A series that began in 2008, the saga continues with Unearthly Challenge'09 - an annual epic event between four colossal forums - GameArtisans.org, Polycount.com, leewiArt.com and CGTalk.ru! In Unearthly Challenge 2009, your mission is to portray End Game as a game level, game scene or event that suggests the essence of the two words - End Game. It can be a final powerful looking boss level, the aftermath of a legendary battle scene, an epic occurrence that suggests an end is coming, a stairway to an intimidating portal, a road that ends in a pit of fire, or more. How you portray End Game and how you depict an atmosphere that entices viewers to want to know more, we leave it all up to you. Remember, your final work must be clear, with no explanations required, how the scene depicts the essence of - End Game.
As before, Unearthly Challenge has great new features that have never been done in an online competition. Concept artists – get ready to rumble! Once again, you can submit up to THREE final personal entries and this year, you can join as many 3d teams as you wish! YES, you can WIN multiple prizes, but you will need to be quick in order to dominate the charts! 3D Artists, once again, you may enter as a 3-person team, however, in Unearthly Challenge 2009, there are absolutely no team-member restrictions. Join multiple teams, join a single team, or join alone, all 3 options are fine. We pass the gift of choice to you. You decide what you create, who you create it with, and how you will succeed at creating it.
For the next 7 weeks, you have the chance to showcase your thoughts, styles, techniques and working ethics, and come finals, we look forward to seeing some amazing environments in our second chapter of the series – Unearthly Challenge 2009.
Good luck to all those who enter!
Recommended Strategy:
It is recommended that participants focus their scenes. Creating a mood through use of lighting and/or effects helps ensure your message is delivered. Furthermore, ask yourself, What is your idea for an end? How can it be portrayed so that everyone easily understands it? Can key items be placed in the scene to help (a godly throne, a pit with 1000 spikes and a welcome rug at the bottom, a bomb with 01 seconds left before a conclusive end)? Focus your idea and make it clear.
Create a 3d scene that depicts "End Game." Your scene can be created in any style and it can be shown within any time period - futureristic, medieval, fantasy, etc. Besides depicting the essence of End Game, you must also include your team's colors and/or logo in your creations. Remember, this is an evironment challenge, so characters, even dead bodies, are banned.
Specifics:
- Your 3d depiction should contain a center of interest. Center of interest can be a building, object, or special event (magical light, a small whirlwind, a cracking egg, etc)
- Vehicles (not robots or mechanical character-based forms) may be included in your scene.
- No Characters, animals, aliens, or robots, can be shown in your scene. No monsters, no elves, no robots, no smurfs, etc. Statues: Statues made of stone and metal are allowed, but they must possess extremely minimal details.
- Teams are allowed. Up to 3 people maximum.
- Joining multiple teams is fine, however, all entries must be completely different. Example, if you create a water bucket in your 2d entry, you better not have a similar bucket design in any of your other 3d or 2d entries..
- All artwork must be created exclusively for this competition. No previously made Base meshes!! If you use a base mesh and get caught, we are not responsible for executions and/or offensive language delivered by the public (not us). Nobody likes cheaters. We are not responsible for helping artists clean things up.
- Even if you are alone, creating a team name is mandatory.
- Please create only one thread per team.
- Showing your work-in-progress is mandatory! If artists do not show their progress, or wait until the last day/week to show their work, they will not be judged... period.
- Choose either gameartisans.org, polycount.com, leewiart.com, or cgtalk.ru to post your work-in-progress images and comments.
- For instructions how to join, please visit - JOIN INSTRUCTIONS
IMPORTANT:
- You must include your team's colors AND/OR team logo in your entry. To find colors and logos, go here: Colors and Logos
Additional Notes...
- Don't submit a single prop or group of props as the final piece to be judged. This contest is about creating a dynamic layout that "suggests" or "is" a full environment. To accomplish this, you must create a unified setting that holds its objects, lighting, textures etc.
For this competition, the specs are:
- Polycount: 250 000 triangles
IMPORTANT: You have UP to 250k triangles, this doesn't mean you have to use them all. A well Optimized scene always earns respect!
- Texture Sheets: 4096x4096 total of texture space for each material pass.
- example: 4096x4096 total for diffuse, 4096x4096 total for normal maps, 4096x4096 total for specular, etc. etc. Breaking texture sheets into smaller sheets is fine.
