Tag Archives: contest

Art, Graphics, Woodworking, Computers, User Interfaces

Honorable Mention: Woot PhotoChop Contest #174

June 1, 2008 kleucht Leave a comment

Ive been a Woot (woot.com, what is Woot) customer since May of 2006, buying cheap electronics here and there whenever I saw Woot offering something that I really needed. When I subscribed to the Woot RSS feeds (so I wouldnt forget to check the daily sale) I noticed that they were holding weekly Photo-chopping contests there. And they were actually giving away monetary prizes too, or at least monetary credit for purchases on Woot! Ive got a little bit of Photo-chopping experience, so I started keeping my eyes open for a contest theme that I would enjoy working on. Then Woot Contest 174 caught my eye.

The Challenge: Show us how we can get rid of thousands of unsold Sandisk Sansa Media Players.

The idea that immediately came to mind was to use thousands of these cheap little electronic devices to build a supercomputer … or actually a not-so-super-computer.

Here is the Sansa image I used from Woot:

And here is the super computer image I used from Mississippi State University:

And here is my contest entry (http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=2265560):

. my woot contest entry

I spent probably 2 hours on this entry. A pro could have probably done it in 20 minutes, but I’m not that experienced … plus the TV was on while I was working on it. It was fun, though. I especially enjoyed turning the SUN microsystems logo on the side of the rack into Sandisk. I think it turned out rather well.

I didn’t win a monetary prize, but I was honored with an “Honorable Mention” which is worth free shipping on my next Woot purchase. Here are the complete results for Woot Contest 174.

Kurt

Art, Graphics, Woodworking, Science, Space, Technology

Artists and Scientists Unite!

August 23, 2007 kleucht Leave a comment

NASA sent out a press release today about this cool art contest for college students:

Aug. 23, 2007

Sonja Alexander
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1761
sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov

Keith Henry
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-864-6120/344-7211
h.k.henry@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 07-179

LIFE AND WORK ON THE MOON: WHAT IMAGES COME TO MIND?

HAMPTON, Va. – A new NASA contest encourages university art and design students to partner with science and engineering departments to create art representative of living and working on the moon. The goal is for students in the arts, science and engineering to collaboratively engage in NASA’s mission to return humans to the moon by 2020, and eventually journey on to Mars and other destinations in the solar system.

The Advanced Planning and Partnership Office at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is sponsoring the “Life and Work on the Moon” contest. Winners will receive cash prizes up to $1,000. Winning artwork also will be exhibited online and across the country.

Students in architecture, industrial design, computer design, the fine arts and other disciplines are invited to submit entries in one of three categories: two-dimensional art, three-dimensional art or digital art. To ensure artistic concepts reflect the realities of the harsh lunar environment, art students are strongly encouraged to consult with science and engineering students and use NASA’s online resources.

A volunteer panel of judges will represent NASA, other government agencies, universities, industry and the professional art community. Judges will evaluate artistic qualities and whether the entry depicts a valid scenario in the context of the lunar environment.

In sponsoring the contest, NASA hopes to encourage more collaboration among scientists and engineers and the artistic and creative communities. Such collaboration may generate new ideas for living and working in extra-terrestrial environments, resulting in more successful long-duration space missions.

Winners of the contest will be offered the opportunity to exhibit their work in NASA facilities and science museums. An online public gallery will be available through a partnership with NASA’s Classroom of the Future, maintained by the Wheeling Jesuit University Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, W. Va., and the Christopher Newport University Institute for Science Education in Newport News, Va. Christopher Newport University will provide cash awards for top prizes.

Entries are due no later than December 1, 2007, and results will be announced in February 2008. A high school version of this contest is planned for the spring of 2008.

For more details about the contest, including NASA’s resources about the moon, visit:

http://artcontest.larc.nasa.gov (this link disappeared from the Internet, sorry)

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

Visit the art contest website linked above for more information.

Kurt

Art, Graphics, Woodworking, Miscellaneous

Photo-chop contest submittal — Woot Contest 98: When Titans Woot!

January 14, 2007 kleucht 2 Comments

I’ve always had both an artistic bent and a computer bent, so computer graphics have always been sort of a hobby of mine. I can remember writing programs to light up individual pixels on the green display of my Apple IIe computer when I was a teenager. I remember drawing out a Garfield cat onto graph paper first, then mapping out all the pixel X and Y locations on the graph paper to type into my computer program. Ahhhh, those were the good ole days. 🙂

I’ve been a Woot (woot.com, what is Woot) customer since May of 2006, buying cheap electronics here and there whenever I saw Woot offering something that I really needed. When I subscribed to the Woot RSS feeds (so I wouldn’t forget to check the daily sale) I noticed that they were holding weekly Photo-chopping contests there. And they were actually giving away monetary prizes too, or at least monetary credit for purchases on Woot! I’ve got a little bit of Photo-chopping experience, so I started keeping my eyes open for a contest theme that I would enjoy working on. Then Woot Contest 98 caught my eye.

The Challenge: Alter an existing comic-book cover so that it’s named after and features a product we’ve sold on Woot.

This was definitely down my alley. I searched the Woot blog for a product that would work good in a comic book cover. I saw the Navman portable GPS navigation system and immediately thought that I could turn either Spiderman or Superman into Navman.

Navman portable GPS navigation system

I searched the Internet for comic book covers of Spiderman or Superman. I found a good Superman source comic book cover here: http://www.tgfa.org/ … /Superman_349_Cover.jpg

Superman Comic Book Cover .

Source comic book cover

Then I started chopping! I used lots and lots of image layers to get all of my changes into the image. Layering also gives you lots of flexibility and allows you to fine tune things later without a lot of work. Here is my final contest submittal:

My contest submittal .

My contest submittal

Woot Contest 98 Results. I didn’t receive a monetary prize, but I was very honored to have won the “Champions’ Championship Champion” award. After inquiring what the heck that award was about, I was told that it is voted on solely by previous contest top 3 prize winners. So I’m actually quite honored to have received this nod and respect from the previous contest winners on my very first entry. That felt pretty good, and gave me the confidence to enter more contests. Also, my entry came in 5th in the Viewer’s Choice award, which was pretty cool!

Kurt