Sansar co-sponsors avatar 3D design contest

Posted on by Inara Pey
Pinshape competition banner via @sansarofficial

Linden Lab, by way of Sansar, is one of the sponsors of a 3D printing competition organised by Pinshape. Running through until the end of the August, 2017, inviting people to Design Your Avatar. Hosted on Pinstripe, the competition offers three prize packages, the first of which includes a 1 year Creator Level subscription to Sansar, worth US $9.99 a month.

The competition website gives the best description of the requirements:

Imagine a future in which Virtual Reality is just as commonplace as cellphones and social media are today. In this future, everyone is represented in virtual space by an avatar of their own creation. What would you look like? What would you be wearing? Would you be human? Animal? Something new altogether?

Let your imagination run free … Design an original character that represents your personality and spirit. Feel free to design an avatar in your own image, or take this as an opportunity to design a character that you aspire to be.

Entrants are required to upload their finished design to Pinshape, where a panel of judges will judge all entries, and award points based on design creativity and uniqueness (40 points); technical excellence and ease of 3D printing (30 points); presentation – image quality, print settings, assembly instructions if required (20 points); and background story and design documentation (10 points).

The prize packages comprise:

First Prize
 Second Prize
 Third Prize
  • Formlab Form2 3D Printer package worth $3,499
  • ZBrush 4R8 license worth $795
  • Mold 3D 3D Character Creation for video games with J Hill worth $699
  • Oculus Rift headset and hand controllers worth $499
  • 1 year Creator Level subscription to Sansar worth $120
  • Mold 3D 3D Creating Appealing Heads with B. Jefcoat worth $699
  • ZBrush core license worth $149
  • 1 year subscription to 3D Artist magazine
  • 3D printing for ZBrush artists worth $200
  • 1 year subscription to 3D Artist magazine

There is also a bonus prize opportunity for entrants to win a free SLA print of their design from Formlabs by posting a link to their design on social media with the tags @pinshape @mold3D.

Full entries rules can be found here, and current entries can also be reviewed on the website.

Whilst primarily aimed at 3D printing, the competition is an interesting way for Sansar to potentially extend its reach into the 3D modelling / VR world, particularly with the obvious synergy between the first prize Oculus Rift headset and Sansar (“you have your shiny headset and somewhere to go with it!”), although obviously, the chance to win a 3D printer is liable to have the far greater appeal among designers and entrants.  It’ll certainly be interesting to see if any of the avatars that are created for the competition eventually find their way into Sansar by way of .FBX and rigging, once the Sansar avatar skeleton is more opened out to developers. It’ll also be interesting to see how else Linden Lab seek to raise Sansar brand awareness through endeavours like this – or through running competitions of their own, similar to the Creator Challenge I wrote about recently.

Published by Inara Pey

Eclectic virtual world blogger with a focus on Second Life, VR, virtual environments and technology.

3 thoughts on “Sansar co-sponsors avatar 3D design contest”

  1. I feel competitions are an unfortunate development that has permeated the creative professions. It allows the competition sponsor to get a ton of free work and gets to pick the best of the submissions for what is usually and all rights transfer, for a very, very small price. Competitions are ubiquitous in our on-line culture and allow an opportunity for many amateurs to try to get to the next level. But for the creative professional it erodes the professionalism of the field.

    I know it is dreaming, but a more professional and less exploitative system would be a call for entries, and then select the best of those entries to develop the work for a fee and then award the best. Creative and professional people should not work for free and should be compensated for work that helps another entity make money; like plumbers, lawyers, engineers etc etc.

    Even as I feel strongly about this, I find myself entering some competitions if they align with a current project or something I have already developed. It creates a conflict in myself but like everybody else, it always feels good to see your work among the best….if you win.

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    1. Fair comments, all.

      I found this competition interesting from more of the marketing aspect of Sansar – and perhaps should have focused more on that. However, you comments do open up the door for perhaps a broader piece on activities like this and their contrast to the likes of the recent Sansar Creator Challenge; I’ll let that cogitate for a while and see what comes up, as I have a number of pieces on VR/AR & Sansar in the works, and don’t want to suddenly flood the blog with them (I like to mix the theme / coverage of articles here to prevent too many single-topic (e.g. Sansa or SL tech or Exploraing SL pieces, etc.) from appearing back-to-back.

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