Hot Potatoe Challenge

Challenge Title: Hot Potatoe!

This challenge is focused on working within set boundaries that will allow users to ultimately combine their efforts into one finished multi-user expose of animation.

The idea is to have a red ball (not actually a potatoe) enter SCREEN LEFT, interact with a character or environment on screen, then exit SCREEN RIGHT within 10 seconds. What you do with the ball is up to you, but the ball MUST enter left and leave right at some point.

Specifics:

-The size of the ball you use, or its shader, doesn't matter. So long as it is round and red.
-final entry's resolution should be no smaller than 640x480
-you can use characters, extensive environments, props, etc...but you don't have to. Your animation could simply be a ball bouncing from left to right. This is as much of a workshop/animation exercise as it is a "challenge"
-all of the final entries will be strung together in a video, which, when sequenced one after the other, will give the illusion of all the entered videos being part of a virtual game of "hot potatoe" using the red ball as the object which gets passed on from one scene to the next
-there will be a voting period after the final sequence is put together by IVANISAVICH, during which members may vote for their favourite entry, based on animation quality and creativity
-the member with the most votes (excluding admin) will win a simplycg T-shirt

Ideas:

(of course, you don't have to use any of these)

-character on-screen catches the incoming ball like a baseball player, and pitches it out of the screen to the right
-ball enters a Rube Goldberg-type machine that allows it to travel left-to-right
-ball bounces in from the left, then part of it transforms into a rocket-pack and it zooms out to the right
-ball comes flying into the scene, crashes around the environment breaking all kinds of things in its path, then finally bouncing out of sight to the right

Entry Threads:

This challenge is also about showing your work in progress (WIP) stages for feedback and critique by other membmers. Remember, these challenges are just as much about competing as they are about improving.

Each member who wants to enter should start a thread in the "CG Challenges" section of Simplycg, with the title:

You should post your updates and progress in this thread for feedback, and your final entry will also be posted in the thread.

Deadline:

The deadline is AUGUST 2! You basically have 3 weeks to complete your shot. You may do more than 1 shot if you wish during the WIP stage, but only 1 shot per user will be included in the final sequence of all the users' work.

Good luck! Have fun! If you don't enter, I have a dozen soap bars in a pillow case with your name on it >:)

Sounds cool, I hope i get some time to enter this one!

Well I'm leaving for the airport in 4 hours, but hopefully on my way back I'll be able to do something. So I have a week to think about it on the beach under the hot sun of CUBA

awsome!

should we have a given bg collor, (white environment with just shadow on ground) ?

it'l help to make it look all nce and what not, cause if we don't do that, epileptic people are gonna die watching the clip... also, should we say the ball arrives and leaves right in the middle of the frame, cause my ball might leave my frame at the top, where as tyson's one, will arrive in the bottom of the frame... know what i mean?

are we allowed many entries?

Nah any background is fine ...you can have a simple white background, or an elaborate environment...it doesn't matter. Each shot should be at least a few seconds, so I don't think the potentially changing backgrounds will have a great effect.

That being said, I'm assuming most people will be keeping it fairly simple.

And yea...you can enter as many as you like, however, only one will be available for judging.

Does anyone have a copy of the old one from the3dstudio?

would be great to see, i remember the bit i put in but can't remember the whole plot.

Yea I did a shot for it too! Don't have a copy of it though

haha I remember that at the 3dstudio...........Good one T can't wait to see them strung together. What about sound? can we put sound in?

Eh...probably no sound. I'll string em together with some music.

yeah thats what I kinda thought, just wanted to be sure........cool

can we animate the character before the ball comes in?

Sure.

Hey all, we've extended the deadline by a week

yay

Nice ^_^

Ok guys make sure you've got your final entry in your thread

oh that is so cool cuz I had another pc melt down and lost some time

I think you came to this thread a bit late kilroy, the extra week is already over ...try to get your final entry up in your thread in the next 24 hours eh!

darn what was I thinking............... yeah Ill have it in in about an Hour ,,,,,thanks t..... I had to reformat and my dates are all screwed up.

Umm, the challenge system kind of malfunctioned and added an extra couple days to the deadline.

Not sure how this happened, but i'll have our tech staff look into it.

On the upside, get ur final entries in before it clicks over, i don't think this malfunction can happen twice on the same challenge.

As for the votes that were entered, i'm sorry but they are gone, you'll have to recast them when you see all the final entries.

I guess im too late to enter? noooooooooooooooooooooo just found out! i even got the entry ready!

Ravi....if your entry is finished post it online in the next day or so. I want to put together the video soon, but I don't want people to get cut out unecessarily, because this is just for fun (even though there's a prize! )

Thanks Tyson, well I posted it already I believe but here it is just in case: http://www.rvganimation.com/clips/thumb ... otatoe.mov

Just a quick sketchy test...i'll call it final for this challenge though....

Cheers!!!!

Hahahah! That was sooo awesome Such a cute little puppy!