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Battle of the Super Modelers!

polycounter lvl 20
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adam polycounter lvl 20
With a title like that, how could this go wrong?

http://gamerecruiter.com/artcontest/

It seems as though they ripped the specs straight out of Dominance War. Seemingly, they've taken advantage of the fact that Fred is against holding the rights of artwork and you can now resubmit your Dominance War entry for this contest as well.

Thoughts?

Replies

  • Jesse Moody
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    Jesse Moody polycounter lvl 18
    Wish there would be a god damn environment one for a change. Fuck all these god damn characters..
  • Illusions
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    Illusions polycounter lvl 18
    Well they've limited it to Canada and the US, so that takes out everyone who's entering DomWar from all the other countries...so basically its Battle of the Super Modelers (of North America). Someone should also inform them that:
    This one-of-a-kind contest is designed for 3D artists in the games community, professional or student.

    Isn't exactly accurate or honest, especially when their rules mirror the DomWar rules so closely, except for minor differences with the theme of the two. They have prizes though...so I guess thats a plus...otherwise it just seems like an attempt to mimic DomWar for their own benefit. :shrugs:
  • Mark Dygert
    This one-of-a-kind contest is designed for 3D artists in the games community, professional or student.
    If by one of a kind they mean a rip of 3 year old contest then yea its totally original. And if by 'designed for 3D artists in the games community' they mean the minority of 3D modelers who work on characters then they are totally right.

    How many places have more 3D character artists then they do prop/enviro/level people?
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    "Entrants must be based in USA or Canada. "

    well that limits it alot more than dominance war. :/

    how come they got the big guys to support this. I woulda thought dom war would be the one they would support.
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    mmm... shameless
  • ElysiumGX
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    ElysiumGX polycounter lvl 18
    haha...lame.

    is it wrong to trick everyone into thinking character modeling is the only cool thing to do, and then watch their faces when the industry doesn't need them?
  • Jesse Moody
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    Jesse Moody polycounter lvl 18
    Yeah exactly. We are always looking for environment guys just like everyone else. How many studios are always looking for character guys?

    Seriously and this is a big misconception when kids are in school. They think they can be character artists because of all these contests and whatever and then when they search for jobs there is nothing but environment openings.

    A nice contest like cgsociety did a while back on grand space opera would be cool.

    Maybe we (environment) guys can come up with a nice proposal for a contest for this fall or something.

    Then again there is the make something unreal for us.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 19
    contests are lamesauce anyways
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    haar haar.. domwar is the battle of the BEST super modelers

    if you´r _just_ a "super modeler" you´r a poor poor unimportant nothing
  • - FredH -
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    - FredH - polycounter lvl 18
    JesseMoody wrote: »
    Wish there would be a god damn environment one for a change. Fuck all these god damn characters..

    Two forums will probably make your wish come true this summer... but what do I know;)

    A new annual challenge....



    -
  • BoBo_the_seal
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    BoBo_the_seal polycounter lvl 18
    Heh, "Art Contest" is the new "Art Teat"
  • Tulkamir
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    Tulkamir polycounter lvl 18
    JesseMoody wrote: »
    Wish there would be a god damn environment one for a change. Fuck all these god damn characters..

    I'm with you. I wanted to do the Dom War this year just because the contest is so fun, but I could care less about characters. :(

    [Edit] Ohh, I'm excited to find out more about what you're talking about there Fred. :D[/Edit]
  • Ferg
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    Ferg polycounter lvl 17
    *shrug*

    anything that stimulates the game art community is ok with me.

    sure, its a rip off of the dom war, but you don't have to enter it. The prizes are legit and it just gives more people the chance to get cool useful swag for being good artists.

    And yes, an enviro contest would be the shinznitobamsally
  • Ryno
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    Ryno polycounter lvl 18
    Maybe I'll start a poll, but it seems to me that there's generally a lot more environment/prop art than there is character art for most games. I mean, out of the teams that I've dealt with and games that I've worked on, it isn't uncommon to see only 2 or 3 character artists/animators, and 10+ environment/prop guys on a game. So why the hell is it that on the internet 95% of all the contests and work shown always about characters?
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    I don't see why someone specialized in environments couldn't enter a character? It's always nice to try something different... I know a few professional env guys doing character comps in their freetime, and quite nicely I must say, so why not...
  • Mark Dygert
    It's not so much that enviro guys can't enter a character contest. Its that their strengths and passion are with environmental art. Its kind of a pain when you really like doing environments, and the only competitions, deal with characters.

    It's kind of like telling someone who likes tuning up motorcycles to go supe up a car, sure its roughly the same thing but not really their bag.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Oh yeah I completely understand that ... Maybe it's just a matter of emailing the comp organizers? I would love to see more env art posted around personally!

    ...and I think it would great if such alternative comps could feature more original briefs than what is currently seen in character comps. Modelling a prop (either char or env) can be quite dull if there is no interesting context to put it in so I think it would be nice for gameart comps to sliiiightly bend in the direction of storytelling for instance. Or, more interesting design rules than the usuals 'aliens allowed this time! Go mad!!' or 'no cyborg parts because the brief is postapocalyptic'.

    The early cgchat comps were great in that regard. Maybe it's just because of them being pre-next-gen tho.
  • Ryno
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    Ryno polycounter lvl 18
    pior wrote: »
    I don't see why someone specialized in environments couldn't enter a character? It's always nice to try something different... I know a few professional env guys doing character comps in their freetime, and quite nicely I must say, so why not...

    Oh sure, I mean I could do character stuff, and and have done it in the past professionally. It just doesn't appeal to me as much as environments.

