Ok, we all know about my being challenged by Slug to a graphics contest, and if you don't you can find the link here: (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum13/HTML/000252.html")http://www.AmbrosiaS...TML/000252.html(/url)

I'm starting this new topic to officialise that yes, this contest does in fact exist between me and Slug. The rules suggested by Mag will be enforced:

We will each put on 7 pictures to display to the Ares community. There are no time constraints to making them, but they are to be your best work. At the end there will be a large vote by all non-participants to determine the winner.

Oh yeah, it's not necesssarily just between me and Slug. Anyone with graphics skill can enter the contest.

Just to toughen up the rules a bit:

-The 7 images MUST all be space ships.
-There must be at least ONE combat image
-The winner recieves 1 karma point

Jolly good, chap! May the best man win!

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 07-06-2001).)

About voting:

There are 10 possible marks per picture.

Textures: /5
Aesthetics: /5

If it's a fighting picture, the marks are different:

Ships: /5
Special Effects: /5

You can only vote once, but are allowed to change your vote at any time. The contest is decided when one party retains a clear majority.

(This message has been edited by Count Altair El Alemein (edited 07-06-2001).)

I'll probably enter once I get access to a computer with Strata again.

Well, after trying for a while to get my picture so I can load it here, I must report failure.

-Angelfire displayed an 'image' pict, but never seemed to load it.
-Geocities kept saying it was invalid file type, and I'm pretty sure corvette.jpg is valid (yes it was a jpg document)

I think I'll email the files to darkk, who will upload them for me.

I can't upload it for you, as that would compromise my impartiality.

In any case, CA grabs a 4/5 for texturing and a 4/5 for aestetics.

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Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

Email them to me and I'll put them up on slugsoft for you.

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Darkk: I hope you will continue your harsh marking with everyone. As far as I'm concerned, that Alien corvette was perfect. It's rare for a piece of imagination to come out so exactly in a 3-D model.

Slug: I'll email it to you. Kind of ironic isn't it

Belay that order!

Guess what? I figured it out (duh!)

Nice texture, if a bit of a simple design

Very nice rendering though, what program was this made in?

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Strata StudioPro 2.0
Rendered using Radiosity
Rendering time = about 15 minutes

Slug, could you repost your other entry here?

I'm waiting untill Pallas Athene gets back to start the contest. In the mean time, I'll be whipping up some mean ships.

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Well, I'm still working; I intend on completely revamping the UESG for M:Inv and by the time I'm done with just the drawings I'll have spent well over 8 hours. It'll take at least half as long just to model the 3 ships I've got completed out even with absolute concentration, and I'll never have that. (And these are 3 of the smallest 4 ships)

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"Once, just once, I'd like to be able to land somewhere and say, 'Behold, I am the Archangel Gabriel.'"
"I fail to see the humor in that situation, Doctor."
"Naturally. You could hardly claim to be an angel with those pointed ears, Mister Spock. But say you landed someplace with a pitchfork "

Well, if the contest is still going come the end of summer, I might join in... Otherwise I'll just rate things. The Alien Corvette gets a 3/5 for textures, and a 2/5 for aesthetics. Just so you know, though, I probably use a bit of a different scale from the rest of you. A one (from me) means it's average or worse. A two is nice, well executed, but not inspiring. A three is excellent, but not spectacular. A four is spectacular, and a five is beyond mere spectacular. For comparison, I'd give (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum56/HTML/000421.html#")this(/url) a 1/5 for textures, and a 3/5 for aesthetics.

In any case, I have to get back to work now. Sigh.

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(Insert Signature Here)

I'd give it a little higher on Aesthetics... but not on Textures. They look Pfhor

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"Once, just once, I'd like to be able to land somewhere and say, 'Behold, I am the Archangel Gabriel.'"
"I fail to see the humor in that situation, Doctor."
"Naturally. You could hardly claim to be an angel with those pointed ears, Mister Spock. But say you landed someplace with a pitchfork "

Who's ship looks like Pfhor?

I think I have to clarify markings a little more - marking something 2/5 means that 60% of it was sh*t. Ok? And we're not marking against your dream ship, we're marking against what you think could be improved in the graphic. The highest and lowest marks for each graphic will not be counted, and you must illustrate clearly the reason for your mark.

Quote

Originally posted by Count Altair El Alemein:
**Who's ship looks like Pfhor?

I think I have to clarify markings a little more - marking something 2/5 means that 60% of it was sh*t. Ok? And we're not marking against your dream ship, we're marking against what you think could be improved in the graphic. The highest and lowest marks for each graphic will not be counted, and you must illustrate clearly the reason for your mark.**

sigh If all you're going to do is argue about your own rating system, I think we need a new one.

Let's just rate the pictures out of 10 for what their context is for.

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

I think to argue you need 2 people. I'm just clarifying the context etc... of the ratings, to make it more fair. Do you have any problems with that?

Well, if you want an argument...
If not, feel free to ignore the rest of this post.
(argument)
There are two potential problems I see with your rating setup:
one: it is biased against ships that use geometry for detail - such vessels generally have very simple textures, and, if done well, are superior to designs that use textures for detail.
two: it makes it easy to tell the difference between a good and a bad design, but hard to tell the difference between a good and a great design (and I expect most ships in a contest like this to fall into good to great category). If I used your scale, I'd probably end up rating most entries as 4/5, which really doesn't leave much headroom to improve the rating for the occasional truly spectacular vessel.
And actually, it doesn't really matter what rating scale anyone uses, as long as each individual always uses the same scale. The only reason I explained my scale in the first place was so that people wouldn't think a 2 from me meant "60% sh*t", because it most certainly doesn't. And no, I'm not comparing these to some "dream ship" - just to the best ones I've ever seen.
(/argument)

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(Insert Signature Here)

(This message has been edited by Wyvern (edited 07-13-2001).)

Ya know, some people like me are lazy and, in their laziness, wise at times. For instance, instead of having this weird special rating system where we rate every single image submitted to see who won, I would prefer it if at the end of the contest, when everybody's already submitted all of their images, we vote on gasp who we think should win the contest! Ya know, sorta like how it's usually done and works pretty much every single time as long as there's no meddling? Whoever gets a majority from the votes wins. Anyway, that's what I suggest.

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"Whoever said that the pen is mightier than the sword was on something."
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