Publishing your models to the Google 3D Warehouse is a great way to showcase your work. If you model 3D buildings and would like to share them with the world, you can do so through the “Best of the 3D Warehouse” layer in Google Earth. Only the very best models are selected for inclusion in this layer, but here are some helpful guidelines (pdf) that will improve your chances. Learn more about getting added to this layer.

It is marketed as an easy-to-use conceptual tool with a simple interface. A well known feature in the SketchUp World is the 3D Warehouse. Users can use their Google Accounts to upload models, and then browse the 3D Warehouse for many components and models.

Some of its key features and uses include:

• A “smart” drawing cursor (inference) system that allows users to draw 3D objects using a 2D screen and mouse.
• Simple massing study capability via “push-pull”.
• “Follow Me,” which creates 3D forms by extruding 2D surfaces along predetermined paths.
• Ability to animate camera and sun movements.
• Interoperability with Google Earth

SketchUp was developed by startup company @Last Software, Boulder, Colorado which was formed in 1999. SketchUp was first released in August 2000 as a general purpose 3D content creation tool. It won a Community Choice Award at its first tradeshow in 2000. It quickly found a market in architecture and building design industries and was revised to suit the needs of working professionals. The key to its early success was in its fast learning curve, allowing for a shorter learning period than other commercially available 3D tools.

As of SketchUp 5, features were added to allow the user to extrude and widen as well as the ability for a face to “follow” the cursor around an object.

On March 14, 2006, Google acquired @Last Software, attracted by their plugin for Google Earth.

On January 9, 2007, SketchUp 6 was released, featuring a handful of new tools as well as a beta version of Google SketchUp LayOut. LayOut includes a handful of 2D vector tools, as well as page layout tools making it easier for professionals to create presentations without jumping to a third-party presentation program.

On February 9, 2007, a maintenance update was released. It corrects a number of bugs, but brings no new features.

On April 27, 2006, Google announced Google SketchUp, a freely-downloadable version of SketchUp. The free version is not as capable as SketchUp Pro 6, but it includes integrated tools for uploading content to Google Earth and to the Google 3D Warehouse, a repository of models created in SketchUp.

The free version of Google Sketchup exports to a number of 3D formats, including Google Earth .kmz files, while the Pro version extends support to include .3ds, .dwg, .dxf, .fbx, .obj, .xsi, and .wrl file formats. Google SketchUp can also save “screenshots” of the model as .bmp, .png, .jpg, .tif, with the Pro version also supporting .pdf, .eps, .epx, .dwg, and .dxf.

Ruby Application Programming Interface (API)

Ruby is a scripting language whose use in SketchUp was first introduced in SketchUp 4. Since its introduction SketchUp users have shown their creativity by creating hundreds of useful tools using SketchUp Ruby.

There is a Hello World Tutorial for Google SketchUp about creating dialog boxes.

Other Information

• Developed by  Google (previously @Last Software)
• Initial release  August 2000
• Latest release  6.4.112 (Windows) / 6.4.120 (Mac OS X) / December 14, 2007
• OS  MS Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Apple Mac OS X (10.4-10.5) (Universal Binary)
• Available in  English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Spanish
• Type  3D computer graphics
• License  Freeware/Proprietary

Links

• Website  www.sketchup.com
• Google 3D Warehouse
• SketchUp Video Tutorials
• SketchUp Google Group
• SketchUp - Wikipedia

Green design professionals are particularly taken with the program. Widely praised by the architecture and design community for its “intuitive” nature, SketchUp, one of the few 3D rendering programs on the market, is also by far the easiest one to use. And its integration with Google Earth and the Google 3D Warehouse has elevated the program from a simple design tool to a location-based, product-inclusive architectural design powerhouse. As a result, SketchUp is nurturing a growing ecosystem of green design startups.

