CGChallenge XXII - Uplift Universe

[Leonard]

Hi guys,

Softimage is offering all contestants a copy of XSI for use in this contest, which you can keep if you finish. The software is a full featured non-commercial license of XSI Essentials 6.5 for Windows 32-bit or 64-bit. The license is set to expire on 16th June 2008 (one week after the Challenge ends).

If you finish the Challenge (i.e. you submit an final entry and qualify for judging), your license will be converted to a permanent non-commercial version. You can keep using XSI for as long as you like.

If you place as a winner, you'll get a full commercial permanent license of XSI Essentials 6.5 as a prize.

>> Details and Instructions to get XSI << (http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/promo/challenge22/)

Best,

Leo

[salmonmoose]

Well done to walrus (http://walrus.cgsociety.org/gallery/) for picking the topic from my rather obscure thread :)

[erilaz]

Well done to walrus (http://walrus.cgsociety.org/gallery/) for picking the topic from my rather obscure thread :)

Well yes, you're not THAT insane. :)

Great challenge once more!

[Nazirull]

What a way to commemorate the passing of Sir Arthur C Clarke.
RIP Arthur.
I will join this CGChallenge.

Great job CGSociety

edit: He was SIR arthur C Clarke. Eternal inspiration. Rest in peace, Sir Arthur.

[Dist]

Great topic and really cool to see we can score a free copy of XSI, I'm in!

[MarkSnoswell]

For those reading this who have not heard the news ...

Sir Arthur C. Clarke died overnight in a hospital in Sri Lanka. He was 90 years old.

Although we are excited about the launch of a new challenge it is very sad news that one of the worlds leading science writers has just passed away.

Perhaps most famous for writing 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C Clarke made an enormous contribution to this world. He was one of the most prolific writers of both Science Fiction and accademic works.

I feel a great personal loss with his passing. Like so many other's Arthur C Clarke had a major impact on my life through the many wonderfull and thought provoikng books he wrote.

As already pointed out -- it would be a fitting tribute if in some small way the theme of this competition can contribute to keeping the memory of such a great and inspirational person alive.

[Geta-Ve]

Nice topic. I will of course attempt to enter once again :D

Good luck to all those entering!

[salmonmoose]

A great excuse to play through Mass Effect again :)

http://masseffect.bioware.com/gallery/

[tozger]

I join this competition, because I have a nerve breaking, chilling idea,in my head it looks fantastic but it will be real hard to implement the feeling and visualizing it also. Because I am not that expert of the software but will do my best...

[Artbot]

Sounds like a great contest this time around. What a sad, but fitting coincidence that the theme reflects so perfectly the memory of one of the greatest imaginitive thinkers of our time. R.I.P. Arthur C. Clark.

The XSI tie-in is a stroke of marketing genius, and is exactly the sort of thing that should happen inside a major competition like this. Kudos for such an innovative idea.

[Thaldir]

Ditto ! Sad news indeed, He will be missed :sad: !

Great choice of subject, I have to start cooking something soon :bounce:!

[JamesMK]

Softimage is offering all contestants a copy of XSI for use in this contest, which you can keep if you finish.
Jeez... now THAT is cool.

Anyways - good luck to all participants!

[notsocreative]

its realllllllly a coooooooooool challenge.......
m gonna participate....n gotta very unique idea........

its will be my first entry to any CG Challange

[NinjaA55N]

yeah!!! please god, give me 72 hours per day so I'll be able to do everything on my schedule :D

[drdespair]

Looking forward to this!!

Oh and a shameless plug : XSI 6.5 Ess now includes hair/fur and Syflex.

Go Go Go.

[vampeta]

For those reading this who have not heard the news ...

Sir Arthur C. Clarke died overnight in a hospital in Sri Lanka. He was 90 years old.



NO! Please don't....

....

the saddest day of my live!

[walrus]

Thanks for the nod, Anton! I'm pleasantly surprised to see that you can depict any aliens, not just David Brin's... Not that I have anything wrong with Brin's, it's just that time is going to be short: Some of us won't have any time for the Challenge for a few weeks until after the Dominance War challenge is over. ( Give us a break here, we're out fighting for the greater glory of CGSociety! :) But I suppose you'll give us a break in the end and extend the Challenge deadline as usual, which this time around will be appreciated.)

