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Vizfizz
03-23-2008, 03:05 AM
Hello Everyone.

Well, its been quite a while since we've pushed the creative circle here in the CGTalk / EI forum and I believe its time for another contest! Project Phoenix, our first Forum Leader's Mini Challenge, was a great success. Its hard to imagine that it was over two years ago that we had that contest. With the advancements made to EIAS v.7, entire new technologies are needing to be exploited. Although the contest does not require v7 to participate, artists are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the new IBL capabilities within v7 for a more advanced result. After bouncing a new contest off a couple of other people, I've settled on the subject matter and the prize. So, with no further ado, I'm pleased to announce:

YESTERDAY'S FUTURE!

http://www.paralumino.com/CG_Talk/yesterday/popularMechanics.jpg

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YOUR MISSION:

You must create a "retro-futuristic" 3D image depicting a conceptual mode of transportation as it would have probably been envisioned for the 21st century by the minds of someone living in the 1940's.

I am opening up the object of transportation as being any kind of "people mover" type devices. This device could be a flying car, a multi wheeled truck, jet pack, hyper plane, orbital bus, atomic pulse rockets, or something totally new and different as long as its capable of transporting one or more human beings in the "far off future" of the 21st century. The judges are not looking for what actually exists in the 21st century today, but rather the outlandish designs you'd commonly see from the 40's and 50's on what they "thought" the future would look like.

Most retro futurism concepts began out of the art deco/neuvo eras of the 1920's and 1930's. By the time the 1940's ended and WW II was over, optimism for the future was grand. The promises of technology were everywhere and the sky was the limit.

You will be expected to model the device (in a 3rd party program of your choosing), texture it, light it, and render it all within EIAS. Support applications, like Photoshop or After Effects, are permitted to take advantage of EIAS multi-layer output capabilities within v7. However, the main emphasis of the image must be 3D an rendered in EIAS.


http://www.paralumino.com/CG_Talk/yesterday/air58.jpg


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JUDGES AND JUDGING CRITERIA:

The key task of the competition is to capture a moment in time depticting the central theme of this competition while utilizing the Electric Image Animation System. The rules and regulations will indicate what tools are permitted for this challenge.

Each contest must contribute 4 parts to their entry to qualify for judging.

Part 1: A written treatment on what you plan to create and sketches of your people mover
Part 2: A finalized 3D model (built in the package of your choice)
Part 3: A final rendering within Camera.
Part 4: Access to your material libraries for review.

This competition is to be an educational experience for all. Each contestant will enter by creating a new thread in the EIAS Techniques and WIPs Lab sub forum. You MUST document your workflow and contribute to discussions about your technique and decisions. Your participation within the forum, through your discussions, is a criteria for judging. So please contribute heavily.

Your entry should list a thread subject line of:

YESTERDAY'S FUTURE Entry: (Your Name)

This contest is being evaluated by three judges. They are:

Brian J. Pohl - CGtalk forum leader, filmmaker, & 3D animator.
Ian Waters - EITG forum leader, architectural designer & 3D illustrator.
Brad Parscale - EITG company president.


http://www.paralumino.com/CG_Talk/yesterday/bohn47truck01.jpg

The judging criteria includes evaluation on:

1. The final rendered image, its composition, aritistic merit, and how well it meets the spirit of the competition.
2. The contestant's participation in the community within their work thread.
3. Providing deliverables for all 4 parts of the competition for evaluation.
4. Amount of use of new technologies within EIAS' feature set. Plug-in use is permitted.
5. A compilation of the contestant's materials and textures files for use to by other EIAS users in the universal EIAS material's library.

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PRIMARY QUALIFICATIONS:

1. All entries must be posted on CGTalk for consideration. This requires the contestent to be a forum member.

2. You must create your image utilizing EIAS.

3. You must participate in the community by critiquing other's works and by providing discussions and answering questions within your own entry thread.

