Team CHOW II: Team Sugah Face... :}

[Tavarilyn]

Woooooo! Here we are again, ready for Round Two.

MJ_Alcazar, JazzW and Tavarilyn! We're hoping Dani Duck decides to join us again.

So.... TO DO:

* Theme?
* Style?
* OMGWTFBBQ?!

Until later....

Tav

[Jazz]

Awwwww, I like thaaaat!! Awesome!!!

[MJ_Alcazar]

Aww, loving the avatar thingy Tav!

[Tavarilyn]

-blush- Thanks you two. My daughter and I were playin' around with ideas for an avatar last night and when I saw the donut face, it just clicked!

So it looks like we'll get our assignment this Saturday. -excited!-

Should we start thinking about a theme/mood/style before then? I couldn't sleep last night so I had a few thoughts on theme that I don't think I've seen anyone use yet

* Campy Sci-fi (think the original Star Trek, the Jetson's, the TV show of the old Lost in Space, etc)

* Cheesy Japanime/Manga

* 80's style cartooning (Thundercats, Voltron, Robotech, GI-Joe, Transformers, He-Man/She-Ra, etc)

* Non-human embodiments (animals were done last round, but think Disney or Pixar... toys, cars, faeries, etc)

* Historical eras (wide-open to interp here... Victorian England(non-steampunk!), Bastille-era France, Bolshavik (sp?) Russia, American colonial, etc)

* More to come?

I can post mini-boards if you want to see what I was thinking in a more visual way

Feel free to add!!!

Tav

[Jazz]

Oooooh, excitement!! @_@ I don't know!! I like all those ideas in some way!! O_O I think we should totally brainstorm with these ideas starting! Maybe we'll figure out something really cool!! @_@

[Dani Duck]

I'm totally for the Campy Sci-Fi! Maybe we should do something a little cartoony this time? I'll take care of the OMGWTFBBQ?!, so no worries. I'm just not sure about my schedule right now. Saturday I will be cleaning my apartment. I'm moving out before the end of the month. I'm not sure if we should get another person in here so we have our bases covered?

Tav and I were talking about breaking it down into pieces so it looks more streamlined. Here is what we were thinking (I'm adding a couple of ideas of my own here)

* Work on the background first. So we know where to put the characters, and how to draw them to size.

* Everyone draws 2 characters (cept Jazz, unless she wants to) One person redraws all the characters in their own style.

* One person works on colours this time To make the piece more streamlined. I almost want to get out of doing inking altogether, what do you guys think?

Here are ways we can break it down even more:

* Background - Everyone works on the main idea. Only one person does the final drawing in their style. May be the person who does the people. The best way to do might be to have everyone draw different detailed aspects of a drawing (eg: One does rocks, the other trees, the third does the alien space ship. )

* Characters Like I said before everyone does these separately and one person draws them all in their style. All characters will be divided right away. Everyone can work on costume ideas and whatnot.

* Colouring (And inking) One person will do most of the colouring. Ways to break this up: One does inks if we want them. One person does flat colouring for everything. Another does the more detailed work. One does grey scale images (if we are shadowing that way) or basic shadowing . One does the finishing touches (extra highlights, more details, other stuff). Colourists will have to do both backgrounds and characters so I think it's best we split up duties.

Did I miss anything?

[MJ_Alcazar]

Sounds like a good plan.

Oh, and I'm really liking the Campy Sci-Fi, or the Historical period. Both seem like good places we can get a whole lot of ideas about.

Hmm, I'm up to have another person join us if they want. I have finals coming up in August, shouldn't be a problem at all. But you never know, they may throw something at me.

Also, do you want to schedule a meeting?

[Tavarilyn]

Hey Dani! Was hopin' you'd hop in here.

I think a meeting would be splendid. We get our topics/chars tomorrow. Perhaps tomorrow night? I don't go back to work until next Friday (the 7th) and even the week after that is pretty light. So I'll have tons of time on my hands... for drawing!

Also, I like the idea of doing a BG first. I've never tried that. In addition, if we only have to do 4 chars, I don't think we should recruit another person. I think the four of us really work well together and we should only snag another member if we reeeally need one.

I'm... just... so.. excitered! :]

Ok, enough of that. What times work for everyone else in terms of a meeting?

