FACE - 2 - FACE CONTEST

In an ongoing effort to support the growing community of 3D artists, Animation Magazine would like to extend a special invitation to you to participate in Animation Magazine’s Face-2-Face Contest, sponsored by Dell and Image Metrics. This competition will award 3D artists for creating outstanding facial models in two main categories: Film and Game.

The Face-2-Face Contest features nearly $10,000 worth of prizes to help you in your creative craft. Each main category – Film and Game – will offer a First, Second and Third place prize sponsored by Dell and Image Metrics. In addition, all entrants will enjoy great exposure to the entertainment industry in general, and more specifically, to some of the best creative’s in the business, our judges.

Deadlines:
Act fast. The contest ends December 5, 2008.

Details:
You are asked to create and submit up to two (2) of your best facial models in the following main categories:
- Game resolution head model
- Film resolution head model

In addition, those entries must fall within one of the following subcategories:
- Realistic Male
- Realistic Female
- Realistic Child
- Non-human humanoid (orc, goblin, etc)
- Non-human (reptile, insect, etc)
- Cartoon or stylized character
For example, you can submit a realistic male facial model for the film category, and a non-human humanoid facial model for the game category.

Prizes:
To help you in your ongoing creative endeavors, we have assembled some great prizes in each of the main categories:
First Place – Dell’s latest powerhouse - the m6400 workstation – featuring a 17” monitor, 16GB of memory, a Core 2 Duo Quad Core Extreme processor, up to 1TB of data, and up to 1GB of NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M Graphics.
Second Place – Wacom’s Cintiq 20WSX tablet
Third Place - $500 in cash
We will also provide all contestants with exposure to our judges, and all winners with exposure to the games and film markets through our marketing and sales efforts. Credits for your work will be used in all cases.

Specifications:

Model resolution - The resolution requirements will be determined by the resolution of the head mesh only. All the auxiliary meshes, such as the eyeballs and teeth, could be any resolution. However, the auxiliary meshes should still be the "appropriate resolution" for the model and category; "Low polygon" for games, "High polygon" for film.
The game resolution head mesh must be under 2500 polygons.
The film resolution head mesh must be from 2500 to 10000 polygon maximum.

Model components:

Head — The head mesh must have a full neck, ears and mouth bag. You will be judged on good facial topology. Your most important considerations when modeling should be: How well will the model deform? Can your model emote a wide range of facial expressions? Is there enough geometry for a blink? For a smile? For speech?
Always consider the underlying anatomy of the model, especially if it's a creature. Would this anatomy "work" in the real world?

Eye Geometry — Any style eyes will be accepted. The eyeballs could be as simple as two spheres or as complex as multiple pieces of geometry for the inner and outer eye anatomy. Additional eye geometry, such as eyelashes or eyelash cards, caruncle and eye-wet pieces will also help. Obviously, the more effort you put into the eyes, the more chance you have of winning.

Mouth Geometry — The upper teeth, lower teeth and the tongue should all be separate pieces. The gums could be separate pieces as well, but this is entirely up to you. The placement of the teeth and tongue should be "anatomically accurate" for your character.
Original Topology - All geometry, including the head and teeth, must have your own original topology. That is, do not just take meshes that are not your own and sculpt them into a different shape.

UVs - All meshes must have UVs laid out. One UV set per mesh.

Textures - Color, specular, bump, normal, displacement maps are NOT required, but will help you win if you have them.

Submission guidelines:
Please upload your entries to the following ftp address: http://dropbox.yousendit.com/Face2FaceDropBox

All entries should include the following:
- Your model in the file format of your choice (maya, max, xsi, obj)
- Four renders of your model:
- One from the front
- One from the front showing the wireframe
- One from 3/4 view
- One from 3/4 view showing the wireframe

The renders should be at least 1k resolution.

