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- Theme and Storyline | 3D Guidelines | 3D Submissions | 2D Guidelines | 2D Submissions -


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Brought to you by GameArtisans.org and Poycount.com...

And so Begins the Unearthly Challenge... an annual epic event between the Worlds of GameArtisans (Good) vs the Worlds of Polycount(Evil)! In this challenge, there are no stories, no time periods, no styles, and no characters. There are only two rules: Choose Good or be Evil, and make your environment Unearthly! It can be extremely beautiful or hideous, Outrageously detailed or chaotic, Shockingly horrifying or divine, Utterly angelic or hellish, or even Tremendously jolly or depressing. Basically, it's your job to create something Extreme to impress the judges, our sponsors, and of course, your adoring fans - the public.

Unearthly Challenge is no ordinary event. Each category has cool new features that have never been done in any previous online competitions. Concept artists - the chains binding your creativity have been unleashed! You can now submit up to "3" Final entries!! And YES, you can WIN multiple prizes, but only if you are fast enough! Furthermore, Concept Artists have double the amount of prizes, but you will need to be quick in order to dominate the charts! 3D Artists, you are finally allowed to enter as a 3-person team! Additionally, top studios & artists have donated nearly 100 environment concepts and sketches to help get everyone started! We have simple sketches to full-blown color concepts, so there is something for all tastes and fancies!

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 this first chapter of a new annual event – The Unearthly Challenge!

Now onto the specifics!



It's mandatory to pick a concept from >>"Here"<< and use it as a base to create your 3d entry. It's your responsibility to make an entry look Good or Evil, look Unearthly in some fashion, look playable, and still keep the original concept and its idea seen somewhere and somehow in your final 3d submission. Example, if your concept shows a front door to a building, don't render a back door in the back of the building. Aside from keeping just a few simple elements to tie your final renders to your chosen concept, you can still change the concept’s idea from night to day, winter to summer, sunshine to rain, beautiful to scary, peaceful to warlike, cartoony to bloody etc. You can also change any item in your chosen concept or add any item(s) you wish.
  • Definition of Good and Evil: Good or Evil can be achieved by depicting a mood with lighting, objects, symbols, a style, etc.
  • Definition of Unearthly: Make your entry extreme in some fashion. Extremely pretty, extremely scary etc.
  • Definition of Playable: Making a pretty image is great! But making it look like it can fit in the universe of a game is a bonus! Example of game envrionment styles: Gears of War, Splintercell series, Diablo 3,  Team-Fortress 2, Starcraft 2, Crysis, Assassin's Creed, Spore, Rage, Warhammer Online, LittleBigPlanet, Company of Heroes, etc.

Specifics:

  • Mandatory: Choose one concept from our selection of 89 and use it as a base to begin your 3d entry.
  • Concepts should not be copied exactly, in fact, simply duplicating your chosen concept is a very bad thing. - Additional objects, lighting changes (night to day), art style, scene composition, etc. are all things you are free & encouraged to add, change, or develop yourselves.
  • Your 3d depiction 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 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 prohibited. Creating multiple 3d entries is prohibited. Each artist can join one 3d team (or do 3d alone) and create one 2d entry, however, both 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 your 3d entry.
  • All artwork must be created exclusively for this competition. No previously made Base meshes!! If you use a base mesh and get caught, you will be asked to restart your entry from scratch. No exceptions.
  • 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 or polycount.com to post your work-in-progress images and comments.


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 it’s objects, lighting, synchronized textures etc.


For this competition, the specs are:

  • 250 000 triangles **See Judging
    IMPORTANT: You have up to 250k triangles, this doesn't mean you have to use them all. A well Optimized scene “always” earns respect!
  • 4096x4096 total of texture space for each material pass
    • re: 4096x4096 total for diffuse, 4096x4096 total for normal maps, 4096x4096 total for specular, etc. etc.
  • Lighting and rendering can be created within any 3D software application or Game Engine.
  • Lightmaps may be used, but are optional.
  • Post-processing is allowed, but limited to:
    • hue/saturation adjustment
    • brightness/contrast adjustment
    • depth of field
    • bloom/hdr adjustment
    • motion blur
  • Photoshop touchups on Final Beauty Shot #1 and Beauty Shot #2 images are strictly prohibited! If needed, you can only add text and an image border. No background manipulation, sharpen filters or anything else.


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To complete your entry, you must hand in the following 6 images:

Final Thumbnail 128x128 Final thumbnail
Beauty Shot #1 Beauty Shot #1: Your best angle of your environment. (no Photoshop touchups!)
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size.
Beauty Shot #2 Beauty Shot #2: A second beauty shot of your environment but from a different angle. (no photoshop touchups!)
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size.
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.
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.
Concept Sheet Includes your chosen concept + any additional concepts 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 Unearthly 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 mde entirely from scratch. Don't create the same local and show it from different angles. Explore completely different areas, worlds, building and/or rooms.
  • Feel free to use any 3d package of your choice to help create your final entries. Only base models and lighting is 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 ideads 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 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 challenge are prohibited.
  • Please create only one thread and show all three of your work in progress entries within this single thread.
  • 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 or polycount.com to post your work-in-progress images and comments.


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To complete up to 3 entries, you must hand in the following 4 images for each set:
Final Thumbnail 128x128 Final thumbnail
Final Concept A full colored concept of a great looking angle of your environment. 
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size
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
Sketches Sheet A minimum of 6 black & white or single color (example light to dark blue etc) initial rough draft thumbnail sketches. These sketches should show how you came up with your environment idea.
- Up to 1100 x 1100 pixels and 350k file size





CHALLENGE DEADLINE:
11:59 p.m Eastern Time, Monday, November 10th, 2008




 


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