Tav

[Jazz]

And here lies my big problem... I'm leaving Tuesday after this coming Tuesday! >_< If I'm to help at all, I need to do it NOW. I suggest we meet (even some of us in different combinations) to iron out a plan. I'll probably help with initial character concepts once we get a background going.

Yes, I llike what Dani's planned out, btw! Hopefully we can better detail things like the environment, the angle at which characters are posing, the lighting, etc. Oh, and the colours, yes yes!

We can probably be more vague about what this world is about. Being more vague might help us branch out with ideas, but still keep us pretty focused on an overall sense and mood about our piece!

That's about all I can say right now. I'm not sure, but I might be around this evening, and I should be around tomorrow at some point. I have work every day next week, next Monday and Tuesday, and will be working on a report during this time. So I think evenings will have to work for me.

[MJ_Alcazar]

Well, unfortunately I'm working every night until Weds and Thurs. But, I shall be around in the mornings, if someone happens to be on and I can discuss. I'll be back around 11, so if anyone is still on I'll catch up then.

[Jazz]

Remember, I have the -04:00 gmt...or whatever that is. Shoot. Atlantic time. XD So if anyone wants to chat, let me know before I konk out!

I see the brief! We have much to talk about, I'd say. o_o

[Tavarilyn]

Ok... first things first. It looks like we've got 3 characters to design (for a total of 6 portraits, good/evil). I say we do a sunrise for the good designs... and a sunset for the evil. ;} Campy, I know, but since we can't do "campy sci-fi" anymore... campy should darn well be in there somewhere!

As to characters... this is wide open. I think each of us should decide on an archetype (elven fighter, dwarf mage, orc paladin, etc) that we like and GO FOR IT, you too Jazz.

Personally, I'm partial to elves but I can do just about anything. Also, I sent Dani some of my Forgotten Realms templates that I use when doing FR char design for campaigns. I don't want to post them here because of nudity, but I'll email or MSN them to you both, if you like, MJ and Jazz?

Also, we can design/use any species we like, apparently. I think if we -do- create something different, it should be a mix or related to what's already there for us to work with. Draconians immediately spring to mind as they were a meld of dragon and human. Er, I think.

So... who wants to do what species? It's been said things should be as random as possible. So how best to push the envelope, methinks?

Take care all,
Tav!!!

[Jazz]

Dang it, I missed you guys who were on MSN! >_<

Anyway, I love that sunrise/sunset idea, Tav! Sunrise does give me a sense of hope and excitement. Sunset, fiery and passionate, well it gives me this feeling of...relaxation and possible lust, actually. But inverted, one of those creepy sunrises where the sky is red and there might be clouds around, waiting to billow, that too could work for villains. With a "lighter" sunset for heroes. Iunno!! I love both ideas now. >_<

I'm up for anything as far as character race/type. However, that draconian idea sounds really cool! I favour the more humanistic types, minus elves and faeries and such. I guess I like types where there's possible bulk in their bodies!

I love fighters, but I also like creepy types, or mysterious characters that you want to love you, but they won't. They just WON'T. O_O I think I'll need a little more direction, so it'll be great to chat with you guys!

Tav, if you'd like to email me or chat via MSN regarding what you have, totally do it! I wanna seeeee!!

Ooooh, so! In the end, I'd love to do something draconian in race, I think. I love claws and fangs, even itty-bitty ones. That's MY vote for now, or stone people. Eh! XD

[Tavarilyn]

Ok, as far as I can tell, the list below is a fairly comprehensive compilation of different "fantasy" species. Where it wouldn't be immediately obvious, I gave a brief description in parenthesis. If you want more, pics or details, about a particular species, ask and I'll post.

Banshee
Brownie
Bugbear (greater goblin)
Bullywug (amphibian animorph)
Centaur
Cyclops
Dryad/Oriad/Neriad
Gargoyle
Genie
Giff (hippo animorph)
Gnoll (hyena animorph)
Gnome
Goblin/Hobgoblin
Halfling
Harpy
Kenku (hawk animorph)
Kobold
Lamia (goat/deer/lion "centaur", always femme)
Lich
Lycanthrope
Merfolk
Naga (snake animorph)
Nymph
Ogre
Rakshasa (tiger animorph)
Satyr
Slaad (toad animorph)
Sprite
Swanmay (wereswan, femme)
Tabaxi (jaguar animorph)
Treant/Ent
Troll


See anything I've missed?? Add to the list!
Thanks!
Tav

[Jazz]

Iiiinteresting indeed! My bro and I used to find races in a DnD book to insult each other with. I think I used bugbear on him...or he used it on me, but I like to think I got the upper hand. XD

I think for the ones I know about, they're really cool to think of! Ideas, ideas...

