Animation Contest #3 - Epic Battle

[donut3.5]

Animation Contest #3!


Contest Theme: Epic Battle

Each contest must create an epic duel scene between two of the twenty four heroes in the Warcraft 3 MPQ.

Contest Rules And Conditions

1. No submission may violate any Hive Workshop site rules.
2. Heroes must be one of the twenty four orc, human, night elf, undead, or tavern heroes, or any of the campaign heroes in the Warcraft 3 MPQ. Extracting these and creating new bone structures if need be is up to you.
3. Max users may not by any mean use IK chains, Bipeds or the Reactor Engine.
4. Only two heroes may be fighting on the scene during your battle.
5. Terrain is optional, it will not effect your score.
6. No custom textures should be used for any reason.
7. Do not modify the hero meshes beyond simple removals.
8. Particles and special effect geometry is allowed to create "spells", however this is optional.
9. You must post at least 1 WIP preview before the deadline.
10. You may make as many scenes as you want, however pick only one for the final judge's evaluation.
11. To qualify for entry, you must post your original scene in .mdx format. You may also post a video scene to utilize cameras, in fact it is recommended.
12. You must post your entry before the deadline expires and attach it to a post.
13. You must make the entry for this competition, which means that you cannot use old works.
14. Please PM your FINAL scene to me once you are done. This makes it a lot easier for me to pick out the finished scenes from the WIPs.
    
    

Prizes And Winnings

First Place: 45 reputation points and a special award icon. Second Place: 35 reputation points Third Place: 25 reputation points

Contest Judging And Voting

• 50 % of the winner shall be determined by the contest's appointed judge(s).
  • Score shall be taken out of 50 points,
    • 15 points for smooth flow (no jumpiness, realistic animations)
    • 10 points for clean rigging and textures used.
    • 10 points for design and choreography
    • 5 points for creativity.
    • 5 points for mechanics (everything works well, no alpha bugs etc.)
    • 5 points for effects/extras. (appropriate use of particles, effect geometry, etc. for spells and such)
• 50 % of the winner shall be determined by the results of a public poll.
• Final Score = Judge's Score + (votes/(total votes))*50 = (score)/100

Contest Dates And Deadline

All submissions must be complete and submitted 2 months after the contest is started.
The contest shall begin on August 29th, 2008 and conclude on

October 29th, 2008 0:00 AM, GMT​

 

[donut3.5]

Let's see some epic fight scenes!

(Note on the deadline: I may extend it a month if need be.)
--donut3.5--

 

[skrab]

OK lets animate DD

 

[mario_64]

I guess im in but just to clarify somethings.

1. We are supposed to pick 2 models from the mdx list right? So we put them both in one file and rigg both models from there? (I put example)

Heres an example this is not actual animations just want to know if im right. ok heres the mdx fil.

 

[Kwaliti]

HELL NO!

My rig will suck as hell... Anyway, I'm entering this one.

@ mario_64: Yep, that's what you're supposed to do.

 

[donut3.5]

If anyone wants to post their rig in gmax or ms3d format, I'm sure many people would appreciate it.
--donut3.5--

 

[mario_64]

rig

Well heres my rigged model ms3d format. Bone are not renamed thought, but it is ready to be animated. I know that I removed some parts of the models but those just were a waste of time for me but whatever.

 

[TDR]

(Note on the deadline: I may extend it a month if need be.)
--donut3.5--

I think you should do so now

 

[donut3.5]

Changes:
Deadline moved up a month
Campaign heroes are also valid
--donut3.5--

 

[LiOneSS]

woohoo! i am definately in this one xP
[EDIT] Arthas and sylvanas ARE MINE! nobody touch 'em >:3

 

[TDR]

I think I'll do...um...I forgot who the cool looking ones were ...I guess I'll just do something based on this:
Sons of the Storm
So blademaster vs mountain king.

By the way, does this have to be usable in-game or can we render it out? Because it'll have camera angles and stuff.

 

[anetherond]

[*]To qualify for entry, you must post your model(s) in .mdx format.

Can't we post it as a video file?

 

[skrab]

TDR, look at the fight Illidan vs Arthas, we're makeing the same stuff
anetherond, you can post wips in video format but your final entry must be in .mdx and usable ingame

here is my short scene (StandOff) Axe vs Blademaster
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff162/arminmaglic/standoff.gif

 

[anetherond]

anetherond, you can post wips in video format but your final entry must be in .mdx and

Why? Does it matter if the final submission is as video file or Mdx file? It's still the same animation.

