Welcome to my first of hopefully many art contests! With these contests, I hope to bring together the artists of CB while making it fun and rewarding. If you have any friends who are artists and aren't yet signed up for CB, let them know about it! It's a great way to bring in new players while allowing them to win prizes to further boost their progress!

First Task: Dagger ~ Simple, no? The answer: no. Anyone can make a nice simple dagger, but what will make your's the winning entry?

Medium: Nearly any medium is allowed! 3D modeling, traditional pencil sketch, painting, or even clay modeling is valid! With one exception... photography. You can not simply take a picture of a dagger and submit it, unless you personally made it (like... out of clay!). See below for more details.

Dates: June 6 to June 17 (submissions accepted until end of June 17, server time)

Judging: Judging will occur with my own hidden criteria. Scores will NOT be given out. I don't need someone whining to me that I should have scored them higher.

Hints: You want a winning entry? Spend a lot of time on one or two entries, rather than trying to enter 34785 art pieces. Oh, and try doing some research.

Can't forget the prizes!
First prize: 1mil
Second prize: 500k

Prizes are funded by me alone. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my clients who loaned money from me! Without you, I wouldn't be able to generate enough money for this. Donations are appreciated! You may donate for future contests or for this one (for a third prize, or to make the first and second prizes even higher!).

I will be needing proof that you created your art! Take occasional pictures or screenshots of your progress as you make it. 3D wire frames will be required for any finished 3D models done on the computer.

On a final note, art entered in this contest may be used for my CB Card Game! Note that while entering, you agree to allow me to use your art for future contests or the card game. Don't worry, I won't steal credit for making the art ;)

Oh! I forgot to mention this! The results of the contest will not be posted here, but rather at CB Info!

Currently I only know that th00p is entering in this contest? Any other takers? Good prize, nearly any medium, and loads of fun!

good evening Pixel Sage, I wanted to ask if I were to compose up a light sketch of a dagger and attempt to photograph it since neither my room mate or I own a scanning machine / will that be adequate enough for a submission? if it's acceptable, what are some steps that I should take in order to show proof of ownership? should I occasionally take picture after a certain percentage completion of my drawing? thank you for your time, sorry about the sudden burst of questions!

I am up in PA doing some remodeling on a house my sister just bought, and don't have any software with me, but if time permits I may use one of the free software programs and try to put something together. If not you know I will be entering future contests :)

Thanks for an awesome opportunity for everyone to participate Pixel, and GL to everyone!!

Romance, a digital image would suffice. I would request however that you use the best camera you can get your hands on, and light up the picture well. As for as progress proof goes, yes. Take occasional pictures of your progress, and maybe ever a picture of yourself holding the picture... though you don't have to, haha.

Your royal pickleness, I so wanted you to enter this contest! Oh well, next time eh? Tell your friends about this contest! ;)

thank you for the reply, I would agree with you about having the best camera to capture the artwork; the quality of the picture taken with my only camera isn't too good however I use a program Ifranview, perhaps you've heard of it, to adjust the brightness and sharpen the image if needed. you've answer all of my question, thanks again! I'll start working on one of I have time for the remaining week.

i will try pixel but i doubt i will be good

you can use any 3D programme? or just blender3D?

I'll probably have the worst one. :P but if I can get the stuff to DL and I can use it, I'll give it a try.

If i win I will be that much closer to paying off my debt. :P

Angel of Death, please read the rules. If there are any limitations, they should be stated there ;)

By the way, for those of you trying to use Blender3D, I would suggest learning with this page.

wow, that program (Blender 3D) looks quite like the Unreal Tournament editor...

I wish I had the time, then I'd perhaps make something in that, or try that Blender 3D...

Shade, you can always start practicing for the next contest ;).

People who are starting out 3D, don't be discouraged if things don't work out on the first try! It took me a while before I got used to the controls, let alone actually model something. Keep practicing!

I had a dagger. :P but my stupid computer froze when i hit the
Prt Scrn button.
------------
SysRq
It wasn't the best.. It was probably the worst. LoL

It Cut off half of my post?
When i hit that button, it made my computer freeze is what i wanted to put..

Here's something that may interest some of you: click!

hey i downloaded and thought i would give it a shot but the interface scared me as shade did say it does resemble the Unreal Tournament Editor as well as many other Editors i know, but i am totally lost in the interface but soon i will learn and try to attempt with my luck and fail miserably!

Here's a great tutorial site. Scroll down for a list of tutorials: click!

That website also has a bunch of other tutorials for just about any program available! Remember, you don't have to do this in 3D!

Oooh! Oooh! Pick me! Pick me!

Finally starting to understand Blender3D a little bit better. The blade is almost completed unless I can add some blood texturing in later if I ever figure this out. The hilt and pommel aren't quiet satisfactory yet and I don't want to think about the guard/handle. You can see my updated progress here

Th00p yours owns mine. :P

Th00ps Dagger > My Dagger

;)

th00p you can do better! :p

No! Then his dagger will cut mine in half.. you should have seen how bad it was. ;)

Pixel will tell you all about it. lol.

Didn't even think it was worth entering. :P

I worked pretty hard on this one but its rough so go easy on me.

<==\::::::::>

hey Pixel i did the step by step tutorial on the fireball and it turned out to be a blue back ground with a gray circle in middle...i take it i failed miserably!!! i dont think i cna get the hang of this!!!

Black sheep don't get discouraged... when I started working with 3d modeling, there were times I had to repeat tutorials 3 and 4 times before things started looking even remotely like what they are supposed to.