Getting energy, water, and carbon information into the design process early on was once a costly, if not impossible, endeavor. But the sooner modeling and analysis tools are involved in the process, the bigger the questions that designers can ask, and the more impact they can have on the final design. “The software tool you choose is always going to arise from the question that you’re asking,” says Chris Meek, a University of Washington professor who heads up the Integrated Design Lab in Seattle. “What role do these tools have in their design process? What’s it going to affect in the design?”

Modeling Landscape Features

Out of the box, SketchUp offers some great features for green design, which the clean-tech-happy Google has been quick to promote. Because it integrates smoothly with Google Earth, SketchUp users can punch in the actual latitude and longitude of their project site to visualize buildings in their real-life context. That not only helps designers communicate to their clients how the project will look, but allows them to accurately model how nearby landscape features and structures will cast shadows over the building—useful for fine-tuning a building’s site orientation or window placement to cut energy use, or for positioning solar panels.

A handful of startups (and even the federal government are working to soup up the SketchUp toolbar with energy analysis plug-ins that support even more detailed information about materials used and spatial relationships within the building. For the startups, it’s a way to raise visibility for their own proprietary tools.

Integrated Environmental Systems (IES) offers VE-Ware, a free energy and carbon analysis tool that benchmarks designs against the energy reduction goals of the Architecture 2030 Challenge, as a free Windows-only plug-in. The professional versions of IES’s Virtual Environment software can provide more detailed analysis and its consulting practice can help make sense of the data analysis for those new to the world of green building design.

Pro Version Is Pricey

Demeter, an energy analysis plug-in from Greenspace, lets users dig deeper into how much energy their design might use by taking into account details such as surface materials. By gathering this kind of information, the program allows architects to quickly export the model to Green Building Studio, a sophisticated analysis program developed by Greenspace that was acquired by Autodesk in June, and run a complete energy modeling analysis report. (Since it requires users to export their data, this plug-in isn’t available for those using the free version of SketchUp. The Pro version, which integrates presentation tools and allows users to export their models into other design programs, costs $495 a pop.)

With a growing number of green designers using SketchUp, green building product manufacturers have gotten into the game as well. SketchUp integrates seamlessly with the Google 3D Warehouse, and as architects pull together models of their home designs, they can stock their models with everything from paint to doors to dishwashers from its reserves. Need a toilet for your bathroom model? Find one in the 3D Warehouse and download it into SketchUp.

For the many startup companies marketing green building products, SketchUp can be an inexpensive way to break into the market. While not every green building product manufacture is already SketchUp savvy, the easy-to-use program lowers the bar for learning. If that’s still too much of a challenge, Blue Marble Project is one startup aiming to get green building product companies into this market.

Whirlpool and West Elm on Board

Started by the guys who launched Go2School, an educational podcast series on using SketchUp, Blue Marble Project creates models of a company’s products with information about their size, shape, surfaces, environmental properties, and even their SKU numbers. The company, launched in 2007, has been gradually adding new clients, including Whirlpool and West Elm, according to co-founder Mike Tadros.

While integration with Google Earth allows SketchUp to position digital models in the real world, the 3D Warehouse lets green design move the other direction as well.

Google’s SketchUp Helps Design Go Green - BusinessWeek

The company will focus on driving awareness and adoption of conscientious building practices among developers and contractors by delivering solutions that help in making its implementation easier and more efficient. The announcement was made at a press conference held yesterday (September 9, 2008) at ‘The Monarch Hotel’ Dubai, where Ahmad Al Jassim, Country Manager, Autodesk, Middle East; Louis Khoury, Industry Sales Development Manager, Autodesk, Middle East; and Christian Rust, AEC Sales Development Manager, Autodesk, EMEA Emerging, highlighted the industry-leading Autodesk Revit solutions and Autodesk 2009 portfolio.

The UAE is witnessing the rise of many innovative and landmark projects, which have adopted sustainable design principles in line with the directive issued by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. At present, there are over 70 buildings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi awaiting green building certifications, which is a clear indication of the industry’s steady movement towards the total adoption of green building guidelines. A part of Autodesk’s strategy in further driving the awareness for sustainable design is highlighting the outstanding benefits of its solutions, which enable architects and developers to minimise water and electricity usage thereby leading to significant savings for property developers over the long term and the lessened production of harmful pollutants.

