Hi everyone,
We would like to invite everyone to our 2010 NWDA Contest. There are some great prizes to win, so read on! :)
This years' contest title will be "NWDA & Planetside Animation Contest".
Important is that this contest is open to everyone who's interested, regardless whether you are a registred "Deep" or "Deep + Animation" Terragen user, or a user of the Terragen 2 Free Edition.
Contest Theme/Goal:
The goal of this contest is that each contestant creates a scene of choice, with a strong focus on realism.
However, other than the usual still, your scene needs to hold up from different camera positions and angles.
Every contestant creates 6 shot each with a different camera position and perspective, with these 6 shots mimicking stations of a camera animation path.
You will put these 6 shot together into one image that you submit. This image will serve like a little animation story board.
These are the contest rules:
- Theme: True 3D and Animation. By True 3D we mean that your scene must "hold" at different camera positions and angles, in order to be animateable.
- Submissions: one submission per person.
- Submissions must be natively rendered within TG2.
- Image format and size: 6 still images, 640x360 each, combined to a 1920x720 image (3 columns, 2 rows). Maximum filesize is 1 MB.
- Images below a certain minimum quality threshold will be rejected. We only accept submissions of finished work.
- Postwork: allowed, but as minimal as possible; levels, color-corrections and the like are all allowed, except for adding elements to the image.
Please keep in mind that the more postwork your image needs, the less suitable it is for animating.
- Contest Start: today !!!
- Deadline for submission: August 14th, end of day CET, but you can submit whenever your work is finished.
NB. Contest-rules may be subject of modification
How to submit and submission conditions:
Please send your finished work through email to: nwdacontest at hotmail.com
Information needed with submission:
- Storyboard title
- Your name
Please be aware that by submitting an image to this email address, you agree that the image can be posted in the contest gallery on NWDA along with your name and that Planetside will gain non-exclusive rights to use your submission for promotional activities, which includes the storyboard and/or animated-storyboard.
You can find the contest gallery here (http://www.nwdanet.com/galleries/category/49-animation-contest-2010.html).
Contest Jury:
- All NWDA members, Oshyan Greene (Planetside), Stewart McSherry (Xfrog Inc.) and Stephen Schmitt (World-Machine).
The contest prizes:
1st prizes:
Terragen 2 Deep + Animation License
XfrogPlants Bundle, all 1,300 plants in .TGO-format
Fully animated storyboard
6 NWDA products of choice
PlugNPixels magazine, "making of" coverage
2nd prizes:
4 NWDA products of choice
World-Machine v2.2 Pro license
3rd prize:
2 NWDA products of choice
We heavily recommend to create a Work In Progress (WIP) of your project in the following board:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=21.0 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=21.0)
This way everybody can keep track of each others progress and also exchange ideas/tips/tricks and other useful discussion.
We are looking forward to seeing your submissions. Game on!
Best regards,
The NWDA and Planetside team
reserved this spot :)
Best contest and prizes ever :D
Quote from: Seth on May 02, 2010, 02:18:50 PM
Best contest and prizes ever :D
agreed... id love to have those xfrog plants ;)
Those prices are really insane :o
Should be motivating enough ;)
- Terje
those prizes sound good, :)
time to get to rendering!
brainstorming!
(scratches head until something happens) :D
So basically you want a potential animation with only every 1500th frame displayed in a storyboard layout? This may be a contest I can actually enter.
What if I want to use a terrain (I have a large one in the Pyrénées mountains...70MB!) or free objects, like the 15 free plant objects from Xfrog?
Erwan
Wow!!! No there is some motivation for us! Good luck to all participants and thank you to NWDA and Planetside for putting on such an awesome contest!
Nice contest, and nice prize pool :).
PS. What would you say is the approximate cash value of First Prize, if one were to buy all those things?
You can use objects, terrains, and other resources, as long as you have rights to use them and to allow others to use them. Planetside will be animating and/or rendering the scene, so we will need to have access to all resources.
To clarify: if you have Deep + Animation already and you decide to animate your scene yourself, you are free to do so. We will then simply render what you have animated, although we may choose to adjust your animation parameters if we feel it's necessary. Your scene itself will remain untouched unless we feel it necessary to request modification from you. If however you are not able to animate the scene yourself, your entry will describe 6 potential camera positions along an animated path and Planetside will then create an animation of your scene, potentially including those camera points.
You are free to animate additional parameters like cloud movement, water, etc. if you have Deep + Animation, or to include suggestions for animating additional parameters if you are using Deep or the Free version.
Also note that the length of a suggested animation should not be too extreme. 1 minute or less is a good target. We won't be able to spend forever rendering it. ;)
As for the total prize value, it is in fact quite impressive if you ask me. The TG2 Deep + Animation + Xfrog bundle is $700. The 6 NWDA products could have a fairly significant value as well. WorldMachine 2.2 Pro is a $189 value. So there are some significant prizes here to be sure!
- Oshyan
This is really incredible... Now all I have to do is find the time... where is it? Good luck, you all, I'll be looking forward to all entries!
wow what an amazing prize fund, this is fantastic.
Glad to read that everybody is looking forward participating this contest :)
I stronly recommend/encourage contestants to make a WIP-thread for their entry.
This proved to be working very well in the last contest and resulted in very high quality submissions!
Cheers,
Martin
Now that's timing. I ordered my new rendering hardware the day after this contest started. ;D
Looking forward to participate. And the prizes are indeed awesome.
An intriguing contest with fantastic prizes!
Q about rendering - since the individual stills are quite small, and the final animation will in any case be rendered out by Planetside, is there any guidance on the quality settings for each individual still?
Quote from: domdib on May 03, 2010, 08:36:37 AM
An intriguing contest with fantastic prizes!
Q about rendering - since the individual stills are quite small, and the final animation will in any case be rendered out by Planetside, is there any guidance on the quality settings for each individual still?
In TG2 animations often the required render detail is less to get a good looking image, because the camera is moving and thus eliminates small scale detail.
However, to get a good idea about the potentials of a scene it is better to render at higher settings than the settings would be for animation.
