Challenge #5 - World Tour/Compositing challenge

Jeff Mottle · March 12th, 2003

Timeline

Challenge Start Date. March 13, 2003
Challenge End Date: April 30, 2003 Midnight GMT
Voting Starts: April 30, 2003
Voting Ends: May 5, 2003
Public Winners Announced: May 12, 2003
Prize Winners Announced: May 12, 2003

Please visit this link for more information on how GMT relates to your timezone:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldcloc...tinent=&sort=1

Scenario

Architects Maki Oishi & Pieter Lozie have designed a City-leisure activities generator to be installed in a prominent public setting to generate human interaction. They will be taking the interactive display on a world tour to see what type of effect it has in public spaces.
As the budget for the world tour is limited, only 10 cities can be accommodated. They are holding a challenge to see which cities will be included in the tour. The cities that best showcase the structure will be added to the tour. There are however some criteria that must be met in order to qualify your city. Full technical and competition criteria are listed below:

Competition Rules:

1. The structure must be shown in your own city or a city near you, in a prominent public location where large masses of people could gather to enjoy the display.

2. The setting must be an urban setting in a well populated area, surrounded by other buildings or public areas.

Technical Requirements:

1. The ambiance generator is being supplied to you as a Photoshop PSD file with an alpha channel. Your job will be to composite the structure into a photograph that you have taken or have obtained of a public area in you city.

2. You must show crowds of people enjoying the space and the structure.

3. You want to really sell the idea that this structure should come to your city, so you are free to edit the photograph to remove extraneous elements that detract from the space (large immovable structures excluded), touch up the image to accommodate the structure or add new elements either 3D or 2D composites to enhance the overall scene.

4. The image proportions must be 16:9 (Widescreen)

5. The structure must take up at least 25% of the overall scene

6. The size of the structure is roughly 6-8 meters tall to the top support bar.

7. The final image, all WIPs and any other public display of the images created for this challenge, or uses of the supplied 2D composite MUST contain the following credit screened over the image: "Architecture & 3d-model: Maki Oishi & Pieter Lozie architects - Visualisation: <your name>"

Any image that does not contain this credit will be disqualified from the challenge.

8. You are free to choose either a day or night shot and can be depicted in any season.

9. The final image must also list the city that you are entering. This can be included in the notes on the CGchallenge website when you submit.

Note: While the architect's that created this structure did create it for a similiar competition for one city, this challenge is completely ficticious. Just in case you thought it would actually travel to your city.

For examples of the type of compositing work we are looking for please visit the AniMotions website and check out the selection of before and after composites. Be sure to mouse over each selection to see the before and after.

http://www.ams.be/sitev2/public/en/d...lvas.asp?ID=18

Model Download
http://www.cgarchitect.com/challenge...challenge5.zip (3.1MB)

Conceptual text of the design

Quote:

City-leisure activities generator

Elements from the sky are transfigured into layers of fabric as if the sky is reaching to the water pool below. Four poles standing in the water pool support moving fabrics, depending upon the time of day or night and the weather. Natural wind and people’s movements rustle the fabric, evoking a closeness between sky and sea has been obscured in today’s urban cityscape. The water pool level changes, mimicing tides. The surface of the water changes as the air and water currents play. Both the surfaces of the fabric and the surfaces of the water have textures, and dynamic movements while the supporting structure is static.

This structure is a democratic structure that showcases ordinary citizens as performers. This structure, spotlights ordinary citizens. It is a meeting place of people.

This structure is not for a specific group of performers, but for the use of all who encounter and interact with it.

In the daytime, the experience is of the structure in its natural setting. Those who interact with it will touch the fabrics and perhaps play with the water. They will experience the reflections on the water together with the fabrics and with the sky above, and they will see the layers of shadows of themselves on the fabrics and the reflections in the water. The fabrics will also act as sun-shade and the water will impart coolness. The people will hear the sounds to the fabric and the water, sense the wind through the fabrics and see how it ripples the water. The entity becomes a melting space in a square of the city.

At night, the structure has a different character. The structure becomes an artifice, a setting for media projections as the images are projected on the fabric as screens. There is only a shimmer of water in the pool. People watch the projections on the fabric from just outside the structure. This atmosphere becomes a part of the night scene of the city.

