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General => Contests => NWDA 2018 Theme Challenge - Cliffs => Topic started by: DannyG on April 23, 2018, 05:35:53 PM

Title: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: DannyG on April 23, 2018, 05:35:53 PM
Congratulations to the following:

1st Place - Mick Hazelgrove (mhaze)

2nd Place - Hannes Janetzko (Hannes)

3rd Place - Jeff Boser (Gannaingh)

Honorable Mention - Ulco Glimmerveen (Dune)

View entries at NWDA:
http://www.NWDAstore.com/theme-challenge/ (http://www.nwdastore.com/theme-challenge/)

Many thanks to our Sponsors:
Planetside Software, XFrog, 3DCoat, Quixel (Megascans), PixelPlow, World Creator, Plugs'NPixels & NWDA

Special Thanks to Our Panel of Judges:
Matt Fairclough
Greg Teegarden
Alec Jevon

Winners: Our sponsors will be in contact with you shortly using the emails you submitted your entries with.
*If you require a different email please contact me directly danny@NWDAstore.com
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Oshyan on April 23, 2018, 05:52:38 PM
Congrats everyone! Fantastic work by all, and a great winning group of course. Did the judges have any comments on the winning entries that could be shared? I always love hearing that stuff. :)

- Oshyan
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Kadri on April 23, 2018, 05:53:36 PM
Congratulations to all.
It was nice to participate.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Seth on April 23, 2018, 05:57:35 PM
Congrats to the winners !
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Matt on April 23, 2018, 06:21:32 PM
Congratulations to the winners! It was extremely difficult to decide how to order the top 3 when I cast my vote. Any of these three could have been first place and I would be happy with the result.

While reviewing the entries I made some notes on each of them. Here's what I wrote for the images that ended up being the winners:

Entry 26 (mhaze): No doubt that this is a cliff, and a fascinating one. Great attention to detail. The waterline and base of the cliff are exquisite. The soft lighting works well to evoke the sense of a painting. The icicles - if that's what they are - are the weakest part of the scene in my opinion (perhaps just need to be less green).

Entry 15 (Hannes): Least not to like. Cliffs are top notch for this kind of scene. Love the waterfalls, rich vegetation and wildlife details. Every part of the image has something interesting to look at. I'd prefer to see more light in the scene - most of the image looks a little dark to me. Maybe go a bit easier on the chromatic aberration.

Entry 12 (Gannaingh): Great image overall. Nice bright colours, great looking beach, and I like that the composition makes for great thumbnails as well as fully zoomed in views. Not much to criticise, but the cliff face not as realistic as some others, in my opinion, and the trees on the left appear to be lit unrealistically (maybe a displacement issue?). Appears to lean on AO unrealistically to achieve contrast, which is a slight negative mark even though the image benefits from having that contrast, which pulls me in, so maybe this isn't a negative after all.

The competition had a great turnout, and so many of the other entries could have been in the top three and not seemed out of place.

Well done everybody :)

Matt
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Jo Kariboo on April 23, 2018, 10:06:57 PM
Congratulations to all winners and participants. Another interesting competition again.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Ariel DK on April 23, 2018, 10:50:49 PM
Congratulations to the winners! really greats entries from all the participants
Honestly, hope I can participate next time. this kind of competitions keeps this community alive, making some fantastic stuff
:)
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: cyphyr on April 23, 2018, 11:04:04 PM
Congratz to all the winners. And well done to everyone who took part, it was certainly a hard challenge and much learning was had :)
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Dune on April 24, 2018, 01:29:17 AM
Congratulations, Mick, Hannes and Jeff! This was indeed something that helped to keep this forum alive, and I enjoyed watching the progress in some of the entries. I hope next time, WIP's will be mandatory! That's what all the fun is about.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: archonforest on April 24, 2018, 02:49:36 AM
Congrat Mick! and for the rest. Awesome renders.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Hannes on April 24, 2018, 08:06:23 AM
Holy cow, just saw the results. Thanks a lot to the jury!!!!!!!
Must have been incredibly tough to choose only a few out of these fantastic images.
And congratulations to Mick and Jeff. What a challenge! :) :) :)
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: DannyG on April 24, 2018, 08:19:13 AM
Quote from: Dune on April 24, 2018, 01:29:17 AM
Congratulations, Mick, Hannes and Jeff! This was indeed something that helped to keep this forum alive, and I enjoyed watching the progress in some of the entries. I hope next time, WIP's will be mandatory! That's what all the fun is about.

