Organica 2010 Photo Contest Winners

By now I’m sure quite a number of you are very anticipatory about the winners of the contest. In total, six entrants sent in three entries each.

The judging process was pretty difficult – there was quite a variety of excellent shots and the judges had difficulty concurring on pictures overall. Three rounds of judging were undertaken – each judge chose three photos according to the listed criteria – their top three favourites, picking a maximum of one photo from any one entrant. This left us with a total of 8 chosen photos, which were taken to the second round, which had judges rank from 1 through 8 which they liked most. Rankings were added up and the photos with the lowest number (IE: highest ranking) were found to be the winners. A third round was undertaken to break the tie for third place.

Our judges were Astrin Few – Live musician and administrator of the Live Music Enthusiasts group, Moo Money – well known machinimatographer and texture guru, and Sandusky Kayvon – developer for The Wastelands and co-editor of the Post-Apocalyptic Press.

The winners are:

For third place (L$2500):
Contest2010-E01-01Entry #1 by Melodie Darwin

For Second Place (L$5000)

Contest2010-E02-02Entry #2 by Vesper Dreamscape

and for 1st place, winner of L$10,000:

Contest2010-E03-03Entry #3 from Carthalis Rossini

All Qualified Entries:

Contest2010-E01-01Contest2010-E01-02Contest2010-E01-03

Melodie Darwin

Contest2010-E02-01Contest2010-E02-02Contest2010-E02-03

Vesper Dreamscape

Contest2010-E03-01Contest2010-E03-02Contest2010-E03-03

Carthalis Rossini

Contest2010-E04-01Contest2010-E04-02Contest2010-E04-03

Eclectic Wingtips

Contest2010-E05-01Contest2010-E05-02Contest2010-E05-03

Roy Howley

Contest2010-E06-01Contest2010-E06-02Contest2010-E06-03

Griete Rasmusson

Late Entries:

Snapshot_001Snapshot_002

Bakahatsu Otsuka

Photo contest Final results delayed

Hi folks – due to an unplanned mismatch in schedules and extended deliberation due to a large number of quality submissions, final results for the contest are currently delayed, hopefully for no lnoger than one day. More info to come shortly 🙂

RE: Photo contest

The submission period for the photo contest is now closed; thanks to all who sent in their entries! There will be quite a few for judges to choose from!

All individuals who submitted entries will have been sent a confirmation email as of today to note the reception of their entry. If you have not received the email, please contact me (Aki Shichiroji) and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Winners will be announced on May 1, 2010!

Home Garden and Patio Expo 2010

Expo2010-bloggfx

Organica will be at Home, Garden and Patio Expo this year! The store is located at booth #68, located in the Home Expo 7 sim!

Come by to support the Relay For Life campaign, check out new & recent releases, pick up freebies, and just explore in general. The Expo has grown to twice its size from last year, so there is definitely a helluva lot to see here!

The event will also offer raffle and auction prizes, all to benefit the American Cancer Society.

It begins Saturday, April 10 at 8AM SLT and runs through until April 17 at 10PM SLT.

See you there!

RFL2010-map

Today is the big day!

Organica celebrates its official opening this afternoon from 4-6PM SLT with some great tunage, prizes and discounts for today only!

Join us in Organica Sim for your chance at some pretty valuable gift vouchers,

The sim is presented in two parts that will combine what regular visitors will be used to based on the previous store set-ups both in Sylvan and abroad:

First, much of the sim is devoted to displaying new stock. Visitors are free to explore the ground level areas and will find vendors for stock on display next to most items.

Visitors will additionally be able to browse vendor boxes for most stock within the Japanese styled building just west of the store landing point.

Out with the old

Sort of. Some of you will have received updates for your products earlier this week or may be receiving further updates soon.  Many items were updated to use more efficient foliage and rather than making you buy new ones, they were passed out to existing customers on record.  If you have one of the following items and haven’t yet received an update, please pass me a notecard with your transaction number or a screenshot of the edit menu that comes up when you edit your tree and sit tight – I do have records, but they are plentiful, very old, and archived. Since I am also in the middle of organizing events for today, there may also be some delay in my getting back to you right away.

