What challenge would you like to see?
 

The last few challenges have seen very few entries, in my opinion. I just thought I'd ask what you folks would like to see for future challenges? What would get you excited to actually join in if you haven't before?

Is it the challenge themes?

You don't like the prizes offered?

Two months isn't long enough? (:p)

Something else?

definatly the themes.

Also, I think (imho) that 2 mos is too long. I (personally) get discouraged if I start out at the 2 week mark... I can't keep a project that long. Even a bit shorter (1 month? 1 month 2 weeks?) would be better.

But the themes... I just don't like 'em. I liked the old ones with game characters- make a game character, texture him, rig possibly, whateva, that would have been fun. Also the realistic inorganic ones were cool. I think my skills now are 10x better than they were, and I would like to try my hand at that.

Prizes are G R E A T! (imho, again). $400 for winning? That's definatly cool (for me at least)

Hope theses suggestions help.

-Matt

I know why you ask that. The more impressive is on the simplymax website where no one take part of this challenge:hug:

Personaly, I love challenge themes you give every two months.

Prizes are quite enough for it. Who don't love cash prizes?

The thing to do is to make announcement of a challenge in other 3D community websites ( I can try on the french community personnaly if you want).

Publicity around this event is the key I think.

And the summer is there. Some are in holydays and others want to take a break after their job, enjoy the great weather.

Personnaly, keep the challenge the same way. It's great.

P.S : Hope to be understand with my poor level in english :alien:

Kevin

a one month mark would keep people more motivated to actually finish.

maybe , hardware [or DVDS] instead of cash as prizes.

glad you're guys are not just shutting down the challenge forums entirely.

What about breaking the prizes into 1st, 2nd etc depending on entries?

That might give people more chance to get something from entering?

I liked the Idea of the realistic modeling and rendering comp's but thats my opinion.

(This is kinda responding to all 3 threads and the comments I've received so far)

At the moment we do kind of have a first and 2nd place prize in the Normal and Newbie category. We cant really afford 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for both categories, except maybe just to mention them as "honorable mentions". Which is lame.

I could, however, see doing away with categories and then doing more of a traditional 1st, 2nd, and 3rd lineup.

As for the themes, i personally think they are pretty varied. Being a game artist myself, I'd LOVE to just make them all game art contests, haha. :) But i realize not everyone does that kind of stuff. But perhaps they are too varied? Maybe I need to stick with modeling/texturing challenges for the most part with maybe an animation or something else thrown in now and then rather than trying to do something different every time?

Perhaps the challenges are too long? The reason why some of the themes are a bit more challenging (the transformer, for example) is that you have two whole months to do it. Maybe 1 month challenges with simpler themes, (but, as a consequence, with smaller prizes) would work?

One of the reasons we went to a cash grand prize as opposed to hardware and such is that due to the international, world-wide nature of those who enter these challenges, we've had difficulty actually getting the prizes to some people in the past due to their being in some rather hard to reach places. Money however can be transferred fairly simply. And then the winners can of course spend it as they wish.

One possibility might be a prize offered but with the warning that depending on the availibility of the prize to the region of the winner's location, a money substitute may be sent instead? Of course, some folks would be upset I'm sure if they enter for a cool video card only to find they get the money instead... although they could then go use that money for the card, but I digress.

I agree that a bit more noticeability on the site could be cool. :)

Thoughts?

Hey Mike

I think that the cash idea would be the best option, as you say hardware can be a pain to ship and the cash could be spent on a night out etc if hte winner wishes!!

When I suggested the 1st 2nd and 3rd I was refering to distrubuting the $400, say $250 for 1st, $100 for 2nd and $50 for 3rd. amd say for the Newb prize having points given to them with the same weighting??

Or what about having catagories for the comps, for example with the animation

Cat 1 (beginner)

Create a walk cycle for a character with expressions suiting the model

Cat 2 (intermediate)

Creating a walk and a (say) jump, punch, kick cycle

Cat 3 (Expert)

Create the above with an extreme movement (such as a special move)

With the entrent specifiing the cat that they want and the prizes to suit, based on the money for the top catagory, and then distrubution of DVD's or points for the other sections

e.g - Points worth based on a DVD download that would be an advantage to the winner of the catagory??