See you all in a few weeks!

[ChewyPixels]

To equip you for this Challenge, SOFTIMAGE is offering all contestants a copy of XSI Essentials 6.5 for use in this contest, which you can keep if you finish!





*In Godly voice* "I predict the biggest participation in CGSociety history!"

Sadly, I doubt I will have time to participate. :cry:

Great theme btw! A deserving homage to Sir Clarke.

[JHarford]

great news, i hope to compete. but woah 8 week deadline? what's that one about?

[adib]

Great Challenge! Good luck to everyone and I think will be fun again!

[yenvalmar]

but this will probably be at least as cool, cant wait to see everyone's entry.. i was just telling my girlfriend about these books cause we went to sea world recently, the dolphins really are something and i'd love to see em in space. so i had to make sure i was reading correctly when i saw the new challenge, heh. i'm booked or i would even think of joining this one myself..

[Potemkyn]

Interesting challenge. I've worked with 3D Max only and not much charracter modeling. Might give XSI a try and put something in (after planting 's all done!)

:eek:


Mike
Po~

[ColdKodiak]

The Books are really worth reading btw.

The Uplift War and Startide Rising especially.
David Brin is not only a really smart guy, he's a very good writer.

[Ramitxon]

Fantastic Topic for a Challenge. Good idea about Brin's novels, not read them yet. Good luck to everyone.

[maxspider3000]

Finally .... AM IN FOR SURE -insha allah- :D

thanks guys at CGS, you made us have some fun from a while to another :love:

Good luck everyone :)

[wonderpup]

Nice to see that old Jim Burns illustration in there- kind of ironic to see an acrylic painting promoting a CG contest. I actualy painted the cover art for the uk paperback edition of Startide rising many moons ago, using (gasp) an airbrush!

I am now officaly a dinosour.

[Lone Deranger]

Good subject for this challenge. :bounce: But wow... 8 weeks? With the work schedule I currently have there's no way I could join in on the challenge and deliver something I'd be happy with for the finals. So I'll have to give it a miss... :sad:

[alvin-cgi]

I think the video and image both should have same deadline (12 weeks)... 8 weeks is a bit short…:sad:

Thanks:)

[AdamHerbert]

Free XSI?! Cheers to Soft Image!:thumbsup:

Can't wait to see the entries for this one!

[SovereignKnight]

Oh god what a deal!

**thinks hard**

[OZ]

Cooool cooool tema. Mhh....needs a lot of research! ...oh guys... i love it!

[Mibus]

Don't forget that you can use RSS to follow the challenge:
http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/uplift_universe/view_entries_rss.php?view=all

Or just your favourite artist:
http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/uplift_universe/view_entries_rss.php?challenger=XXXX (where XXXX is their challenger ID).

[ICHOMA]

Hi firneds of cgS.
THE SOFTWARE YOU ARE SHARING FOR THE UPLIFT UNIVERSE Challenge, is it available for Macintosh?

[DavidBrin]

I am grateful to Mark and the CG Society for choosing my Uplift Universe for this effort! I hope you all have a lot of fun and feel inspired to create ground (or galaxy) breaking images.

I do want to say that you can find the first few chapters of the Uplift novels available for free (in English) at:
http://www.davidbrin.com/upliftbooks.html

Mark has posted many other resources, including some rough trailer scripts I worked on. I hope some of it is useful. You can find many images through Google by typing "Uplift Universe" or any of the book titles. In any event, feel free to be creative on your own!

Hints: SUNDIVER has a vivid background - the sun and some creatures that live there. It is also a murder mystery. STARTIDE has dolphins in space, who can beat that? UPLIFT WAR has "altered" chimpanzees, Gorillas and bird aliens. BRIGHTNESS REEF has many species, including one with wheels...

Oh, these books have been translated into many languages, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Dutch, and so on. A recent edition came out in China. I cannot say how good the translations are, or where to find them. But I hope it helps.

