Dominance War 2 art contest with $10k in prizes
The second annual Dominance War game art contest is on. The competition is offering $10k in cash prizes, four Wiis, Xbox 360s and PS3s, along with eight PSPs. According to the organizers, Dominance War is a virtual arena between the various online game art communities, "With the goal of building internal and cross-forum community spirit, bringing in new talent, and practicing a skilled trade in a fun 'outside-of-work' context." Hmm, instead of a dance-off, it's an art-off. One of the organizers, Joe Mirabello, says, "It's very inspiring to watch these people go from being amateurish artists to being seasoned veterans over time."
Apparently competition is tougher this time around -- as is expected in a sequel. Joining the two communities from the original competition (CgChat.com and Polycount.com) are two more game art communities: CgSociety.com and 3dTotal.com. Each community will have its own finalists and prizes. Even if you aren't an artist, it's still fun to check out their site and appreciate some of the work. The contest runs until mid-March and community membership to all participating forums is free -- just have to pick your faction. Mirabello says that for young artists looking to break into the industry, being part of these communities increases the chance of the right eyes seeing the artists work.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Peter Davis @ Feb 5th 2007 8:49AM
no artists at Joystiq? rise my comrades!
sheppy @ Feb 5th 2007 9:03AM
For the record...
CGSociety, FTW! Woot! Woot! Woot!
BurntKona @ Feb 5th 2007 10:12AM
Sorry, Polycount through and through. I wouldn't be in the position I am today without the big green space station
sheppy @ Feb 5th 2007 10:42AM
So far, only two contestants. I am tempted to switch sides, however, given the fact that you guys get to build cyborgs and robots... and I'm stuck on Humans or Aliens.... but not monsters...
Biofreak @ Feb 5th 2007 1:55PM
Vitaliy, went to my university btw :)
My professors in 3d still talk about him from time to time.
I should do some art too :P
pandafresh @ Feb 5th 2007 4:52PM
i was interested, but it seems it's only for 3d models? which i can't do, if it was some regular drawning ish, i'd be down.
sheppy @ Feb 5th 2007 5:19PM
pandafresh, if you're really interested in learning the 3D aspect, any of the four websites usually have a pretty good community to teach you what you need to know. However, if trad art seems to be your focus, CGSociety would more than likely be your prefered end since gameart is actually a pretty small focus on that site, instead focusing on conceptual artwork, high poly renders, matte paintings, and yes, even photoshopped characters.
Not being able to do something is no excuse not to learn for an artist. My entry will be my first attempt to create a normal mapped chatacter and take that map from ZBrush into Maya. Likewise, I'm a very amatuerish Skinner. So this competition will improve my skills there too.
But as it stands, my job, my freelance artwork, and my indie game work are all focused on inorganic objects right now and I simply NEED to get the more organic/creative side out. Which is why I'm in.
Biofreak @ Feb 5th 2007 6:38PM
sheppy, i would like to see some of ur works. :)
sheppy @ Feb 6th 2007 9:08AM
Well, truth be told. Majority of my works over the past few years, are either under NDAs or currently under wraps as this indie game. That's why I said this competition will be great for me. Something I can show, something that's fun, and it will be something I haven't attempted before. If you follow the threads at CGSociety, my username there matches my gamertag. So just look for NME-Se7eN. I have a deadline coming up on a freelance project so I won't get to concepts until the weekend and, likewise, very little modeling will get done.
I've done professional work for the following application (it's shipped so I can show I was involved now).
www.fsone.com