Updated Items: Cherry 1, Cherry 2, Japanese Maple 1, Spruce 2, Trident Maple 2

***Trident Maple will be sent out later today – please wait until after March 21 to send inquiries about this update***

Some items have been withheld from sale and are on hold pending update or retirement. If you don’t see something you were looking for, please ask.

There are other items that are being retired from display entirely due to age and lack of space.  These items will be found in the store on the right-hand side at permanently discounted prices. They may at some point be retired from sale entirely, though such will be announced specifically at some later point on the blog or through notecard.

In with the New

sugarmaple2-vendor2 This package of young sugar maple trees includes five different seasonal foliages – Spring, two Autumn shades, Winter and Lit.  A first for Organica also is texture change scripts (which were also included with the Trident Maple 2 update) which are available as a seperate single tree in the package for those who wish to use them.

aldergrove1-vendor2

These trees are available in three sizes and are great as broad forest items. They include both spring and autumn foliage, scripted and unscripted.

japanesemaple2-vendor2

A taller, fuller edition to the Japanese Maple series, this tree reflects the lush and humid nature of the natural environment Japanese Maples hail from.  This tree is again available in green and red foliage, along with a scripted edition which can switch between the two.

bougainvilleagate-RFLvendor

This is an arched trellis covered in bougainvillea vines and will be the first of Organica’s contributions to this year’s Relay for Life campaign for the American Cancer Society.

On Scripted Trees
I have long debated about the use of scripts to control tree textures since folks have a tendency to use so many trees at a time. Particularly in light of the lower prim offerings many tree stores offer today, the potential for increased lag server side is certainly there.  I’m not going to say the scripted trees I have begun offering are ‘lag free’, since no scripted object can ever claim that no matter how many times those words are bandied about in all-caps.

With that said, the scripts in each tree presented thus far have been found to average 0.03ms each, which is quite reasonable on a sim that is performing properly.  For those who are a bit more script conscious, non-scripted editions will always be provided for every foliage texture used in the scripted edition.

Photo Contest!

takingpictureAs part of the fun going on at Organica this month, I’m please to announce Organica’s first ever photo contest!

The Basics:

– Submit up to three (3) of your best photos taken in Organica Sim.

This contest is FREE to enter and the first, second and third place winners will receive the following prizes:

1st place: L$10,000 prize

2nd place: L$5,000 prize

3rd place: L$2,500 prize

– Contest ENDS at 12 Midnight, April 21, 2010

– Photos will be judged by three independent, impartial judges, and winners announced no later than  12 Midnight, May 1, 2010.

The Details:

– Photos must be sent to organicaphotocontest2010@spacylittlecowgirl.otherinbox.com no later than 12 midnight, Wednesday April 21, 2010.

– Photos can feature anything as long as they are recognizably taken in Organica, don’t contain adult content and are not defamatory in any way to any party or individual.

– Each contestant must submit ONLY photos of their own creation.

– Each contestant will be entitled to win only one of the three prizes, despite entry of several photos. The allowance for up to three photos gives entrants the opportunity to display the breadth of their work and allows the judges a larger pool to pick from. The selection of one photo for a prize will immediately invalidate the contestant from any other prize. This is to keep the contest fair and fun, while allowing folks the freedom to display their creative ability.

– By entering this contest, you consent to the publication of the photo (attributed to you) on the Organica blog, in Organica’s Flickr Contest pool, and in-world. All intellectual property will be respected and the photo will not be used in any way shape or form except to discuss the contest.

– There are vendors on the grounds, situated near some items. You will not be expected to photograph these – in fact I would encourage you not to. You can remove these vendors from view prior to taking your snapshot by opening up your Advanced menu (if you don’t have it revealed already, it’s control+alt+shift+d on a PC and command+alt+shift+d on a Mac), select Rendering>Hide Selected.  Then right click>edit each prim from the vendor (there are usually 5 in total) to erase them from view on your screen.

– Photo-editing IS permitted as long as the content is recognizably taken on Organica sim. Understandably, not all viewpoints and shots will be optimal and you may wish to tweak your visual treatments.  This is fine!

