Evolve CG Hunter Challenge
polycounter lvl 17
Hey All,
NEW UPDATE:
http://evolve3d.net/feature-speaker-hanno-hagedorn/
Exclusive! Feature Speaker -Hanno Hagedorn - Lead Character Artist at Naughty Dog- talks about what you can expect from his workshop at Evolve CG Conference May 15th -May 16th 2010... Register today! http://www.evolvecg.net/registration
____________________________________________________________________________________________
OLDER POST!
Evolve CG is coming back to South Florida, and with the event, they are having an art challenge: The Hunter.
Taking into consideration the amazing talent among students, we have decided to create an exciting CG Art Contest. The Hunter challenge asks participants to study and create the ultimate Hunter character/scenario.
The challenge will be open to all students currently enrolled in any computer graphic art or animation program (at any college or animation school), or who has graduated within seven months of entering this challenge.
For full information about all challenge description, rules, prizes and requirements please click on the hunter’s artwork above or visit: http://evolve3d.net/the_hunter/
Challenge Categories:
* Individual Entry: Concept Design, Character Modeling, Character Texturing, Character Animation
* Team Entry (The Hunters World): Environment (Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, *Animation optional)
The Challenge is being sponsored by ImagineFX, 3d World, Pixologic, Wacom, Digicel, and a few others, who will be giving over $16,000 worth of prizes.
If you are interested in this challenge, please visit the site listed above, for more info, and feel free to register on the forums. (If you wouldn't mind, list me - Oniram - as your reference).
Hope all who join this have a great time in the contest, and I look forward to seeing many entries.
*(To whom it may concern, I have received permission from the polycount admins to post this)
NEW UPDATE:
http://evolve3d.net/feature-speaker-hanno-hagedorn/
Exclusive! Feature Speaker -Hanno Hagedorn - Lead Character Artist at Naughty Dog- talks about what you can expect from his workshop at Evolve CG Conference May 15th -May 16th 2010... Register today! http://www.evolvecg.net/registration
____________________________________________________________________________________________
OLDER POST!
Evolve CG is coming back to South Florida, and with the event, they are having an art challenge: The Hunter.
Taking into consideration the amazing talent among students, we have decided to create an exciting CG Art Contest. The Hunter challenge asks participants to study and create the ultimate Hunter character/scenario.
The challenge will be open to all students currently enrolled in any computer graphic art or animation program (at any college or animation school), or who has graduated within seven months of entering this challenge.
For full information about all challenge description, rules, prizes and requirements please click on the hunter’s artwork above or visit: http://evolve3d.net/the_hunter/
Challenge Categories:
* Individual Entry: Concept Design, Character Modeling, Character Texturing, Character Animation
* Team Entry (The Hunters World): Environment (Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, *Animation optional)
The Challenge is being sponsored by ImagineFX, 3d World, Pixologic, Wacom, Digicel, and a few others, who will be giving over $16,000 worth of prizes.
If you are interested in this challenge, please visit the site listed above, for more info, and feel free to register on the forums. (If you wouldn't mind, list me - Oniram - as your reference).
Hope all who join this have a great time in the contest, and I look forward to seeing many entries.
*(To whom it may concern, I have received permission from the polycount admins to post this)
Replies
Especially since works a bit slim with the GFC.
Good luck everyone.
Awesome!
Might have to give this a shot.
The contest is aiming towards students because there is a very high amount of students who are currently attending school for game art or animation. Mostly along the eastern coast of the united states. The main point of this event was to bring some of the professionals to the east coast to see what is really out there. Last year at the event, there were people from Dreamworks, Digital Domain, Blizzard, and some others. With the contest this year, people who could not attend the event will still have a chance to be part of it (winners of the contest get tickets to the event). i understand that it is a bit limited, but if it were open to graduates or professionals, students would have less of a chance.
The event itself is being held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (right across from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale). The main reason for this location is because many talented students come out of fort lauderdale, but it is hard for them to get to the west coast for work. this event is bringing the west coast to the east, essentially.
