Subject: Surface Contest!
Date: Tue, 17 May 94 16:18:49 -0600
From: feifarek@students.wisc.edu (Matthew J. Feifarek)
Let's try and breathe some life and spark into this group...
____________________________________________________________
Many people work better with their tools in an externally provided framework...
you know, so you can fiddle with something without worrying too much about the
ideas involved. As an artist, many of my best pieces have been in response to
an "assignment" or problem-solving challenge. Imagine being given a blank piece
of paper, and being told to play around with it. Some of us would work better,
or have more fun if we were given that blank piece of paper and told to draw the
funniest face we could, or the coolest car, or the smelliest monster.
I have been playing with Imagine, Forge, and Essence and it strikes me that the
surface creation tools are exquisitely powerful... much like a blank piece of
paper and a really really nice pencil. It also occurred to me that perhaps the
most difficult thing to create with algorithmic image creation is organic lookin
g
surfaces and forms. Perhaps this is because of the obvious enforced commercial
art/advertising/design paradigm, and perhaps it is because of the computer's
very nature itself. Anyway, it strikes me that these new surface creation tools
have blown the possibilities way way open.
I decided that if someone was to create a framework and let the collective
creativity and ingenuity of everyone "out there" to pour into it, some really
really cool stuff could happen. So, I hereby issue a challenge to the whole
world, or at least those of you who read this. Feel free to reproduce,
transmit, synthesize, translate, by any mechanical or non-mechanical means...
... pass it on.
ANNOUNCING THE FIRST ANNUAL(?) GROSSEST SURFACE CONTEST
< trumpets, cheers >
RULES:
1. No scanned/captured images may be used. Drawn/painted are cool.
2. Any bitmap images used must add up to no more than a total of 200k. This
means if you have twelve different bump maps, they can only be 16k each!
This is purely a practical consideration, to keep my mbox from getting huge.
3. Actually, no it's not purely practical; I want to encourage algorithmic
entries... we've always been able to make gross bitmaps. Therefore, any use
of a bitmap on your surface automatically puts you in a separate category.
See below for categories.
4. Each surface must be totally portable. By this I mean you can send me the
.atr file and any necessary accompanying files, and I should be able to rende
r
it on my machine.
5. I cannot accept rendered images. Partly this is for mbox reasons, and partly
so I know each entry has been done according to the rules -- no touch ups ;^)
TECHNICAL INFO
Note: please do not complain about how I'm not supporting scanned images, or
lightwave objects, or 3Dstudio or some such stuff. I have these packages, and
frankly it's my contest. I encourage you to have your own!
As said, your entries must be able to run on my computer. You can assume the
following:
- Imagine3 and included textures, EssenceI, EssenceII, Forge
- 2MB chip, 4MB fast, 25MB virtual(if somehow necessary??? I hope not)
- I will be viewing these in 24bit, all in the same resolution, antialiasing
level etc. If there is some particular context for your surface like
color of light or background color or something, please let me know.
- Any surface that looks for a bitmap/brush should look for it in "maps:"
or for you msdos folks, "m:" is okay.
Please email them to me in uuencoded form, with GROSS CONTEST ENTRY in the
subject line. Please use lha if you must compress, and put images in jpeg
(i'll convert them back to i24's). If you plan on sending a ton of data, say
more than 100k at once, please give me a warning so I can be sure to get it out
of my mailbox and onto my Amiga as soon as possible.
I greatly encourage technical expertise as well as creativity/artistry... points
will be scored for use of alpha channel texture use, animated textures, and
self-written code (!)
CATEGORIES
1. Downright grossest.
2. most technically cool grossness
3. best title/filename
4. most realistic grossness
5. least realistic grossness
6. grossest surface using bitmaps
7. best gross factor vs. rendering speed ratio
8. most evocative of odor surface
PRIZES
Uh, not sure yet. I'm working on it. Certainly the respect of me and your
peers. Perhaps someone with serious hardware out there could volunteer to make
a 1 hour bones-squishing/morphing animation of your surface on a big turd object
and send it to you on video?
I'll work on something cool for this. Maybe I'll model up some kind of gallery
space with pedestals and put some huge booger or spleen geometry on each for the
winners. That could be cool.
ABOUT ME...
I am a graduating art student, and a veteran to 3D graphics, especially with
Imagine. I am well versed in the art-critique process, and I consider myself to
be fair and objective. I will judge your entries on stylistic, formal,
conceptual, and technical merits. If need be, I will also rope in some other
"professional" artists to give me input and considerations.
Also, I have a pretty strong stomach.
ENTRIES
If you need me too, I will promise to never give your surface to anyone else or
to use it in my own creations; I could only use it for the contest, then erase
it. This could be critical for some of you who might be writing your own code.
If some kind of circumstance like this exists and you still don't trust me with
your code, then perhaps you could send me an image instead. We'll see.
Enter as many as you like, but please don't send 17 megabytes of atts to my
mailbox. Be reasonable. Send your best work only.
I will choose winners about mid June... let's say the 15th. But, I encourage
you to send them in throughout the next month so I can check them out more...
the more time to study your creation, the more likely I am to sense genius.
Please do not try and get me to accept other programs/packages... for that, have
your own contest! I have this software, and this is what I'm interested in
seeing.
Send to: feifarek@students.wisc.edu w/ "Subject:GR0SS C0NTEST ENTRY"
GOOD LUCK. MAKE MY MONITOR OOZE PUSS AND EXUDE A SYNAESTHETIC PUNGENCE!!!
_______________________________________________________________________________
Matthew J. Feifarek University of Wisconsin Madison - Art Department
"All children are geniuses until they are de-
feifarek@students.wisc.edu geniused by education" -R.Buckminster Fuller
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