CGNetworks Special Feature:: Grand Space Opera
CG Challenge XVI - Grand Space Opera Results
Mark Snoswell & Paul Hellard, 14th February 2005
We take great pleasure in announcing the results of the CG Challenge XVI – Grand Space Opera. CGNetworks' CG Challenges are at the forefront of our commitment to enhance the worldwide digital arts community. The Challenges allow the standard of work produced by the CG community to rise on the strength of the support given through its membership. The CG community itself supports those who have chosen to enter their work in these Challenges. Each Challenge has its own theme. As many already have seen, the range of themes covered in the previous 15 Challenges span 3D and 2D artwork. They cover original characters, landscapes, in many genres. The theme of this present challenge, CG Challenge XVI, is Grand Space Opera. Visions of icons of galactic civilization, conquest and conflict fill the mind. It is just this emotive spring of inspiration that is the launching pad for some of the entries seen in CG Challenge XVI. Whatever that personal vision is, has to be a complete scene depicting anything that is relevant to that Grand Space Opera theme.
The Challenge The community of artists and devotees of the CG arts is truly huge, with 140,000 active members in our network alone. In CGTalk, we run and manage the equivalent of a non-stop conference with 100 concurrent forums. Setting challenges for the membership keeps them all fresh and interested. Working within clearly set guidelines, artists are challenged to create some outstanding works of art based upon set themes. At the completion of up to seven milestones in their work's creation, they are required to upload and show the work-in-progress to the online community of industry peers. They deliver their work in stages that range from a raw Concept Sketch, Line Art, and several stages through to Final Coloring and then the Final Image. In 3D work, there are additional milestones covering Lighting, Rendering and Final Composite. Two categories ran simultaneously for the Grand Space Opera Challenge: 3D Stills and 2D Illustrations. All of the 2,000 or so entrants benefit immensely from participation and the feedback they receive along the way. Much rethinking and inspiration has occurred at each stage, as feedback from the community proves to be immensely constructive for those taking part. It is always a huge buzz to see an artist improve their work, and often go on to win the praise of their peers. Many participants soak up advice and go on to find inspiration far beyond what they could have imagined, using advice given freely by potential mentors working in the same industry, but on other continents. Many revel in the attention their newfound talent attracts, and possibly go on to find lucrative employment as a result of the exposure.
The mission of the Challenges is to improve artist's skills and to recognize their best. They have proven hugely popular and have grown exponentially. By the time we reached the fourteenth challenge, Alienware, things were so big that we were able to attract significant sponsorship. Just two challenges later and we now offer almost US$30,000 in prizes. Our sponsors for the Grand Space Opera Challenge XVI are Boxx Technologies, PNY Technologies, SoftImage, Discreet, ART VPS, The Gnomon Workshop, Ballistic Publishing, Turbo Squid, Luxology, Pixologic, Corel and Digital Tutors. Each of the sponsors has donated generously towards the prize pool and we thank them very much for their involvement. We hope they have also had a chance to join us in watching entrants generate the huge array of spectacular imagery for the honor of being a part of the GSO Challenge XVI.