    Of course I probably shouldn't bitch since I'm rarely one to do 3d work in my spare time. I'd much rather be hanging out with my family playing with the kid, or drinking wine with the wife. Or doing Judo, stickfighting, mountain biking, or an any of my numerous hobbies. About the closest thing I get to doing 3d is whipping but in Team Fortress on the Mach4 servers.
  • EarthQuake
    Well i think to a lot of people environment artist is still looked at as an entry level position, while character artists are more seen as the senior position to have. And what that really equates to is the thought that the really tough work is in characters, and only noobs do any enviro work. So why throw a contest for noobs? While some of that is actually true to a degree, you have a lot of projects coming out with simply mind blowing environment art these days, and a lot of really tallented folks doing that sort of work. Something that wasnt so true in days past, where a game could have a few great characters, but most all of the world assets were around the same crappy-boxy quality. Until the entire industry catches up to just how much great work goes into environments these days, i think we'll continue to prolong the "character artists are the rockstars!" mentality.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    So maybe the answer would be to focus such comps more on game'art', than game'assets'. Like, doing something meaningful but keeping it within the specs of game art as a limitation and as a powerful medium. Like a visual prototyping for a possible indie game...
  • b1ll
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    b1ll polycounter lvl 18
    but characters are so great. Like me. Im great!
    GREATTTTTTTTTTTTT
  • arshlevon
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    arshlevon polycounter lvl 18
    well to be fair guys, every art director i have ever had was an environment artist. and i would much rather be an art director than a character artist.

    back on topic,
    i love the rules to this contest.... just make some shit!! haha topics are lame...
  • Asmuel
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    Asmuel polycounter lvl 17
  • Renaud Galand
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    Renaud Galand polycounter lvl 19
    arshlevon wrote: »
    well to be fair guys, every art director i have ever had was an environment artist.

    Our current AD has a env. artist background, and I can sure you that he's great @ putting everything together and leading everybody in the same direction. Beside that, I personally don't like the "job stickers"(sp?) you can find in this industry and hopefully, I've the chance to work in a small company which allows me to work on the game graphics, whatever it is (env. assets, characters and even lvl building when it's needed (!).

    To be polyvalent is the key for me :)

    To come back on the topic : I don't understand why this is North America restricted...
  • firestarter
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    firestarter polycounter lvl 19
    I suspect it is just a north american recruitment drive... like BoBo said ""Art Contest" is the new "Art Teat"" think he meant `Test` but I`m happy to go on with the Teats.

    An environment exclusive contest is long overdue I agree.
  • adam
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    adam polycounter lvl 20
    For the points EQ made, that's the exact reason why I never, ever, EVER, make props for my portfolio. And if I were going to, it'd be for an especially specific reason. I really think environment art goes beyond the prop - somewhere a lot of the people who do what I do seem to think it stops at.

    Anyhoo, FredH just tickled us with an idea of an environment artist contest so lets see where that goes.
  • qubism
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    qubism polycounter lvl 18
    looks cheap overall
  • parasyte7
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    parasyte7 polycounter lvl 19
    This is a ploy to have your personal information in GameRecruiter's database and have them contact you about new job opportunities. Why a recruitment firm is organizing an art contest? hmmmmm.
  • TheWinterLord
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    TheWinterLord polycounter lvl 17
    Question, whats the difference between 1 x 2048 Specular Map and
    1 x 2048 Specular Color Map which are both optional in this contest.

    why 2 speculars?

    Thanks
  • Mark Dygert
    1 x 2048 Specular Map: Is a B/W mask used to control the amount spec in various areas.

    1 x 2048 Specular Color Map: Is the color of the spec.
  • - FredH -
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    - FredH - polycounter lvl 18
    To come back on the topic : I don't understand why this is North America restricted...

    I believe the reason is, it's a recruitement comp, so there is no point gathering the info and stats of artists in china or korea if relocation is next to impossible. Plus, the prizes they have can only be delivered on our side of the globe. This is why DomWar goes with cash prizes and makes hardware and software prizes optional. It's always harder to get companies to give chunks of money rather than software prizes that cost virtually nothing for them.
  • rooster
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    rooster mod
    btw, I dont get why the hardware can't be shipped, say if the contestant was to pay the extra shipping. i mean if its a sweet tablet or ps3 its still going to be worth it right
  • - FredH -
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    - FredH - polycounter lvl 18
    This is a good question. When I delt with Maxon, I was surprised to hear that they had to go through their entire international network in order to send software prizes to Asia, Russia or Europe. Each division is responsible for sending prizes to that area, so if they don't have a division in that area, this might cause some write off problems or something. Plus, warranties and stuff makes hardware shipping even worse.

    Personally, what I never understood was why Quebec was excluded from the Blizzard competition #$%^#$%^ This one has me really curious since I did some checking, and there is nothing that prevents quebekers from receiving prizes from other countries.
  • b1ll
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    b1ll polycounter lvl 18
    come on fred, its easy, they all know im in quebec. thats why, They dont want me to WIN!
    lol
  • - FredH -
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    - FredH - polycounter lvl 18
    Well, it's either because of you or me.. so yup, it must be you! lol Good going. Thanks for scaring them off!
  • TheWinterLord
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    TheWinterLord polycounter lvl 17
    Vig wrote: »
    1 x 2048 Specular Map: Is a B/W mask used to control the amount spec in various areas.

    1 x 2048 Specular Color Map: Is the color of the spec.

    Thanks Vig!
  • Asmuel
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    Asmuel polycounter lvl 17
    To come back on the topic : I don't understand why this is North America restricted...

    All outsiders are uncivilized terrorists thugs. They don't want to support our jihad by giving us cintiqs.
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