3D Challenge: Sports & Hobbies

Yes, My interpretation is that the model must look good without having to smooth it. I believe the idea is that the model looks realistic, so it cannot be LOW-LOW poly. It should have enough geometry to make it look real, but without going crazy with polycounts.

Hi guys,

the Sports & Hobbies challenge is coming to an end, and as usual very likely there will be quite some submissions, and questions arising, these last days, so we decided to summarize questions already received in forums, via emails, etc. in one place and post here for the reference:

--------- The flow of the Challenge-------
Q: When I get the feedback to fix my asset, do I have to resubmit the edited model?
A: You don’t need to delete and newly upload a model, but rather re-upload the fixed file as the same product. You can go to “My Products” page on the platform and edit it through the editing panel.

Q: The deadline of the submissions has passed and I received a letter with the fixes needed on my models. Does this mean I am out of the challenge?
A: No. Since submissions were made before the deadline, you are still running in the competition and the models can still be edited, all the models updated in 3 days since the feedback is received will be still considered.

Q: I have already uploaded the model to the Challenge and it is under consideration but the deadline of submissions has passed. Can I still edit my models?
A: Yes, the deadline means that no new submissions can be made, but the changes on the running submissions can still be done through the editing panel for a couple of days.

----- Technical questions -------
Q: Am I allowed to have holes in geometry, if, for example, the hole in one part of the object is covered by other's part geometry?
A: If the hole is covered by the other geometry, it is ok. But it should be done in a logical way, not forcing other geometry to cover it. If the object demands a hole in it - you can cover it with poligons, but texture it with a black color in the texture map.

Q: No overlaps in UV. What if I have several repeated parts which are exactly the same. Screws or something like that. Can they have overlapping UVs?
A: No, there cannot be overlapping UVs.

Q: What does "No subdivisions surfaces" mean? Does it mean I cannot use turbosmooth (3Ds Max) in my model? Would it be a low poly model?
A: The model should look good without having to smooth it. The idea is that the model looks realistic, so it cannot be LOW-LOW poly. It should have enough geometry to make it look real, but without going crazy with polycounts.

Q: What does it mean: “Using Polygon Selection Constraint on Vertices, select and remove the stars/poles”?
A: A "pole" is a vertices that has 5 or more edges coming from it. Poles are very common and in many cases, necessary in 3D. Referring to the rules for the Sports & Hobbies challenge, you will have to reduce the amount of edges that connect to a single vertices down to a maximum of 5 edges.

Q: The challenge is asking for ma, mb or max. Why not let the people upload OBJ files, which you can also create with blender or the Maya LT version?
A: Our current internal pipeline relies on working with .ma, .mb or .max files that are optimized for the VRay rendering engine. We understand this makes certain products a requirement to use and in the future we plan to expand beyond these requirements.

Q: What about if i would want to add FBX, OBJ, MAX scenes for renderers other than Vray to make model more attractive to the buyers? Could I add those additional file formats to a model and still be able to participate in the challenge or should I publish two separate products, one that is strictly adhere to the rules and the other that has more additional file formats to it?
A: You are welcome to include any files that you want, the ones that will be reviewed for ingestion will be in the formats requested.

Q: It is very unclear what textures we need to provide - any normal maps at all? Or should every detail be modeled?
A: For textures we would like these as examples: diffuse, normal, reflectivity, metallic or opacity maps (any maps supported by VRay standard materials are acceptable).

Q: I have some submissions that did use maps, including a normal map, in the above answer you said "For textures, we would like these as examples: diffuse, normal, reflectivity, metallic or opacity maps (any maps supported by VRay standard materials are acceptable). " Normal maps are maps supported by the standard VRay material, so does that mean we can use normal maps? Felix also allows the use of normal maps.
A: Yes, you can use normal maps. Don’t forget that for textures PNG format is preferred.

Q: What about polycount?
A: There is no maximum limit for polygons but try to use best judgement for minimum number of polys without subdivision surface rendering.

Q: I am confused about model pricing on Adobe Stock
A: In regards to pricing, you can find more information in the terms and conditions for each challenge under “Legal” (for example: https://www.cgtrader.com/challenges/3d-challenge-sports-hobbies#section-terms)

Q: There was some question before on how to handle a model that has multiple textures, do you prefer one upload per additional texture, or just uploading all the textures at one time with the model?
A: Essentially this could go both ways, and it should work if the textures are uploaded together. What CGTrader would like to suggest, however, that it is maybe worth to stick to one texture and focus on the asset itself making it more detailed/realistic, etc. and have single texture that would in the end leave everyone amazed.

Best,
Gina