Lightwave 3D Space Command ChallengeThe LightWave 3D® Group, a division of NewTek, Inc., has teamed up with Marc Scott Zicree’s Space Command franchise to deliver the ultimate sci-fi challenge to the LightWave 3D community—The LightWave 3D Space Command Challenge.  Artists will have the opportunity to design spaceships that will be featured in the upcoming Space Command movie—winning artists will receive full screen credits and an invitation to be top-level modelers on the “Space Command” project. The deadline for the competition is July 31, 2014. Winning designs will be announced August 2014.

Artists will have the opportunity to compete in two levels of spaceship design. The first spaceship will elaborate on an initial alien ship design by famed Star Wars designer Iain McCaig with inspiration from the designs of renowned Spanish Catalan architect and artist Antoni Gaudi. The second design is to be an entirely original spaceship, with no limitations, based on the artist’s own design.

Space Command is a new and original science fiction franchise created by award-winning writer, producer and director Marc Scott Zicree. Reminiscent of sci-fi’s optimistic past, Space Command follows the bold adventures in space of the United Planet’s Space Command, a dedicated group of scientists, soldiers and adventurers exploring and taming the vast expanse of the solar system for human colonization.

“Having long worked in television, I’ve been an admirer of LightWave 3D for many years,” notes Marc Scott Zicree, writer, producer and director, Space Command, “both on shows I’ve written for, such as Star Trek – The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5, and those of my friends and co-workers, including Battlestar Galactica, Serenity and The Walking Dead.  Space Command presents a hopeful vision of the future, in which we can all be part of building an exciting and challenging life on the moons and planets of our own solar system and beyond, and I’m thrilled that the LightWave community can be a part of it.”

“LightWave’s roots run deep in the sci-fi industry and that makes the Space Command challenge a natural fit for the many talented artists in the LightWave community,” said Rob Powers, president, LightWave 3D Group. “We are excited to partner with Marc Scott Zicree and his team to help launch this project and are equally as excited to see the winning spaceships once they are revealed. This type of challenge is a first for the 3D industry and one that offers all artists the chance to see their work immortalized in a film.”

Details of the Challenge

  • The Iain McCaig spaceship is scaled at five miles long and has a highly detailed gold appearance.  In the film, it is discovered buried under the Martian landscape, but it is not Martian.  It is Y’Maa, a race that is very wise and millions of years old. This ship should also incorporate design inspiration from Antoni Gaudi as found in his art and architecture for the “nurnies” or “greeblies,” which are the details that make a ship look incredible up close.
  • The second spaceship’s design and details are limitless—they can be entirely original and limited only by the artist’s imagination.
  • Reference images for Iain McCaig’s spaceship and Antoni Gaudi’s architecture can be found on the LightWave website.
  • The McCaig spaceship’s wings and weapon ports at the front on the spaceship must open.  Currently there are no designs for the weapon ports, so modelers are encouraged to use their imagination and build weapon ports into the design.
  • Model submissions must have correctly parented hierarchy for a wing opening animation and load and render in LightWave 11.6 running on a workstation with 16GB RAM.
  • The winning models will be used in the Space Command film with full screen credit to the winning artists and invitations to be top-level modelers on the remainder of the project

Challenge Requirements

  • Participating artists must create original spaceship models in LightWave 3D and deliver the final models in the LightWave LWO format for use in the upcoming Space Command movie. The model must be capable of running on a workstation with 16GB RAM and LightWave 11.6 software.
  • Artists are encouraged to post works in progress (WIPs) of their spaceship designs for community feedback to the LightWave 3D Contest page on Facebook.
  • Final entries must be emailed to [email protected] on or before July 31, 2014. Emails should contain the user’s name, email address and phone number, and include the spaceship model created in LightWave with all relevant assets delivered via a Dropbox link, WeTransfer, YouSendIt or comparable file sharing or transfer system.  Participants will be notified after the entry has been received

Winning models will be judged by Space Command Writer, Director and Producer Marc Zicree, VFX Supervisor Geoffrey Mark, Co-Director and Producer Elaine Zicree, and Producer Neil Johnson.

To learn more about Space Command visit www.spacecommandmovie.com.

For more information about the LightWave 3D Group, please visit: www.lightwave3d.com, Twitter, Google+, YouTube or connect with us on Facebook.