Oh yeah. Lace up yer moon boots because it’s time for another Blender Guru competition.
Obligatory banner:
Theme: The Future!
I want to see your predictions for how life on earth could look in the future. Flying cars? Holographic iPhones? Life without cancer?! It’s up to you. Be creative.
The best image related to the theme wins 
The Prize
Any item from the Blender e-Shop + $500 donated to a charity of your choice + a permanent spot in the Winners Hall of Fame!
A charity prize? Yep! I personally feel more motivated when the competition is for a good cause. I hope you do too!
The winner of the last competition was Sakari Leppa who donated his $500 to Sea Shepherd, which helps to protect ocean ecosystems and end the slaughter of marine wildlife. What a great cause! 
Guidelines
- It must be created with Blender
- You may use any external renderer you wish
- Minor post processing in Gimp or Photoshop is allowed
- Minimum image size is 1280 x 720, but the bigger the better (any aspect ratio is fine)
- Your image must be a new creation, not an existing project
- It must be your own work. No bought/borrowed or third party models allowed (including MakeHuman)
- Photographic elements are allowed, but must not be a central part of the image (eg. sky backgrounds are okay)
- Your image must in some way relate to the theme
- The winner will be required to submit the .blend file for proof of it’s creation
Submissions and Deadline
Entries must be submitted before the 14th of November at 11:59pm GMT.
Inspiration
As you know, the theme is ‘The Future‘. Here’s some inspiration to get your brain firing…
Created by: Stefan-Morrell
Created by: Andreas Rocha
Created by: Andreas Rocha
Created by: Linh Mai
Created by: Marek Okon
Created by: Jan Ditlev Christensen
Tips for this competition:
- Go easy on the sci-fi. Please. The average viewer has seen enough spaceships and pointy cityscapes to last them 3 lifetimes. Be creative but realistic. Make it believable to current life on earth.
- It should be pretty, but not pointless. Try to tell a story with your image.
- Become a sponge for inspiration. There are tons of movies, books and video games set in the future. By submersing yourself in their worlds it may help you to visualize yours.
6 Reasons to Enter:
- Competitions push you to better your work by exploring new techniques
- It teaches you the importance of deadlines
- Themes help you focus on a topic and create new ideas around it.
- It gives you motivation to finish a scene
- Great way to showcase your artwork and get noticed
- You’re competing for a charity prize! This is a rare opportunity to help the world through your art
Don’t forget, the deadline is the 14th of November at 11:59pm GMT.
May the best artist win!
Great topic! Can’t wait!
The thread link. Andrew hasn’t posted it yet. (Must have forgotten)
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?233800-Blender-Guru-Competition-The-Future!&p=1967247&viewfull=1#post1967247
Thanks for the reminder. I’ve added it now.
Best topic so far!
This will be really fun!
Niice
D
I’m definetly going to do something
Searching for inspiring stuff now
Great topic
wow im a newbie to blender but for charity i will try something!!
Now this is gonna be fun. Looking forward to the entries.
-Reyn
Wow, that’s my favourite topic.
I will try it but i’m not sure if i’m good enough..
Wonderful. I am don’t stand a chance though.
I may have to crack my knuckles, watch a crap ton more of your tutorials and make an attempt at the perfect dystopian futurescape.
Or I’ll make a flower and send that. ‘Cause the future has flowers, right? With robot laser arms? And rocket pistils? And they say “Exterminate! Exterminate!”
Winning idea there, Tadd!
“Be creative but realistic. Make it believable to current life on earth.” There is a reason it’s called science FICTION, so pleeease don’t be a stickler when it comes to complete realism, just strictly judge according epic-ness, aesthetics, creativity, and uniqueness.
Best of luck to all of you!
YAY!!! This could be posted a week ago!
Great topic! I’m definitly gonna try something now that we really got a month time.
Good luck and lots of fun! to everyone and make something good out of it
This time for sure! Finally got some time to do it.
Looks good – hopefully I’ll have time to give this a shot.
