April PhotoWorks Contest Winner

Congratulations to Ed Eaton on winning the April PhotoWorks rendering
contest. To see Ed's winning image and download the model for the May
contest visit www.robrodriguez.com .

 

In case anyone was curious...
The way I beat the 'Studio Plastic + Indirect illumination' bug to get
the cell phone model to cast shadows on the picture was to crudely
model the storage tray from my car and map a photo I took of the tray
(and the junk I carry in it) as a decal onto the tray model. The
quality isn't as good (you can see streaking on the left side of the
image from the projected decal stretching to fill the vertical wall)
but since the viewers attention is drawn away from that by the
composition it was an acceptable compromise. I still urge folks to
report this bug because if it gets fixed we can make really nice images
more easily and without artifacts from decal projection - and there are
many other cases where this simply won't be a suitable workaround.

I want to thank Rob for taking the time and having the energy and
enthusiasm to put on this contest. I don't get to render that much
anymore and it is nice to have an excuse to go back and see what PWx
can do (even when that involves beating its bugs).

I think if we can raise awareness with the folks in Concord about PWx
limitations by making noise we can get some attention to FINALLY fixing
it. The best rendering was the one from 3D studio Max, and there is no
technical reason (beyond bugs and imposed limitations) that we can't
all make renderings that nice - easily. After all, we are using the
same rendering engine as 3D max. BTW - I was messing around with 2007
and got some results very close to that one (they've done some nice
stuff with the material libraries) but regretably did mine in 2006.

One last question - when I was looking at the entries I never saw the
one from Mark Matthews until today. Was it there the whole time, or
was it a late entry? It's nice and probably would have gotten my vote
if I had seen it (its tacky to vote for oneself) - maybe I missed it
because it was tucked after the ineligible ones and it didn't occur to
me to scroll any further?

Ed

 

One last question - when I was looking at the entries I never saw the

Mark submitted his entry late (Thursday night - posted Friday morning).
Most everyone had voted at that point. He spent time on the rendering so I
wanted to post it for others to see. It was a little low on the page, sorry
Mark.

I also want to thank everyone for taking the time to submit an image and
vote for a winner. These are the people which make the contest a success.

Rob

 

Congratulations Ed,

Keep up the good work Rob

John Layne
www.solidengineering.co.nz

 

Speaking of voting and posting.....Rob I think that you should be able
to win this contest like everyone else. The voting is completely
annonymous so why not put your image up to win just like everyone else.
The reason for this contest is so that we can all learn from the best
PhotoWorks renderers in the business. I am grateful that Rob takes his
personal time and personal website (although he benefits from the extra
hits now ) to give us this contest and he should be able to enter as
well. And also thanks to Ed for his teachings on how he created his
rendering. This month has been great as there has been some great
discussion on the rendering in addition to the contest itself. So what
did Ed actually win since we had prizes this time. Anything you don't
already own Ed?

KM

P.S. Maybe we can turn this contest into the National PhotoWorks User
Group and get some sponsorship that way and have some quarterly inline
meetings. Maybe we can get some donated Webex time from someone? Any
thoughts (seperate topic on comp.cad for this)

 

I should also mention that Lennart (the April contest winner) has made
his winning SW/PW model/rendering files available to anyone who would
like to pick them apart. The file is too large for me to post but I can
send it on CD for those who would like it. Thanks Lennart.

My model/rendering files are also available for any of the contest if
anyone would like them. Unfortunately the cell phone files will only
work for people using a future version.

Ed has won (I feel like I should be on the Price is Right) a lovely,
one of a kind...................

Seriously, Ed and Lennart both chose a SolidWorks fleece jacket as
their prize. Thanks to SolidWorks and the SolidWorks User Group
Network (www.swugn.org ) for providing the prizes.

I like the PW user group idea Ken. I'd like to hear what others think
on this. If interest is high we maybe be able to take it to the next
level.

 

Everyone see new topic. I will contact Mr. Doyle and see what he
thinks.

KMaren

 

I know this contest is for SW people but would anyone mind if I did non
participating renders occasionally using native Blender or with Yafray,
Povray, Kerkythea, Sunflow or Ingigo?
Must be a lot of people using 3DStudio or Maxwell too who would like to be
in just for fun or expo.
Nothing like competition for PW to improve it and the user's skills ;o)
If not maybe we can find a host for a few images of our own informal
contest.
just a thought..
neil

 

Rob, I agree. I think you should be eligible for competition
(especially since you probably already have a collection of SWx Swag
and don't need the prize - just the bragging rights).
I'd like to see you bring the best you got to the game - I've seen some
of your renderings and they can be terrific. And I think everyone can
trust you to be honorable and stick to the time limitations that are
imposed on the rest of us.
Besides, we will extra-motivated to crush you Heck, if Paul
Salvador could just keep his logo off of his renderings he could crush
us all.
Ed