World design challenge?

[YOLOLEX]

ok ok ok

so what happens if u had one week to design an entire world.

What i was thinking about was the old challenges of ca and how they were fragmented into things like characters, enviros etc.

As a way to unify and balance learning under a single consistent theme, i htought why not create an entire world. Like 1 week u have to design

Environments
Characters
Creatures
Plant fauna
Vehicles
Props/buildings/weapons
Clothing
Storyboards (maybe?)


There could be like a set amount to do so as not to get too overwhelming.

Anyways I kinda felt like i wasnt at the level to do this yet so i wanted to throw the idea out there and see what everyone thought?

best thing about this would be the way that everything was tied together and also the way u could see how other people interpret the same brief/topic

:)

[EduardoGaray]

i think this could be a wonderful challenge, i was already thinking about designing a world that has been on my head from some time, so count with me!
Also, if you think you arent at the level to do it, then you should do it.
After all, the only way to advance is to do what we consider impossible, until it becomes possible.
If that makes any sense. :P

[SpectreX]

Sounds like a good idea!
I presume the time table is still negotiable? As 1 week is not a lot of time to design a whole world :p
Or did you mean several weeks with each week focusing on one particular area?

[TriSarahTops]

If it's 1 week per area i'm totally down.

I'm really a newbie, so I don't think I could bust an entire world out in 1 week lmao, but if each section is a 1 week period to complete I think I could manage that :D

I am not very good at enviros, but what the hell - Gotta start somewhere.

[YOLOLEX]

well the whole idea is not set in stone. I think it best to spread the love around and see what people think.

I think tho the 1 week limit is a good idea for the following reasons;

A) It forces you to work fast, and to focus, and to describe the world using the most significant and interesting aspects. Rather than trying to create EVERYTHING in a world u are more like providing a screenshot of the world, like a few places, a few animals etc.

B) It forces you to come up with new ideas EVERY WEEK. Creating a new world every week has to be good for your creative thinking.

C) It forces you to paint things fast, which i think (tho am not sure) is pretty essential in Concept art. (less in illustration)

Thanks for the input guys its very cool, u know if u wanted to start something off go right ahead, atm im reall just thinking about the mechanics about how this would work....

Like when setting up a brief for a world design what would you include?

I was thinking (Example)

Planetary Name: sol 696
Planetary Age: 25 bilion years etc
Major civilization(s): Yes/No (how many etc)
Technology Level: Medieval (scifi etc)
World description: Mountainous, with active volcanoes and Extreme weather conditions

Wut u guys think, anyhting to add/remove?


Edit: also im with u guys, shit i couldnt do this is 1 week. but maybe aiming for 1 week is a good idea? or maybe make it longer like 2 weeks?

i dunno

[EduardoGaray]

how about this, lets make it in two weeks.

First week, we must show concepts about that world, characters, animals, enviros, whatever...

And the second week we do a full illustration, and the objective is to try to capture the essence and
combine all the elements that define that world.

I think that could be an excellent excercise for both concept art and illustration. As it forces you to train your design/storytelling abilities.

[YOLOLEX]

i think thats a great idea, gotta dive in sometime. would it be a strict two week divide?

what about the categories should we enforce certain minimum requirements to make sure learning is balanced?

EDIT: also another thing is, maybe people dont have time to commit to a two week thing but could do a 1 week thing?

Maybe the challenges could run concurrently like what i mean by that is. Every week a challenge starts. the challenges last TWO weeks. So there is always a new challenge if people dont want to commit the time etc....

(im completely happy to commit the time and think the illustration idea is great)

[EduardoGaray]

The concurrently challenges is a good idea.
For the categories, maybe (depending on the characteristics of the world) we could do something like: "steampunk world" 1 character 1 vehicle 1 enviro, for example. or "prehistoric fantasy world" 1 character 1 dinosaur (lol) 1 enviro. But i would prefer to give people complete freedom to create diferent concepts, rather than doing a exact number of things.

If enough people get interested, would be cool to start doing this. :)

[YOLOLEX]

well heres a thing,

steampunk and fantasy are both more genres than actual functional components of a world. but maybe we could include a genre brief? like it could a steampunk themed world and then describe the world?

Also i suppose the timeframe and the tech level of civilizations on the world would limit what things could be done....or actually maybe not?

Or is that too limiting?

EDIT: And yea, u know what, i think the best thing is just start and show that ur dedicated to making it a thing rather than waiting for support from people, cos i think people see ideas like this all the time and dont have confidence in it, if u can show the idea works like a proof of concept then people will get interested :)

also.... im scared.

[EduardoGaray]

Well i used steam punk and fantasy as examples, but we can do much more interesting things.
One of my favourite genres is science fiction with a bit of fantasy. (I believe thats called space opera, but i´m not sure)
For example:

-Aquatic/Post apocalyptic world + Giant Robots + Aliens

result: Gargantia on the verdurous planet (i´m currently watching this anime, was the first thing that came to my mind haha)




Just by combining words we can have really interesting settings, it is just a matter of imagination. And it allows much more room to creativity than just "fantasy" "sci fi" "steam punk" or whatever.

[YOLOLEX]

yea definetly its a great idea :).

[SpectreX]

The biggest concern is competitors. Will there be people joining this challenge each week?
I tried to organize some challenges a while back and I didn't get many entries :(

The biggest problem is time for most people.

