The current challenge seems to be deciding on the nature of the contest.

I think it breaks the flow of the competition to have a modeling challenge first,select a winner, and then share the model among animators.

it's best participants handle the entire workflow themselves.

However, we should still allow the choice of collaboration.So a modeller may choose to pass on his work to an animator,(here on nairalland or elsewhere) complete the project.

The individual or team with the best work gets the prize.

K, my suggestions *clears throat*

First, should it be a team or individual challenge? - We should allow both. If it's a team of 100,all good.
If you want to go solo,fine, more money for you if you win.

Instead of coming up with a particular story, i suggest we go with a theme and let participants develop their story/concept based on the theme
- e.g.
World cup 2014 - develop art based on brazil 2014 world cup or
Niaja 2055 - create your vision of a futuristic Nigerian city or
create fight scene e.t.c just some ideas
I think that should still involve all the steps highlighted.
Also, this way one has the ability to build a work centered around his/her strength(s)( whether it's modelling,lighting, or character animation) while still adhering to the theme.

Next, should it be a still or animation.I would say allow both, but I think an animation would most likely get more votes.
So maybe just animation instead

kazuna: infact i like all of una suggestions .... I pity the Competition chairman or commitee that will have to decide on any of these thoughts.....
All OF THEM SOUNDS GOOD

Yeah, I've read all the suggestions and I'm wondering how are we going to do this

Kazuna, Goodays, PeterReezer you're welcome.
Anymore artists interested? Show ur support.

jjk24: Me me me ... Hmm well ma systems screen is broken rhyt nw buh me still in... Hehehe .. Bou d whole topic cant speak for odas buh my self.. Its lyk okx said .. Life aiit dah easy.. Been learning blender for a year now am good buh nt too good. Main point i shuld b better dan where i am rhyt nw.. Am jst a 17 year old who loves animation and cg lyk stuff and still tryin to geh in2 a good institution . Life is not easy buh one thing is sure we do have very good animators and modelers ..in Nigeria you guys keeps me going really.

Bro u on d right path,don't give up. I feel age especially is on ur side.The more time you put in, the better you become. A few more years and you could become a master
When I was 17 I didn't even know 3d existed

Honestly I feel a full production for a competition is quite ambitious.
As a personal project,yes, but as a competition not too sure.
Maybe it's cos I've never tried it before,not afraid of a challenge tho
But yeah,competing as a team helps a lot.
As long as we can get a lot a decent number of participants I'm down.
I see a few artists on the blender thread tackling this already.

So interested artists let us know what u think

The idea about with the judges is not bad, but anyone knows artists that would be interested

I hail all blender users in here
Pls lend ur voice in this threadhttps://www.nairaland.com/1795420/where-3d-animators-cg-artist/1#24627658

Donations still welcomed, nothing is too small o!

I also vote for a modeling challenge.
Interested participants pls vote.

On the subject of judges, my humble self would like to apply . I will still be participating, but I won't qualify for the prize money
Forum mod could also be a judge if interested.
I think nairalanders should still vote with the highest number of likes counting as one vote
Anyone else interested let us know

What do you guys think?

OKX: @roy
hi man.
ur last competition wasn't complex at all.
its d finer details that affected participation, in my opinion.

points to consider r:
prize: how valuable is it?
structure: is it an animation challenge? A modeling challenge? A cinematography challenge? Storytelling etc...or all of the above?

if its purely animation, then the models don't need to be original. Indeed, all participants using the same model makes for easier assessment.
if its modeling, then it should be to an agreed upon reference drawing and so on.

Might be a good idea to first let everyone vote on the type of challenge they would want

modeling challenge
animation challenge or
lighting and rendering or even a short movie
We can then start posting other suggestions from there

Royver:
Who is this competition targeted at, the expert 3D animators or the Amateurs?

It should be open to everyone, but participants should at least have the basic knowledge of the entire 3d creation process - modeling, texturing, lighting & rendering to animating. I think that covers a lot of artists here.

reidkrugger: Hello guys and a lot has happened here i must say. With a lot of thread diversion as well.
Well kudos to all the guys that have contributed to the growth of the thread and also to those that are trying to encourage other artists with some prize money. that's alot to give away at this time trust me.
So when is the competition kicking off and why hasn't anyone shown interest in competing? At the organizers, what next? I'm keen on seeing how this ends.

I was waiting to see if we could get more donations, maybe even the 100k OKX suggested.
Also, we haven't decided on what the competition will be. Once that is done, we should be able to make FP and that should attract more ppl.

+1 to competition

OKX: @spy
kool. I will match ur kind offer with 20k, so we r 25k up n counting.
more partners r welcome. If we hit 100k or more i believe that isn't so bad.
so, all of u that talk about change and progress.....its ACTION time.
lets raise worthy prize money.

+15k to prize money.
Pls, for the competition, let's come up with something a challenging and interesting

A stick of suya,a box of sugar, a basin of garri?

OKX:
seeking 3d artists on a site that caters to several other interests (of which 3d art is a minor one at that) is bound to give misleading impressions.
visit dedicated art sites to experience real growth.
d serious artists do, that's why it seems like they don't exist here.