- Skybox: Skybox can use its own 2048.2048 sheet(s)
- Lightmaps: Lightmaps may be used, but they are optional.
- For all images, Post-processing is allowed, but limited to:
- hue/saturation adjustment
- brightness/contrast or Levels adjustment
- depth of field
- bloom/hdr adjustment
- motion blur
- Sharpness filter
- Photoshop: The following additional Photoshop touchups are fine: adding text, adding a logo and adding an image border. No background manipulation, painting touchups or strange filters or anything else.
- Shaders: If it can be done in todays game, then it can be done in Unearthly Challenge.
- Lighting and rendering: Your environment MUST either be shown within a video game engine, or as a screen grab from a 3D creation applicaiton (Max, Maya, etc). NO RENDERS. This is a contest about real-time video game environments, which your beauty shots must show case
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To complete your entry, you must hand in the following 6 images:
| Final Thumbnail |
128x128 Final thumbnail. Must be exactly 128x128 pixels.
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| Beauty Shot #1 |
Beauty Shot #1: Your best angle of your environment. (no Photoshop touchups! See rule specifics above)
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size.
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| Beauty Shot #2 |
Beauty Shot #2: A second beauty shot of your environment but from a different angle. (no photoshop touchups! See rule specifics above)
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size.
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| Construction sheet |
A wireframe shot and text describing which team member did what in your entry (Important).
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size.
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| Texture Sheet |
showing your diffuse/color map for everything in your environment is mandatory. Squeezing other map types onto this single sheet is optional.
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size.
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| Concept Sheet |
Include any concepts or additional sketches you created during the challenge.
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size. |
Concept artists, you have the artistic freedom to create up to 3 original entries for this challenge. Each must be made with the following guidelines in mind:
- Each entry must look different from one another and must be made entirely from scratch. Don't create the same area and show it from different angles for 3 entries. Explore completely different areas, worlds, building and/or rooms.
- Feel free to use any 3d package of your choice to help create your final illustration. Only base models and lighting are allowed. Applying textures to your models is prohibited. This is a painting challenge after all.
- Your final outdoor scene or interior room should look playable in some fashion. There should be doors in the correct sizes, maybe some stairs, and/or other interesting areas etc. Don’t just make a pretty picture; make it look fun to play in!
- Your ideas must contain a center of interest. Center of interest can be a building, object, or special event (magical light, a small whirlwind, a cracking egg, etc)
- No Characters, animals, aliens, or robots, can be shown in your scene. No monsters, no elves, no robots, no smurfs, etc. Statues: Statues made of stone and metal are allowed, but they must possess extremely minimal details.
- All artwork must be created exclusively for this competition. No previously made sketches or ideas. Example, don't copy a previous barrel design you created 10 years ago. Your new barrel can look a little similar, but it should not be exactly the same.
- Joint entries for the concept art category are prohibited. Everything must be done by a single artist.
- Please create only one thread and show 1 or all 3 of your work in progress entries within this single thread.
- Showing your work-in-progress is mandatory! If you do not show your progress, or wait until the last day/week to show your work, your work will not be judged... period.
- Choose either gameartisans.org or polycount.com to post your work-in-progress images and comments.
- For instructions how to join, please visit - JOIN PAGE
IMPORTANT:
- You must include your team's colors AND/OR team logo in your entry. To find colors and logos, go here: Colors and Logos
| Final Thumbnail |
128x128 Final thumbnail. Must be exactly 128x128 pixels.
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| Final Concept |
A full colored concept of a great looking angle of your environment.
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size.
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| Modeling Sheet |
This sheet should explain the various items that make up your final fully colored concept sheet.. If you created a building as your center of focus, then this sheet should show additional close up details of the doors, the entrances, and other well seen or used areas. Only a single shade of color, from dark to light, can be used for this image. A Black and white image is fine too. NO multiple colors!
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size.
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| Sketches Sheet |
This image can contain sketches and/or progression steps for your final illustration. Sketches can show how you came up with your idea(s) and the progression steps can show key mark points in your final illustration's development process.
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size.
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CHALLENGE DEADLINE EXTENDED TO:
11:59 p.m Eastern Time, Monday, November 23rd, 2009
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