Ooooookay....so our whole Challenge was horribly stumbling on my part...sorry about that folks!!

As I get this last one all official......I'd like to hear any new ideas for any Challenge changes.

Btw:

-We will be going ahead with having a Challenge every other month. (promise)

-We will have a double Challenge coming up, as we also need new 2007 Challenge Graphics.

-I'm was also thinking about giving up one of my Bryce scene files (from my Gallery) away to every member who entered the next Challenge. Cool or Silly?

You need someone to run the challenges who doesn't have regular long term, life altering, job interfering, medical, family relating, driving, drinking, political, drug-related problems that are going to stop him/her dealing with running, collating, counting, arranging and generally co-ordinating the monthly challenges.

Look, you and Zhann have issues and problems. I've seen this kinda thing before. Well-meaning people who are willing to take on anything to help out but finaly succumb to real-life and have to take a back-seat.

Now I sure respect you guys and I'm gratefull that you take your valuable time and stake a whole chunk of it on this forum. But you (AS) have health and job problems and Jan has her just as serious 'for gods sake give me a break' problems. Start deputising, guys! We won't think any less of you.

As for the monthly challenges themselves.........we need prizes! Real ones! Maybe a DAZ Gift Voucher or a CP Voucher. And once a year, something big, like a copy of the latest Poser (or anything that won't be construed as heretical by the Cardinals) but restricted to those who have entered several times to the monthlys.

Just my M`0.02u

(M` = Martian currency.)

But you (AS) have health and job problems 
-Not anymore. ;o)
I'm healthy and am off of work for at least the next 5 months.  ;oD

Daz prizes would be nice.......I'll shake the DAZ tree, see if I can get anything to fall out.

cool idea..when is the next challenge though???

Coming up soon!!! (today/tonight)

I have had to make the switch from Windows 2000 Pro to Windows XP (Pro). I need to (most importantly) find...and re-install my Frontpage, so my HTML crippled mind can (more easily) put together pages again.

Yeah, yeah, I know....html is "easy" and why didn't I wait and switch to Vista?

Not easy for me - and not until Vista SP1, thank you, lol.

I'd say give Bryster the challenge jobs, thats if he's interested of course.  He's pretty much here all the time, and I believe popular with everyone. I think a prize donation of a decent model or scene would be a good idea, but perhaps just for the winner. I think more people would get involved as a result. I'd be happy to donate stuff, as I'm sure most of us here would to.

I'm finally doin' okay too.....=) Haven't been rushed to the hospital in, oh, 3 months. Although I can't take off work for 5 months, how do you do that anyway??? But I'm letting one job go, and keeping the other, since we're doin a little better.

As for the challenges, a DAZ gift certificate sounds cool, or maybe some of us merchants( in the forum) can donate a product to the challenge, I certainly would......=)

No drinking...that leaves me out...darn!

I nominate the Bryster also.
As a side note, I'd really like to see some closure with the Oct/Nov challenge. Having the thread erased doesn't seem too cool to me. Anyhow, thats my 3 cents.
As far as prizes and such, I'm more concerned with getting it running in a more timely fashion than the "how do we attract more people". What's that famous movie line? Build the field and they will come? I dunno something along those lines.
ok 4 cents worth

AS lol - I couldn't count the number of times in the last two years you've said - hey my life is in order now... and within 2 days the old "curve ball of life" pitching machine has lined you up and thrown about 40 new and twisted things at you. And from the sounds of it, Zhann, you've been straying in front of AS's curve ball machine from time to time as well.  Hopefully this time it will leave you both alone for a bit longer (or you learn to duck and weave a little better).

However, knowing how things tend to go base on apex whenever we think things are settling down ....

I'd put in a vote for TheBryster as well (if he wants it) - (a) he's always here and his life seems more long term stable than most of us, and (b) what better name could someone have for running something in the bryce forum ;)

Mars is beyond ball pitching machine's range. 
 
Challenges:
1 Sea scapes.  Imports allowed.  Minimumal post work
2 Spheres.  Make a scene entirely or nearly so with spheres
3 Fire.  Again imports allowed.  Central theme is fire, campfire, forest fire, fire place, flaming ball of fire from outer space, etc.   again minimum post work.
4 Play on "I've got good news and I've got bad news"
5 Photo realism.  (we've done abstract recently) "show background" hdri generated from a photo is excluded
6 "Sub atomic" if we could see at the quantum level, what would it look like?
7 Dramatic lighting.  scene judged on how effective use of lighting set the mood

need I continue....    This list should get some more ideas perking.