Ultimately we will have to adjust the render-settings anyway to get the submission properly/reasonably animated and optimized for the render-pc's.
So you will not have to worry about it too much, but of course we encourage contestants to use sane settings. No TG'er likes unnecessary long rendertimes :)
For a good guide on rendersettings look here: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=6442.0 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=6442.0)
Martin
Wow, what a contest. Guess I'll need to push my descent 2 level editing off for a bit.
For those who aren't familiar with it, the free Plugs 'N Pixels ezine (a long-time supporter of Terragen) is found here (http://www.plugsandpixels.com/ezine.html).
The contest winner will have examples of their renders displayed in a feature article describing their relevant TG2 workflow in issue #19. Promotion of any commercial business related to the winner's use of TG2 (as a TG2 illustrator/animator, developer of TG2 add-ons, etc.) can also be included in the article as part of the prize. An example of the winning artwork will also be featured on the cover as a promo for the article.
Looking forward to have a crack at this, and I see people have already started. Would it be possible to set up a sub forum in the gallery for this competition?
Quote from: Hetzen on May 04, 2010, 08:47:15 AM
Looking forward to have a crack at this, and I see people have already started. Would it be possible to set up a sub forum in the gallery for this competition?
That's something for Oshyan to decide I'd say. It would be easy to track submissions this way of course, but perhaps too much stratification could be an argument against it.
Looking forward to see your submission WIP Jon ;D
Cheers,
Martin
As some of you may have noticed, the forums have a new board dedicated to Work In Progress (WIP) posts for the contest.
You can find the board here:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=21.0 (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=21.0)
Hope to see the number of entries growing :)
Martin
That's great. Easy to keep track on what and who's in ;)
Regards,
Terje
excellent comp idea...sweet prizes too, though does World Machine run on a mac?
Quote from: inkydigit on May 05, 2010, 05:32:24 AM
excellent comp idea...sweet prizes too, though does World Machine run on a mac?
http://www.world-machine.com/download3.html (http://www.world-machine.com/download3.html)
Quick question on this, I may enter, depending on available time and inspiration.
Must the animation be camera movement? Is it possible to keep a static camera and animate the containing world/scene?
I think this might be a silly question since the rules state the scene should hold up under different camera angles but, if the scene were to move/change around the camera then, surely, these would be classed as different FOV's per frame. ???
Cheers! ;)
that's a great question. I think the original "spirit" of the contest idea was to animate the camera. But you're free to *also* animate anything else.
Regards,
Frank
Thanks, Frank. So, just to be clear, the camera *must* move?
Martin.
I can't speak for the NWDA crew on this, but as a sponsor and judge (and renderer), I think if you can create a compelling animation without camera movement *and* display it compellingly in the thumbnail format, then it's a legitimate entry. That being said it's much more critical to actually animate non-camera stuff for your entry (rather than just manually changing settings and rendering separate images) as it will be harder for me to animate it for you just from some thumbnails. So hopefully you already have Deep + Animation. ;)
- Oshyan
I think the hardest thing here may be the requirement that the scene is supposed to hold up under various camera settings. That pretty much requires you to do 360 degree renders all along your camera path and calls for the use of static masks rather than dynamic and very carefully placed population boundaries. Very different from what I am used to (for image renders). In that regard, the painted shader will come very handy :)
I agree with you otakar. Populations will be a lot more challenging and will have to be placed very thoughtful.
- Terje
Indeed Otakar, this is probably the most challenging aspect of the contest :)
I'd suggest just to get started, lay out an idea you like in your head and start with the rough terrain. Choose 6 positions along a potential anim path and try to get some nice POV's.
The start detailing the terrain, checking it on all 6 POV's. After that do the same with the objects.
At least, that's how I'd approach this challenge.
Good luck and hope to see your WIP soon :)
Martin
Few just general questions:
July 15th -- Time/Timezone? Prob good for clarity ;) We do have a worldwide community such that July 15th can be July 16th for others etc.
Also what if they already own tg2/animation/etcs?
End of day 15th, CET.
That's 23:00 GMT, 18:00 EST, ....
If you already have any of the prizes, then you own a second copy which you're free to do with whatever you want.... well, keep it or give it to someone else.
Cheers,
Frank
Ha, you were just one step ahead of me Frank :)
The prize-packages are the prize-packages. Like in other contests like on CGSociety there's a possibility you already own some of the prizes.
See it as the lottery: you already have money, if you win you've got a bit more :)
Cheers,
Martin
Just in case i want to contribute....
How about a changing terrain if its a heightmap? Like a time lapse that shows geological time scales.
If i use world-machine to create terrains that are eroded more and more, would it still be possible to animate it?
Or, the better question as it is somehow possible with a huge amount of terrains, is there a possibility to win if the animation would mean this huge amount of terrain-calculation in world-machine (or even in tg2 internal)? :D
I'm thinking about something like attached, w/o the edges of the terrain.
amazing contest btw ;)
this looks super cool, but to keep things fair, you can only animate what is animateable in TG2. So if you want to erode something more and more, you can only use the built in heightfield erode. However, this animation would probably take a looong time to complete. So it's probably sensible to refrain from animating erosion.
However, as Osyhan is proving the animation prize, I'll let him speak to that.
Personally, I would really look forward to seeing you submit an entry, Goms!
Cheers,
Frank
I think you may be able to animate something similar to what you want to do with terrains by blending multiple heightfields together over time. You ought to be able to keyframe this in one or more different ways...
Bottom line as long as you provide all the assets (terrains, objects, etc.) and the animation itself actually happens in TG2, I can render it. I won't necessarily have access to any given 3rd party program though.
- Oshyan
Hi Oshyan. I thought about this too. I will see what i can get with the internal erosion tg2 offers and how it looks with blended terrains.
Thx for your answer, i will see what i can do :)
edit: looks quite good. This is a test with two height-fields blended from 0 to 1 in 10 steps. It will take a while to load ;)
(http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/638/90209135.gif)
Intriguing idea!
