Unity Community Art Challenge - December 2014 - The Christmas Ornament

Unity Technologies is happy to announce it's next "Unity Community Forum Challenge"! Everybody is welcome to join in and show other fellow artist what they can do and compete for the First Place!

This months Challenge is themed "The Christmas Ornament". We all have seen them hanging on Christmas Trees! No Christmas Tree goes without! You are to create a Christmas Ornament that is "different". It could be based on a Game or Game Character for instance, or be something completely out of the ordinary. Use your imagination! Impress us with your creativity and imagination.

As a result we want to see a beautiful small Diorama/Turntable of your "Christmas Ornament"!
Post Work in Progress Screenshots or even use Sketchfab to present your work in progress. See rules below.



1. Participants will have till the end of the month (December, 31th) to submit their Final Entry

2. Final Entry must be a "Diorama/Turntable" showcasing the theme "Christmas Ornament". We encourage you to use Sketchfab to post your final result here on the forum.

3. Polycount Limitation for this Challenge is 5.000 Vertices. Only ever use as many polygons as necessary to define a shape! This is a game art challenge after all! Make use of normal maps etc to give your textures/meshes more detail.

4. You can use normal maps, specular maps etc to enhance your work visually. Perhaps try to combine textures onto one texture sheet if possible for efficiency, however it's not a requirement. There is no restriction on how many textures you can use but keep in mind that this is a game art challenge so don't go too crazy.

5. Entrants must post at least 1 WIP (Work in Progress) Screenshot before submitting their Final Entry. We suggest you post more and get feedback! Please visit https://help.sketchfab.com/hc/en-us/sections/200485707-Uploading-3D-Models for further information on how to use and upload to Sketchfab.

6. Your final entries must be submitted through Sketchfab. Please tag your final submission with: "UCAC4".

7. No previous work can be used. This essentially means that you should create everything from scratch!

8. No nudity or gross violence please! Keep it clean and fun for everyone!




This month Unity Technologies and the fine folks from Sketchfab are sponsoring our contest once again! The winners will receive the following:

1st Place : Unity Pro License and 1 Year of Sketchfab Pro and Cardboard VR
2nd Place: 1 Year of Sketchfab Pro
3rd Place: 6 Months of Sketchfab Pro

We hope to see many of you participate! Let's get this started!

Thomas

 

Nice to see a stricter guideline

Quick question - how long is the Unity Pro license?

 

I think there will be a lot more participants this time.

 

I would sure hope so! Let's see what you guys can come up with!

 

This is just a really quick scetch of what came into my mind... Guess I'll work on it a bit

 

A Unity Pro license! Wow...count me in!

 

Samesies

 

Unity Pro Licence!!!!!!!!!! Ok I will have to make some time to get this one down. I could not finish my model last month

 

5000 polygons.. needless to say this will come down to the best high to low bake and texture artist. Let the games begin

 

keep in mind it's 5k vertices not polygons, see rule #3

 

Joining in this time.

I have a quick question though. 5000 verts as reported by Unity in the scene, or 5000 verts as reported by whichever modelling program we use?

There can be a pretty stark difference.

 

5000 Vertices (not Polygons).

Go by what your modeling software tells you (Maya, Max, Modo etc).

 

Thanks @alonzo and @Thomas Pasieka , this is good news.

 

omigosh a unity pro license as first prize? I'm totally in!

 

Im in... 5K verts is a good limit, but i will sculpt the model in Cinema4D and the bake the normals. Also, tessellation shader is usable for the competition?

 

This is my first WIP, starting by getting the basic shapes. The textures are also very much placeholders

 

looks cool!

 

I was thinking at a small planet with some gifts on it, But a well detailed planets of course, and maybe some winter details... Lets see what my imagination will create!

 

Sounds cool, I guess we'll see how it turns out. Good luck!

 

Is like the usual balls in the christmas tree, but a bit ravined and... ok stop spoiling, the images will speack soon!

 

As said, im working on something different... The world is cracking up, is polluted, and i want to represent it with a christmas bauble, cracked, ravined, destroyde, but whit a glimmer of hope on it.
Here's the cracked bauble (sculpted on Cinema 4D, around 1.8M poly, normal will be baked in a extra low poly model).
I want to add on it some fabrics, and in an angle ill add a pure zone, with natural things.

 

Looks nice! I'm working in Cinema4D too, but I'm going to use other programs aswell.

 

Interesting theme.

Time to study how each countries celebrate christmas, might give me some ideas(no doubt its between Chinese / Japanese as i love their designs).

As for 5k vertices, i guess its time to make use of mud box(since i am don't have time to learn zbrush yet).

