Custom Character Contest 2014 - Best Likeness (WIP/Discussion Thread)
Scott Livingston
Posts: 4,340
Custom Character Contest 2014 - Best Likeness
Running dates: April 1 to April 30, 2014
(the deadline is April 30 at 11:59:59 PM, DAZ Time (Mountain Daylight Time or UTC -6:00)
This is the WIP (works in progress) and discussion thread. For the entries-only thread, click here.
Prizes
Unless otherwise noted, all prizes will be issued in the form of DAZ 3D gift certificates (GC), in the amounts of:
1st Place: $25 GC and three products from the ARTCollaborations store*
2nd Place: $15 GC and two products from the ARTCollaborations store*
3rd Place: $10 GC and one product from the ARTCollaborations store*
Honorable Mentions (2): $5 GC each
*Winners may select item(s) of their choice from among those listed here...DAZ Original products listing "ARTCollab" as a vendor are not eligible.
Sponsors: Scott-Livingston, ARTCollaborations, Jaderail, Novica
Special thanks to my co-sponsors!
For this contest, your task is to make a render featuring a famous historical figure, fictional character, celebrity, or other easily identifiable person. This character must be based on a figure produced by DAZ 3D. You can use any DAZ or third-party products in the creation of the image, but you must list and link to all products you used, (including freebies). Images based on non-DAZ figures will not be considered for the contest, but you are welcome to post them as non-entries.
Entries will be judged on the following criteria:
- Character - how well did the artist capture the likeness and personality of the subject?
- Composition, lighting, and overall quality of render
- Creativity/uniqueness
Contest Rules
1. Be logged in to your DAZ3D Forum account to submit a valid entry. We will not accept Anonymous or Guest Entries.
2. Submit your image to the appropriate contest thread.
3. Upload you image using the Post Reply - Browse to Attachment feature (In other words please do not link to your image but rather post it to the thread)
4. Your entry must be one or more new renders not previously posted elsewhere. The character featured does not need to be a newly-created character (it’s okay if you’ve rendered the same character before). You may post your entry in the DAZ 3D Gallery or elsewhere on the DAZ Forums after posting it to this thread, and you may post it on other sites once the contest has closed.
5. Along with your entry image(s), you must include the following information:
a. Name of character
b. All software used in the creation of your image
c. You must also list all products you used for your character’s skin texture, hair, clothing, and accessories. Please list the product name and (optionally) name of the artist or vendor. For products sold at DAZ 3D, please provide a link. For products sold or offered elsewhere, please provide the name of the site or store.
Entries that do not include all of this information will be disqualified.
6. You may use any render engine and software of your choice, but you must mention in your entry post what software was used in creating the image. Postwork is welcome, but contestants who submit postworked images are encouraged to include a non-postworked version (raw render) as well for comparison purposes.
7. You may enter as many times as you like, but no contestant will be selected as the winner of more than one prize.
8. Follow the DAZ Terms of Service. No nudity, extreme violence or profanity will be allowed. Copyright infringements of any sort will not be tolerated.
9. By entering this contest, you agree to allow DAZ3D to use any artwork you submit in any promotional materials they may choose. Entering this contest is considered a commercial use, so you should not use any content that is not licensed for commercial use.
When working on your submissions, if you would like to get feedback as you work or before posting your final image, please post your image to the WIP THREAD. Please keep all comments on entries etc to the WIP THREAD as well.
FAQ
Q: What about original characters?
A: This contest requires that your render feature an existing, well-known fictional character or historical or contemporary person. I plan on running another contest for original characters (in other words, characters of your own invention) later this year.
Q: What about non-DAZ characters?
A: You can base your character on any 3D figure, provided that the figure is available at daz3d.com. Renders of characters based on non-DAZ figures are welcome as non-entries. As long as your character is based on a DAZ figure, you may use products purchased or legally obtained at any store or site.
Q: How do I make a look-alike?
A: You can either make a dial-spun character, or sculpt your own using modeling software, or do a little of both. There's a good tutorial on the process here; it covers DAZ Studio and Hexagon but the same principles apply to other software.
Q: Can't I just render a character that I purchased, who happens to look just like a certain celebrity?
A: Sure you can...but you'd be putting yourself at a disadvantage, since creativity/originality is one of the criteria that the judges will be looking at.
Q: Do I need to list the full morph formula?
A: I encourage you to list the full morph formula if you are comfortable doing so, but it is not a requirement for this contest.
Q: Can I use a morph or skin texture I made myself?
A: Yes, but you will need to mention this fact, and provide a link to any Merchant Resources or other source materials that you used.
Q: Can I contribute a prize?
A: Absolutely, just send me a PM. If you contribute, you may also participate in the judging if you would like to.
Q: What's the proper method for posting links to products?
A: Type the product name, highlight it, click the "" button, type or paste in the URL, and click OK. The end result will look like
[ url=http://www.daz3d.com]DAZ 3D[/url ] (except without the spaces before the first "url" and after the last "url"), and if you prefer you can just type the code.