Another quick ?uestion...
For a minute's worth of animation, is 1500(25fps) frames acceptable for a smooth looking output? I have dabbled with animations before(4 or 5 seconds max') but never actually set out a full length project like this. I could certainly set up the anim' but the rendering could become a real stopper for me on my dual core. I don't want to create more rendering than need be done(because I know I'll need to resort to rendering it myself! :D) but I'd like it to appear nice and smooth. Is this a reasonable frame rate?
Hee hee! I feel like a TG noob again!
Cheers!
You won't have to animate the project and you definitely won't need to render it, hence the prize ;)
We're absolutely o.k. with animating it yourself, if you find time, but it is not in the scope of the contest and submission rules.
Aye, I know that, Martin.
It's a great project challenge that has motivated me to take advantage of the animation side of TG that I've really never played with in depth. But, I don't expect to win so, if I see this project through, I'll ultimately want to animate it myself, seems a wasted effort not to. Know?
I just meant is 25fps a good number to use for smooth results? Do I need to use 30fps, could I get away with 20fps for animations, in general? Just a general inquiry, really.
I'm unsure about my final camera movements, I have a few potentials but nothing solid, as yet. I am, however, animating other scene parameters, regardless.
Even if I don't enter after all(which I really hope won't be the case), I've started on a couple of projects that I'd like to see through to completion. I was going on Oshyan's post saying we are free to animate other scene parameters, not just camera, but we'd be best doing the animation for those parameters ourselves.
Cheers, man. :)
I think this is a good point. I can imagine many people never have tried to animate something in tg2.
I don't even have the animation version. ;)
It would be great to have some details on how far we need to go in the animation part.
It's "easy" to make 6 images that would look cool as an animation, but maybe its very hard to animate them.
Is this our challenge, to find ways to animate is or is this something that will be worked out later?
For example, MGebhart's first impressions show some birds flying. And the only way i see this done as animation is with like 30 models of birds for different movements during flying.
Also the water I've seen in some images could make trouble...
And I for example don't even really know how to change the parameters during time, exept that i need some txt file...
One question:
I started working on Epic Planet (search it) after I heard of this contest (when it was still in "If this contest works, blah blah blah..." stage ;D). Then I posted a few (early) renders of it in Image Sharing. Is it still OK to submit it?
Quote from: dandelO on May 09, 2010, 04:07:27 PM
...I just meant is 25fps a good number to use for smooth results? Do I need to use 30fps, could I get away with 20fps for animations, in general?
I don't know if the same rules apply for renderings since it (for some unintelligible reasons) don't for games, but for movies, one thing is for sure.... 25fps is way to few. Movies are unpleasant to watch unless you have a SONY with it's brilliant "MotionFlow". It's not perfect even then, but it is at least smooth and comfortable enough for me to relax. I guess that with "MotionFlow" you have, in a way, 48fps and this is what I would consider enough.
But I also said that I don't know if these same rules apply for renderings.
PS: I know there are more televisions out there that has the same as SONY's MotionFlow only they are named differently, but I have seen most of them in action and nothing can touch SONY and their technology.
Regards,
Terje
Generally I think 25-30 fps is acceptable. Almost every video you see will prob be running at 24-25fps. So 25 is probably good to use, 30 if you really wanted.
Gaming generally requires a faster rate (30-60 or so being a usual rate preferred) due to how most computer graphics happen while rendering what is going on in a game and make it look more fluid as often their isn't a motion blur so to create the more fluid "move" it needs a faster rate to give the illusion without being choppy. Though now some game engines are even adding blurs in etc as it gets more advanced. (At least I'm pretty sure this is along the reasons why fps for games generally needs to run faster. There is also the fact you want to see the latest network and/or ai changes as soon as they happen)
Terragen can account for motion blur though, which helps blend and make motions look fluid and that you are actually moving.
Cheers for the tips, guys. :)
Like I said, I've only done smaller animations so far so haven't really delved into the depths yet. I just wanted a rough guide of how much I could get away with while still keeping it fluid enough. I'm doing small res' tests at the moment, I might post to the WIP thread at some point...
http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_can_humans_see.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/TempRate.mspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_of_vision
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate
Long reads! If you ask me shortly i would say if you like what you see in cinemas you can go for 24 fps or so .
But most animations are not 24 (as drawings of course) and are lower.
But in case you haven't a render farm there are other concerns ; time to render for example .
I would go from 20 up to 60p if i can. It is up to you.
In the past i did animations with 15 fps and it was enough ; then of course ;)
Quote from: Kadri on May 09, 2010, 07:53:53 PMhttp://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_can_humans_see.htm
Interesting!
But in the digital world it should be possible to find the optimal amount of motion blur by making it exactly as long as the time between two frames. Although there's still the problem of finding a good motion blur algorithm.
(Maybe there's a standard algorithm, I don't know.)
This site was an eye opener for me then , Nikita . Please look at the other pages too.
I think there isn't so much new things ( sadly! ) but what there is , is mostly very good.
Good morning,
@Goms: Again, I'll leave this up to Osyhan, but if you ask me, you can really only expect Osyhan to re-construct the camera path, if he only has 6 shots to work from. It would be too much to also expect him to animate the water for you, or a flock of birds, or anyting else really. So IF you have the animation version, feel free to animate other things already, but if you don't, you can only animate the camera.
@black hole: yes you can use whatever scene you want, as long as it meets the other contest rules, such as "must be finished work and not WIP quality".
Cheers,
Frank
Quote from: dandelO on May 09, 2010, 04:07:27 PM
Aye, I know that, Martin.
It's a great project challenge that has motivated me to take advantage of the animation side of TG that I've really never played with in depth. But, I don't expect to win so, if I see this project through, I'll ultimately want to animate it myself, seems a wasted effort not to. Know?
I just meant is 25fps a good number to use for smooth results? Do I need to use 30fps, could I get away with 20fps for animations, in general? Just a general inquiry, really.
I'm unsure about my final camera movements, I have a few potentials but nothing solid, as yet. I am, however, animating other scene parameters, regardless.
