I have been hosting the Animation Challenge for the past two rounds and sadly to say there wasn’t a whole lot of participation. The first one had one entry and the second had none although it went for a good two month. So the question I have is: Is anybody still interested in an animation challenge? And how should we be doing the animation challenge so that we:
a) have particpants (at least two per round)
b) it is doable in a timeframe of 4 weeks
Now I’d be willing to do these challenges but I need some help on how the community would like the animation challenges to be.
This is a suggestion from me:
The animation should be around 10-15sec. no more. I’d suggest the following categories:
animate to a soundclip
animate to a general topic like “The Circus” or “Chaos”
copy a given animation using other assets at hand and possibly changing the flow of it or adding spice to it
A round goes for 4.- 6 weeks depending on the topic.
Voting is for 1 week.
The winner gets to suggest the next topic, clip, animation.
If anybody has further suggestions go ahead and post em.
Oh and one last thing does anybody have good online ressources (besides YouTube) for obtaining clear soundclips for animations?
hmm… yes time is always a big factor.
there are many challenges going on, and people just can’t participate on each one.
what i was wondering also, why are you running this challenge on a weekend challenge forum, because it’s for longer period of time than a weekend… ? i didn’t even notice it before you said something.
anyway, this thread is i think good way to find out if there is need for this sort of challenge.
do people actually want to compete by doing quick animations…
also you can use it to gather some topic suggestions and soundclips beforehand. so you would have a list of them and the winner can choose from the list, if he/she doesn’t come up with his/her own.
then, if it looks like people are actually interested (and not only interested on doing placeholders replies, because those are pointless) we can start thinking where to host it.
Totally agree… Why it is in the weekend challenge forum I can’t really say but my guess is that it started off as a weekend challenge but that was before my time. Aligorith was the one who hosted the challenge before me and since he didn’t/doesn’t have the time I volunteered to do it for him.
I’d still be interested in the animation challenge! Last round I started something, then had to run and do something else, so I couldn’t compete. I like the sound clip and theme, but I’m not too sure about the copying category.
I would be extremely sad to see them die.
I’d be sad too to see it die but if there aren’t enough entries then it is not worth the time to host these challenges :(.
Anyway about the category theme I was thinking along the lines like “Recreate a animation sequence from a Disney movie of your choice” always taking into account the time factor of course.
Eh in a month or so, my cousin will be up to speed enough to compete with me! j/k of course, but it has been mentioned between us. If you ever need help, I’ll try, as long as I can still compete!
Yeah, I just found out about this as well. I was actually looking for it and couldn’t find any active challenges running. I need some small clips to practice on. Lets do this! I’m ready.
I think the main problem is that it’s not as well known as say, the weekend challenge… Maybe an article on BlenderNation would help?
I think soundclips are the best way to go - imho anyway.
Perhaps you should start a poll to see how many people would actually like to participate - perhaps a blendernation article linking to this (something like - “Keep the animation challenge alive” :p)
I’ve always wanted to enter, but I always forget about it, maybe because it’s such a long timeframe (not saying it’s too long, but it’s just easy to forget about in that time)… so maybe we could post reminders in News & Discussion forum (seems to be the most frequented forum), e.g. in the last week, just to remind people…
I’m interested. I’m just now to the point where I’d feel confident I could produce something that would at least qualify (note I did not say good :D)
One idea for a category, that I haven’t seen listed before, would be a category where all participants started with the same blend file. The requirements would be to add rigging and animate the objects within the blend to mach some theme. You could perhaps use previously submitted animations for for this source blend file.
I would like to do these, but i think it would be better to do stuff like ‘Show the weight of the Character’, or ‘Make an unorthodox walk-cycle.’ I don’t really like the general “Acrobatics” type categories, and I can’t really say why. Maybe just a mix of the two? Anyhoo, I like animating, and could use some work, so i’m interested
Very good points. KKrawl it doesn’t really matter if you use Blender made characters or not as long as you use Blender for the animation. Besides all the linked ressources are blender.
I agree with a lot that was said on here and I will try to setup a challenge for mid november. Now if somebody could link to some ressources (soundclips, moveiclips) or provide some topics so that I can get this thing off the ground.
I think this thread would be a great collection thread for stuff to do when there is no topic provided so let’s here some of those ideas.
I too think it would be a worthwhile exercise to try providing a simple exercise per round (along the lines of a bouncing ball, with/without a tail, or things like facial takes, or a few interesting footsteps). Perhaps this might make the challenge seem less daunting (like less of a burden to accomplish, so easier to finish).
You’re right, animation is a very long process. As you said Musk, 10 seconds must be a maximum. Provide sounds is a good way to start I think, but we may avoid using dialogues, because lip-sync is even longer to achieve. Websites providing “atmosphere” sounds like Soundsnap or Freesound could be a good ressource.
Another point is, if the contest is Animation oriented, it would be great to provide Models too. Elephant’s Dream, Big Buck Bunny, Mancandy or Bill the Bilby from Kajimba plus many other people who post their blend files are a huge repository (with their credits of course).
By the way, thank you Musk for your involvement in the contest, it may have been discouraging with such a lack of participants.
One thing for low participation amount might be the way people browse this forum. Most of the visits I do here is just by going to “New posts” and reading the most interesting topics for that moment. When I come back after a while and skipped the challenge thread earlier, I won’t see it in the new topics anymore and will most probably forget the thread.
How important do we see these challenges for the forum users and for the forum itself? Should the challenges be advertised more by sticking the threads (under new posts link too) or showing them on the side bar or something else?
why don’t we just host a blender animation contest like the blending life contest after that one is finished?
Animation contests seem more suitable for that.
I think you’d get a lot more participation if there was a standard set for the contest. In other words, a simple plane, some geometric objects laying around, and two simple but well-rigged characters. Release it and let people play with it for a couple of weeks. Then, each challenge is done solely with this set. In fact, the render settings should be “preset” to, so everyone is on the same playing field.
That way, if you want to participate, ALL that you have to do is animate and render. Nothing else. Call it the “Pure Animating Challenge Series” or something.
j/k of course, but it has been mentioned between us. If you ever need help, I’ll try, as long as I can still compete!