[MJ_Alcazar]

Ohhh, sounds awesome. Sorry guys, first of the month and EVERYONE is at the grocery stores, had to stay extra.

Anywho, Tav definitely send me it! If you ever have ideas never hesitate to send me it. I do love to see.

Ohhhh, so many ideas! I'm not quite sure what I want to do atm, I have to look up some of those you mentioned Tav, they sound interesting!

[Jazz]

Thought: So the races could have a thief, wizard, fighter, etc. well-wisher...kiddin'. Right? I wanna make sure I'm not thinking something totally off!!

I suddenly have a desire to see characters with wings, tails, and/or the claws 'n' fangs that I love so much... o_o I will gladly draw a male or female, bulky or not...

The different figures Tav sent were awesome!! I can picture all of them or combinations used in some nifty way.

Others...others...

Sphinx-like

Angel-like

Doppleganger--they can have an original appearance, too. Like a ghost or something else. Ugly things? Dunno

Elemental types (gee, imagine good fire character and a bad one. whoooo!) I guess types like that could take on another race as physical appearance, even...

Ya know, that genie type is a great idea, too!! Man, those evil genies ain't no joke!!

So many possibilities! There's a law about the more decisions we have, the harder to make a decision. I'd better only pick a few things, then. *snort*

[Tavarilyn]

At Dani's suggestion, I'm adding a list of "jobs" here that could be used. This is by no means a complete list, but it's a start.


· Assassin, acrobat, Aristocrat, artificer, archivist, alchemist

· Barbarian, Bard, beguiler, berserker

· Cleric, crusader, cavalier

· Druid

· Elementalist

· Fighter

· Healer

· Illusionist

· Knight

· Monk, mystic

· ninja, noble

· Paladin, psionicist

· Ranger, Rogue

· Shaman, Sorcerer, samurai, scout, swashbuckler

· Thief, totemist, tinker, thug

· Warlock, Warlord/Marshal, Wizard, warrior

[Tavarilyn]

Ok, as promised... a board with all the species on my list (above) that weren't immediately known. In other words, here are pics of each species I felt needed a helping hand so's we'd all have the same image in our head when we mentioned them. Assuming we use any of them!

So.... here it is! Pardon the size.

Tav

[Tavarilyn]

And, going off our Sunrise/Sunset idea... here's a quick BG...

Tav

[Jazz]

Gestures! ...I got a little interested in the swan...woman...fighter. I made one small effort with the draconian mystic guy.


I also added a "stone" or "crystal" female bard, but I probably won't bother. Would've been cool though. Stone, crystal, water, lava, etc. Ah well!


I had this nifty idea, if I used the swan, maybe the good side would be like an "ugly duckling" but a great fighter; the bad side would be a beautiful swan...cuz I've seen how jerky beautiful swans can be. o_O It's true!!

Just a thought!

EDIT: I noticed many teams doing this, but perhaps once we have our picks, we can give a slight background about the characters and their "sides". I noticed one idea, and it's something I'd tinkered with, is to look at the sides as a choice of what you want the character to become in a game. That was on a Star Wars game, I think! XD I also had an idea for a comic where a similar thing was happening throughout the comic. Interesting what can happen if you're touched the right or wrong way. Hmm hmm. :3

Also, perhaps a defined palette for each side would help. I hope we can meet soon because I'll be leaving next Thursday and I want to give as much info as possible before I go!

MJ, you mentioned to me about Catfolk. Here's just a link to some info:
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Catfolk_(DnD_Race)

Wikipedia has brief info, JUST in case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanoi...eons_&_Dragons)

We REALLY need to meet though. I just remembered, my bro and his family are coming tomorrow! It's gonna be tough!

[Jazz]

Thanks, Tav!! Niiiice! I might need to see a close-up of the races! But you showed me some already! Slowly, I'm starting to get some ideas in my head.

