BLENDING LIFE 2 — Top 5 [VOTING CLOSED] (Winners announced)

Contests Member Contests
1

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h215/Rufty/Blending_life2_Top-5-banner_resized.jpg
Blending_life2_Top-5-banner_resized.jpg700×441

TIME TO VOTE!
All of you who entered made it really difficult for us judges this year! Well done and keep it up! Of 49 total entries we settled on the below five.

One vote per person only. It’s very important that you make your decision carefully, and base it on the Judging Criteria (also pasted below) and the overall guidelines contained within the main contest thread which you can view here. You don’t have to allocate points, but should you feel like joining in for fun feel free to post your scores in this thread.

Your vote is just as important as the five judges’ scores as they will count towards 50% of the final scores. The judges scores form the other 50%.

Make sure to view the full resolution of each by clicking on each thumbnail (make sure to zoom in to 100% to see the fine details) and also view the wireframe and alternate of each.

Comments welcome.

Polls close 3 May 2010.

HAVE FUN!

Pasted from the main contest thread, use the following as a guide to make your decision:

Judging criteria, forming a total of 60 points.

Mesh topography: 10.0

Character realism:
Skin texturing and shading: 10.0
Eyes texturing and shading: 10.0
Hair*, including eyelashes (and facial hair if applicable) texture and shading: 10.0

Character personality & lifelike expression: 10.0

Overall presentation: 10.0
This includes (but doesn’t consist only of) the background and the texture of clothing (if any).

  • Should your character be bald, the scalp’s skin texture will be taken into consideration.

A. Juan
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h215/Rufty/Juan_carlo_thumb.jpg
Wire here
Alternate here

B. Jaol
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h215/Rufty/Jaol_Final_thumb.jpg
Wire here
Alternate here

C. Ward7299
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h215/Rufty/ward7299_thumb.jpg
Wire here
Alternate here

D. Engelik
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h215/Rufty/engelik_thumb.jpg
Wire here
Alternate here

E. Marcellmota
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h215/Rufty/marcellmota_thumb.jpg
Wire here
Alternate here

.

2

The current standings from the judges are as follows. We haven’t scored yet, so this is really just an early indication and could still change when we get into the even more finer details.

1. Jaol — 5

2. Engelik — 4

3. Marcellmota.jpg — 4

4. Juan – 3

5. ward7299 — 3

3

PLEASE use the guidelines peeps :wink: One’s initial pick does not necessarily reflect the total requirements. Trust me, I took part in narrowing 49 entries down to five, in this case I know what I’m talking about!

4

ho votato Anglik …però lo “C” Ward7299 potrebbe avere un premio per la modellazione per videogioco considerando la qualità a basse facce e vertici …

5

Google translate:
Anglik … but I voted the “C” Ward7299 could have a prize for the modeling game considering the low quality sides and summits …

Fligh translate:
I voted for Anglik, but “C” Ward7299 probably deserves a prise for his Game Quality mesh if one considers the low poly topology.

6

Looking at the topology, with that many n-gons, there’s no way Juan made that in blender :confused:

Anyways I voted E: Marcellmota

7

i don’t think they’re n-gons, i think that’s just how the export “rendered” it out. if you look at mine (arnold), there’s the same type of thing right below his mouth, and i assure you i didn’t use any n-gons at all

8

Oh, ok.
Although in Juans case, it’s still a bit cumbersome to judge the topology :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Nope… isn’t N-gons, 3d view of Blender some times has this issues… shows partially the wireframe so some parts look like n-gons.

10

The apparent n-gons are just an artifact of how he did the wireframe. Notice that they’re all 6 verts, and the edge flow makes perfect sense when they’re seen as two quads.

11

If you select ‘All Edges’ in the mesh tools it would show the full mesh.

12

Great work everyone. It was a tough call but overall I believe that Engelik’s model looked the best…of course the lack of hair might cause some to dock this piece but the eyes look great the facial hair good the overall appearance of this finished piece just stood out…but thats my thoughts.

13

I voted on the poll and it was pretty hard to decide.

Here are my tabulations:
Judging criteria, forming a total of 60 points.

FOR Engelik (Thats who I voted for… :wink: )

Mesh topography: 9.0

Character realism:
Skin texturing and shading: 10.0
Eyes texturing and shading: 9.5
Hair*, including eyelashes (and facial hair if applicable) texture and shading: 9.0

Character personality & lifelike expression: 9.0

Overall presentation: 8.8
This includes (but doesn’t consist only of) the background and the texture of clothing (if any).

Great entries!
-Sunjay03

14

It was a toss up for me between D and E, but after seeing that D is almost all texturing and the mesh has a lot of needless loops running from the mouth to the top of the head. I had to go E.
Also E has a bit more to it, while the hair isn’t perfect, none of the ones with hair looked all that great
and considering only the butcher was half decent with an expression the lack of expression wasn’t really judicable IMHO

Here’s a few things if the artists read this that they could improve on (while the models are all really good)

A. Lack of real expression (break symmetry) skin to smooth and not enough imperfections, also maybe to much SSS

B. Hair, Teeth, Eye, Skin to smooth in places including neck, love the expression and overall feel though

C. don’t hide behind the glasses, they cover almost 1/3 of the face, also don’t just make it look good from one angle. Sorry but the alt view without glasses shows serious problems

D. Don’t rely solely on textures, throwing extra loops in the just make the mesh dense in areas doesn’t help the mesh, break symmetry and give expression

E. Work on the hair, don’t forget those goggles aren’t loose, so have objects press the skin, face is a little smooth, and ears look like they were missed in texturing, oh ya, expression, break that symmetry

While A really had the least problems, it had the most serious one with the skin. which totally breaks the life illusion

D will probably win, but relies too much on his textures and is the only one to leave their character bald and naked which seems like a shortcut to me, I have to admire the others for doing the extras

15

I voted for D with E coming a close second.

