Dominance War V

The Pre-Dominance War competition has begun. A four week Character competition which serves as a 'warmup' to the main event. Dominance War pits a handful of video game CG forums against one another, and entrants must choose a side to represent. Rules and guidelines are given, and then the entrants produce a character or animation around those rules.

I could use something to do, so I think I will get involved in this. My forum of choice; Polycount.

The rules :

We are not making a game, nevertheless, it would be awesome to see artists’ interpretation of how characters in a Dominance War Universe would look like in an MMO type game. Important things to remember, DW is a world comprised of magic, technology, aliens, machines, and demons. The time period is set in the distant future where cities lay in ruins and signs of great wars can be seen across the lands. For further specifics, please read about character classes available to create and about the rules & regulations for the following categories: 3D Character Art, Concept Art, and 3D Character Animation. World standings await the best designed prelim entries! Good luck to all those brave enough to enter!





I am that which strikes fear in our enemies hearts, for it is I who controls the tide of battle. I do not hide, I do not run, I am at the forfront of every battle and with me, I bring my horde of loyal subjects who are willing to lay down their very lives for my cause. My knowledge in tactics, weapons, and the art of hand to hand combat, are second to none. Without me, there would be no victories of war because I am the judge, and I am the jury, of lives, battles, and the changing shape of the world. I insure Victory, I insure Dominance, and I insure War!




I am defense, I am offense, and at your command, I bring you glory. Through the perfection of science combined with magic, I can be hope and I can be terror. Rumors of my kind are thought to be legends. When I am around, walls of light can block the strongest of attacks, rain will scorch the land with fire, explosions will come forth from the gestures of my hands – my powers and might knows no bounds. Although weak in the finer points of hand to hand combat, I have many ways in which to avoid it. To have me at your command is to insure your Dominance in War.




I am everywhere, yet nowhere. I am he who strikes from the shadows. Like the weight of your conscience, my presence can be felt but never seen. What takes many strikes by most, I only require one, for when my sword is drawn, someone has died. Great generals, legendary technomages, the most powerful corrupted, and even emperors, they all have weaknesses, and it is through my particular expertise, that they all can be brought down. There is no fear when I am around. There is only death. Those lucky enough to have survived my passing, live in terror for my return. I am Dominance and I am the finest points of War.




I am a nightmare that travels the worlds. I have no name, but I have many faces. Some call me cursed, others, abomination, however, amongst my kind, we are known as evolution. From the pits of hell, or from the fusion of machine with norms, I am perfection in the face of battle, for I have the ability, and interest, to deal, wage, and win wars. We have great numbers, for we are everything unnatural, and only the most powerful are able to destroy us. To become us and to serve our lord, you must be willing to sacrifice your mind, your flesh, and your soul, as it is only with this sacrifice, that you are able to do anything for Dominance and for victories in War.

• Everything for this challenge must be made from scratch (animation category may use base mesh supplied by DW). No pre-existing ideas, sketchs, drawings, base meshes, or body models can be used.
• Keep gore and nudity to a decent level please! Don’t get DW banned in various countries!
• Artists can only join 1 team for all of dominance war V. If you start with polycount, you cannot later switch to gameartisans or cgsociety. Traitors are not welcomed.
• You are not required to enter all challenges. Pick the ones you like, and join.
• This is a wip challenge. Posting your work in progress in your chosen forum is ABSOLUTLY MANDATORY. Do not wait until the last day to show your progress or you can potentially be disqualified.
• You can only submit one 1000x1000 350k max final image. What this means? 200w x 1000h is fine. 999w x 500h is fine. 1001w x 200h is NOT fine. This image must include your team logo, your characters name, and your personal name and/or contact details.
• You can use any 3d, 2d, or animation software package in the world to create your entry. You can also use traditional mediums like pencil, paper, paint, etc to create your entry.
• Only 1 entry per person. Do not create or try to create multiple entries with different user names.
• Final submissions are final. If you upload your final image 4 days before the deadline, do not ask us to change it. Make sure you are happy with your image before you submit it into the system.
• Public voting to find each team's best entries, starts December 6th and will continue throughout the Christmas break. Later, each team’s best will be gathered into a single pool, and a grand champion will be chosen and announced with all other Dominance War V event champions in April 2011.

You have 4 weeks to finish with the following specs:

• Create one of the above character classes into 3d.
• Important: Your entry must include your team's logo emblem, or colors, or both, on your character's skin, gear, clothing or weapons. If logo, it must be visible on your character. If colors, your character should posses obvious clothing tones of your chosen team. For logos and colors, visit - Here
• 3000 tris total for character, weapons, and gear.
• 1024x1024 for diffuse, specular color, specular level, glow, bump, opacity, and ambient color. Example, one 1024 diffuse sheet, one 1024 spec sheet, one 1024 Gloss sheet, etc. No displacement maps, No bump maps, and no painting normal maps in any fashion. High res sculpting is allowed for diffuse map generation only, and retopology is allowed.
• Breaking up texture sheets into smaller texture sheets is fine. 4 x 512 maps or 2 x 512x1024 etc, is fine.
• All lighting solutions from any software package is permitted.
• All shaders are permitted.
• Final presentation image should include texture sheet, wireframe, and full colored model. Posing model is optional, and adding a pedestal is optional (pedestal may use its own set of unlimited polygons and textures). If a pedestal is added, it must contain no objects that character can pick up and use.
• To insure no one cheats by photoshop'ing extra details into their final presentation image, high ranked entrants can be asked to submit their models to Dominance War officials to verify that the specs (no normal maps, no extra photoshop’ing on final presentation sheet, no extra polygon usage, no extra texture sheets) were met. Entrants that fail to submit their models to us, will be disqualified from competition. Submitted models will be used for judging purposes only. They will not be sold, or used for any means other than checking to see if you followed the rules.

Working on Silhouettes currently. This seems like the perfect thing to sink my teeth into.