First Place - 09 - Michael Foster

Second Place - 13 - Ken Bringhurst Third Place - 10 - Kyle Smeby

October 26th Challenge "A name you can trust" - Entries

01 - John Schroeder 02 - Howard Prince 03 - Ledorax

04 - Paolo Tognoni 05 - Daniel Fleming 06 - Tim O'Leary

07 - Ken Boyd 08 - Scott Mason 11 - Dan Schultzer

12 - Brian Larrimer 14 - Benjamin Davidson 15 - Chuck Higginbotham

16 - Jeffro 17 - Peter Hirt

October 26th Challenge "A name you can trust" - Outline

We don't have enough animation challenges. Let's have one =)

This challenge is to create an identification animation. Examples would be the 20th Century Fox searchlight animation, the MGM lion, the Mandalay Tiger, the Castle Rock Entertainment lighthouse animation, the Pixar squashed "i" opener, etc. Rent any movie, and it's sure to have 2-3 of them at the beginning.

The animation can be for your name, your company's name, or a fictional company name. Do not recreate and existing animation, or make an animation for another established company.

Models must be original, and created by you. No publicly available models may be used, nor can "3D in a box" solutions, like Poser or Bryce. All 3D rendering for this project must be performed by Strata3D.

External modelers, like Wings3D, are allowed, so long as the final output is rendered from Strata3D.

Photoshop or other image editors are permitted for textures and post processing, but should not represent the bulk of the work.

Video editors such as After Effects, StrataDV, Premeire, etc. may be used for transitions, editing, effects, audio, etc. but the primary focus of the challenge is to create a 3D animation, so the bulk of the work must be 3D from Strata3D, not motion graphics from a compositor. Alternately, if desired, the animation can be edited in Flash and submitted as a Flash file. The same rules for 3D content would apply in Flash as well.

Music and soundFX are allowed, so long as the clips are either a) public domain/free, or b) licensed, by you. No soundtracks from commercial CD's please, unless you plan on ponying up the dough for the ensuing legal action.

Sound, video effects, editing, etc. are not required to create a great piece. The project can be completely entirely in any flavor of Strata3D.

The final submissions should be no smaller than 320 pixels wide and 240 pixels high. The final movie file must be saved in Quicktime format or as a Flash file, and may not exceed 2mb. If assistance is required to compress video, please contact me at michael@stratacafe.com.

Rules and Conditions

The 3D rendering in this challenge must be completely entirely in Strata3D. Modelling can be done in any program (except for Poser or other model collections), as long as the models are imported into Strata3D for rendering. Photoshop, Illustrator, or other image editors or page layout programs may be used for post-processing, texture creation or page layout.

No Poser or Bryce models or images. All models and textures must be created by you.

If you have any questions regarding challenge rules or theme guidelines, please email me at michael@stratacafe.com

Entries will be accepted until midnight on Sunday October 26th 2003. The judges will be considering the quality and creativity of the modelling, texturing and rendering.

Entries will consist of an MOV or SWF file, and a screenshot of your model(s) in Strata3D.

Judging will be done by a panel of 7 or more judges, preselected as part of our resident judging group.

These rules may be subject to change without notice before the close of the contest.

Please, if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the contest, please email me at: michael@stratacafe.com

The benefits of the contest:

1) Winners will receive a charming banner to place on their website.

2) There will also be a smaller graphic, that looks a lot like the larger graphic, that will reside on the winners profile page on StrataCafe, forever and ever.

3) People can come to this page to get information on up and coming contests and view past winners (That would be you!)

4) You will receive the adoration of your friends and family, as well as most of the people who visit StrataCafe. (Note: Adoration not a guarantee.)