News on the Maxon website

[pit]

Hi Srek,

will do!


A little OT but still related to Maxon website: What´s up with the user gallery - it´s been the same images for ages (well....years, at least)! Don´t you get any submissions? or is the gallery not updated? I´m just curious and wondering a bit. Newtek and Softimage do regular updates on their sites and it´s sort of celebrated everytime it happens. I know.. I know.. we have to send stuff in before you can show it etc. Maybe Maxon could make it a little more attractive to do so -> pic of the month -> artist spotlight ...something like that.

Just a thought...

Cheers

[LucentDreams]

the submission section is there, people just don't submit I think.

[Srek]

Hi Pit,
sorry i can't tell you anything about the gallery, maybe Rick can chime in here.
Cheers
Srek

[dandavis]

I have one submission in the gallery and it's because they asked me to submit it. I've submitted others but they never make it in the gallery, I just figured they weren't good enough. :shrug:

[ooo]

http://www.c4ddesign.de/

La Creme is a great link for exellent C4D-design. Why not put this directly on Maxon's site?

[RickBarrett]

Like Kai said, we just don't get a whole lot of submissions that are high-quality enough to add. I'm convinced this isn't a reflection on the software because I see lots of good work here. I'm not sure why the folks that post their work here and elsewhere can't add it to the gallery.

We try to sort through all the work at least once every two weeks, and on average 2 or 3 submissions of about 100 make it into the gallery. Some of the most common reasons we throw stuff out include poor lighting, boring subject matter, and lack of photorealism for items in the photoreal category. Amazingly, lots of folks upload images and indicate in their description that it's just a WIP - it doesn't seem likely that we'd something on our gallery that even the artist doesn't consider a finished piece.

That said, we are hoping to make some changes to the gallery in the near future to make it easier to view the newest images. We're also planning to implement some email responders to let you know if your image was accepted or not and possibly some brief comments as to why.

If anyone has any suggestions on the gallery, feel free to post them or email me privately.

- Rick -

[flingster]

why not approach these forum mods for a selection of excellent work. (kinda like expose on cgtalk) also a bit of an expose on the artist say pires or campbell and plenty others.

http://www.c4d-forum.de/galerie/
http://www.c4ddesign.de/ (la creme)

H. Ikeda
The gallery of our C4Duser.com site (Japanese):
c4duser.com/myalbum/

PeXel
http://home.arcor.de/c4dtreff/c4dtreff/c4dtreff.html

there is also another really good french forum which i forget the name of.

i've also sent some spotlight suggestions to srek

[pit]

Thanks for clearing this up, Rick!
------------------------------
:surprised
Amazingly, lots of folks upload images and indicate in their description that it's just a WIP - it doesn't seem likely that we'd something on our gallery that even the artist doesn't consider a finished piece. :surprised

Now - that´s odd! Why would anyone send in a WIP?!!
-------------------------------

Good to hear that some changes are planed!

I'm not sure why the folks that post their work here and elsewhere can't add it to the gallery.


Maybe the lack of submissions boils down to something simple as: "where´s the beef?" (I don´t know if that´s true - sad if it is - so I´m just presuming...
here at CGTalk and elsewhere the beef is, most likely, the comments and (let´s face it!) the possible ego boost.)
One way to tackle that, would be a "Pic of the month" feature, where the "winner" had to make a brief "making of" (or a tutorial on one prominent aspect of the pic - you´d end up with a collection of valuable tips and tricks after a while). You´d have to throw in a prize ofcourse/unfortunately - nothing fancy - a training DVD or something in that range.

Well - still just a thought.

[squidinc]

I don't really have a problem will all the old images as they're really excellent pieces, just the gallery layout, annoying things like having to go back to the start to be able to change the category,

perhaps add a dropdown menu for categories that appears on every page of the gallery, and I think the size of the images should be at least 800 by 600,

also the thumbnails look badly compressed, its almost as though they've been resized without bicubic resampling (photoshop default). The design of the gallery looks dated as well, as far as I can tell it looks the same as it did when maxon's site was that marvellous:surprised grey colour..


hehe theres a few point to begin with :D

[AdamT]

Has Maxon ever considered a monthly (or less frequent) image contest? This can be a win-win thing--fun for the users and can generate some nice renders for Maxon. It gives the hobbyists something to direct their energies and motivation to finish images. Which is not to say that the pros wouldn't want to play too! ;)

You see some nice images in the trueSpace image of the month competition, which also serves as their gallery. And that's trueSpace! :surprised

[RickBarrett]

Originally posted by AdamT
Has Maxon ever considered a monthly (or less frequent) image contest?

Yes we have. The problem (and our fear) is that if the quality of submissions doesn't improve we'd have to post submissions even as part of a top 10 that weren't up to snuff. Then there's the question of what prize to give someone who already has all our software - is upgrade credit an attractive enough prize to encourage submissions? We also haven't had a lot of luck with contests in the past (Ultimate Plugin, Pyrocluster) - but I'm sure some of that is due to the topics involved.

I think maybe the reason the really good artists don't post is that the renderer is so fast and the workflow so effecient they don't find themselves twiddling their thumbs often ;)

- Rick -

[JIII]

I think its probibly cause alot of folks don't spend hours hanging out on maxon.nets gallery.

so they don't ever get around to sending it in.

if you see a great image can't you just email the dude who made it and ask for premission.

instead of waiting for it to be sent to you?

