Concept Art Contest - Theme Suggestions & Discussion

[Deleted member 157129]

I wanted to start with a clean slate here and keep this thread as the primary discussion thread for all concept art contests in the future. In the second post, all the acceptable themes (or, rather, problems) will be listed for convenience.

What is a theme?
In visual art it is described as roughly; an emotional atmosphere, a message, a well established idea, or a combination of these. However, concept art is not your average visual art. As a concept artist you are more often than not given a specific problem to solve. Therefore, when we talk about theme for a concept art contest, we are in fact referring to the problem, and not a theme. A problem is best described as a specific object with various additional details. For instance, you could have something as vague as Protagonist - it is a perfectly legit problem, and it is very common - but it will provide a plethora of options that will be very difficult to compare. Often, when making a film for instance, you'll have some idea of what this film is about, when it happens and who the protagonist is. In short, your final product has a theme. So if your film project is about the Roman Empire, centred around Augustus Caesar, with a serious, neigh documentary approach you don't want your protagonist to be a Sith Lord from the future. Therefore, you will have your concept artists work on a character that fits the era, is human and suits the environment of the film. You'll probably know whether this character is male or female as well. As such, the problem could be Protagonist - Decorated (Male) Roman General (serving Caesar).

I hope this clarifies a few things that we fought over in the previous concept art contest thread. When you suggest a theme, suggest a problem to be solved. If you're unsure of how to summarise your idea in a few words, feel free to elaborate, but another beautiful thing about problems as themes is that when contestants are presented with it, they will immediately know what it is or know exactly what to search for to find out.

Let's make this a friendly discussion about themes and contest rules, and not a battle of who's more right than the other. Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Reserved.

 

[8512590215848]

Well, i guess an intresting theme can be made around semi-cybernetic, semi-natural organisms, or a full replaced lifeforms like a cybergoblins, etc. There is a great space for creativity inside of robotic\hi-tech theme. If it is possible we can make some special conditions, like a abaddoned setting for this forms of life. Or some special environment conditions that provides some sort of specific technologies rise. Well, if it will be accepted we can discuss it

 

[Dionesiist]

Remaking classic fantasy races into something both evolutionarily plausible and visually different, maybe? You know, not blue pointy-eared humans and green wrestlers.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Remaking classic fantasy races into something both evolutionarily plausible and visually different, maybe? You know, not blue pointy-eared humans and green wrestlers.

Moar specificism kthxbai.

Yes, but we'd have to choose one specific race, because a redesign of a goblin and a redesign of a faerie won't be comparable.

 

[Ramza]

I haven't followed any of the earlier concept art contests (besides the latest Tribal Princess one), so this might have already been done. But I was thinking of a wild west theme mixed with dark/gothic/undead. Think Darkwatch, Deadlands, Jonah Hex, etc.

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs40/i/2009/022/6/d/darkwatch_concept_art_2_by_francis001.jpg

http://michaelmay.us/11blog/06/0615-deadlands.jpg

http://www.comicartcommunity.com/gallery/data/media/138/JonahHexFaceFullofViolence.jpg

Or what about ''evil'' Samurai, like the ones in Sucker Punch? Evil is a broad term of course, but as long as it's black or devil-ish or whatever, it should be fine.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TtNRZwE4r...Q/878X51hwur0/s1600/Sucker_Punch_by_syn_k.jpg

http://www.wallz.eu/photo/480428.jpg

http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/kx/x3/3q/ai-ar.jpg

 

[8512590215848]

No samurai please. Too typical and popular theme, i guess.
Western zombies looks better.


Hmmm. Well, also intresting theme - nuclear winter and USSR bear cavallery. I mean - some hyberbola about national stereotypes, where we can take any kind of current nations, that is out of daily news, for example - cubian narcobarons with tonns of cocaine, big cigar; he looks like mexican fermer but wears military cloth etc.etc. Or some russian with vodka, bear and balalaika at wintered forest.. Etc.etc. This funny theme can, i guess, increase a fun, by taking percipication or discussion at contest

 

[Ramza]

You can give unique twists to popular themes though. That's part of the fun.

 

[The World Is Flat]

How about something we can actually make a illegitimately describable theme for?

 

[Its Ryan Boi]

Man-Bear' pig inside a space marine suit!

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Just to get this discussion going the right way, here are a few themes off the top of my head.

