Come on Judges!

[Dan Beinart]

Firstly, thanks to the hard work of Jeff et al in setting up the competition. I can see it becoming established as THE annual international competition for the visualisation industry.

..However, as the competition has progressed, feedback from the judges has become far more sporadic to the extent that days before the end of the competition only one judge has posted their comments on the previous challenge.

Whatever the reasons, the impression given is a loss of interest on the part
of the judges. Unfortunately I think this affects interest in the competition as a whole and that's a shame.

[Jeff Mottle]

Hi Dan,

I've emailed the judges again to remind them of this. My appologies for the delay.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Randy Sanders]

hi There

Jeff

just a suggestion but how about Next Time - Next Year?
just have open Contest per month or every other month

for

Exterior
Interior
Animation

This schedule as is has got to be grueling and extremely hard
on the personal life and economic income of The Participants

just an Idea

but a once per category Contest might keep The Interest up
and This way you wouldnt be running "other" Contests in the middle

of This Contest

great Idea as it already is keep up The good work

i decided not To Enter To keep up (raise) the over-all Quality level This Time around

Thanks

Randy

**

Take 2

i am going to (edit) myself

so how about 1x Contest for each of the above categorys
1 month to Enter 1 month to Judge the Top Ten, ranking only

Then a 1 month Top Ten Shoot Out
with The Deadline at HIGH NOON for Entries

This way people can enter The Contest of Their preference

AND

Interior People will NOT BE ELIMINATED if The Exterior portion happens 1st
Exterior People will NOT BE ELIMINATED if The Interior portion happens 1st

completely separate animals in my way of Thinking (dont Try This at home)

and you could Time This to wrap The Contests up and Announce The Winners
and hand out ALL THE AWARDS at the Yearly CGArchitect.com SIGGRAPPH party

Randy

[Ernest Burden III]

I've emailed the judges again to remind them of this. My appologies for the delay.

Mine, too.

But let me make a point or two, not so much as excuse but as an examination of the process to insure an even better competition in the future. This is v1.0 We're learning as we go.

First of all, as this competition is a reflection of our industry, how funny is it that it has run past the original deadline? Can we do anything on-time? There's always more to do than you think, and we are (to our credit, I think) a bunch of perfectionists, always willing to work a little harder to get a better result.

The judging is in two stages. The first is a set of numerical scores for four to eight catagories. To do this you look at a picture, think about it, arrive at a nimber. Then go to the next, etc. PER CATAGORY. So if there are seven catagories you call up each image seven times. It takes a while, but the competitors deserve the time for the judges to review the image again for each catagory. So that's the scores.

Now the crits, which do not directly determine the winners, are a much bigger time requirement. To write a decent crit you need to invest at least ten minutes, though I find I spend more like 20 minutes on average. When there were nearly thirty images to crit even the shorter time added up to many hours of writing. Now that there are fewer its a little easier, but the quality of work just keeps getting better and better, so it requires comment.

Yes, we all knew the requirements when we accepted the honor of being judges. But, at least for myself, I am surprised at just how many hours it takes to write all the crits. I only say this so that next time we can build an even better comp. The crits are important, and we need to be sure we have a structure to allow the judges to write them.

Because this comp has gone long, it is now still going on while I'm on a vacation with my family. I wrote some of my crits on the flight to California (yea! I'm in California!), though I only got through three or four of them before my battery gave up on me. I'll write the rest as soon as I can (without my wife divorcing me just as we celebrate our 20th anniverary).

While I'm feeling guilty under the scrutiny of this thread, I am heartened that people are reading the crits we are writing. It makes it all worth the effort.

[Eyal Shmuel]

Hi Ernest,

Congratulations for your 20th anniversary!

[Dan Beinart]

Jeff, Ernest - Thanks for the replies and explanation.

Dan

[Arnold Gallardo]

I do agree with Ernest's feedback on this conpetition. It is only fair to view each entry and evaluate it for each category and grading it based on its performance for each one. I personally views each entry several times based on the scoring category I am evaluating at the moment. This is why my scoring fluctuates for each entry because they are evalauted for each scoring category and no 'formed opinion' is made overall, only for each scoring. This makes it longer to consider and evaluate each entry.

Also we the judges are working individuals in this industry so time is always of the essence and me personally preferred to view and evaluate the images/animations when I am in relaxed and stress free so the viewing of the entries are open and fair.

As for the critiques, before making one I also have to view each entry several times and then consider my scoring for that entry before I write them down as I view each entry again and again.

During this time I am also travelling so that complicates matters more. I'd tell you though that Jeff was on the ball on this one reminding us of what needed to be done. It is just the nature of the beast that it takes time to do this since this is a serious matter. I am glad i never looked at the WIPs because they can influence you as you judge since you know the prior intentions.

PS: COngrats to Ernest's 20th wedding anniversary

[Dan Beinart]

Thanks for the response. I certainly understand the pressures the judges were under -trying to run a business at the same time as making sure your contributions were well-considered. They are pretty much the same pressures the competitors were under in completing the challenges and which contributed to talented competitors dropping out before the end of the competition.

Maybe more explanation of why the judgements seemed to become more erratic would have helped but as Ernest says, this is version 1 and I am sure the experience of this competition will serve to make next year's competition even better.

[Ernest Burden III]

Maybe more explanation of why the judgements seemed to become more erratic would have helped but as Ernest says, this is version 1

Erratic? Moi?

Hah! Got 'em done, with a few hours to spare before the awards tonight. I had written half of the CH-04 crits previously, but just couldn't seem to find the time to get the rest done. So more writing on anther airplane to California, and lonely time in a hotel room. Oh, the suffering. Finally uploading just now on a 'borrowed' WI-FI signal from the hotel lobby. Can't seem to get connected to the hotel's signal, but somebody named 'Jeff' was kind enough to leave his WEP off.

I'm really excited about tonight's CGarchitect party! Thanks to all of you for supporting the competition with your attention, interest and enthusiasm. I think the reults are better than any of us ever hoped for. I am humbled by the talent that has been shown by our competitors.

[Richard McCarthy]

I agree with VIZWIZ and Ernest, that this contest seems to be way too grueling for all the contestants and judges. The time and commitment requires are simply enormous for most to participate to the end, and I tip my hat to those who did, and the dedicated judges we have that have comment every entries and gives valuable advice for all of us.

I think what would be best is like VIZWIZ had said, perhaps contest could be more "CASUAL", like once every 2 month, and the format is more relaxed, maybe just something simple like the monthly challenge, and ofcourse there will be prize but it will be something much more symbolic, maybe not as pricey. ($30 software?, maybe a CG T-shirt, or something under $100-200 USD)

It will be good because first of all, it will keep the interest on the site more consistantly, and constantly. I notice that right after the 1st round of contest have ended, almost all those who didn't win the round left. Number of user on site dramatically dropped. It is undeniable this contest have drawn a lot of exposure in the public, but it didn't persisted long enough. That's why I think the rationale of having MORE contests, but smaller prize will keep the interest going. There will ALWAYS be something going on here, it will definitely keep the interest going. And I think 1 month sounds about right (although I am not sure if we can find sponsor every month)