Any challenge should be narrow themed to make a level playing field for judging.  Any challenge should be slanted so anyone with Bryce has the resources to enter. Use of, quality of, and posing of any imports and non-user created, non-bryce models should not sway the judging of Bryce challenge unless the contest is a Bryce modelling challenge.

Greetings all!

  I would nominate The Bryster too.

  For a challenge, I like skiwillgee's "sphere" idea (because I was working on one ;-)  But I'll try to take part in the challenges more often. In the past I've rarely visited these forums unless it was to seek help/advice on something (I've avoided forums ever since being a moderator for one for 7 years). That all changed for me when Br6 was due to come out. Since then I've been visiting this forum and attempting to participate as much as I can.

  About the challenges, I only participated once. It was interesting and I liked it. What turned me off was that voting and figuring out where to submit a render was confusing. I suppose it's better now. But anyway, I would still try the new challenges reguardless.  :-)

A thought for a challenge suggestion just came to me. Since Valentines Day is approaching soon, how about a "romance" theme for a challenge?

I'm sure there's lots of possibilities for such a scene with Bryce... we've got a lot sunsets for example. Two people walking along the surf at sunset.....

Jeez! I open my big mouth and someone sticks a job in it...!  (Don't say nothing, Ang!)

There's another problem with the challenges too. The winner gets to pick the next Challenge Theme, which is great and all, but with respect to past winners/choosers, I feel we sometimes get a challenge that while on the face of it seems like a good idea, doesn't go a long way to attracting everyone.
We're for the most part, expert at one or another aspect of 3D art. That is, some of us are great at characters, others at landscapes, others at....ahem....booleans. We need to ensure that each challenge is tailored to encompass the skills of as many artists as possible. Picking out one particular Bryce feature (for example - 'Let's Make Trees!!) and basing a challenge on it is more likely to deter people who don't like trees, than encourage them to enter - especially if his/her/its prefered genre is abstract or sci-fi.

As for yours truly becoming somekind of Challenge Czar(Tsar)  or Competition Cardinal, I haven't the faintest idea about setting pages up in PHP. I would also be inclined to dismiss entries that involved heretical apps ;-)   And I don't have the contacts that would allow me to twist  the arms of those in positions to hand out freebie prizes; and that's quite apart from the fact that I live on an entirely different planet to the rest of you. However, I appreciate the votes of confidence and would certainly give it serious consideration if AS were to whisper in my shell-like.

Regards
Cardinal Bryster
(Shell-like = Brit expression = Ear)

**I'd say give Bryster the challenge jobs
**-With the way the Contest area is setup, only Moderators & Admins can create new Challenges/Contests. Coordinators can manipulate them after they are up and running. One of the resons for me to bring on one or two new Coordinators will be to keep on top of the Challenges.

**"...closure with the Oct/Nov challenge. Having the thread erased doesn't seem too cool to me."
**-Nah, not erased. I just made the thread non-sticky, which is the norm. Results for Oct/Nov have now been announced.

**The winner gets to pick the next Challenge Theme
**-That little "prize" should stay as is, imho, but what with the Challenges now going on for 2 months, a lot of us would have time to do another Challenge, one that would help attract even more members. The 2nd Challenge Theme would come from.....? (there's LOTS of stuff we could do with a 2nd Challenge)

**I haven't the faintest idea about setting pages up in PHP
**-There's nothing PHP about the Challenges. It's point & click to create and then manage. I throw in a small amount of HTML, which I now just recycle each Challenge, I just change the text basically.

Not that I'm an expert but the challenges should be educational as well as fun;
Suppose within the given month someone does a short tut on say; the DTE, then for the challenge we put that knowledge to work in a scene....

Same goes for Booleans, sky lab, etc., if you're new at it, at least the tut will get you started in the right direction. Nothing worse than having someone pick a challenge and you don't know where to start to get what you want to happen.....and although posting the wip will help, you also need to know the right questions to ask to get the info you need to make your entry what you wanted it to be. And some people may be shy about posting wips as well, this would give them a base to work from...

........oh, it's just a thought

Zhann

AS - you mention the possibility for two challenges for each two month stretch...

If the first of the challenges in each month are going to be topic driven (chosen by previous winners and based on a theme as they are now), then maybe the second challenges could be very bryce feature driven.

By this, I mean there could be a challenge to highlight hdri effects, one for boolean modelling, another to highlight the tree lab, one for the sky lab, another to highlight the dte, another the light lab, and another the terrain editor (as examples). This would also fit in really well with Zhann's  ideas about attaching a tut that describes a bit of bryce's core feature/functionality to the challenge and making one of the challenges a learning experience thus possibly making it more attractive to some beginners. 

