Hi!

We plan to launch a new contest soon.
This time we would like you to participate in the "brain storming process" as well.

We always have a specific topic for our contests, challenging our users with specific and sometimes difficult objectives.

Of course we want as many uploads as possible - so this time we would like to ask you what kind of materials you would like to see! Any suggestions? Any specific needs?

Just tell us and we will collect the topics. Then we will bring up a poll and you can vote for your favourite topic.

The user who made the "winning suggestion" will get rewareded with a brand new 150 GHz workstation.

(No, just kidding ;-)).

Hope to read from you soon!

Just reply to this thread plese ;-)

PS: The workstation was a joke. No workstation available.

This post was last modified: 01-28-2008 07:46 PM by Banshee.

Good news to see a new competition, hopefully participation will be good !

I have a couple of ideas:

nature - foliage/shrubs,etc
fabric
displacement materials

ok where's my desktop?!?! ;D

p.s considering your latest post perhaps a contest with no bitmaps might be an idea? i.e. procedural mats

I also think that procedural mats are the hardest to make - so I don´t suggest them as I would not really be able to contribute!

My 5 Cents:
"Nature" -  good idea (i.e Snow, Ice, Fire)
"Fabrics" - might be only a matter of Diffuse Mapping with a bit of displacement - again I would not recommend for the contest
"Food" - could be nice
"Metal" - as in Construction or engines (so no more chrome/aluminium please! )

As I´m NOT expecting any workstation (Thx for the joke!) I really DO want to know what the prices are?!

Cheers Chesire Cat

nature would work, nice broad topic. dont think metals is a good idea, its too narrow as a topic and i think we would get too many repetitve materials.

what about products, like a mat set with the materials for an ipod or something?

How about it should be all procedural..no JPGs please as it is easier to make in photoshop.

The theme could be about industrial (rust, dirty metals), interiors (tiles, fabrics and without jpg in diffuse !)...

I don't know....

I just want to win....I want to be good  

Good luck

Oh..and the contest should be for people new to VRAY and 3DS   (Like me)

Well, in my humble opinion I think hard to find accurate gemstones (with correct Index of refraction or refracted colors) and too Minerals (in the raw).The peoples think that gemstones look like glass...this isn't truth.Looks simple to make but this isn't really easy...

My suggestions:

- Gemstones (rare and special gemstones like Opals,Moonstone,rutilated gemstones,mother-of-pearls etc...)
- Minerals (in the raw like raw diamond,Rock quartz etc)
- Animals (i search desperately mats for pigeons(in special wings/feathers mats) and eagles)
- Fabrics (preferably unusual like Silk,velvet silk,chenille etc)
- Nature (like flowers[Roses,orchids,daisys etc...])
- Procedurals Mats (any type except architetural tiles or rusted metals, please !  Exist several here   )

I think that mats that overuse textures bitmap in diffuse or displace like tiles, floor tiles, woods etc... were not interesting.

I want to participate, but, i have only experience in gemstone or architetural mats and a little of simple procedurals mats...


Sorry for my poor english


Good luck and Good job for all!


Ashtar.

I would suggest :
- Raw material / mineral (gemstones, gold, copper, diamond, coal etc)
- Food (not including fruit since I think that there was a similar competition in the past, am I right?)
- Liquid (water, dirty water [green/brown colour not-so-transparent water or water with rubbish floating], chemicals, oil / petroleum, blood)
- Plants (leaves, flowers)

That's all I can think of right now. By the way, nice to see a new competition under 'planning'

Thanks

Thanks for all replys so far!

Yes, I see several good and interesting ideas here! I believe we should go for something that most people can use. If materials become too specific, 99% of our users don´t have an interest in them.

My thoughts so far:

- Procedural is nice of course but we have experienced that too many users get frustrated with it and do not participate because they just can´t figure out how it works. My suggestion would be to completely rework the voting system for the contest and give procedurals a slightly higher rating weigth... have to discuss that with Marco.
- We had the Topics "Organic","Skin","Architectural" in the past. The organic contest was by far the best I think. So many excellent and creative materials....!

Of course, if the majority of the users here want a specific topic, we can do that, no problem.
Just an idea: Instead of "plants" and "animals" we could also put them together and call it "jungle". So there are more options for people to create their very own material. Well, just an idea!

Don´t know anything about the prices yet :-) We have to look for sponsors again first

jungle idea sounds cool