will there be any more contests?
polycount sponsor
Just wondering if there will ever be another polycount modeling contest, who sets these up and how often do they occur? I'm really interested in a contest which involves creating normal maps.
Replies
Id still like to get it together If theres enough interest, but not entirely sure when would be the best time.
Prizes aren't really a problem I dont think. Alot of us here can get games for free for instance. Time is usually the problem.
"The Actor likeness challenge!
Actor likenesses have become a bit of a staple work diet of mine and I have this feeling that games and Hollywood will be converging more in the future. So this will become a pretty handy skillset to prove and improve upon I think.
In my slight downtime in between projects I wanted to sit down and make a game resolution famous face with no chance of the cyberscan word being anywhere near it. Then I decided what fun it would be to turn it into a contest.
The prize is 2 EA published games for any platform of your choice.
The rules:
Build the head of a famous living or dead actor or actress ( Lassie doesn't count. Human please ) in the 3D package of your choice in no more than 1500 triangles. ( The model can be presented as quad's but its tri count is what's important ).
Texture map that head with one 512x512.tga for the head, one 128x128.tga for the eye and other extra maps are possible such as alpha for hair, but those alone should not amount to anything bigger than 2 more 128x128 targa's.
Provide at least 3 renders or screengrabs from different angles of your creation. Much better would be the addition of a 360 rotating .mov or avi but I realise thats a bit more work for some so not absolutely necessary. Absolutely no 2D post work apart from naming your piece ( your name not the actor! )
DO NOT STATE WHO YOUR MODEL IS MEANT TO BE PRIOR TO THE DEADLINE!
To keep identity of actor unknown, we should probably prohibit anybody other than the artist to post in their own WIP thread. That way we dont get folks going "It's Marilyn Munroe isn't it?!".
Two entries by different artists of the same actor is fine. That would be fun to see.
Two entries by the same artist of different actors is also fine. But no more than two.
I'd thought about charicatures but decided against it. I think that's really a whole other contest so the style here should be realism.
You can make one morph target for an expression or build expression into the face. Up to you.
All entries submitted by sunday February 29th which provides about a month and a half which should provide plenty of time for most folks.
Each entrant gets to vote on who's work looks most like the actor they are supposed to be. ( this should be obvious. If you cant figure out who a submitted piece is supposed to be then clearly you dont vote for that piece )
The winner is the artist who gets the most votes for 'best likeness'. I shall be entering but purely for fun and will not be eligible for prizes. The winner sends me his address and games list and I'll mail the prize globally.
WIP threads are important here.
Good luck! Any questions you can post here."
"Each entrant gets to vote on who's work looks most like the actor they are supposed to be. ( this should be obvious. If you cant figure out who a submitted piece is supposed to be then clearly you dont vote for that piece )"
Not everyone knows all famous people...If I where to do a famous old actor/tress, I might get the likeness spot on, but people might just not know the person...so I'd think something like 'include photo reference of subject only in final submission' would make more sense...
I'd personally like to see a non-character challenge.
non-character sounds cool, especially with the industry focus on environmental artists ( thread )
Our characters are 5000 tris each, so they can be lit fairly accurately without normal maps. My problem comes in with the enviornment though. With our chars being so high, I only get about 10,000 tris for the enviornment (including props). This isn't an issue on the PC and Xbox versions, since I'm using lightmaps. But for the PS2, it's a bitch, since I barely have enough verts for lighting. The PSP will also be a hassle to work with. I do bake lighting information into my textures though, as this does help with the look of things.
And yea, I know you guys use nurbs for your terrain. If you're doing a racing game, dynamic terrain tesselation IS the way to go.
Daz, I think it would be a great challenge. I recently finished a likeness of Daniel Negraneau for 5000ft. I had a blast with it. Id like to see bust rather than just heads though. I really loved the bust presentation of your soldier.
- BoBo
Those marketing guys should be getting some screenshots of the game out pretty soon, as well.
It all boils down to how much spare time everyone has, and what they want to learn and achieve.
Disallowing normal-maps completely will also alienate some entrants... so better to have the complete spectrum of competitors by allowing them but not requiring them!
MoP
A couple of things Im still not sure about:
1) Do we think that keeping your characters identity a secret until after entry would be more fun than not? Perhaps that is just asking too much to maintain for any period of time. My gut feeling is that we dont mention who the character is unless we want to or someone else does. But its no big deal If it is known. It should still be simple enough to vote for which one you think is the closest likeness.
2) What sort of deadline do you reckon? A month? A couple?
The more people that respond the better I can figure this out.
Thanks.
If you pick someone really obscure, then how is this the actor likeness challenge?
The whole idea is that we hone our skills in depicting a likeness which is a tricky thing. I think you have to pick a well known Hollywood actor or it kind of defeats the point no? If you include photo ref you then remove any achievement the artist might have obtained in getting a spot on likeness.
I dunno, I just kinda think that If you pick a German extra from 'run lola run' that nobody recognises then its sort of your own doing if that makes sense? Dont mean to be blunt, just trying to nail down some rules here and I feel that the spirit of the contest should be an internationally renowned movie star.
Asher: I think yeah that 'in role' actors ( e.g 'Sigourney Weaver as Ripley ) would be great and perfectly acceptable.
I also think that wip threads are important since I dont think the point here is to be digging up stuff weve allreadt got kicking around.
Hows this all sounding?
As far as deadline goes it just depends on the limits. 1500 with a 512 it could be a month. 3-5k with a normal map maybe 2 months. Either way it sounds like fun. You should try to get this started by Febuary.
Im not sure I follow Jeffro?
Btw, Id rather not go down the full body road. I want to keep this centered around likeness. That takes an awful lot of time to get right as it is without having to build an entire characters body. I like Bobos bust idea.
some images incase some people get confused as to what a bust is because someone undoubtably will
http://www.vroma.org/~rscaife/images/091.jpg
http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/agrippa2.jpg
http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/flavianhair4f.jpg
Asher, perfect examples!
Daz, I think a month is perfect time for completing a bust. It should be left up to the artist if they want to reveal who they are working on or not. During the WIP stage of the challenge, I could see that people may want to let people know who they are working on simply to gain some help from the community. They should be allowed to do so. Challenges arent only to show what skill you have but also to help grow and learn as an artist. A lot of people have talent but may need a helping hand to get over the hump from time to time.
One requirement that you may want to add is that any images posted (reference material) should be hosted by the entrant. Since we are dealing with photos of actors we dont want to end up with threads full of leeched images from different web sources (movies.com, CNN.com, etc ). Of course I dont if this is as much of an issue as it was years ago when I was in web design.
- BoBo
As far as famous goes...I'm not saying go for the bit-part actor...I just think that if you take a character from a Takeshi Kitano movie, or Milla Jovovich from the 5th element, or Rik Mayle, and you do a bang up job of it, you shouldn't lose because someone doesn't recognise the perfect likeness you made. I mean, famous ofr one continent is unknown on another.
However, I do like the funfactor of keeping your entry secret, so I'd propose that people keep their likeness a secret until final submission, when they can submit (along with the rest of the screenies) the name of their likeness and a referencepic to put beside the model.
Anyway, no matter the particulars, I think there's quite a bit of interest in this contest...so lets make it one
Kub: Waddo i need to do? Finalize the rules, and then?
Just start a thread in the Contest forum, I will give you access to moderate it, post all your rules and deadlines and necessities and from there on out it's all you, buddy. =] If you need my help, just holler.
- BoBo