Armada! - Specifications & Rules

[requiem2d]

General

Armada! Prepare your fleet. Your objective is to create two spacecrafts which have the following qualities: 1) One Ship must be identifiable as the Mothership (Possible Traits: Large, Headquarters, Landing/TakeOff Docks) and the second Ship must be a Sistership of sorts (Possible Traits: Small, Light Class, Fighter, Scout, Escort). You must also use a consistent style or theme across the Paired Spacecrafts. A good measure of this would be that if one were to see the ships separately, one would automatically assume that they belong together. You also do not need to limit yourself to a theme, it can be: Destroyer/Fighter, Cargo/Escort, basically whatever you want to come up with, sky's the limit! We have some big judges this time round so be smart!

Sponsoring this competition we have some great groups which are all aligned to the same high standards of quality we live by. Alienware, provides high performance systems for people which need to be able to rely on their systems, be it a Serious Gamer or a thriving 3D Artist. Area, the best online community any Autodesk client could wish for, they run a series of events as well as maintain various tutorials & articles. 3D World as many of you may know is the only international magazine for 3D artists, it provides you with an analysis of the latest market trends, product reviews and some excellent behind-the-scenes articles. Last but not least, CGTextures.com has really become the best damn photo-texture resource one can find, I use it all the time and so should you! We're really glad to have all these groups onboard as they all have terrific products which relate so much to the work we do here. Thank you Sponsors!

We also have an awesome new award named the "Best Crit Award", this is given to the forum member (doesn't need to be a contestant) which gives the best constructive criticism & and has the most professional and supportive delivery. To avoid confusion, this is across all your posts made during this competition, not just a single one, so it's quality and quantity! Along with a nice shiney award for your forum profile, you'll also receive a sweet prize as you can see below!

Prizes

1st Place will win the following:
ALIENWARE ODYSSEY BACKPACK
ALIENWARE OZMA 5 HEADPHONES
ALIENWARE SWAG BUNDLE (T-Shirt, Mousepad, Keychain, etc.)
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION TO 3D WORLD MAGAZINE (Hard Copy)
MEMBERSHIP TO CGTEXTURES.COM
AREA T-SHIRT

2nd Place will win the following:
2 AUTODESK AREA BOOKS
MEMBERSHIP TO CGTEXTURES.COM
AREA T-SHIRT

3rd Place will win the following:
MEMBERSHIP TO CGTEXTURES.COM
AREA T-SHIRT

Top 30 Contestants will receive:
AREA T-SHIRT

Best Crit Award:
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION TO 3D WORLD MAGAZINE (Hard Copy)

Please note that to qualify as a contestant your entry must be a complete piece. Partially completed, work in progress or rushed work does not qualify and as a result will not be eligible. Game-Artist.Net has full discretion in this matter. Also, contestants working in groups of two will need to designate which registered member will be the recipient of the prizes if you were to win something (this can be done in the first post of your WIP thread).

Specifications

Maximum Triangles
7000

Maximum Textures
1024 x 1024 plus 512 x 512 Diffuse
1024 x 1024 plus 512 x 512 Specular (optional)
1024 x 1024 plus 512 x 512 Bump / Normal (optional)
1024 x 1024 plus 512 x 512 Alpha (optional)
1024 x 1024 plus 512 x 512 Glow (optional)

It is also important to note that the Tri-Count and Texture Size Limits can be distributed between both ships as one sees fit. The triangle count is not the same as what people refer to as poly count, your 3D editor will probably provide both statistics.

Submission Guidelines

Entry Deadline is the End of Sunday the 6th of April GMT +-0 as time zone.

Work in Progress should be posted by yourself in a seperate thread, named by using the competition number and your username as thread title, i.e. "Competition #13 - requiem2d" (This is Competition #13 by the way). Work in Progress threads are not required, but if you are working with complex normal maps or detailed textures, you may want to receive some advice before submitting. We highly recommend creating such a thread.

Final Submissions should be posted by yourself in the thread titled "Competition #13 - Armada Submissions". Only one entry per contestant and the use of previously created assets is strictly prohibited (Game-Artist.Net has full discretion in this matter).

When posting in the Submission Thread, please provide the following:

* Beauty Render of Final Piece 800x600 (you may make alterations in Photoshop as long as they do not significantly change the original piece, i.e. dodge, burn, blur, sharpen, levels. Use of environments are also allowed)
* Link to Wireframe of Final Piece 800x600
* Links to all texture sheets used (original size / no watermarks)
* E-mail Address to be used if you are to win any of the prizes

Only your beauty render should be displayed in your post within the submissions thread, all other images linked to. This is so that the thread remains organized. Failure to meet the above or incorrectly post your submission will be brought to your notice a single time, if the issue has not been fixed by the contest deadline, the entry will be eliminated. If you attempt to cheat by either not following the rules above, copying work or using past works you will be disqualified immediately.

Alienware, Area, 3D World, CGTextures.com is granted use of your final entry posted in the submissions thread on any medium they own as long as the context is related to this competition. By participating in this competition, you also agree to receiving e-mails from our sponsors (through the e-mail you provide in your final entry).

Game-Artist.net reserves the right to amend any of the above during the course of the Competition (can relate to Specifications, Prizes, Submission Guidelines, etc.).

Final words from Staff: This may seem like a big challenge for the less skilled, the truth: it will be. That said, you will need to manage your time, work through it and shoot for your ultimate goal: completing! You will have a lot of support from the members in this community and it really is a great experience. In our books, anybody who finishes is a winner, it just doesn't always mean you get a prize

Special thanks also go to Glynnsmith & Alchemist101 for helping out with the organization of this competition.

Good luck to all !

[Tiros]

This comp really sounds great, nice theme but also a great challange indeed :s
I'll try to participate though, hopefully it'll turn out well.

[Fleistad]

Oh man, this sounds like a fun one. I hope I can come up with something.
I guess I’ll have to draw up some (horrific) concepts for this one.

[sarge mat]

This is very cool.

Just a question, could you model a ship thats all ready in a game etc?

[requiem2d]

Originally Posted by sarge mat

Just a question, could you model a ship thats all ready in a game etc?

You can follow the style, but a pure re-make can be seen as plagiarism. Just be wise about it and do enough creative changes. Hope this helps

[sarge mat]

Thanks. I love the style of the ships in Halo and there is a major one in the books that has never been shown in the games. So I would like to design that myself as well as a smaller support ship.

[UnsteadyTeddy]

Damn. A theme I can actually compete with ....

No excuses not to complete now !

[sarge mat]

I am so looking foward to getting started.

[requiem2d]

Originally Posted by UnsteadyTeddy

Damn. A theme I can actually compete with ....

No excuses not to complete now !

You're right, this is totally down your alley. Can't see your WIP thread yet?

[sarge mat]

so can we make a WIP thrend right away?