Competitions?

[IchI0]

I know they are loads of 3d graphgics competitions out there but does anyone know of any that will be kicking of soon? Or any sites that have compeitions a lot but might not have one going atm? Basiclly if you got any 3d graphics competitions u know of could you post the links? Me my self am not very good at 3d graphics but its always nice to see other peoples work and see what I can come up with.

 

[Incitatus]

Check out the new alienware challenge over at www.cgtalk.com, great prize! Judging by your work it's probably beyond your level (and mine for that matter) but it could be a great learning experience. These are the real pros in the CG industry competing here.

They also have regularly contests at www.3dluvr.com. Here the level is way lower, so it might be more fun.

There aren't many low poly contests around low poly is simply not as interesting.

 

[spin]

I'd like to see a small competition here. The majority of the modelers that frequent this forum are beginners, but it could still be fun for everyone.

 

[VoiD]

Yeah when i read your post i immediately thought of the alienware challenge it just kicked of yesterday and you have a good 2-3 months to work on it . But be warned cgtalk has probably the highest quality cg work anywhere on the web but like the previous poster said even if you dont win you can certainly learn lots and have a bit of fun while your at it . And to top it off first prize is a dual intel xeon 3.2ghz system with a quadro fx 3000 graphic card. here is a direct link to the thread in there forums. http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=95952

 

[SidewinderX]

if we have a contest here, it'd proberly be for no real prize...unless someone wants to buy something for us to use....

 

[Stone]

or unless, we all bug the forum mod, to send a letter (e-mail) to valve, to see if they will donate prizes.......

oh wait I am the local Mod...doh

 

[The Dark Elf]

Ask a few companies, people like ATI or nVidia, in exchange for a bit of advertising for them they can be pursuaded into offering stuff as prizes, thats how we do it on the others. Makes the companies look good and the odd giveaway never hurts them with the profits they make

and whats the worse that can happen, they say no. Entirely worth trying, better the prize the better the entries and level of effort. Maybe have a number of smaller competitions (perhaps including the photoshop ones in the art section) each with their own smaller first prizes. Then after so many smaller competitions an overall winner is selected from all the entries to win the big prize?

 

[operative x]

Yeah! That would be cool to have a competition!!!

 

[SidewinderX]

Originally posted by Fenric1138
Ask a few companies, people like ATI or nVidia, in exchange for a bit of advertising for them they can be pursuaded into offering stuff as prizes, thats how we do it on the others. Makes the companies look good and the odd giveaway never hurts them with the profits they make

Most companies will only supply you with prizes if you have a phisical event, and they usally require pictures and proof of that nature.

 

[spin]

Physical prizes aren't really necessary for a small contest such as this. I'm sure many of the people here would be happy with a sticky topic with their name on it as the contest winner. Inside of that topic, allow the winner to promote their website or their mod to give them some publicity.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by SidewinderX143
Most companies will only supply you with prizes if you have a phisical event, and they usally require pictures and proof of that nature.

I've not come across that. I guess it depends on those doing the asking, they'd certainly not consider it for just any site. But I reckon this place could possibly pull it off and get something.. You could always ask for promotional items, they'll give those away to anything bigger than the average joe off the street

For the better stuff the advertising route is the best way to go. I doubt it would be hard to prove to eg: ATI that this place gets tons of traffic. Suggest an advertising banner for so many months in exchange for some product (or just cash and then buy the prize out of that) CGTalk can do that and I know we do it at CGFocus *grins*

Could always try Softimage too, though they'll never ever hand over a fully licenced copy of their software, even the reviewers only get something like a month or so licence.

And if you were to ask ATI, and they agree'd. It would only be fair to give nVidia a chance to advertise too, the chance of something else for a prize. And the design of this site you could fit in a few ad banners without disturbing the flow of things or annoying anybody with in your face ads.

