Hey guys!
We would like to invite everyone to our 2013 NWDA Contest. There are some great prizes to win, so read on! :)
In fact, you would be "
crazy" not to participate, as this is the most valuable collection of prizes we ever had! More on that further down...
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:This year's contest theme is "
ROADSIDE"
The goal of this contest is that each contestant creates a scene of choice, in which a road is either the central element, or supporting element of the scene.
NWDA is excited to announce the following premier sponsors for this contest, who have agreed to support us with some awesome prizes:
- Planetside Software
- Xfrog, Inc.
- World-Machine
- Silva 3D
- 3D Art Direct
- Plugs'nPixels
FOLLOW us and the contest on FACEBOOK, too!!!
Read on for more details on the actual contest theme, rules and prizes!
These are the contest rules:
- Theme: "Roadside". This is a scene of your choice, in which a road is either the central element, or a supporting element of the scene. The road must be clearly visible and must take up a certain minimum of screen real estate. There has to be enough road in the scene to count. This example (http://static.flickr.com/93/280283994_28aef3ef3f.jpg) is not enough road to qualify. And this example (http://1x.com/photo/37753/category/landscape/latest-additions/way-to-tangri-mountains) doesn't count as a road. In this example (http://1x.com/photo/42923/category/landscape/latest-additions/infinity-of-mountain-roads), the road is not the only main element of the image, but it would count as eligible. If in doubt, you can always submit a draft work to nwdacontest at hotmail dot com and ask to verify for eligibility.
- Each submission must strive for photorealism as best as possible. "Photorealism" means that the submitted render should look, at close as you can get it, like a photograph made of the scene by any modern camera with a general purpose lens. Submissions that attempt to emulate vintage photo realism, or the look of worn and bleached photographs do not qualify. (Rule amended March 7th)"
- Submissions: one submission per person.
- Submissions must be natively rendered within TG2.
- Image format and size: Image width must been between 0.8k and 2k pixel. Format as you prefer.
- 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. When in doubt, the contestant must submit the raw render for NWDA to verify that nothing has been added in post. Post processing that simulates imperfections of a camera lens are explicitly allowed. For example, that includes depth of field simulation, chromatic aberration, vignette and the like. Image filters which strongly alter the image are not allowed, such as vintage filters, textures, grunge etc.
- Contest Start: Sunday, February 23rd
- Deadline for submission: Sunday, April 14th, but you can submit whenever your work is finished.
Contest-rules may be subject to modification
How to submit and submission conditions:Please send your finished work through email to: nwdacontest at hotmail.com
Information needed with submission:
- Image title
- Your real name and forum 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.
A link to the contest gallery will be shared soon. Entries will be added to the contest gallery as soon as they are being submitted.
Finding the winners:- At this point the voting process isn't finally decided. It will either be a public voting or jury voting process. The final decision will be announced soon.
The contest prizes: COMBINED MONEY VALUE NORTH OF $3000 USD !!!1st Place Winner Prizes: Become the content overlord with weapons of mass rendering and fame!
Terragen 2 Deep + Animation
World Machine 2 Professional Edition
Xfrog Plants Volume Bundle, all 3000 (!) plants in .TGO-format
Silva3D Mega Bundle Vol.1
Silva3D Balcony Plants Vol.1
Feature interview and publication with 3D Art Direct Magazine
Back Issue Access Subscription at 3dartdirect.com
PlugNPixels magazine, "making of" coverage
2nd Place Winner Prizes: Xfrog Plants Vol.1 (1300 plants) or Vol 2. (1600 plants), all plants in .TGO-format
Silva3D Mega Bundle Vol.1
Feature interview and publication with 3D Art Direct Magazine
Back Issue Access Subscription at 3dartdirect.com
PlugNPixels magazine, "making of" coverage
3rd Place Winner Prizes: Xfrog Plants Europe 3, all 180 plants in .TGO-format
Silva3D Choice (pick 2 from either Grasses, Balcony, Wildflower, or Shrubs)
Feature interview and publication with 3D Art Direct Magazine
Back Issue Access Subscription at 3dartdirect.com
PlugNPixels magazine, "making of" coverage
4th - 10th Place Winners: NWDA Road and Tarmac Pack Commercial Use License
We strongly recommend to create a Work In Progress (WIP) thread of your project at http://forums.planetside.co.uk/
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!
Good luck!!!
