Investing in GoW production

[dendwaler]

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."

sorry, a bit of topic, but talking about seamless textures,
this program comes into my mind

http://www.pixplant.com/

[matthornb]

The library idea sounds great except we'd have to pay shipping each time we send the book to the next person in line.
Still, it's not a bad idea. We may treat the contest prizes that way; whoever wins them can keep them for a while, send them to someone else, etc.

Thanks for the feedback on the tutorial idea - I thought it was a good one.

As for textures, yeah, submissions would probably be texture packs, not individual textures.
And yes, objects would tend to be general-purpose if we did objects.

Personally, I'm leaning towards the tutorials as the first contest - it has a lot of potential to generate great entries that'd be of considerable value to the community.

Tutorials could be text with images, but what I'd really be excited to see is video/audio tutorials done with a screencapturing program and microphone.

What would the judging criteria be?

I think:
Clarity. It has to make sense and be well-written, or, in the case of audio, spoken clearly. It should be understandable and detailed. You should be able to follow its instructions.
Usefulness. If it covers a topic that is important but hasn't been adequately covered, or a subject which is of significant usefulness to age creators, that's a big plus.
Presentation. Quality of graphics, quality of sound (if applicable), good formatting and a degree of polish and professionalism - i.e. if it doesn't seem shoddily hacked together or low-res it scores well here.
Result. If the tutorial shows how to make or do something, and something of value results from following the tutorial (an effect, a model, an interaction, a mapped texture, a world even - the quality of the result from following the tutorial matters, which is to say, a tutorial on making a beautifully designed room scores higher than a tutorial on making a generic cube, as would any tutorial that covers enough ground to produce a compelling output. The ideal score here would be if the tutorial was extensive enough to cover the creation of an entire high-quality world from start to finish - but I doubt anyone will try to assemble such a long and thorough tutorial.)

Any thoughts on those criteria? Does the tutorial contest sound like a good one to start with?

[rivenwanderer]

My only concern is that it might make for better tutorials if there was some open collaboration going on in the forums--that is, people posting drafts and others discussing what the best technique or approach is--but people might not be as open about the tutorial-making process if there's a contest going on. Then again, maybe we could make it a requirement to work on the tutorial in the forums, in stages, then move them to the wiki after some discussion...

[Aloys]

There are also books available for advanced Blender users. I got "Mastering Blender" ($30) as a Christmas present

Judging by the Amazon readers reviews it looks like a pretty interesting book. One thing in particular stands out for me: "a complete introduction to Python® scripting suitable for people with no programming background. "

[Jennifer_P]

My only concern is that it might make for better tutorials if there was some open collaboration going on in the forums--that is, people posting drafts and others discussing what the best technique or approach is--but people might not be as open about the tutorial-making process if there's a contest going on. Then again, maybe we could make it a requirement to work on the tutorial in the forums, in stages, then move them to the wiki after some discussion...

Good thoughts...Hm...

Judging by the Amazon readers reviews it looks like a pretty interesting book. One thing in particular stands out for me: "a complete introduction to Python® scripting suitable for people with no programming background. "

Reading from the back:

"Are you ready to push the envelope on your Blender abilities? This professional resources takes you step by step through intermediate and advanced techniques for Blender's modeling, texturing, scripting, game-creation, and visual effects tools. It covers advanced topics on sculpting, compositing, and video editing, as well as provides a complete introduction to Python scripting suitable for people with no programming background.

Intermediate Blender users will explore specific workflow topics that will help boost productivity and enhance the quality of their work. Advanced users will find tips and techniques not covered elsewhere that will help them optimize Blender's functionality for professional projects. Learn how to create assets for use in a game engine, how to use Python in the game engine environment, and much more.

If you want professional tips to reach new heights and create visually stunning 3D animations in Blender, this is the book for you."

I checked, and there are about 50 pages in there about learning Python. But actually, what I'm eager to learn about is this: "...using Blender's powerful texture-baking features to reprocess the images and remove all visible seams left from the initial mapping process." UV mapping has always given me trouble and this sounds like it could help a lot!

[Chuckles58]

Sounds like a book for me to purchase and play with after 4/15 (income tax filing season). Not much time for play right now, but I've wanted to have a resource to get up to speed quicker with Blender.

I'll add this to my already too long list of projects and things to get to.

Thanks for bringing this book to my attention. Having the right book really makes a difference for the "cook book" style learner. I bought a couple of Excel 2007 and Visual Basic (VBA) books to handle a project where I converted a client's Lotus 1-2-3- macro driven business applications (circa 1995-2003) into Excel 2007. I'll have to say that I still prefer programming in Lotus 1-2-3 release 5 to Excel 2007, but Windows 7 made the 16 bit 1-2-3 a problem. I managed and now have a better idea of macros in VBA. I think I can do the same with Blender and Python.

