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 		   Challenges


Contestants in the 2005 Architectural Visualization competition will be tested in the full range of skills used every day in the field of Architectural Illustration. Upon successfully passing a qualifying round, 30 contestants will continue on to compete in 5 challenges spanning five months. With each challenge contestants will be eliminated based upon the judges evaluations until 3 finalists are selected. The awards of 1st, 2nd and 3rd places will be announced at the 4th Annual CGarchitect.com Party at SIGGRAPH 2005 in Los Angeles.
     


The current challenge in progress will always be highlighted in Green
See the competion rules for details on exact start and end times.

CHALLENGE QUALIFICATIONS - CLOSED
Description The qualification round is open to everyone. To enter, simply submit 3 of your best images to the challenge qualification forum using the guidelines detailed in the contest details section of the site. At the end of the qualification round, all of the submitted images will be evaluated our panel of judges and 30 people will be selected to participate in the 4 challenges spanning from March 7, 2005 to July 23, 2005.

READ THE CONTEST DETAILS SECTION FOR ENTRY DETAILS AN RULES
Judging Criteria All of the images will be evaluated on creativity, lighting, modeling, texturing, composition, technical difficulty and overall impact.
FEB 1 - FEB 28 Start and End Dates for Qualifications (28 days)
MAR 1 - MAR 6 Qualification Image Judging - Only selections/No Critiques
MAR 9 (REVISED) Top 30 Competition contestants announced (around 11pm MST)
Rules See CONTEST DETAILS section of the site

CHALLENGE #1 - CLOSED
Description Competitors will be given a selection of pre-defined shapes and primitives that they must use to build and render a scene. The only rule is that your scene must be representative of an architectural scene or form/shape study. Entrants can light and compose the scene in any way they choose. Textures are optional.

This challenge is open only to the 30 contestants selected during the qualification round.
Judging Criteria Judging will be based on view composition, lighting, creativity, originality, and overall impact.
MAR 10 - MAR 22 Start and End Dates for Challenge #1 (13 Days)
MAR 23 - MAR 28 Challenge #1 Judging and Critiques
MAR 29 Top 25 Challenge Winners Announced (5 Contestants eliminated)
Rules

1. You must use all of the shapes and primitives provided in your scene
2. You can can not modify the geometry of the provided shapes in any way, EXCEPT to uniformly scale them up or down in size or to add small fillets/chamfers to catch the light on the edges.. If you do scale them the original proportions must be maintained.
3. You can re-use the shapes in the scene as many times as you like and they do not all have to be the same scale.
4. You can apply textures to the shapes or solid color.
5. You can not introduce any other geometry to the scene other than what is provided, with the exception of a flat ground plane.
6. The background plate can be a solid color, a gradient or a bitmap of your choice.
7. You must post at least one work in progress before the challenge deadline and you must critique at least one other competitors work in progress. (Please try to submit more than one WIP and submit early enough that everyone has ample opportunity to critique your image.)
8. Please post your WIP to the Challenge #1 - WIP forum
9. Please post your FINAL image to the Challenge #2 - Final forum
10. The subject line for both WIP and FINAL posts should be as follows: "Your Name - WIP" or "Your Name - Final"
11. The WIP and FINAL images must be 1000 pixels on the largest dimension.
12. Please be sure to read the main competition RULES


DOWNLOAD YOUR SHAPES HERE (113KB)

This ZIP file contains the following file formats: 3dsmax 6, 3ds, DWG, DXF


CHALLENGE #2 - CLOSED        
Description Competitors will be challenged to model and render an outside scene of an busy downtown core or city center. The style and architectual design can can reflect the entrants own architectural designs or be based on existing buildings or architecture. Entrants will be expected to fully texture, light and populate the scene with all necessary entourage.


