Ladies & gentlemen, Unearthly Challenge is ON!
polycounter lvl 20
[img2=left]http://boards.polycount.net/images/features/uc_announcement.jpg[/img2]
CLICK ABOVE FOR INFO
-September 4th 2008 to October 27 2008-
If you're like me, you've been waiting for this for a few years now: A contest to the same caliber of the Dominance War where us environment artists can finally stretch our wings and fly.![http://boards.polycount.net/images/features/uc_announcement.jpg[/img2]](http://boards.polycount.net/images/features/uc_announcement.jpg[/img2]){kind=link}
CLICK ABOVE FOR INFO
-September 4th 2008 to October 27 2008-
Anything and everything you'll need to begin your entry can be read here.
Some highlights of the specs & rules include:
:icon_arrow: Each entry will begin from a choice out of 89 concepts provided by some of this industries top studios & artists
:icon_arrow: Broad technical restrictions
:icon_arrow: Render in any 3D application or videogame engine of your choice
:icon_arrow: Teams of up to 3 people maximum! Name your team and make a logo if you wish
:icon_arrow: Priceless exposure: Have your entry seen by all of our sponsors & judges
Replies
Edit: Tumerboy already wooted
edit: This competition is closed for new entries.
moose - ya, Fred just opened up the specs, rules, and concepts so people can begin. Registry/login will happen over the weekend most likely as there are still kinks to iron out.
Everyone else - KICK SOME FUCKING ASS.
I'd be interested to know what the philosophy behind this choice was.
Anyway, It looks like it'll be a lot of fun. Props to the organisers.
Why did we want to make it so contestants had to start from concepts?
There's a few reasons, I'll start with the bigger ones.
Beyond saying "Here's 200k triangles, 4096x4096 textures, now make some evil" we needed to tighten the scope of this contest so that proper guidelines and restrictions were in place beyond technical limitations and an underlying theme. Dominance War would never have been successful if people were told, "Make someone Evil." That's too broad. It's too vague. Not to mention it'd be hell on the judges.
There's no backstory for this like there was for Dominance War. We're not specifically making War Generals or Planetary Infiltrators, we're making worlds within worlds. And those worlds all have a starting point within each of the 89 concepts.
We want to see what people can do when a vague direction is presented to them and they're told to run with it.
And while this is extremely helpful for people learning the trade or to those who cannot concept, I believe it'll be a real challenge & fun exercise to the industry professionals out there. We ran this idea past a lot of professionals out there and worked with them to ensure that we could make as many people have with this as we could. Personally, I can't flippin' wait to get my hands dirty with the rest of my team.
How are you able to take something and make it evil? What is evil and how do you represent that in an environment? How do you take a concept, a world, and add to it to make it your own while maintaining some elements of the original design?
That is what this contest is. That is why we collected nearly 100 concepts from some of the best artists out there.
That is make makes this the Unearthly Challenge.
And before anyone tries to call me on it: I totally didn't practice this post in preparation for the question at hand. I swear!
edit: nevermind.
The spec limits are awesome though!
edit: quite a lot of cheesy concepts
Now then... bed!
Until tomorrow.
fsidufgsigdf
ok, i just take on of the blurry concepts that look like a 5 minute sketch then
hehehe thats what im doing :P
ohh thats not soooo correct imo - because normaly in production you have a fixed setting to fit in.
soo look at it more like a lose direction to choose from i guess, a startingpoint to begin with and to expand.
No one is going to get pissed if we paint over the concepts are they?
hate the specs
no challenge for me
whats your problem with the specs?
However,
1100x1100 for beauty shot? If we want a wide shot (16:9 for example) we're supposed to add black margins right? (top bottom)
it says "UP TO" 1100x1100, so if you wanna make it widescreen just make the height smaller.
still, 1100 is a seemingly random number for max res, to me 1280 would make more sense haha
I don't understand why there is so much disappointment about having to choose a concept. The rules specify that you are to use the concepts as a starting point or reference. GET THIS SHIT ON, BITCHES!
-caseyjones
'-Concepts should not be copied exactly, in fact, simply duplicating your chosen concept is a very bad thing.'
The environment should be able to hold up and look awesome in both beauty shots. If you want to pull the camera back, that's your choice.
-caseyjones
I have concepts all day at work, when I do personal stuff i don't want to be too limited.
Now get off your ass, stop making excuses and start kicking ass there is plenty of freedom in the challenge and plenty of time get some kick ass art done. GO GO GO!
anyway, its on! ^^
Something like: Unearthly Challenge | Team Name | Name of Environement ?
However, look how much this Beast of a Juggernaut did with ONE 1024 -->
http://chrisholden.net/dm01_05.jpg http://chrisholden.net/dm01_07.jpg
Cholden's Sketchbook --> http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=52565
And I second target_renegades question...is that how we name these suckers?
This sounds good to me. The team name seems kind of silly I kind of thought it was team polycount vs team CGChat (err I mean GameArtisans) but that's a contest thing, thems the rules no matter how weird.
After looking at the rules and concepts I have a question, if I chose this concept:
http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/events/4/concepts/images/concept_23.html
Could I make my scene about what would be inside that bunker?
-Standard texture passes apply: diffuse, spec, normal, bump, height, detail, emissive, parallax, opacity and so on. Fred will update the rules with actual specifics.
-You're encouraged to alter and break from the concept as much as you can while still maintaining some of its elements. The judges should be able to look at the concept, then look at your beauty renders, and see the connection. There's some hellacious* looking environments in there... imagine what the GA guys will have to do to make it look 'Good'. They're require a HUGE overhaul in lighting, props, look, wear, all of that.
-You can draw over concepts if it makes planning your work that much better, no ones feelings will get hurt
-If you have a concept artist on your team thats awesome, part of me wishes I did for my team. You're encouraged to add, remove, edit, or update your concepts environment. Don't forget you need a center of focus, it has to look evil, and it shouldn't be a direct copy of your concept. Lots of stuff to get creative with!
-1x4096x4096 texture space is huge. To put it in perspective, here's an image showing a 4096x4096 @ half-resolution. The smallest squares are 512x512 textures. TONS OF SPACE!
-It's only up to 250,000. If you can make an amazing scene for this competition in, say, 60,000 triangles then by all means. We just wanted the free to be there for people who wanted to do sprawling environments like a forest, lava worlds, huge landscapes, etc.
-As for mixing 2 environments together, you cannot do that. However, because you can update a concept as you need it to be for your idea you're welcome to bring over elements from another in to your chosen concept. So long as 'the concept can be seen in your environment' I would think you are fine to do with it what you will.
-Threads @ Polycount for this should be titled as such: UNEARTHLY CHALLENGE | Team Name | Name of your environment*
*If you don't have a name for your environment yet you can always edit your title later to update it.
Will be fine for the contests thread.
I'll be posting up the specs for this in there as well later today and making a sticky for questions, comments, etc....
This will help a bit I think.
Edit: Thread created at..... http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=55449