Blender Week Day Challenge #17 (Entries CLOSED)

[Marslyr]

Hey, I started last week, then had no-time, so I had to bail, but now I get to enter!

This time around, I’ve got 3 entry images, and then 3 extra images, that were fun to make, but ( So I believe ) are not allowed on the voting thread.

HalfEdit: After I posted my images, I started reading though the thread to respond to some stuff, I then noticed that, the sledge is supposed to be more like what my sleigh is… is it okay? :o

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Entries:

Sleigh:

Snowman:

Sledge:
“This one needs a little more explanation, It was modeled in blender, then exported into freestyle to render, then render was then given the gimp filter of “Apply Canvas” to give an impression of “paper”.”

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Non-Entry Images:

Snowman & Sleigh:
“The snow is based off of hafunui 's Amazing Shader, but sadly it contains many textures, so therefor I can’t use in the voting thread.”

Sledge:
"This is an example of the sledge, in full 3d form, although you are only allowed one image in the voting thread (iirc), I want the freestyle one, this is just for fun…

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X-Mas Contest Ideas could be as follows:

• An X-Mas Tree
• Xmas Decorations such as lights… and/or those annoying yard decorations.
• Xmas Presents.
• A Nativity Scene, or parts of one.
• An alternate one-time contest idea would be “that you model a whole xmas scene, such as the same list of six, but you need to arrange them, for example " A Tree with lights, and gifts under it”—

As for the new contest idea,

i ve got a small question: what do you think if the people who win (or have done some good models) the weekday challenge would offer their blend files in a repository for example in the official blender repository? i mean the models are just created once and then they are forgotten and if we would post them in the repository the whole community would have an advantage this way… just a suggestion …
This could be intresting, ( I would need to keep my blend files a little cleaner that before, but I would be willing to donate my to the “official blender repository”, my only question in this regard would be, would the contest host be the one to “enter” the models, or would the contestants?

Let me put forward an idea, and, depending on the feedback we could start with some modified rules…

How about?

1. We still have six things to choose from (we could
2. You have to choose two items, 1 organic, 1 inorganic
3. We have a standard scene file with lighting and camera preset up
4. You create the model in the scene file
5. Everything goes, textures, physics, bump maps
6. You post the render and the blend file in the thread
7. Creative Commons Licence on the blend file
8. blend files get posted to blender repo after votes

comments, suggestions?
1: We could… what?
2: Sounds good, so long as the two items are good ones.
3: The Standard scene sounds good, again so long as its a good one.

4. Makes sense :D, but the question becomes, “Is it still a modeling challenge”?
5. See above, but I like it,
6. Makes sense,
7. Now, I am no expert, but If I Recall, there is different types of CC?
8. See way above, but who does the posting, and which repo exactly, this one?

in the new year.
Sounds good, It would be cool, (But completely not necessary) If we had 20 challenges the old way, then the 21st was the new kind…

You’re suggestion is a good idea, a sentence describing how the model was created would be a good idea.
Could be interesting.

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Alright, my take on the ideas, Keep it as a modeling challenge, so there for you need to do the following:

• Only Model the topic item (aka: if you are modeling a pen, you don’t do paper or a table)
• Use a default scene, with default camera angle, just add your model.
• Textures are allowed.
• Use the bmr.
• Go Ahead and do only 2 items, but make sure they arn’t too easy, or too hard.
• Release all of the models under the SAME license.
• Make sure that everyone is aware of the license that their models are released under.I think thats it for now…

Perhaps this next time, you could have everyone create a “Default scene” and we pick our favorite?

Cheers,
~Marslyr

[blackcougar]

@Marslyr:

Thanks for your xmas ideas

@Marslyr

1: We could… what?
2: Sounds good, so long as the two items are good ones.
3: The Standard scene sounds good, again so long as its a good one.
4. Makes sense :D, but the question becomes, “Is it still a modeling challenge”?
5. See above, but I like it,
6. Makes sense,
7. Now, I am no expert, but If I Recall, there is different types of CC?
8. See way above, but who does the posting, and which repo exactly, this one?

Sounds good, It would be cool, (But completely not necessary) If we had 20 challenges the old way, then the 21st was the new kind…

1. Didn’t finish that properly, we still have a list of 3 organic and 3 inorganic but we pick 1 from each.

2. I meant by this what you have described as “Use a default scene, with default camera angle, just add your model.” so we are in agreement

4&5. Yes we want to keep it as a modeling challenge, but if we are posting to the bmr than we need to allow textures etc.