By interacting with the structure, using their ordinary movements, by touching the fabrics, and by walking or even jumping on the water, the public users affect the dynamics of the structure. They become, in effect, “performers” and will attract attention from people in the square surrounding the structure. Both the performers and the observers will have at that moment an atmosphere in which the performers experience themselves as the actors, as heroes and heroines in the play in the square and the observers feel themselves as an audience, experiencing the performance of those interacting with the structure. In turn, members of the audience may be moved to interact with the structure, thus moving from audience to performer. This creates another level of phenomena among all the elements of the structure and of the people in the cityscape.

Each person who interacts with and experiences the structure will have those interactions and experiences impressed upon their mind. Thus, its story is that of each individual who experiences the structure.

Text by Maki Oishi and Pieter Lozie architects

Partnership

CGarchitect.com has partnered with the guys from CGchallenge.com, a newly launched site, for this and all future challenges. Final image submission and voting will take place on CGchallenge.com. Simply head over to http://www.cgchallenge.com and submit your images to the Architectural Visualization challenge. Your peers and people from various CG professions will rank each submitted image and based upon these votes will determine the winner. These public votes will determine the public winner. The prizes will be awarded based upon the votes of the CGchallenge committee members.

Prizes

To be Announced

[ April 05, 2003, 01:36 PM: Message edited by: Jeff Mottle ]

Chris_Mac · March 13th, 2003

I don't really like to comlain...... but, surely a large part of the skill of compositing is matching the camera view (in whatever 3d program you use) to the POV in the photograph. It seems very unusual to me to be expected to do it the opposite way round.

I realise that in this challenge you want to place the impetus on our photoshop/compositing skills rather than our 3d skills. However, i think that to match a photograph to a 3d view requires a clever photographer, not a photoshop/3d artist!

I'm sorry, but i think you need to provide a model for this challenge to work.

Having said that, I am looking forward to seeing some of the WIPs. My compositing skills are pretty poor, and i would love to pick up some tips....

thanks

Chris

nisus · March 13th, 2003

Hi Chris,

An easy start can be to print out the image and sketch a surrounding with a lot of entourage on the print. Next rework/digitalize this 'collage' in ps adding real photographs, sketches, 3d-models etc... Be sure to post these sketches in the WIP too

rgds

nisus

Jeff Mottle · March 13th, 2003

I just wanted to make a comment here about the validity of this challenge. It has been brought to my attention privately that some may think that the only reason we are doing this challenge is to get free work for the architects who designed the structure that we are using. Aside from this being completely insulting to my integrity, I can asure you that the only reason we are using a structure designed by an architect is becuase it fit with the theme of this challenge that Nisus and I came up with. We aksed them for the model, not the other way around. The structre has already been submited for a completely seperate competition and has nothing to do with this one. The only reason we are asking for the architects to be credited is becuase they designed it, which seems fair to me.
Why some would think CGarchitect has tunred into a sweatshop is beyond me.

Hopefully this clears up any misconceptions.

nuno · March 15th, 2003

just a Q....why didnt you provide the model!!!??? :???: :???: :???:
i didnt understand clearly the aim of this challenge...

sorry, but i think sticking images ones on the others (or should i say photomontage!!!) is a single PART of a process that represents the architectural visualization... i cant see here a great challenge.

best to all,
nuno

CHE · March 15th, 2003

I agree with Nuno.

nisus · March 15th, 2003

Hi all,

Quote:

a single PART of a process that represents the architectural visualization

indeed... we have focussed on lighting and dramatic camera setup before, now we challenge or post-production skills...

This has not to be a simple composit... one can add different layers of people, backgrounds, atmospheres... It's like a matte-painting contest... And I honestly don't see any challenge on this!

rgds

nisus

Munz · March 18th, 2003

I think people are questioning the challenge because we as architects would never work in this sort of process. We would not design a folley, or structure and then render it, and then go find a site to stick it in. We would start with the site and think about how people interact with the site, and thus how would they interact with the structure and choose our view based on these observations. Then would render the model to respect that interaction.
I may be wrong, perhaps others work differently.
Munz

Cesar R · March 18th, 2003

Quote:

I agree with Nuno.

GOSH ! is that the only thing that you know how to say?! I every post of yours is... "I agree with so and so.." develop your toughts man.

sergio rocha · March 18th, 2003

"sorry, but i think sticking images ones on the others (or should i say photomontage!!!) is a single PART of a process that represents the architectural visualization... i cant see here a great challenge.