The better your model looks in the renders, the more chance you have of winning.
Each character should be accompanied with a Word doc that includes a brief character description of your model (character's name, occupation, etc) and what category you are entering, as well as your name and contact information (e-mail and phone number).
Any questions, you can e-mail contest@animationmagazine.net

For more information go to http://www.animationmagazine.net/face2face.html

Human Weapon Gaming nights

Here is your chance to challenge your colleagues, beat your friends or kill your enemies to become a true-blue Human Weapon. The History Channel in association with Microsoft Xbox 360 is organizing Human Weapon Gaming Nights on Friday, September 19, 2008 at The Living Room, Residency Cross Road, Bengaluru from 4 pm onwards.The event is for all gaming enthusiasts in the city and to promote The History Channel's biggest property this season, Human Weapon. The series, which takes viewers on a scintillating journey through the varied world of martial arts, airs every week on Wednesday and Thursday nights at 10 pm. Participants need to log onto http://www.historychannelindia.com/humanweapon/contest.aspx to register for the gaming night. Thrilling games such as Halo 3, Gears of war, Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden 2 promise to be the star attractions of the evening as they provide a direct connect to the series' overriding theme. The winner of the championship will take home an Xbox 360 along with other goodies."Xbox 360 is extremely happy to be partnering with The History Channel for the Human Weapons Gamer Nights. As two young and dynamic brands providing unparalleled entertainment; it is but a natural coming together for us to provide the best of gaming and entertainment experiences to our audiences. This unique event is also a great platform to showcase some of the exciting new stuff Xbox 360 has planned for the upcoming festival season. The exciting Gears of War 2 arrives in November alongside other hits like Fallout 3 and Fable 2 as well as the exciting new Xbox Live experience," commented Microsoft (Entertainment & Devices Division) National Marketing Manager, Ashim Dass Mathur.

Ahead of the Curve competition by Autodesk

The Ahead of the Curve competition for students challenged young artists to show us their skills and powers of imagination using Autodesk® Maya® or Autodesk® 3ds Max®. The response was tremendous--all of the entries earned top marks! Seeing this wealth of talent made us feel like Aladdin in his cave of wonders. It’s too bad that we didn’t have a genie to help us choose the winners. It was a big challenge and, without a magic lamp in sight, our diligent judges took to their task.It’s our pleasure to congratulate the winners:
Overall Grand Prize Winner:
Mayec Rancel and José SotoSchool: CICE, Madrid, SpainName of work: "Substantia"
Category Winners:
Film and video: Tomás Cejudo MorinSchool: CICE, Madrid, SpainName of work: "Maha Hrit"
Games: Indranil MukherjeeSchool: Former student at the Raisina Bengali Senior Secondary SchoolName of work: "The Last Journey to Earth"
Visualization: Roshan MartinSchool: PROCOM: ERACOM - Ecole Romande d'arts et Communication, Lausanne, SwitzerlandName of work: "Longines Watch"
3D illustration/graphic design: Ruben Dario Karamañites ArangoSchool: Former student of the Image Campus Institute, Buenos Aires, ArgentinaName of work: "Last Ride of the Cyborg Elves"
Prizes :
Overall Grand Prize - One top-of-the-line workstation, courtesy of HP , One Xbox, courtesy of ATI
Category Prize - A graphics card from AMD or NVIDIA
Our appreciation and thanks go to our diligent judges and our generous sponsors, and most of all to those who entered the competition. We are pleased to know that Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max software allow so many students to express their creativity. Well done--and thanks again to everyone.

