Category 16
This award honors an outstanding single physical or digital model in any Photoreal (i.e., live action) or Animated Project, Series or Limited Drama/Mini-Series, Commercial, Real-Time or Special Venue Project.
Category 16: Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project
Entries may include shots from multiple Episodes or Commercials ONLY if the model is the same in every instance (allowing minor variance for circumstance) and was created by the same team. This category focuses on a model’s physical artistry: detail, textures, and animation. A model may be of a living thing, inanimate object, or vehicle, and it may have been created virtually, physically, or any combination thereof. An entry may include multiples of the same model with slight deviations, such as scale and features, but must have been created by the same team and have only minor performance variations.
Environment models may be eligible in this category, however any interiors must be part of the same model as the exterior. The same model may not be entered in a Created Environment category, and large environments such as cities may not be entered in this Category even if rendered as a single model.
Animated Characters may not be entered in this Category; a model is considered a “character” if it clearly has a performance beyond basic movement.
In the event that the entry is a commercial, The Work to Be Considered must consist of the original, as-aired commercial, including text, product logo, etc., and have an original running time of no less than 15 seconds and no more than 90 seconds with the exception of game cinematics.
Qualifying Projects
Photoreal or Animated Features intended for Theatrical Release; or
Photoreal or Animated Commercials, intended for Theatrical, Broadcast or Streaming; or
A single Episode of a Photoreal or Animated Series or Limited Drama/Mini-Series, intended for Broadcast or Streaming; or
Special Venue Projects; or
Video Games or other interactive projects created with a Real-Time Engine.
Definitions:
A Feature is defined as a scripted, single, closed-end work with a beginning, middle and end, with a duration of 45 minutes or more. Pilots or single episodes which are part of a Series or Limited Drama/Mini-Series as defined in any VES Episodic eligible award categories, are explicitly excluded from this category.
A Series is defined as a scripted program with a theme, storyline or principal characters that must be predominantly featured in a minimum of six (6) continuous episodes.
A Limited Drama/Mini-Series is defined as a single title, multi-part, closed-end program based on a single theme or storyline, with a clear beginning, middle and end, which is resolved within the piece in two (2) or more installments.
A Commercial is defined as a motion imaging work that has been paid for by an identified sponsor, has been sent through one or more mass media, and is directed to a market segment with the explicit purpose of supporting the promotion or sale of a product, brand, service or idea. It should be readily apparent to the viewing public that the entry is a commercial.
Real-Time Projects are defined as projects that are generated through a CG rendering engine at the same time the audience experiences them. Pre-rendered projects, such as “cinematics”, are not eligible – all projects must be demonstrably interactive at the time of the real-time render. One way to demonstrate the real-time nature of the Project is by including a fps frame rate counter in the Before & After. If the real-time nature of the submission is called into question, the submitter must be able to prove the real-time nature of the rendering by demonstrating interactivity of the scene live to the VES Awards Committee. Real-Time Projects must have been released for the first time to the general public within the calendar year of the Awards. Demonstrations are not eligible for an Award.
Game content updates, such as a new season or a DLC pack, may be submitted as valid entries, as long as the vast majority of the content being shown in the Work to be Considered is new to that release and shipped during the premiere date window for this awards year. The entirety of the year’s work may be considered, but the entry must be clearly titled showing the content source.
A Special Venue Project is defined by the location at which the material is shown. Special Venues are locations such as theme parks, large-format theaters, museums, galleries, outdoor sites, or live theatres, but not standard movie theaters, homes, or personal viewing devices. Projects must be specifically created for that venue; repurposed projects do not qualify. One-time projects (e.g., opening/closing ceremonies at the Olympics) are eligible in this category, as are Virtual Reality projects for Special Venues. Demonstration, pre-release, or trade show projects are not eligible for the VES Awards. Special Venue Virtual Reality projects must use custom equipment and cannot use readily available consumer gear. Special Venue Projects may be Photoreal or Animated, interactive or linear, and 2D or 3D; but the Work to Be Considered and Before & Afters must be submitted as 2D, linear, and with the correct specifications.
Photoreal is synonymous to live action, the intent being that the images should appear to have been photographed in the real world, even if the actual subjects are fantastical and do not exist in the real world.