[EduardoGaray]

then, what about a monthly challenge?

[YOLOLEX]

yes definetly times the big problem, tho a monthly challenge i think isnt the best idea (although certainly not a BAD idea at all)

Reasons being:

Diversity: the weekly challenge (or two weekly inc the illustration) is really diverse, forces u to take on ur weaknesses and smash them.

It improves ur visual library an insane amount

It stretches ur creative thinking.

Doing it monthly would mean people go more indepth, but less variation.

Although i think maybe it could be cool to try both, maybe we do different times to test it? like do a 1 week chal, 2 week, 3 week and monthly? but yea there arent many people with the time to do this, but it would mean big level ups

[EduardoGaray]

we could try, with just 3 or 4 people to begin with it should be fun.

[YOLOLEX]

definetly!

So i came up with a brief idea for what the design brief mite look like, wut u guys think and also feel free to add or change anything.

Genre: Scifi, Fantasy, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Medieval, Prehistoric, Ancient Greek, Roman, egyptian, indian, etc, Utopian, War, horror, mystery?

Planet Name: (name here)

Planetary Age: (like 30billion yrs)

Topology: Archipegalo (World of small island land masses), Continental (several landmasses), Pangea (1 singular gigantic landmass)

Planetary Environment: Desert, Temperate, Jungle, Mountainous, Tundra, Icy, Volcanic, Rocky, Forest, Woodland, Urban, Aquatic, Freshwater, Agricultural, Coastal

Civilization Tech Level: Primitive, Ancient, Medieval, Mechanical, Modern, Near Future, Future, Far Future

Creature consciousness: Pre-sentient, Sentient, Post Sentience (maybe? lol)

Number of Civilizations: (number here)

Factions: (factions here)



Also i thought it would be really cool if we could at some point come back to the worlds we created and show them in a different timeframe, either past or future.... would be really interesting lol

[Hobitt]

Im in!

[Amit Dutta]

Love this idea. There's nothing like having a longer project with a consolidated world design to flesh out to really flex the design skills more than any single enviro or character could do for you. I'm finding out now with our project Heathen that it is pretty hard to get a cool consistent design feel going..but so much fun trying! Just wanted to jump in a with a couple of other thoughts:

1. Summer pitch is going on, and this could be a nice framework for getting some stuff done for that. If you could cross-pollinate that with this you might get more participation. ie promote it as using this framework to build stuff up for summer pitch, but if you drop off, then no big deal and you won't have seen to have "failed"

2. In terms of timeframes I think 2 week rounds is the best of both worlds and probably the way to go. As Eduardo says, first week to come up with ideation, the second to finish off your chosen one/s to a higher finish.

3. I think to really get the most out of this, it would be cool if everyone who participated aimed for and managed to get a folio piece or two out of each two week period as well. The two week timeframe means you can if you are focused. One week is stretching it unless you are doing nothing but painting. A month is too long and tempts people to just get in there towards the end

3. I think you should leave it up to the people what their brief is. Let them come up with their own idea. The reason is, from experience, you will get more enjoyment out of a genre or setting or whatever you are more "into". More fun = better work. So yeah, maybe come up with a generic broad brief that people can use if they don't have their own stuff, but let people do what they want if they already have something. Also Eduardo's trick with the combining two random words together really does work for idea generation.

Now having stuck my nose in, I will have to bow out...lol. Working hard on Heathen but this is a thread I'd totally subscribe to! Great work Yolo and keen to see this kick off!

[EduardoGaray]

yeah, i agree with monkeybread.
Specially on letting people decide the kind of world they want to do. As i said on a previous post, the more creative freedom we have, the better.

[YOLOLEX]

thnx monkey!

1.) interesting, but the two week timeframe would kinda mess things up. come to think of it they do go really well together. This thing tho is more like a study thing, the pitch is more like a full on thing. The promotion thing and the whole failure thing is not my style im not afraid of failing etc. This is really just sharing the idea because i think community makes things more fun. Personally im def gonna try this out no matter what im pretty headstrong like that.

2.) Im tending towards agreeing with u here, from a personal standpoint i cant see me being able to complete an entire world in 1 week however, the challenge to do it in that timeframe is tempting. The adding of an illustration to make it 2 weeks is really cool and challenging too even more so cos its not my thing usually. so yea 2 weeks is a good time and more balanced less intense. maybe when we are more skilled we can try 1 week. Imagine trying to do it in 1 day???

3.) Im 50/50 on this, for certain reasons. when u get the job u have to do what they want. u dont get to do what u want, this would be good practice to follow a brief as it is What u will be doing for ur entire career.

Also, following a brief forces u out of ur comfort zone. and yea the combination is really nice way to get new styles its common practice in hollywood. Think back to the future etc. (scifi +western)

However allowing complete control over the circumstances could be nice to see what ideas people come up with. although im shaky about this because of the said points above. I think things that u do normally will not help you become a more rounded artist. Having specific varied briefs will force u to do that.

Also eduardo i kinda agree, i think more creative freedom can be good, but TOTAL freedom and abscence of direction is rarely as powerful. I think the best designs come from restriction.

But that being said, that is just a couple of the thoughts i have on the idea and im open to u guys views. Wut do u guys think?