Gauging interest - We use the same things and make a custom

[BlackCurtains]

I'm feeling a bit burnt out with my own projects without any challenge or anything. I am still working on a bunch of customs but I want to try something different.

What if I were to organize a "same things, different interpretations" challenge? I can't think of a better name (please suggest one!).

I'd put up polls about body color, hair colors, theme, possibly generation and have people vote. Then we take the winning votes and use them to make a custom. It's not a swap. It would have a dedicated thread like a swap, where we can chat about our custom, maybe it would have a time-frame? And at the end, we'd all post our ponies and see how differently we made them, even though they all use the same colors/theme. It would be a chance to challenge yourself with something restricted plus the added community participation. Of course, you'll be able to do whatever you like with the custom afterwards.

We can all put in suggestions for the voting, and we can vote ourselves.

So what do you think? Who would want to participate? I'm thinking this can run through Feb-March. You won't be held to it, there's no chance of bad feedback or anything so while it has a deadline you can opt out any time. I might be able to offer prizes for those that stick with it and get it done within the timeframe.

[starscout]

I'll be away all throughout February, so if it's going on through then, I won't be able to participate. Either way, I'd love to see what everyone does. It sounds like such a fun idea!

[Heart Of Midnight]

Sounds interesting and fun!   But... I don't have such good talents that I dare to participate... 

[pandabear_chan]

That is a real interesting idea. It would be fun to see how people interpret things using the same material/ color/ theme etc. I'd be away on vaccation 2 weeks in March but would have some time otherwise.   

[tailrustedtealeaf]

That sounds really interesting! I'd participate!

[BlackCurtains]

Okay, I can adjust the deadline. Let's say... it runs for 6 months? It can be like a free for all, whenever you have time. I will be running a custom swap in April that will go til mid-late June. So even if you participate in that one, it still leaves 3 months for the challenge if I start it in Feb. Does that sound better?

Sounds interesting and fun!   But... I don't have such good talents that I dare to participate... 

Don't say that! You can do it

[pandabear_chan]

I personally think that 6 months is a tad too long (but that is just my feeling). It's like this "school Art collage" project that you can do within a good time frame. Guess when you start? Yay 1 week before due time *haha*. So if you're really excited about it, then you don't wait too long to get started. Maybe starting the beginning of February and ending it on Easter Sunday? That means 2 full months and 9 days to create this pony, which should be a good frame. But that is just me and my 2 cents

[BlackCurtains]

Okay, good point.

I think that sounds like a good timeframe - Feb to April 9th.

[Griffin]

Oooh fun idea! I really need to get back into customizing and this sounds just like the thing! So you can count me in

Feb to April 9 sounds like a good timeframe! And flexible enough so that people can join in later or skip a week or two and still manage to catch up.

Would the votes be a weekly thing? So you'd need a list of, say, 8 or 9 different things to vote about?

I suggest not voting for the generation but let everyone decide which pony to use as the base - that way we would have some more variation in the final results, and it would be easier for people to jump in if they didn't have to start by hunting for a suitable bait. Even fakies could be used, IMO

Sounds interesting and fun!   But... I don't have such good talents that I dare to participate... 

Of course you do! It's not a contest or a skill based thing anyway. Perhaps this could inspire someone to work on their very first custom, even? To do it step-by-step and with ideas and support from other participants. If materials are an issue, I'm sure our seasoned customizers will be able to help. Or one can go for a more creative interpretation!

Sorry if I'm getting carried away, I got really excited about this

Post Merge: January 27, 2023, 10:36:32 AM

Oh, forgot to add - re the name, what about Do This In Your Style? Because that's what it is, even if we don't have a model to start with.

[BlackCurtains]

Excellent name! Yes, I love it!

Okay, no gen vote. I had the same kinda thinking. Like, I have a bunch of G2s but if someone didn't it'd be hard to find a bait one, I imagine.

Regarding voting - There's body color, hair color(s), eye color, theme... could that be broken into general theme and specific theme? Like say, fantasy theme, dragons specifically. Or does that take too much away from us creativity wise? What else should be voted on?

[Griffin]

Sounds good! Yeah I agree theme is one that can be broken into multiple steps.

Hmm I just realised people may have different preferences when it comes to the order of doing things  Like, I pretty much always do sculpting first (if applicable), then paintwork, seal, rehair. Others may prefer to do things in a different order...? I suppose I could sculpt over paintwork, or rehair after FBR before doing any detail painting, if needed. This is meant to be a fun challenge anyway! I'm just trying to think of the best order of voting on stuff, if people want to work on their customs on a weekly basis. To keep this beginner-friendly, it's probably the best to assume sculpting is optional, so maybe something like...

1. Body colour
2. Second colour or markings? (e.g. blaze, hoof heart in G3 style, dark points, blush or freckles, zebra stripes, leopard spots...)
3. General theme
3.5 Specific theme (I assume theme = symbol/cutie mark, mainly? but feel free to interpret in other ways? I just realised these two probably need to go together, otherwise this is going to be difficult!)
[Possibly here: an additional detail you must include or material you need to use, could be smth recycled?]
4. Eye colour (? this could perhaps come before the theme?)
5. Body additions (e.g. sculpted/crafted/painted, technique could be left unspecified but smth like horn, wings, split hooves, furry feet, or even outfits...? is it possible to add those at this stage?)
6. Outfit or accessory (if not done as part of previous step, these would probably depend on the theme)
7. Hair colour/s (could leave material open so everyone can choose between nylon, yarn, sculpted etc.?)
[Possibly here: an additional detail you must include or material you need to use, could be smth recycled?]