Speaking at the press conference, Christian Rust, AEC Sales Development Manager, Autodesk, EMEA Emerging, said, “As the largest construction market in the region, we have identified the UAE as a strategic location to launch our region-wide campaign to encourage the adoption of sustainable design principles in the construction sector. Amidst the growing popularity of sustainability principles, regional and international property developers are seeking advice on green building compliance, which presents us with a perfect opportunity to disseminate vital information. Additionally, our collaboration with the world’s leading architects, engineers, and product designers to develop our Revit solutions and the Autodesk 2009 portfolio attests to our commitment to ethical construction strategies for a cleaner and healthier environment.”

Recent industry statistics show that a building in the UAE uses up to an average of 30,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month, 70 per cent of which is allocated for air conditioning. According to Emirates Green Building Council (EGBC), a structure constructed in accordance to sustainable principles can achieve energy savings of up to 50 per cent, bringing significant cost cutbacks for property developers. By utilising Autodesk’s building design software, which has been purpose-built for building information modeling (BIM), developers can further benefit from a multitude of technologies that will ensure a significant reduction in time, resources and costs necessary to create truly sustainable buildings.

“The fact that green buildings increase the property asset value for developers and its many advantages in the environmental front are the two main focuses of our efforts to bring our Revit solutions to a larger number of developers across the region. Our goal is to help customers incorporate sustainable design principles into their practice, thereby increasing their energy efficiency while facilitating a more accurate evaluation of their project’s lifecycles,” concluded Louis Khoury, Industry Sales Development Manager, Autodesk, Middle East.

Autodesk is committed to driving awareness and adoption of sustainable design through public and private partnerships with organizations such as the U.S. Green Building Council and Integrated Energy Solutions.  Autodesk also provides technology, education and support for initiatives that inform and promote innovations that address current and future sustainable design challenges. This involves an active role in spearheading programs such as the ‘Autodesk – Enterprise Gold Program’ for corporate businesses, which offer Autodesk experts’ personalized attention, higher ROI and productivity of software investments, and access to an elevated level of technical support, which can aid organizations attain their business needs as well as their sustainability goals.

albawaba.com middle east news information::Autodesk launches sustainable design campaign within AED 812 billion UAE construction industry

The Happening

The Third Floor, a Los Angeles-based digital studio, used Autodesk Maya 3D modeling software and Autodesk MotionBuilder character animation software to craft several of The Happening’s signature moments. The film’s car crash and lion attack scenes were pre-visualized in Maya. This enabled director M. Night Shyamalan to approve the intent of performances and camerawork in advance of filming.

“Autodesk Maya is our directors’ sandbox,” said The Third Floor CEO Chris Edwards. “It allows us to create anything our clients can imagine.”

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Using Maya and MotionBuilder, The Third Floor also designed and pre-visualized three major sequences for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: the River God, Lucy’s Dream and the End Battle. This process allowed The Third Floor to stage the action and propose alternative shot ideas to director Andrew Adamson, adding further depth and detail to the story.

Hancock

Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) completed over 500 shots in Hancock using Maya and the Autodesk Flame visual effects system. “Major sequences such as the Hollywood Fight, the Hospital Battle and the SUV Chase couldn’t have been created without Maya and Flame,” said SPI senior visual effects artist Todd Mesher. “Their creative tools and interactivity make them key to our digital pipeline.”

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Visual effects studio Frantic Films VFX served as a visual effects provider for the stereoscopic feature film Journey to the Center of the Earth. In addition to designing a custom character pipeline for the film, Frantic Films VFX also built a stereoscopic pipeline. These pipelines included Autodesk software, used to produce more than 180 shots. All animation and lighting was created with Autodesk 3ds Max 3D animation software, which was also used extensively in the ocean sequences. In addition, Autodesk Mudbox software was used to sculpt creatures.