Even if I don't enter after all(which I really hope won't be the case), I've started on a couple of projects that I'd like to see through to completion. I was going on Oshyan's post saying we are free to animate other scene parameters, not just camera, but we'd be best doing the animation for those parameters ourselves.
Cheers, man. :)
This is one of the reasons you don't have to animate it yourself, so that you don't have to worry about and spend time on it.
Generally one animates at 24fps, but for instance, I know that Oshyan likes 30fps over 24fps because they're just smoother.
The winner of the contest will have his storyboard animated, which means that the winner, Oshyan and perhaps some of us NWDA guys will be animating parameters guided by the contest winner's input.
Quote from: Goms on May 09, 2010, 04:15:39 PM
I think this is a good point. I can imagine many people never have tried to animate something in tg2.
I don't even have the animation version. ;)
It would be great to have some details on how far we need to go in the animation part.
It's "easy" to make 6 images that would look cool as an animation, but maybe its very hard to animate them.
Is this our challenge, to find ways to animate is or is this something that will be worked out later?
For example, MGebhart's first impressions show some birds flying. And the only way i see this done as animation is with like 30 models of birds for different movements during flying.
Also the water I've seen in some images could make trouble...
And I for example don't even really know how to change the parameters during time, exept that i need some txt file...
Same answer here. You don't have to worry about it. The contest is already complex/difficult enough :)
For the birds, you're talking about object-sequences and they are not supported in TG2. The scene must be natively rendered in TG2 (see contest rules).
Animating water isn't that extremely hard, except when it comes to rolling waves and foam etc. A basic movement of calm water can easily be done by vertical movement of the water-shader. You won't need a text-file for animating parameters. You set keyframes for parameters and TG2 will interpolate the change in parameters in between the key-frames settings.
But like I said. You don't have to know these things. Design a scene, make it work at different camera positions and angles and render 6 images which form an animation path you like/find most appealing.
Martin
24-30fps is what to shoot for (for those animating the scene themselves). I'm ok with anywhere in that range. Movies are always 24fps (anything that is "48fps" is just showing each frame twice, so it's not better in motion quality, just slightly less "ficker"!), most TV and home-made movies are 30fps.
- Oshyan
on a side note, I would like to give our "pioneers" a thank you for having already publicized your WIPs on the WIP board (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?board=21.0).
So thanks to:
Goms
Mor
Otakar
MGebhart
neuspadrin
zaai999
sjefen
Your WIPs are a great inspiration, and I would like to encourage all others that are currently working on their entries to use the opportunity and show off your work in your own WIP threads. It doesn't matter how early a stage you're in, or if you are already happy with what you've got or not, because exposing your work early will help you make a great finish :)
Cheers,
Frank
By the way, we've created a NWDA Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/New-World-Digital-Art/127421733934530), and promote this contest as a "facebook event"
It would be cool if you could connect with us there and "attend" this "event". :)
Quote from: FrankB on May 13, 2010, 03:25:54 PM
By the way, we've created a NWDA Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/New-World-Digital-Art/127421733934530), and promote this contest as a "facebook event"
It would be cool if you could connect with us there and "attend" this "event". :)
"Liked"
:)
Richard
Gotcha!
I was getting a question around what is actually expected for the contest. To put it into a single sentence: you render six shots from various positions, of the same scene. So in essence, it's similar to last year's contest, except that you make 6 smaller renders of the same thing, from various positions.
Cheers,
Frank
I think that bit of it is now clear Frank.
Q1 Am I right in thinking that imported objects are not going to be animated (as Tangled Universe points out)?
Q2 On a more global question am I right in thinking the chosen animation is to show off what TG2 can do? After all it is getting to a point where it can compete with the 'big boys'.
Cheers
Mark
Quote from: airflamesred on May 17, 2010, 07:01:44 AM
I think that bit of it is now clear Frank.
Q1 Am I right in thinking that imported objects are not going to be animated (as Tangled Universe points out)?
Q2 On a more global question am I right in thinking the chosen animation is to show off what TG2 can do? After all it is getting to a point where it can compete with the 'big boys'.
Cheers
Mark
Q1: Imported objects will be rendered, but cannot be animated in TG2 when object-sequences are involved, since this isn't supported.
Movement rotation of objects is possible to a certain extent (animating a swarm of birds, each bird individually, is something we not intend to animate).
Q2: Yes :)
Quote from: airflamesred on May 17, 2010, 07:01:44 AM
I think that bit of it is now clear Frank.
Q1 Am I right in thinking that imported objects are not going to be animated (as Tangled Universe points out)?
Q2 On a more global question am I right in thinking the chosen animation is to show off what TG2 can do? After all it is getting to a point where it can compete with the 'big boys'.
Cheers
Mark
You can move objects along over time, but not actually animate the object itself (e.g. a bird flapping wings or a walking person). If you move objects, please keep in mind that we can only create a simple animation path for them (such as a jet flying by). If you have TG + Animation, it would surely be good if you have already scripted the animation path. Just always keep in mind that Osyhan may only have TG2 as a tool to create that animation.
Maybe Oshyan has more comments on the above.
And yes of course one of the objectives is to have a really nice animation showing TG2's capabilties, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the animation and scene has to be super complex. The other equally important objective of this contest is to have a lot of fun with the concept and potentially the associated learning that comes with it :)
Cheers,
Frank
Thanks to you both for your answers
So a 4wd vehicle would bbe more or less impossible.
Is it possible to import an animation (please don't mention Blender) from another app?
All submission must be natively rendered in TG2 (please, see contest-rule #3 in the announcement post).
10+ WIP submissions so far, although maybe 11 if I count Dune's one too, which still lingers in the regular image sharing forum ;)
Last year, we had - what - some 25 entries? I hope we'll meet and exceed that mark this year ;)
Great stuff so far, keep going fellow terrageneers! :)
Frank
I won't be able to use any other apps for animating, and I'd *really* appreciate it if anyone who is planning/hoping to do object animation would do it themselves, if possible. It's rather difficult to do in TG2 at present (a limitation we're working to address), and the results may not be that great anyway.
