The Game - Head/Torso/Legs - Collaboration

[Taron]

The Game(Cadavre exquis))

A collaborative effort between three artists to compile a single character by creating head, torso and legs without knowing the other one's piece! Each artist starts with a head and then forwards the lowres geometry to the next one to continue with the torso and so forth...

The three artists of round 001:

Greg Petchkovsky
Mathias Verhasselt
and myself (Taron)

here's the result of round Nr.01:

GROUP_SET01.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2733711%27,%27GROUP_SET01.jpg%27 ,1,0%29)

...and here's a look at the basic geometry we've used (782 polygons):

original_geometry.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2733712%27,%27original_geometry. jpg%27,1,0%29)

I hope we can soon arrange that we all continue this game together...always a set of three artists and one base geometry. I've got everything setup for this cage and if you guys are interested I could post the system with explanations and examples...

Taron

[Nightwolf10]

Thank you for this wonderful idea. since i am the first one to reply to your work. I must say it is amazing how 3 different guys work piece by piece without knowing what the other one is doing.

Its an excellent idea and id love to see the system you are talking about...


thanx ahead and Taron you always been an inspiration to me i might add.

cheers..

Very cool idea...

[Frenchy Pilou]

...of the "Cadavre exquis" surrealist game :D

Ps here the CGTalk thread (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=327793&page=1&pp=15&highlight=taron)

[Taron]

YES! Very much like that...I was looking for that word for a long time! Thanx!:tu:
Cadavre exquis
...sort of like that!

[Taron]

HAHAHA, found this funny website looking for that stuff:
http://www.cadavre-exquis.net/eng/Jeu/pagejeu.php

[Frenchy Pilou]

...at the beginning (1925) that was a letters french game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse) ;)
And can be of course deviating on architecture, music, illustrations... etc :)
and...ZBsculpture :D

[ncollings]

Awesome Guys! you've made three wonderfull model, very original !
Hope to see more this kind of stuff !

[Taron]

Taron after 4 hours of sleep and before coffee and cigarette:
Well, doesn't look like people care about it that much here, so I think I might try to get some artists into it, most likely just closer friends and I might drop it only on cgtalk or even just a little thing on my website, havn't hooked it up yet...not clear...I think this place is a little jaded and oversaturated with great work and a lot of imagination. The curiosity this game represents just doesn't strike anyone here, I'm afraid. I understand although I think it's a little sad.

Thanx, however, I'm really happy you two liked it. Keep in touch!:tu:

...now after fresh coffee and 5 minutes on balcony:
Ahhh <sigh> what a beautiful morning! I think this stuff is just so much fun to make, that it actually shouldn't and really doesn't matter, if people flock to it and testify to the fun it is to look at them or if they don't. I for my part just enjoy the chance we have as artists of such strength to hook our minds together in such a playful way and that the results are truely amazing for each one of us, when we saw them put together. I couldn't even say which one's my favorite of the three creatures and therefore I can't wait to have even more of them evolve! Entertainingly enough, this was actually just our little test run to see if the system works. We already figured out a way to make it even more mysterious for each artist to contribute his piece!:)

[Taron]

Hey Pilou, you made a picture for me? I just saw it in your gallery, thank you! I appreciate it! You've got a fascinating style and endurance, which makes your whole gallery one masterpiece, I think! :idea:

Thanx, again!:)

Taron

[odhinn]

The master returns to Zcentral...
Welcome back Taron, Love the last fat guy. Has a H.R.GIGER feel to it. Great work bro, a real breath of fresh air.

I would add to the other artists on Zbrush that you can learn a hell of alot studying Taron's work. Nobody has ripped him off more than me... eh Taron? lol.

[Moochie]

Great fun .. must help if you all know each other. I'd be dead scared of messing up someone else's concept and taking it in the 'wrong' direction.

The models are cool .. the idea for the ribs/stomach muscles of the middle character is brilliant.

I'm pretty sure the silent majority don't post comments not because they are indifferent, but because they don't feel qualified to say anything. Hopefully they still learn something from excellent posts like this.

[odhinn]

Top Row... and well deserved. Congrats Taron.

[Taron]

OH, look at that?! Coffee and cigarettes are even more powerful than I had initially anticpated...hahahahahaha!

Anyway, THANK YOU! I was genuinely more concerned about my stunning two players, Greg and Matt, worried that it would be a bit of a let down to see so little response for the freaking unbef...ing leavable work they've done, even if it was just our little test.

Nowadays a good number of geniuses come out in the open, largely thanx to Zbrush, which finally enables them to go crazy and show what's inside of them. But what Zbrush also allows is so damn far beyond the ordinary, looking at the beginning of a new era for this "cadavre exquis" game!
Of course, I'd like to mention the beauty of putting it together and rendering it in messiah, hehe, which is to me another big stunner. So easy and immediate. I even have a little bone setup, which essentially works for each character. If I wasn't so busy I would have put together a whole animation...maybe someday soon, not clear when, yet!

