Weekly Modeling Competition?

[tim8604]

Hey guys, I frequent both this forum and the Art forum and just got an idea. In the art forum, we started up a weekly photoshop contest and was thinking maybe you guys would be interested in something similiar. We could have a certain model or scene that would be the topic for the week, and everyone could do their own rendition of it in whatever program they wanted to. Skinning contests could also be held. It could turn out some interesting results for sure! At the end of the week, everyone votes for the winner and fun is had for all..... anyone interested?

For the example of the photoshop contest for this week, Click Here.

 

[SidewinderX]

maybe one week can be like "best material" or soemthing.

 

[spin]

We had a discussion about it a little while back and pretty much everyone was in favor of it. I don't know what happened, but it just fizzled out and nothing came of it. Maybe this time we can get something going.

 

[tim8604]

I'll send it to stone, he probably will be interested .

 

[The Dark Elf]

one competiton could be like one Newtek had a while back

A model is provided (in this case it would have to be available in various formats for each app) and its then upto the user to texture it how they want, including setting up UV mapping and so on. Best texturing job wins and its put up for others to download and play around with

Or similar to that other site. Where a discription is given then a month or so to come up with a 3D scene depicting it. Actually hmm, I came up with tons of comp idea's for CGFocus but we decided not to bother with competitions in the end, I could probably try dig those out and see if their any good?

 

[tim8604]

Okay guys, Stone pmed me back and said that if we could come up with a rules list and the topic, he would post it for us...

So here is what I've thought of so far (pulling some from the art competition)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After FIVE days, we will have TWO days to judge the submissions. Please take note of the changes here, they were made to allow a longer voting time.

RULES
These are fixed for the contest, they will not change for the duration of this contest.

1.) Only posts with submissions in them will be allowed in this thread. DO NOT discuss the models in this thread, another thread will be made for that.
2.) Serious submissions only, no one primative entries.
3.) No pornographic renders.
4.) Stick to the topic.
5.) Don't use models from the beta.
6.) Don't steal other peoples models from this forum, from another game, or from any free model websites or sharing software. Make it on your own. Basing a model on someone elses okay, but you actually have to model it, not just take it.
7.) You may have two entries. Only submitting one entry is okay too.
8.) Make sure to clearly highlight what number entry yours is. Simply put "ENTRY [number] by [name]" at the top of your post.
9.) Once the entry is submitted DO NOT edit it. If this becomes a problem we will have to upload them here instead of letting you use your own space.
10.) Skins are not required to enter, but they might help you win.
11.) Cell Shaded entries are allowed

TOPIC
Any ideas?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you guys think for topics we should say to make an exact model of something already out there, or leave it more open?

1) Make a T72 tank ~ would be the exact way
2) Model a tank ~ more open

Here are a few quick Ideas I came up with.
-create an entirely new futuristic weapon
-model a small section of city17
-develop a tank/vehicle that could be used by the combine
-model your living room
-model your computer
-model an outdoor scene in one of a few areas that could be chosen before the contest ( mountains, tropical beach, desert, forest, backyard )

Anyone else have some input?

 

[Axyon]

Modelling certain things or texturing them seems to be the best ideas... like modelling an Mp5k as accurately as you can, with as much detail. Or just getting stone to model a basic one, then offering it for download in the contest and getting everyone to skin it. Sounds good, even though I haven't a clue how to model and/or skin

 

[ray_MAN]

Do you have to skin? 5 days is kinday short for a model and then a skin. Try leaving the topic open ended also. If the topic is modelling an MP5 you will have ten almost exact looking MP5's.

 

[tim8604]

Nah, you don't have to skin.

10.) Skins are not required to enter, but they might help you win

 

[NoisyMonk]

You could make this sort of a 2 part contest... Get people to make the models, within a reasonable Half-Life2 poly limit, and then the winning model is made available for download. Then the second part of the contest would be skinning it. You would be given another week ( or however long ) to skin it and then the winning skin and model would be made available to the community.