This challenge is open only to the 25 contestants selected from challenge #1
Judging Criteria Judging will be based on View Composition, Modeling, Lighting, Texturing, Creativity, Technical difficulty, Originality, and Unity.
MAR 30 - APR 27 Start and End Dates for Challenge #2 (29 days)
APR 28 - MAY 2 Challenge #2 Judging and Critiques
MAY 3 Top 20 Challenge Winners Announced (5 Contestants eliminated)
Rules 1. This challenge is open completely to your imagination. You can setup the scene, light and render it any way that you feel is appropriate.
2. The scene must however depict a busy downtown section or city block and the necessary entourage should be added to make it look as though it is the peek of rush hour.
3. You may use any techniques or methods that would be used to create a commercial illustration.
4. While background photography and camera mapping is allowed, please bear in mind that this is a visualization competiton and you will be scored on technical difficulty.
5. The scene must be fully textured and lit.
6. You must post at least one work in progress before the challenge deadline and you must critique at least one other competitors work in progress. (Please try to submit more than one WIP and submit early enough that everyone has ample opportunity to critique your image.)
7. Please post your WIP to the Challenge #2 - WIP forum
8. Please post your FINAL image to the Challenge #2 - Final forum
9. The subject line for both WIP and FINAL posts should be as follows: "Your Name - WIP" or "Your Name - Final"
10. The WIP and FINAL images must be 1000 pixels on the largest dimension.
11. When you upload your final image, please be sure it is named as follows: Your Name - Final.jpg(.png)
12. Bear in mind that you will be required to create an animation of this model or the one you create in challenge #3. (See challenge #4)
13. Please be sure to read the main competition RULES

CHALLENGE #3 - CLOSED
Description Competitors will be challenged to model and render an interior scene of a commercial lobby for a high profile office tower. The lobby should contain windows for exterior natural lighting as well spaces with indoor lighting. Entrants will be expected to fully texture, light and populate the scene with all necessary entourage.

This challenge is open only to the 20 contestants selected from challenge #2
Judging Criteria Judging will be based on view composition, lighting, creativity, technical difficulty, originality, and overall impact.
MAY 4 - JUN 1 Start and End Dates for Challenge #3 (29 Days)
JUN 2 - JUN 6 Challenge #3 Judging
JUN 6 - JUN 13 Challenge #3 Critiques
JUN 7 Top 15 Challenge Winners Announced (5 Contestants eliminated)
Rules 1. This challenge is open completely to your imagination. You can setup the scene, light and render it any way that you feel is appropriate.
2. The scene must however depict a high profile lobby that is filled with activity.
3. You may use any techniques or methods that would be used to create a commercial illustration.
4. While background photography and camera mapping is allowed, please bear in mind that this is a visualization competiton and you will be scored on technical difficulty.
5. The scene must be fully textured and lit.
6. You must post at least one work in progress before the challenge deadline and you must critique at least one other competitors work in progress. (Please try to submit more than one WIP and submit early enough that everyone has ample opportunity to critique your image.)
7. Please post your WIP to the Challenge #3 - WIP forum
8. Please post your FINAL image to the Challenge #3 - Final forum
9. The subject line for both WIP and FINAL posts should be as follows: "Your Name - WIP" or "Your Name - Final"
10. The WIP and FINAL images must be 1000 pixels on the largest dimension.
11. When you upload your final image, please be sure it is named as follows: Your Name - Final.jpg(.png)
12. Bear in mind that you will be required to create an animation of this model or the one you created in challenge #2. (See challenge #4)
13. Please be sure to read the main competition RULES

CHALLENGE #4 - CLOSED
Description Competitors will be challenged to create a 20 second animation of the space that was created in challenge 2 or 3 to best showcase the architecture and tell a story and invoke and emotion for the space.