Updates, fixes and news!

Updates and Fixes
Mod/Copy Owners of the Cherry Trees 1 & 2, Japanese Maple 1 and Spruce 2 will have received updates to their products this week. These updates include some feature updating, bug fixing, and expansion of available sizing, depending on which set you bought.

Mod/Transfer Owners who wish to update must send their mod/transfer editions of these trees to me (Aki Shichiroji) in a folder clearly marked with their name in ALL CAPS. I will send the appropriate replacement as soon as possible.

News!

opening-promo
Yup, I’m pretty close to the official opening of the new sim! There are still many things i need to take care of, but I really hope you can make it to this exciting event for Organica!  There will be music, there will be shopping, there will be fishing, prizes, great scenery and more! Join us on March 21, 2010 from 4-6PM in Organica sim!

Winterstock! (and more)

Organica will be participating in Winterstock this year! Winterstock Poster TGA

Various new and coming holiday offerings will be available here for about a week to help promote the opening of the event, and will be placed at the main store after that point.

These are the first of a set of offerings that are on the way from Organica, along with some big changes and releases (hopefully) coming soon, pending available time.

The new spruce trees feature all new sculpts and textures and are between 3-4 prims each. The abstract pattern trees are new sculpts and textures, and are available either individually or by pack of all five. As always, these offerings are copy/mod.

spruce2-vendor

spruce2-xmas-abstract-vendor

September Updates!

Lots of new content this month!


1) Wooden Fences: After many requests for the preliminary wooden fence I put up around the orchard area, I have backed up that release with a full fence pack, which features 7 fence types, each between 2-3 prims per section. This product is only available mod/copy due to the necessity for multiple sections to complete a full fence. Most come with seperate second posts which should be unlinked from the section prior to duplication.
2) Bristlecone Pine: This Bristlecone pine is the first in a series I hope to produce. It features entirely original coniferous foliage and custom trunk texturing, oblong and square sculpts, and is 8 prims total. Available mod/copy/no trans as well as mod/no copy/trans.
3) Creepy Trees: It’s about that time of the year again! As October closes in on us, inevitably the Halloween decorations come out. Have a look at these new trees near the Hollow tree, just to the right of the store landing point! They vary from 7-15 prims each and are available mod/copy.
4) Thick and Twisted Ficus: This new (huge!) ficus comes in two shapes – some folks may prefer the straight and upright version, and some folks may prefer the twisted version that comes with it. (Twisted version shown, straight version on site). 9 prims each. Please note: each requires about a 60m by 60m footprint. Available mod/copy.
5) Spring and Dried Wheat: These two varieties of wheat are now available for those who’d like their own field of wheat. Available in spring green and dried editions, they take up as low as 1 prim each, with 4 different shapes to best suit your landscaping needs. Available mod/copy only.

3 new releases for the end of June

Hi Folks!

I managed to squeeze out a few more items for this update:

1) These were on hand in a preliminary form at Home and Garden Expo and ground level in the sim, however they weren’t for sale and really not ready to sell. I’ve since created new textures, added a curved path sculpt and packaged everything. These Stepping Stones are great for rocks along paths or as stones across water areas. I’ve also used them on occasion up against gardens or water ways to better define such edges. They are copy, mod, available in 5 different textures.

2) For those who would like to add sculpted landscaping to their skybox, or maybe even more detailed landscaping to mainland terrain with limited terraforming capability, these are ideal additions to your garden. Sold seperately or in a fatpack, there are five different textures, each coming with five different sculpt shapes to best suit what you are trying to do. You may wish to set these to ‘phantom’ as they are sculptie and will have boundary issues, however they *don’t* come with solid backings, so you will need to add transparent solid prims to back them if you do this. If you would like instruction on how to do this, do give me a shout. All pieces are copy/mod.

3) These trees are all part of one package and are offered with and without fruit. They’re intended to illustrate growth, from sapling to maturity, of an apple tree. The trees range from 2 to 6 prims each and are copy/mod.

Have a great week!