Have fun!

With cordial regards,

David Brin
http://www.davidbrin.com

[angel]

Hi guys,

Softimage is offering all contestants a copy of XSI for use in this contest, which you can keep if you finish. The software is a full featured non-commercial license of XSI Essentials 6.5 for Windows 32-bit or 64-bit. The license is set to expire on 16th June 2008 (one week after the Challenge ends).

If you finish the Challenge (i.e. you submit an final entry and qualify for judging), your license will be converted to a permanent non-commercial version. You can keep using XSI for as long as you like.

If you place as a winner, you'll get a full commercial permanent license of XSI Essentials 6.5 as a prize.

>> Details and Instructions to get XSI << (http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/promo/challenge22/)

Best,

Leo

Wow, that's very generous. Way to go!

[Amarin]

I have to say that the free copy of XSI is great. Being a student beginning in 3d i wouldnt think about entering normally but i cant really turn down a free student edition. From my standpoint this is a great way to build brand loyalty and encourage newer artists.

[digikris]

I'm thrilled to see this challenge. I learnt a lot just by participating in Eon about project management and time management. This would provide me a great opportunity to fine tune my skills in advance. Because i wasn't able to participate in Strange Behaviour last year. Now its so cool and its SciFi. I'm not sleeping for another couple of weeks and nailing the chapters of the book and storyboarding the script.

Best!!

[VShane]

Oh, I'm in for sure. Hope I can meet the nights to create!
I'll need to order some new wacom nibs.
I'll pass on the XSi though, as nice as that is to offer.
Just ain't got the time these days to re-learn 3D.
Tried for years, only to be discouraged by "relocation" for 99% of CG jobs.
Bah..I'll stay the 2D freelancer :scream:

[DoInferno]

Aaaaaand there we go again!

[MOSS]

I guess its time to learn me some XSI :thumbsup:

[Trojan123]

Makes me wish I knew Softimage...

[Xtrude]

Great contest, fantastic prizes, and what a forum/vehicle to launch from.... good luck to all :)

Curious, could you please tell us who did the concept work on the contest posting? Thanx :)

[Intervain]

sounds great :) Another sci-fi based challenge - would be nice to have a fantasy one next time *nudge*:scream: - maybe I'd finally know the book LOL

[Grin3d]

well, fantastic topic. I should give another try :shrug:

that main challenge (and banner) image by jim burns was also used as front cover for the german version of greg bear's EON (Äon); for one sec I thougt that new challenge is highly connected to the earlier EON challenge.

http://www.mhsteinert.de/aspur2/d2/d20a_05.jpg

[frankymartz]

Sci-fi :), free xsi :thumbsup:...... no need to say anymore.

! ! I'm in ! !

[javedboxxer]

its realllllllly a coooooooooool challenge.......
m gonna participate....n gotta very unique idea........

its will be my first entry to <img>Uplift Universe (http://features.cgsociety.org/newsletter/click.php?sid=313841&id=429&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforums.cgsociety.org%2Fshowthread.php%3Fthreadid%3D610144%3Futm_source%3Dnewsletter%26utm_medium%3Dmainplug%26utm_term%3Duplift_universe%26utm_content%3Duplift_universe_characters%26utm_campaign%3D20080317):thumbsup:

[unwrap]

Alien and human interaction eh? http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/39.gif

[AlexeyKlimenko]

Hi everyone, who is participating in this competition!

Q: Can I use images of main heroes, drawings of the technician from computer games?

[ivanisavich]

Just a few general questions about the theme....I'm mostly just wondering if a clarification could be made concerning what constitutes "relations" or "interactions"

Does the interaction have to be peaceful? Ie, could a struggle between a human and an alien force/creature/being fit under the topic? Would that constitute as a "relationship" of some sort?

Do both parties have to be sentient? Ie, could you have a human dealing with a non-sentient creature in some way? Or maybe a smaller group of non-sentient creatures (like...a human fending off space-bugs or something)?

Does there have to be some communication between both parties? Ie...what about something like an alien encounter where there is no direct communication between the alien(s) and human(s). I ask this because "relations" usually imply some form of language or communication...so just wondering.

