A long time ago Chris Cason wrote:

> Going on, to me, the question is: what would pique your interest and keep it
> long term? A clone of the IRTC? Or something quite different, but with a
> similar flavor? Or something else entirely? Or even a competition that has no
> set flavor - one that changes according to the times?

I'd be interested in a clone/continuation of the irtc - and the "Tina 
Chep" round (and hopefully the "before/after" round) seem to show that 
there's still some demand for this.....

> I would like to suggest one possibility. It would be interesting to be able
> to conduct a series of competitions - of variable length according to
> difficulty - that I would perhaps describe as the "POV-Team's Challenge".

I do like the challenge ideas and the variable lengths and styles of the 
challenges might cause different people to come up with some impressive 
results. They might inspire people for whom the irtc format has grown 
stale, but I'd suggest/request they should run in parallel to the IRTC 
or it's successor.

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OK, it's a little early to say this, but this is probably the right place.
That idea I double posted (sorry) of having a decentralized contest site
stuck with me --- and I realized it didn't need to be specific to graphics
(though that would be a major audience). So I'm building it.

I figure it's going to be another month or so before alpha testing. If you'd
like to help build, I'm happy to consider it, but what I'd really love to
have is a group to do testing when the time comes.

Anyone interested?




--
Sam Bleckley
http://www.enso.freeshell.org/

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Sounds interesting. I agree that it's mostly about the deadline, also for me 
it has a lot to do with the topic. Plus fast contests would be fun (I can 
definitely make something in 1 hour!).

I'll definitely take a look at the site when you have it running and if the 
contests are interesting I'll enter!

-- 
Tek
http://evilsuperbrain.com

"stm31415" <stm### [at] gmailcom> wrote in message 
news:web.45f2cc8ae1b965b2cf1900cc0@news.povray.org...
> OK, it's a little early to say this, but this is probably the right place.
> That idea I double posted (sorry) of having a decentralized contest site
> stuck with me --- and I realized it didn't need to be specific to graphics
> (though that would be a major audience). So I'm building it.
>
> I figure it's going to be another month or so before alpha testing. If 
> you'd
> like to help build, I'm happy to consider it, but what I'd really love to
> have is a group to do testing when the time comes.
>
> Anyone interested?
>
>
>
>
> --
> Sam Bleckley
> http://www.enso.freeshell.org/
>
>

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I just saw this post. 

I had an idea of spicing up the topics, the old system of which I often
found deflating. When I felt I was going to be making a (nonetheless
LAME-O) space epic when others were going to be making demos of special
effects in photorealism, I was uninspired.

http://base.google.com/base/a/1047972/D17372762218891870809

I took the 5800 book titles available at Project Gutenberg and took out the
800-odd that I thought would be really fun to animate to-- things like
Jules Verne, Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, some Shakespeare, some Twain, some
Doyle.  For example if the title were "Queen of Mars" you wouldn't
necessarily have to go study that particular text in order to be on-topic,
but the title itself just makes for all kinds of coolness.

Folks could review the list to see if any were completely objectionable and
then if we still have say >>>300 items we could pick from those on a random
basis. 

I was half-thinking starting "my own" contest on youtube, but that may or
may not be a good idea. ;-)

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Warp wrote:

>   Btw, the short code contests have been one of the best advertisements
> for POV-Ray I have ever seen. 


:-D     That was always my thoughts as well.

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This looks like an attractive idea, Greg.
One could make it even more hilarious/interesting by scrambling randomly the 
words of the titles, like is done in the book macro of Gilles Tran for 
instance.

Thomas


"Greg M. Johnson" <pte### [at] thecommononethatstartswithYcom> schreef in 
bericht news:45f8b179@news.povray.org...
>I just saw this post.
>
> I had an idea of spicing up the topics, the old system of which I often
> found deflating. When I felt I was going to be making a (nonetheless
> LAME-O) space epic when others were going to be making demos of special
> effects in photorealism, I was uninspired.
>
> http://base.google.com/base/a/1047972/D17372762218891870809
>
> I took the 5800 book titles available at Project Gutenberg and took out 
> the
> 800-odd that I thought would be really fun to animate to-- things like
> Jules Verne, Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, some Shakespeare, some Twain, some
> Doyle.  For example if the title were "Queen of Mars" you wouldn't
> necessarily have to go study that particular text in order to be on-topic,
> but the title itself just makes for all kinds of coolness.
>
> Folks could review the list to see if any were completely objectionable 
> and
> then if we still have say >>>300 items we could pick from those on a 
> random
> basis.
>
> I was half-thinking starting "my own" contest on youtube, but that may or
> may not be a good idea. ;-)
>