This challenge is open only to the 15 contestants selected from challenge #3
Judging Criteria Judging will be based on final editing, post production, creativity, technical difficulty, originality, and overall impact.
JUN 8 - JUN 22 Start and End Dates for Challenge #4 (15 days)
JUN 23 - JUN 27 Challenge #4 Judging
JUN 27 - JUL 4 Challenge #4 Critiques
JUN 28 Top 7 Challenge Winners Announced (8 Contestants eliminated)
Rules
UPDATED June 16th 		1. This challenge is open completely to your imagination. You can animate your scene in any way you feel properly tells the story about your space.
2. You must use the scene(s) created in Challenge #2 and/or Challenge #3
3. You can enhance/remodel or make some additions to your previous scene provided it is still recognizable as your previous entry.
4. The total length of the animation must be 20 seconds.
5. You can add music, soundtrack, or sound effects to your animation, however you MUST have permission to use them for public performance, be using royalty free material, or own the copyright. By posting a WIP or Final submission to the forum with music, you are legally acknowledging that you have obtained permission or own the rights to all music or soundtracks. Anyone that uses music illegally will be disqualified. CGarchitect.com will not be held liable for any breach of copyright.
6. You must post at least one work in progress (still image screen captures) before the challenge deadline and you must critique at least one other competitors work in progress. (Please try to submit more than one WIP and submit early enough that everyone has ample opportunity to critique your image.)
7. Please post your WIP to the Challenge #4 - WIP forum in the form of screen captures.
8. Please post your FINAL image to FTP site that will be emailed to you.
9. The subject line for both WIP and FINAL posts should be as follows: "Your Name - WIP" or "Your Name - Final"
10. The FINAL animation must be a QuickTime or DivX (prefered) in either NTSC or PAL format (Widescreen formats are also permitted)
11. When you upload your final image, please be sure it is named as follows: Your Name - Final.mov or Your Name - Final.avi
12. Please be sure to read the main competition RULES
Sponsors ResPower and Rendercore and have both donated time on their renderfarms to our competitors. There are specific rules and limits to using their services which will be emailed to all of the competitors at the time these challenge rules are made public.

ResPower has donated 3,000 GHz CPU hours for each competitor
Rendercore has donated 1,500 GHz CPU hours to be shared among the competitors.


CHALLENGE #5   -     Challenge #5 ends in:  13 Jul 2005 18:00:00 UTC-0600
Description Competitors will be challenged to create a fully rendered night scene of either scene from challenge 2 or 3.

This challenge is open only to the 7 contestants selected from challenge #4
Judging Criteria Judging will be based on View Composition, Modeling, Lighting, Texturing, Creativity, Technical difficulty, Originality, and Unity.
JUL 29 - JUL 13 Start and End Dates for Challenge #5 (15 days)
JUL 14 - JUL 18 Challenge #5 Judging
JUL 19 - JUL 26 Challenge #5 Critiques
JUL 19 Top 5 Nominees Announced (2 Competitors eliminated)
Rules 1. This challenge is open completely to your imagination. You can setup the scene, and render it any way that you feel is appropriate.
2. The scene must however must be from either challenge 2 or 3 and it must be a night or dusk shot.
3. You may use any techniques or methods that would be used to create a commercial illustration.
4. While background photography and camera mapping are allowed, please bear in mind that this is a visualization competiton and you will be scored on technical difficulty.
5. The scene must be fully textured and lit.
6. You must post at least one work in progress before the challenge deadline and you must critique at least one other competitors work in progress. (Please try to submit more than one WIP and submit early enough that everyone has ample opportunity to critique your image.)
7. Please post your WIP to the Challenge #5 - WIP forum
8. Please post your FINAL image to the Challenge #5 - Final forum
9. The subject line for both WIP and FINAL posts should be as follows: "Your Name - WIP" or "Your Name - Final"
10. The WIP and FINAL images must be 1000 pixels on the largest dimension.
11. When you upload your final image, please be sure it is named as follows: Your Name - Final.jpg(.png)
12. Please be sure to read the main competition RULES

AWARDS CEREMONY
Description The top 3 will be awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd placements at the 4th annual CGarchitect.com Party at SIGGRAPH 2005. Over $100,000 in prizes will be given away.
Wednesday August 3, 2005 Will take place on the evening of Wednesday August 3rd 2005 in Los Angeles, California at SIGGRAPH 2005. Please RSVP to attend the event.
RSVP NOW http://www.cgarchitect.com/siggraph/