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