Does this order make sense? Did I forget anything? Please review carefully and point out any problems you may notice! It's surprisingly difficult to think of a logical order of the steps so that you can keep on working before knowing what comes next week.

Actually, if it's difficult to do this week-by-week, maybe it would be possible to do it in batches and have like, two or three polls open simultaneously, then give two weeks to work on those steps before opening the next round of polls? That would solve some of the issues with timing and planning. IDK?

Please show me the door if I'm stepping on your toes here, BC

[Minty_Magic]

This sounds like a really fun idea! Even though I’ll probably be busy through a lot of the timeline I’m still going to try lol!

Griffin I like the different categories you’ve broken the voting into! I also like the idea of having multiple polls so we can work ahead a little if needed! My only nitpick would be for me personally, sculpting and adding different body parts always comes before any painting, so I think that step should be a little higher up in the chain. Sometimes even if I’m using paint straight from the bottle it can be hard to blend any additional paint after the initial painting is done to make it look right.

I also wonder if it might be easier to vote on the theme first? It might be a fun challenge to make your initial color choices work with the selected theme, but at the same time I’d hate to like, paint my pony dark red and the theme ends up being spring or something, you know?

[BlackCurtains]

No toes! Don't worry

I like your ideas. I'm thinking we should have several open polls. The order is important... sometimes I rehair before sculpting. Or paint then hair, then sculpt. Depends on what I'm sculpting really. Normally though, I think any sculpting comes first. So... but we should have the theme before anything else, I think. Hmm.

How about this?

-Theme(s). General theme and symbol you have to incorporate. But how you do the theme and symbol is any way you want. Secondary markings (I like this)
-Body additions/outfits and accessory. Here we could do a required material.
-Then colors. Body (3 colors?), hair (3 colors?), eyes.

Ideas for the poll options can come from anyone. Here are mine.

General theme:
Fantasy
Nature
Space
Everyday objects
Games (any kind)

Symbols:
Stars
Hearts
???

Secondary markings: (I'll put down what you suggested)
blaze
hoof heart in G3 style
dark points
blush or freckles
zebra stripes
leopard spots
(in addition)
Snake skin
Appaloosa
Paint (the horse marking)
Splatter effect

Body additions:
horn
wings
split hooves
furry feet
Teeth
Scales
Fur

Accessory:
Books
Food
Animal companion
Necklace
Crown

Required material:
Cardboard
Plastic
Tissue paper
Beads/sequins/other decorative doodads

Body colors:
I mean, we could list them all.

Hair colors:
Same.

Eyes:
...


What does everyone think? Please share your ideas!

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Ragamuffin's pony generator but make it real.

I'm really loosey goosey and have a lot of baits I can work with. Whatever everyone else thinks is good with me!

[Griffin]

Minty_Magic, those are some very good points! We really need to think hard about the order.

Okay let's run a little test! I took your poll options, BC, and put them in the random generator. I got...

Theme: Games
Symbols: stars
Markings: blush or freckles
Body additions: horn
Accessory: crown
Required material: tissue paper
Colour: green
Hair colour: orange
Eye colour: white
I used the same list of colours for all of these (sorry, random order):
    white
    black
    teal or turquoise
    grey
    red
    blue
    green
    violet/purple or lilac
    yellow
    orange
    pink or magenta
    brown

Lol! Let's see if there are any issues with these options. Okay, I grab my bait pony, let's say it's G1 Gusty pose unicorn. Theme is games, I choose to go with regular playing cards. There's not much I can do at this point except brainstorm. Symbols and markings also need to wait until we get to the painting stage. Body additions: horn. My bait is a unicorn. Do I get to skip this step? Can I customize the horn in some way, or do I need to add a second horn? Accessory: crown. This is easy and I can work on it in the meanwhile. Req material: tissue paper. I could use this to sculpt over the horn, if I haven't already done anything with it. Or use this to create the crown, if I haven't already done that using other materials. How flexible is the order of the steps? Finally, we get to the colours and I can start painting and rehairing. A playing card themed pony in green and orange, with white eyes - sounds like a challenge indeed! I've done white eyes before (outlined them in black so not like zombie eyes) but it's an unconventional colour and perhaps the colour options could be slightly different for body, hair and eyes. In any case, with this order I would need to wait until the very last polls to actually start working on my custom.

I'm not saying it's impossible, and it is meant to be a challenge, but this would certainly produce some interesting looking customs. I'm starting to think that some of the later poll options should perhaps depend on what theme gets chosen. In my test case it wouldn't have made a big difference since games is such a broad and varied theme. Furthermore, in reality the results probably wouldn't be as mismatchy since we're voting, not doing a random generator - everyone will probably vote for the option they feel goes best with the previous choices made. So no snake skin or grey colour with a candy theme, for example...?

Do you think it would be easier to start from the body colour after all, and do the theme next? The themes BC listed are all very broad so there are a lot of options you could work with, not like you'd have to do a bright red pony with a spring theme. And the list of themes could be curated based on the colour chosen, if needed. Everyone will be working with the same choices, in the end, and although some compromises undoubtedly need to be made, I'm sure most of us don't want to work with terribly clashing colours or themes vs details which will result in a comic relief at best.

It might be best to keep it simple and drop e.g. body additions altogether so if someone wants to do a simple painted and rehaired custom that's possible. We could keep the accessory and the required material (which you can use in the accessory, not necessarily on the pony itself), and if someone wants to do sculpting or play around with materials that's possible (but totally optional). What do you think?