 

[Pyritie]

Why? Does it matter if the final submission is as video file or Mdx file? It's still the same animation.

Contest rules.

 

[skrab]

Why? Does it matter if the final submission is as video file or Mdx file? It's still the same animation.

all the cameras, cinematic,... will be made ingame...

 

[TDR]

are you kidding me?! It's ass-busting to get the camera angles right in-game...nearly impossible...how on earth are we supposed to do that?! The model's animation will loop continuously. How did the blizzard guys do it? Is it possible to make the in-game camera be a camera we place in the model?

 

[Kwaliti]

Well, Blizzard is Blizzard. They want us to bust our heads thinking how to replicate their badass cinematic. I think that you can create a number of cameras that can be applied via global anims at a given frame. Not sure though.

 

[donut3.5]

After much consideration, I decided it was silly to have to make it a .mdx. Just as long as we can view it. The advantages to an .mdx are some animation programs don't do special effect rendering.
How do you guys think of this:
You must give the .mdx but for the sake of cameras, you may also use a video format?
--donut3.5--

 

[Kwaliti]

Sounds fine to me. By the way, are we allowed to add slow motion to our scenes? As in animations are slower somewhere?

 

[TDR]

That's excellent donut!
I won't actually render the animation though, I'll just make an animation preview and it'll be like watching it from 3ds max's viewport, which will be basically like in-game, with no fancy lights and stuff. Or I'll see, depends on the competition

 

[donut3.5]

Alright, rules have been changed.
Sorry for all the rule changes, this is a relatively new contest outline, and therefore I expected a lot of reforms.
--donut3.5--

 

[LiOneSS]

oooh gotta love donut :3

 

[donut3.5]

Dear Participants:
BlinkBoy is now the judge of this contest, and I will be participating.
Watch for any amends he makes to the rules.
--donut3.5--

 

[BlinkBoy]

good, since I'll now be taking care there's 2 new rules that I would like to add.

First:

Max users may not by any mean use IK chains, Bipeds or the Reactor Engine. Reason: It gives a bigger advantage to max users compared to milkshape, gmax, and blender users. In other words, only FK animations are allowed.

Second:

Your original scene and MDX format must be submited as well.

About the judging aspects. There are 2 more

First: Optimization, you need to optimize your animation and use the keys at the correct timing, etc.

Second: Rigging and Skinning(attaching Vertexes to mesh) will also have certain value in the judging, I doubt many have problems here since the skelñetons are premade.

That's all, donut, if you can, please make this changes to the first post.

 

[donut3.5]

I made the amends. Overall Animation was too broad, so I took it out.
--donut3.5--

 

[KingBob]

I'm definitely in, even though school starts tomorrow... actually, that might help if I can load max 5 onto my school computer and work on it there.

I think I'm going to do the showdown between Uther and Arthas.

 

[TDR]

Max users may not by any mean use IK chains, Bipeds or the Reactor Engine. Reason: It gives a bigger advantage to max users compared to milkshape, gmax, and blender users. In other words, only FK animations are allowed.

Oh what the hell man?! I know it is actually a fair rule, but heck it'll take AGES! I guess you should also put a maximum duration for the animation in this case, and I suggest around 5 seconds or something...it'll take eons to make a good looking animation longer than that with just FK...remember there's 2 characters involved after all...I was planning on making something like 1 minute or so, but with FK it's useless torture.

 

[LiOneSS]

i wanted to use bipeds xP damn it!

 

[Mechanical Man]

Meh, it depends. Some modelers still prefer FK than those methods. And besides max, only milkshape can animate wc3 models and max tools are way superior.

 

[TDR]

biped is teh sux anyway
I don't get it why the feck you'd prefer FK...seriously now, you must really suck if you prefer FK. Well, there's exceptions, for example the arms can work well with FK and FK works well in combination with IK, when you can switch between them, but animating the feet with FK is the biggest pain in the ass in history...you have to adjust the position at almost every frame, I get sick only thinking about it...

