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Contestants in the 2008 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 two months. The awards of 1st, 2nd and 3rd places will be announced at the 2008 Mundos Digitales Conference in La Coruna, Spain (July 1-5, 2008)

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

CHALLENGE QUALIFICATION & QUALIFICATION CHALLENGE
Description	The qualification round is open to everyone. To enter you must submit 2 of your best images from your portfolio as well as your entry from the qualification challenge. Submissions can be entered using the challenge qualification form using the link below. At the end of the qualification round, all of the submitted images will be evaluated by public vote. The number of competitors allowed into the competition will be determined by the scores of the public vote. Competitors will participate in the 2 challenges spanning from April 8, 2008 to May 24, 2008. REQUIRED IMAGE SUBMISSIONS: Image 1 & 2: Two examples of your best work from your portfolio. Image 3: Qualification Image: 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. 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 17 - MAR 30	Start and End Dates for Qualifications (14 days)
APR 1 - APR 6	Qualification Image Judging
APR 7	Competition contestants announced (around 11pm MST)
Rules	1. You must use all of the shapes and primitives provided in your scene 2. You 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. 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
ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM	SUBMISSIONS ARE NO LONGER BEING ACCEPTED

CHALLENGE #1 - STILL IMAGE - COMPLETE
Description	Between Orzán Bay and the Artabrian Gulf lies the Tower of Hercules, the oldest working lighthouse in the world. The Tower was built in the 2nd century under the emperor Trajan to guide ships on their way to the British Isles in search of tine, copper and iron. The architect was Gaius Servius Lupus, from Coimbra, who devoted his work to the god of war Mars, as can be read in an inscription at the foot of the Tower. Legend also has it that Hercules cut off the head of the giant Gerion and built the Tower over his tomb. The lighthouse first lit up two thousand years ago and became a reference point for sailors and a compulsory stop for travelers. The Tower of Hercules has therefore been selected by the Spanish Historical Heritage Board as Spain's official candidate for World Heritage. In this challenge you will be tasked with creating a rendering featuring an imagined interpretive/tourist center placed on the site nearby the tower of hercules.
Judging Criteria	Judging will be based on view composition, modeling, lighting, texturing, creativity, originality, technical difficulty, and overall impact
APR 8 - APR 26	Start and End Dates for Challenge #1 (20 Days)
APR 19 MAY 2	WIP Update (5pm MDT) Peer Critiques of Challenge #1 Final Submissions (5pm MDT)
APR 28 - MAY 4	Challenge #1 Judging and Critiques
MAY 12	Challenge Judges Critiques Posted (Challenge #1 Scores will be posted at the end of the competition)
Rules	To celebrate the Tower of Hercules being shortlisted for consideration as a world heritage site, an imaginary interpretive/tourist center needs to be built on the site around the tower of Hercules. In this challenge you are required to design, model and render an exterior view of this new interpretive center. The rendering should show the interpretive center in context of the tower and the surrounding ocean shoreline. If you don't want to design the building from scratch, you can use exiting buildings as inspiration as long as you don't copy the design completely. You can download a textured model of the tower and a model of the surrounding terrain below. This package also includes a lot of reference images and animations. 1. CRITIQUES - After the progress updates are posted you will have one week to post critiques on your fellow competitor's work. You are required to post a critique on the forum for a minimum of 6 competitors. You will be provided an online form that must be completed 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 - 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. 3. Please post your progress updates to the Challenge #1 - WIP forum. 4. Please post your FINAL image to the Challenge #1 - Final forum 5. The subject line for WIP and FINAL posts should be as follows: "Your Name - WIP" or "Your Name - Final" 6. The WIP can be any reasonable size and FINAL images must a minimum of 2000 pixels on the smallest dimension. 7. 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 6 MB with these file extensions.
INFORMATION	YOU MUST REPLY TO THE EMAIL THAT WAS SENT TO COMPETITORS WITH THE REQUESTED INFORMATION, AND WE WILL EMAIL YOU A LINK TO THE FILES YOU NEED FOR THE COMPETITION.

CHALLENGE #2 - ANIMATION 24 May 2008 12:00:00 UTC-0600
Description	Between Orzán Bay and the Artabrian Gulf lies the Tower of Hercules, the oldest working lighthouse in the world. The Tower was built in the 2nd century under the emperor Trajan to guide ships on their way to the British Isles in search of tine, copper and iron. The architect was Gaius Servius Lupus, from Coimbra, who devoted his work to the god of war Mars, as can be read in an inscription at the foot of the Tower. Legend also has it that Hercules cut off the head of the giant Gerion and built the Tower over his tomb. The lighthouse first lit up two thousand years ago and became a reference point for sailors and a compulsory stop for travelers. The Tower of Hercules has therefore been selected by the Spanish Historical Heritage Board as Spain's official candidate for World Heritage. In this challenge you will be tasked with creating an architectural animation/film featuring an imagined interpretive/tourist center placed on the site nearby the tower of hercules.
Judging Criteria	Judging will be based on view composition, modeling, lighting, texturing,editing, animation, music, creativity, originality, technical difficulty, and overall impact.
APR 27 - MAY 24	Start and End Dates for Challenge #2 (28 Days)
MAY 5 MAY 12 MAY 19 MAY 30	WIP Update (5pm MDT) WIP Update (5pm MDT) WIP Update (5pm MDT) Peer Critiques of Challenge #2 Final Submissions (5pm MDT)
MAY 26 - JUN 1	Challenge #2 Judging and Critiques
JUN 2	Challenge # 1 Scoring Announced
Rules	To celebrate the Tower of Hercules being shortlisted for consideration as a world heritage site, an imaginary interpretive/tourist center needs to be built on the site around the tower of Hercules. In this challenge you are required to design, model and render an exterior animation/film of this new interpretive center. The animation should show the interpretive center in context of the tower and the surrounding ocean shoreline. You may use any of the work you created in Challenge #1. You can download a textured model of the tower and a model of the surrounding terrain below. This package also includes a lot of reference images and animations. If you like, you may also use the included aerial footage to camera track and composite your building into the footage, however it can not be the only part of the animation. 1. CRITIQUES - After all of the progress update are 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 at least 15 competitors. You will be provided an online form that must be completed 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. 3. Please post your progress updates to the to the Challenge #2 - WIP forum. 4. Please post your FINAL animation to the Challenge #2 - Final forum 5. The subject line for both WIP and FINAL posts should be as follows: "Your Name - WIP" or "Your Name - Final" 6. 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. 7. 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 6 MB with these file extensions.
INFORMATION	YOU MUST REPLY TO THE EMAIL THAT WAS SENT TO COMPETITORS WITH THE REQUESTED INFORMATION, AND WE WILL EMAIL YOU A LINK TO THE FILES YOU NEED FOR THE COMPETITION.

SCORING
CHALLENGE #1 STILL IMAGE	Total Possible Score: 1000 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 (700 points) Effectively visualizing your story/Creativity/Originality (350 points) Technical/Lighting/Rendering/Texturing (350 points)
CHALLENGE #2 ANIMATION	Total Possible Score: 1000 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 (700 points) Effectively visualizing your story/Creativity/Originality (350 points) Technical/Lighting/Rendering/Editing/Music/Texturing (350 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 awards of 1st, 2nd and 3rd places will be announced at the 2008 Mundos Digitales Conference in La Coruna, Spain (July 1-5, 2008)
Date:	July 1, 2008