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 		   Challenges

Contestants in the 2007 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, contestants will continue on to compete in the competition spanning four months. The awards of 1st, 2nd and 3rd places will be announced at the 6th Annual Garchitect.com Awards ceremony during the 2007 VisMasters Design Modeling and Visualization Conference in San Diego following SIGGRAPH.








     

The current challenge in progress will always be highlighted in Green
See the competition 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 using our competition upload form. At the end of the qualification round, all of the submitted images will be evaluated by our panel of judges. Twenty five people will be selected to compete in the competition spanning All will participate in the competition spanning from April 23, 2007 to June 30, 2006.

READ THE CONTEST DETAILS SECTION FOR ENTRY DETAILS AND RULES
Judging Criteria All of the images will be evaluated on creativity, lighting, modeling, texturing, composition, technical difficulty and overall impact.
MAR 19 - APR 14 Start and End Dates for Qualifications (27 days)
APR 16 - APR 21 Qualification Image Judging - Only selections/No Critiques
APR 22 Top 25 Competition contestants announced (around 11pm MST)
Rules See CONTEST DETAILS section of the site
ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM SUBMIT YOUR THREE QUALIFICATION IMAGES HERE

CHALLENGE #1 - STILL IMAGE - CLOSED
Description

 Each competitor will be allowed to choose one model, from five preselected untextured models, that they will use throughout the competition.

As a major component of successful architectural visualization is to tell an engaging story visually about the architecture, competitors will be asked to write a detailed paragraph outlining the story they want to tell with the model they have chosen.

Once the story outline has been determined, competitors will be asked in Challenge #1 to create a STILL IMAGE that most effectively tells the story they want to tell.

To put this challenge into a real world context, many ad agencies, developers and architects have put a great deal of thought and planning into the design and marketing of the architecture. The architecture may express something culturally significant, or the marketing for the building might need to target a particular group of people and entice them into a lifestyle. Normally this story is given to you when you are commissioned for a project, but to ensure the competition does not limit your creativity and to allows you to grow as a visualization artist, you will be allowed to outline what the story you are going to tell for the competition.

This challenge is open only to the 25 competitors selected during the qualification round.
Judging Criteria Judging will be based on view composition, modeling, lighting, texturing, creativity, originality, technical difficulty, overall impact and ability to visualize the story outlined in your brief.
APR 23 - MAY 19 Start and End Dates for Challenge #1 (27 Days)
APR 30 Story Outline Deadline (5pm MDT)
(Failure to meet this deadline will result in disqualification)
MAY 4
MAY 11
MAY 18
MAY 25 		Progress Updates & Peer Critiques (Story Outline) (5pm MDT)
Progress Updates & Peer Critiques (May 4 Progress Updates) (5pm MDT)
Progress Updates & Peer Critiques (May 11 Progress Updates) (5pm MDT)
Peer Critiques (Final Image postings) (5pm MDT)
MAY 20 - MAY 26 Challenge #1 Judging and Critiques
MAY 27 Challenge Scoring Announced
Rules


1. CRITIQUES - After each weekly progress update is posted you will have one week to post critiques on your fellow competitors work. You are required to post a critique on the forum for a minimum of 6 competitors each week. You must ensure that by the end of the competition you have critiqued each competitors work at least once. You will be provided an online form that must be completed each week where you will provide the links to your critiques. The critiques must be complete and should not be one line or one word long. Write the critique that you would like your fellow competitors to write for you! The competition administration reserves the right to determine if a critique is suitable.

2. PROGESS UPDATES - Each week you will be required to post one progress update where you will share images, sketches, works in progress, animations, etc. What you post is what your fellow competitors, expert judges and forum members will be critiquing, so the more you post the better feedback you will receive. DURING ONE OF THE PROGESS UPDATES YOU MUST POST YOUR CHOSEN CAMERA VIEW. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN A LOSS OF POINTS.

3. STORY OUTLINE - The story outline concept that you will be basing your competition imagery and animations upon must be detailed and at least one long paragraph in length. If in doubt, error on the side of writing too much than not enough as the judges will reject any outline that is not significantly detailed or concept not properly developed. Once your story has been posted, you may not change it for the duration of the competition, so be sure to give it some thought. THE DEADLINE FOR THE OUTLINE IS APRIL 30 (5pm MDT). FAILURE TO MEET THIS DEADLINE WILL RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION FROM THE COMPETITION.

4. Please post your story outline to the Challenge #1 - STORY OUTLINE forum.
5. Please post your progress updates to the to the Challenge #1 - WIP forum.
6. Please post your FINAL image to the Challenge #1 - Final forum
7. The subject line for Story, WIP and FINAL posts should be as follows: "Your Name - WIP", "Your Name - Story", or "Your Name - Final"
8. The WIP can be any reasonable size and FINAL images must a minimum of 2000 pixels on the smallest dimension.
9. The model selected must be the main focus of the image and must not be significantly modified from the original.
10. Please be sure to read the main competition RULES


NOTE: File size limits on the forums have been increased for JPEG (not JPG) file formats. You can upload up to 4MB with these file extensions.

