"Gilles Tran" <gitran_nospam_@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> Hello
>
> Disclaimer: this is not an official statement. An official announcement from
> the POVCOMP organizers will follow (some details are still being worked on)
> and participants will be emailed privately.
>
> There are 56 entries. Among these, there are exceptional images, that would
> be worthy of the main prizes. People have been working hard, and these
> images are a good testimony of what can be achieved with POV-Ray.
>
> However, these exceptional images are too few. The competition was all about
> getting the best out of POV-Ray, and while most entries are very good, they
> are on the whole not up to the standard that can be observed in current 3D
> contests. It's not an easy thing to say and we understand that this may be
> offending to some. Be sure that we fully realise the amount of work that was
> put in all entries: it's just that the bar has been raised very high in 3D
> these days. The feedback on the new hall of fame was extremely positive:
> this newfound reputation should not be squandered. We all know that POV-Ray
> is an exceptional piece of software, so we need lots of exceptional artworks
> to prove it.
>
> One major reason for the lack of exceptional pieces may have been that the
> time period of two and a half months was too short. POVCOMP is of an order
> of magnitude harder than the IRTC, and the organisers underestimated the
> time needed to create this sort of work without giving up on real life.
> People couldn't find the time to complete their entries, and among those
> submitted, we feel that many can be improved.
>
> Accordingly, it has been decided to postpone the deadline until January 31,
> 2005. That's almost 3 additional months for people to resume or complete
> their work, or submit new ones.
> In a nutshell:
> - Those of you who have submitted an image will be given the opportunity to
> unsubmit it and resume work.
> - Those of you who did not submit due to lack of time are encouraged to
> resume work on their creation.
> - For those who are happy with what they have submitted already, their image
> will remain in its 'submitted' state. Of course, you can always create a new
> work.
>
> The precise procedures to do so will be explained later.
>
> Again, this was not an easy decision to take. I'm painfully aware of how
> difficult this must be for the POVCOMP participants. We hope, however, that
> these 3 extra months will result in many exceptional pictures.
>
> Gilles Tran
>
> --
> **********************
> http://www.oyonale.com
> **********************
> - Graphic experiments
> - POV-Ray and Poser computer images
> - Posters

First of all I would have to say I am disappointed. There where rules for
this competition that we all had to follow. If the level of art was not up
to standard there was no prevision in the rules to cover this. In such
there could be legal issues involved. I do not want to stop any further
competitions by scaring the organizers away. I do however believe more
respect to those that did make the deadline should be shown. Could my image
be better? Yes but I made the dead line with the best I could make. I have
heard here many times how the pov team must balance their time and life
with writing povray and I agree but now when we push and work to produce
with in the given required timeline we get blasted for not producing well
enough.

The idea of a competition was great. The execution was fair given that it
was a first run. It is time to complete this one, award the prizes, state
the improvements for later and go again with the improvements. If the
companies that donated the prizes expected this competition to be perfect
then perhaps new sponsors are needed anyway. I am sure everyone has learned
something from this.

If the deadline is moved officially I will put more time in to my image. I
am glad to be able to do so. But, this is not the normal way to handle
these problems in normal competition. Like I said before; there could be
legal issues that could change things. If anyone has access to legal advice
I would encourage some counseling.