Time-travelling Gunslinger
A character that either travels time as he pleases, or has travelled through time at least once, bearing marks of different eras in his attire and equipment design. At least two very different time periods must be evidently present in the design. It has to be a gunslinger, ie a character wielding a gun as his primary weapon. Gender, species and what time periods to draw elements from is entirely your choice.

Dwarf Tier 2 Melee Unit
Design a generic, as in no specific character traits, melee unit for an imagined dwarf faction. Tier 2 meaning it is neither the weakest nor the strongest melee unit for the faction. The dwarf does not have to fit any specific lore, such as WarCraft III, but it has to be a dwarf as we've come to know them in terms of proportion and anatomy. Beards are required. The weapon of choice should be included.

Sci-fi Human Mercenary
Set in a future far ahead of our time, design a human mercenary (hired gun). Assuming the world goes under and human society starts afresh, thus avoiding typically futuristic designs, is not permitted. Go along the lines of Star Wars, Chronicles of Riddick, Mass Effect and so forth.

Abaddon
Depict The Destroyer, in the form of a character, as you envision him (or her). Although the name is taken from biblical scriptures, there is no need to heed the descriptions therein. Feel free to interpret the character as you wish, as long as it represents the entity described in this Wikipedia article.

 

[8512590215848]

Dwarf theme is intresting, just tier2 confuses me, cuz i don't play WoW, but this formulation as 'tier 2' associates only with WoW.

Gunslinger sounds pretty cewl cuz theme is realy huge and includes such intresting variations like a steam-punk main design and, aswell, hi-tech variations. So, realy cewl...

Science Fiction based around a future looks a little gimp and cutted. So, i guess it can be formulated or remade in something like 'modern or future based sci-fi human mercenary design' where, again, different designs will fit theme

Abaddon or personaly pointed concept art intresting too, but, maybe take some different formulation like a Mythical Grim Creature? There is a Charon, Hades, Mars, Ares etc. ..

Anyway i want to offer some themes too:

A Modern Wc3 Race - mean's some sort of upgrade medivial set to modern set and make some fantasy about some classic Warcraft 3 races technological level..

Cheshire - A cat from Lewis Carrol "Alice in Wonderland". Everyone love kitties. Evil kitties with cookies are double loved.

Futuristic Military Heavy Vehicle - Don't go so far like 2200 year. Let say something about 2100 and a military cars like current 4x4 hammers. Ofc in military color set with some special futuristic design and weapons.

Micro-Macro - Intresting design task that shows some big object inside of micro environment, for example - a town upon a turtle carapace...

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Tier is a ranking system. Tier 1 is lowest rank, whereas tier 2 is the next rank. It has nothing to do with World of Warcraft.

Not sure what you're trying to say about the Sci-Fi Human Mercenary theme, other than exactly what I already said.

.. nor do I understand what you're saying about Abaddon as a theme. I know there are other mythological characters that are similar or even identical, but picking one name over the other won't change that. The Wikipedia article for Abaddon is short and concise, so it seems like a good solution to use that name.

Both the Modern WC3 Race and Micro-Macro themes are very large projects, and are therefore not suitable for a contest meant for a single month. I don't know who this Cheshire is, but given that it's a cat it doesn't seem all that interesting.

If there's enough interest for it, vehicles are also viable options, although I think most of the regulars tend to draw living things.

 

[8512590215848]

About Cheshire...

This is that sweety evil cat:

Cheshire Cat Visions

Wikipedia note about cheshire.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Evidently, we do not currently possess the necessary judging capability as is crucial for the success of a contest. However, I would like to bump this regardless, in hopes of a brainstorming session commencing. Either way, the next contest will not start before we've found judges. I don't want to see another one of these contests with a month's delay on the results.

 

[67chrome]

Time-travelling Gunslinger
A character that either travels time as he pleases, or has travelled through time at least once, bearing marks of different eras in his attire and equipment design. At least two very different time periods must be evidently present in the design. It has to be a gunslinger, ie a character wielding a gun as his primary weapon. Gender, species and what time periods to draw elements from is entirely your choice.

I like this idea, seems pretty cool. I guess this would be pretty similar to Ramza's Gothic cowboys, or at least allow one to do a similar thing with it. It sounds like the right level of restrictions and freedom for a contest to me, and I can already imagine some pretty fun ways to take this. But yeah, you can add +1 to the votes for this theme courtesy of moi.

Dwarf theme is intresting, just tier2 confuses me, cuz i don't play WoW, but this formulation as 'tier 2' associates only with WoW.

