First Place - 13 - Trevor Nelson

Second Place - 19 - Sachiko Kaga Third Place - 04 - Didier Le Boulbard

01 - Paul Dunne 02 - Adolfo Aliaga 03 - Uwe Falke

05 - Didier Le Boulbard 06 - Magnus Hallberg 07 - Uwe Falke

08 - Brian Hinton 09 - Kathy LaFollett 10 - Steven Richards

11 - David Prescott 12 - John Myers 14 - Yves Boudreault

15 - Trevor Nelson 16 - Florian Maurer 17 - Nick Fortier

18 - Maeb Yus 20 - Andreas Horn 21 - Derek Wolfe

22 - Michelle O'Haire 23 - Eric Runnels 24 - Don Burchfield

October 6th Challenge "Ancient Civilizations" - Outline

One of the reasons I loved getting National Geographic when I was a kid (besides the half dressed natives) was looking at the ruins of ancient Mayan, Inca and Aztec cities and wondering what they must have been like, what the people were dressed in, what ceremonies must have been performed there. It was so exciting, I could waste a day sitting on the livingroom floor reading our entire collection.

So, the topic for this challenge is "Ancient Civilizations". One of the things I realized as a kid was that the ruins were probably more exciting than the real thing. So I don't want the new and shiny versions, I want the old, grimey, weathered, home-to-small-animals version.

Here is some inspiration:

The ruins don't have to be "real", and I don't need to know where they're from or anything. The entry has to be a complete scene, not just ruins on a grey plane.

*Update: just to clarify the rules a bit. When I say that they don't have to be "real", they do have to look like ruins, from an ancient civilization, here on earth. Where "now" would be 2002 and "ancient" would be like a thousand years ago. Ruins on Jupiter, orbited by purple elephants and inhabited by robots don't count.

About 6 people have asked the same question privately. Rest assured that I'm not picking any of you specifically; I'm picking on all of you equally ;-)

Rules and Conditions

As always, the entry must be entirely done in Strata, and all effects must be done "in-camera" (no post-render Photoshop trickery). No models from other programs may be used (this includes Poser) no photos may be used as backgrounds (no compositing) although the use of altered photos as textures is fine, of course. Someone asked if characters were necessary, and I replied "no", as this challenge requires a "ruin" which means the inhabitants would be long dead.

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

Entries must be JPG files, but they can be any size. Just try to keep it reasonable. If it doesn't fit on anyone's screen, it doesn't leave a good impression.

Entries will be accepted until midnight on Sunday October 6^th 2002. The judges will be considering the quality and creativity of the modelling, texturing and rendering.

It does have to be fully modeled, textured and rendered in Strata3D (any flavour).

Entries will consist of a JPG file, and a screenshot of your model in Strata3D. The image cannot contain your name or email address anywhere on it, as the judging will be anonymous.

Judging will be done by a panel of 7 or more judges. I will select the panel after the close of the challenge from among community artists that did not enter the contest. The judges will not know the names of the contestants.

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.)