Since there seems to be a queue forming up waiting for my Scarecrow figure, I'm going to create a contest. The contest is over in just under three days (17th October, 2002 at midnight). The winner gets a copy of the Scarecrow completely free. The contest will work as follows: You must create an image using at least *12* (count them, twelve) of my things. These things can be from my Free Stuff or my Not-So-Free Stuff. But there are a few rules as to the counting: Only 2 lightsabres will be counted towards the total. You can use more but they do not count. Only 2 blasters (energy emission firearms of whatever sort -- blaster, laser, disruptor, phaser, black ray weapon, etc) will be counted towars the total. The Aliens rifle and RiffRaff's Antimatter Laser count as blasters, too. You can use more, but they do not count. Only 2 items from any given 'pak' will be counted towards the total. This means that you can't use all 6 bardiches for a big axe-war picture and count it halfway there. This also means that if you go and buy the just-released Fighting Man Mike, who comes with three props and two clothing articles, he counts as *one*. Using the hair techniques in my Yet Another Hair Tutorial counts as 1 item. Believe me, I can tell. I have plenty of freestuff to make this easy to meet the demands. Postwork is appreciated and encouraged, but I'd rather the original be rendered in Poser not some other renderer, so as not to make it unfair to those with Maya, Lightwave, 3DSMax and so on. (Yes, anyone can download Maya free, but I, for one, can't *install* it because I don't have an NT kernel). Postwork can be done in any program. Photoshop, PSP, Painter, GIMP, even Windows Paint if you think you can pull it off. If you do not have and cannot afford a decent image manipulation program to do postwork in, go to www.gimp.org and download the Gimp -- all the power of Photoshop and completely free. Yes, it's a Linux program but there's a Windows binary available. The winner is the best picture. I'm being deliberately vague. The goal is simply to knock my socks off. The judging will be done by *me* and the goal will be to make a picture that just makes me say 'okay, that kicks ass'. Since I'm the sole judge, the picturer has to please *me*, so here's some homework on what will catch my fancy faster: While the free stuff I've given away, along with the comments for each item no my Free Stuff page, should give you an idea of what I will favour, I'll throw in a little cheat sheet, too: - The Dodger likes anachronism. - The Dodger has a penchant for cheese -- like Victorian sci-fi, 50s monster movies, post-nuclear-holocaust mutants, and so on. His second-favourite comic series is Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Mark Schultz). - The Dodger is split on fantasy: he despises Shannara, Thomas Covenant, Wheel of Time, Valdemar, and Belgariad but likes Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, Elric and Cerebus the Aardvark. Conan and similar things (like the Scorpion King and Kul the Conqueror) make the Dodger break out in a rash. That's not good. - The Dodger likes Urban Fantasy. The Dodger did professional illustration for Shadowrun and grooves on Diana Tregarde, even though it rots your brain. - The Dodger is divided on Cyberpunk, too. He loves Snow Crash (Neil Stephenson) and Otherland (Tad WIlliams) but finds William Gibson boring and over-hailed. - The Dodger is a Heinlein fan, and likes some Asimov, but has a limited tolerance for Niven, Pohl, and Pournelle at best (but Ringworld was cool). - The Dodger likes Brom, Keith Parkinson, and Frank Frazetta's better thyroid years. He thinks Larry Elmore is an awesome ink artist but can't paint for shite. The Dodger hates Boris Vallejo and Clyde Caldwell's art seriouisly. - The Dodger is a Goth, whatever that means. - The Dodger is has no particular preference as to 'style' of image as long as it looks good. Look at my stuff (http://www.dodger.org/Recent%20Art) to see how eclectic I am. I like some photorealistic stuff, and some not. Surprise me. - The Dodger will be impressed if you use more than 12. The picture should be a coherent whole, not just a render of Dodger's Free Stuff. It may or may not earn brownie points to use more. (That is, if two pics are deemed identically good and once uses more, that one will probably get the prize). - Emotion and Adventure both tend to catch the Dodger's fancy. Mood lit Victoria Nudes do not. Again, the winner gets a free Scarecrow figure. All entrants receive an Awl Pike prop (not released in free stuff, and probably not for a while). (For those who don't know, an Awl Pike is basically a really pointy 6-metre spear.) Um, let's see... No purchase necessary to win. Void where prohibited. Entries must be posted on Renderosity and not violate Renderosity's TOS and gallery guidelines. Post links to the images here in this thread. Dodger's free stuff is at http://www.dodger.org/friv Pirewyn and Bloodsong are not eligible because they already *have* the Scarecrow. I'm going to follow up with some images of most my free stuff to show the vast array of crap you have to work with, so you can see that meeting the 12 items goal is not in any way impossible.

Some of my Free Stuff (Blasters)

Some more of my Free Stuff (Lightsabres)

Yet more of my Free Stuff (melee weapons)

Other Free Stuff thjat doesn't fit into any set category. I should add that using the blast props does *not* count seperately towards your total, nor do the lightsabre blades, parts of the egg, pieces of the bonfire, torch flames or whatever. All parts of any given item stuck in the same prop file count as *one* item, though you can only use one part and it *does* count (i.e. a torch without the flame or a flame without the torch or a turned-off lightsabre). And, as I said, even though the blast-props come in seperate prop files, they don't count. And even though the alter-Hauberk is not shown in any of these pics, it still counts. The same logical rule goes for the T-Shirt textures. One goth T-Shirt texture and one geek T-shirt texture can be applied towards the total. And the high-res Biker Jacket textures do not count (but the Biker Jacket does). Also, just so this issue doesn't come up -- yes, all the items must be *visible*. You can't get away with 'she has a lightsabre on her belt on the other side -- see the shadow?'