- Oshyan
Good to hear about the generous offer by (also) emecstudios regarding the render farm as I read on Facebook!!
I fully understand where you're coming from with that Oshyan.
I shall press on ith my idea anyay, because I had already started it, and I was going to use the composite render for this project anyay.
As Hannes already mentioned, the news flow about the contest doesn't seem to stop ;)
We are excited to announce EMECSTUDIOS.COM as the sixth sponsor of our contest.
[attachimg=#]
EMECSTUDIOS will donate its "Deadline Renderfarm (http://deadline.emecstudios.com)" to the winning storyboard, to get their animation rendered.
They are a very special renderfarm. For one, they have been supporting Terragen 2 from day 1, and secondly they're living and breathing Green IT:
Deadline render farm is unique and unmatched worldwide because it's designed with respect to mother nature. Powered on watercooling and by solar-energy, it's unmatched and it respects the blue planet. "Kudos to mother nature" is their tagline.
Besides the current project, for you animators and studios out there, I would like to suggest EMECSTUDIOS to you whenever you need your project rendered quickly and efficiently. Please see their online quote maker here. http://deadline.emecstudios.com/index.php/automatic-quote.html
So what's the benefit for the winner? Well, on the one side, this is easily a multi-$100 price value, which amazingly gracious! And secondly, an animation that would otherwise need 250 hours (over 10 days) to complete on one modern quad-core, Only takes about 7 hours to finish on DEADLINE !!!
Thanks to DEADLINE, the lucky winner will see his beautifully animated baby in virtually no time :)
Best regards,
Frank
They rendered my last animation, and I must admit they did it very fast !!!
nice to see they will be the renderfarm used for the contest ! ^^
Another question (I hope this hasn't been asked before!): just for planning what is going to happen in the animation, how long should the final animation be? I think I read something like 30 seconds?!
Quote from: Hannes on May 20, 2010, 06:18:52 PM
Another question (I hope this hasn't been asked before!): just for planning what is going to happen in the animation, how long should the final animation be? I think I read something like 30 seconds?!
Yep around 30 seconds, at 25-30fps is the goal i believe.
Oshyan mentioned a number of 1 minute or less.
Correct, 1 minute or less. 30 seconds is a good target. ;D
- Oshyan
Got to say, you guys have set a pretty hard competition this time. I'm still working out what I'm going to fill 30 seconds with. I've got some ideas and terrain to work with, but I'm hitting my head against the wall trying to combine them, without cuts or passes. :-\
There's nowhere in the rules that there can't be cut scenes, or in other words, that the camera has to follow a seamless path.
Regards,
Frank
I guess the problem I'm facing is that I have multple layers of effects that won't combine without cuts or passes. So I'm having to build a step, then find out why the next step won't work in the same scene, then take two steps back to re-engineer. I wish there was a 'get' function that looked at that part of the chain, rather than the final. ;D
i have a some areas in the camera path where the camera goes through objects and under the terrain, its alright to add extra key frames to fix that, right?
yeah, sure, but remember: what you really are submitting as your contest entry is the 6 image storyboard. It's a nice extra if you have worked out the animation path already, but it's not necessary.
Regards,
Frank
Thanks Frank!
for us TG2 Deep users, will there be a limit to how many populations we can use??
???
There is no limit on the number of populations; only general memory limitations (32 bit limit).
- Oshyan
So the deadline is coming closer now.
Will you update the contest gallery? I think some of us have sent their submissions?!
i guess i'll add that 14th population now
Quote from: Oshyan on July 08, 2010, 02:53:36 AM
There is no limit on the number of populations; only general memory limitations (32 bit limit).
- Oshyan
QuoteWill you update the contest gallery? I think some of us have sent their submissions?!
I am anxiously waiting to see the gallery filled with stunning storyboards, but it's still disappointingly empty! Perhaps just after the deadline it's filled at once...
Hi all,
we have decided to give more time for all contestants to finish their projects. In the light of the fact that only 2 entries have been sent in to date, and many more promising projects still being developed, the new, extended deadline is now August 14th !
We have realized that the contest timing was a little bit unfortunate, with summer holidays and the football world cup going on. Hence, we're more than happy to give more time and extend the deadline for another month.
This is one reason why we haven't published the 2 submissions, yet. The two contestants who have sent in their work may feel free to continue to work on these and submit them again later on (or of course leave them as they are).
We hope the extension is in the interest of the contestants. We have seen so many great projects started, and we would like to have every single one of them in.
Lastly, I would like to take the opportunity to point out, that the extension might give new contestants enough time to start working on their own submissions. Great prizes are looming and waiting for their winners. So once again, the contest is still open for everyone.
Best regards,
Frank
Hey, this is great, since I've found some things that need to be improved in my scene (of course AFTER I submitted my storyboard! >:()
This is going to be exciting!!! Can't wait to see all the other storyboards!
that's great frankB! :)
i'm not going to have have access to my computer on the 14th & 15th, so now i'm less stressed.
Thank you! The old deadline would have been impossible to meet.
huh, the gallery is still empty, and the comments are spam... ??? >:( >:(
i hate spam.
... removed the spam. Thanks for the heads-up.
Frank
I'm afraid I'm going to have to bow out of the comp. My work commitments have left me very little time to play with TG.
I very much enjoyed the last competition, and this year's has so many incentives to get involved.
I hope those that have started find the time to give this a go. It's a very interesting challenge.
All the best.
Jon
I have been too busy. Getting my head into a large project has not been possible.
You all still have 2 weeks, don't forget. ;D
- Oshyan
Could you send a message to those who already sent their submissions? My new attempt to submit my storyboard failed at first try. I got a "mail delivered fail"-message, so I tried it once more. No fail message, but I'm not quite sure if you received it, since the gallery is still empty.
Hi Hannes,
We've received your submission, thanks :)
We'll update the gallery asap!