Or what about a combination of all three? Ie, some kind of encounter between alien(s) and human(s) where the aliens are not sentient, and there is no attempt at communication between both parties....only an attempt of both parties to dominate/destroy the other.

I'm entering the video category...and my current idea (which I haven't posted yet) leans towards something similar to the above...but I'd like to make sure it properly fits under the theme first :D

[zimfin]

This sounds interesting and I haven't attempted one of these yet so..........here goes! I'm in!! :bounce:

[jpiette]

Hmmmmmmmmm, I like the sound of that prize!

[Climax]

Wow, it looks very interesting!....I wish all a very nice time during the contest

[Grgeon]

I have the same questions as Tyson. Hopefully they can be answered soon.

Just a few general questions about the theme....I'm mostly just wondering if a clarification could be made concerning what constitutes "relations" or "interactions"

Does the interaction have to be peaceful? Ie, could a struggle between a human and an alien force/creature/being fit under the topic? Would that constitute as a "relationship" of some sort?

Do both parties have to be sentient? Ie, could you have a human dealing with a non-sentient creature in some way? Or maybe a smaller group of non-sentient creatures (like...a human fending off space-bugs or something)?

Does there have to be some communication between both parties? Ie...what about something like an alien encounter where there is no direct communication between the alien(s) and human(s). I ask this because "relations" usually imply some form of language or communication...so just wondering.

Or what about a combination of all three? Ie, some kind of encounter between alien(s) and human(s) where the aliens are not sentient, and there is no attempt at communication between both parties....only an attempt of both parties to dominate/destroy the other.

I'm entering the video category...and my current idea (which I haven't posted yet) leans towards something similar to the above...but I'd like to make sure it properly fits under the theme first :D

[reynard]

Hi

This is great, thanks for making this CGChallenge.

Cheers

[salmonmoose]

Just a few general questions about the theme....I'm mostly just wondering if a clarification could be made concerning what constitutes "relations" or "interactions"

Does the interaction have to be peaceful? Ie, could a struggle between a human and an alien force/creature/being fit under the topic? Would that constitute as a "relationship" of some sort?

Do both parties have to be sentient? Ie, could you have a human dealing with a non-sentient creature in some way? Or maybe a smaller group of non-sentient creatures (like...a human fending off space-bugs or something)?

Does there have to be some communication between both parties? Ie...what about something like an alien encounter where there is no direct communication between the alien(s) and human(s). I ask this because "relations" usually imply some form of language or communication...so just wondering.

Or what about a combination of all three? Ie, some kind of encounter between alien(s) and human(s) where the aliens are not sentient, and there is no attempt at communication between both parties....only an attempt of both parties to dominate/destroy the other.

I'm entering the video category...and my current idea (which I haven't posted yet) leans towards something similar to the above...but I'd like to make sure it properly fits under the theme first :D

No it doesn't have to be peaceful;

We never specify sentience, so again, that's fine :)

We're only after interaction between humans and aliens - a lack of communication is fine, I can't see many initial alien encounters having communication anyhow, do you? :)

Mix and match these however you like :)

[ivanisavich]

Great! Thanks for the clarification :D

[bobtronic]

Salmonmoose's "gorillas, dolphins, humans" thread starts to make sense now ;)

cheers,
Matthias

[snowkiwi]

Hey great challenge guys. Yah I mean, we're not the only ones in the universe. Did you hear the line from Contact. "If we're the only ones in the universe. . . what a waste of space." Something like that. Anywho.

[beelow]

you guys know I am in. Sorry to hear that one of the best writers has passed away. I am not aware of who he is but, I will look him up. Later gents and ladies.

[velascodearmas]

Oh well.. Gonna give it yet another shot.. hehe Maybe THIS time I'll be disciplined/organized enough to get enough time on the project to finish it in time!! For me, that is already a challenge in and of itself.

[ysvry]

gonna try this too, have a nice ideer already. You get a free copy that can be used for non comercial use only, so only for hobby use, guess the time I spent learning blender wasnt wasted then I will be using that for any pro work then :P . I have some experience working in XSI working for a starting animation studio so I have a little advance on people who dont know it, well good luck to all the other participants.