7. I have selected two different types of licences which should be appropriate. We need to decide on which to use

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 Unported Licence

8. Yes that bmr! It’ll have to be up to the individual artists to submit their work as you’re only allowed to submit your own models.
   To make sure that the blends don’t get lost I’ve registered www.blenderchallenge.com (it’s a WIP atm!) to act as an archive for the challenge. The entries and voting threads stay here at blenderartists.org of course

Yep, I’m thinking of implementing changes for the 21st challenge so we’ve got a couple of weeks to hammer out the format.

@Marslyr

Perhaps this next time, you could have everyone create a “Default scene” and we pick our favorite?

I might include this in the next challenge

Thanks for your comments

[Marslyr]

Hey!

Thanks for your xmas ideas
You are quite welcome…

1. Didn’t finish that properly, we still have a list of 3 organic and 3 inorganic but we pick 1 from each.
   Well, when I get to see the whole sentence I like it…

4&5. Yes we want to keep it as a modeling challenge, but if we are posting to the bmr than we need to allow textures etc.

Sounds great!

7. I have selected two different types of licences which should be appropriate. We need to decide on which to use
   Sounds good, although what if you just said: “You need to specify with your entry which ( of the two ) you are using”
   But if you are picking one I would go with “Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported”.

Yes that bmr!
Yay.

It’ll have to be up to the individual artists to submit their work as you’re only allowed to submit your own models.
I was not aware of this… :o

With that knowledge, will you require contestants to submit their models to compete, or just that they make the blend available(under the correct license).

To make sure that the blends don’t get lost I’ve registered www.blenderchallenge.com (it’s a WIP atm!) to act as an archive for the challenge. The entries and voting threads stay here at blenderartists.org of course

Woah, thats cool,are you going to put the blends and images there?
And its good that the contest itself is here.

I might include this in the next challenge

Thanks for your comments
Sounds great,

And you are Very welcome, this contest has been a fun use of my time, so I am putting my .02$s into its future.

Cheers,
~Marslyr

[BlendRoid]

Hey Blckcougar, that site is awesome. I can’t wait till the archive fills up.

I have a couple opinions on the new way of doing things:
I don’t think textures should be allowed at all, for the same reason that they aren’t at the moment.
I like the idea of sending the winner’s models to the repository, but remember that these models are built “under pressure,” you might say. The competitors are working fast and are only worried about the final render, so models are often made very inefficiently, and wouldn’t be of much use to others.

This raises another point: perhaps entries to this contest should be rendered with their wireframe showing (there’s a script for this somewhere, and you could link to it in the introductory post in each contest). I think this would make for fairer judging in the voting thread.

[Orinoco]

I agree with BlendRoid about the textures.

As to putting the models in the repository, there are some issues. Since the contest doesn’t offer any prize (compensation) it doesn’t make sense to require “all entries become the property of the management” in this case Creative Commons. While I don’t think many would object, I don’t think it should be a requirement. Invite the winner, sure, require, not so much.

If the BMR needs materials and textures on the models, there is the issue of extra work. I generally don’t expect to do much with my entries after they are posted in the contest thread. If the “prize” is that I have to texture the model and then spend some time uploading it somewhere, it might put a damper on the motivation to enter. More like work than play. If it’s an option rather than a requirement, this is less of an issue, since doing the extra stuff would be a decision of the artist, not some committee.

As to the standard scene, well, I like to pose my entries, and this sometimes requires a bit more than a standard swathe of unlevel terrain to tell whatever story I’ve made up to get the three models to work together. I know this takes the contest a bit off the strict modeling topic into composition and theme, but it’s fun for me, and I hope others enjoy my contributions.

[Lumpycow]

Here are my entries…I only have a question, does the displacement modifier count as a texture, because its used to modify the mesh… its a good way to get detailed meshes.

Anyway on with trying to model a snowman, with a bit of weight, i tried to get the shape to look somewhat stacked on top of each other.

And for the reworking of the competition, I agree it should be a choice to upload the model, but it think this is a good place to encourage people to add models to the repository.

Attachments

[g60 (Glen Larsen)]

Frosty thumbs a ride?

The entries are a snowman, sleigh, and a sledge.

Attachments

[blackcougar]

@BlendRoid

I don’t think textures should be allowed at all, for the same reason that they aren’t at the moment.

I understand, the problem I’m facing is drawing the line between texturing and modeling. Should using texture brushes in sculpt mode be banned? what about modifiers? etc
Also if we are posting the completed models to the bmr than i’d rather have us post finished models rather than incomplete models.

@BlendRoid

I like the idea of sending the winner’s models to the repository, but remember that these models are built “under pressure,” you might say.
The competitors are working fast and are only worried about the final render, so models are often made very inefficiently, and wouldn’t be of much use to others.

I understand your point and I appreciate all the hard work you guys have been putting into this challenge.
But if the challengers are more worried about the render than the focus has shifted and it’s not really a proper modeling challenge anymore isn’t it?
Would a single model per week allow you allow to focus more on creating a completed work?