[AdamT]

Originally posted by RickBarrett
Yes we have. The problem (and our fear) is that if the quality of submissions doesn't improve we'd have to post submissions even as part of a top 10 that weren't up to snuff. Then there's the question of what prize to give someone who already has all our software - is upgrade credit an attractive enough prize to encourage submissions? We also haven't had a lot of luck with contests in the past (Ultimate Plugin, Pyrocluster) - but I'm sure some of that is due to the topics involved.

I think maybe the reason the really good artists don't post is that the renderer is so fast and the workflow so effecient they don't find themselves twiddling their thumbs often ;)

- Rick -

I think you'd get more submissions with a monthly contest, which seems less daunting than submitting to a contest that's going to run for 6 mos. or more. Plus there's the chance for more immediate gratification.

If you don't get 10 decent images you could always just post first place and runner up pics. Then the honorable mention category could be flexible--0-10 images--depending on what you get. I think upgrade credits would be a fine prize.

[JIII]

heck I would do it for a few simely faces.

:) :) <--- see isnt it worth 6 months of effort already?

No really I think that upgrade credits wouldbe really cool. That or the winner could get to be on the betateam for things like better boole and shave v.2

of course the winners would probibly be already on the beta team thingy. So that would probibly defreat the point but its an idea.

[Per-Anders]

newtek tends to do competitions to win things other than the main app, for instance maxon could let someone win bodypaint, or shave, or one of the other modules. they could also team up with third party people and maybe could have things like, win a new dvd-rw, or evne such simple things as win the special edition box set of some new film that's come out on dvd (could even give the contests a nice theme that one as they would have be based around the film).

the quality issue is something different, that's down to the artists so it's hard to say what you can do about it unless maxon feel like having an aggressive training innitiative or something. maybe try and get some workshops going out there. also you could try for some more guided contests like newtek has (i.e. texture this pre-made object, or a lighting contest with a ready made scene) that kind of thing leaves little leaway for things going too badly wrong, and it's a great way for people to learn stuff too.

[chi]

or mabey mdme_sadie's ati X1 ;)

[handige_harrie]

if you see a great image can't you just email the dude who made it and ask for premission.

instead of waiting for it to be sent to you?

Why email for permission, if someone posts his/her image in a public gallery why would it be a problem to have the same image in the maxon gallery too?

Heck, I´d be honored to see one of my images in the maxon gallery some day :p.

As far as I´m concerned: maxon rip all good images you can find made with C4D an put them in your own gallery. It would surely take a lot less time then going through a hundred submissions and end up with only 2 or 3 images good enough :hmm:.

And ofcourse contests would be a good thing. Check out the results of the renderosity contests, some really rock :airguitar.
As for prizes, a maxon voucher for a certain amount of $$$ would be the best solution I think. The best reward you will be getting from winning (or just competing in) a contest is the attention you get that might even lead to job offers.
And ofcourse the ->> :) :)

[Srek]

Hi Harrie,
it is not possible for Maxon to simply post images they find somewhere in the web in the gallery.
After all this is a commercial usage and wouls be a copyright enfringement. Without written express of the artist or holder of rights it is not possible to use any image.

Cheers
Srek

[handige_harrie]

Originally posted by Srek
Hi Harrie,
it is not possible for Maxon to simply post images they find somewhere in the web in the gallery.
After all this is a commercial usage and wouls be a copyright enfringement. Without written express of the artist or holder of rights it is not possible to use any image.

Cheers
Srek

You say it's commercial usage, true, but the same image posted here in the cg talk gallery has the same 'advertising' effect. So that's a bit odd I think. Although I understand what you are saying and I don't doubt that you are right :).

[flingster]

alternatively maxon could see an excellent image created over the month and could award a prize to this months best image...
much kudos to an artist...and maxon get an excellent image for display in there gallery...no submission process...more a selection/shortlist process.

you could also extend this concept...maxon select 5 images over the period of one month...they award then shortlist criteria...then web users...vote for there favourite...:shrug:

this means...artist gets kudos award....users come and use the gallery...maxon get quality work.

[LucentDreams]

being someone thats had an image stolen before I can definitely say that if maxon whom I have a good relationship with, wants to post an image of mine, they had better ask me, which they have. Thing is you put yourself at risk when you post image, as soon as you post an image it is your property, you don't need that little warning saying any redistribution is illegal, its a simple fact, so if anyone posts that image elswhere they are stealing the image, now usually people will let it go especially if credit is given, but here on cgtalk alone we've seen enough issues of peple trying to post works saying they did it when everyone knows someone else has done it. 50 years after I'm dead if maxon wants to use my images without permission, then they can.

[ThirdEye]

Originally posted by Srek
Hi Harrie,
it is not possible for Maxon to simply post images they find somewhere in the web in the gallery.
After all this is a commercial usage and wouls be a copyright enfringement. Without written express of the artist or holder of rights it is not possible to use any image.

Cheers
Srek


Follow Proton's example, everytime you or Rick see here at cgtalk.com a good pic that would deserve the Maxon gallery add a msg in the thread telling the author to feel free to submit it.

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