Research: Wild West Challenge

As a part of my research, I read an interview with the top three character designers that entered the competition Wild West Challenge. In this challenge, the participants had to create a fully rendered character model in the theme of Wild West in 8 weeks. In the interview, I found out much interesting information about their way of thinking, the work process and what they find important.

I wrote down interesting things they said that could advise me while creating my own character.

Jared Chavez


"My first priority for this piece was to have it completed by the end of the challenge."
"I made sure that I set up a timeline and I stuck pretty close to that in order to make sure I had a finished piece."
"I started by gathering a large amount of reference."
"Take it as a chance to learn something new, push yourself out of your comfort zone."
"Meet new people and learn from their work."
"Remember to have fun."

Nikita Svechnikov


"Most of the time I work with stylization so I decided to do something different to challenge myself and try to work in a realistic manner."
"I started by searching for all possible references related to the Native Americans theme and then blocking common elements."

Aidin Salsabili


"After choosing the subject, I always start by research. For this challenge, I saw and read about different tribes. You can find important information about their fighting techniques, weapons, tools and etc. So I made a list of all things that needed to be done."

Each of the artists had a similar approach to the challenge and work. I think it is important to learn from people who know what they are doing and this interview gave me a lot of inspiration about modelling my character this year or even about my approach for the future.

They also submitted different poses, lighting, textures and turnarounds that I can look at while creating my own character, to get inspiration.












References

Mon, S. (2018). Wild West Challenge: Game Character Winners Interview. [online] ArtStation Magazine. Available at: https://magazine.artstation.com/2018/09/ww-gc/.

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