include reference images.
Each entrant gets randomly assigned a character from the pool of nominations. They then draw the character in a style not normally associated with the character/series. You aren't told what style to use, only what style NOT to use. I think it's simple and shouldn't be very restrictive at all.
Hmm.. that would be an interesting one. So characters tied to a specific artist or something would look quite different. Like Groo done in actual Conan style or something. I like that.
Quote from: UnkoMan on March 15, 2008, 10:21:07 AMLike Groo done in actual Conan style or something.
Heretic! I'm letting Groo know that you have unlimited amounts of cheese dip......by carrier pigeon. (I don't plan to be within 500 miles of that walking disaster :lol:)
Okay, I just had this idea...
Everybody comes up with a simple character concept. Say "Super strong robot from the future" or "A bitter man, cursed to roam the world for eternity." Nothing too detailed. From that, the artists design EVERY character, AS A TEAM. If people want similar uniforms, do it. If people want varied, do it. They can be posing, fighting a villain, whatever. Included team backstory is encouraged but not needed.
How does something like that sound?
I like it, Unko. I think just in case, there should be some sort of limit on number. Only because what if (yes it's a BIG if) we end up with 10 people signing up? One character seems to be tough enough for people to do in a challenge. Imagine having to incorporate 5...10...maybe even 15 characters in one image. Maybe as many of the nominations you want to do, but no fewer than two? That way, people can draw as many as they can, but still have to do an interaction of some sort. It also helps the artist when some of the descriptions may be completely uninspiring to them. What do others think?
Alright. Team-Ups. And this way, people could end up with vastly different characters, given the same small profile.
I guess it should also be noted that gender specific pronouns need not matter, just in case.
How about this, also... They don't have to be heroes. They can be villains too. Or you can do heroes fighting villains, but every character must conform to one of the stated sentences. Heck, they don't have to be either, if you don't want them to, I suppose.
Unless there are any compelling objections, I will use this for the next challenge. Thanks, Unko.