CHALLENGE MODELS DOWNLOAD MODELS (13MB) - Password provided in your welcome email.

CHALLENGE #2 - ANIMATION     30 June 2007 12:00:00 UTC-0600
Description

 Using the model selected for Challenge #1 and your competition story outline, you will be asked to create an animation to further build upon your image and enhance the story with an animation.

This challenge is open only to the 25 competitors selected during the qualification round.
Judging Criteria Judging will be based on view composition, modeling, lighting, texturing,editing, animation, music, creativity, originality, technical difficulty, overall impact and ability to visualize the story outlined in your brief.
MAY 20 - JUN 30 Start and End Dates for Challenge #2 (42 Days)
MAY 28 Storyboard Deadline (5pm MDT)
(Failure to meet this deadline will result in disqualification)
JUN 1
JUN 8
JUN 15
JUN 22
JUN 29
JULY 6 		Progress Updates & Peer Critiques (Storyboard) (5pm MDT)
Progress Updates & Peer Critiques (June 1 Progress Updates) (5pm MDT)
Progress Updates & Peer Critiques (June 8 Progress Updates) (5pm MDT)
Progress Updates & Peer Critiques (June 15 Progress Updates) (5pm MDT)
Progress Updates & Peer Critiques (June 22 Progress Updates) (5pm MDT)
Peer Critiques (Final Animation Postings) (5pm MDT)
JULY 1 - JULY 7 Challenge #2 Judging and Critiques
JULY 8 Challenge Scoring Announced
Rules


1. CRITIQUES - After each weekly progress update is posted you will have one week to post critiques on your fellow competitors work. You are required to post a critique on the forum for a minimum of 5 competitors each week. You must ensure that by the end of the competition you have critiqued each competitors work at least once. You will be provided an online form that must be completed each week where you will provide the links to your critiques. The critiques must be complete and should not be one line or one word long. Write the critique that you would like your fellow competitors to write for you! The competition administration reserves the right to determine if a critique is suitable.

2. PROGESS UPDATES - Each week you will be required to post one progress update where you will share images, sketches, works in progress, animations, etc. What you post is what your fellow competitors, expert judges and forum members will be critiquing, so the more you post the better feedback you will receive. DURING ONE OF THE PROGESS UPDATES YOU MUST POST A ANIMATIC. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN A LOSS OF POINTS.

5. Please post your progress updates to the to the Challenge #2 - WIP forum.
6. Please post your FINAL animation to the Challenge #2 - Final forum
7. The subject line for both WIP and FINAL posts should be as follows: "Your Name - WIP" or "Your Name - Final"
8. The WIP can be any reasonable size and FINAL animation must a minimum of 720 x 486 pixels, but you must render using the QuickTime or AVI format.

9. Please be sure to read the main competition RULES


NOTE: File size limits on the forums have been increased for JPEG (not JPG) file formats. You can upload up to 4MB with these file extensions.


SCORING
CHALLENGE #1
STILL IMAGE 		Total Possible Score: 1000 points

Story Concept (Must be posted to avoid disqualification)
Camera View (100 points)*
Weekly Updates (200 points)*
Weekly Critiques (100 points)*

*Points are awarded for completion. (These are free points so don't let them go to waste!)

Judges Score (600 points)

Effectively visualizing your story/Creativity/Originality (300 points)
Technical/Lighting/Rendering/Texturing (300 points)
CHALLENGE #2
ANIMATION 		Total Possible Score: 1000 points

Storyboard (50 points)*
Animatic (50 points)*
Weekly Updates (200 points)*
Weekly Critiques (100 points)*

*Points are awarded for completion. (These are free points so don't let them go to waste!)

Judges Score (600 points)

Effectively visualizing your story/Creativity/Originality (300 points)
Technical/Lighting/Rendering/Editing/Music/Texturing (300 points)
Incomplete Individuals who do not submit an image or animation for a challenge will receive a score of zero for that challenge. Incomplete submissions will have their score multiplied by 0.25 for a total score of no more than 250.
Final Score The placements will be determined by adding the total scores of both challenges together for a total possible score of 2000. In the event of a tie, the score received during the qualification round will be used to determine the final placement.

AWARDS CEREMONY
Description The top 3 competitors will be awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd placements at the 6th annual CGarchitect.com Awards ceremony during the 2007 VisMasters Design Modeling and Visualization Conference in San Diego following SIGGRAPH.
  Will take place following SIGGRAPH 2007 in San Diego, CA
Date: Friday August 10th, 2007