Q: Where can I learn about copyright, fair use, and commercial use?
A: I'm not an attorney and can't give legal advice, but I found this article interesting. Also, it may be helpful to look through the store for images (like these: 1, 2, 3, 4) that seem to be inspired by copyrighted characters, yet are generic enough to be acceptable for commercial use.
Any other questions? Feel free to ask in this thread.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Examples of renders of historical people:
1. Elizabeth Siddal by Kamion99 (one of the winners of last year's Genesis Custom-Dialed Characters Contest)
2. Edgar Allan Poe by me
3. Henry VIII by me
Examples of renders of contemporary people.
1. Angelina by Sasje (one of the winners of last year's Genesis Custom-Dialed Character Contest)
2. Christopher by princessartemis (a semifinalist in last year's Genesis Custom-Dialed Character Contest)
External links:
Bryan Cranston (in character as Walter White) by Riccardo Minervino (amazing work, though not DAZ 3D-related)
Claire (Molly Ringwald) by Kadaj777
Examples of renders of fictional characters.
1. Emmett and Wyldstyle (from the LEGO Movie) by me - feel free to render cartoon characters as realistic people, or vice versa
2. "Diana" by me (plenty of other "Wonder Woman" renders, some much better than mine, can be found on the forum)
3. Jaderail by me (is he a famous character? he is around here!)
Also see:
The Great Wizards by Mec4D (store product)
Yes, I remember well the contests from last year. Great renders! I've PM'd you to help sponsor, just chippin' in a bit. Thanks for doing the contest, it's always fun to see the community's creativity!
Cathie
...this sounds like fun.
The contest is officially live!
Thanks, Novica, for contributing to the prize pool--I've updated the first post to indicate the new prize amounts.
If anyone wants to take another look at last year's contest, here are the links:
2013 Entries-Only Thread
2013 WIP Thread
Note that last year's contest allowed both lookalikes and original characters. This contest is specifically for lookalikes but I'm planning to run another later in the year for original characters.
Are we allowed to link to products from other sites - I thought the forum rules prevented that, or do you want only stuff sold at Daz to be used?
Thanks
Good question! Using non-DAZ products is fine as long as your character is based on a DAZ 3D figure. Links to offsite products are often but not always against the rules...I'll check with the mods whether links are allowed in this situation or not.
Good question! Using non-DAZ products is fine as long as your character is based on a DAZ 3D figure. Links to offsite products are often but not always against the rules...I'll check with the mods whether links are allowed in this situation or not.
I would think that probably you can borrow a rule from gallery images here, where it is possible to make a hyperlink to the DAZ 3D products used, but non DAZ 3D products are just listed by name.
I would think that probably you can borrow a rule from gallery images here, where it is possible to make a hyperlink to the DAZ 3D products used, but non DAZ 3D products are just listed by name.
Makes sense...thank you for the clarification. I'll update the rules.
This looks interesting..
I shall give it a go even though I am crap at creating morphs, dial spins etc... but it sounds like a lot of fun to try :-)
LOL!! Jaderail as a example. I'm so flattered I just have to offer you a Sponsorship in the amount of a $20 DAZ 3D Gift Card.
P.S. I'm semi sort of trying to think of getting Jade a much larger audience.
Thank you, Jaderail! I've updated the first post with some additional prizes.
By the way, if anyone is wondering why so many of the examples I posted are my own work, it's only because I am hesitant to post any pictures that don't belong to me, except for those that came from last year's contest. If anyone knows of examples of excellent lookalike characters (your own work or someone else's), I'd be happy to add links. :)
I might just now be brave/confident enough with my skills to get involved in this...
Is there a certain maximum/miniumum size for the pictures?
Also, may I ask why something like PNG file format isn't allowed? The pixel errors I was shown JPG often causes have made me usually switch to PNG for attempts at art.
Here’s some I did awhile back (like ten years ago). I don’t do this kind of stuff anymore I find it kind of point less.
Well I'm in. Been pretty busy lately, but I'm not feeling so well today and the only advantage of that is that I have an excuse to give creative challenges a go. I've already started gathering some public domain reference images.
Thanks to Scott and your generous co-sponsors for making this happen again this year.
I borrowed this language from another contest, and it may perhaps be a relic of a time in which the forum only accepted jpg images. I see now that most other contests around here don't specify a file type, they just require that you post in a format that the forum will accept, so I will change this contest's rules accordingly. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Glad to have so many people on board already. :)
I was wondering what exactly would make a fictional character easily identifiable. By fictional do you mean TV series/movies? For example, this is an image of Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows as played by Johnny Depp in the movie, not the actor from the series. So, in fact this falls into the category of celebrity instead of fictional character. What if the fictional character were from a book that has not been made into a movie or series. I would assume in this case there would be no easy way to recognize the character as different people would have imagined him/her differently. So, should we just stick to characters from movies and series and try to recreate the actors portraying them (in costume of course)?