I'm pretty sure at some stage Valve will offer something up as a prize, has anyone asked them yet? Even if its just stuff like T-shirts or baseball caps, they'd be good for some competitions. Certainly never any harm in asking, its a good site, they'll see straight off that nobody is trying to con anybody, and that whole no stolen file talk rule could also greatly benefit the chances over other sites

Or how about have a winning image in one competition turned into a framed print. Granted entries would have to be done at a much greater resolution and then sampled down to show on here. But getting their entry printed professionally might be pretty cool for some, especially those who wouldn't normally be able to do something like that, or know how to go about it. How about even get it signed by I dunno someone at Valve heh. Or send stuff off to whichever celeb and get them autographed or something.. ooooh how about find someone who's got a girlfriend/wife/partner who can make cuddly toys and have them do a squeeky headcrab or a cuddly Zombie Scientist doll (don't laugh cause these are pretty fun prizes )

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by spin
Physical prizes aren't really necessary for a small contest such as this. I'm sure many of the people here would be happy with a sticky topic with their name on it as the contest winner. Inside of that topic, allow the winner to promote their website or their mod to give them some publicity.

Like making someone a Hydra or something (seems most want to be that heh)

or how about that special text a few users have. Winners get to choose their own, within reason?

 

[SidewinderX]

Well, I have persoanlly contacted may hardware vendors asking for sponsorship of Hardware contests for this site, none of them them, those who have replied, have agreed.

 

[AndreW3D]

I say we should have a contest like a gun or something...

I would love to join but I cant model only texture I would be glad to textures somebody’s model for a contest if you do decide to have one.

Contest are good fun and you make your best when in competition with others.

 

[VoiD]

I think its a great idea to ask valve for a prize im sure they would be willing to donate some tshirts or something . Even if there is no prize i definately think a competition is in order, perhaps a made up weapon or an alien player model? even a vehicle might be good. Judging could be based on both how good it looks and how efficent the poly usage is .

 

[Incitatus]

nooo, not low poly :/

 

[SidewinderX]

I we have one it would most definatly have to be High Poly. No low poly contests, that's what most of the people here are doing, make it high poly....


also, AndreW3D, check ur pms

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

If it's HL2-related, it would need to be low-poly. Strict poly limit.

 

[Incitatus]

Originally posted by PiMuRho
If it's HL2-related, it would need to be low-poly.

Why?

It would be very interesting to see people's take on a high poly gordon for instance, or ant lion even better.

Futher more there's a reason why you hardly ever see low poly comps. Low poly modelling is easier, often less interesting, and usually the models have a tendancy to be very very similar. High poly gives far more freedom and ability to really get the creative juices flowing and therefore diversity.

:afro:

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Because whatever model wins could be used as a player model, that's why.

A low-poly restriction forces you to be more creative within the poly limit constraints.

To make a compromise:

Have a high-poly and a low-poly contest.

Even sub-categorise it further - player models/weapon models/vehicles.

There you go

 

[spin]

Originally posted by Incitatus
Low poly modelling is easier, often less interesting (snip)

I disagree. It takes a lot of skill to make a model under restrictions and have it look like a higher poly model. Anyone can take the time and use as many polygons as they want to achieve a certain shape.

 

[Incitatus]

Originally posted by spin
I disagree. It takes a lot of skill to make a model under restrictions and have it look like a higher poly model. Anyone can take the time and use as many polygons as they want to achieve a certain shape.

slightly offtopic, I hope the mods don't mind.

That's what people often say. But in fact it is more difficult to plan a good topology for a high poly model than for a low poly model. there are far more things to consider in high poly modeling.

In low poly modeling you simply add faces for detail or remove them were possible, the actual shape of the faces or edge loops/rings doesn't come into play as long as your faces follow the shape of the object.