Sea Shepherd, what a great choice of charity! Very apt too.
i agree with your choice
It should help humans, not unintelligent, insentient animals.
Question: Can we use the Suicidator city engine?
So… If we win could we get Lee Salvemini’s Character Creation instead? I don’t think that is in the blender store. Plus, a spot in the Nature Academy would be a nice touch.
Character Creation? Sure. I’ll reserve The Nature Academy for other competitions though.
what about jonnathan williamsons book on charater development?
I personally think the charity should be something that helps HUMANS, not stupid animals. (And YES, they are STUPID, they are not capable of intelligent thought)
I am all for saving the planet, but saving the people is much more important- and NO, organic stuff is NOT any better.
Better hope you win then!
never heard about of ecosystem?
never heard about of the food chain, or ecological balance?
Our life depends on the rest of life on this planet. Man is a creature of this planet is not something different, as this is part of the ‘ecosystem.
Unthinkable human survival without those you call stupid animals. Read something about it is interesting.
PS: ANIMAL ARE CAPABLE OF INTELLIGENT THOUGHT
HA HA HA- funniest thing I have heard today! Animals are capable of ntelligent thought. HA! HA! HA! You are funny man!
Also, saying that our lives depend on animal- you are hilarious man!
Did you ever paid attention during geography classes? We as humans are dependent on other wildlife! without animals we couldn’t live on this planet. Yes, we do seperate ourselfs by being able to think, but we are still animals. We are still part of the ecosystem that we are destroying and if we succeed we will eventually destroy ourselfs.
We WERE dependent on wildlife, but with our advances in technology, we are now capable of surviving without any help. If anyone disagrees, PLEASE reply.
Do you colect your steaks and beef from trees?
And your eggs magicaly apear in those funny boxes, right?
And milk? Hum… where does that come from?
Oh, yes, of course, the wool you wear is made by fantastic robots from the future.
And let’s not forget that we all are animals, unfortunatly you two.
There is such a thing as being vegetarian. We can eat beans for protein, and we will soon be able to grow meat. There are plants that we can turn into cloth (cotton) (actually, a lot clothing is made from oil, which comes from plants).
Ps. I AM SENTIENT!!!!!!!!!!!!
I truly hope you’re joking.
Here is a question for you johnny or anyone else who wants to answer.
Who fights wars, who creates pollution, who is so greedy that his evil acts often affect all things on this planet including those who cannot think for themselves, animals or humans who is the most destructive? If your point is about helping those unable to help themselves why do you not include animals? humans can rebuild their environment or even make it far better than what nature can do for them example city. Animals cannot rebuild. organizing something to helps animals isn’t implying that they are equal to humans. we do it cuz is a recognition of all the bad things we are doing to them and is an attempt to stop it.
ANIMALS ARE UNINTELLIGENT, INSENTIENT, STUPID BEINGS!
It is our duty, as the only sentient species known, to survive.
Hey Andrew,
I just wanted to say that although I love the idea of a monthly contest, it would be nice if you started on the first of the month, rather than waiting till half of the month is over. Also I’m in agreement with maybe giving the chance to win a spot in the nature academy.
I’m actually planning to make them “not-so-monthly” competitions. In future they will be 5-6 weeks in length to give people with a job and homework time to enter. So they will be frequent enough, just not assigned to a particular month.
Agreed Andrew. University final exams 14 and 15 November for me.
As a student: thank you!
What a great Idea for the theme!
Can we use Arbaro? You say it must be made in Blender and we can’t use MakeHuman, but that’s kind of ambiguous. Also, when will the Nature Academy be re-released?
there’s an add-on in blender witch does the same thing like arbaro, and I think its easier since that is a default add-on in blender you might use that.
add-on name is sampling.
could we also have a choice to get jonnathan williamsons book on charecter devolopment?
I personally think that people are more important that animals. But in an ideal world there would be more animals and less STUPID people. (and YES, WE are STUPID. because we overpopulate the world and destroy the beautifull nature that keep us alive).
Also I think this time issue wouldn’t bother us that much if the contest were anounced at the begining of the month or at less after the winner of the previous contest were anounced.