Anyway, I'm very happy about any feedback and I can assure you, everyone is qualified to say something and every kudos will be received as a great and good push to encourage encores! :D

[jit_gohil]

Awesome work from you guys!
I've always admired your work, Taron, but to see three artists at play is like a zbrush world cup!
I hope you have more 'games' like these - can't wait!!

[Voidmonster]

Personally, I'd love playing a bit of the old Very Nice Dead Guy. It sounds like great fun, and an excellent way of picking up skills!

[crossbones]

Taron can you mix up the different displacement maps so we could see what one character's torso looks like with the other heads?

[Jason Belec]

Interesting idea Taron, Greg and Mathias. Fantastic work all around.

So let's get this straight....

Everyone has the base character.

Person A starts with the head,

Person B starts with the torso and arms,

Person C starts with the legs.

Then A passes to B, B passes to C and C passes to A.

Person A now does the torso,

Person B now does the legs,

Person C now does a head.

Then everyone passes again, finishing what's left.

This doesn't appear what you did, so I thought I'd ask.

This idea of yours would be great on the Challenge Thread me thinks - if the rules are clear. Of course they may be, and I will go crawl back under my rock. ;)

[buzzz3d]

Aahh, amazing stuff. Very well done.
Good to see you surface again.

[dogbite]

if i get this straight,
a,b,c do the head and than pass on than
b,c,a do the torso and on of the previous guy

that would explain the 3 models

[Greg Petchkovsky]

Cadavre exquis, I'd never heard of that before, very interesting.
My main motivation is to do work that I find exciting and interesting, and I find this process VERY exciting and interesting, so I'm happy.
I must admit that my ego was a touch let down by our thread on cgtalk... but my ego can handle it. :)
Getting praise is a motivation for doing artwork I must admit, but I'd hate it to be the most important motivation.

Oh, and dogbite, yes, thats exactly right.

[deity]

id like to play :D :tu: the results turned out really cool!

[Pride]

I would really like to see this happen as a challenge or just an ongoing game.
It would be like a "grown up" version of squiggles. Would love to participate!

[crikey]

this is a really fun idea, and great work.

i'll throw my hat in the ring, if anyone's interested.

-j

[Lupus D'Scotia]

Wow :eek:

Such a great idea, and great results. I'd say my favourite part is Greg's torso with all the hands, would love to see the workflow on that.

[javalabala]

great game, i like to try, the models are amazing

[lemonnado]

This was a lot of fun to!
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=31186
Lemo

[Taron]

if i get this straight,
a,b,c do the head and than pass on than
b,c,a do the torso and on of the previous guy

that would explain the 3 models
That's right! :idea:

Wow, now such overwhelming response! GREAT! I'm very happy...so....now hold on to your pens and team up! :D

Greg, Matt and I are going for one more spin with yet another method of collaboration, but that shouldn't stop all of us to go for a few test drives with a base-mesh!
The only thing is this...we should match up certain "skill" levels, not "styles". Styles could be wildly different, which is always fun, but if the difference in confidence shows too much of a gab, the final model would simply fall apart. This is not in terms of judging, but more in a sense of finding starting points!
I'm not sure how we will organize that, but if anyone has an idea of how to get together a list and then we'll have a look at the artist's work and start teaming up....I really know it's a blast and it's anyway really just a fun thing!

Alright, I'm screaming for help on the organization of it already...hahaha!

Hmmm...but I don't even know if too many of you are actually interested in the first place...I just think you might:qu:

Anyway, let's figure out how to get that list together with names and links to a piece of their work or something like that!?

[Taron]

This was a lot of fun to!
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=31186
Lemo
Oh wow, that's excellent, too! I think Greg's suggestion was something along those lines...just more focused on the character. It's also quite cool. But it leads to "pure" art. The crazy version with my base mesh has this great side effect, that it can be actually used in an animation straight up!
I thought of something very ambitious like putting together a crazy type of land of these creatures at the end. I didn't get to propose that one, yet, but I thought of collaborating on a landscape/set as well to top it all off!
Can you imagine...one whole land full of creatures and it's all that bizarre melt of artists and styles all in motion...maybe even with some sort of wacky storyline that could evolve much the same? UH, what a wonderful dream.
Heck, why not get started!
If I get you all into messiah:Studio, too, it might even be fundable, HAHAHA!

Anyway...it's all incredibly inspiring! I'm having a blast just thinking about it!:D
It doesn't matter if it's just a funny dream, but the idea that a freeform fun little project with no strings attached and no deadlines to meet and no obligations other than having fun and relaxing over some creative release...it's just so very damn pleasant... :)

[Sergio Santos]

Brilliant!
no more to say.

[sirquadalot]

This sounds like fun! Can I play? :D BTW... sweet modeling guys.

[vivien]

personally i think this was an excellent idea...some exceptionally creative and original stuff comes to life with this method...each artists sensibility made each character unique with their addition to the various parts of each creature. very cool i must say! way to go guys!

[Jason Belec]

aha! Thanks dogbite! Either way looks like a lot of fun. ;)

[walee]

Great work Taron & Co !!!
Having fun should be the moto of every artist :).
Would love to participate to the fun .... just need to some people to collaborate with .

