Eric Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 I must say this competition has truly brought some incredible artists to this community. Unfortunately the large majority of them seem to be absolutely newbies to CGArchitect.com. Perhaps I'm wrong? Hopefully we can find a way to foster their contributions to the forums for the betterment of all CGA members. Any suggestions on how we might encourage their participation, tips, and critiques? It's too late to institute some sort of minimum-post amount, or "member since" requirement, but what about asking those that are selected to move forward to the next stage to submit some sort of description of their work, software, information about themselves, or something that allows communication 2-way between the forums and the challenge artists - since the image submission pages are off-limits to comments and further posts to that artist's thread. Perhaps if the artists get involved now during the initial phase, they might stick around beyond the end of the competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 The competitions here were good for that. I learned a lot by looking at the entries (they posted files, and if I recall correctly, had to post a few times before the final). They were great. A large competition like this will attract anyone with the attitude 'it can't hurt'. One deterent is to charge people, that keeps out some of the less-than-perfect entries and also pays for admin, juries, etc. I've entered a few architecture competitions (with some success I might add ;-) and this is how it's done. Different, of course, but applicable to any compeition. But you can't keep people out and it's not good to discourage people from entering, as you may be keeping some of the b est from entering the community. But you are correct, most are mediocre, but this is just a representatino of the field in general. There are also some superb entries, from people I've never heard of. You just have to assume that the jury will quickly and efficiently sort through the piles of entries. I'd welcome more compeitions like the CGArch ones, and would pay a fee (if I had time) to ensure that the managerment/admin/jury were compensated accordingly, especially to learn from other entries files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 Once the competition is up and running, one of the criteria is that competitors must critique each other's work within the competition. Hopefully this will get them to join our community in other areas as well. I will also be doing interviews with many of the competitors thouughout the competition so I'm sure you will be hearing and seeing much more of these people. I was hoping for many more entries, but given the quality of many of them submitted so far and the fact we are only looking for 30. I expect we should have enough to have one of the best competitions out there. It is refreshing to see some great new talent though. Hopefully we are able to launch some new careers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 I was hoping for many more entries.... Don't worry Jeff, there's plenty of time between now and the 28th. I'm sure the majority is still watching to see what other people are submitting.....who me? No of course not! I would never do that! I'm just...umm....busy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted February 22, 2005 Author Share Posted February 22, 2005 But you are correct, most are mediocre, but this is just a representatino of the field in general. There are also some superb entries, from people I've never heard of. You just have to assume that the jury will quickly and efficiently sort through the piles of entries. Just to clarify, I was simply referring to the amount of applicants that have never posted to the forums before - I was not inferring anything about the quality of work. It is great to see so many new people visiting the site, and I do sincerly hope they will stick around long enough to become active members in the community, rather than just dropping by to simply be competition applicants. I have learned so much from this community. This is the first site I visit in the morning, and the last before I go to bed. I don't even know how many times I visit the rest of the day. I keep the "Today's Posts" open on my laptop next to me, and refresh it every few minutes to see if anything interesting has been posted. It's only been just recently that I've started posting my work to the forums for review, mostly because I'm not sure my clients would appreciate their projects being out here. However, I'm currently updating my contract templates to include promotional usage rights so I'll be a bit more protected. Anyway, bring on the newbie CGA members, and let's do what we can to keep them around!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 I have the same feeling that Eric does, I've seen all these new people entering the competition that have never been to this forum before and I wonder if they have any intention on staying. What I'm also wondering is if this competition isn't for members of the CGarchitect forum and it's for everyone and their dog, then what's the point of hosting it on this site? Obviously this site has lots of people on it who invest a good portion of their time answering questions and asking questions of their own. Shouldn’t a competition hosted by this site at least have some minimum entry rules like you have to have been a member for a month, or you need a minimum 100 posts before you can enter. I think some level of activity would guarantee that people don't just drop buy to take the gold without contributing something to the race! Maybe I'm wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 I don't see anything wrong with not being an active member of CGA.com and entering the competition. It's supposed to be a competition for the best architectural imagery, and not who visit's, posts, or helps here the most. I see this as being the best site to host the challenge, since all others are involved in other forms of CG besides architectural. Just by watching the contestants will be contribution enough, regardless of whether or not they stick around after it's all over. It's always good to have a larger architectural cg community though, so I hope we do get a lot of valuable members from this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Stone Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 I have to admit I've only posted on the forums a few times but I am a daily member of the live chat and if you haven't stopped by you've missed quite a bit of posting of images and very helpfull and friendly group critique going on in real time almost daily.. I hope during the competition people will decide to drop by and 'chat'. And I'll try to make it more of a point to post on the forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 I hope during the competition people will decide to drop by and 'chat'. I would love to join the chatting but unfortunately our firewall here doesn't allow it. I can get on from home or in the evening during my class while the students are working on projects maybe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Stone Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 Cool! I hope to see you there. Don't get in trouble though hehe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 i think it was a good thing to get people outside of cgarchitect to enter the competition. it is important that we know what is going on in both arch illustration, as well as related cg industries. if we close our community, we limit a way in which we can grow and expand in our skills, our vision, and our understanding of cg environments. that being said, it crossed my mind that there was a chance the competition would be taken over by special effect extraordinaires from the cgfx communities and industries. i don't think that happened. i think we saw a lot of arch illustrators come in and post. people that are very good and competent, but for whatever reason, have not participated in the forum in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtiscareno Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 I also feel that it is great that this competition is open to EVERYONE, and if only a 10% of those who participated stay and contribute to cgarchitect is more than enough, I bet you that the people that are selected as the final 30 the majority of them are going to stick around, even to follow the competition and maybe they will look at other sections... Eric I have to ask you what is the technique that you used in the B&N renderings that you have on the blogger site? They are just great watercolor effects! