Event

We're opening a competition for some new skin templates for our default avatars to wear - and to give our fantastic creator community a chance to earn some fame and prizes.

We're soliciting entries for both male and female avatar skins through to August 15th at 23:59 UTC (extensions may be granted in advance, on a case by case basis with good cause, but please try get your entries in before that date).

In addition - we'd like to work with the people working on designs to help you achieve the best results with lighting and shading - we really want to showcase what our 3D engine can do when pushed to the limits. If you've got special features you'd like to integrate - we'd like to help make that possible.

Each winning design will become part of our default avatars, be promoted for a minimum of 3 months in our welcome centre region, and be paid one of:

• USD$500, paid in cash via PayPal or bank transfer, or;
• A lifetime subscription to our Standard 4 plan, or;
• 100,000 Gold Credits of in-world currency

What you will deliver:

• A male or female base avatar skin of natural human appearance.
• 3 to 5 Screenshots which demonstrate your design, preferably posted to a site such as Flickr, and included in the sinespace group pool.
• The product ID of the associated virtual good upload (contact us if you need help with this.) which we can use for previewing the finished design.
• The design should be compatible with the 'Modern Skin' shader (which we have included in our artist resources zip below), or with an alternative PBR-based skin shader which we can safely redistribute and embed (MIT or equivalent licensing). A winning entry should have a Diffuse, PBR-Specular, and Normal map, and optional extras.
• The associated source files to the virtual good, which enable us to embed the default skins and potentially make limited modifications to the asset.

Winning designs should ideally behave well when tinted and modified with our skin tone sliders, and be capable of representing a diverse range of avatars. If we need to do further work to enable this functionality to operate better, we will be happy to work with you to improve these features.

Winners will be free to sell or give away variations, or alternate designs based on these skins in our marketplace (or your stores), you will retain most rights to your entry (see full rules below). Any non-winning entry remains your property to be used as you see fit.


Resource Pack:

We've packed a zip containing the latest avatar FBXs (please note, we're currently adding more polys onto these, however skin UV layouts are not changing.), the latest textures and our current version of the 'Modern Skin' shader. The shader and materials can be used in Unity to preview using our new 'Modern Skin' shader (you are free to edit/improve the shader if you like.)

You can download that here: http://space-files.s3.amazonaws.com/sample-art/SkinArtistQuickpack.zip


What this will be used for:

• Custom skins used in our default sign-up avatars
• Potentially embedding into our base character archetypes which will be included as part of the viewer downloads, and available when creating new outfits (and any other location where our default avatars are used).
• Tutorials, videos and references (and optionally, with your permission, we'd like to distribute source files to other creators as a reference design.)

Who will judge this:

• Final decisions will be taken exclusively by Sine Wave Entertainment staff based on internal consensus from all members of staff.
• Feedback on each design will be contributed by a panel of external guest judges (To Be Announced), including Wagner Au (aka Hamlet) of New World Notes.
• As we are offering to help contestants improve their work during the contest, we cannot perform a blind judging; however we will attempt to be as impartial as possible and treat all entries fairly and equally.

What entries we be judged on:

• Community appeal - how popular is this design likely to be?
• Artist skill - how good does this look?
• Technical skill - how well does this take advantage of a modern rendering engine?
• Lighting - how well does this skin respond to a wide range of lighting conditions?
• Flexibility - how well does this skin respond to customization sliders and features?

This is your chance to learn some new skills working with sinespace and Unity, help us improve the platform - and earn some great prizes.

Questions, comments, feedback and submissions should be directed to: [email protected]


Here's the specifics and rules:

• The competition is held by Sine Wave Entertainment Ltd, a UK registered company.
• Contractors or staff of Sine Wave Entertainment, and their families are prohibited from entering.
• We may elect to extend the deadline at our discretion.
• The competition is open to any registered developer in our creator community, aged 18 or older (or 16+ with permission of a parent/guardian)
• Void where prohibited (such as residents from countries under embargo).
• Existing assets are fine for submission.
• You must have full rights to submit your entry, and for Sine Wave Entertainment to be able to use it for above mentioned purposes.
• You retain all copyrights and interests in your work, however you agree to grant Sine Wave Entertainment an unlimited, irrevocable, royalty free, transferable license to the design in the event of being declared a winner.
• In the event of a tie during judging, Sine Wave Entertainment may elect to award additional winners.