Good point, All winners did have a WIP threads. Something for contestants to think about for future challenges. The quality of the entries certainly raised the bar for the future. All judges expressed what a difficult decision they had deciding. The fact that it was a Pure Terragen Challenge really highlights to others what this program is capable of. I am very pleased with the boost to our community and forum interaction. Let's keep it going
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Hannes on April 24, 2018, 08:34:24 AM
...and of course congrats to Ulco for the honourable mention!!! Beautiful work!!!
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Dune on April 24, 2018, 08:38:59 AM
Thanks, Hannes. Have fun with your new toys when they come in!
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: mhaze on April 24, 2018, 10:58:55 AM
I am suprised and delighted to have won with so many creative and skillful entries.  Well done to the other winners and to all the contestants. Just glad I wasn't a judge!
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: j meyer on April 24, 2018, 12:42:30 PM
Congrats and well done everyone.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Hetzen on April 24, 2018, 02:17:13 PM
Well done everyone involved and worthy winners.

Looking forward to the next one.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: luvsmuzik on April 25, 2018, 09:04:01 PM
Congratulations to the winners! A huge thanks to all participants. Very inspirational renders and definitely unique compositions.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: DocCharly65 on April 26, 2018, 01:31:50 AM
Congratulations to all the winners! And respect to all participants for all the great ideas!
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: otakar on April 27, 2018, 06:28:06 PM
Congrats to the winners and all participants, and of course NWDA and everyone that made it possible. I hope that participation was above expectations and will make it worthwhile to launch another contest before too long to keep everyone engaged.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Seth on April 28, 2018, 04:44:57 PM
Quote from: otakar on April 27, 2018, 06:28:06 PM
I hope that participation was above expectations

To be honest, no it was not. We had 27 entries for the Iceland contest, 3 years ago.
And 27 for that one.
So, considering there was a new version of Terragen and that the community should be bigger and bigger every year, we can't say that the participation was above expectations at all :/

I am talking about my expectations, and not officially for NWDA here.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: Dune on April 29, 2018, 01:23:57 AM
I agree, outcome was pretty meagre regarding the fine tool TG is, the way Matt (et al) has developed it, and the prizes involved.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: archonforest on April 29, 2018, 03:31:02 AM
Quote from: Seth on April 28, 2018, 04:44:57 PM
Quote from: otakar on April 27, 2018, 06:28:06 PM
I hope that participation was above expectations

To be honest, no it was not. We had 27 entries for the Iceland contest, 3 years ago.
And 27 for that one.
So, considering there was a new version of Terragen and that the community should be bigger and bigger every year, we can't say that the participation was above expectations at all :/

I am talking about my expectations, and not officially for NWDA here.

I think it boils down again to the lack of Documentation. This situation definitely discourage a big percentage of new users. I remember when I started. I was very close to go with vue just because they have docs and I am not willing to spend weeks and weeks of my life to do trial and error. The lack of docs is an open wound that bleeds TG but since years PS is just not putting any bandage over it. If you want to sell for pro studios because they already know how to use it...well that is okay but very soon you will run out of studios and then you have to sell to the masses. Otherwise no income and the company stays a 2 man show forever and of course 2 man can do many things but not everything. To keep up with the rest and actually make it better than the rest of the softwares out there takes a full time job. So without a proper documentation nobody can sell to the masses unless the product is super simple and TG isn't falling into this category. So when the stats are showing that the user base is going down something needs to be done. A proper analysis to locate the correct why/reason and a good plan to handle it. Fast.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: DannyG on April 29, 2018, 02:42:36 PM
My opinion is yes of course we want to see more actively both in the Forums as well as at NWDA & in the challenges. I am not going to get into what the reason could be or may be for the number of entries. I will say the amount of promotion/advertisement by NWDA before, during and after this contest far exceeded what was done previously and Iceland had a lot. That said I do think the overall quality, artistic & technical skills of this challenge far exceeded Roadside and Iceland. And this is not because of NWDA member involvement... I am referring to the contest as a whole .. the community. We had a lot of quality entries. Not one of us could have looked at the entries and picked the same top 3. The judges .. all Professional Terragen users had a very tough time with this for that very reason. My advice to anyone who wasn't happy with the turnout that didn't enter is .. Enter next time, for those who did enter thank you. I understand everyone is busy with "their lives" and of course things come up, the contest had a 3 month duration... in most cases that's plenty of time. That's my 2 cents and yes of course there will be another Terragen Challenge. 
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: KlausK on May 05, 2018, 05:24:54 PM
A big THUMBS UP! to all the participants and to the winners especially! I really enjoyed watching the scenes evolve.
CHeers, Klaus.
Title: Re: NWDA's CLIFF Theme Challenge WINNERS
Post by: J_Con on May 14, 2018, 04:43:49 PM
Congratulations to the winners, and well done to all involved.