“Once again, 3ds Max software’s power and flexibility were indispensable,” said Frantic Films VFX visual effects supervisor Chris Harvey. “The software’s scriptability made it the backbone of our digital pipeline. As well, we forged new ground in creature animation and were extremely happy with the software’s performance.”

Digital Color Grading at EFILM

Numerous films were completed by EFILM, using its EWORKS system for the digital intermediate. The EWORKS system consists of a proprietary configuration of Autodesk Lustre and Autodesk Incinerator technology. Films included Horton Hears a Who, The Ruins, Nim’s Island, Sex and the City, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, What Happens in Vegas, Red Belt, The Incredible Hulk, Wanted and Get Smart.

Leading visual effects and animation facilities continued the tradition of relying on Autodesk technology to deliver the majority of Hollywood blockbusters released this summer, including:

• Get Smart: DIGIT did the majority of compositing work with Flame and Autodesk Combustion desktop compositing software. In addition, DIGIT built all the 3D parachutes in Maya.
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Industrial Light & Magic completed 540 shots (48 minutes of screen time) with Maya and the Autodesk Inferno system as part of its proprietary Sabre system. Maya was used for modeling, creature development and particle work.

• Iron Man: Industrial Light & Magic completed 410 shots with Maya and Inferno as part of its Sabre system.
• Kung Fu Panda: DreamWorks used Maya and Lustre.
• Meet Dave: CIS Hollywood completed 163 shots for the film, with approximately one-third of the film composited with Inferno. Using Maya and MotionBuilder, The Third Floor pre-visualized five sequences that involved elaborate interaction between the aliens and the real world.
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: Digital Domain used Maya extensively to animate the emperor in his changing liquid-solid state. The company also incorporated Maya nCloth when creating the Foundation Army’s flags and desiccated clothing. Rhythm & Hues used Mudbox to model dragons, Nion and Yeti.
• The Incredible Hulk: Rhythm and Hues completed 234 shots, using Maya and Mudbox extensively for modeling both the Hulk and the Abomination characters. Maya was also used to model vehicles and objects.
• Tropic Thunder: CIS Vancouver used Maya, Inferno and Flame. CIS Hollywood primarily used Maya, along with 3ds Max, Inferno and Flame.
• X-Files: I Want to Believe: Entity FX supervised almost 400 visual effects shots, which included the use of Inferno and Maya. A large portion of the work involved radically altering shot environments through digital weather effects, such as photorealistic, computer-generated snow.

Original article

The 16,500-square-foot Gallery, located at One Market Street, is the first space in the San Francisco Bay Area dedicated to the spirit of design innovation, with 20 exhibits including the California Academy of Sciences, Ford Shelby GT500, Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, Calif., and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge seismic retrofit. The space is intended as a location where designers can discuss the latest in technology and be inspired by others’ work.

“The Autodesk Gallery showcases the work of our customers from across a number of industries, including architects, engineers, manufacturers, film makers, video game developers and artists,” said Carl Bass, Autodesk president and CEO. “The exhibits encourage rich conversations about the latest design software and provide an ideal environment for industry collaboration.”

The Gallery is also intended to become a meeting space for the design industry. “The Autodesk Gallery is an inspiring space where we can also interact with the community-schools, industry groups and local and visiting designers,” said Bass. The Autodesk Gallery will be open to the public on the first Wednesday of each month from 1 to 5 p.m. beginning October 1st, 2008.

Designed to achieve a LEED-Commercial Interiors Platinum certification rating, the space takes green interior design to the highest level and includes daylight and views, recycled material, certified renewable lumber, local manufacturing and renewable energy.

Design News - Autodesk Gallery at One Market Opens in San Francisco - TAXI Design Network

Just in time for the Back to School season, Autodesk has redesigned its Student Engineering and Design Community website with a new look and feel that is more closely aligned with other popular social networking sites frequented by students. The enhanced Student Community offers several new features and benefits to more than 350,000 students and educators.