I hope that's not going to be the case, I have no interest in creating a look alike of a celebrity and was planning on doing a character or characters from books. I personally feel that part of the challenge is finding things about the character that are recognisable to anyone who has read the book, certain characteristics or things they carry etc.
It's certainly not necessary for your character to resemble an actor or other real person. There are other things you can do to make the character readily identifiable. Let me give a couple of examples...
Let's say you want to create Frodo from Lord of the Rings. You can make an Elijah Wood lookalike if you want, or you can go in a different direction (the book character is a lot older than Wood was when he portrayed Frodo in the movies). If you give him a ring and furry feet, and render him next to some much taller people in fantasy garb, you're on the right track.
Or let's say you want to render Joan of Arc (she's not a fictional character, strictly speaking, though we don't know exactly what she really looked like, and she's been portrayed in many fictional works). You can find a painting of Joan and try to mimic that....you could find a photo of an actress who has played Joan and try to make your character resemble the actress...or you could just use your imagination and make a character that looks how you think Joan should look. In any event, the clothing, hair, props, set, and supporting characters will go a long way in making the audience (and judges) accept your character as Joan.
Think of Disney...their versions of Tarzan, Pocahontas, Hercules, and other characters are sometimes very different from how those characters were depicted in other media. You can either go with the traditional interpretation or the Disney one, or a new and original interpretation (it might be harder to "sell" the character as an authentic depiction, but it certainly can be done).
So if you do want to make a celebrity lookalike, the advantage is that you have a very clear target to work towards; the disadvantage is that judges have a very clear target to compare and contrast your character with!
I do recommend that you choose a character that most people are already familiar with (or at least can easily familiarize themselves with), but that's up to you. Hope this helps!
Nice render, by the way! :)
Hey Scott would something like this count...?? been working on him awhile??? The only thing is how would I figure out what character I originally used...?? dumb question I know but I am not sure....its either Darc or Brandon....Trish
Kalypso: that is a wonderful looking Barnabas
are caricatures or humorour representations eligable?
Thank you Scott, I was hoping to hear that as I do want to avoid celebrities. The render of Barnabas was inspired by a digital painting I had seen. Thanks bullit, glad you like it :)
It's a great idea for a contest and I really look forward to seeing all the entries!
OMG Kalypso, that is a great render of Barnabas. It certainly brought back memories. :coolsmile:
not sure if I will try to enter or not but I got to thinking about morphs and was wondering...
you stated that it was okay to use morphs we create ourselves as long as we identify that we did and how we made them... is it allowed to use the Faceshop plugin for creating morphs? and, if it is I am assuming that any images used to create the morphs would need to be identified as well as being allowed for commercial use or in public domain
Trish: Yes, that looks like something that would be appropriate for the contest (though you may need to remove the reference photo from your final entry...see my response to Zawarkal below...). If you open the scene in DS and go to the Surfaces tab, you should be able to find out which image maps were used.
Misty Whiskey: Yes, caricatures are definitely eligible for the contest. Let's see what you've got! :)
Zawarkal: I'm not a lawyer (so I can't give you legal advice) but as far as I know, if the image is only used as a visual reference it should be okay. If you actually incorporate the image into your work in some way, then you need to make sure you have the necessary permissions to use the image for commercial purposes. Using FaceShop is fine...as long as your use of Faceshop doesn't violate copyright or any of the contest rules.
Looks like a fun contest. Here is a WIP for the character I plan to work on.
- Base figure is Daz's Genesis. For shaping, I used a combination of Hiro3 and Hiro 5 morphs. I also did a little morphing in Carrara 8.5.
- Base body texture is David 5. I used Photoshop to edit the face texture map.
- Shirt is the golf shirt for Daz's Jason. I used Carrara's 3D paint tool to create the texture for the shirt.
- Shirt was morphed in Carrara to tuck it in the pants.
- Pants, shoes and socks are the 50sCM collection available in the Daz store. Again, textures changed in Carrara.
- Hair is the Wild Mane Hair, available in the Daz store. I morphed the hair in Carrara.
- The gloves are the M3 racer gloves, morphed to fit Genesis using the "fit to" function. Again, textures changed in Carrara.
- Helmet modeled and textured in Carrara
I'd welcome constructive criticism.
Name: Marylin Monroe
Daz studio, luxus and a little bit Photoshop
Photoshop only for the name and the brushe and to get rid of some spots.
Base figure is Genesis 2
Genesis 2 Female Head Morphs http://www.daz3d.com/genesis-2-female-head-morphs
Portia Hair http://www.daz3d.com/portia-hair
Play with the InaneGlory's Photo Studio Lux http://www.daz3d.com/inaneglory-s-photo-studio-lux
SAV Marina for G2F http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/sav-marina-for-g2f/102817/ I used only the texture