I undertand if there are some time dificulties but, Andrew could you tell us. why you cant post this earlier?
(Sorry for my bad English)
umm excuse me can you do short movies like 30-60 seconds?
I mean can I
if you want to learn how to build a time machine, it’s just there: http://youtu.be/0g2BLUuiYOQ
, it’s the simpliest way to find inspiration…
Good luck (and lot of work) for everyone!
Damn! The Future! It will be so hard to create something new…
Mmmm future….very nice subject.
I hope not to see the usual series of spaceships and sci-fi copy that you usually see in these cases.
Nice contest after the end of ‘”F1 Challenge” I think it will become the most important in Blender world.
Bravo Price good idea! I hope to find some time to make some work.
Good luck to all contenders
Am I allowed to shot a movie and track it with the Blender Tomato branch?
you need a still render why would you need tomatoes?
Hi Andrew. I would really like if you would share the way you choose the winner. In the past 2 copetitions you went for realism and complexity. Does a cartoon style render even stand a chance? Are what about really creative Ideas that are maybe not that complex but still really good looking? It would really be helpful to know, how you judge.
why do your inspiration photo’s contain spaceships and pointy cityscapes if you don’t want them?
I think he just wants people to be as creative as possible.
Hi andrew, I want to know exactly what´s allow and what is not?
As some as already asked, is possible to make short movies or qe are limited to still images? If we are allowed to make movies, can they used live footage or everything must be cg? how much postprodcution is allowed? can we only retouch the image/video or we can add effects as we want in photoshop/after effects?
We´ll for them oment at least that´s it.
Great topic, totally looking forward to it.
See ya
Stills only. Thanks.
o brasil pode participar
Eu non vexo por que non
Sentímolo pola miña mala gramática
eu usei google
O Brasil deve participar!
sim, por favor que
eu amo google
In the future, anything is possible… ; )
Yes, it is.
If it is realism that is the main goal, I’m afraid that a render of just a black screen will be the right thing to do; if we don’t stop destroying our earth and be cruel to each other, the world might look like that in the future.
Yes, That is the truth. “I know not what weapons WW-III will be fought with, but WW-IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” ~Albert Einstein
I hope I will have enough time to participate in this.
Assuming of course that we have another world war.
who says we won’t stop being cruel to each other. In the future, if we do destroy the world, we can always colonize mars, or one of Jupiter’s moons.
Please excuse my tone, but you sound really stupid. Everything you said was your opinion, and you imposed it on others without considering that you are completely wrong.
-I agree with you that it is a somewhat waste of money to spend on all these animal support things, but it is quite necessary. If SOME PEOPLE CAN RECKLESSLY HARM ANIMALS AND NATURE TO GET RICH, THERE IS NO problem if others try their best to protect them because they care.
-Personally do not understand this extended love for animals, and how people can love dogs more than a human being just because it’s loyal and listens to you. No one is perfect, and you have to learn how to deal with people in a society. I think that humans are supposed to be loved and taken care of more than animals, but recklessly destroying nature without caring is not that moral.
NOW:
- People will not be able to colonize other planets. That is unrealistic and childish thinking. The expense to live on another planet would be too great to be even considered, and a constant supply of energy and resources would be required.
- and not so importantly, if you think humans are the only intelligent beings in this universe, you are terribly ignorant. HUMANITY was CREATED. AND just how we can create artificial intelligence and amazing robots, it WOULD absolutely make sense that SOMEONE ELSE MADE US.
It makes more sense to say that a watch with all it’s intricate pieces and complicated design is made by an engineer that to count the probability of the pieces coming together from a car crash…
-Being vegetarian is better for the human body (scientifically Proven), and animals are not for food. Animals do have a conscience, if you torture them they feel pain, if they don’t have a place to live because people that share your hatred destroyed their homes, they do decrease in numbers. Animals are great, and were supposed to admire them, and hopefully LEARN TO CARE.
