2007 Pumpkin Carving Contest Options

[Chaomancer Omega]

2007 Pumpkin Carving Contest

It's that time again. The leaves are turning brown, the wind's getting a chill, people are gearing up to pass out candy to little monsters wearing kid costumes, and hundreds of orange gourds are being ripped from the vine and mercilessly dug into with carving knives in a ritualistic celebration of the supernatural.

And we, of course, are going to participate, once again. It's time for the second annual pumpkin carving contest, so get out your digital carving knives, and submit your best pumpkin-carving patterns! You submit an image of what your carving pattern is, and I'll convert that into a carving on the actual pumpkin in Truespace. It'll be rendered two ways: a slight profile lit from within, and a more oblique profile with volumetric lighting coming out of it. (Volumetric lighting render may depend on me figuring out how to set up tS 7.5 to do that. But I'll probably have it figured by then.)

Like so:


What do I mean by a pumpkin carving pattern? A black and white drawing. Basically, use any graphics program you have to draw, in black and white, what you want carved into your pumpkin. For example, a Halls pumpkin pattern (which you can't use), might look like this:


You will have until October 22nd to turn in your artwork. Voting will take place shortly thereafter. Exactly when, I can't say, but voting will definitely be open on Halloween, and it will run for at least one week. When the voting is over, the winner will get to keep their pumpkin with them forever as a nifty badge!

Here's the quick list of the rules:

1. When I say black and white, I mean black and white. No colors, no grays. The black portion will be the portion cut out of the pumpkin.

2. Size of the image doesn't matter too much, as I can resize the pieces in Truespace. Just make sure it's clear. If you want to make it easy for me, though, go with 600 wide by 500 tall, or 1200 wide by 1000 tall.

3. Turn it in before October 22nd. Send them to my email address: morgan@darnbeagles.com. Or you can upload it to your own webspace somewhere and PM me a link to it.

4. As always, don't violate Slov's terms of service. I.e., nothing obscene.

5. Has to be original. I.e., you can't reuse a pumpkin from last year or the Halls pumpkin. Not that I expect anybody would.

6. Your pattern can be whatever you like other than that. If you want to do a standard pumpkin face, that's cool. If you want to do a picture, that's cool too. If it's too ornate, though, I may simplify things just a touch. I'll try to avoid it, but it depends on what my renderer can handle. It shouldn't be a big concern, but I want to make it known upfront.

7. You may submit more than one pumpkin if you so desire.

That's all. Have fun carving! And don't worry about not being a great artist... you don't need to be for this contest. Just ask Oogie.

[Oogie]

I can say with 100% certainty that I am one of the worst artists on the Halls, but each year I submit something for the Easter egg and Halloween pumpkin.

[KilljoyBob]

I'll submit a pumpkin. I have to defend my title!

[Trebor]

Hopefully I remember to come up with something this time, at least I can do random crap at work now.

[Chaomancer Omega]

ONE WEEK LEFT TO SUBMIT!

Get them in by October 22nd!

So far there are three entries by two people.

[Oogie]

I WILL WIN!

[Chaomancer Omega]

Only a few more days to get your entries in!

[GelfOgre]

I'll get it to you by Saturday.

[Revil Fox]

I just sent mine in, so you shouldn't even bother Gelf.

[Chaomancer Omega]

You have today and tomorrow to send in your designs! So far we have four designs from three people, so a little more competition could definitely be used.

[KilljoyBob]

I may send in a second entry, maybe even a third if I can find the time.

[GelfOgre]

My entry is in.

[Soylent Daveage]

I'll get one in if I can get my computer working again. Rassin frassin doodad...

[Chaomancer Omega]

And time is up for submissions. There were 7 submissions from 5 people, so we're up one submission from last year with the same number of people. So that's all right.

I've gotten all but 2 of the pumpkins carved and rendered. I'll be tackling the remaining two in the next few days or so. Voting will start sometime before Halloween I expect, and will run at least until the end of Halloween, depending on just when I get everything up.

[Soylent Daveage]

And now I have my computer back up an running... Figures... Rackin' frackin' hard drive failure...