Cheers,
Martin
and the winner is... FrankB :D :D
(i just noticed FrankB's "milkhoney" is the entry in the gallery at the moment)
ah, but just because there has to be at least one image in it. It's just a stupid placeholder. :)
Oh those prizes are sooo good. I have to enter! Just a question: Do NWDA products make landscapes?
Quote from: cbest on August 09, 2010, 12:38:20 AM
Oh those prizes are sooo good. I have to enter! Just a question: Do NWDA products make landscapes?
no, but you use them to make certain aspects of a landscape within your Terragen 2 scene. You can look at them as presets for TG2. And then of course, we have NWDA objects, that can be used in populations (like grasses, bushes...)
Frank
The gallery default displays only the first five images. When I use the drop down menu to show ten, an error dialogue pops up. (edit- now it doesn't pop the error message, but still only shows five images.)
Hi all,
I'm pleased to show you the final gallery of contest entries. We have quite some beautiful and creative storyboards to display.
http://www.nwdanet.com/home.html
At this point let me emphasize again that this was a challenging and difficult contest. I truly hope that everyone who participated until the end has enjoyed the experience, no matter if you may win one of the prizes or not. For me personally it was great seeing your scenes develop and storyboard to come together step by step! So thank you for your participation.
Now in the next 24 hours (at least, maybe longer), the panel judges will have time to thoroughly review the entries and cast their votes.
Best regards,
Frank
PS: If you want to see the entries in full resolution, click on the download symbol on those thumbnails, and then choose to open in new tab or window, to see the entry in its full beauty.
Only 8 entries >:( ??? :-[ :-\
The entries are very good. I wish I had not had to move. It was a major disruption.
Frank, you nailed it. Making these experiences is priceless. It's not (only ;D) about winning prices. It is learning and having fun. Besides TG has some kind of calming effect on me. So trying to get the scene right, sitting in front of the monitor, watching the rendering progress, drooling a little bit, made me calm like hell during the last weeks ;D.
Quote from: Dune on August 15, 2010, 04:01:52 AM
Only 8 entries >:( ??? :-[ :-\
yeah, only 8, it's a pity that not more of the other, also promising scenes have been finished. But I am very happy about the ones that were submitted.
This absolutely sucks .. I seriously thought that the prizes were enough to convince more than 8 people to enter the contest. Seriously.
For most users it is hard to render-make 1 image. To make kind of a storyboard -a scene good from 6 different POV's ?
And an animation with a module most of the users don't have. And users like me who use the free version?
Of course it is possible but there are to much things against this.
If you ask me there are maybe more entries then i thought .
But the winners will be the ones we know and are anyhow good ;)
(because they are good)
If you want that more new users participate in such a contest you should make the rules very basic. Like only one image ;)
Especially in a software like TG2 where render times are mostly not much encouraging because of its nature(!).
I don't try to be negative. And if you ask why i say this now ; because it is over now .
I didn't want to say anything that could be seen as a damaging comment.
But i think this is kind of an experience-experiment so nothing to be sorry :)
All you have to do is make a standard scene. Place the camera at an interesting viewpoint, render, and repeat 5 more times. It doesn't require the animation module, nor the full version. I have both and didn't animate at all. Just make a nice terrain model and walk or fly around in it. As for render times, each frame image is 720 x 360, far smaller than most of the stuff everyone posts in the galleries regularly. It took longer for TG to populate my plants than it did to render.
I suggest everyone try the contest as a challenge, even though it is over officially. It is very simple and doing it will improve your regular scenes by causing you to think about your scene in three dimensions if nothing else.
Quote from: Kadri on August 15, 2010, 03:36:24 PM
For most users it is hard to render-make 1 image. To make kind of a storyboard -a scene good from 6 different POV's ?
And an animation with a module most of the users don't have. And users like me who use the free version?
Of course it is possible but there are to much things against this.
If you ask me there are maybe more entries then i thought .
But the winners will be the ones we know and are anyhow good ;)
(because they are good)
If you want that more new users participate in such a contest you should make the rules very basic. Like only one image ;)
Especially in a software like TG2 where render times are mostly not much encouraging because of its nature(!).
I don't try to be negative. And if you ask why i say this now ; because it is over now .
I didn't want to say anything that could be seen as a damaging comment.
But i think this is kind of an experience-experiment so nothing to be sorry :)
Quote...causing you to think about your scene in three dimensions...
4 dimensions, gregsandor. Remember time? ;)
Good points, Greg!
DandelO: time is an illusion. uh, wait, space probably too. ;D
:)
Gregsandor if everyone would feel the same as you there would be many more entries.
There could be other reasons but i really doubt that the not so old-good users think the same way as you .
Make a scene and render from different 6 POV's yeah easy! And we see here all days many many , very very good 1 image posts , do we? ::)
It IS easy, that's my point. Don't make it harder than it is. Make a scene, take a picture you like, move the camera, take another picture.
Try it. If it really is a different way for you to think about TG environments then you'll definitely benefit from the exercise. And nobody said it has to be "very very good," only that you show some pictures that are interesting to you.
I love road trips, and was curious to see what it is about farmland and old highways that I like.
My entry is not a dramatic terrain: there is a maximum difference in elevation of less than 8 meters over the entire 12 km square! Indiana is FLAT. The most interesting part of the ground for me was painting the displacement maps to elevate the roadway 3 inches above the shoulder, digging half-meter ditches alongside it, making the paved highway have a proper 2 degree slope from center so the rain drains off, carving potholes in it, and making all that fit the real digital elevation model; I hardly noticed any of these things in the real world before I built this.
What was fun for me (in part) was taking a real environment, and finding what was interesting about it.
Quote from: Kadri on August 15, 2010, 05:11:58 PM
Gregsandor if everyone would feel the same as you there would be many more entries.
There could be other reasons but i really doubt that the not so old-good users think the same way as you .