 

[tim8604]

Yeah, that's what Stone was telling me about earlier as the way they were going to set it up before...but I was just imagining the problems we could run into when the winning model was made in "Bob's 3D Builder" :-P. Maybe if we limited to some of the larger known pieces of software such as Lightwave, 3dsmax, Xsi, and Maya, we could just use converters. Hopefully that won't get too messy.

 

[spin]

Originally posted by tim8604

Do you guys think for topics we should say to make an exact model of something already out there, or leave it more open?

1) Make a T72 tank ~ would be the exact way
2) Model a tank ~ more open

I think that should be left open and differ from week to week. Some weeks could be modeling an exact item, while another one could be designing your own and modeling it. That way there's still room for creativity now and then, but also allows for people to test their ability to model something accurately and correctly.

 

[MINDA]

ok, the best idea,

model a crate, hl could always use more crates.

mmmm, crates :cheers:

 

[Murray_H]

Make it more challenging, give a poly limit

 

[neko]

imo it would be more interesting if you only got a few words like,
snow, dark, underwear (just wrote first things i could think of ) and then you had to come up with a scene or a model yourself.
You'd get alot of different entrys, and you'd actually have to think a little. Anyone can model a good MP5 with enough training, so i think you should be rewarded for creativity too.

 

[MINDA]

a box with a sign on it :bounce:

man, that'd rock. oh the possibilities.

mmm, im going to the movies with my girlfriend tomorrow, completely off-topic, but i figured i'd let you all know :cheers:

hmm, a model of a retarded dog, with a tentacle growing out of its ass. i'd like to see someone make that. NOW lol

 

[IchI]

seems like a good idea. I would be more into the creative topics rather than model something like a t58 take. Mainly because everyone would make something that looks relativly the same. I think they should be polgon limits of the competitions even if its something like max 10,000 polgons or max 100 polgons to create a character. It would be very intresting to see how some polgon restrictions would effect peroples interpritation or somthing.

I know for a fact I will be taking part in them as long as they don't seem to be boring. Should be wicked

 

[The Dark Elf]

Here's a competition idea

Make a real looking model/render of a city using _only_ 10 polygons for the final rendered image


its possible

 

[random.hero]

bah, is like to see that one, itd be pretty crappy looking, but its possible. good use of bump maps and a few other tricks, and it could look a little better.

...i still like Minda's last idea.

 

[Stormy]

you could just make it really really small

 

[ankalar]

That would be extremely easy as long as you were a very good 3d artist. All you would have to do is make the scene, render it out, then save the render and apply it as a texture on a plane in a new scene. After that you just render that plane in an orthographic viewport.

 

[The Dark Elf]

well done ankalar, thats exactly what I had in mind, you noticed the bit I said 10 polys for the final image.. I'd said nothing about how many polygons could be used prior to that, so yep, you win the prize for guessing correctly. I'm shocked nobody else worked it out though, it was pretty easy wasn't it.

dunno what the prize is, a night out with Tim8604 I suppose :E

 

[PvtRyan]

Originally posted by Fenric1138
well done ankalar, thats exactly what I had in mind, you noticed the bit I said 10 polys for the final image.. I'd said nothing about how many polygons could be used prior to that, so yep, you win the prize for guessing correctly. I'm shocked nobody else worked it out though, it was pretty easy wasn't it.

dunno what the prize is, a night out with Tim8604 I suppose :E

You can also just take a picture of the NYC skyling, apply it to a single poly plane and render it. You never said anything about modeling it

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by PvtRyan
You can also just take a picture of the NYC skyling, apply it to a single poly plane and render it. You never said anything about modeling it

I said _only_ 10 polygons, I didn't say you could go below


ahh what the hell, you got me , yeah your right, could do it that way too then hehe

 

[ankalar]

Crap, you won, PvtRyan! Damn, I really wanted that date with Tim.

