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I’ve been promising it for months, but now I have finally added a Links page to the site!
As you will see I’ve divided the links into three groups (details on the Links page itself). If you would like to be considered for inclusion in any of the three lists of links, just send me an email with your details on.
Good luck with the Coffee Maker model this month!
Posted on 17th September 2009 at 11:39 am by Chris [Category: Site Updates]
Voting for Contest #41 is now underway, with a total of 15 images eligible this month. The two highest-ranked entries this month will each receive one free coupon for a SolidWorks exam of their choice. Good luck!
As you may have noticed it’s been a little quiet on the development front. I’ve been away on holiday recently and I’m preparing to move house in a few weeks, so the website’s unfortunately taken a back seat. I will get back on top of it soon!
At the moment I’m afraid I don’t have any prizes for the Contest #42 (August). I’ll try and find something I can send out, but I can’t promise anything at this stage!
Posted on 27th July 2009 at 12:13 pm by Chris [Category: General]
As you can see I’ve now added a countdown timer to the left of the header section (inspired by this). The new countdown reads the contest close date (or voting end date) from a database and then counts down using JavaScript.
I’ve also cleaned up the lower part of the header area, and given it [what I think is] a more uniform look and feel.
I’ve made significant changes to the cascading style sheets (CSS) on rendercontest.com in the last month, and I am aware that some people may find certain elements of the site appearing in the wrong place or overlaying each other. If this is the case, please clear your cache and refresh the page!
Each time I make significant updates to the structure of the site, I always check how it renders in Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer (versions 7 and 8 – I don’t have a copy of 6 any more), Google Chrome, Opera 9 and Safari 3. If you believe any element of the site is not working as it should, please contact me and let me know!
Finally, a note regarding the model download page. Since the bandwidth requirements of this website aren’t as bad as I thought they might be, I’m now trying to host all the previous contest models on my site. The list only goes back as far as Contest #32, but I will try and add to it over the coming months.
I have also listed the size of the model file next to each download link, and on the current Download Model button. Some models are obviously very large (30+ MB) and it’s nice to have an idea what you’re downloading before you click on the button!
Posted on 10th June 2009 at 9:01 pm by Chris [Category: Site Updates, countdown, css, download, header, model, update]
Congratulations to Cilas Gimenez and Jason Moxham for producing the top two entries in Contest #39!
Cilas and Jason both win a coupon for a SolidWorks exam of their choice. Remember, there are four more coupons up for grabs — two this month (June) and two next month (July), so why not have a go!
There were some pretty interesting images of the robotic arm entered in the contest this month (coloured lights, anyone?)! Of the 18 images submitted, seven of them were rendered with PhotoWorks and the remaining 11 with PhotoView 360.
Some of you may have noticed that two entries received the same score (15 votes), yet Jason Moxham’s entry came in second place. In my haste putting together a voting/results system where visitors vote for two images, it hadn’t crossed my mind that two images may end up with the same overall score, let alone two images that would be vying for second place.
The eventual second-place image was decided by looking at how many times each entry was ranked first. Whilst the two images in question both scored 15 points, one of them was ranked first 11 times and the other ranked first seven times.
Unless anyone has any suggestions as to how to make the system more fair, June’s and July’s contests can both run in the same way — that is, if two images score the same overall, then the number of times each one was ranked first will be the deciding factor.
So, well done again to Cilas and Jason (better luck next time Sam!) and thanks to all who entered Contest #39. I’ll try and get some stats on the results page so you can all see how people rated your image. Remember, if anyone has a model the think would be suitable for an upcoming contest, give me a shout and I’ll have a look at it. Oh yes, and if any of you contest winners would like to share your winning files, use the Share Model Files link on the website and send them to me!
Until next time…
Posted on 2nd June 2009 at 1:48 pm by Chris [Category: Contest Comments, cswp, exam, voting, winners]
Just a quickie – I’ve now added functionality that allows winners of previous contests to share the SolidWorks and PhotoWorks files that were used to create the winning image. Simply visit rendercontest.com/share.php and upload a compressed file archive (ZIP, RAR or 7z format) containing all the SolidWorks models and any PhotoWorks materials or images that was used in the rendering.
Maximum upload size is 20MB – if you want to upload more than that, contact me for help.
Once the files are uploaded, I will get a link to them online as quickly as possible.
Posted on 15th May 2009 at 3:51 pm by Chris [Category: Site Updates, share, update, upload, winner]
There have been some interesting entries this month for Contest #38, with PhotoView 360 images outnumbering PhotoWorks images 2:1! We’re half-way through the voting period now so if you haven’t voted for your favourite image yet, visit the Contest Voting page and cast your vote!
As you can see I’ve made the model for Contest #39 (May) available at the start of the voting period this month. I think I’ll continue to do this as it means there isn’t a five-day gap when there’s “nothing to do” :)
I have some exciting news regarding prizes: Mike Puckett, Certification Specialist at Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp., got in touch with me last week and very kindly offered some free SolidWorks exam coupons for winning contest submissions! There are a total of six coupons up for grabs – two each month for the next three months. That’s Contest #39 (May), Contest #40 (June) and Contest #41 (July).
Visit http://www.solidworks.com/sw/mcad-certification-programs.htm to see all five exams available!
I will set up a two-vote system for the next three contests whereby visitors to rendercontest.com can vote for their favourite two images. The two winners will then be contacted by email and will be able to choose which exam they would like to take. A credit for a free exam will then be added to their SolidWorks account, which they will be free to take any time.
Posted on 28th April 2009 at 2:07 pm by Chris [Category: Contest Comments, General, cswp, prizes, vote]
OK, here’s what I’ve been doing during April!