Tier is a legit word blizzard didn't come up with, it means pretty close to the same thing as rank. Tier is used in WC3 primarily to describe the different upgrades of the Town Hall structure, were tier 1 is the town hall, tier 2 is the keep, tier 3 is the castle. It's by no means specifically tied to the armor sets from WOW. The way shiiK worded the dwarf tier 2 idea basically implies you'd design a character that is some ware between an inept guard and a legendary hero, but plainly neither. That said I don't really like the idea XD.

I don't know who this Cheshire is, but given that it's a cat it doesn't seem all that interesting.

How have you not heard of the Cheshire cat? (I mean holy crap, his name is even in spellcheck)
I guess it's possible to avoid hearing about Alice in Wonderland were you live. With all the school exercises on it, movies, Disney stuff, and pop culture references were I live its not XD

The only ideas I have for a theme would be combine 2 different monsters into one that can be used to represent either (think of all them cheesy games with a limited number of sprites that use the same one to represent say, an Elf and a Pixy). A short description of each monster would be almost mandatory with this, and monster names used should just be one word like "Elf" and not "High Elf" so you have to actually try to strike a balance between two different monsters. The idea sort of hinges around the monsters chosen not being synonymous to each other too, so no "Zombie" and "Ghoul" here were all you show is 2 names for virtually the same thing.

The dark samurai theme seems mildly interesting, though I think a cool twist would be to make it specifically a different race/species than just a human, and add ninjas into the mix. Not the ones that are hard to spot on the page, but ninjas. Because ninjas are cool. And non-human ones could end up being something awesome like a Ninja Turtle or this Ogre done by Samwise.

 

[Pyramidhe@d]

can the populace of hive work towards actually having a contest where everyone follows the theme? will the contest ever progress peacefully and without drama? tune in next time to see the epic and exciting conclusion!

what i am saying is. people most likely wont.

so. can we penalise, not just with-hold points, but TAKE AWAY points for failing the theme? i mean. that is what you get if you fail to deliver as a job. you get sued.

this isnt because i want to see people penalised. this is more so that people will learn their lessons and actually follow some guidelines for once. like how the police exists, not to punish, but to deter.

as for the actual theme, dwarf melee, gunslinger and merc unit sounds like a concrete enough theme.
abbadon sounds too wishy washy

 

[anarchianbedlam]

^ agreed about the penisalizing people for being smug little smartasses

 

[67chrome]

so. can we penalize, not just with-hold points, but TAKE AWAY points for failing the theme? i mean. that is what you get if you fail to deliver as a job. you get sued.

I'm not a fan of leaving people with less points after a contest than before it, even if they do rocket off into the stratosphere on an unrelated tangent. It would be nice if more people joined the contests and we could host them more frequently IMO.

Also, the challenge section hardly has anyone join it, and as far as I know that's the only place you can loose a significant amount of points (or at least could, go go my super-credible response).

If we granted points for participation I could see making a small point deduction for derpy entries, but as is contests only grant points to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers, so I don't see it relating as well to pay scale models.

Maybe we could offer brownie points for finished contest work to garner both more enthusiasm for contests and more leverage for point deductions. I'd say, 1~4 points for seeing a contest through, -1~-4 point if the entry was riddled with derp or trolling.

 

[Pyramidhe@d]

the points refer to judging points. not reputation points. that will be ridiculous.

 

[anarchianbedlam]

the points refer to judging points. not reputation points. that will be ridiculous.

bullshit.
then i guess i dont agree with pyramidhead. i vote for reputational deductions based upon the severity of said smartassery.

Besides, rep would be worth more, if people had less, which means they'll value it more when we can take it away.

 

[Pyramidhe@d]

i was generally more concerned with effecting the judging rather than the people's reps.

but i am also down for negrepping people DEPENDING on their smartassery. that is a given.

 

[67chrome]

the points refer to judging points. not reputation points. that will be ridiculous.

Ah, I guess I misunderstood you.

If someone doesn't fallow the theme I don't see any problems with penalizing them in their judgement point total. Of course, you can just portion a sizable chunk of the score towards theme so a 0 is devastating either way, but if a judge feels theme is really important I don't see a problem with deducing points for failing at it. If a judge judges all the entries in the same style it doesn't really matter what numbers they use anyways. The grading rubric is more a guideline than set in stone anyways, When judges have more freedom to portion the points the way they see fit in accordance to how they work they tend to deliver results faster (at least when I've judged stuff it's easier when I use my own rubric). I've never really noticed a problem with judges blasting out of theme entries into places were good poll numbers can't help them though, generally it's just the public polls that award such entries.