Your NWDA team
<reserved slot>
Great idea for a contest. Good prizes too. Got some ideas already but I don't want to rush in to things.
Wooo!
Richard
Hi all,
as you have read, this year's prizes are MADNESS, like Sparta! ;-)
There is no way anyone could justify not to take part! You WANT to be number 1, just look at the pile of rewards that await you.
We made sure that you have enough money value motivation to get your render slave heated up - the first place winner alone get some great stuff worth over 1800 bucks. But there is more to it, as we also get you the exposure and fame for your outstanding ROADSIDE renders!
The ROADSIDE theme is a KILLER theme! There are so many ways everyone can create a road, and over the next few days, we show you a few principles here on the forums, in case you don't know how to get started.
As a starter, google "road" and get inspired from all the images that come up in the search, or try the same on flickr or elsewhere.
With this contest, we would like to especially encourage the free edition users to participate! It's perfectly possible to create a winning image despite the free edition limitations. That's also one of the things we'll help you with as the contest moves along.
An 800px wide render is allowed as an entry, but we'd like to encourage free edition users to render larger by stitching together at least two crop render, to help bring out the beauty!
More about all this later! Really really excited!
So long
Frank
I wish all contestants an exciting time ahead! Start early and post, there's always more work involved to perfect renders. Good luck everybody!
Good theme, great prizes! Starting early is definitely the key, as lots of tweaking will be needed, at least for what I have in mind :)
A quick question.... is it okay to use purchased content that doesn't have a commercial license in a contest where there are prizes? Or would that be considered commercial use?
Hi Jaf,
I think you should look at the license which came along with the purchased content, because that should determine the limits of use, not NWDA I think.
Cheers,
Martin
Quick question.
Quote
Each submission must strive for photorealism as best as possible.
This is not to be interpreted the same as "realistic"?
ie: Could I have an upside down road which is utterly unrealistic, even surreal, but it is lit and textured as if it were real and believable?
Cheers
Richard
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on February 23, 2013, 12:34:12 PM
Hi Jaf,
I think you should look at the license which came along with the purchased content, because that should determine the limits of use, not NWDA I think.
Cheers,
Martin
I did read the license and really couldn't determine if it fit private use or commercial -- is using it with the possibility of gaining something worth money. :)
Quote from: cyphyr on February 23, 2013, 01:00:35 PM
Quick question.
Quote
Each submission must strive for photorealism as best as possible.
This is not to be interpreted the same as "realistic"?
ie: Could I have an upside down road which is utterly unrealistic, even surreal, but it is lit and textured as if it were real and believable?
Cheers
Richard
If it looks like its a photograph of something real and natural, then you nailed it. It doesn't matter if it depicts someting you can'f find in the real world. If surreal would include psychedelic colors and false color textures, then it would not qualify.
I mean Richard, come one ;-)
great stuff... looking forward to this one!
:)
Jason
Cheers, just checkin' :)
Tis' as I thought then, hmmm ideas are a peculating :)
Richard
Those prizes are out of this world.
I wouldn't consider participating in a contest commercial use, as it's not known beforehand whether you'll be rewarded. Other than in commissioned work where you get a fee for your work, or making prints that you sell.
Although I did win a painting award some time ago, and the taxman wanted part of it >:(
Quote from: jaf on February 23, 2013, 12:12:56 PM
A quick question.... is it okay to use purchased content that doesn't have a commercial license in a contest where there are prizes? Or would that be considered commercial use?
Just in case you reference content purchased at NWDA: using private use content in this contest is ok.
Regards
Frank
Thanks Frank. Didn't mean to put anyone on the spot with my question, but it seemed to be a "gray" area (at least to me.)
Hi guys, we have specified the rules around using post processing a bit further. The following sentences have been added to the rules:
QuotePost processing that simulates imperfections of a camera lens are explicitly allowed. For example, that includes depth of field simulation, chromatic aberration, vignette and the like. Image filters which strongly alter the image are not allowed, such as vintage filters, textures, grunge etc.
Would panaramic stitching be allowed?
You mean stitching together adjacent pieces of a panorama? Yeah, why not.
Why would you want to do that, though?
Something I was looking at was a panaramic stitch. I wasn't sure if that fell into the 'imperfections of a camera lens' category.
Well, it doesn't fall into the mentioned category, but it's not much different from having to stitch together crop renders, poses no unfair advantage or anything, and doesn't go against the "spirit" of the contest.. so I am fine.