Holland Animation Film Festival Web Competition

This year the Holland Animation Film Festival(HAFF) takes place November 5-9. During these five days, the festival will show international competitions and a range of programs to show the variety of animation. In addition to the regular competitions (applied, independent and student work -- call for entries closed on all three), this year the festival will introduce a new online competition: The Holland Animation Web Competition. The online competition will take place on HAFF's YouTube channel, HaffTube. Aside from the competition, the channel will showcase past festival editions, trailers and more.
Entries are now being accepted.
Animation filmmakers from all over the world can enter the Web competition. Call for entries are open now, rules, regulations and the entry form are on HaffTube.
During the second week in September, the Web competition will launch, filling the channel with films from around the world. Festival organizers will vet and rate all films entered for competition. When 50 films have been submitted, voting begins. Each week, films will be voted off to make room for new entries.
Entries will be closed on October 22, 2008, then a jury will decide which one of the 50 films should be the winner out of the final group. The selected winner will be announced on the opening night of the festival at November 5. The winner will receive a guest accreditation and free hotel stay during the festival.

SHIFT 2009 CALENDAR COMPETITION

Submission starts on June 15th. The deadline is September 10th, 2008. Shift has been trying to offer artists many platforms to showcase their works online. The Shift calendar competition held from 2003 successively, pushes the boundaries between online and off line using a "calendar" as its medium. Entries are invited from all over the world and selected works will be distributed throughout the world in the format of a physical calendar.This year, selected works will be exhibited and sold at PRINT'EM web site for a year with support by PRINT'EM, a graphic print center operated by Mitsubishi Paper MIlls Limited. The deadline for this competition is on September 10th, 2008. Please send us your original work.
The format should be Photoshop or Illustrator data. (If you use Photoshop, the data should be 300 dpi)You are required to prepare three kinds of data.- For calendar: w 210 x h 297 mm (A4)- For exhibition and sales at PRINT'EM site: A0 (w 841 x h 1,189 mm )- For entry: Jpeg format (72 dpi), w 595 x h 842 pixels.Please send this thumbnail via e-mailThe image, text, illustration and any other components within your work should be original.
Twelve creators will be selected and their each art work will be used as visual in the Shift 2009 Calendar. These twelve works will be exhibited and sold at PRINT'EM web site.
Please send the image in Jpeg format (72 dpi) and send it via e-mail to: competition@shift.jp.org* Limited 5 works per personE-mail subject should be "2009 Calendar Competition".Please make sure to include your name, postal address, phone number.
More Details>

5th Peugeot Design Contest

Create a Concept Car which is designed to evolve within the cities of the future, whilst retaining the key values of the 21st century. The projects should bear Peugeot's stylistic codes and must contain the following four aspects included in this design competition: environmental awareness, social harmony, interactive mobility and economic efficiency.
You can now subscribe to the Design Contest newsletter
Join the contest by submitting your project

Create Snoop Dogg desktop wallpapers

Put your creative talents to the test in our wallpaper design contest, run in collaboration with Hip Hop Megastar Snoop Dogg.We're working closely with Doggy Style Records to bring this unique offering to designers and Snoop Dogg fans around the world. The contest is free to enter for all, whether you're a professional or aspiring designer. There are three rounds in total, the winners get awesome Apple prizes, exclusive Snoop Dogg merchandise and their designs endorsed by Snoop Dogg himself."At Doggy Style Records, we are constantly exploring innovative new ways to connect Snoop Dogg with his fans," says Ted Chung of Doggy Style Records. "Crestock and their thousands of exciting young designers tied in perfectly with the numerous digital initiatives we have underway here at Doggy Style Records."Entries to the contest will be judged by a panel of industry and Hip Hop media luminaries including Ted Chung, President of Doggy Style Records and Ryan Ford, Executive Editor of The Source Magazine.
Read More and Participate