A lot of times when you are switching back and forth between the turorial and the modeling program you are going to miss a step, or repeat a step or type in a parameter wrong.... it just happens, stick with it for a while, and if you are COMPLETLY fed up with the tutorial you are working on right now, try something different and come back to it.

P.S. since I am going to be in PA for a month, I had my GF send me up my dongle for lightwave (the modeling program I use). We will see if it gets here in time, and if I have time to put something together for this contest :) if not, I will be entering future contests :)

Just get some sketches on the table (read: forum) so i can drool at those daggers...

Blah, I think i do better on paint..

5 mins on paint..

glowie that dagger rocks, stick with paint

Yeah i did all that waiting DLing Blender 3D and my dagger stunk on that. lol. I like paint much more.

Another one..

To lazy to make the link. I should win for attempting this with paint. :D

Sorry for the delay guys =D. Anyways, I don't want you guys to get discouraged! I'm considering extending the contest up to two more weeks if it helps people get used to 3D (since that's what most people seem to try to be using, except for Glowie).

Enough with all the hoop-la. I'm just praying that my dagger can hold up, which is directly related to whether or not velvetpickle can have the time to create an even better dagger. Of course I will be spending much more time editing the bottom portion and trying to get a better lighting scheme. Good luck to all!

Nice, th00p. I'd suggest working on the background/presentation ;)

Carbonize... ... where'd your text 3D art go? Haha. Anyways, I'm actually really liking this design! Good job =D

I'll enter something, but I can't promise much since I was already rather wrapped up in trying to make my interface still :)

Hey people, check this out for Blender 3D stuff:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Tutorial_Links_List

Thanks Verifex =D

For anyone wondering what I've been doing all day, I did this from scratch:

looks like one of my birds feathers after it just pops out of her skin...what is it?!

its a part of a cave with stalagmates (those frozen drops of water)

"I worked pretty hard on this one but its rough so go easy on me.

<==\::::::::> "

>_< Beaten too it! :P

You know, I might even hunt out some chalk/charcol for this! ;)

@novice: Some mushroom/tree thing with magic stuff/ice and other floating plant/animal/glowing thingymajiger.

Here's an updated picture of my work.

That doesn't look like a dagger to me... you're disqualified! =P

Haven't had much time to work on my dagger with all the finals this week but should have it pretty much done by the beginning of next week.

man Pixel... looking nice! Are you using ilumination effects on the objects, or is that all done with lighting?

I started working on a dagger today, but not sure if I will make the deadline or not...

Its all done with lighting. I've been working on it 2 days straight now =D. Tomorrow will probably be a CB day... gotta work on re-imagining the sidebar and the rest of CB =D

I may extend the deadline til after I come back from my trip in Austria =D

ATTENTION: Contest deadline has been extended until the end of the month! I will be going to Austria on the 19th, and since I won't have time to set up another contest, I will extend this one to allow you guys more time to create top-notch entries! Good luck!

This gives you the time to show me your stuff!!! :)

I'm considering raising the prizes and adding a third place... hmmm...

With me new laptop, I can finally do THREE DEE! Just got Blender, looks funky, only other 3D I've done was on AutoCAD, no revolve function in Blender I can see. :P

Are there any other good 3D tools out there?

Trying to turn my dagger in 3D, fun!

Fixed up my dagger, added some colour.

Enjoy.

Carbonize, I'm loving the dagger. This is the type of stuff I'm looking for! As for 3D programs, it certainly does have a revolve function! Its just as able as most pro 3D programs out there. If you're trying to turn and stuff in 3D space, use the middle mouse button, hold and drag around.

Just a tip, its always good to have more of a backdrop than white for finished images ;) A scene, perhaps?

For those who need help with anything or just want to improve in your 3D stuff using blender, go to this forum. Its a great source, and people will help you out ;)

NICE Carbon!

I should be submitting one of my renders later on tonight, just want to finish tweaking a few things....

Well here we go...

(for some reason, my images do not load full sized in Firefox when the link opens, so you may have to click them again to view the full sized image...)

I took Pixel's advice and tried to model after some pictures I found on the google links. I have included the subject photos as a point of reference.

Dagger 1:

I really liked the handle and detail on the hilt of this dagger. I obviously took some creative liberties, but I think it came out alright.

The first photo is the subject, second is my rendering.



Dagger 2:

The first two photos are the two daggers I used as "inspiration" I took the blade from the second and hilt/handle from the first.



Wires

It was hard getting decent wire renders because I used WAY too many polys to create the hilts but here they are...



hopefully with the extension we will see some art come in late. Good luck to everyone who has submitted entries so far, and lets see some lat minute entries!!

Beat that!

That's one sexy dagger, velvetpickle. :)

I'm back, and I'd love to see some more entries! Depending on if I get more entrants, I may add a third prize of 250k and raise the first prize by 250k.

The point of this contest isn't just to win first prize! Its to develop art skills, enjoy a new hobby, or just to have fun!

Not sure why, but my renderings aren't displaying in my original post when I looked at it on a different computer and with IE....

so here they are again:



there should be two renderings displayed... if not someone please let me know so I can look into why?

Click here, for anyone who's interested in how to use reference pics to make a sword =D

Ha, I nearly forgot about this contest. Anyways, I'll be doing some judging after rallying up all the entries.

Next contest, I have a new plan. The prizes will be based more or less on the number of entries, rather than a flat prize. That may encourage you guys to enter and get others to enter as well ;)

Sorry about the delay, I haven't forgotten ;)