Lets talk the next mini challenge

#21

I have to agree with Mr. James… there is just more appeal to the animals in motion concept. Overall though, I can always sit this one out and just admore other people’s work.

#22

I think the most popular topic that could bring a LOT of participants would be:

[ul]
[li]Do whatever you want.[/li][/ul]
But, seriously i think you should do what ever you want :slight_smile:

#23

Awwwww snap!

#24

Oh wait…what do ya think of this…

PIRATES VRS NINJAS!:twisted:

#25

Now your talking… “We will shuriken them at starboard, We will shuriken them from port, We will shuriken them from the crows nest and wakzashi them fromthe Locker of Davey Jones!”

No seriously, I think an animal in motion is intersting, but more interesting is the chance to colaborate with the fx teams,
Somthing I have thought about but never actually began, is a photoreal robotic head, sitting on a bench in a lab, we model the head, they rig and animate it, and intergrate it into the footage provided for them…

#26

Airflow, sounds like a cool idea, personally I reckon it would be cool to team up with the VFX guys. Between our modelling skills and their rigging and animation I reckon we’d get some truly kick arse stuff happening.
The atlantis stuff sounds interesting and it’d give me an excuse to build some naval vessels.

#27

Just another thought - how about a contest where the modeller has to model themself? But put a twist on it like they might be trapped in one of their own nightmares - having to run away in terror or something similar? Something to do with horror…:twisted:

#28

I would suggest to try stay away from concepts that are too open, i mean it would be a nightmare to judge something that is totally made up by the artist criativity. What i like in the Hardcore Modelling challenge is the restrictions, being it in the deadline and the subject, and i think that to have a real subject to compare with the 3d models is what makes this contests hardcore, being it a model from the star wars universe, or a replica of david sculptute… but honestly i dont see how Atlantis can be used as reference ( unless in the rules depicts in details how atlantis should look like ), another problem with teaming up with the sfx ppl would be the time restriction, i think it would be much easier to team up with them or any other cgtalk forum ( the animation, lighting…) after the hardcore modelling hv finished, for example maybe the SFX ppl can start a contest with the star wars models that was created for this contest, or the animation ppl could animate the Rays models.
I think we should stick with the animal in motion for next comp.

#29

Ok animals in motion it is.

Ok I need suggestions for the types of entries.

-R

#30

You could have a couple of different topics for the animals in motion challenge, here’s a few suggestions.

1 - best mammal model - ie lions, tigers, elephants, dogs, cats etc.

2 - best aquatic animal - ie, whales, sharks, marlins, dolphins and other types of fish.

3 - Best bird in flight model - ie, eagles, crows, falcons etc.

And a sub category if possible.

4 - Best non-organic animal model - ie, cybernetic constructs, robotic versions of animals, etc.

Well there’s my suggestions.

#31

I’d definitely say to stay clear of anything like made up/mutated/evolved creatures if the intent of the challenge is to go for extreme realism as opposed to creativity (not that it was being considered. Just thought some people might want to venture that way). Though one potential idea if you didn’t want to just do current animals would be modeling prehistoric animals (dinosaurs, mammoths, saber tooths, etc.) since all of those have a vast selection of anatomy references.

I’d also say amphibians and insects could be eligible. Would make for some very interesting models. Definitely looking forward to this challenge :slight_smile: Any idea on specific dates?

#32

It will be up in very soon. Give it about 3 weeks.

-R

#33

Animals in Motion category ideas.

[ul]
[li]Best Mechanical [color=Red]Animal in Motion.[/color][/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]Most detailed/accurate [color=Red]Animal in Motion[/color][/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]Most exaggerated/cartoony [color=Red]Animal in Motion[/color][/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]Best overall [color=Red]Animal in Motion[/color][/li][/ul] I hope these are some good ideas for the contest.

-Robert

#34

I had mentioned earlier a desire to do a prey v. predator scene… so I think one type of submission could be one of conflict or interaction, such as:
[ul]
[li]A predator chasing its prey,[/li][li]Rams head-butting for dominance,[/li][li]Smaller birds fighting off an eagle from their nest,[/li][li]An elephant charging a lion, etc…[/li][/ul]

#35

On that note,

“Best captured motion” would cover that I think or
“Best interaction between animals”
Most accurate/realistic… the usual suspects.

For inspiration if you haven’t seen it yet Battle at Krugar.

#36

I think the voting for the challenges should be a little more focased on the “hardcore modeling” personally.