D has that extra something that makes it look like a real photo. Although there appears to be a small flaw in the texture, it takes a while to notice and from the front it even appears to be lighting.

While E looks quite real there is something missing in the eyes. I also think the goggles aren’t quite real which might take away from the overall appearance.

While I don’t think any of these have any major topology problems, I think a couple could have made some better choices in places.

One thing that people should consider when entering future competitions is that the picture displaying your wireframe is part of the competition entry, you should try and present it with the same quality as your final image. While the topology may be fine - a low res/low quality image of your topology gives the impression that it is not as good as it is. The points awarded are subjective to the viewer - a well presented topology will get that little extra score.

I don’t want to start an argument over displaying wireframes with or without subsurf effecting them, or showing the wireframe in the 3d view over using a texture. I simply want people to think of the wireframe image as part of the entry instead of just a quick shot to add with it to fulfil the entry conditions.

16

For me, Juan is clearly a leader in topology, followed by Marcellmota.

Despite the texturing being fairly kick-*rse, and getting some individual publicity on blendernation, I was never really sold on the butcher because of the crooked mouthshape. Now the wire is revealed I can see why… it would be difficult to animate those lip corners when moving the mouth from “EEE” (wide grin) to pucker. Everyone has their favs though.

17

This was a hard one! Everyone is really talented. For me it was the eyes that tipped the scale.

18

Let me start by saying that everybody created great pictures. I had a fun time studying each one of them and picking up on all the little details. There can only be one winner though, so I made a spreadsheet and started giving points for each category (I skipped the topology category as I don’t have enough experience on that to fairly judge it). The results are below:

http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=2962

As you can see, the eyes made the difference at the end. Below you can also find my comments for each image, divided again by category. (MS = Main Shot, AS = Alternative Shot)

Juan
Skin: MS: forehead seems a bit too smooth (out of focus). AS: the ear has a very high specularity (wax like).
Eyes: MS: there is a white rim to the left of the irises, as if the irises are sunk into the eyeballs.
Hair: Beard is alright (better in MS than in AS). Orientation of hairs in the moustache (MS) is strange. Main problem is the hair on top of his head, especially the line where it meets his forehead.
Personality & expression: The hair gives him some personality, but the lifelike expression is missing.
Presentation: Average portrait shot. Clothing is good. Decent set-up, but not very exciting.

Jaol
Skin: MS: upper neck seems to have some wrinkles, but looks flat. MS: bottom right of neck, some flat textured hairs.
Eyes: Eyes are plastic-like. The white, blue and black are all too even and pure (no veins, etc. visible). Artistically they make an impact, but for realism they aren’t very good.
Hair: I’m a big fan of the eyebrows. Eyelashes are hardly visible and the hair seems to have a greenish colour.
Personality & expression: Lots of personality (the background also contributes to this). Lifelike expression isn’t fully achieved (the eyes break it and the weird pose of his mouth corner).
Presentation: Interesting background that complements the character well. Good lighting. Materials of his clothing fall a bit short (metal of his necklace and earring). Most negative is the hem of his shirt (flat shading, with a strange highlight, not properly aligned, stretching of texture at the far right of the picture).

Ward7299
Skin: MS: the scale looks a bit off (mainly just above upper lip).
Eyes: Used the AS to judge this. White of the eyes is too even. Hard to make out any details in this image.
Hair: Pretty realistic hair. Only the eyelashes (AS) could use some work.
Personality & expression: The personality is present (but mainly because of his glasses and clothing), the lifelike expression is missing.
Presentation: Excellent work on the leather jacket. The shirt lacks in texturing. Background colours are well chosen.

Engelik
Skin: Great! AS: the ear looks slightly strange (mainly the lobe) and is that some stretching on the nose?
Eyes: The eyes really give the feeling of being alive. Very hard to do well, so good job.
Hair: Eyelashes and eyebrows are ok. Scalp texture looks too flat.
Personality & expression: Personality is missing a bit (though friendly and gentle is harder to bring across than evil). Expression is very lifelike (mainly because of the eyes).
Presentation: Very basic presentation. This is where you could easily earn some extra points. Lighting setup is good though.

Marcellmota
Skin: I’m not really buying the SSS effect on the ear. Nice detail of the shaving wound.
Eyes: Looks pretty much alright, but misses the sparkle of life. A better lighting might do them more justice.
Hair: Beard looks good. The glasses are a convenient way to hide the most difficult part of the hair (the transition to the forehead).
Personality & expression: Missing out on both personality and lifelike expression.
Presentation: Very good work on the suit and glasses. The earring appears to be floating on top of the ear (no hole or depression in the skin where they should make contact). Next time do yourself a favour and use a better lighting setup on the face, that could greatly improve the lifeness of your character.

19

Congrats to all the participants, there are some great entries this year! =)
The judges really must had an hard time this year!

There were at least two additional entries that were beautifully executed and i would like to congratulate :

Michael W :
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=183245

ben :
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=180215

I understand why they weren’t selected, but great work!

Btw, here is the subdivision0 wire, I posted the level 1 in my entry as some people complained, sorry! this one is easier to read =)
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/9991/engelikwirelv0.jpg

20

Voted B for realism
C and E for style and personality :wink:

I would love to see them animated