I am very pleased to announce the winners for the
October 2009 Vue Monthly Challenge
 

**In 1st Place with 7 points
**THD777

In 2nd place with 2 points
****SIGMAWORLD
&
THUNDERING1
**
**
In 3rd Place with 1 point
JIMP1102
SUMMONED1
BADTIGER
MOJODALLAS

**Very many congratulations to you all.
I now invite THD777 to lead us into the next Challenge.

1. Entry #11 by thd777 has received 7 votes.
2. Entry #8 by SIGMAWORLD has received 2 votes.
3. Entry #5 by thundering1 has received 2 votes.
4. Entry #3 by JimP1102 has received 1 votes.
5. Entry #4 by Summoned1 has received 1 votes.
6. Entry #7 by Badtiger has received 1 votes.
7. Entry #10 by mojoDallas has received 1 votes.

Award Graphics by Thundering1

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What melikia said

Wow, thanks everyone (and I didn't even vote for myself...). And congratulations to all winners!

How would you like me to lead us into the next Challenge? Suggest a new theme?

Ciao
TD

Thd777: Yes, that's what it means. ;-)

That's what I thought.

Give a few hours and I'll come up with something hopefully interesting.

Ciao
TD

Oh and in case you didn't know, winners can cut & paste their respective award graphics to place in their galleries alongside their winning images.

Cool image- congrats thd777!
Looking forward to the next theme!
-Lew :-)

Excellent image! Congratulations thd777! :thumbupboth:

Thanks everyone!

Ok, here is my suggestion for November:

"FLOATING"

Something that floats on air or water (and maybe shouldn't?). The image can be realistic or fantastic. It should convey a sense of defying gravity.

My inspiration for this theme comes from the environment in the preview of the movie "Avatar". If you haven't seen it yet, check it out. It looks really good. I suspect Vue was used  quite a lot to make it: Movie Site

Does that sound interesting?

Ciao
TD

Great theme - and yes, the trailer for Avatar was the FIRST thing to come to mind! What a cool environment!
-Lew

Excellent theme. I'll work up the challenge pages shortly.

Wait, so you CAN use images from your gallery posted previously ???? If that's the case, then maybe the rules should be updated, just so we're all on the same page.

Some are pretty close (1 in particular), but not the same - looks like trying out comps and lighting before a final.

"Challenge entries will be NEW work; NOT something posted previously in the galleries or entered into other challenges or competitions....But it must not have seen the light of day prior to a challenge.)"      your words not mine. And...
"Any entry posted in any Gallery other than the Challenge Entry Page before the end of the Voting Deadline (usually 3 days after the image entry deadline) WILL be disqualified!!!!! If an entry has been included in the voting and is then found to have been posted elsewhere before the completion of voting, it will be removed and the voting adjusted accordingly. "

Hell, what do I care, I wouldn't have won regardless. But if I were any of the #2's, a blatant violation of the rules winning would piss me off pretty good.

So by simply re-rendering a previous render and cropping out a section constitutes as a NEW work. I'll have to remember that for the next contest.

Slight changes - but changes.

I'm a #2 and I'm still fine with it - but I DO see your point in that something VERY close was posted in the galleries.

Like I said before if you look at the dates, it looks like testing renders and comps before final lighting and texturing (see attached - and even the last image in this set isn't the final - I STILL brought the hat into Mudbox for all the folds and weathering, and added the textures with the Alphas because they just take forever to render for a simple test) and upload. They're not identical, but yes, I can see your frustration that they're VERY close and have been uploaded to his gallery.

I guess I'm relaxed about it since there's no money or fame or prizes - this is just for fun. And I took the agreement to be the ACTUAL image - not tests that are gonna be close.

I've lost PLENTY of these - generally most ALL of these. There'll be more.

I know it is a contest for fun, and there was no one "cheated" or harmed, but to have a contest stating rules means either abide by them or don't have any. You might not be upset, but you aren't the only #2. And what about the next time? Someone else might not be as understanding as you...THAT is why there are rules.
I would suggest you ammend the rules to include the ability to post WIPs in your own galleries then (eliminating anonymity completely) or the ability to take existing renders, change something-anything-and  rerender it as new to be able to submit it. Something presently I mistakenly took as grounds for dissqualification by reading (in bold too) what is there now. 
Sorry, but I'm sticking to my guns on this point, if only as a matter of principle. 
I believe this was blatantly wrong. I cannot see it as anything else.
I know these are your contests and your rules, fine. Make them clear and concise, and fair for everyone else. That is all I am trying to convey.