 

[Wazz Pants]

hmm the 3d studio used to put on contests every month for actual scenes, but it looks like the contest died off in september sometime.

I'd love to participate in a weekly modeling contest. it would give me something to do while im breaking from working on my mod/playing games.

as long as we're not modeling guns im totally in, well as long as we're not modeling any real world guns.

I'd like mixing up between being specific and open.
but i say if the models are supposed to be a specific thing then stone or whoever is doing the contest for the week should provide a couple reference pics.

 

[ray_MAN]

Ya I'm in. I would love to do a weekly modelling competition, though I would most likely lose miserably. What's wrong with guns Wazz Pants?

P.S. Does anyone know of any good tutorials for beginners for XSI EXP? I have checked the website and there aren't enough.

 

[Wazz Pants]

umm theres nothing really wrong with guns, only that i've seen about eleventy billion differen gun models of the same gun.
I'm just saying there's no need for however many people to all make more mp5s.

 

[Murray_H]

Does it have to be weekly? Why not have it monthly, then hopefully quality will be at a very good level and also it saves trying to think up ideas for the comp every week

 

[ray_MAN]

Yeah if you expect OK quality from me it has to be monthly. I just learned modelling takes time. And Wazz we will try to have an open ended topic like model a tank or model a tree and see which has the best quality.

 

[random.hero]

a tank or...a tree ?

maybe thats just an example, but that sounds mind-numbingly boring. have something with a bit of imagination, say a scary character, or a god/godess, something where the individual can use their strengths to bring out character and produce a nice model.

 

[ray_MAN]

Yeah it is just an example, but I would expect the contest to be open ended, so it wouldn't be like, "Model the skyline of NYC". There you would have the same model over and over again. That is what I was trying to get at.

 

[MINDA]

a tank AND a tree. :O a tree-tank.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Just model a weapon that you'd imagine is in reguar military use 126 years from now. The most realistically thought out and of course the best looking one wins.

 

[ray_MAN]

I like that topic Fen.

 

[Stone]

/me makes a big enterance with load music and dressed in black......

*cough*
anywhom, i will try to get a compotion up for chrismas day, or something for you guys, but first i need to know, month or week?

here are the rules so far:

RULES
These are fixed for the contest, they will not change for the duration of this contest.

1.) Only posts with submissions in them will be allowed in this thread. DO NOT discuss the models in this thread, another thread will be made for that.
2.) Serious submissions only, no one primative entries.
3.) No pornographic renders, images or models.
4.) Stick to the topic.
5.) Don't use models from the beta.
6.) Don't steal other peoples models from this forum, from another game, or from any free model websites or sharing software. Make it on your own. Basing a model on someone elses okay, but you actually have to model it, not just take it.
7.) You may have a total of, up to, two entries.
8.) Make sure to clearly highlight what number entry yours is. Simply put "ENTRY [number] by [name]" at the top of your post.
9.) Once the entry is submitted DO NOT edit it. If this becomes a problem we will have to upload them here instead of letting you use your own space.
10.) Skins are not required to enter, and if skin is included a render without the skin is required for entry
11.) Cell Shaded entries are allowed, if a none cell shaded render is included
12.) everyone must call Stone god....


what do you guys think? they're not really that different than the original ones....

oh ok, i'll remove number 12 from the rules...

/me goes off to sulk

 

[babywax]

Any polygon count limits? (Of course these would be specific to each subject)

 

[Stone]

the polygon limit would be set each week in the comp brief... :cheese:

 

[random.hero]

sounds cool, and can i be the first one to say

Stone, you are god

and id like it to be monthly, seeing as quite a few of the people on these forums are in mods, like myself and i think we'd like to have a go at these things too, and we cant really do them if we've also got mod work to do now, can we.

 

[MINDA]

bah, every two weeks, and let us start with the tree-tank