Oh yeah, and when you post the entry links to this thread, list off the items you used using the names on the Free Stuff thumbnails. That way I don't miss one.

Oh yeah, and... the Bongsabres (and Dongsabre) count as lightsabres.

Deal.

if pete enters, the rest of us all might be doomed... :))

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=261695&Start=1&Sectionid=1&WhatsNew=Yes

Here is my entry to your contest, I hope you like it. (: Genny

Something I should add -- if we don't have at least two entries by the end of the contest, it will be extended until such time as there are two to choose between, though I doubt it will be an issue since we already have an entry. That way there's no 'win by default' scenario -- this is to encourage, not discourage, creativity!

I don't intend to compete, but I'll do a render anyway. I have an image in my mind now, and I might as well scoop it out to make room for others.

Attached Link: Escape from the Emerald City

Here's my entry, to keep you all from getting the prize. *JUST KIDDING* But I did have a few people IM me and tell me the contest was nigh-impossible. Far from, methinks. So, here's an example using exactly twelve, though I could have thrown in Drillhead or, heheh, the Scarecrow himself to push it to 13. Assorted weapons on their persons would also raise the number. Bseides, if I'm going to make you all jump through this hoop, I should at least be polite and make my own leap, right?

Attached Link: The Gathering

Thanks again, Dodger, for letting me know about this contest. I had a blast creating this image for it. Enjoy. :-)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=262174&Start=1&Sectionid=1&WhatsNew=Yes

Thankyou Dodger, I had alot of fun also. :)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=262436&Start=1&Sectionid=1&WhatsNew=Yes

I had so much fun doing the first picture, I thought I would do one more. I didn't see anything in the rules that said you couldn't enter more then once, sooooo........here goes! (: Thanks again Genny

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=262453&Start=1&Sectionid=1&WhatsNew=Yes

Well, Dodger ol' fellow, here's my entry. Had a ball trying to come up with the storyline behind the picture, since it's fairly close to something that happened in one of my GW games. This was a hoot.

Wahoo! Lots of entries! Cool. Anyone doing another entry or who hasn't entered yet, get cracking! Only 17 hours left! And yup, no rule to enter only once! Because the turnout has been good, when the clock hits midnight and it's the 17th, I'll select, along with the grand prize winner, two runners up who will be able to choose between either Mike's Biker Jacket or the boots from Fighting Man Mike (trust me, they are worth as much as anything I have made -- both Pirewyn, who beta tested, and I agree, they are the best Mike boots we own). There's no rule that I can't add prize categories after the fact, is there? Also, for anyone who wants, after the contest is finished, I'll happily give tips on stuff too -- not that I'm supreme renderer of the universe or anything, but tip-sharing helps everyone. And as a former art coordinator and a published freelance illustrator, I do have some credentials in the area. However, until the contest is over, I'm not going to give any personal tips, critique, or anything of the sort, just so I don't appear to be favouring anyone in any way, you know.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=262523&Start=1&Sectionid=20&WhatsNew=Yes

*mutters something about Dodger's sick and sadistic ways* despite the work schedule...*yawn* despite the panic attacks ;), here's a little something-something I came up with.

blinks, wanders off in search of sleep...maybe

~Nawty~

Dodger, Bad news I didn't get to do a render, good news I bought it from the store :)

well, I'm sorry pokes. I gotta go decide the winner now. Hmm. Lets see...

Genny with her (I'm assuming 'her' on the name) piece entitled 'Dogs like Vegemite too'

Is Ellpro with 'Attack'

NawtyAngel with 'The Reason Why'

Congratulations to the winners!

I'll have the consolation prize Awl Pike up in a few --- have to package it up.

Okay, everyone has been sent their username and password for prize collection. The consolation prize is at http://www.dodger.org/contest/scarecrow/consolation/ and the entrants also have been IMed their usernames and passwords for collection. Just as a note, I threw in a surprise bonus on the consolation prize in addition to the Awl Pike. The most silly thing I've ever made: a fully posable pretzel (it shows up under your Figures under Useless:Curved 7 Piece Stick and it makes a nice, if somewhat jagged, low poly pretzel -- and can be used for heaps of other things, too. I think I told people Silly, not Useless, in the IMs, so this is also errata. If it wasn't clear in the IMs, the consolation prize can also be collected by all prize winners -- use the same username and password you used for your main prize.

Thanks for the consolation prize. :-) You'll probably see pretzels sitting on tables in some of my future artwork. Thanks again, Dodger, for the heads up on the contest. I had a lot of fun with my entry.

Just so people know, it's actually a curving 7-piece stick with IK on both ends, but its colour and shape and ability to be bent into a pretzel make it a prime candidate for pretzeldom.

and.. it also means I can do tentacles now. Watch out!

THANK YOU, Dodger! (: This was so much fun and I can't wait to use the scarecrow. Congrats to the other winners too. Genny

No worries. 'twas my pleasure, and fun, too!

Congrats to the winners! Thankyou, Dodger, I had alot of fun trying. :)