IMO there is 2 total different skills involved in sculpting packages from per-poly (name made up…lol) packages. While both can show extreeme talent and be difficult I think they should be judged separately (or separately by categories). Part where this gets difficult is there are alot of mixed feelings on proper topology (tris, quads, ngons etc) and how it will hold up in animation. However, I don’t really think this is going to cause a problem when voting. For instance…

Take neversong for example:
http://www.damascus.com.ne.kr/temp/hulk_WIP.htm
http://www.damascus.com.ne.kr/temp/hellboy.htm
(mainly looking at the wires…)

There is no doubt of some solid modeling skills here. Or even looking at mannymation’s model. These models stand out as 5 star modeling skills (tris, quads or not) and it would be easy to rate them vs models that aren’t of the same caliber.

Puting these models against base mesh>ZBrush or mudbox models though is where things get lame IMO. I’m sure both of these people will use ZBrush at some point on their models to add all the fine details but it shows an extreeme modeling talent to get the most details out of cutting into the mesh per-poly and keeping it clean at the same time. Plus its good for people to learn from.

Making base meshes for ZBrush is a piece of cake. Sculpting is another story that also shows alot of talent, but its a different kind of talent just like Hard Surface modeling is vs organics.

I’m sure it wouldn’t be no where near as hard and long of process for song and manny to zbrush these models in the first place but is that showing off your actual modeling skills vs sculpting? The normal modeling skills are surely important to places like ILM hiring etc aren’t they? Or is it just good sculpts that they are looking for?

Anyways, my idea of catigories would be to ditch things like “epic” and things like that and focus more strictly on the modeling. I like the scenes that go along with the models and thats good for “overall” entrees but the rest should be based on the modeling or sculpting in seperate catigories IMO. So things like:

Best Sculpting
Best Poly Modeling
Best Hard Surface Modeling (if applicable with the challenge)
Most Accurate Likeness
Most Creative
Best Overall (including textures, compositing etc)

This may also help to keep the focus on the modeling skills involved in the image instead of final poses etc. Especially since this challenge is about “modeling”.

Also, I wish you would correct the current voting thread by giving a definition of “in-organic” its screwing some of the runner up entrees when people vote for “organic” instead of “in-organic” because they don’t seem to realize that “in-organic” is hard surfaces.

Keep up the good work Roberto :cool:

Either way you do it this is the only challenge in a CG Forum that seems to actually work and get awesome entrees.

Ps. Is there a reason why you don’t have private voting setup for those that may want to vote that way?

#37

some good suggestions, but from what i have experienced is that the word “hardcore” is not used literally here. the word attracts people to participate more.
Roberto just likes the word “hardcore” :). it may not literally mean that the challenges are serious or something like that. the point here is to have as many participants as possible i think and so that people can have fun. there is a good side to this also, people can be very relaxed and do what ever they want.

btw, about pure poly modeling; to this day i have not seen one artist who is really good in sculpting whithout any good knowledge of poly modeling. i might be wrong but i havent seen any yet.

#38

Wow, I really like your portfolio fx81 thats awesome stuff :cool:

The challenges would still be fun and have just as many participants because they are just categories.

If someone is great at sculpting but doesn’t make a very complex base mesh they will get rated great for sculpting only.

If somebody does a great complex poly mesh but doesn’t sculpt then it will only get rated great for poly.

If somebody does a complex polygon model and then sculpts it beyond that for finer details then they could win in both categories.

It all evens out and doesn’t take away from the fun of things anymore then the “in-organic” category did to this challenge. Just made it so people would have to try harder in more categories if they want to win more categories.

#39

Food for thought, eh Roberto.
I mean someone like Jedi Juice puts in 3-4 weeks of hard graft modeling the difficult way, and the people show up, post one basemesh image and sculpt away and are still way ahead of him, though they may have spent 2 days, 1 to set up the base mesh and the other to sculpt their model.

To test how quickly you can do this sort of thing, I got hold of a base mesh, that would have taken me about half a day to build, and spent 2 hours sculpting it, now this is not an amazing mesh but it goes to show the unlevel playing feild. Imagine If I spent 3 days sculpting and enter on the same level as someone who has to build a city in ploys, who is the better artist, who should win?
Im not trying to go down a serious road, but guidlenes were explained at the begging of the challenge, whether they were met is questionable. I had at last count 140 save files for that one project and maybey 80 images showing its progress.

I know this is supposed to be fun but an important issue is being missed, the importance of knowing how to model.
I know a cgsociety member who recently got a creature modeling job in soho, and although alot of soho company’s use mud/zbrush they want their artists to be able to model as quicks and as eficiently as they can in quads, because its a pain to animate displacment maps, and is quite memory intensive…

anyway here is the sculpt.

#40

I think what came into question on this challenge was that some entries didnt really “show their working out” as much as they could have.

It doesnt really matter what tool they use so long as they show genuine progression of their model. Just do a screengrab often and post it up. I mean, that is half the fun of the contest, no?

So I say use ZBrush, 3DS MAX, Blender, 3D Construction Kit, VU 3D, whatever - but please show more updates.