What does “count as original” matter? For the Eye Candy prize?
When does it become “original”, though? If you use, say, a Fuse model as a base mesh, but take it into ZBrush and make a new character, is that “original”, or is that “that team used pre-made assets”? What about just a static ZBrush base mesh? Seems like there’s a large gray area in the concept of “original”?
Not that I care all that much, as I’m treating the game jam as a mini-vacation and could care less if I win anything, but I’m still curious.
That’s a pretty standard process for creating a character; since the character is original, the asset is also original. A generated character on the other hand wouldn’t be.
But a Fuse model is a generated character. I know starting from a base mesh is standard, I’m just pointing out that there’s no fine line between original and derived. If I take a fuse character and, say, add a scar, but otherwise leave it unchanged, it’s pretty derivative. If I take it into ZBrush and totally re-work it into something else, it’s not. Between those extremes, there’s a lot of gray.
Exactly my thoughts. Fuse is a tool for character creation after all, yes it makes all the work for you but one could argue that many modern programs, like Zbrush, do in minutes what we used to spend hours doing in the old days, so do you really create something if you use a piece of software that basically does all the hard parts for you? What if I take a base mesh from Makehuman (or Fuse) into Zbrush and work on it from there, is it still an original creation? UE4 itself is a tool that allows to easily do things we only dreamed about few years ago, can I really consider anything I make with it to be my original work or mostly the work of Epic?
I see your point, - Fuse, similar to speedtree is an asset creation tool, and I’d argue that those fall into that gray area you speak of. Unless it was from the ground up created from scratch, just let us know It shouldn’t affect any sort of outcome!
Yes and it’s always a good idea to outline which are the assets that you have not done on your own like: “the basic UE4 skeletal (not the mesh for example) and the build-in animations for example”.
I don’t think that was intended as a judgment call or a general indictment. I think was just specifically talking in the context of judging on categories that relate to art.
If in doubt, make everything yourself. That’s what we’re doing regardless! Just want the theme now! Killing time by playing Battlefront… IMO, the theme should just be one-word. But if it’s Gravity or Space-related I’m bloody out (been working on that for nearly 2 yrs now).
EDIT: Also - if you’re only entering a game jam with the prizes in mind, you’re doing it for all the wrong reasons…
If you’re generating characters with a character generator, it’s not an asset created by you, it’s not original.
You don’t have to use expensive tools to create your assets, things like Blender are free. The time taken to learn tools, well that’s just a skill gap. If you don’t have the means to make your own characters, accept that your assets are not original (and of course credit them as such in your entry), or build a game that does not require characters - it’s a game jam, play to the skills you have, not the skills you don’t
Considering that people use a ‘base asset’ that is not created by them, and modify it to make something else, they are doing nothing different than what those that use Fuse do… deriving something new off of a known base.
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ya may want to create a new thread for the actual entries
-(& delete anything that isn’t an actual entry post from one of the teams (or placeholder))-
It shouldn’t affect any sort of outcome!
- it’s a game jam, play to the skills you have, not the skills you don’t 