I'm over a month late in discovering this CGChallenge which runs to 3rd February 2009. With categories for Image - Individual, Video - Team and Video - Individual along with awards for Modeling; Texturing; Animation; Lighting; Visual Effects; Landscape/Matte Painting; Art Direction; Compositing and Editing; and Best Character. The long list of sponsors includes BOXX Technologies, Autodesk, NVIDIA, Wacom, SOFTIMAGE, Luxology, Pixologic, Craft Animations, SideFX, e-on Software, Corel, Stash, Gnomon Workshop, ImagineFX, Ballistic Publishing and Esperient. Vue 7 Infinite and Vue 7 xStream are included as prizes in several categories and awards.
I'll not reproduce the official press release in full here just borrow a short section about Steampunk and the Challenge
This CGChallenge involves revamping some of the world’s best known stories and legends with gears, springs brass and steam! We are offering you the chance to re-imagine legendary characters such as a steam-powered minotaur, or a Zeppelin-mounted Thor, hurling lightning bolts from the sky as well as getting hold of some great prizes - over $220,000 worth!
Steampunk grew in the 1980s and early 1990s into a fully fledged sub genre of fantasy and speculative fiction. It involved the creative application of advanced steam age technology to a modern or science fiction setting. Steampunk also covers works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used - usually the 19th century and often set in Victorian England. Just imagine inventions like those that appear in the works of Jules Verne or H.G. Wells.
For more details see the Steampunk - Myths & Legends pages at the cgsociety web site.