When modelling high poly not only do you have to follow the shape of your object, you have to be very carefull what shape your faces have (tries, quads, ngons etc). You have to plan your topology usually in advance, the flow of lines must follow the flow of the original object, so it smooths properly. You need to know how approx. your smoothing algorithm works (maya, max, XSI all smooth differently), knowing this you have to model sometimes diverging from the shape of the object so it'll smooth nicely. And when modelling high poly your working with far greater poly densities which makes difficult having an overview (especially if your working on an object that has both sharp edges and big curvatures) and can make it very confusing (you may thing this is trivial but when you're working on a mesh with 200.000 polies things can get hectic).

P.S. not that I don't have respect for low poly modelers. Personally I don't enjoy low poly modeling at all. But our modelers at LGW have made some excellent models of which I stand in awe.

But what I stated above is a pretty general opinion, at least among the people I know.

tbh modeling isn't really my thing at all, I have made some impressive high poly models if I do say so myself but I enjoy texturing and rendering/lighting much more.

 

[spin]

I didn't mean to imply that high poly modeling was easy, because it certainly is not and requires a lot of skill and knowledge to do it right. However, I find it more difficult to create a convincing human character that has a good silhouette with 1500 polygons than it is to create one with as many polygons as you want. Reguardless, this argument will never get anywhere because it's comparing apples and oranges. They take different modeling styles and require a different thought process, making the difficulty subjective.

For this contest, however, many of the modelers here are beginners and aren't skilled enough yet to do a high poly character model. I certainly don't want to take the time and enter with only 3 entries, so perhaps we should do something that everyone will be able to do.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by spin
I disagree. It takes a lot of skill to make a model under restrictions and have it look like a higher poly model. Anyone can take the time and use as many polygons as they want to achieve a certain shape.

I agree, low poly modeling is an artform in itself, trying to get models to look as good as unlimited poly work while remaining under very strict (even today) rules on poly usage and mapping

It's like in the old days, a set palette of colors that you often would not be able to change and would be usually 16 colors around the earlier days, later it got better with 256. But still, you had to make images with just the colors available and make them work, aswell as being limited by resolution (640x480 if you were very lucky) Then there was the really restrictive stuff, gameboy's for example, what was that, 4 colors or something including the empty/background color. You had to work miracles with very little room to manouver. So yeah low poly modeling is a talent in itself and a good many modelers who can do crazy things in high poly work will balk and fail with low poly stuff

I like what PiMurho suggested.. different catagories. I also like what someone else suggested, modeling a high poly photorealistic version of Gordon's head, now that would be cool

Here's one suggestion for the low poly catagory
- Half Life III, Gordon runs around a corridor and turns a corner only to shit a brick when he see's a terrifying............... model what he see's, also including an idle animation sequence, one attack sequence and one death sequence

rules
1) no copying, make it original

2) you can use anything in a 3D package to help create it, but ONLY if that effect would be possible within the source engine, such as normal maps, spec maps, basic shadow map shadows. You can use GI to help light your scene but not your model itself

3) anyone found using anything from the stolen files is disqualified

whaddya think?

 

[Incitatus]

Why limit ourselves to gaming technology? why not an art competition like on the major CG sites only with a HL2 theme, it would make it so much more interesting. But I see I am in a the minority here, so I'll keep my trap shut

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Incitatus
Why limit ourselves to gaming technology? why not an art competition like on the major CG sites only with a HL2 theme, it would make it so much more interesting. But I see I am in a the minority here, so I'll keep my trap shut

Well this isn't really a CG art site, and the majority simply don't have the same talents as would be found on places like CGTalk, so the average level of work here would be far lower

Besides its more of a challenge to put limits such as only using effects possible in the engine on the low poly catagory. And if its not challenging then its not much fun. It'll also help to teach those not really familiar with such effects get used to them, which in turn will hopefully help them produce better work down the line if they work on some mod for HL2

However you could have the no limits rule on the high poly stuff if you wanted to I guess, though again, all it really needs is someone whos does it for a living to come along and they've won the competition pretty much. Have to bare in mind that some here wont have access (legally) to some of the software the pro's have, or have had the training or the real world experience or simply that level of talent, and that leads to seriously unfair advantages where those who do it just for fun wouldn't stand a chance really.

