VizWorld.com

CGArchitect has partnered up with Nvidia and Autodesk to host the “GPU Competition”.  All you have to do is create and render a beautiful scene containing the 3dsMax 20th Anniversary Logo, and upload it to their site.  The grand prize winner gets a free ride for two through three-nights of the Autodesk University 2010 in Las Vegas.

Here’s your chance to show off your best architectural work through high-quality renderings AND win great prizes! Sponsored by Autodesk®, CGarchitect, and NVIDIA, the Rendering Revolution contest is a global still image architectural visualization competition in celebration of the Autodesk® 3ds Max® 20th Anniversary and advancements in GPU-accelerated rendering solutions.

So, you may be asking yourself “What does this have to do with GPU’s?”  Only entries created with GPU-accelerated renderers are eligible.

So, you can go download the 30-day trial version of 3dsMax2011 which includes the hardware-accelerated Quicksilver renderer, or subscription members can go download the new iray CUDA-accelerated renderer.   Third party renderers are eligible as well, so Bunkspeed Shot or Octane owners can use that.

via Autodesk GPU Competition – Home.

Graphics autodesk, contest, nvidia

The 3DreamTeam Company has just announced a beta test of Vizerra, a software platform for creating and viewing interactive 3D environments.  You can hit their website and (if you’re a Windows User) download several famous environments including Angkor Wat, Mount Vernon, and St Peter’s Square.

3DreamTeam has utilized the Vizerra platform to produce twenty 3D environments (most of them listed as UNESCO World heritage sites), more than forty major 3D virtual construction solutions, virtual museum exhibitions and product simulations for clients across Europe, Russia and the USA.

But that’s not all.  They’ve having a competition where you simply find 3D Vision items hidden in the virtual environments and have a chance to win a GeForce 460, a GTX260, or 3D Vision Glasses.

Full press release after the break.

Read more…

Graphics 3d, contest, vizerra

Ten One Design is following up on last year’s contest and upping the ante, this time offering up $1000 in prizes for your iPad.

“There’s no doubt that the iPad has become a respected platform for artists everywhere,” said Peter Skinner, Ten One Design CEO. “We know our loyal Pogo Stylus and Pogo Sketch users are extremely talented and possess unparalleled creativity – and we want to show the world just what they can do. We hope this contest allows our fans to showcase their true skills and more importantly have fun.”

The contest began yesterday, and concludes on October 29th.  Anyone can submit, with one grand prize and four secondary winners to be chosen by their panel of judges.  Full details after the break, and at their site.

Read more…

Graphics contest, ipad

Think you’ve got the chops to be a 3D Star?  Do you have the skills, and the guts, to be one of Autodesk’s biggest names in 2010?  Here’s your chance, and you’ll get a chance at a nice ATI Firepro for your trouble.

If you’re a designer, recent graduate, student or talented young gun, now is your chance to shine and bring your work to a wider audience, including experts at Autodesk. As part of our new competition, we’ll be supporting some of the best talent in UK design visualization, with the winner receiving a high-end graphics card worth over £1,000 from our friends at ATI.

via Are You a 3D Star? Time to Showcase Your Talent | 3D Visualization with Autodesk Showcase.

Graphics autodesk, contest

Attention modelers, fire up Blender and build the most ostentatious and amazing Ray Rifle you can for a chance at an all-expenses paid trip to New Zealand to meet Gred Broadmore and Richard Taylor at the Weta Workshop.

The most ostentatious example of personal Ray Armament. Two-handed operation is a must in this category and your contraption must have the power to dissolve at least 7/9ths of an African Elephant in two blinks of an eye. Approved materials are cast iron, wood, Bakelite, porcelain, brass, copper and tremontium!

Full details are at their site, along with some neat models of Ray Guns.

via Raygun Shootout.

Graphics blender, contest

To celebrate the creation of Escape Studio’s new mentored learning courses targeted at distance learning and one-on-one tutorials, The Mill and Escape Studios are launching a CG Video contest.  To enter, simply submit a video to Escape Studio’s Youtube Channel with some details, and two lucky winners (one in the UK and one in the US) will be selected for a year-long mentored course and an online “CV clinic” with top recruiters for The Mill.

Computer Graphics World – Escape Studios and The Mill Launch New Online Competition.

Graphics contest, escape studios, the mill, vfx

Yesterday’s news of an Augmented Reality SDK from Qualcomm was interesting enough, but now they’ve gone one step further and created a developer contest where you have a chance at $125,000 first place prize for developing an app.

Qualcomm is on a mission to help developers build fun, useful, exciting AR apps. That is why we're planning the first ever Augmented Reality Developer Challenge with $200,000 in total prize money. Games, educational apps, media & marketing tools, instructional manuals – You’re only limited by the scope of your imagination (though you must of course use the Qualcomm AR SDK to build the app). The Challenge will commence in the Fall of 2010, when the AR SDK is made available for public download.

via Developer Challenge | Qualcomm Developer Network.

Science augmented reality, contest, qualcomm

The Department of Energy is holding their annual SciDAC conference in Chattanooga, TN this July.  Part of the conference is a “Visualization Night,” an evening at the Tennessee Aquarium where scientific visualizations from across the HPC community are shown and voted on.  The best videos are given “OASCR” awards.  (See our prior article about last year’s winners.)  Though this is a Department of Energy conference, anyone who creates visualizations for advanced scientific discovery is eligible to win an award.  Attendance is not required to win.  You can find submission instructions on the SciDAC 2010 web site.

Science contest, scidac

If you’re a fan of Edward Tufte and just happen to be lounging in London tomorrow evening, then you should consider picking up tickets to his talk at the Royal Geographical Society.  But alas, it’s all sold out. However, all is not lost thanks to the organizers and Information Is Beautiful:

Lord of information design, Edward Tufte is making a rare appearance in London this Wednesday (19th May)

It sold out months ago. But we’ve got two complimentary tickets to give away, thanks to the generous organisers, IntelligenceSquared.com.

To enter, just email [email protected]

If you can’t make it (or don’t win), don’t fret as you can still check out a webcast of the event (live or afterwards) for a mere 2.99 £ .

Win Tickets To See Edward Tufte In London.

Science contest, tufte

Cool Infographics interviews Jess Bachman, owner of WallStats.com and creator of the popular Death & Taxes posters, and they discuss some of the creation of this popular poster.

Cool Infographics: What software applications do you use for the Death & Taxes posters?

Jess Bachman: The only applications I use are Photoshop and Excel. Excel is where I in put all the data and it crunches the numbers, adjusts for inflation and calculates diameters. Photoshop is where I put it all together and the PSD file occasionally exceeds 1 gig so it can be a beast to work with. Saving takes about 5 minutes.

Cool Infographics: What’s your design process?

Jess Bachman: Normally I start from scratch and layout the images and make them fit; however, this year the budget didn’t change all that much, likely being from the same President, so I was able to keep the 2010 format and change the size of circles. Of course some things had to be added and removed. So this year I saved myself about 3 weeks of work just getting right into it, but the design process is grueling. it’s small tasks, repeated 500 times.

Also, CoolInfographics is having a contest to give away a free print of the poster.

via Cool Infographics – Cool Infographics – Jess Bachman Interview (Death & Taxes 2011 Poster Giveaway!!)  #deathandtaxes.

Graphics contest, death&taxes, interview