... just a bit more dendrite-neuron-axon activity ;o)

Zhann & Flak;

Yes, dat's the idea!!  ;oD

How about doing a practical challenge. and a picture challenge. Practical challenge. Metal texture,  night skies,  awsome trees. Now the purpose of the practical is to learn more about the different aspects and share things like settings and mats etc. The picture challenge will remain as advertised ex. Monkeys eating beetles or singing unicycles or what have you.

The seed for the Challenge subject I chose was actually based on learning more about something we tend to take for granted in Bryce. We've touched base on quite a few of the mechanical aspects of the program such as, Tree Lab, DTE, Skies. Reflective metals over shiny surfaces seem to be the first experimentation when beginning to work in Bryce, yet Glass items seem to get little attention because we try a few options till our scene looks good with a chosen preset, but I haven't really seen many questions or extreme uses or experiments.

If I may, Agentsmith has done quite a few images with Glass Items, Check out his Gallery.

I disagree.

I am thinking of mor ealong the lines of a challenge to make a veriety of Faterial files and the like so we have a mor epowerful program. Makign nice pictures with glass is one thing but noone gets a new mat from it what I am thinking of is doing soemthing that makes Bryce mroe powerful for all of us.
We still use materials from the last few material challenges.

Dann-O :
Didn't we do a "Materials" entourage quite some time ago? Does sound interesting, especially considering the tons of presets that already cross over from B-4, 5, &6.

Bryster: with?

Actually I've never tried to make a glass material in the DTE, and there are times a good antique bottle green would have come in handy, or glass with frost on it, distressed glass, etched, corroded glass, hmmmmmm, looks like I'm playing in the DTE tonight.....=]

When I stumbled into getting to name a challenge a short while back I was on same wave length some are suggesting now.  I chose "skys" to get noses into sky lab.  I think there were over 50 entries in that one.  

(Willie changes subject) What do you all think about the winner of "bryce feature" challenge must submit the scene file as freebe for all to grow there skills,or at least explain/tut on its making?

Problem I see with challenge requiring DTE manipulation would scare away novice and hobby users entering.  Anything I get out of DTE lab is purely by accident.  To go into the DTE with a specific result in mind is foreign to me.  I am now only getting a handle on material lab. 

Quote - Actually I've never tried to make a glass material in the DTE, and there are times a good antique bottle green would have come in handy, or glass with frost on it, distressed glass, etched, corroded glass, hmmmmmm, looks like I'm playing in the DTE tonight.....=]

I have - it's fun.  Got some frosted glass real easily... now you mention it, I also have some ideas for scratched glass.  Not so sure about etched though.  Plenty of different coloured glass, easier than searching for it in the presets - where the colour I wanted may or may not have been waiting...

So in essence, we're talking a tutorial lab on how we handle certain aspects and functionalities of Bryce?  And then discuss how we got the results we did?  Sort of a mini-tutorial / experiment contest, but without any real winner kinda thing?  

I dunno. I'm confuzzed but it sounds fun. :c)

mdb

Hey I'm rich and I'm stupid,.......does that make me qualified ?

It is a bit confusing in these early stages. I, for one, like the ideas currently being tossed around. The idea about having a practical/mini-tutorial challenge where a specific Bryce feature is focused on sounds great. Learning how to use the DTE in an effective manner also sounds great to me. There's all sorts of features in Bryce I don't get to mess with, and a challenge forces exposure to them. So, for me, I would welcome this type of challenge, as well as the normal challenge.

But now I have a question about Bryce specific features. I am current and have B6, but what of those who do not have the latest Bryce? I'm wondering if some people here would be excluded from participating all the time because, let's say, the challenge is about HDRI and some people only have 5.5 still. How things like this will be worked out?

Oh, last question, how many ppl here still use Bryce 4?

I have B5.5 still but I'm now using B6 - I like the 'collapse it and export it' feature too much to give that up easily, but the DTE has not been altered since version 5, possibly not since version 4 even, so any DTE stuff should be pretty much the same across the board.

Great! a chance to play more in the DTE!!!  Wooohoooo!

Quote - You need someone to run the challenges who doesn't have regular long term, life altering, job interfering, medical, family relating, driving, drinking, political, drug-related problems that are going to stop him/her dealing with running, collating, counting, arranging and generally co-ordinating the monthly challenges.

(M` = Martian currency.)

Gee Bryster were you thinking about me when you typed all that i have no life let alone anyof the other things you mentioned 

People keep telling me to 'Get-A-Life' but I tell 'em that I can't deal with the 5 I already have.........