"
I make these my words (and face too).
Is this a 2d or 3d contest? (or a geometry test?)
I can´t believe that i didn´t caught the baeza challenge orangecry (even beeing only at cgaforuns) and been waitin for 3 month now for a model and theme like that... and now this!...sorry but i had to say that.
well, i think the ideia of using photomontage is fine but at least with a provided model.(i really think the render could be improved and i really prefer to control the colors in 3d)

March 13th, 2003	#3 (permalink)
nisus Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Gent Flanders Belgium Europe Age: 32 Posts: 3,276 Name: Evert Vandenberghe	Hi Chris, An easy start can be to print out the image and sketch a surrounding with a lot of entourage on the print. Next rework/digitalize this 'collage' in ps adding real photographs, sketches, 3d-models etc... Be sure to post these sketches in the WIP too rgds nisus __________________ www.ams.be / www.nisusarts.com http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=nisusCGA&p=r

March 13th, 2003	#4 (permalink)
Jeff Mottle President/Founder Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Age: 33 Posts: 5,059 Name: Jeff Mottle	I just wanted to make a comment here about the validity of this challenge. It has been brought to my attention privately that some may think that the only reason we are doing this challenge is to get free work for the architects who designed the structure that we are using. Aside from this being completely insulting to my integrity, I can asure you that the only reason we are using a structure designed by an architect is becuase it fit with the theme of this challenge that Nisus and I came up with. We aksed them for the model, not the other way around. The structre has already been submited for a completely seperate competition and has nothing to do with this one. The only reason we are asking for the architects to be credited is becuase they designed it, which seems fair to me. Why some would think CGarchitect has tunred into a sweatshop is beyond me. Hopefully this clears up any misconceptions. __________________ Jeff Mottle CGarchitect.com

March 15th, 2003	#5 (permalink)
nuno Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: portugal Age: 34 Posts: 350 Name: nuno faria	just a Q....why didnt you provide the model!!!??? :???: :???: :???: i didnt understand clearly the aim of this challenge... sorry, but i think sticking images ones on the others (or should i say photomontage!!!) is a single PART of a process that represents the architectural visualization... i cant see here a great challenge. best to all, nuno __________________ .Best Regards .Nuno

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March 13th, 2003	#2 (permalink)
Chris_Mac Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: London, England (formerly Glasgow, Scotland) Age: 30 Posts: 112 Name: Chris McLaughlin	I don't really like to comlain...... but, surely a large part of the skill of compositing is matching the camera view (in whatever 3d program you use) to the POV in the photograph. It seems very unusual to me to be expected to do it the opposite way round. I realise that in this challenge you want to place the impetus on our photoshop/compositing skills rather than our 3d skills. However, i think that to match a photograph to a 3d view requires a clever photographer, not a photoshop/3d artist! I'm sorry, but i think you need to provide a model for this challenge to work. Having said that, I am looking forward to seeing some of the WIPs. My compositing skills are pretty poor, and i would love to pick up some tips.... thanks Chris

March 15th, 2003	#6 (permalink)
CHE Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: St. Louis Posts: 818 Name: Ernesto Pacheco	I agree with Nuno.

March 18th, 2003	#8 (permalink)
Munz Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Chicago Age: 32 Posts: 148 Name: Tom Munz	I think people are questioning the challenge because we as architects would never work in this sort of process. We would not design a folley, or structure and then render it, and then go find a site to stick it in. We would start with the site and think about how people interact with the site, and thus how would they interact with the structure and choose our view based on these observations. Then would render the model to respect that interaction. I may be wrong, perhaps others work differently. Munz

March 18th, 2003	#10 (permalink)
sergio rocha Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: portugal Posts: 89 Name: sergio rocha	"sorry, but i think sticking images ones on the others (or should i say photomontage!!!) is a single PART of a process that represents the architectural visualization... i cant see here a great challenge. " I make these my words (and face too). Is this a 2d or 3d contest? (or a geometry test?) I can´t believe that i didn´t caught the baeza challenge orangecry (even beeing only at cgaforuns) and been waitin for 3 month now for a model and theme like that... and now this!...sorry but i had to say that. well, i think the ideia of using photomontage is fine but at least with a provided model.(i really think the render could be improved and i really prefer to control the colors in 3d)

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