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Hi all:

I have participated in several contests of the IRTC (14 times).

http://exether.free.fr/irtc/index.php?sub=authors&lang=es&auth=enrique_sahagun_alonso

and somehow I left it (as someone said) because I now need much more time to
get satisfied with my images. So appart from the ideas you gave I propose to
stand at least two stills contests, a sort-term and a long-term one.

And to finish I will say something that I know, it is not going to be very
popular. When I started participating in the IRTC it was very exciting to
me that no (lets say) post-production was allowed. And due to that, since
then, I had the idea that in and out of the IRTC, no post-production should
be used. Now that I do my images not for the IRTC but for myself I'm
starting to use post-production to improve my images. I'm not very good
with this (I'm still learning how to use the GIMP and similar software) but
I think it is a good idea to make a picture with pov and then
try to improve it by using filters.

I dont know if this last idea is going to look interesting to all you, but
think of it for a while.

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I can't survive without competition. I discovered IRTC and POVray only 4
years ago but i am an addict today.
I wish i could help you in designing some new features, but i have no skill
in that field.
I have to say that i learned a lot from the artist that post their images on
IRTC, and especially from the one that gave explanation and source from
their submit.
This is why i suggest to add in the vote an item concerning the quality of
the explanation posted, in order to pull the level.

About the different challenges, i fully agree with some more technical
ideas, because the artistic one need to be able to use many tools and
software i don't have, because they cost a lot of money, and i don't have
time to studty them neither.

Above all, what i love in Ray Tracing is photorealism. The more realistic it
looks, the best it is.

Yves.

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"Dorlindel" <nomail@nomail> schreef in bericht 
news:web.460a621ee1b965b2d499f0420@news.povray.org...
>
> I can't survive without competition. I discovered IRTC and POVray only 4
> years ago but i am an addict today.
> I wish i could help you in designing some new features, but i have no 
> skill
> in that field.
> I have to say that i learned a lot from the artist that post their images 
> on
> IRTC, and especially from the one that gave explanation and source from
> their submit.
> This is why i suggest to add in the vote an item concerning the quality of
> the explanation posted, in order to pull the level.
>
> About the different challenges, i fully agree with some more technical
> ideas, because the artistic one need to be able to use many tools and
> software i don't have, because they cost a lot of money, and i don't have
> time to studty them neither.
>
> Above all, what i love in Ray Tracing is photorealism. The more realistic 
> it
> looks, the best it is.
>

I do agree with you, except on two point: artistry is not synonymous with 
many tools and/or expensive software. The most famous painters in the world 
are not famous because they used the most expensive paint or canvas or the 
largest number of brushes. Artistic quality lies in a totally different 
domain, also where computer graphics are concerned, also for most of the 
past IRTC winners.

The second point is a matter of personal taste indeed, as you say yourself. 
Imho, photorealism is not the main quality (or even purpose) of ray tracing. 
It is just a tool to express one's ideas, dreams, concepts, from totally 
abstract to hyperrealistic. But that's me.

Thomas

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"Dorlindel" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
>
> Above all, what i love in Ray Tracing is photorealism. The more realistic it
> looks, the best it is.
>

On some youtube animation a guy was interspersing a whole bunch of 2D images
with some obvious "real footage" with apparently some of his own
photorealistic 3D. And then I guess you were supposed to be impressed with
the 3D based on the introduction-- I think it was a portfolio reel. But
either there was verrrry little 3D or it was verrrry photorealistic. In
either case the viewer was left wondering what was 3D in a /bad/ way.

I hate photorealism. If you are going to the trouble of making perfect
photorealism, go get a camera.  Someone out there has an exhaustively
photorealistic picture of a freeway in 3D.  To the overwhelming majority of
folks who see the image (i.e., those who aren't told beforehand that it's
3D), he has bored them to death. He fails to enlighten and lift up and
entertain.

What I love is work that suggests photorealism from another universe with
plausible physics. It is true to the consequences of those physics, but it
doesn't look like a photo taken here.

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