AVATAR International 2D/3D Art Competition: *THE COMPETITION RULES* Due Mar 08, 2009

[Lynette-3dt]

AVATAR International 2D/3D Art Competition

• Introduction
• Theme Description
• Your Mission
• Categories
• Deliverables
• Final Image Size
• WIP Sheet
• How to Submit your Images
• Restrictions
• Rules

Introduction
Welcome to the Avatar International 2D/3D Art Competition! Avatar is an international event that goes beyond a single resource. We thought it would be great to gather artists from all over the world to fight a creative task together. We really want to turn it into a remarkable, exciting and fun event, so we’ve invited an amazing group of artists to our judges’ panel and partnered up with some great sponsors!


Theme Description
Avatar (or Avatara) is the Sanskrit word which literally means "descent", and usually implies a deliberate descent from higher spiritual realms to lower realms of existence for special purposes. It often translates into English as incarnation.

In this case, we are encouraging artists to imagine they were born on another planet, or in another world … What would it look like, what kind of society and technology would it have? Would it be a totally futuristic, alien realm, or perhaps something primitive and close to nature? Imagine a world that you'd like to live in and tell us all about it. We'd like to see not just alien vistas, but images with a story!


Your Mission!

1. To create a character (avatar)
2. To create an environment and place your character in it
3. To tell a story within your image

You are free to create any life form for your character, just make sure it has some charisma and personality. You can create a female character if you’re a man, and vice versa – it’s up to you.

Use your imagination while creating your world. Put some thought into its atmosphere, gravity, eco system and so on.

Finally, put some story behind your image. It could be something simple like a still life shot or an epic or historic moment from the life of your universe. Be creative!


Above: Sample of Final Image (Artwork by Ruan Jia)

Categories

• 2D Illustration
• 3D Image
• Comic (Cartoon) Style Image

For the 2D category you can use any 2D software package (Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, etc.) and/or any traditional mediums, like colour pencils, acrylics or oil paints, to create the final image.

For the 3D category you can use any 3D software for modelling and rendering. For post-processing you can use any compositing software (Apple Shake, Eyeon Digital Fusion, Adobe After Effects, etc.). To clarify things, you must provide a clean render ("as is") without any post-production effects in a WIP sheet (see WIP Sheet section for further details).

For the comic (cartoon) style category you can use any 2D/3D software package and/or any traditional mediums like colour pencils, acrylics, or oil paints to create the final image.


Deliverables

All entrants are required to provide the following:

• A work in progress (WIP) sheet
• A final image

Final Image Size
For the judging stage we accept submissions as .JPG files at 72dpi – screen resolution – at approx. 800-1000 pixels wide. All submitted images must, however, be available in print resolution: 300dpi – print resolution – at approx. 3000-4000 pixels wide, or above.

As a guideline, here are the ideal sizes for your final images, at print resolution:

• 2480 x 3425 pixels (portrait)
• 4960 x 3425 pixels (landscape)

These are given as guidelines. To be safe, paint or render images that are larger than specified.


WIP Sheet
A WIP sheet is a compilation of images showcasing your creative process, from the initial sketches or 3D pre-viz. renders to the final image.


Above: Sample WIP Sheet (Artwork by Ruan Jia)

All WIP images should be saved at print resolution (see Final Image Size section) wherever possible; we understand that screen shots can only be grabbed at 72dpi, so we simply ask that all of WIP images are as large as possible. For the judging stage, it is only necessary to submit screen resolution versions of your WIP sheets (see Final Image Size section).


How to Submit your Images
We want this contest to benefit a large group of artists. To maximise your creative experience, we encourage you to participate in the online community hosted by 3DTotal:

1. Join the contest by registering at 3DTotal forum

2. Create your own personal thread within the AVATAR Forum of the Threedy Challenges Forum on http://forums.3dtotal.com and submit your work in progress on a regular basis. Your thread must be labelled as follows:

AVATAR – 3d/2d/Comic – Your Forum Name – Title of your Work
For example, mine would read: AVATAR – 3d – Lynette-3dt – ‘Untitled’

3. Participate in the community by critiquing other artists’ entries in the respective forums and listen to feedback

4. Submit your final entry before the deadline (to avoid the last minute rush get your entry in early!)

For your final image submission, you must provide the following information:

• Image Title:
• Artist:
• Country:
• Email Address:
• Website:
• Software Used in Creation of Image:
• Description of Image (the more info provided here, the better):

Restrictions
All images, including concepts, sketches, 3D assets, etc. must be made specifically for this contest.

No teams or groups – everything must be made by one person.

Keep gore and nudity to a decent level, no explicit scenes and violence.

All winners will be required to cooperate in an interview about themselves and their work, and provide detailed ‘making of’ articles accompanied by high-resolution work in progress stills for 3DCreative and/or 2DArtist Magazine after the competition.


Rules

1. Employees and immediate family relatives of 3DTotal staff, sponsors and judges cannot compete in the contest.

2. Entries should be original and should remain unprinted outside of 3DTotal prior to the close of the contest. Any entry deemed by the judges to be identical or substantially similar to any other entry previously entered may be disqualified as a derivate work.

3. Images must conform to nominal decency guidelines. Any image deemed to contain content that depicts violence, racial, political, religious, sexual, or any other inflammatory material in an inappropriate manner may be disqualified and removed.

4. No late entries will be accepted. 3DTotal will not be held responsible for late entries for any reason whatsoever. It is the sole responsibility of the entrant to make reasonable allowances for upload times and to plan accordingly.

5. Judges' decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.

6. To be eligible for prizes, all winning entrants must cooperate in an interview about themselves and their work, and provide detailed "making of" articles for their winning work.

7. Any import taxes or duties on prizes must be paid by the prize winner. It is neither practically possible nor ethically reasonable for 3DTotal or any of the sponsors to pay duties and taxes on behalf of a winner. 3DTotal and sponsors will not make false valuation claims to assist winners from evading any applicable duties and taxes.

8. By entering artwork to the competition the entrant warrants that he or she is the sole copyright holder, or that he or she has obtained the rights sufficient for the purpose of the competition.

9. The entrant grants 3DTotal and competition sponsors rights to use all entered materials in any media for sales, marketing and merchandising material provided full and correct credit for the artist clearly appears with said materials.

10. Other than the rights assigned in the preceding clauses entrants retain copyright of all entered materials and are free to use said materials for personal promotions.

11. 3DTotal reserve the right to publish more information about the competition, explaining the content and purpose of the event. 3DTotal also reserve the right to amend any of the above items and sections of the site during the competition (it could refer to the description of the contest and prizes, sponsors, the biography of the jury, etc.).

12. 3DTotal reserve the right to cancel or extend the contest at any time for any reason, without notice or prior warning.