The low poly stuff, with its limits can be a little more fair as most have access to things like that and anybody can have a go if they want, and with the same limits applying to all then it puts everyone on a much more even footing

 

[spin]

Originally posted by Fenric1138
Here's one suggestion for the low poly catagory
- Half Life III, Gordon runs around a corridor and turns a corner only to shit a brick when he see's a terrifying............... model what he see's, also including an idle animation sequence, one attack sequence and one death sequence (snip)

I like the idea, but I don't know about the sequences. I really don't have time to rig and do some animation sequences along with the model, and most of the people here probably do not know how to anyway.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by spin
I like the idea, but I don't know about the sequences. I really don't have time to rig and do some animation sequences along with the model, and most of the people here probably do not know how to anyway.

if thats true then they probably shouldn't be making mods then


but seriously, its a good way for those who don't know to learn how to, gives them a reason to practice. If they don't know now, they will when their done and probably get good at it and then go on to do decent models and help others, or they'll realise their not cut out for it and give up.

 

[Stormy]

i want to play

 

[operative x]

no no no i dont want to make some kind of monster! Let us pick what ever we want!

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by operative x
no no no i dont want to make some kind of monster! Let us pick what ever we want!

lol how would it be a fair competition if everyone did something completely different though

 

[nw909]

Originally posted by Fenric1138
lol how would it be a fair competition if everyone did something completely different though

I'll make the best box you've ever seen.

 

[operative x]

In context with hl2, like a weapon/ character.

 

[IchI0]

hmmmmm..... to make it more proffesional why not make it so people have to draw there own concepts and can not us other peoples? Nothing in the whole world proffesionally is modelled before it is drawn out. Infact you could have a contest on concept or the most vercitial programming in hl2. You can't just have competitions in 3d. Thats a bit harsh on all the other people in the hl2 community. Or even for the skinners. Have somone from the hl2 staff model a face. Then get skinners to generate a skin for this. See who comes out the best. They are loads of things you can do.

 

[phantomdesign]

First, it is a good idea to form a solid plan before you look for sponsors. With a solid well-planned competition with clear guidelines, getting a sponsor would not be too difficult. Wait to ask until you do this because sponsors hate being asked twice.

The competition itself….(my ideas)

• Eligibility: Only individuals may enter work which they did 100% by themselves. The model (or collection of models) and textures must be created by a single person.
• Entries: Each person gets only 1 entry, but is allowed to include as many models as they like. No works created before October 2003 are eligible for entry. Entries must us a realistic poly count (???? weapons, ???? vehicles, ???? characters).
• Submission: Entries are to be submitted as pictures under the following criteria… (1) jpg format (2) no more than 1024x768 (3) No more than 120k/picture (4) 3-5 pictures
• Content The content must directly relate to Half-Life 2 or clearly relate to a promising modification (may require description of MOD and/or website link).
• Schedule The entries for the competition end on November 30, 2003 at 23:59 CST (-600 GMT)

 

[spin]

For judging to be fair, the theme shouldn't be as broad as directly relating to HL2 or a modification. Obviously, someone doing a 2,000 polygon weapon isn't going to stand a chance against someone doing a 7500 polygon alien or an assault buggy in judging. Everyone needs a more specific theme to work with. Either weapons only, characters only, or vehicles only that relate directly to HL2.

 

[IchI0]

hmmmm..... I think the gudging should be done with images and when they have narrowed it down to about 10 models ask the aplicants for the actual model. Then they can inspect to see how well made it is so there is a sense of quality to the work and not just a peace of sex.

 

[Stormy]

i think it would be better to have a theme.. then judges get it down to 10 models or somthing and then the community vote for the winner