Investing in GoW production

[Chacal]

We do have a Uru texture server, but it has been down for some time due to technical problems.

Resizing 120 textures takes a while, especially when you're busy with other stuff that urgently needs to get done.

I just saw this, sorry to be too late. Irfanview (free software) has a batch mode that lets you apply a transformation to a large number of images. It is especially good at resizing.

[dendwaler]

or use this if you only want to resize:

http://www.naturpic.com/resizer

[dendwaler]

To give books away on the blind ,
I agree with Stefan.
I would'nt do that.

Sharing textures or models is fine.
Investing money in it is something different, It can be spend only once.

Perhaps you have sources to get books or professional textures and not exactly the money to do other investments.

Then I suggest to give the books as a prize or reward in a contest.
We have not had a GOW contest for a year!

Make a contest in modelling or texture making.
and share thoseentries on this site .
you can even prescribe what kind of models or textures you like to see,
Force a "win win" situation with this!
A contest stimulates to really do something (Which is also learning!) , and you are sure to give only to the most talented among us!

[matthornb]

Was thinking about contests too. Not for this, exactly, but for something else.

The only weakness in your suggestion is that those likely to win the contest (i.e. the best modelers, texture artists, etc) are also likely the ones who least need the training materials.

As for the textures, I couldn't batch resize them because they were being resized to different resolutions depending on the particular image.

256x512, 512x512, 512x1024, etc.

I tended to expand them to the nearest Uru-compatible resolution rather than shrink them and lose detail, so some are bigger than they maybe should be for Uru artists. I'll take a second pass at some point and resize them to make the bigger/blurrier ones have small alternate resolutions.

This is the first batch of textures:
http://www.triumphantartists.com/texturepack.zip

The second batch will include a mix of new textures and smaller versions of some of the ones in the first batch.

[matthornb]

These are textures that I made for various personal projects over the last few years.

Of course, the quality varies, but some of the above textures may prove useful to somebody here.

Okay - supposing we do have a contest - I'd been thinking about this - what if we make some of the prizes "excess" - like, some of the top prizes might include a list of items, including two copies of the same $10 book - one for the winner themselves, and one which must be sent to someone else in the GoW (someone the winner selects to give it to)

This allows members of the GoW who normally can't afford to buy the item for themselves, or give them to other members, to both get (and give) an item, by winning the contest.

[matthornb]

This idea has the advantage that it would allow some of the prizes - particularly training materials - to end up with members of the GoW who are inexperienced and really need them, as opposed to those who are already skilled with Blender and less in need of training.

[dendwaler]

thx,
i am downloading them.

about the contest:

I have the feeling that the winners of the contest know that themselves and might like to go for the honour only.
If they deny it, the book goes to next winner order. (and so on)
In the end you have not give it away to one who does not contribute.

[matthornb]

Question: What should we focus on first in a contest?

-Collecting textures (with prizes awarded to the best submissions)
-Collecting 3d object models (with prizes awarded to the best submissions)
-Collecting tutorials (text/image, or video/audio - but the best age creation tutorials fans submit would be awarded prizes)

Any thoughts on this?

[dendwaler]

Question: What should we focus on first in a contest?

-Collecting textures (with prizes awarded to the best submissions)
-Collecting 3d object models (with prizes awarded to the best submissions)
-Collecting tutorials (text/image, or video/audio - but the best age creation tutorials fans submit would be awarded prizes)

Any thoughts on this?

difficult question :
Whe have never had a texture contest, so may be this should be the first. Or both together and the winners chooses which book he/she wants.
I can imagine that a texture winner may have lack on blender modeling knowledge , or the other way around, and he/she chooses for the book compensating his weakness.

But to judge the results you need someone who masters it.
Most tutorial writers already have reached some skils and might need other books then the two suggested ones.

[Jennifer_P]

This idea has the advantage that it would allow some of the prizes - particularly training materials - to end up with members of the GoW who are inexperienced and really need them, as opposed to those who are already skilled with Blender and less in need of training.

One other thing to bear in mind... There are also books available for advanced Blender users. I got "Mastering Blender" ($30) as a Christmas present, but I'm not going to start it until I finish "Blender for Dummies."
This might make a nifty first prize, with cheaper, beginner-targeted books going to other people.
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Blender-Tony-Mullen/dp/0470407417

Another option: How about a library system? Suppose we had like three copies of "Blenders for Dummies" or "3D Textures" that people could sign up for and have loaned out to them for two months at a time?

-Collecting textures (with prizes awarded to the best submissions)
This would have to be for seamless texture collections rather than individual textures--otherwise if only eight people entered, only eight textures would be produced. Perhaps people could submit themed packs of ten like "old metal" or "sand" or "leaf."
-Collecting 3d object models (with prizes awarded to the best submissions)
Hmm... These would have to be sort of generic objects, I suppose, in order to be useful in multiple Ages.
-Collecting tutorials (text/image, or video/audio - but the best age creation tutorials fans submit would be awarded prizes)
Now this is an innovative idea. Especially considering that most of us learn Uru-specific Age creation from the tutorials on the GoW wiki... Heek, maybe this would be the incentive I need to fix and add to my own tutorials, ehm.