“Having access to free software in the Autodesk Student Community is crucial for future professional designers,” said Roland Cernat, winner of the Industrial Design category of the Student Design Challenge and the Sustainable Design Grand Prize. “The broad range of programs available in the community gives me the opportunity to easily try out and choose the programs that best match my needs. As an industrial design student I use Autodesk AliasStudio software, and while learning the curriculum, the community was the primary place I went to get help, stay up-to-date and much more. The community has been vital in giving me the right tools and guidance to be prepared for the requirements of my future job.”

“We developed a large portion of the redesign and new features based on our members’ input. We created the Student Community to provide students with the vital tools and information they need to learn the design process and be successful in their careers. Educators benefit by having access to our software, curriculum and faculty-only forum and discussion groups,” said Paul Mailhot, director of worldwide education programs at Autodesk. “This redesign comes on the heels of many recent milestones for Autodesk Education, including the global “Build Something” student design contest, the launch of the China Student Community, and the release of our new Autodesk VEX Robotics curriculum.”
Since September 2006, the Autodesk Student Engineering and Design Community has attracted members from more than 16,600 schools in 137 countries, Over 350,000 members have downloaded approximately 650,000 copies of Autodesk’s award-winning 3D design software solutions.

Partner Offers Student Editions of Software

Recognizing the momentum and impact of the Autodesk Student Community, software partner RISA Technologies is joining the initiative by providing the next generation of design and engineering professionals with student editions of their products free of charge.
When members visit the Learning and Tutorials section of the online community, they can find software and related learning tools. For example, RISA Technologies offers free student versions of RISA-3D and RISAFloor structural engineering software applications for analysis and design.

About Autodesk Education

Autodesk supports students and educators by providing powerful 2D and 3D design software, innovative programs and resources designed to inspire the next generation of professionals to experience their ideas before they’re real. By supporting educators to advance design education and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills, Autodesk is helping prepare students for future academic and career success. Autodesk supports schools and institutions of higher learning worldwide through substantial discounts, subscriptions, grant programs, training, curricula development and community resources. For more information about Autodesk education programs and solutions, visit www.autodesk.com/education.

Autodesk Student Engineering and Design Community is Redesigned

Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today launched Autodesk Mudbox 2009 software for 3D modelers and texture artists working on entertainment and design projects.  Mudbox combines an intuitive user interface with a powerful toolset for creating highly-detailed 3D models. The software gives artists the freedom to create without worrying about technical details. Mudbox has shaped characters in blockbuster movies and games, including Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Mist and Mass Effect.

“Our goal is to make early stage digital assets resemble their final ‘on-screen’ forms as closely as possible,” said Dave Cardwell, Mudbox product designer at Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “Starting with accurate models makes the production process more efficient and provides a higher-quality end result. For example, you’d want to know early on whether a prominent brow will shadow a character’s eyes. That’s why Autodesk Mudbox 2009 has texture painting tools and on-target display features; these will help artists build and refine better 3D models.”

“The introduction of Autodesk Mudbox 2009 sparks a revolution in computer graphics tools, bringing about a paradigm shift in how designers and artists do their work,” said Habib Zargarpour, senior art director at Electronic Arts.

Dan Platt, modeler at Disney Animation Studios, said, “Time is money. An Autodesk Mudbox session begins with its artist-friendly, intuitive interface. This is sculpting at the speed of thought with the greatest of fidelity. In a business where new ideas with impossible deadlines are commonplace, Mudbox never lets me down.”

New Feature Highlights in Autodesk Mudbox 2009

Texture Painting
A new, production-ready toolset makes it easy for artists to paint multiple diffuse, bump, specular, and reflection textures across multiple high-resolution maps on their models:

• Users can paint directly on 3D models to add detail precisely where it’s required, regardless of UV distortion or surface complexity.
• Reference images can be painted onto a model from screen space using the new Projection brush.
• Users can paint multiple maps on multiple UV tiles simultaneously and assign multiple UV tiles on a single mesh.