Just a bit of a mind dump here!!

I enjoy the challenges as its helping me to learn all the varied areas instead of just sticking to modelling. The variety is cool too as it pushes you to do other things - is this bad for most newbies who just want to make game models though?

Maybe as suggested splitting the money across first and second or first, second and third would help encourage people to try more. It can be a little offputting when you work your guts out and then the winner is not who you expected (not saying that is wrong, it is just a bit discouraging).

I dont have a problem with the timespan for the current challenges but if you were to simplify each challenge then maybe a shorter timespan could be acceptable.

As already mentioned visibility will always help

yeah... and if you have to do a 1 month competition running on $200 that would be fine for me too... $125 is a lot of money (for me at least...).

But yes... I agree with the comps being a bit TOO varied.

hey :)

This is just an idea but maybe you could make the different catagories get longer or shorter time to finmish. soo the noobs could get 2 months and the norms could get 1 or somthing like that...

also, you could make two comps similar. so if the last one was an inorganic moddeling one the next one could also be an inorganic modeling one with a different parameters to it.

i also would like to see charchter design
with textures, withouth animation
just the model
and the prizes are just fine
i think 1 month for a low poly model is long enough

The cash prizes are great and i love the1st , 2nd & 3rd concept. The compitions could be cut short to a month
i would like to see inorganic modeling and texturing as rigging and animation is not liked by all

I personally prefered the shorter time span of one month, I think the prizes are great and just fine as is but if you wanted to spread them over more entries that would be ok too.

I can't really speak for others but the Animation challenges are a real turn off for me and might well be for beginners as it's not something you can learn very quickly.

Low poly modeling is another slight turnoff as again it's something that takes time to learn ( learning to model is easier with unlimited polycount but much harder to model the same thing with half the polys).
I am not saying you shouldn't set those challenges ,just a little less frequent I think.

Just my thoughts.

regards J.S.

Personally I think the challenge themes that I have seen have been great - I really don't have any problem with an animation themed challenge - the only reason I didn't enter the last two was due to work. As long as the challenge has something to do maya then that's good enough for me, though I wouldn't mind seeing another high poly challenge and maybe some sort of interior modelling challenge as well.

Having a one month challenge sounds interesting and should definitely help motivate people to stick with it. Maybe we could do one month challenges with a two month challenge thrown in every now and again.

As for prizes I think that it's best to stick with cash for all of the reasons stated above. Hardware would be nice, but it seems like a lot of extra hassle.

I also think that getting the gallery up and running again would help get people motivated and also attract more people to the site. Sorry - I am sure you are sick of hearing about the gallery!

Anyway, thanks mtmckinley for keeping the challenge sessions going - they are a big help and definitely a big part of simply maya. :bow:

cheers! :beer:

I´m with some others here - time should be shorter to complete. a month would be more than enough. and one thing which comes to my mind from my first competition is - a year ago or something - someone from not this forum but from simplymax won the prize. don´t know if that´s still procedure but I think prizes should be limited to one forum only if it´s possible..?

First, let me say that I've enjoyed every challenge I've entered, and have refined some skills in the process, I do however have one big problem with the challenges, that being the lack of feedback with the final entries. I don't really care about the prize (although I think it is a very generous prize for an internet competition), I care more about getting critiques from people who are working in the business. If someone spends 2 months working on a project to submit for critique, it would be nice to get some feedback, whether they win or not. Like you said Mike, there's really not too many entries each month, so would it hurt to say a few lines/give some critism on every entry? Maybe suggest some improvements that could have been made etc..

It just seems like the competition ends, and there's a one-line post saying ".... is the winner," with no explanation as to what it was about that image that stood out among the rest. A few months back you did a "photorealistic" challenge, in which I saw some awesome work from a few people, but there was little or no feedback on the final entries. I looked through the thread of the guy who won (he modeled an excellent video camera), and there was just a handful of posts, with only about 3 or 4 work-in-progress shots, and then a final render entry.

I just think it would benefit everyone more if the challenges were geared towards helping people improve, rather than just handing out a prize.

i agree with most of the points already stated, as cash prizes instead of hardware, possible 1st 2nd 3rd prizes.

