What is hot this year (for prizes)

toxicvoxel

Older technology but still an object of supreme desire that is sure to raise a lot of interest in your competition:
Cintiq 21ux http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?pid=90&lang=en

Al Hart

@toxicvoxel said:

Older technology but still an object of supreme desire that is sure to raise a lot of interest in your competition:
Cintiq 21ux http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?pid=90&lang=en

Yes,

But a good one might be out of our price range: $1,800.00

toxicvoxel

@al hart said:

Yes,

But a good one might be out of our price range: $1,800.00

I think it is relative to what you will get out of the promo. Run it on CGArchitect.com also and lot of CG artists using other systems will be all over your application if this was at stake.(-You may have to ask that the render file is submitted to ensure that it was rendered with NXT! )
Perhaps making the prize subject to a minimum number of entries received would cover your bets...

solo

I have to agree...imagine a Cintiq prize , wow, that will get the folk coming from everywhere. It will even get me scrambling..

EscapeArtist

I'm curious as to what the conditions of the competition will be, will it have to be entirely created with SU? I'm assuiming the competition will take place here, ergo the SU requirement; and the render platform will be up to the individual.

solo

@unknownuser said:

and the render platform will be up to the individual.

Nope, in all fairness it should be Irender, after all Al would be supplying the prize, he will make a free trial version with all bells and whistles available for the competition (which would end on competition end date)

I think this is very fair, and a great way to get exposure, last year he too had some great prizes and IMO a very successful competition.

Al Hart

@escapeartist said:

I'm curious as to what the conditions of the competition will be, will it have to be entirely created with SU? I'm assuming the competition will take place here, ergo the SU requirement; and the render platform will be up to the individual.

This particular contest will be for the use of IRender nXt. Not only are we running the contest, (many other rendering platforms run similar contests), but if a contest allowed multiple renderers or multiple modeling software choices, then it would be harder to judge - because the difference in images may be due to the differences in modeling or rending engines, rather than the artistic talents and rendering skills of the competitors.

Also, then main value of the contest to us is:

New users - most of the winners last year wound up purchasing a renderer from us which hopefully will lead to small amounts of revenue for upgrades over the years. Hopefully some of the entrants who did not win were also favorably impressed.
Images for our Photo gallery and web site. We were able to add several excellent images to out gallery. Gallery images are an important factor for new users who are deciding which renderer to try. Our clients, and other competitors are much better at making good images than we are. (Especially images which might appeal to other potential users in their field of expertise.)

You could try to convince all of the renderer developers for SketchUp (I believe there are more than 30 listed on the Render Package List here on the SUC forum.)

(Good luck: )

However, it might be hard to find a good set of unbiased judges.

I think CGArtists would be a better place for a good "across the board" rendering contest.

All kidding aside. I appreciate the time people took to respond to this post. All of the prizes on our current short list were suggested here. I hope to announce to contest by the end of next week when we release our new software version, and give everyone a fresh 30-day trial so that they can give it a try and hopefully win the contest.

EscapeArtist

Oh, I missed that... Yes, it obviously will be IRender. Thanks for clearing that up.

Al Hart

Thanks to everyone for their help.

Hopefully we will announce the contest and prizes tomorrow.

There will be 3 main prizes:

First prize:

NetBook - Samsung NC10 or Toshiba NB205 - Value $334.00

Second prize:

Spyder 3 Pro mouse - value $139.00

Third prize:

Vis Tablet - value $100.00

EscapeArtist

Great prizes!

As a side note, SU does work on netbooks, I just installed it on our HP netbook. A little sluggish occasionally, but it's usable!

solo

IPAD!!!!

Al Hart

@solo said:

IPAD!!!!

We have our development license for the new IPad, and are feverishly working on Mac software. But, until Mac versions are ready, we felt that a NetBook would be better for our Rendering Contest.

Go ahead and win anyway - I'm sure you can put it to use.