[matthornb]

Ooh, nice. I'll be sure to order one for myself too - Since the programming (not the graphics) is the hardest part of age creation for me, the part I most need to learn.

Okay, so we have "Blender for Dummies", "Mastering Blender", and some sort of texture creation book, as well as texture packs, as probable prizes.

I'm not certain that "3d Game Textures" is the best choice for a texture creation book because from the looks of it, the Photoshop tutorials (a large section of the book) are inaccurate.

But I'm not sure what else would be better - most of the leading texture art books have noticeable flaws.

This one has some missing steps in some of its tutorials but is otherwise apparently a great book:
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Textures-Second-Professional-Photoshop/dp/0240811488/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

This one, maybe? (But it's more general-purpose and doesn't have app-specific texture tutorials - and it's kind of dated):
http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Art-Game-Matthew-Omernick/dp/0735714096/ref=pd_cp_b_3

I'd like some further suggestions regarding selection of texture books and texture packs - which ones do you think are best? If you have a suggestion for a good one, link to it.

I'd really like to hear your feedback regarding texture packs and texture books - which ones you want.

To the person who is concerned about the contest being a danger to open collaboration, I hear your concern - and the same thing had occurred to me.

I'll point out now that there's nothing to prevent a group of people from working together to construct and submit a single entry, and that - in all probability - these sorts of group entries would be better, more accurate tutorials and more likely to win prizes. I'd also agree that all entries, once submitted, should be subject to review by the GoW members to identify any flaws or inefficiencies/inaccuracies in them for consideration in judging. They could be submitted - and resubmitted in new versions - as needed leading up to the contest deadline, and be made open to collaborative review during their creation.

The only problem with a group entry would be that the group would have to decide what to do with the prizes they win.

I think we'd also need to think about not just judging criteria but who will judge; I'd like impartial members of the community (i.e. those who didn't submit any of the entries) to be involved in judging, but I'll also be following each tutorial myself, and doing what it says to do. If there are inaccuracies or problems with the tutorials and they can't adequately be followed (as is the case in some of the texture books above) that'll tend to substantially reduce my scoring of those tutorials. If I can't follow your tutorial, that lack of clarity and explanation in the tutorial will hurt its score and probably prevent it from winning anything.

Since I'm giving out the prizes, or most of them (someone else on the board has generously volunteered to offer a $10 Amazon.com gift card as a prize to one of the winners) I would like to have a substantial degree of influence over the tutorials' score - I'd be a generally impartial observer/judge in any case (as I am not submitting an entry myself and have no relational bias towards any particular member of the GoW which might sway my scoring.) I would however, like to gauge the response of other fans to the tutorials as well, and allow others to have significant input and influence in the judging process.

[matthornb]

I'd like to propose a due date for the tutorial submissions: May 15, 2010 - 2 1/2 months from now - with winners to be judged by our community somehow during the remainder of May (with prizes to be awarded at the end of May.)

This is early enough that everyone will have the prizes/tutorials available in time for summer vacation, a season during which likely most of us will have more free time to work on our age development projects.

It's also late enough that there's a 2 1/2 month timeframe for creating entries - which will allow the tutorial creators enough time to produce good tutorials for the contest.

Does anyone have any objections to May 15 as a due date? If you do, we can discuss alternative dates. If not, we'll set that as the due date.

Prizes are yet to be determined; I'm waiting on you all to provide some feedback about preferred texture books and texture packs - and judging systems are also currently uncertain - I'd like to piece together a small panel of impartial judges like with the RAD contests, if possible.

[Jennifer_P]

Can't go wrong with my own birthday!

[matthornb]

Wow!

Jennifer_P, May 15th is your birthday? Interesting - I didn't know that when I chose the date!

BTW, Jennifer, if you want to be a tutorial judge, I'd welcome your involvement in that way. But if you don't want to, that's okay too.

Same goes for any others on the board who may volunteer to do that - if you're not involved in submitting a contest entry, you can be a judge.

Anyway, any further thoughts on texture books, texture packs?

I'll be posting my second texture pack here sometime soon for you all to download. In the meantime, thank you all so much for your support, enthusiasm, and suggestions.

This is going to be fun. I look forward to seeing your tutorials, and I imagine we'll all learn a lot from them - and from the prizes.

I'll be excited to see how we'll be able to apply that knowledge to the process of making our ages - and whether we'll see more nicely modeled and nicely textured fan-made worlds in the coming months and years...