@BlendRoid

This raises another point: perhaps entries to this contest should be rendered with their wireframe showing (there’s a script for this somewhere, and you could link to it in the introductory post in each contest). I think this would make for fairer judging in the voting thread.

If we did post the blend files, this step would be unnecessary but I agree that it would make for fairer judging. The reason I haven’t done this is because I was worried about putting new people off with extra work (that would be the same for posting blend files though I suppose)

Thanks for your comments

[blackcougar]

@Orinoco

As to putting the models in the repository, there are some issues. Since the contest doesn’t offer any prize (compensation) it doesn’t make sense to require “all entries become the property of the management” in this case Creative Commons. While I don’t think many would object, I don’t think it should be a requirement. Invite the winner, sure, require, not so much.

I would love to offer a prize for this challenge, however I’m just a uni student so that would be a bit difficult for me
However I could probably manage a sort of challenge of champions (ie bwdc winners only) with a prize involved every 10-20 challenges or so. What sort of prize would be incentive enough? Month subscription to a rendering place?

@Orinoco

If the BMR needs materials and textures on the models, there is the issue of extra work. I generally don’t expect to do much with my entries after they are posted in the contest thread. If the “prize” is that I have to texture the model and then spend some time uploading it somewhere, it might put a damper on the motivation to enter. More like work than play. If it’s an option rather than a requirement, this is less of an issue, since doing the extra stuff would be a decision of the artist, not some committee.

Uploading to the bmr would be optional in any circumstance as I understand that it takes a while for the models to show up. Also I realise that to share blend files you have to find somewhere to upload them to. What about emailing me them as an attachment and I could upload them to the blenderchallenge.com site and then post the links in the voting thread? would that be easy enough?

@Orinoco

As to the standard scene, well, I like to pose my entries, and this sometimes requires a bit more than a standard swathe of unlevel terrain to tell whatever story I’ve made up to get the three models to work together. I know this takes the contest a bit off the strict modeling topic into composition and theme, but it’s fun for me, and I hope others enjoy my contributions.

Would you rather we kept to 3 models or dropped it to 2 or possibly 1? and if so would you still have objections to a standard scene setup?

Thanks for your comments.

[Orinoco]

@blackcougar

I would love to offer a prize for this challenge, however I’m just a uni student so that would be a bit difficult for me

I am not advocating prizes. I am advocating making uploading to the repository an option rather than a requirement.

@blackcougar

Uploading to the bmr would be optional in any circumstance as I understand that it takes a while for the models to show up.

:spin: I don’t understand how a delay at BMR’s end makes contibutions optional.

@blackcougar

Would you rather we kept to 3 models or dropped it to 2 or possibly 1?

Since I enjoy fitting several models into a story setting, reducing the number of models reduces the enjoyment. A single model? Boring.

@blackcougar

Also if we are posting the completed models to the bmr than i’d rather have us post finished models rather than incomplete models.

Then aren’t we changing the nature of the contest from a modeling contest to a fill the bmr contest? I think we should (mostly) try to maintain a focus on modeling.

My bottom line?

@Lumpycow

And for the reworking of the competition, I agree it should be a choice to upload the model, but it think this is a good place to encourage people to add models to the repository.

What he said.

[neil_j]

Mint Sauce the sheep. Not my idea, but based on the MBUK cartoon. I’m not sure why the shoulders came out so blotchy, they’re just a bunch of spheres stuck together. Arms, legs, hands, feet and ears are all extruded cubes. Head is three metaballs.

Extruded plane for the sledge and handle, dupliverted cube on a bezier for the chain.

Mr Potato Head the snowman. Body is random subdivided sphere, scarf is a 3D bezier, hat extruded circle, arms extruded cubes. Mouth is a bezier circle converted to mesh, but I didn’t have time to add teeth to it.

The only textures used are for colour.

As for the updated contest, my thoughts are:

• I still like 2 models per week, one each of organic and inorganic as that gives a bit more time on each one
• allow textures for basic colouring and displacement, bumpmapping, sculpt as that’s how you’d create the model for a ‘real’ scene, but use the default settings for shading etc. as they don’t directly affect the shape (or apparent shape) of the model
• optional BMR upload, though I think most people will be fine with it, you’d just have to realise that shortcuts will probably have been taken so the models may not look right from every angle, or be the most efficient for rendering speed
• default scene of a flat plane with lights and camera, maybe allow an extra light to be positioned as necessary if the model doesn’t quite show up properly with the default lighting

[blackcougar]

Entries closed, I’ll won’t be able to get the voting thread up til tomorrow evening though
Thanks for your comments on possible changes to the challenge, I’ll need a bit of time to digest them all before I get back to you.