 

Cool beans! Just started learning Zbrush the middle of last month, and have yet to learn the baking process, so I just hope to finish something.

Anyone have any tuts that would be helpful for the baking process?

Here is a quick sketch of my intended ornament:

 

and the low poly is 4992 vertices! OMG! I think i have to reduce a bit more the polys and then bake the maps, there are limits on the norma map size o i can use 8K whitout problems?
Edit: cutted down vertices to 1.5K

 

Love that concept! As for workflow, depends on what software you are using. I do my retopo in 3DCoat while I do the baking of various maps in Substance Designer. Which software packages are you using?

Thomas

 

Thanks Thomas! As mentioned, I purchased Zbrush last month. I have Blender, Lightwave, and PS. Trying to take baby steps to learn as much as I can over the next couple of years, as my 9 year old is showing some interest in game dev, and I'd like to get a head start so that I can help him along the way. I've been a developer for the last 15 years or so, and have always loved to draw, so I am hoping it translates.

Brian

 

@bsj - Hmm I don't use Blender so somebody else may be able to point you into the right direction. In general you want to make babysteps

1. Create your High Poly version/model in zBrush
2. Retopo in zBrush or app of your choice.
3. Create UV's for the Low Poly Retopo version.
4. Bake Normal maps, Ambient Occlusion etc.
5. Get it inside the engine or 3D app and use proper shader/textures and lighting
6. Use Sketchfabs website (free account needed) to showcase your piece.

 

Thanks Thomas!

 

Hi, I've been following these contests since the beginning, now I think that is time to enter although I'm a Game Programmer. I just got a wacom tableet so I think that this is a good opportunity to show what I can do Cheers! Good luck everyone.

 

ok my first entry is very simple ( I presume we may enter more than once .. ? ) just getting the creative juices flowing

I went for a fully functional design with this criteria :

It had to be fast and simple , It had to have a game tie in , it had to have parts that light up , it had to be cool.. aha

A Pacman Ornament was the perfect solution The pac food balls are lights and would light up in a sequence running down to the ghost. The ghost could be a light or if everything was strung on a soft silicon coated wire it could also be a bell.

 

*Throws hat into the ring*

Looks like it's going to be a busy month!

 

Unity Pro! I had to read the 1st prize a few times before it sunk in, and to make sure its real. Count me in! I'll start in a couple days. Already got a couple ideas but not sure which to pick.

 

@shaderbytes Nice idea there! Yes you can enter more than once.... but as always it's not about quantity but quality

 

I will join definetly too. Last month contest I pushed my skills alot further (starting from almost zero), but this time I have to go so much further. I have some sort idea in my mind but I have to learn so much things again to archieve that. The Pro license is definetly great motivation to push the limits again.

And ofcourse I just moved to new house and I am out of internet for two weeks.
I will show you guys my concepts and wip after I get internet in my house..

 

dude, I really liked the reflection in your model...

 

Hubba-hubba!! Definitely all in for this one!! Sketchfab has teased PBR being available before the end of the year, anyone know if that's still likely? I'd love to be able to use it for textures. =)

 

What file extension would you like to see (.dae?)?

 

What? Who is this question aimed at? If this is a general question I suggest you re-read the rules.

 

Its early days but this is what i have come up with so far.

All i have right now is some quick concepts so far, its just ideas at the moment i haven't picked one yet.

Thats true, but how many will remain during the festive period.

 

Just so I dont miss the spirit of the contest, should these be static models?
I know that they need to be posted on SketchFab, but I'm not really that familiar with their product.
If I wanted to have animated elements, can I?

 

So, after installing a new SSD and formatting the old one, I realized I had my project on the old one This basically means I'll start up a new project, and I already have an idea. My plan is to make one of those 'snow globes', with four rooms representing different christmas-y things. I'll post a WIP later on.

It's said on their help section; "Currently, animations are not supported, but the feature is on our roadmap". I guess we'll have to work with static objects, then

 

We are looking for static models here

 

thanks @luucastadeu it is very sparkly indeed!

 

Im sure many more than you think, It is a Unity 5 Pro licence after all

 

My work in progress, just sketches. I wanted to create a Christmas ornament, that can be craft in real life. In other prespective, this also can be a charm or a gift to a special someone. This ornament should not just be hanging on the Christmas tree, it should be cherish forever.


My Thoughts,:

Exploring different eyes and colors for the ornaments. The metal hook should not be boring. It's customize and can be add a small objects, to be more festive. The ornament should be the size of a tennis ball, so a small child, can adorably hold it with two hands.

 

@GreenGaruda Magnific concept, curios to see the model!

 

@GreenGaruda - Now that's what I am talking about! Those are cute and creative. Looking forward to seeing them in 3D