I have completely redesigned the Image Archive and Winners’ Gallery pages in an attempt to tidy up the way comments are added and displayed. The images in the Image Archive and Winners’ Gallery can now be viewed in two different ways. The primary way of viewing them is with the new sliding carousel. You can quickly skip through all the images for a particular contest (or the winning images from all contests) and by clicking on the green button underneath each image, any comments left on that image will be displayed along with a form to add a comment.
The secondary way of viewing the images is with all the images in a table on a single page without any of the comments visible. I for one prefer viewing images like this as it allows you to more easily compare the different images. By having the comments on a separate page it’ll make everything a lot less cramped, and allow an “unlimited” number of comments. If anybody has any suggestions about these methods, or has any problems with them displaying correctly on their PC, please get in touch!
I received feedback from a few people that the form for inputting comments on the old pages was too small… and it was. I just couldn’t think of another way of doing it at that time! Another problem was spam – several spam messages were posted on various images because I had no CAPTCHA system in place. In redesigning the comment system, I tried various image-based CAPTCHA systems, but I found most of them were a bit awkward to implement and took up a lot of space on the page, so in the end I opted for a simple maths question instead. Hopefully it will be enough to stop the “casual” comment spamming!
As you may have noticed, the Submit Image page has had a facelift, as has the Contact Me page. Essentially, I wanted the forms on the website to look more uniform, as they were all quite different (which has made the CSS a bit of a nightmare!) I’ve added the same simple maths-based CAPTCHA test to the Contact Me page to reduce spam.
Over the coming month I plan to make a [long overdue] links page, I intend to add a page to allow people to upload models they think would be suitable for future contests, and I will come up with something to allow contest winners to share their SolidWorks and PhotoWorks files.
Thanks for all the suggestions this month, I’ll do my best to get everything in place as soon as possible!
Posted on 28th April 2009 at 11:43 am by Chris [Category: Site Updates, captcha, carousel, comments, image archive, links, update, winners' gallery]
Well, it’s been a little over two months since I started work on the new website rendercontest.com and it doesn’t look like the work is going to ease off just yet!
As you may have noticed,the website’s had a bit of a face-lift in the last few weeks. The Winners’ Gallery and Archive pages have been updated to allow for comments to be posted, the site logo and top navigation buttons are now “shiny”, and I [almost] managed to get the Voting page in place on time!
The more changes I make to parts of the site, the more I find myself wanting to update other parts of the site, which leads to other parts needing to be updated, and so on…
I feel like things are nearing completion now, in terms of the changeover from month to month. Some of you may have noticed that not everything quite went to plan as we went into April, with the Model Download page showing both Contest #37 and Contest #38 as closed (but with the wrong model for each anyway), and the Results page not appearing in time. I am anticipating a much smoother changeover as we go from April to May, so that the Voting page is available for exactly five days, and the voting results of April’s contest are available immediately as the May contest starts.
Another new feature on the site is this blog which should allow me to communicate changes to the site more efficiently. You may have noticed there is now a scrolling news ticker at the top of the page which automatically updates as and when I post a new entry in the blog.
I’m still working on getting a bulletin board integrated into the site, but it’s proving to be slow going! Once it’s up and running however, I’ll leave it blank so that people can suggest categories and forums to appear in it.
Right, I think that’s just about everything for now! As always, if you have any comments or suggestions on things you’d like to see added, changed or removed, just send me an email!
Posted on 5th April 2009 at 11:53 am by Chris [Category: Site Updates, blog, model download, news, results, update, voting]
I’d like to start by offering my thanks to Rob Rodriguez for running the PhotoWorks Rendering Contest for the last three years. I’m sure that anyone who’s entered the contest, or simply visited the site in search of answers to PhotoWorks problems, will agree that Rob has done a great job. I for one have found Rob’s presentations and tutorials to be invaluable when I was first getting to grips with rendering in PhotoWorks.
And so with the end of the PhotoWorks Rendering Contest announced, I felt somewhat sad that the contest was going to come to an ‘untimely end’. I’ve created this website in the hope that the contest can carry on almost uninterrupted from contest #36.
My name is Chris Thorn and I am a mechanical design engineer based in Coventry, UK. I have been a SolidWorks user since 2004 when I was introduced to SolidWorks at university, and I have been using SolidWorks in my job for the last four years. Although my job doesn’t require much use of PhotoWorks, I try to use it as often as I can!
The PhotoWorks Rendering Contest has been a great opportunity for people to improve their modelling and rendering skills whilst competing for prizes (and the glory of being crowned rendering champion!), and I hope the it may continue through this website. Unfortunately (for the foreseeable future, anyway) I do not have any prizes to send to the winner of the contest each month. Being just a ‘casual’ SolidWorks user, I am not affiliated with any SolidWorks User Groups at the moment and don’t have a ready supply of booty to ship out to the winners.
Ultimately, I have created this site to carry on the contest so that people can continue to learn about SolidWorks, PhotoWorks and now PhotoView 360. I intend to run the site as Rob has run his for the last three years. By that I mean there will be no advertising on the site, and the contest will be run in much the same manner: a model will be provided at the start of the month, the user will then have around 25 days to produce a rendered image of the model, then there will be a five-day voting period. The winning submission will then be displayed on the front page of the site for the whole of the next month, and full credit will be given to all contest submissions.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new website. Let me know if there are any features you’d like to see added to the site, or if there’s anything you don’t like so much. I’m very open to suggestions on any aspect of the PhotoWorks Rendering Contest, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.