4. Screen snapshots of WIPs during construction are mandatory.

5. Contest winner must provide EITG with a high resolution 300dpi image for potential marketing purposes.

6. Contestants must be willing to grant access to their material libraries for all EIAS users to take advantage of.

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DELIVERABLES:

Each part/stage requires snapshots to be posted within the contestant's entry thread in order to qualify. There will be NO specific "template" provided for this contest, however, a black info bar running the horizontal length of your images will be required and must include:

1. Copyright
2. Name
3. Date
4. EIAS version

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TIMELINE:

Contest opens 24 March 2008 and will run for a total of 7 weeks. There will be a cut off date for entry into the contest at the end of week 3 (April 11th). If your WIP thread is not present before that date, you will not qualify for entry. All parts must be included by the end date to qualify for judging.

All final entries must be delivered and annotated in your threads by May 9th.

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PRIZE:

Once the three judges reach their decision on the qualified entries, a single prize will be awarded. A black 8GB iPod nano will be mailed to the winner once all requirements are met. There is no sponsor to this competition. I am awarding this prize independently and outside of any benefiting corporation.


http://www.paralumino.com/CG_Talk/yesterday/iPodNano.jpg

Vizfizz
03-23-2008, 03:08 AM
01. All works must be created and rendered in EIAS.

02. Any modeler is permitted for use in this competition.

03. Prefab, or stock models are discouraged.

04. Use of 3rd party image editors is permitted.

05. Compositing multiple layers without additional enhancements is permitted.

06. The use of 3rd party plugins and shaders are permitted.

07. There is no fee to enter this competition. CG Talk forum membership required.

08. Non-EIAS applicants may enter the competition by obtaining a free demo from EITG. Contact Philip Martin at EITG for details. (phil@eitechnologygroup.com) Telephone: 1-830-438-4955.

09. Judges, relatives of judges and employees of judges cannot enter the competition.

10. Only a single entry per artist is permitted.

11. Any entry deemed by the judges to be the same or similar to any other entry or existing work entered on CG Talk will be disqualified for reasons of copyright liability.

12. Any entry deemed to contain content that depicts explicit acts that are overtly violent, sexual, cruel or brutal will be disqualified.

13. No new registrations permitted after April 11th 2008.

14. No late entries will be accepted.

15. Judges’ decisions are deemed to be final and no correspondence will be entered into.

16. By entering artwork and copy to the competition, the entrant warrants that they are the copyright holder, or they have obtained the rights sufficient for the purpose of the competition.

ALTHOUGH THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL CG SOCIETY CHALLENGE, RULES PROTECTING BALLISTIC MEDIA, EITG AND BRIAN POHL WILL BE LISTED BELOW. THESE ARE BASED OFF EXISTING RULES THAT HAVE BEEN UTILIZED IN PAST OFFICIAL CHALLENGES ON CG TALK.

17. The competitor grants permission to the Electric Image Technology Group or Ballistic Media to use all entered materials in sales, marketing and merchandising materials for the further advancement of EIAS in the cg community or Ballistic Media for the CG Talk Forum and Society.

18. The entrant indemnifies EITG, Ballistic Media and Brian Pohl against any claims or indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages from any party that may arise from publication of entry materials submitted as a part of the competition.

19. EITG, Ballistic Media, and Brian Pohl will not return any material submitted. At the written request of the entrant, EITG, Ballistic Media or Brian Pohl will destroy copies of submitted material and any backups or reproductions.

20. There is no agreement or contract between the artist and EITG, Ballistic Media and Brian Pohl. The artist assumes all responsibility and costs for delivering images and other required information to the Publisher for consideration in the competition.

21. EITG, Ballistic Media or Brian Pohl does not require any payment for entry of images nor does EITG, Ballistic Media or Brian Pohl offer any form of payment, actual or implied, to any entrants.

22. EITG, Ballistic Media and Brian Pohl will take reasonable measures to ensure the security of entries and information supplied to them. In no event shall EITG, Ballistic Media or Brian Pohl be liable to any party, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of the loss of images and data supplied, even if EITG, Ballistic Media and Brian Pohl has been advised of the possibility of such loss and damages.