[ysvry]

downloaded the 32-bit windows version but its not installing under vista says it needs nt patch 4 installed and also if i set it to compatibility mode nt no show???
are you required to use the xsi or can you use all software?

[ysvry]

for other people having isseus instaling on vista, choose xp compatibilty mode install then works. Next problem is the program wont run. I sorry to say but this sucks. Is this version able to run under vista premium or not?

[joshpurple]

for other people having isseus instaling on vista, choose xp compatibilty mode install then works. Next problem is the program wont run. I sorry to say but this sucks. Is this version able to run under vista premium or not?

Does XSI freeze on the start-up splash screen / launches and freezes before you see the program windows? If so, it might be an Anti-virus program getting in your way. This happened to me using TrendMicro (and a number of others have had issues with other Anti-Virus programs). Turning off the Anti-virus, clean-booting, killing the process, etc. none of that worked, -the fix was completely uninstalling the Anti-virus software. Then XSI worked (AVG Free edition has not caused XSI to freeze). Sorry if that doesn't help, -good luck!

[jmdirc]

Well I've never used Softimage before. I hope the learning curve from Max isn't going to be to big a thing. And, I'll have to check out the OS requirements; but, if it will run on 2000, ya'll will have a serious run for the money; ahem...software. :thumbsup:

[Bliz]

Does anybody know offhand if the machine you install XSi on has to be connected to the internet to get the competition license? I assume so but I purposely keep my workstation unconnected to the internet which is a bit of a bummer as I think I'll need to find my 25metre ethernet cable.

It's be better for me if I could download the license on my laptop and put it on a USB key to transfer it to my workstation (this is what I do for my Lightwave install)

Besides that - good luck everybody on the challenge!

[SandySims]

I've never entered a contest here before, but I'm gonna try this one. I've been a scifi buff since I was a teenager. So, alien/human interaction is something I can visualize. Now, is there enough hours in the day for me to learn new software? Who knows but I'm gonna try! :bounce:

Sandy

[s0ho]

I finish my First contest and i ll try to get in these one =)))

sounds kewl :D

[Cyberone]

im gonna join tonight!! yay!!

i think these guys should win the vidoe contest..

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=gWqI0U3pBdA
soooooo funny...

[CaptainBarbosa]

Wow, what a deal! I know I don't have the skill right now to win, but I am certainly going to try my hardest, even if I end up making crap. I have a LOT to learn...

[javedboxxer]

tnx for compliment :thumbsup:

[Leonard]

Hi guys,

If you have any questions about XSI installation, or just general questions, please post in the Softimage forums (http://community.softimage.com/) as these are checked by Softimage staff. Random questions on this thread are hard to follow. Thanks :)

Installing XSI on Vista (http://community.softimage.com/showthread.php?t=474)


"Does anybody know offhand if the machine you install XSi on has to be connected to the internet to get the competition license?"

Yes. Due to the volume of users activating licenses, we can't offer offline activation. Sorry.

Best,

Leo

[SONIC-X]

This looks awesome a challenge.
It is sad about Sir Arthur C. Clark,I have lots of his books and read all of them.

To bad about having to have the machine for installing XSI to be online,I only have my laptop online aswell with a standalone workstation at home.

[DruG]

I`ve read the whole thread and I`m a bit confused. Please excuse me if that was already stated clearly or it`s just obvious, but here`s my question:

do we have to stick to Uplift universe or may do something completely different? Is that a must or just a suggestion?

Thanks in advance:)

[Mibus]

do we have to stick to Uplift universe or may do something completely different? Is that a must or just a suggestion?

Suggestion.

[blindsyte]

Arthur C. Clarke is one of my most profound inspirations. His Rama series stands out in my mind as being the most impactful and thought provoking in my life. I do not mourn his passing, because he is not dead. He left so much of himself here in his books, and that strikes to to spirit of why we at CGS create art...

