Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/contest.ez?contest_id=509&Form

This month our challenge is to make a Book Cover for a novel. It can be any type of Novel (Example: Funny, Romantic, Mystery etc.) You can include your own title and authors name. Keep in mind you cannot recreate an already made book cover. That would be a copyright violation.

Rules:

Final render must be in Poser, any version.

No nudity, implied sexuality, or violence.

Open to all Renderosity members.

Please keep the images to a maximum of 800 pixels by 600 pixels and not more than 150k.

Thumbnails MUST be included, and must be the correct size: 100 X 100 pixels.

Challenge starts "April 9, 2005" and ends "Friday, May 6, 2005" at "Midnight" Renderosity time.

One image per person. Feel free to post your WIP's in the Poser Forum for feedback.

Gold Challenger picks the next month's theme subject to approval by the challenge managers.

Can't wait to see what you can come up with!!

Ryuslilangel
Poser Moderator

Message edited on: 04/08/2005 23:57

Nice subject. :) I have mine already lined up. Is postwork allowed? Not that I will - just to clarify.

Thats great!.. Well... lets make a small poll. Would you all like to have postwork allowed?? I understand that some people feel strongly about no postwork but myself I feel nekkid without it. So.. What do you guys think?? Ryuslilangel Poser Moderator

no postwork if it has to be rendered in poser, then leave it that if i want to postwork an image, i could make it look like million dollar art, and in the end, the render in poser part would be totally meaningless either pick a render engine, and no postwork or any engine allowed, and allow postwork

I vote no postwork..pure poser render, but....I always like to see body parts tucked away if they show where they're not supposed to, so for that I always postwork the odd body part showing. So, I guess that means I actually mean slight postwork, if it's needed to fix little things.

I'd go for none at all, including the title and author's name. But that's just to be a smartass, so I'll happily go with the majority vote.

adding a sig can easily be done before render :x

either is fine by me. Personally I would like to see post allowed, but I don't need to use it since 99% of my work is no post anyhow

Comeon - Postwork - we need it! I dont own any clothing or hair props!!!! So we need postwork so I can at least have clothing on my figures!

No postwork. It's good to see just how good someone is with Poser without postwork.

I vote for "no postwork" (except maybe the text). One, most contests and challenges allow postwork, so this would be different. Two, it's a Poser challenge, not an art contest. The point, IMO, is what you can do with Poser, not what you can do with Photoshop. And it's just a challenge - no prizes or anything. If someone cheats and uses postwork, big deal - they're only cheating themselves.

Ascinct, there's plenty of free clothing and hair available. Poser comes with several hair props. Koz and Studio Maya offer free hair that's better than most of the hair being sold. If you're not using a popular figure like V3, clothing is more difficult, but dynamic clothing can be easily fit to any character.

"The point, IMO, is what you can do with Poser, not what you can do with Photoshop." I totally agree with randym77.

I'd go for no postwork on the render itself - but the text can be added later, in a graphic programme. After all it's a challenge!

Like most of the previous posts, I'd go for no postwork, except for the text. It's a Poser challenge, not a Photoshop challenge!

Hey why not go hardcore? No postwork at all including the text and sigs. It is a challenge after all. Whats the challenge if it's easy? E

I could go for that. The point of a challenge is to stretch yourself, right?

However, I think banning even text might make it too hard for beginners. Maybe offer "extra credit" for people who render even their sigs and other text?

Or, someone could offer a freebie 3D alphabet, or tutorials on other ways to get text into the render.

Not a bad idea, getting the text into the render. Why not draw the text in a paint program and use it as a texture/trans map on a simple plane? Then it's all rendered.

That would work. I was thinking about maybe using Shade to make the text as another idea if not a texture. I know not everyone has it so I would be willing to help. So many ways to go about this. I'm a newbie but this is just the sort of thing to help hone the skills. This should be fun!

I usually do at least some postwork, but I think this would be a fun challenge. The last time I entered a "no postwork" challenge, I learned how to displacement map my signature onto a rock, so it looked like it had been chiseled there. (Sort of - it was hard to get rid of all the texture stretching.)

OTOH, it seems like this could end up taking over the challenge. "Text without postwork" could be a render challenge all its own.

Sounds a good challenge. I'd go for the "no postwork except text" option - but would compositing be allowed?

Could you clarify something? Can we create a cover for an already-published book or does the title as well as the image have to be entirely our own?

I have something I worked on a while ago which would fit, but it's for an existing book rather than an imagined one.