23. This list of terms and conditions constitutes the complete and exclusive statement of the terms and conditions and supersedes any prior terms and conditions, oral or written, and any other communications relating to these terms and conditions.

If you do not agree with any of the above terms and conditions, please do not enter the Yesterday's Future Competition.

Vizfizz
03-23-2008, 03:54 AM
Great References:

http://www.plan59.com/
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/futurama/index.jhtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro-futurism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocketeer_%28film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Captain_and_the_World_of_Tomorrow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_%28film%29

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.edwilde.com/images/visionoffuture.jpg&imgrefurl=http://edwilde.com/blog/2007/12/09/vintage-visions-of-the-future/&h=744&w=490&sz=80&hl=en&start=24&um=1&tbnid=MMc6vJ1JCnicSM:&tbnh=141&tbnw=93&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dretro%2Bfuturism%26start%3D18%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN

cjberg
03-23-2008, 02:31 PM
The ultimate resource...
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/news_events/exhibits/futuristics/index.html

splitpoint
03-23-2008, 03:42 PM
Specifically what resolution are you talking about when you state: "Contest winner must provide EITG with a high resolution 300dpi image for potential marketing purposes."

Vizfizz
03-23-2008, 05:47 PM
Typically a final render that fits within the confines of an 8x10 at 300dpi should suffice. Whether its horizontal or vertical is fine. You can go larger if you wanted to, but I think that should be the minimum size.

Vizfizz
03-23-2008, 05:49 PM
The ultimate resource...
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/news_events/exhibits/futuristics/index.html


Great Resource CJ. Perfect! Lots of great ideas there.

yhloon
03-24-2008, 07:12 AM
I hope I can join, I just need to finish all the job in hand by this week...

Vizfizz
03-24-2008, 03:52 PM
I hope so too Yhloon... your last entry for Project Phoenix was great.

Vizfizz
03-24-2008, 04:54 PM
Oh Yhloon...you've basically got up to 3 weeks to enter. As long as your thread is in the WIPs area by April 11th, you're in.

Vizfizz
03-24-2008, 07:08 PM
More interesting reference:

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/01/retro-future-mind-boggling.html

halfworld
03-24-2008, 09:32 PM
And, if I may add, the best website on this subject (not at all biased to the great chap that owns it ;) http://www.paleofuture.com/

I check it every week, it's usually just a good laugh.

Of course, there is also the Modern Mechanix blog as well: http://blog.modernmechanix.com/

This competition is ace, put your names down one and all!!
I'm very excited to see what people do,
Ian

Vizfizz
03-26-2008, 06:11 AM
So talk to me folks...is there interest in this competition? Speak out. I wanna see some threads showing up in the WIPs lab soon.

mike33
03-26-2008, 01:16 PM
I have interest and have done some quick concept sketches... just chock full of self doubt about finishing... I'll decide by the end of this weekend.

I'm trying to come up with KISS Design (Keep It Simple Stupid) that I can model quickly
and then spend most of my time in EIAS.

Cheers,

Mike
...still floundering in eim/eias hobbyistville.... :sad: ... it's all about priorities and time.

splitpoint
03-26-2008, 01:22 PM
Yes, I'm interested. I'm doing some real work right now that demands my attention, once that is finished I'll be ready to participate. Should be next week sometime...

Vizfizz
03-26-2008, 04:37 PM
Thanks guys. I hope you can participate. I'm really excited about this competition and would love to see what folks can do. Its all about learning and all about good fun.

miseka
03-26-2008, 06:41 PM
Yesss, i am doing any concept, tomorrow i post it...

see you friends...

miseka
03-26-2008, 07:03 PM
Yes, i am working in design, i post in few days... see you friends...

DaftMaul
03-29-2008, 09:46 AM
I'm going to try my best to enter this. Not because I need another iPod, but just for the fun of the challenge.

I have one detail question, which refers to:

"05. Compositing multiple layers without additional enhancements is permitted."

Does that imply that if you do render out to layers, you can't actually do much with them (enhance them) once in Photoshop?

halfworld
03-29-2008, 12:36 PM
Brian will cement this, but as far as I'm aware, if you can do it in EI, then you can do it in Photoshop: Meaning no filters, but you can use layers, layer modes and masks etc.