The Hunter Challenge, however, opens the event to much more people who are unable to attend the event (last year i do not recall if many students outside of the state of Florida showed up to the event). Keep in mind this is the second year of the event, and they are just trying to progressively grow.
In regards again to the entry from students not in the united states, i am still awaiting the response, and as soon as i get it, ill let you know.
ALSO* Update on the challenge. Autodesk has joined as a sponsor, and will be giving 3ds Max, Maya Lisences as prizes to the grand prize winner.
In regards to the students question the only thing we ask is that if they must be a student or have at least graduated 7 months prior to entering the competition. It doesn't only apply to students from within the United States but if a participant wins they must be present at the 2010 Evolve conference in order to claim their prizes.
Wish that was started more clearly in the rules, as that is the only mention of it.
I might join regardless of prizes though... Either that or ill just have to win enough to make the trip worth it haha.
I'm also a little confused by this, isn't the point of this to try and promote the best in students. By putting this restriction on the entry it suddenly becomes a whole lot less competitive and there will be a fraction of the entries; Just have a look at how varied the winners are from dominance war. I mean hell imagine fx isn't even an American magazine? :susp:
Good luck to all those that participate!
I'm a student, just a student though, I don't know if that qualifies me as "all students currently enrolled in any computer graphic art or animation program (at any college or animation school)"
ZacD what school are you a student of?
Muzz - maybe you should post about that on the forum. but also keep in mind, DW is not aimed directly toward students. anyone can enter. DW gets your name out there, but that doesnt necessarily mean you will find a job in the industry. I dont know for sure but i can probably guess that most DW entrants are not in the industry. Evolve is looking for people who are currently on their way to being in the industry. the event/competition is an extra push for them. I dont have the list of judges for the competition on me, but i know there are some major studios judging the final entries for the competition (only one i can think of off the top of my head is Ubisoft). i understand that the limit does have its bearings on the competition, but the entire competition is aimed specifically towards a certain group of people.
also:
as of now i am not sure whether or not there will be, but the contest opens october 5th, so maybe then more info will be released.
normal community college crap.
[ame]
** hey Haiasi, glad to see you around dude. I saw tucker on the EvolveCG thread. Is that dude on PC too?
good luck to all participants!
No, Tucker isn't on Polycount. I have referenced a lot of useful threads from here for him to read but I don't think he's ever created an account. He does browse around he from time to time because he's sent me a few links as well.
I guess I'll see how I feel at the time. For the last 6 months all the models I have done have been for competitions, I kind of want to do something with no deadlines and have a real WIP thread. I also don't like the idea of no limits. When there is no limits, I feel like judges will probably prefer high poly film type stuff and not appreciate what it takes to make the extra step to game res (10 maps vs 1 map, 10 obviously will look better). I guess it depends on the judges though.
Edit: Wow this is really soon, Oct.5th. Hmm, I do sort of want to enter now.:poly134:
good luck to all. :poly121:
[ame]
Going to send this to my teachers. maybe they can put it between the schoolprojects.
http://evolve3d.net/feature-speaker-hanno-hagedorn/
Exclusive! Feature Speaker -Hanno Hagedorn - Lead Character Artist at Naughty Dog- talks about what you can expect from his workshop at Evolve CG Conference May 15th -May 16th 2010... Register today! http://www.evolvecg.net/registration
I do have two questions though: Will Hannos session be recorded, and does him now being the lead CA at ND mean Richard has left or did he switch positions in the company? Despite not being able to attend I'd still like to get the chance to see Hannos demonstration if at all possible.
Irony: some of the winners picked created a WIP thread a week before deadline.
Really?
It would be nice to see a write up from the judges of why they feel the winners were most deserving.
Nonetheless, the final pieces chosen across all categories show a fine level of execution and really show top notch work amongst students. I'm happy for the opportunities that the competition gave and it was a great chance to engage with others with a similar passion.
