Welcome to the first of the (hopefully) many monthly wallpaper challenges.
THE RULES:
Choose two of the topics and combine them
Entries must be either 1680x1050 or 1280x1024 resolution (or a higher 16:10/4:3 resolution) - winners will be asked to [re]render their entries in both these resolutions (so it’s a good idea to work with them from the start)
At least one wire-frame view must be posted.
If the design is inspired by something, state what that something was - may be a copy.
There will be only one winner decided on by the community voting - Voting will be final - no arguing
Only one entry is permitted - if you post more than one image, specify which one is the wallpaper to be voted for
Voting will be focused on the over-all picture, not only on how good the models are (although those obviously are important)
Your name and two chosen topics must be in one/two of the corners of the final entered image
You may vote for yourself, but you can only vote once.
Non-Blender programs are allowed (for anything, eg: post-production; modeling; rendering…) however Blender must be the primary program of use
TOPICS:
Please note that these topics are purposefully general to allow artistic freedom and to avoid many similar entries.
Alien
Space
Colony
Production
Culture
War
Cave
Death
Dreams
Technology
Alternate Reality
CONTEST ENDS ON WEDNESDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2010 AT 02:00 AM (GMT) (for all those insomniacs ;))
any entries after this date will be ignored during voting
Placeholders are welcomed, but please live up to them.
Well, for one I’ll probably use it and some other people too, since it is a wallpaper challenge! lol but what purpose do any contests have? Prove that you’re the best!
One or two of the entries might make it into the gallery, since it is over quite a long time.
After this one, I’ll set up a hall of fame with the top 3 voted entries each month (specifying which one is the winner) and use it as a kind of legend digital art wallpapers site…
Well, for one I’ll probably use it and some other people too, since it is a wallpaper challenge! lol but what purpose do any contests have? Prove that you’re the best!
One or two of the entries might make it into the gallery, since it is over quite a long time.
After this one, I’ll set up a hall of fame with the top 3 voted entries each month (specifying which one is the winner) and use it as a kind of legend digital art wallpapers site…
Oh ok, cool!
have you ever entered a contest? if so why?
I enter the Weekend Challenge quite frequently And sometimes Weekday challenge…when I have time. Why? It’s a great way to hone 3D skills
I agree, contests are lots of fun and good for learning (and motivation). I love the weekends but sometimes wish there was more time to refine. I also like the thought this could generate a higher level of quality, raising the bar some. I hope this does well.
Blender internal makes it more interesting…
and its a more skilled (IMO) work if its made in entirely blender (no external post-pro) but some touch-ups are often necessary and can help a lot even if its a small change
I guess I don’t completely agree with that (rule 10). A renderer can be like picking a shader algorithm. All of them take skill to set up, but each of them can create an enhancement to the style/intent. It’s like saying you can only use Lambert even though you’re trying to create Toon.
Guess what I’m saying, is since a renderer doesn’t play a role in the actual creation (modeling, texturing, skinning, animation, etc.) of the production, it shouldn’t matter.
Arguably you could take that one step further and just say Blender was used in the work-flow. Look at the art on CGTalk and very few even use one tool just for modeling.
Bottom line, if the goal is to raise the bar of art for the purpose of the challenge, putting limitations on the process will counter that, so be sensible. Again, just my opinion.
One small question regarding the rules: I think forcing all participants to create 1680x1050 renders is not fair as not all of us have widescreen monitors. This would also make the resulting wallpapers unusable to us with non widescreens.
Should the rules be changed to say that all entries should include two images, one 16:10 (widescreen) and one 10:8 (normal screen)? I realize this would require more 3D work to be done to accommodate the widescreen render (while the normal one would perhaps be a cropped version).
I just think this small ‘problem’ may discourage some participants (or just the ones that think far enough ahead to discover that they won’t be able to use the wallpaper they, or anyone else makes) What are your thoughts?
Can’t you still render at the resolution even if you dont have a hi-def screen? If not it should be changed to render at the highest possible resolution.
I hope to be able to complete an entry for this. I like these contests because it gives motivation to actually get something done.
The idea behind the resolution rule is to make sure that it is a wallpaper. Also that 1680x1050 is big enough to be cropped and scaled to fit most reslolutions (any bigger may cause render issues). So if you want a wallpaper, download it and crop it.
Asking the participants to do two renders is a little irritating if their render is slow. But if arguing continues, I may change it.
I think later when I set up a website, I’ll scale and crop the top 3 to popular resolutions.
Asking the participants to do two renders is a little irritating if their render is slow.
I realize this.
I think later when I set up a website, I’ll scale and crop the top 3 to popular resolutions.
In most cases, this will fix the problem. But in some cases cropping a widescreen wallpaper (to a 10:8 size) will destroy the composition. Part of the image will be lost.
Perhaps the way to get around this is to ask only the winners (top 3) to render out their entry again in a 10:8 resolution in order to accommodate all of us that want to use their winning wallpapers on our own computers.
Also have an option that you may submit your entry in both resolutions right off the bat.
Not trying to stir up troubles here…just trying to reduce potential problems in the future Thank you for addressing my concern.
Perhaps the way to get around this is to ask only the winners (top 3) to render out their entry again in a 10:8 resolution in order to accommodate all of us that want to use their winning wallpapers on our own computers.
Great idea! Why didn’t I think of that…?
lol… I think you’re right… after all, it doesn’t really matter what resolution the non-winners are in…
changed rules (last time i hope!)
And sometimes Weekday challenge…when I have time. Why? It’s a great way to hone 3D skills 
good luck!