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunDon Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 There's some humbling work in the qualifications forum, and I've gotta say the vast majority of us who won't qualify for the competition should learn a great deal from those posts. Kudos to Jeff for making this happen -- it's an overwhelming reminder that I've got a ways to go before I can even think about getting cocky! Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evanmoses Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 As one of the people for whom the competition represented their first post, and one whose competition entries were admittedly mediocre (they were first attempts of a sort!), I'm extremely glad that the competition was open to everyone. Even if I have zero chance of getting into the top thirty, the dream of prizes (and very valuable prizes at that!) can be a tremendous catalyst in turning a mere interest into a serious hobby or profession. As a case in point, though I had been to cgarchitect a couple of times before the competition, I have visited nearly every day since I discovered it, and my passion for cg architecture and my still very limited knowledge of it have grown exponentially as a result. I plan on sticking around and posting more in the future, when I have more time to work on and tweak projects and hence solicit critiques and help. And hopefully one day, I'll be able to help out future newbies that may one day find themselves in the same boat as myself. From what I've seen and what little I know, the fact that this competition was to better cg architecture as a whole and not just cgarchitect.com is testament to how wonderful this community is, and does more to help it than exclusion ever could. Evan PS Thanks so much for the site more generally Jeff, it really is invaluable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Da_RoCk Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 I guess all the clutter regarding wether a member should be atleast a frequenter to the site is a big deal. I guess making them enter the forum and becoming an instant member is the only way that the officials will be able to attract and monitor the incoming entries. Yes, their are members that i dont see in the forums, however they are on the other forums which they feel that have contributed more to their works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Continuumx Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 I must say this competition has truly brought some incredible artists to this community. Unfortunately the large majority of them seem to be absolutely newbies to CGArchitect.com. Perhaps I'm wrong? Hopefully we can find a way to foster their contributions to the forums for the betterment of all CGA members. Any suggestions on how we might encourage their participation, tips, and critiques? It's too late to institute some sort of minimum-post amount, or "member since" requirement, but what about asking those that are selected to move forward to the next stage to submit some sort of description of their work, software, information about themselves, or something that allows communication 2-way between the forums and the challenge artists - since the image submission pages are off-limits to comments and further posts to that artist's thread. Perhaps if the artists get involved now during the initial phase, they might stick around beyond the end of the competition. The fact that this contest has brought them here means that some of them may wander over and become participants. None of this possibility could be an option if there had been instituted some sort of minium post quota, or tenure quota system. To go this route is closed and not open, it is completely out of alignment with the concept of the internet and public forums. I think the way this has been handled is the best, it is much slower and uncertain but defintely much more humane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Alexander Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 I have the same feeling that Eric does, I've seen all these new people entering the competition that have never been to this forum before and I wonder if they have any intention on staying. What I'm also wondering is if this competition isn't for members of the CGarchitect forum and it's for everyone and their dog, then what's the point of hosting it on this site? Obviously this site has lots of people on it who invest a good portion of their time answering questions and asking questions of their own. Shouldn’t a competition hosted by this site at least have some minimum entry rules like you have to have been a member for a month, or you need a minimum 100 posts before you can enter. I think some level of activity would guarantee that people don't just drop buy to take the gold without contributing something to the race! Maybe I'm wrong. Just to point out........ Ive been around since either 1006 or 2006 members, enticed by the CGTALK once combined with CGA challenegs. Now, there were like 6500 members before the Big competition, after the deadline well over 7000. There are probably 1000 members who are actually active on the boards here, I think that may be very generous. Just don't see how being a previous member would do anything but hinder the contests potential. The real value of an open contest is two fold, imho. First: of those new members drawn by the Big competition they are truely dedicated to archviz, making them much more likely to become very active members. Second: This is a big plus for Jeff & CGA. High Visibility and recognition of the site, more members, more advertising, making this site the 'goto' place for this form of CGviz. Well it's great to see so many responses and entries-many more than I thought would enter. Considering that "ArchViz" really seems to be the "red headed child" of the CGVFX world. That 'world' should check it's own hair color . WDA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Stone Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 oh that deserves and amen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IC Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Considering that "ArchViz" really seems to be the "red headed child" of the CGVFX world. That 'world' should check it's own hair color . WDA What a great metaphor! Being Scottish, a lot of my friends might take offence at that though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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