Best,
Ian

Vizfizz
03-29-2008, 04:17 PM
I'm going to try my best to enter this. Not because I need another iPod, but just for the fun of the challenge.

I have one detail question, which refers to:

"05. Compositing multiple layers without additional enhancements is permitted."

Does that imply that if you do render out to layers, you can't actually do much with them (enhance them) once in Photoshop?


Yes.. essentially what I mean is using 3rd party plugins in After Effects to achieve visuals you should be obtaining in EIAS.

I want as much of the image to be EIAS as possible.

cjberg
03-29-2008, 11:46 PM
Ok, read the details, and I have, what I feel... is the winning entry... so far, I havent seen any reference like it, so I feel it will be unique...

anyway, some great reference here: http://conceptships.blogspot.com/

Cj

DickM
03-30-2008, 01:55 PM
uh oh, Cj just threw down the gauntlet! :surprised

Vizfizz
03-30-2008, 04:49 PM
Fight! Fight! Fight!

cjberg
03-30-2008, 05:38 PM
Well, I was concerned about the timeline, but I feel I can have a rough done in time, and a final by the deadline...

Cj

scott8933
03-30-2008, 09:30 PM
CJ, if you actually take the 6000 hours you'll need to re-make that thing just to win a contest, someone needs to come slap you upside the head.

Also, I'll be offering you a job in a few weeks when one of our designers leaves.



Ok, read the details, and I have, what I feel... is the winning entry... so far, I havent seen any reference like it, so I feel it will be unique...

anyway, some great reference here: http://conceptships.blogspot.com/

Cj

cjberg
03-30-2008, 10:25 PM
I think I needed to split my post into 2 posts...

1) I am entering...

2) Some reference (unrelated to what I am doing)

Cj

DaftMaul
03-31-2008, 05:47 PM
Thankyou for the clarification on the Photoshop Layers question folks.

So I casually walked into this thread only to be slapped around the head by a guantlet!

Alas I won't be rising to the challenge - like I alluded to earlier, I'm a novice here who just wants to see if he can actually complete the challenge of designing, building and texturing a model in the timeframe. If I actually finish and learn some stuff along the way that'll be music enough to my ears (What about that for a torturous pun re: the iPod prize! :thumbsup: )

DickM
03-31-2008, 06:57 PM
Hi David,
I was only teasing about the gauntlet mate.

You'd best enter!

Vizfizz
03-31-2008, 06:59 PM
Thankyou for the clarification on the Photoshop Layers question folks.

So I casually walked into this thread only to be slapped around the head by a guantlet!

Alas I won't be rising to the challenge - like I alluded to earlier, I'm a novice here who just wants to see if he can actually complete the challenge of designing, building and texturing a model in the timeframe. If I actually finish and learn some stuff along the way that'll be music enough to my ears (What about that for a torturous pun re: the iPod prize! :thumbsup: )

Don't sell yourself short David... and don't let these guys intimidate you. We're all full of hot air. :) Have fun and please do participate. You might surprise yourself.

yhloon
03-31-2008, 09:45 PM
David, I bet we will learn a lot in this challange! lets have fun!

and CJ is in, that's interesting! :)

Reuben5150
03-31-2008, 09:49 PM
Ok, read the details, and I have, what I feel... is the winning entry... so far, I havent seen any reference like it, so I feel it will be unique...

anyway, some great reference here: http://conceptships.blogspot.com/

Cj

Some fantastic artwork there !

yhloon
03-31-2008, 09:55 PM
Some fantastic artwork there !


Yes, I just bookmark that, amazing drawing!

mike33
04-01-2008, 04:10 PM
anyway, some great reference here: http://conceptships.blogspot.com/

Cj

Hi Cj,

Fantastic blog! Thanks for sharing the info.

~Mike

mike33
04-14-2008, 07:31 PM
http://www.mccallstudios.com/gallery_index.html

...cheers,

Mike

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