The winners are all in:
Concept Design
Modeling
Texturing
Animation
Team
What can I say... Congrats to all the winners. That being said I'm pretty disappointed at the outcome of this.
Oh well.. at least I got a character out of it. Time to move on with life.
I really don't understand how in the judging criteria it says to concept all of the equipment the hunter uses, as well as create a world for him to live in yet two of the winners for concept design did no such thing.
To quote from the criteria exactly:
"We want you to include certain aspects of your character that makes it effective at hunting, this could be in the form of weapons, technology, gadgets or just your characters overall physique."
and
"We want to know everything that makes them so effective at tracking their prey. Things like, what type of gear or weaponry they use that enables them to be the best at what they do?"
Where was that in winner #2? No where. He has a lot of skill but didn't do anything the competition asked for. But who cares? The judges didn't even judge based on what the competition said it would be about. This just kind of turned into another "Ooh, cool picture, you win!" competition.
#3 described his work, but had absolutely no variation in any design. He just started sketching out one character and fleshed it out. Where is the concept in that? Elimination of inferior designs? You can't bring something like that to a client and expect them to be happy. It's not a realistic approach to concept art.
I am disappointed to say that I believe the judges were so busy with work that they merely chose what they felt had the most well executed sell painting.
"We want to know everything that makes them so effective at tracking their prey.". 2 and 3 are not hunters. #2 is a scantily clad warrior chick and #3 is a monster with a sword who lives in an empty white world.
I was pretty taken aback that gordonV's hunter drone placed third. I really thought his model was a lock for first given the immense amount of hard surface modeling and organic sculpting he put into it. I really thought this was a modeling contest, not just a sculpting contest.
The only people I thought that really had a shot at the top 3 places were Shaun, Krik, and myself. We all followed the instructions and created unique hunters with a full development process with orthos and everything. We were very pipeline-realistic in terms of the work put out. In fact, there were about 2-3 others that were really damn good in terms of concept art. Better than 2nd and 3rd by a long shot.
I literally feel like the project I created could be handed to a team and be made into an animated short with how much work I put into it. I have a description for fuckin' everything: the hunter, the back story of the hunter, the beast, the mount, the village, the environment the hunter lives in, and all of the tools used and descriptions of how they're specific to the hunt.
The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off.
Oh, and apparently modeling is just sculpting to them. Another funny thing about that is how industry professionals don't want to hire people that only know how to use Zbrush and are actually annoyed by the fact that some people solely use Zbrush and never learn the basics of topology and edge flow in Max, Maya, XSI, or another 3D package.
To finish it off, no it wasn't fair at all how poorly the judges judged everything. We did put in a full 4 months of work into this and people that just tossed shit together in a fraction of the time with little to no thought won. If those people get interviewed they won't have jack shit to talk about because their project is so poorly thought out.
"Oh, well I did a bunch of sketches and I liked this one so I finished it. My final idea was kind of a hot warrior chick"
I could have given an hour speech on my entire project.
Mainly directed to the concept art section.... First place went over all this stuff in the guidelines and turned out great. He put lots of work into the design process. However the other two top places? I don't doubt they are good artists but where are the other views? The design process of the concept? They don't give me a sense of what this hunter does, how he or she hunts? It's just a pretty picture of a hunter or is it? We don't know the whole back story of these hunters.
I did not take part in this contest but followed it and yeah it does not seem like the judging really took into account the design process like they should have. It almost feels like a rigged contest, kind of makes one lose faith in Evolve CG, and I don't feel I would ever want to take part in a contest from them in the future. If someone can just come in draw one nice picture with no clear direction of where the concept came from, half nude girl with sword.... what in the world is she hunting? What kind of prey does a half nude girl with a huge sword going to hunt, rabbits maybe? I really would like to know, I could see her maybe hunting something like werewolfs but we don't now it was not there. :thumbdown: :thumbdown:
Oh well, it is what it is. Now I know to not attempt a photoreal human for a contest next time..
Isaiah are u gonna go to the conference?