If I read the .txt's correctly, no *winners* used Lightwave, so the issue is
a moot one. Also, the injustice here is proportional to the cash value of
the awards, no? ;-)

I used Animation:Master to make models.   I probably spent a month each on
models & action/movement/plot and then 2 weeks on realistic lighting,
scenery & textures.  I felt more pride here than if I were to have used
Poser figures and spent 2 months on realistic lighting, scenery, &
textures.  I probably deserve a lower score for poorer lighting, scenery,
and textures, so it is an issue of personal satisfaction.  All are necessary
to a good story, especially if you ever wanted to make a TV commercial.

As for the options, 1) doing nothing, 4) outright deletion, and 2)
handicapping the score are unworkable.  Yes, disqualify at the judges
discretion, depending on how bad it is.  I think if I used a Mickey
Mouse(TM) image in a picture frame in a corner which was a photocopy of a
copyrighted image, it'd be disqualifiable.

We are all really complaining about the same thing.  This thread is about
unattributed use of  canned models; I've been griping about a similar
problem, possible dumping of pre-existing portfolio pieces.  There is
something "less remarkable" indeed about entries which use Poser figures,
characters from previous rounds, publicly available povray- blob-men, and
models off of any CD-ROM.  The judging, however, does not seem to think so.
In the words of Stuart Smalley, "and that's OK!"

I think the solution, friends and colleagues, is eclectic topics!  If not
JFK then "Lewis & Clark", "Dukes of Hazzard" , "Surfboarding" ,
"Strothimimus",  etc.

I would love to compete in a contest where everything had to be from scratch
each time (exactly what the spirit of "originally for the IRTC" means to
me).   In previous objections to this line of attack, people have basically
said, "No that topic is bad because then people would have to make some
original material from scratch!"  [Surely, many winners, such as  HED's
"Traffic" and no13's "Pearl Harbor," are miraculous in every measure and
unquestionably from scratch.]  And I guess that is why I will always be just
a dabbler, because I'd rather throw a cool model at the viewer with merely a
pigment than take a pre-existing model and caress it with hours of texture &
lighting development.  I probably won't win contests or achieve my dream of
making commercials, but I'll have fun dreaming...

Keep on truckin...

The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps wrote:

> I understand that one of the animations in the "Robot" round used models
> taken directly off of the Lightwave CD-ROM, without attribution in the
> .txt file, which is required by the contest rules.  The animation in
> question didn't win anything.
>
> What's going to be done as a consequence of this?  As I see things,
> these options are available:



> Regards,
> John

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