Ok.. Looks like we have no postwork. Thanks for your imput all! :)

A book cover without nudity, implied sexuality or violence? Do they write those kinds of books anymore?

ok, it appears Ive been out spoken!! LOL! Ill look for some free hair and clothing!! Cant wait to start!!

steerpike - As far as the bookcovers go, we would rather they be "imaginary" titles, that way there is no conflict in regards to intellectual properties. Thanks! MorriganShadow Poser Coord.

No postwork... including the text? Does that have to be rendered also?

Ehmm... no postwork?... I think its good for that. Maybe he want us to show the power of Poser. Keep up the greatest masterpiece win!

Imaginary titles? I suppose "Internal Revenue Agents of Gor" is still going to fail for other reasons.

As in the rules a Title and author can be added. :) Ryuslilangel Poser Moderator

"Agent Mitzy Halfelven and the Vaguaries of Happenstance" probably won't fly off the shelves, either.

Understood on imaginary titles (there goes 'Ringworld Nightsoil Collectors'...) and postwork. Could you confirm a yes or no on compositing, please? Ta.

The is all very simple....DO NOT use an existing bookcover but come up with you own idea for one, do all your work in Poser, the only postwork allowed is to add a title and your signature if you need those. Is that correct Ryuslilangel?

Well... if mine exists somewhere this side of reality, I want to buy it! :wide grin:

Semi-seriously... Copyright doesn't apply to titles, but trademarks might. "Mortimer Mouse and the Temple of Doom" would be asking for trouble. There are a few other cans of aorms associated with things like TV/movie tie-ins and the actors' distinctive likenesses. Also, I am not doing the Ace Double that combines War God of Israel with The Thing With Three Brains. And I do not want to know what some of you perverted Poser people might do with Swallows And Amazons Personally, if I try for this one I am not going to go for the obvious jokes. There are websites full of warped romance novel covers. And there's a lot more than fiction. And if you can't think of a title, open your nearest Dictionary of Quotations and look up William Shakespeare.

Howdy. This may be a silly question, but I would like to be sure so I don't disqualify myself. Does importing a background count as postwork? For example, if I made a terragen background, and the final thing I do is hit "render", is that still considered postwork? I'm excited about this! I think I can convert the project I'm working on right now...

Thats right cherokee69 ... Naumatt: It the Final Render must be in Poser :) AntoniaTiger: the point is to make everything your own...and not from another book :) Ryuslilangel Poser Moderator

woooohooooooooooooooo finally Inspiration to make a cover for a story im writing!!, runs off to do her book cover

Hmmm, I was interested in this, but Im not that good at only Poser so I would need the postwork to finish it up, so count me out. Maybe next time, good luck to all.

LOL, I am no good without postwork! But, I am entering, Just to see how well I can do, without it!

how long does it usually take for the images to show?? i just want to make sure i didnt mess up during entry and have ta re submit :)

Mariana I haven't seen an entry from you.. if you did upload. You may want to re-upload if so :( :) Ryuslilangel Poser Moderator

Ryus okies hon on my way to re submit ^.^ ty

What about DAZ|Studio renders? Some of us do not actually have Poser, but would love to enter.

Message edited on: 04/14/2005 02:08

Don't they have challenges in the D|S Forum? If not, maybe you should start them! The Challenge Forum also has monthly challenges that are open to everyone.

OK, If no postwork is allowed how do you create text in P5? Please.

You are allowed to postwork the text. But it is possible to do it without postwork, using transparency or displacement maps, if you feel up for a challenge. :-) Another possibility: model the letters, or find some someone else has modelled.

QSabot, I'm sorry to say but its for poser only. :( Ryuslilangel Poser Moderator

Heck, I think I'll do one anyway and just post it, external to the contest. It's a great idea to start from, thanks! Good luck, y'all!

Interesting challenge, I'm looking forward to having a go and NOT using postwork for a change. Possible thoughts on text rendering though... Create text in your choice of graphic program, save as Jpg, apply jpg as a texture to the poser default flat square prop... hey presto! You have text within poser. Shouldn't be too hard to make a transmap either, desaturate the original jpg of the text, whack up the contrast and flip to negative. Should probably work with some tweaking. Of course this all pure conjecture so I'm not too sure if it'll work but I'll try it out later and see how it goes. I'm kinda having trouble with the "implied sexuality" thing though, is it possible to have a really clear, exact(ish) definition on that please? Looking forward to seeing the entries :-)

"Create text in your choice of graphic program, save as Jpg, apply jpg as a texture to the poser default flat square prop... hey presto! You have text within poser." Which is exactly what I did. :) Then I made everything white on black for the transmap.

As a matter of fact, if you have Anim8or, you can extrude some text there, save as .obj (or .3ds: does Poser do .3ds?), and import to Poser as a solid prop.