RULES & GUIDELINES

  • Introduction
  • Theme Description
  • Your Mission
  • Categories
  • Deliverables
  • Final Image Size
  • WIP Sheet
  • How to Submit your Images
  • Deadline
  • Restrictions
  • Rules

Introduction

Welcome to Avatar art contest! Avatar is an international event that goes beyond single resource. We thought it would be great to gather artists from all over the world to fight creative task together. We really want to turn it into a remarkable, exciting and fun event so we've invited an amazing group of artists to our judges' panel and partnered up with some great sponsors!

 

Theme Description

Avatar or Avatara is the Sanskrit word which literally means "descent" and usually implies a deliberate descent from higher spiritual realms to lower realms of existence for special purposes. It often translates into English as incarnation.

In our case, we encourage artists to imagine they were born on another planet, or in another world? What would it looks like, what kind of society and technology would they have? Would it be a totally futuristic, alien realm or maybe something primitive and close to nature? Imagine a world you'd like to live in and tell us about it. We'd like to see not just alien vistas but images with a story!

 

Your Mission

  • To create a character (avatar)
  • To create environment and place your character into it
  • To tell a story within your image

You are free to create any life form for your character, just make sure it has some charisma and personality. You can create a female character if you're a man and vice versa - it's up to you.

Use your imagination while creating your world. Put some thoughts into its atmosphere, gravity, eco system and so on.

Finally, put some story behind your image. It could be something simple like a still life shot or an epic or historic moment from the life of your universe. Be creative!

 


Final image Sample (Artwork by Ruan Jia)

 

Categories

  • 2D Illustration
  • 3D Image
  • Comic(Cartoon) Style Image

For 2D category you can use any 2D software package (Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop etc.) and/or any traditional mediums like color pencils, acrylics, or oil paints to create the final image.

For 3D category you can use any 3D software for modeling and rendering. For post-processing you can use any compositing software (Apple Shake, Eyeon Digital Fusion, Adobe After Effects etc.). To clarify things, you must provide a clean render ("as is") without any post-production effects in a WIP sheet (see WIP Sheet section for further details).

For the comic (catroon) style category you can use any 2D/3D software package and/or any traditional mediums like color pencils, acrylics, or oil paints to create the final image.

 

Deliverables

All entrants are required to provide the following:

  • A work in progress (WIP) sheet
  • A final image

 

Final Image Size

For the judging stage we accept submissions as .JPG files at 72dpi - screen resolution - at approx. 800-1000 pixels wide. All submitted images must, however, be available in print resolution: 300dpi - print resolution - at approx. 3000-4000 pixels wide, or above.

As a guideline, here are the ideal sizes for your images, at print resolution:

  • 2480 x 3425 pixels (portrait or full single page)
  • 4960 x 3425 pixels (landscape or full double-page spread)

These are given as guidelines. To be safe, paint or render images that are larger than specified.

 

WIP Sheet

WIP sheet is a compilation of images showcasing your creative process, from initial sketches or 3D pre-viz. renders to the final image.


Sample WIP sheet (Artwork by Ruan Jia)

All WIP images should be saved in print resolution (see Final Image Size section) wherever possible; we understand that screen shots can only be grabbed at 72dpi, so we simply ask that all of WIP images are as large as possible. For the judging stage, it is only necessary to submit screen resolution versions of your WIP sheets (see Final Image Size section).

 

How to Submit your Images

We want this contest to benefit a large group of artists. To maximize your creative experience, we encourage you to participate in online community hosted by 3DTotal (for english-speaking artists) or CreatureDesign.org and CGFight.com (for russian-speaking artists):

  • Join the contest by registering at 3DTotal forum or, if you speak Russian, join CreatureDesign.org or CGFight.com forum.
  • Create your own personal thread within the AVATAR Forum of the Threedy Challenges Forum on http://forums.3dtotal.com and submit your work in progress on a regular basis. Your thread must be labelled as follows:
    AVATAR - 3d/2d/Comic - Your Forum Name - Title of your Work
    (Refer to CreatureDesign.org / CGFight.com specs if you're entering russian part)
  • Participate in the community by critiquing other artist's entries in the respective forums and listen to feedback
  • Submit your final entry before the deadline (to avoid the last-minute rush get your entry in early!)

For your final image submission, you must provide the following information:

  • Image Title:
  • Artist:
  • Country:
  • Email Address:
  • Website:
  • Software Used in Creation of Image:
  • Description of Image: (the more info provided here, the better!)

 

Deadline

The competition will run from December 08, 2008 with the deadline set on March 08, 2009 23:59:59 GMT.

 

Restrictions

All images, including concepts, sketches, 3D assets, etc. must be made specifically for this contest.

No teams or groups - everything must be made by one person.

Keep gore and nudity to a decent level, no explicit scenes and violence.

All winners are required to cooperate in making an interview about themselves and their work, and provide detailed "making of" articles accompanied by high-resolution work in progress stills for 3DCreative and/or 2DArtist Magazine after the competition.

 

Rules

  1. Employees and immediate family relatives of 3DTotal/CreatureDesign/CGFight staff, sponsors and judges cannot compete in the contest.
  2. Entries should be original and should remain unprinted outside of 3DTotal/CreatureDesign/CGFight prior to the close of the contest. Any entry deemed by the judges to be identical or substantially similar to any other entry previously entered may be disqualified as a derivate work.
  3. Images must conform to nominal decency guidelines. Any image deemed to contain content that depicts violence, racial, political, religious, sexual, or any other inflammatory material in an inappropriate manner may be disqualified and removed.
  4. No late entries will be accepted. 3DTotal/CreatureDesign/CGFight will not be held responsible for late entries for any reason whatsoever. It is the sole responsibility of the entrants to make reasonable allowances for upload times and to plan accordingly.
  5. Judges' decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
  6. To be eligible for prizes, all winning entrants must cooperate in making an interview about themselves and provide detailed "making of" articles.
  7. Any import taxes or duties on prizes must be paid by the prize winner. It is neither practically possible nor ethically reasonable for 3DTotal/CreatureDesign/CGFight or any of the sponsors to pay duties and taxes on behalf of a winner. 3DTotal/CreatureDesign/CGFight and sponsors will not make false valuation claims to assist winners from evading any applicable duties and taxes.
  8. By entering artwork to the competition the entrant warrants that he or she is the sole copyright holder, or that he or she has obtained the rights sufficient for the purpose of the competition.
  9. The entrant grants 3DTotal/CreatureDesign/CGFight and competition sponsors rights to use all entered materials in any media for sales, marketing and merchandising material provided full and correct credit for the artist clearly appears with said materials.
  10. Other than the rights assigned in the preceding clauses entrants retain copyright of all entered materials and are free to use said materials for personal promotions.
  11. 3DTotal/CreatureDesign/CGFight reserve the right to publish more information about the competition, explaining the content and purpose of the event. 3DTotal/CreatureDesign/CGFight also reserve the right to amend any of the above items and sections of the site during the competition (it could refer to the description of the contest and prizes, sponsors, the biography of the jury, etc.).
  12. 3DTotal/CreatureDesign/CGFight reserve the right to cancel or extend the contest at any time for any reason, without notice or prior warning.