My thoughts now surround a mystic, fighter, warlock or elementalist! @_@

As for the species...I'm still thinkin'!

[Tavarilyn]

-facepalm-

So......... yea. My HD died. I got a single BSOD warning and restarted w/o issue. And the next time I tried to wake it up and use it... nothing. -sighs- Which means I don't have access to a scanner or to my tablet or gimp or anything else right now. I have plenty of internet capability, though, which is good. Unfortunately, since my PC is an "all in one" job, I can't easily replace the harddrive. Even if I could, then I'm missing all my data since my last backup. -snarl-

Anyway.

I'm gonna get a new PC. This one (grrr) has given me issues since year one. Hopefully that means I'll be back in and gettin' stuff done with you by the end of this week, beginning of next. In the meantime, what else can I do to help this move forward?

* What races/species are we interested in?
* What jobs best fit those species?
* How can we draw "outside the box" w/o being ridiculous?
* Anyone need research? I can't put any boards together but I can do webpage links.

-snugs-
TTFN!
~Tav

[Jazz]

Ahhh, that's not right, Tav!! ;_; I'm so scared of my hard drive doing that! I'm sorry!!

I've decided to try my hand at a...swan...person...fighter! It'll be a female, like the name of that swan...*sigh* PERSON. ;_;

I'm also attempting a draconian mystic, male. I want to make him a tad bulky, or chubby. One or the other. I think I need some more refs of such body types.

I almost did a stone female bard, but I can't decide if I'd make her look more human as far as body type and size, or more stone like. o_o

I can't show anything yet cuz I'm at work, but when I get home maybe I can put something up. Unless I'm being whisked away for a birthday treat! @_@

[MJ_Alcazar]

Oh no Tav!!!
I may need some help with finding about the different jobs, mostly like what they use and what characters can't do what.

I'm thinking either Catfolk, Kender, Rakshasa, Satyr, and the Lamia looks really interesting to.

[Dani Duck]

I haven't had the chance to get any drawings done. I'm not sure about a
drawing style. My idea is that we should pit the dark sides against the
light sides in an epic battle. If we do this, then we may or may not need
a detailed background. We will have to be careful to follow the 3/4 rule,
but I think it will be more interesting than the alternative. I'd like to see
us doing contorted images, and difficult poses.
Like the characters in the following images:



This one isn't showing up anymore so:
http://dragoniandolomites.lefora.com...s_1250589.jpeg

[Tavarilyn]

I like the "epic battle" idea! Hrmm... that may be hard to pull off if we were going to use the submission -as- our only entry. I believe, though, as long as we do the 6 portraits separately we could do the battle scene as our composite image.

I have a few sketches but.... um.... yea, no way to upload them. -sighs- I'll mebbe have my husband take pics of them and upload them that way.

Tav

[Dani Duck]

I think the big thing is not to have the characters overlap too much. Not all of the characters have to be in close contact. Also if we do this the drawings will not be head on (which I think will be to our benefit, but will be more to the side.) I'll draw up some sketches... I think I also have stuff at home as well.

[MJ_Alcazar]

Cool idea! I've seen this done on comic book covers where it's one image for several different stories in the arc, but each cover has a different view of the image.....if that makes any sense. Anyway, I always thought that was cool.

However, I think...I could be wrong...that Daestwen said to keep the image front facing as much as possible, so we'll have to watch that too.

EDIT:

Ok, I can meet tomorrow or Saturday before 4 (my time). Maybe tomorrow or Saturday we can meet at 12 (my time)? We can bring some sketches of ideas if we can get them up. Also, any links to ideas like Dani's ideas above. Perhaps we can also have links to the style we want to go for also.

In the meeting we can decide what roles we want to play (inking, final drawings, coloring, shadowing, details, etc.)

[Jazz]

Someone might want to check with Daes about that idea. We shouldn't jump into it until we know it's okay. I myself won't be able to pull that off completely before I leave, but if you guys like any of the ideas I might have, I'll try getting some nice gestures. I do like the fighting idea a lot though! Having strength fight strength...so hot. @_@

Now, I think I can meet, possibly, but I'm not sure. So much is happening starting today with my bro and his family coming home. >_< I'm at work till 4 my time (-04:00 gmt...however you say it), but I'll get on MSN while I'm here. o_o