Hi JimP1102!

As it is pretty clear now that you are talking about me (even though no names are mentioned), I should probably offer my view.

I assume you are comparing the entry to "Outpost on Mylon 7" in my gallery. I frequently make several renders starting from the same basic scene file. Often as part of an evolving background story. The image in the gallery is one of those and there is another one (Dawn Patrol). The contest entry evolved from those. A lot of tweaking and adjusting the atmosphere and terrain materials as well as several additional props to bring out the scale (the context entry has 7 additional ground and air vehicles that are not in "Outpost on Mylon 7") went into the production of the contest entry. The outpost itself was also moved up to expose more of the base and make it look more "enormous". Just as Thundering1 pointed out above, I took the agreement/contest rules to refer to the ACTUAL image - not something similar or related.

To sum  up: In my opinion, even though there are clearly several related images in my gallery, the entry was a new render specifically done for the contest and was not posted previously in the galleries. I spent many hours working on it and even more producing the final render. I guess in the end it boils down to at which point you consider an image as new.

Happy Vueing!
TD

"I would suggest you ammend the rules to include the ability to post WIPs in your own galleries then (eliminating anonymity completely) or the ability to take existing renders, change something-anything-and  rerender it as new to be able to submit it."

I'd have no problem with this - especially if you HAVE to label it as a WIP for the image.

As a side note I CAN tell you one bad reason not to post WIPS (even though they do it as standard on CGTalk) is because someone else can take what you're planning on doing and take it much further.

Yes, then you're getting into people whose sole mission is "winwinwin" but hey - it's always been a thought of mine in the back of my head.

"I would suggest you ammend the rules to include the ability to post WIPs in your own galleries then (eliminating anonymity completely) or the ability to take existing renders, change something-anything-and  rerender it as new to be able to submit it."

Sure, that would be be fine. Personally, I do not care who wins or who posts what where. I like the idea of the challenge as a way to get inspired and to see what others come up with. The entries were all great takes on the theme. As far as I am concerned, there is no need for any voting/placements. Just have a Challenge gallery to show the many different approaches to convey the same idea.

Ciao
TD

THD,
Yes, of course it is about you, but actually it is not. It is an interpretation of rules. Having a military background might be holding me up from seeing this differently.
I understand that everyone has a process to the final image. That is fine, expected and normal. That is not the problem I was trying to explain. My sole issue lies in the verbage of the rules and in the rules ONLY.  I really liked your pic, I thought it was very cool, and I THINK I even commented on it in your gallery a while ago...THAT is why I remembered seeing it before. Then I re-read the contest rules stating ONLY New Entries. That is my issue. You posted something, that you will have to admit, is almost the same thing in your gallery, and yet are able to now post again in the contest. Here's the same scenario turned around:
I post a pic, say the one I posted for the contest, in my Gallery early October. I decided to enter this one in the contest stating " Any entry posted in any Gallery other than the Challenge Entry Page before the end of the Voting Deadline (usually 3 days after the image entry deadline) WILL be disqualified!!!!! "  to me, this means I can't post it and should make a new pic. Now, if I took my pic, changed the haze color to say, red- Your theory is this is completely acceptable? Because the two are "different" -
If that is the case, then fine! Just explain that in the rules rather than writing that if it is anywhere else it will be dissqualified. So in the end, you're right. It boils down to what do you consider new? And to state clearly again, the issue is not with YOU, it is with the verbage of the rules.

Excuse me! Did I miss something in some other alternate universe or did this one just go t*ts up?

Oops! Now dad's pissed.

T*ts Up? Not sure. Don't even know what you mean....
Wrote that way before reading the other responses. Same message as all my previous though. Again, doesn't matter. The point is lost somewhere in translation anyway.
No point dragging the horse out of it's grave to continue beating on it.
Jim