Performance Enhancements
Recognized for its ability to handle data-heavy models, the latest version of Mudbox offers greater interactivity while working on high-resolution meshes. In particular, camera manipulation and brush speed have been improved, enabling artists to work interactively with 3D models that are fully subdivided into tens of millions of polygons across the entire mesh.

On-Target Display
Mudbox 2009 includes a host of rendering technologies that leverage the power of the OpenGL application programming interface (API) and today’s powerful graphics cards. The software offers an accurate, on-target environment for real-time evaluation as the digital asset is manipulated, as well as for enhanced interactive presentations to clients and art directors.

Improved Interoperability with Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max
Mudbox 2009 provides enhanced interoperability with Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max software through improved matching of normal and displacement maps produced by Maya and 3ds Max.

Artist-Friendly User Interface
Mudbox 2009 continues to deliver a highly intuitive user interface that gives artists the freedom to focus on the art of 3D modeling.

For a complete list of new features and enhancements in Autodesk Mudbox 2009, visit www.autodesk.com/pr-mudbox.

Pricing and Availability
Autodesk anticipates that Mudbox 2009 will be available in October 2008. Mudbox 2009 will be supported on the Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Windows Vista operating systems.  Autodesk suggested retail pricing is $745 USD*.

*International pricing may vary.

Sample Gallery:

Autodesk Mudbox

Unwrella is the new automatic and optimal unwrapping plug-in for Autodesk™ 3D Studio Max™. It was developed for the high demands of graphics designers in real world production environments and provides a fast, simple and reliable unwrapping solution.

It is the first tool of this kind on the market, allowing the unwrapping of 3d models to be done with a single mouse click while simultaneously providing optimal results that combine the minimized texture stretching of automated unwrapping techniques with the efficient space utilization and chunk distribution of UV space that is achieved with manual pelt wrapping methods. This allows users to quickly solve complex tasks like the creation of seamless 3d models, more accurate lightmaps and productive subsequent processing of the UV maps in other 3d applications like ZBrush™ or Mudbox™

Key features

Automatic one-click solution

The manual labor necessary to properly unwrap multiple 3d models during a production takes significant amounts of time. Unwrella replaces this process with the simple application of a modifier to the objects modifier stack. Unwrapping of dozens or even hundreds of objects can be done on the fly and delivers results of optimal quality.
Space efficient

The size of chunks is maximized as much as possible and they are arranged to utilize maximal space on the available UV map. This optimal distribution prevents a significant part of texture memory from being wasted due to padding between chunks.

One-to-one surface to texture ratio

Texture stretching and scaling on surfaces is removed almost completely. Every pixel translates to the same size and aspect ratio on the model surface and creates a uniform visual appearance without reductions in texture sharpness on some areas. Additionally this feature makes texture seams invisible, even under careful inspection.
Versatility

Unwrella consistently delivers quality results with all kinds of 3d models from 3d game objects to industrial designs to complex, irregular organic shapes.

Igor Posavec Graphics Design » Unwrella Plugin: Open Beta Release!

Official Website: http://www.unwrella.com

We’re having another contest! And here’s why: Simply put, we’re working on some really interesting new technology and we need some good looking scenes to test with… and we need lots of them right away

The guidelines we’re asking everyone to work under (and the reason we’re calling it “Ghost of Ghost”) are very similar to the original feature sets from the old Ghost alpha releases back in 2000 (For those of you that may not know the history, “Ghost” was the codename of what eventually became “Brazil r/s”).

The rules are pretty Simple: Use straight, brute-force GI and ray tracing, and only use a couple of specific materials. This very constrained working environment might seem crazy by today’s standards, but at the time we released the original alpha-test versions, we had hundreds of people playing with the renderer and sending us stellar imagery that was beyond anything anyone had ever seen come out of 3ds Max (or most any other 3d packages at the time).

