Cheers Andrew... Amature it is then

Andrew wrote:

PROFESSIONAL - Anyone who has been employed at a studio and has created a model for a production job. This incldues any basic props, environments or character models.

AMATEUR - Anyone who would like to be a modeler or is training to become one. This category is also open to people who have been employed at a studio in a non-modeling role.

cheers
Andrew

Ahhh...but the plot thickens. What about someone like me? Who freelances and has never done any studio work before. As I take it so far it would be under pro. Eh right?

Hi everybody, first I was really sad as I read "pro or student"
because I´m not a pro and not a student but "pro or amateur" --> good news! *grin*
That´s a very cool and creative contest and I HAAAVE to enter this competition
Hope we´ll have a lot of fun and learn from each other.
Now I have to start sketching
Cheers!
Moni

Me again -- I have a qestion regarding the rules..

"10. Final entry will be in two parts:
a. A still render of your Creature or Critter model – (simple shader only, no textures allowed"

I´m not sure what you mean by "simple shader". What´s a shader ?
Sorry, I´m a newbie and before I´m going to make a mistake I think it´s better to ask.
I heard this word so often but still don´t know what is it.
Is it just another word for material?
If so -- can we use any material we want as long as we don´t texture it?

And last but not least -- is there a thread for questions like this? I don´t want to post in the wrong forum/thread.

Thank you

A shader is the way materials/colours can be applied to your 3D objects. Most software, if you look in the shading/texturing/materials window you will be able to create things called "Lambert", "Blinn", etc... theses are shaders. Normally you would pick one and then add your textures onto them, but for this contest, they only want you to pick one of these shaders and render it.

Thank you very much, grantmoore3d
"A shader is the way materials/colours can be applied to your 3D objects."
Ok -- I understand that but ... I´m working with Zbrush only and
I have no idea what you mean by "Most software, if you look in the shading/texturing/materials window you will be able to create things called "Lambert", "Blinn", etc..."
I never heard of things like this before.
I think I´ll ask my question on ZbrushCentral, even so - thanks again

They are basic material settings. All you really would do is render it flat shaded. Lambert, Blinn etc are defaults that come with some programs that simulate a basic type of material, such as plastic, metal, etc.

No textures means that the objects texture would have to come from its geometry, not it's bump maps, normal maps, diffuse/Colour maps etc. They wont be permitted in this competition. It means the object is completely relative on your modeling skills and not your texturing skills.

moni: in Zbrush it`s a simple thing to explain. Pick a Material from the palette, but don`t paint colors to the model, or paint the whole with one solid color. That`s it. And you can tweak the parameters on your material i guess.

First -- Peter Satera: thank you very much for the reply
but I still don´t understand it..that´s embarrassing
neon: thank you very much! That was what I was hoping for.
I guess you are a Zbrusher?

your welcome! no, i`m not a Zbrusher, i don`t use it often (that`s why i want to enter the chalenge, to use it more). i`m a 3d generalist, working on various tasks in cg and compositing. modeling, animation, rigging, lighting, rendering, so basically everything. the shader/material vs. texture stuff is the same in every appllication, search for it, you`ll find plenty of resources, tutorials on the net.