 

[donut3.5]

Oh what the hell man?! I know it is actually a fair rule, but heck it'll take AGES! I guess you should also put a maximum duration for the animation in this case, and I suggest around 5 seconds or something...it'll take eons to make a good looking animation longer than that with just FK...remember there's 2 characters involved after all...I was planning on making something like 1 minute or so, but with FK it's useless torture.

A normal unit has about 10-20 seconds total of animation, so I don't see why a 30 second one would be out of the question.
I know nothing about IK and FK though, so I'll let you two duke it out over the rules.
--donut3.5--

 

[TDR]

for a normal unit, I use IK and bake the bone animation to FK with 3dmaxhy's script...
Plus in normal animation, you don't make just a part of the walk animation and make it loop as it walks, you have to animate each step...that's one of the reasons why a professional animation studio, with an army of animators, manages to make about 9 seconds of animation per week.
Anyway, enough whining, I'll just have to obey the rules...

 

[BlinkBoy]

a Max duration would be too much, it kills originallity, even if we would add a max duration the problem is how much could it last, 5 seconds looks something very one-sided, I myself would use up to 10 seconds for this contest.

 

[donut3.5]

Ah, yes, true. Animating every sequence when it wont loop will get a little tedious. I don't see the need for a seconds limit though, I'll probably animate the scene until I either get bored or time expires
--donut3.5--

 

[BlinkBoy]

Well until now we have like 4 participants which are Lioness, TDR, KingBob, and donut. I hope more people come in.

TDR don't worry about time limits, The longer they make it the more they'll have to work, because I won't judge how much they worked but the quality of what they did, even if it's 1 second.

 

[HappyTauren]

If I manage to animate stuff in max, I'll be in

 

[skrab]

Well until now we have like 4 participants which are Lioness, TDR, KingBob, and donut. I hope more people come in.

TDR don't worry about time limits, The longer they make it the more they'll have to work, because I won't judge how much they worked but the quality of what they did, even if it's 1 second.

:'( i was the first one who wanted this contest and you forgot me blinkboy :'(

btw here is my IKrig
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff162/arminmaglic/rig.jpg

Blinkboy, can i send you my scene to check it out (before i start to animate)?

 

[Kwaliti]

You forgot me as well. I'm not missing this contest no matter what.

 

[TDR]

I sure hope those aren't IK chains, skrab

EDIT: d'oh, IKrig ...now I saw that...well anyway, as you see, they're forbidden.

 

[skrab]

yep IK chains xP

gona read some tuts about FK...

EDIT: this is gona be a pain in a*s

 

[BlinkBoy]

I'm sorry scrab and kwaliti, I only added ppl who posted here.

and what I want to see is skill, so IKs are forbidden in all manners, you'll have to remove the IK solvers.

Side Note(don't do this for contest but for other things):
I noticed you used IK for everything, you know you should only use IK for legs, or tails, for the rest use FK or Bipeds. (and for flags you could use reactor or flex)

 

[TDR]

Sorry man, but skill has nothing to do with animating only with FK, that's just pure insanity. As you stated, it's for this to be fair, and it's ok, but animating the bloody legs with FK in general is just plain stupid. And you know that, of course. Just wanted to mention it

 

[BlinkBoy]

The skill is not in the technik but on how long can I make you animate in it, . It actually have some skill, you require more skill to make movements look more natural using FK than IK, reactor and the other bullshit. you'll tell me that using reactor cloth takes as much skill as animating the cape on your own, that would indeed be crazy.

 

[KingBob]

I'm fine with using FK... Art tools doesn't work with IK chains anyway.

 

[HappyTauren]

It does, you just gotta use use proper script from wc3c.

 

[BlinkBoy]

It does, you just gotta use use proper script from wc3c.

you can do it without the script, but you need to use an special type of solver.

 

[anetherond]

Since I need at least one WIP to participate, I will just give my one WIP now. The characters, the environment and the skeletons (already full skinned and operational). I know that some parts of the environment's texture are stretched, but since it isn't the issue of this contest I didn't bother to fix that.

Good luck everyone!

Edit: Just noticed the "No custom textures should be used for any reason.". Is that mean I can't use the enviroment's texture?

 

[donut3.5]

Nice, the terrain looks interesting, can't wait to see the final product!
--donut3.5--

 

[Kwaliti]

I'm almost done with the rig. Just need to reattach some vertices if necessary.

Below is a test pose.

And yeah, I rigged the Blademaster's flag and beard