Back then, Ghost/Brazil was brand new and we had to test specific things before we could move forward with other features. Today we’re in the same spot and need new scenes to test on this new early-development piece of code. Besides, it’ll be fun to see what artists can do today when you take away all their advanced renderer controls and they stop worrying about rendertimes… And now, we can do this with big cash prizes, which we couldn’t do back in the old Ghost days.

So, let’s Kick it Old-School: Dust off those old scenes you have laying around, start re-rendering them, and get them into the contest!

Most of all, have fun with this. We look forward to being able to share more about what we’ve been working on here.

Contest Rules

• Start Sept 18 (Today!)
• End Oct 15
• 5 categories, with entries judged by SplutterFish jury
• Prizes include:
  • Overall Grand Prize: $2500**
  • Plus, five $1000 prizes: One for each first place winner in the categories below.**
  • Plus, the first 20 entries in each category, which meet the contest guidelines and “don’t completely suck,” get their choice of a free SplutterFish t-shirt* or a coupon for 50% off the purchase of any single brazil r/s license.
• All entries must include the rendered image and the full max scenefile, including all maps.
• All entries will be submitted with a release/entry form that gives SplutterFish a non-exclusive license to use and modify the scene
• Entries can be submitted privately, but we welcome artists to post WIP versions to the forum if they want feedback and help.
• Multiple entries per participant are allowed
• All entries must conform to the Technical Guidelines listed below.
• Everyone is welcome to enter
• All entries will be scored on a point system for technical and artistic quality with bonus points given for early entry (before Oct 1), animations, and scene complexity.

Categories

1. Architecture: interior, exterior daylight, exterior night, etc.
2. Industrial Design: consumer products, engineering, manufacturing, medical equipment, etc.
3. High-End Product Advertising: automotive, marine, jewelery, etc.
4. Non-Photoreal Animated Character: animated feature film style, FPS/Fantasy game character/environment, etc.
5. Photorealistic VFX: digital matte paintings, set-extension, hero-creature, sci-fi, period, etc.

Technical Guidelines:

• Use any version of 3ds Max, Brazil r/s V2 for 3ds Max, or the FREE Brazil V2 Rio Edition
• You can use full raytracing with brute force QMC GI (ie. “Global Illumination: On”) — no photons and no rendercache — GI is not required
• You can use the following materials:
  • Brazil 2 Advanced Material
  • Blend
• The Brazil 2 Advanced Materials must be all using the Default Shader with either a phong highlight or no highlight
• You can use the following textures:
  • Bitmap - in any slot in the Brazil 2 Advanced Material
  • Brazil 2 Fresnel
  • Mix
• It’s not required, but preference may be given to scenes that don’t have deep material trees (ie. avoid using blends within blends, and mixes within mixes)
• You can use the following for lighting:
  • Brazil 2 Main Light, set to “point” or “direct” with any Brazil2 Ray Shadows (so you can use area shadows, but not an area light)
  • You can use include/exclude lists with the lights
  • You can use the Luma Server Skylight
  • You cannot use the include/exclude lists in the Luma Server (or in other spots outside the Brazil 2 Lights)
• Use a Brazil 2 Camera, with any lens.
• Do not use:
  • Motion Blur
  • Depth of Field
  • Brazil2 Displacement (using max’s displacement is ok)
  • BzSphere and BzPlane Objects
  • Dispersion — any other feature (ie. Glossy reflections and refractions) in the Brazil 2 advanced material is ok.
  • Volumetrics/Atmospherics — You can use simple “Fog”
  • No render effects
• Scene cannot contain copyrighted material (ie. no turbosquid objects that you don’t have the authority to give away)

Please try to stick to the spirit of this and please don’t “game” the rules. If we have to change the technical guidelines to clarify something, we will.
Click here to go to the Contest Entry (Scene Submission) Form.
* for t-shirts shipped outside North America, the winners will have to pay shipping.
** cash prizes will be awarded via paypal. If winner resides in a non-paypal country, prize will be awarded via direct bank-wire

__________________

The Ghost of Ghost Challenge: RULES - SplutterFish Forums