Make a scene and render from different 6 POV's yeah easy! And we see here all days many many , very very good 1 image posts , do we? ::)
I think both Greg and Kadri make reasonable points. I know I didn't participate partly because I have too much work on just now, and the challenge of finding six decent viewpoints in one terrain seemed likely to be quite time-consuming. Also, I notice that there were quite a few German Terrageners who participated last time, probably from over at terragen-masters.de - was the competition promoted to them? And a few of the other participants from last time, including one of the winners, have been quiet of late. I guess it's all food for thought in the event of another contest. Maybe a smaller, simpler contest in the interim before the next "main" one might draw in more beginners?
The "Animation" part is one of the problem maybe! If it would be named different -i don't know what- there would be less confusion .
Because this isn't animation for me.
These are 6 different images from the same scene. If i can not animate it myself i don't do it. Because i don't know how it will look.
It is easier to do in Lightwave or similar software (animation as camera move of course) .
And if you say again you don't have to animate , then why it is an Animation Contest ?
Do not think that i want to try to make this Contest less enjoyable or so. I am thinking loud only.
The entries are very good. So i am not trying to lesser their worth.
If the other users does say what they think , why they didn't participate this would be good for the next Contest.
So please don't take this what i try to say in the wrong way :)
There could easily be an unofficial project here every week or two. Just for fun. It doesn't even have to be a contest, someone start a thread called 'Cows at the beach', or something, and anyone who fancies it just makes the scene their own way. It'd be fun just to see how many different approaches were added to the thread, no pressures or deadlines, just an open community free for all thread. How many different interpretations of 'Sunny Beach' or, 'The Sky At Night' we'd see.
Not quite as exciting as competing for the big prizes on offer in a real contest like this but, fun, motivating and educational, all the same.
I really have no excuse for not entering this one, other than lack of perseverance. I had made starts on several scenes for it and just never followed through. I'm glad I didn't, really! Have you SEEN the entries? Top-notch work, everyone! :o
QuoteIf i can not animate it myself i don't do it. Because i don't know how it will look.
This was also a factor for me, Kadri. Once I'd started, I wanted to have the control of all the animated parameters myself, and this wasn't required for the contest.
Regardless, I learned myself an
awful lot just by motivating myself to try and go further with an area of TG I'd really only dabbled in before. I'm glad of that.
Quote from: dandelO on August 15, 2010, 05:43:56 PM
There could easily be an unofficial project here every week or two. Just for fun.
...
Not quite as exciting as competing for the big prizes on offer in a real contest like this but, fun, motivating and educational, all the same.
I've already suggested the first one: follow the NWDA TG Animation Contest rules as a personal challenge. You can see exactly what the people who entered did, read the feedback they got, post your work and get critiques on it as you go.
one of the things I'm most interested in besides the actual winner animation, is the making-of story that Mike Bedford will put together for plugs'npixels
Cheers,
Frank
There's some realy good entries there, and some worthy winners too.
As for the animation side of things being a problem, I don't think that really is the issue. It's more of having a concept which is explorable for 30 seconds to a minute. Storyboards to me are a number of guide frames broken down into the time they are meant to keep the viewers interest. I don't think that's realy a Terragen problem.
I can understand maybe the thinking behind the competition, in coming up with a show case animation that promotes all products involved, or at least giving the means to the budding artist to exploit those tools to their potential. I'm quite sure this will be achieved.
I agree though, the initial breif is an interesting problem to explore. But I do think that the step into frames from stills is a little alien to most users at the moment, and gentler steps may have been an easier concept to grasp. Especially when in reality, most applications of TG into a work flow of such a period frame time, would be just several layers in many compositions. Which would involve many bespoke shot dependent projects, rather than just one.
Animation of TG's power is very much in it's infancy at the moment. Hanne's animation of sails and wake is a prime example of what can be done. But to think larger, you need to be able to rely on a bank of 'textures' for the smaller stuff. I personaly didn't have the time to dedicate to this. I don't have a bank of textures to call upon to help with fore, mid and far. And kudos to those that did.
Good luck guys. Great work there.
Based on the submissions I see, I'll be proud to feature the winner on the cover of the next Plugs 'N Pixels ezine as well as in the making-of feature!
I'll be in touch with the eventual winner regarding the specs of the images I need for publication and to request a little write-up about themselves and their TG2 process.
when will the votes be cast? ;) Do the animations need to be made first?
Yeah, this is taking a long time!
We have a quite a few judges and not everyone seemed to be available in the last 24 hours. We'll give them a little more time to reply wit their votes. It will not be long, I'm sure.
Regards,
Frank
Quote from: cbest on August 17, 2010, 12:46:39 PM
Yeah, this is taking a long time!
You do know this is the
Terragen forum, Cbest? In here, patience is your best friend. ;) :D
The entries are spectacular. I really wanted to be there at the end, but at some point you just have to accept your limitations. Unfortunately, one cannot slow down time :)
Just finishing it is an accomplishment, people. I'll be glued to this place to see the animation posted.
Hi everyone,
again, thank you for your participation and interest in this challenging contest. The judges have cast their votes now. Besides the NWDA folks and Oshyan, we would also thank our sponsor judges Stephen Schmitt and Stewart McSherry, who have both donated some really cool prizes to make this challenge even more compelling!
Before I disclose the winners, let me point out again that the voting was really a thriller for me. I've added new votes as they were cast, and some images changed places over and over again. In the end, the judges votes 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for almost all image submissions - which means that almost everyone of you who sent in their storyboards, was among some judge's top 3.
But now let's turn to the winners:
1st Place: Ulco Glimmerveen with "Garden of Eternity"
Ulco's "Garden of Eternity" is of obviously high quality and detail, and has enough of a mix of terrain, vegetation, and other object elements, not to mention great variety and atmosphere, to be our top pick. The way Ulco puts together complex scenes amazes us, and there is a wonderful sense of magic and mystery in this.
2nd Place: Jani Peltola with "Ancient Valley"
No matter how you look at it, it seems that Jani's "Ancient Valley" has something that pulls you in, and you can imagine flying across this beautiful landscape quite easily. We start from high above with amazing clouds rolling over a mountain summit, and consequently we descend through forests and over a lakeside. And all the time the image elements are well done and fit together nicely.