Zapak to organize 1st corporate gaming tournament of India

Reliance Entertainment's online gaming portal Zapak will organize a corporate gaming championship in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. The event concludes on 21 March 2008 in Mumbai.Targeted at corporate executives in individual and team gaming formats, the event is being pushed as India’s first corporate gaming tournament. It will feature hardcore games like Counter Strike 1.6, Fifa 08, NFS Most Wanted. It will also feature casual games like Zuma, Bejeweled and Heavy Weapon. Zapak has devised it as an annual corporate event.The company notes that gaming in the office is an undeniable part of corporate life across India. A majority of the registered user base of 3.2 million on Zapak.com access the site from office.The target participants for the event range from CEOs to executives. The industries being looked at are IT, BPO, FMCG, consumer durables, finance, banking, advertising, media, telecom and the service sector.The city preliminary rounds take place on 8 and 9 March and on 15 and 16 March. The National Final takes place in Mumbai on 21 March. Zapak expects 1500 participants from each city to take part.The finale will take place at the Hard Rock Café in Mumbai. 30 finalists will participate. Nine finalists from Delhi and Bangalore will fly to Mumbai. It will be a Page 3 Event with celebrities.To create awareness 150 radio spots will air on Big FM and Fever FM in the three cities. In addition there will be TV spots on Zee Business The company is also looking at below the line activation across 250 corporate offices across the three cities. There will also be outdoor hoardings in Mumbai and Bangalore.The title sponsor is Reliance Money. The co sponsor is Electronic Arts while the associate partners are Kingfisher Airlines and Force India. The travel partner is Travelport while the fuel partner is IndianOil Xtra Premium.

For more information visit their website.

2008 Adobe® Design Achievement Awards

The Adobe® Design Achievement Awards celebrate student achievement reflecting the powerful convergence of technology and the creative arts. The competition — which showcases individual and group projects created with industry-leading Adobe creative software — honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers, and computer artists from the world's top institutions of higher education.

The 2008 Adobe Design Achievement Awards gives higher education students from around the world the creative license to propel their careers in the future. Enter in 12 categories in 3 media areas endorsed by the industry, over 60$K US in cash prizes will be awarded in New York City.
Submissions close May 2, 2008.

Know all about the contest.

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Watch 2007 Winners

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Official Rules

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Zapak launches ATM Cash Contest

Reliance's online gaming platform Zapak has launched its ATM Cash Contest, where a Zapak user earns cash by playing games. The gamer has to play as many games as he can, from the moment the clock strikes 12 until 11:59 pm on the same day. He has to check his ATM statement on Zapak.com on a daily basis to see what he has won.
This contest, where gamers can earn up to Rs 200,000 everyday, will go on for a fortnight on Zapak.com. There are cash prizes and gift vouchers to be won on playing 25, 35, 45, 65 and 75 games. The ATM Cash Contest can be entered at www.zapak.com/atmcontest.zpk and is being communicated to the gamers via TV and radio. Zapak is planning to spend half a million dollars within 15 days in promoting the contest. The TVC shows a young protagonist depositing bundles of cash at a counter in a bank. The idea being highlighted is the potential of winning cash everyday. Zapak Digital Entertainment COO Arun Mehra says, “The ATM Cash Contest is our way to thank and gratify our community of loyal gamers by rewarding them for what they know best - playing games. On garnering more than 4 million registered users on Zapak.com, we decided to launch this unique contest for our gamers. We aim to gratify at least a million gamers through this innovative concept and make them keep coming back for more.” (Indiantelevision.com)

Mobile Rules! Competition

Would you like an opportunity to work with Nokia? Here’s your chance. The deadline for the 2008 Mobile Rules! competition is fast approaching. Submit your application by January 25 for a chance to win a business contract or cash prizes. If you are interested in bringing mobile applications to a whole new level, we want to hear from you. The goal of the competition is to identify innovative application developers, entrepreneurs, university spin-offs, and small companies and reward their achievements in brining value to the mobile workplace and consumers.There are four application categories in which prizes will be awarded: multiplayer games, multimedia, enterprise, and infotainment. Each grand prize winner will receive a fast-track contract with one of the contest sponsors or a $10,000 cash prize. The competition is sponsored by Nokia, Blue Run Ventures, CMEA Ventures, Red Herring magazine, SK Telecom International, Orange Partner, SINA Mobile, Vision Capital, and others.

So Click to Join Now