[soriah]

woops wrong spot

[soriah]

I'm sorry I'm going to be negative but all i can think of is not another alien /robot universe fantasy art theme.... :sad: deja-vu guys but didn't we just do this? doesn't EON ring any bells?! wasn't EON a alien/robot universe fantasy art theme? and here we are one challenge later(after strange behaviour) doing it again...

next time can we have something different like an emotion or a color? something where we could get any idea, make us think outside the box, get ideas from the left of field push us till we scream "how can we do that!" cause we will thank you for it later

eg Devistation - this could open up to many different ideas
or blue - how could you draw blue draw the colour the character the emotion is there another way?

[weidenfels]

sorry to say, but I feel kind of cheated. After getting through all necessary step 1 registration process on CGtalk and continue with step 2 I'm finally told that I can only register XSI if my computer is connected to internet. This should have clearly be stated at the beginning.

For sure I will not connect my power machine which I use for 3d to internet to live with the risk that important work maid get destroyed. Therefore I have another machine for internet. Never had this problem with any other progs I tryd till now. Disappointing, not very good marketing from my point of view. Others request a machine ID or similar to make sure it's only installed on one machine, that is OK. If they say for XSI they want to prevent to get it installed on too many machines, well, they could have limited the number of requests for registration.

[theGliridian]

this is my first time entering a challenge here in CGSociety. I'll do my best. Surely, this will be a good experience for me. Goodluck everyone!

[Bliz]

Yeah, I don't feal 'cheated' but like you I'm not going to connect my workstation to the internet to register XSi.
I installed the XSi trial on my laptop and realised it's a bit too 'alien' (pardon the pun) for me to learn AND finish the contest, in the spare time I have.
So I'm still entering the competition but I'll be sticking to my Maya workflow.

[ivanisavich]

Hey admins,

I tried uploading my animatic to the "storyboard/pre-vis" milestone category but I can't get it to work. Do I have to convert my animatic video to a sequence of images? Are video sequences not allowed for any of the milestones? It's only 5mb so I can't imagine it's unreasonably large....

[scala]

Great challenge ... I have to buy the book as soon as possible

[Mibus]

ivanisavich: Did you encode the video as an FLV, as the instructions stated? If you keep having troubles, send me an email (robert@ballisticmedia.net)

[Mibus]

The incredibly observant Talkers among you may have noticed that we've just managed to secure three lovely Cintiq 12WX tablets, to go hand-in-hand with our new open categories - Concept Art, Digital Painting, and Sculpture.

:thumbsup:

[rayboy]

what's with the title though? Uplift Universe sounds like a bra chain.

[shamax]

guys do you know what sir Clarrke's last wish was??.. To see an Alien before he dies. That shows how much he was in to aliens. So I think CGsociety has done a great job by picking this "Uplift Universe- Alien Relations" topic. This way we all can show our gratitide to sir. Clarke by participating in this competition.
Regards !

see his last talk to the public. Really fruitfull http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qLdeEjdbWE

[Cographicz]

i might not be on everyone elses level but I'm in for the challenge and i am looking forward to seeing everyones work. good luck to everyone.

[Mibus]

More good news - ImagineFX have come on board to Challenge XXII - Uplift Universe. One winner's entry will be selected to be published as the cover of an ImagineFX subscriber edition and they will award one year's free subscription to Imagine FX Magazine to every winner

[Mibus]

UPDATE: FTP submissions for the TIFFs are now open. Check out details here (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/uplift_universe/final_image.php).

Note: Video uploads having trouble? Try re-downloading the CGChallenge uploader (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/uplift_universe/challengeuploader.jar), we've updated some stuff :)

[vmulligan]

I think this question was answered somewhere, but now I can't seem to find the answer. Once we've submitted an entry for the contest that (presumably) qualifies for judging, how do we go about getting the permanent licence for Softimage XSI?

[Leonard]

Hi guys,

For the perm license of XSI, we're going to do it all in one batch at the end of the Challenge. Your current license will carry you till mid-June, and you'll definitely get a permanent license before then. We just want to wait for everyone to finish the entries and do it all in one shot, rather than manually process each individual license.

Thanks!

Leo

[vmulligan]

Ah, thanks Leonard. Good to know.

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