I entered a few of the challenges. Some i found quite entertaining. Others i felt they didnt offer anything useful to me. Which was disapointing.

Maybe as a possibilty for future challenges we could have a list of 4 or 5 options that could be voted on during one challeneg as to what the next challenge should be.

So during this challenge make a poll as to what the next challenge should be... then you would know at least a majority would like it.

Now, I'm not great at modeling, but 2 months is kind of a long time. I'll procrastinate, or start doing something else and not get back to it. The length of time should depend on the complexity of the project.

Personally, I like more inorganic stuff. Probably because it's easier :) but I don't think you should lose the variety.

I haven't actually entereed any of the competitions before, but thought a good idea for a competition would be a prison scene. I practised one of these before myself, and i found that i had a huge amount of options to go for while doing this.
Johnny

What about a texture painting contest. Say that Mike or someone provides 3 different models, for variety.

Then its up to the challengers to pick an object and see who comes up with the best textures.

I agree that #1 or nothing is pretty steep especially for those who spend so much time on their project only to come up short. There have been so many in the past that definitely deserved more credit than, well better luck next time.

self portrait - high poly

Good to see you back Michael :beer:

Originally posted by Dilberts
These competitions are judged on the quality of the work. You can basicly look at the artists work and see where his or her's weakpoints are. If you need feed back on your entry from a specific member here on the SM site, why not just contact that person? I really don't care to know why I didn't win. In alot of cases, that leads to poor sportsmanship between members. All I want to do is have fun doing the competition and share the work with the other board members. I entered this current competition to work on my compositing skills. It doesn't matter if I win or not. Heh, I honored to get just one compliment from anyone on my work.

hey chaps,

never entered a competition before but i will!

this isn't because i haven't liked the theme or the prizes or any other of the comments above although i do have a few suggestions...

i like the idea of comments from yourself (mike) or other professionals, sorry chaps i don't know who you are right now being a casual user of this site. the thought that it would encourage bad sportsmanship is correct but i'm sure those with that disposition would keep comments like that to themselves. in fact it could encourage them to grow out of that attitude after all there's always someone better out there.

maybe to encourage more entries you could try focusing on different skills. i understand this is how it works at the moment, what i mean is that you could advertise the competition as being purely game art one month and hyper-real the next. that way it would encourage the varying factions within this community to enter albeit at different times.

taking this idea further you could set a series of back to back challenges that will encourage the entrant to further their skills using the same project. for instance, a game character design challenge followed by an animation challenge designed to express the same characters personality.

i think the problem at the moment is the amount of scope the competitions have with the aim of enabling anyone to enter. this may cause potential entrants to not enter as they feel unable to compete with the high standards of many entries. if it were tailored in a way that benefitted every entry then you may see more of a response.

love the prizes (could have really done with £400 this month!!!) so no probs there unless you could let the winnings 'rest' in my account till the winner is announced...

finally just got your new book mike, excellent as always and a big thank you from my partner and myself. keep up the good work chaps for it is you that are responsible for everything i've learned so far in the 3d world. well you and happymat27...

i like 2 join the competition friends.....how can i do tat help me so.....
 

hai friends...i am new to this discussion......i would like 2 know how to participat in the competition and prove my self...........hope u people or moderator can help me in it.....i have skill 2 do but need some support from this site.... i would like 2 know some details about .....how to gain points and how 2 be an active member

Should be easy to answer...

1st Welcome to the SM site.

The next competition will be starting shortly (Sept/Oct) and runs for 2 months. Mike will set the challenge topic and you are to get cracking from there, showing your work and wires etc.. As you go.

Everyone on the site will give you feedback and advise as best we can. Hey I'm doing it that now, WOW... :D

Gaining Points is through purchase or winning the Challenges (I think they still give them out as a prize option). To be an active member get involved and help out as best you can...

I'd like to challenge someone to fix this website, the download section does not work properly, you click on a link in the headings and nothing happens, and if you attempt to go to the "upload" section, it just gives you an error.

It has been like this for months . . .

This is kinda responding to all 3 threads and the comments I've received so far