December - January Challenge!

Game Art!

In huge, self-promotional egotistic fashion, this next challenge will focus on game art in celebration of my book's release. Read on for the rules and guidelines!

1) Show concepts! Show progress!

2) The goal is to create a piece of game art. Characters are very popular obviously, but you're not limited to just characters/creatures. However, keep your triangle (tri) polycount at or below 7000!

3) Texturing IS required and it is also required that you show your finished texture sheets. Feel free to watermark them to prevent stealing.

Keep texture resolutions at powers of 2 (256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024). Try to keep total texture usage down to fit on a 2048x2048. That doesn't mean 1 big texture, but if you were to total all your textures, they wouldn't go bigger than this.

Keep in mind that four 256x256 = 1 512x512, four 512x = 1 1024x, etc.

The kinds of maps that are available:

Color/Diffuse (obviously)
Alpha/Opacity/Transparancy
Specular
Reflectivity
Normal (Bump Mapping, sorta)
Emissive

Don't forget these add up as you accumulate them, so pace yourself.

Look forward to a Normal Map creating tutorial I'll be making soon.

UPDATE: you can find it here - https://www.simplymaya.com/movie_page...tml?tut_id=102

4) BONUS goal(s): If you really want to challenge yourself, keep your polycount below 3500! Also, whether you go for the lower polycount or not, pose your entry in a cool way for the final thread.

5) Label your thread thusly:

Dec/Jan - Norm or Noob - Your name

Choose to classify yourself as a Normal or Noobie class entry. Whichever class you choose is the class your final submitted entry will compete against! A winner will be chosen from both classes.

6) Mods and Admins can enter, but are inelligible to win and do not count toward the Grand Prize consideration of 8 or 5 entries mentioned below. If a mod chooses to participate, choose "Mod" class rather than Norm or Noob.

7) If 8+ Normal entries and/or 5+ Newbie entries finish among the 3 Simply sites participating, a Grand Prize will be rewarded to BOTH classes! Regular VIP point prizes will be awarded to both a Normal and Newbie winner, if the Grand Prize criteria of entries is not met!

8) Final entries must be posted into a Final Entry thread that a mod will create in the last couple weeks of the challenge.

The due date of the challenge is February 28th!

Normal Grand Prize:

A signed copy of my book "The Game Artist's Guide to Maya", 14 points, and a choice of a SM tshirt or mug.

Newbie Grand Prize:

A signed copy of my book "The Game Artist's Guide to Maya" and 14 points.

Both winners have the option of waiving the book in favor of:

Normal - a different book
Newbie - a SM DVD of their choice
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PRIZE UPDATE!

Hey, guys, I think I'm going to make a special case this time, since I'm the one providing the book part of the Grand Prize and nix the minimum number of entries...

Yep! 2 signed books WILL be given out no matter what!

HOWEVER

This only applies if the winners accept the book that I'm providing (ie. MY book ). If they would rather have another book (understandable for SL and SMax's case since it's a Maya book) I'm going to have to go back to the minimum entries (8 norm or 5 noob) because then it would the Simply3DWorld site paying for it.

So, yes, even if only 1 person finishes in each category, they'll get the prize... but c'mon... don't let them have it that easily, will ya!? :p

Sound fair? Let me know what you think.