P.S. I am terribly sorry ANDREW for having to deal with these discussions on your site, but it happens everywhere…
^ like
Im also interested in what goes into the judging process. If realism is what we are shooting for, then that will affect how people are going to model and will give the advantage to people who specialize in that field. I myself am not a strong blenderer, so it makes me wonder what I should work on.
Ideally it should be pretty but with meaning.
This is an art competition first and foremost, so the quality of your artwork will take priority over your story telling.
Hope that helps.
Hi Andrew, just wondering, didn’t you say in the aftermath of the last competition that this time there should be six weeks from announcement to deadline?
I thought so too, I could really use the extra time
Just noticed the ‘keyboard shortcut’ ad on the page. The download is great…… But I really think you have missed a trick in incorporating the ad into the site more. I didnt even if it was related to this site or not? ‘My keyboard shortcut’ or something of the like would be more suitable I think.
I really like the graphics in the post images and think the advert could use these touches, it just cheapens the site, which i think is amazing!
Sorry this is off topic, I have only been around the site for a few months and have seen the design change only once, so i dont know how often you review these things.
Darn it! I’ve been working on this project since it was announced and I’ve come to a complete futureistic brick wall, after spending hours modelling and throwing one idea away with another I’m totally flummoxed
On one hand if I paint the world the way it’s going to be, it’ll be quite ugly, with everyone probably struggleing to survive without fuel, for both vehicles and home heating – not the sci-fi utopia we all wished for as kids – more than likely we’ll be living in places much like the first competition, the slums, or Mad Max style anarchy on bicycles!
If I go idealistic, then what is it that we don’t aleady have or seen? everyhting will just be better and fancier. Bigger TVs? cliche holographic video? silly hover cars? Iphone 32? Final Destination 46? Then there’s the Idea that we will all live in these futureistc mulit-million pound homes with ikea styled furniture and a forest as the backdrop.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Sci-fi, but trying to do a still of something original for me in this comp without stealing ideas is near impossible, it’s all been done to death.
Am I grumpy today?
Jay.
This competition i as hard for me as it is or you. I cannnot think of anything that has not already been done a hundred times.
Could we use a picture of a person. I am wanting to have a person both infront and behind some cg stuff.
would one be allowed to do a little sculpting in mudbox? i wanted to do a timelapse for school anyway for a small presentation and wanted to be able to show different software, and since I have a student license… the mayor part would still be in blender.
I think it would probably be easier for you if you just used blender’s sculpting tools. I think they are just as good as mudbox’s. (of course I am biased against mudbox because i hate it- I’m not BAD at it, i just prefer modelling over sculping).
Is it cool to matte paint the background with the 3D focus in the fore/mid-ground?
Yay. 14 of November is my Birthday!!! I’ll see if i can get something done in that time.
If you win it will be a cool present
Love the topic. I hope to get something in on time.
Hi andrew, I was wondering if you were considering doing a begginer competitions. That would be cool.
hmm whose the best beginner?
that doesn’t really make sense.
the future huh? what if just blend my neighborhood, but make it look like it is tomorrow? lol
*Looks for most expensive item in e-shop*
lots of stuff in there is for old versions of blender.
quite useless then if it would be one of those.
For post production can we use blender’s texture paint?
What do you think genius… Is it Blender or not?
lol
I can imagine Andrew going through the comments trying to filter past all the fighting and to an actual question about the competition…
Sorry Andrew, but where ever there is a text box to write anything online, cyber-war shall follow
If the next competition topic has anything to do with ecology, some of the people who posted here will be in deep trouble to get the subject right….
As a vegan for eight years, I’m very pleased to see Sea Sheppard being contemplated with the price.
If you think animals are not sentient, or you grew up in an apartment and just saw them on television, or you’re just a troll (sad in both cases)
It is not about love… its about being ethical.
If you want to understand the connections between humans, animals and nature, I recommend that you see Earthlings (you can watch it online)
http://www.earthlings.com/
(music by Moby and narrated by Joaquin Phenix – both vegan
PS: I know that you’re not supposed to feed the trolls, but this was a great English practice…
When are the results out. I can’t wait anymore