3rd Place: Greg Sandor with "Road Trip"
Greg's "Road Trip" was a close challenger to 2nd place, I was afraid we might have a tie while I was summarizing the scores. It also got a few first place votes, so you can see how close this must have been. That being said it's a remarkably convincing scene, it has a mundane, almost incidental reality to it that really got us. The love and attention to details is very apparent in this storyboard, and it was a great pleasure to see it's development here on the Planetside Forums.
Lastly, I would like to sincerely thank Hannes Janetzko with his "Carribean" work, which also got decent scores from the judges, and which amazed many of us here on the forums as well. Then, Balázs Pál's "Naodel Canyon" is a beautiful work and was great fun to follow its development. Let's not forget James Fullen's "Mountain Air" and Lane Henderson's "Forgotten Forest" which both also emanate a great sense of magic. Lane must have created one of the most read forum topics of all time on this forum, I believe. With his frequent updates we really became part of the creation process :) - What I really liked was Jahnu's entry to the contest. Jahnu was relatively new to this forum but despite this, he took the challenge and created his own storyboard of a fantasy world. I'm sure Jahnu you had a great experiences and learnings along the way.
Please join me in congratulating the winners and all other participants!
Best regards,
Frank
PS: Winners will be contacted for receiving their prizes.
Hey guys, this is great! I'm really thrilled. I have no words
Perhaps some icons better express my feelings ;D ;D ;D
Thanks to all voters, and I can really imagine that almost every entry got at least some first votes. Congratulations to all who entered, I know (now) that it's quite some work and serious thinking to put together a nice storyboard.
---Dune
ps. I'm glad I was online when this came on.
This contest was really fun, and challenging. I very much enjoyed this experience. Congrats to Dune, your pic was really great. Thanks to everyone who supported this contest, it was superb. I learned a lot of stuff.
Congrats to Dune , Jani , Greg and to all the other participants :)
This was a journey i enjoyed to follow all of the entries ! And the results are very nice!
Congratulations to all the entrants, and thanks to everyone on the forum for the help over the years and to NWDA and Matt, Jo, and Oshyan. I just brewed another pot of coffee (added another 54 electrical utility towers this morning!) and I'm glad I checked in to the forum.
Really well done to everyone that entered, the submissions are of an extremely high quality. Also thanks to NWDA for organising this and to Stephen and Stewart for some really awesome prizes.
Congratulations to all the participants, and to the winners. Look forward to the animation!
Well done to Ulco, Jani and Greg! Fantastic work all round!
That must have been a real tough one to judge, I can't wait to see Ulco's superb Garden flowing past the camera!
Make the most of those fantastic prizes, everyone and, congratulations to all! :)
Thank you and congratulations to all the participants. This contest was really a huge learning process for me and clarified many thinks that I thought I already knew :)
- Jani
Congratulations to Dune, Mor and Gregsandor!!!!!
I'm sure everyone had a lot of fun creating the entries for this contest. Besides it's so great to learn something new and to try things out. I'm looking forward to the next contest.
Can't wait to see Dune's garden brought to life ;D
It really must have been tough to judge this. Well done!
Gratz and well done to all. A worthy winner, and can't wait to see this animated.
It would be great to see all the entries animated. It would take quite some time though.
I want to thank all the participants for their very very good entries ! It was very difficult to vote and a real pleasure to see all the work that has been done !!!
CONGRATULATIONS !
Yes, congratulations Dune! Can't wait for the animations!
Congratulations everyone! It was indeed very tough to judge, and I wish we could animate all the entries as they all deserve it. Some of the scenes had me just itching to see them in motion. Ulco's was definitely among those, and I can't wait to get it all animated and start the rendering (which will be a process in itself, but eased significantly by Davy's generous contribution of render time on his Deadline render farm!). It will take a little bit before everything gets sorted out, particularly because Ulco's scene is especially complex and involves a lot of additional support files. But the end results will certainly be worthwhile. :)
Thanks to everyone for their participation and support of the entrants. Let's do this again soon!
- Oshyan
Let's do this again soon? Good idea. ;)
Good luck to all participants and thank you to NWDA and Planetside for putting on such an awesome contest!
Congratulations to all the winners and the other participants as well! :)
Will it be announced here when the animation is finished?
congrats to all winners indeed...fabulous work, and to all who entered, very inspirational work all round!
QuoteWill it be announced here when the animation is finished?
I guess so, but it'll take a while. Oshyan is traveling around for a couple of months, and I have to gather all material for him to put it all together, and do some more testing. Which I will do by the end of next week, anyway. Hang in there, guys!
;D
Yep, it will take a little bit of time. But I can work on it while I'm traveling, so it won't have to wait until I return. For now I am just waiting for Ulco to pull together the files, then I can get an idea of how much time it will take (which depends on frame render times, how much render optimization I need to do, and how much of the animation Ulco can script himself).
I can't wait to have something to show everyone. :)
- Oshyan
Hi all, I just posted issue #18 of the free Plugs 'N Pixels ezine (http://www.plugsandpixels.com/ezine.html) featuring Ulco's prizewinning storyboard, renders and article. This feature was part of the First Prize package.
Subscribers will receive their copy directly via email by tomorrow (Monday), but the PDF can be downloaded at any time (starting right now!).
Hi Mike,
your link isn't working (you have quotations in the link). Here's the working one http://www.plugsandpixels.com/ezine.html
Regards,
Frank
It's a great story. Thanks Ulco for your insightful explanations about how this scene has come to life :)
Regards,
Frank
Thanks Frank! I fixed it in my original post as well.
Nice writeup, though I was hoping for a few high-res images. Now it's on to the movie!
Hi otakar,
You mean additional close-ups or-? I worked with the images I was supplied with, and publish at 72ppi. Ulco approved the layout, since it was his prize. :D
Wasn't meant as criticism, I thought maybe we could get a glimpse of additional shots from this project not previously published. It's so captivating.
Ah! No problem. You'll need to ask Ulco to share those.
nice explaination of the project.
thanks for that.