Deadline for submission - what's the exact world time? I expect to take up all available time, the deadline is approaching so fast....
midnight CET
When will the results be announced?
Quote from: gregsandor on April 24, 2013, 11:09:39 AM
When will the results be announced?
In just a few hours! :)
Quote from: FrankB on April 24, 2013, 12:22:51 PM
Quote from: gregsandor on April 24, 2013, 11:09:39 AM
When will the results be announced?
In just a few hours! :)
Sorry, misinformation. We need a day longer. But it's not too far out anymore, stay tuned!
cheers
Frank
So, just a little update. We decided to build the results and winner pages on cgscenery.com, Martin's new website.
As we are all doing this on private time, sometimes that's a bit on short supply (like now), so we've been a bit slow coming.
But as Martin indicated somewhere else in another thread today, it won't be too long.
Having gone through the voting process myself, and looking at the submissions in the contest gallery over and over again, I must say it is a JOY looking at all the beautiful images you have created. I am not disclosing too much if I reveal that the voting was really very hard - some said deciding at least the top 5 was killing them. Some outstanding art was created this time around. You can all be proud of yourselves!
Cheers,
Frank
Quote from: FrankB on April 25, 2013, 04:59:44 PMHaving gone through the voting process myself, and looking at the submissions in the contest gallery over and over again, I must say it is a JOY looking at all the beautiful images you have created. I am not disclosing too much if I reveal that the voting was really very hard - some said deciding at least the top 5 was killing them. Some outstanding art was created this time around. You can all be proud of yourselves!
Cheers,
Frank
This is true! When you're dealing with judging all technically excellent images, then other elements of the images must be considered, keeping in mind the specific criteria of the contest. Congrats are due to all entrants whether you make the final cut or not!
Hi All,
We're happy to announce the winners for the NWDA Contest 2013 :)
Go have a look at CGscenery.com (http://cgscenery.com) quickly!
Thank you all for participating, the lovely work and WIPs and the great time!
Cheers,
Frank & Martin
Top 3 winners, please contact me about getting your work featured in my next ezine.
I will be publishing each winner's artwork, bio, website URL and "making of" details. Please be prepared to provide a screenshot or two of your work as seen in TG2 as well. I may also need custom/larger renders to fit my layouts but I'll try to avoid that if possible.
See an example of the last time I did this in Plugs 'N Pixels issue #18 (http://plugsandpixels.com/ezine.html). The new issue will have more pages devoted as there are three featured winners instead of one ;-).
We interview the winners of the NWDA contest in issue 30 of 3D Art Direct Magazine, which also includes some copy on the new Terragen 3.
You can sign up at http://3dartdirect.com/ (http://3dartdirect.com/) to get the mag for free in your inbox.
(http://3dartdirect.com/images/Issue30.JPG)
My own ezine is slow out of the gate but will include this contest cover story...
Hi Paul,
I'm on your list, but didn't get the mag. Also can't login anywhere, can I? Nor couldn't enter by (same) name and email address.
Hi Dune,
Thanks for letting me know and good to hear from you again.
I've checked that you are still on my subscriber list and this is the case. AWeber (my mailing service) reports that an email was broadcast to you with no bounce back.
It's possible that it may have gone to your email junk folder?
Otherwise I'll message you privately through Planetside with the magazine link.
Paul
Quote from: Dune on July 02, 2013, 01:01:09 PM
Hi Paul,
I'm on your list, but didn't get the mag. Also can't login anywhere, can I? Nor couldn't enter by (same) name and email address.
Thanks, Paul. Got it now. Great issue, a real pleasure to read and look!
Great interviews! They were a pleasure to read. And very nice winners, too, with inspiring stories!
Making progress! Here is the cover of the upcoming ezine.
Hey Hannes! Do an animation of this.
Probably only the human figure would give problems, or even have to be removed. But everything else you could do!
Impressive cover shot! Look forward to reading this big time
Rather than make you folks wait for the whole 20-page ezine to be ready, here is the section covering the contest winners (http://plugsandpixels.com/pdf/plugsnpixels22preview.pdf) (right-click to download PDF if you prefer).
Oh boy, animating this would be quite an undertaking...
The full ezine (http://plugsandpixels.com/ezine.html) featuring the NWDA winners is now available.