True, there are plenty other sites a serious 3d artist should visit before Nairaland. Not saying artists that visit nairaland are not serious
but if you're serious about learning and improving, visit these sites - they attract artists, from beginners to industry professionals, from all over the world.
I usually have nairaland open next to 3dtotal,cgtalk,cg.tutsplus and some other sites
The attraction with Nairaland is the avenue to relate and share experiences with fellow Nigerian artists, 'cos we do face some peculair challenges here that only a Nigerian can relate with.
Of course, there's also the intention to see a strong cg community grow from here to the level of some of these other sites. So i hope to see more artists post their works here.

@Royver
I remember the contest - https://www.nairaland.com/1552349/3d-animation-contest-indeginous-3d

The problem is the skill level required to produce a short is very high, making it impossible for a lot of artists here to participate
not to mention the deadline.
Little surprise only one person was able to come up with anything at all.

If you are planning another animation contest you might still get the same lacklustre response.A 3d short might just be way beyond the skill level
of many here, myself included

One like for you

Facebook,twitter,whatsapp,BBM is fine and all but they are still exclusive.
Better to post on a public forum where anyone can participate, even if it's just as a guest.
I agree with spywareczar tho

If you're making your judgement based solely on activities on Nairaland, then the situation may seem worse than it is.
I agree we need a stronger and more united community of 3d artists. There are quite a few 3d artists scattered all around, but
having a community where artists can share their works and experiences,provide help and support to other artists e.t.c will help progress CG art in Nigeria.

We have that here already on Nairaland to an extent (although i would still prefer a site solely dedicated to cg artists )
I think in Nairaland's case, we just need more contributors and less spectators, I myself I'm guilty of the latter

Amazing stuff!
I wouldn't blame anyone for doubting the genuinity of those drawings.They are just too real
His blog contains shots of work in progress http://kelvinokaforart..com

i recognise a face on the smedlab poster.
I wanted to apply but couldn't raise the money then, but i know 2 guys that did and i did notice a drastic improvement in the quality
of their animation.

Happy New Year,everyone!
I agree with u reid, lots of good artists in modelling, texturing, lighting & rendering.(just look at works from artists doing arch-viz)
But very few good animators. I just think artists need to dedicate time to learning animation.

For me personally, my obsession for now is with modelling ,lighting & rendering. It all started from doing Architectural renders for pay.
In fact my current job mostly involves modelling and rendering.

I would still like to make a short animated movie, but animation is still my major weakness . I wouldn't mind having a dedicated team of animators
to work with on a project.
.
So along with some other challenges i think a lack of skilled artists is a major problem hindering the growth of the industry.

Like someone once said about modern day prophecies - the prophecy is just an arrow, it's ppl that provide the target.

Most prophecies are this vague, it's always followers desperately trying 2 draw a connection between the prophecy and an event that
may just be one of many instances

@ladanski
great stuff man. I'm actually surprised you could pull this off within a short period.
I guess u could always refine parts of it make the general quality better, but overall nice job.
So, the winner by defualt

Organizing 3d contests like this is a very good idea.There should be more of that here.
The deadline however is too short. It'll be difficult to produce anything of acceptable quality within this period.
@ OP, i would have started with something lighter.

@ladanski
good work so far.

Really inspiring stuff
Only caught part of it on CNN by chance, but the name of their website completely skipped my mind.
Thanks OP 4 bringing this up

WOW! i'm impressed
Always knew there was a programming section on nairaland but i didn't know we had ppl doing work on this level.
It's funny just last week someone started a thread about the possibillity of designing games in nigeria
I think u should also post this on the graphics section too 4 more publicity

Salmoneus: My advice would be uninstall flash (if you have it) get a pen and paper, learn to draw then open MS Paint and get the book animator's survival guide, learn frame by frame animation...I wish someone had told me that years ago, I would be on another level by now...it's not about software really...

Very true, though i wouldn't advice u remove flash for MS Paint , but i get your point. Once u learn the fundamentals, say for example from animator's survival kit, u should feel comfortable animating regardless of the tools u choose for creation- pen & paper, wacom tablet, Flash, anime studio ,Toon Boom e.t.c.
Learning any software is a lot easier than mastering the fundamentals of any art form.

No p! got ur mail, replied already.

The most common and best way to learn is get training materials from the net.
Besides learning the software it's very important to learn the fundamental principles of animation. Once you learn this you should be able to animate well regardless the software.

Glad to see you're still on this.Looking good so far.
BTW, how long do you think it will take to complete this project

Who still says game development isn't possible?....and just as abokishop said, no u don't need necessarily need a large team.
But I'll also add that it depends on the kind of game you are making. I have a friend who's developing a platformer (using flash) on his own and its looking pretty decent so far. He does the programming and art alone, although he admits getting more artists involved would make things faster.
I also know of a few other games developed here ,though mostly for mobile devices.
You can look up Kuluya studios.

I personally have a bit of experience in game development using Unity3D. I'm sure some of us are also familiar with other free game engines like Unreal and CryEngine which have made game dev. more accessible for smaller teams.
Obviously if want to develop something on the level of Halo, MGS, Uncharted e.t.c you'll need a big team of very talented artists and programmers.Not sure we are ready for that.
My advice for anyone trying to get into game dev in Nigeria is to look into the growing mobile/indie games market - research on mobile games like angry birds, temple run to the crop of indie games emerging on PC/Consoles.
Start with that before u try "d one wey go blow person PC"
Just my 2kobo