By the way Taron, what is so top notch with project messiah that would make an artist swith to this tool ? :p Obviously the displacement rendering is great and seems to be fast ... would love to have more insight about P:M.

[Darkshift]

Nice one guys. Are you planning to paint them?

[Taron]

Great work Taron & Co !!!
Having fun should be the moto of every artist :).
Would love to participate to the fun .... just need to some people to collaborate with .

By the way Taron, what is so top notch with project messiah that would make an artist swith to this tool ? :p Obviously the displacement rendering is great and seems to be fast ... would love to have more insight about P:M.
The ease to continue with what you've done in Zbrush, making it render in a fully 3d renderworld, rigging it up to make it move. That's so top notch about it. No hazzles with that stuff! ;)

[Crusoe the Painter]

The Surrealists called this kind of blind collaboration "The exquisite corpse".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corps

Truly these are equisite corpses.

[Darkshift]

Are you going to paint the creatures?

[Sebcesoir]

A great way to build a very original family!

[walee]

The ease to continue with what you've done in Zbrush, making it render in a fully 3d renderworld, rigging it up to make it move. That's so top notch about it. No hazzles with that stuff! ;)I see, so it's just about the same as the other software ;):p

[shserge]

Like their designs, great modelling!

[rtwolfenstein@hotmail.com]

what a great idea for an exercise, i think it allows great diversity in the artist's work's style... we can really see which artist corresponds more to which part, great job :tu: :tu:

[Darkshift]

Are you going to paint them?

[Erklaerbar]

hey taron et al,

Great work, great idea, great render. Spitzenklasse ;)

[tiktok]

this turned out totally awesome taron!!!...and greg and m@!!

This is totally motivating me to do some crazy stuff...man...

I gotta find two other people to try this.
It'd be awesome to break apart those arms on the middle guy and animate them!
how would that move!!??

awesome...
-bayard

[Doqpelgänger]

Wow :eek:
I'd say my favourite part is Greg's torso with all the hands, would love to see the workflow on that.I agree. The torso of Greg Petchkovsky is absolutely gorgeous...:eek: how...?

[Darkshift]

Do you know if they are going to paint them?

[tokaru]

wow this is very cool is insane wonderful, the most cool is the guy of the middle of the picture

[LLLGuapo]

I really like your high res models but what program are you going to use to pose them? I have been using XSI, but my models with high poly counts are difficult to envelope and deform without errors in the geometry. I was wondering if there are some resources out there that I could get my hands on that might help. Thanks.

[CHRIS REID]

I believe he is using Messiah:Studio... In fact I am sure of it.

If you simply want to use displacement maps from zbrush to texture your lowpoly model, there is nothing quicker than messiah. It is very nice and fast, as you can use the native zbrush UV's and ... well, it is so easy.

Taron, Greg, Mathias,
Great work.

Taron, Really reminds me of oldtimes... so inspirational... I will definately make some time for this.

GREAT RESULTS.

Chris Reid

[Darkshift]

Why is not painted? Are they going to paint this?

[crossbones]

Why is not painted? Are they going to paint this?Probably not as these are indicitive of pen and paper drawings from a pastime that Taron, Chris, myself and others would play whenever we got together. In this 3D form its representative of that without paint.

[Taron]

Hah, yeah, hey boys, Chris, Crossb., look what is has become! :D

Anyway, as for the rendering and posing stuff, these are really the lowres models and they are subdivided and displaced at rendertime within messiah:Studio. Therefore putting a bone-setup into them was a piece of cake, which I only did to the one in the center, as you might be able to see?!

I'm right now planning to finally put together the next set of tutorials for messiah and I have always planned to start by showing the displacement techniques and bonesetup. These things are all you need to start bringing your Zbrush models to live. Highly detailed sculptures as highly detailed creatures in motion without a pain or ugly hard labor is the kind of appeal that should make artists understand the power messiah really has, particularely together with Zbrush. At least it should be a good start. Blows me away almost everyday.
(...and look at these wine stains, just toss in a set of messiah balls with the laundry and you'll never use "Exess i"... and if you call now, we'll double your order...no tripple and it's just $19.95 (+ $280 shipping and handling))

Hpffff...hehe..sorry...couldn't hear myself sounding like that...anyway. I'll make those tutorials pronto!:cool:


Taron

[Freakish]

I could probably organize something like this on the zbrush forum if anyone is interested.

[Taron]

I could probably organize something like this on the zbrush forum if anyone is interested.
You want to help out with that? PERFECT, that would be awesome, sure! Let's talk about it!:tu:

[Freakish]

First step is going to be setting up some parameters and rules.

parameters/rules

-No recreations. Example: You can't create super mario's head.

-Each piece must be completed in a week or less.

-No talking with other modelers about your part of the project.

-Transfers are going to be made through me.

-Do not post your WIP of this.

-Modelers decide what happens with the model after it is finished. Example: Give it to the Zbrush community, or even sell it on turbosquid.

ect...

If this works out I'll build a website for it.