Animated refers to a project where the filmmakers have purposely chosen a look clearly distinct from photorealism for the benefit of the storytelling. The Awards consider animation to be a genre that is independent of the process by which it is created. Some of the techniques of animating films include but are not limited to hand-drawn animation, computer animation, stop-motion, clay animation, pixilation, cutout animation, pinscreen, camera multiple pass imagery, kaleidoscopic effects created frame-by-frame, and drawing on the film frame itself. Motion capture and real-time puppetry are not by themselves animation techniques.
Premiere Dates:
January 1 to December 31, 2023
Additional Information:
Title sequences are eligible as long as they are submitted in textless form, and they are part of the storytelling and are not a specially designed separate title sequence. Motion graphics and logos are not eligible in this category.
Who Is Eligible?
Slot 1: open to any significant modeling contributor
Slot 2: open to any significant modeling contributor
Slot 3: open to any significant modeling contributor
Slot 4: open to any significant modeling contributor
Slot 5: empty
A maximum of four (4) individuals, including Miniature/Physical Models artists, who personally contributed significantly to the creation of the Work to Be Considered, may be named in any one Specific Arts entry.
All individuals submitted must be directly involved with the work being considered in the entry and must have contributed to the artistry being considered for the Award. For example, animators, riggers, modelers, texture artists, or even actors would be an important part of an animated character entry, but environment or effects simulation artists would probably not. The Awards Committee reserves the right to question whether an artist contributed directly to the work being considered.
The following are specifically NOT eligible in this category:
Overall project VFX Supervisors, VFX Producers, Producers, Executive Producers, Animation Producers, and facility managers.
Facility (in-house) VFX Supervisors who wish to enter must submit a petition along with the entry in which they provide verifiable details of their significant, personal hands-on work on the Work to Be Considered that was over and above their normal supervisory duties.
Entrant Names; Entrant Substitutions
List entrants in the order in which they should appear in any announcements or publicity. Make sure the names and email addresses are spelled correctly. Select your nominees carefully. Submitters should consider qualified artists who no longer work at the facility.
If you find that you need to make an entrant name substitution, go to the original online submission form using the username and password issued at the time of submission. Make the desired name change and click “Submit” to complete the change.
No substitutions will be allowed after the nomination event.
If there is valid reason to question the eligibility of an entrant, the VES Awards Committee reserves the right to investigate the situation and take appropriate action. For more information on name substitutions, consult the VES Awards Policies, Section 11, Name changes, substitutions, and challenges.
Submission Forms and Submission Numbers
You must fill out a Submission Form online and obtain a Submission Number to be in the Awards. Complete the form, have it signed (electronic signatures are acceptable), upload the completed form to the site by the deadline, November 30, 2023.
Signatures
Entry forms must be signed by:
- The person submitting the entry (who may or may not be an entrant); and
- The overall project VFX Supervisor; or
- The overall project VFX Producer.
- In the case of submissions created under the employ of a facility, a member of the facility’s management
The signers acknowledge that all entrants are eligible and agree to follow and be bound by the rules, procedures, and policies of the VES Awards.
In the case of multiple entries from the same submitting organization, instead of signing each individual submission form the overall VFX Supervisor or overall VFX Producer (or the equivalent to these job titles) may submit a single signed letter to the Awards Committee covering all of the award submissions they are authorizing. This letter must include each individual Submission Number for which they are signing. To avoid confusion, this letter should be submitted to the VES office at the same time as the entries it is authorizing.
Contact Person
Please assign one contact person for all your entries. This is the individual (the Submitter) to whom the username and password for uploading your electronic submission will be sent.
This contact person must be available to the Awards Committee during vetting (December through early January) to deal with any potentially disqualifying issues that the Awards Committee may uncover during vetting. He or she should know where to reach everyone named on the submission in case of questions and who can arrange to re-edit a submission if necessary.
How Many Entries May Be Submitted for this Project?
Multiple entries from the same project are eligible provided the artistic teams are 100% different and the footage being submitted is completely different.
If multiple entries are submitted for this Feature, all submitters will be notified that they must submit one joint entry or risk disqualification of all entries. If a payment has been made on a duplicate entry, the submitter may use that payment towards an entry in a different category.
What Should Be Uploaded?
Work to Be Considered Length: 1:30 Max.*
Before & Afters Length: 1:30 Max.*
Optional Supporting Material PDF: 1:00 reading time
Submission format (new for 2023): Quicktime with video as ProRes 422 Proxy, 1920x1080p, 23.98fps, Rec709, Gamma 2.4. Audio as Stereo 16-bit 44.1/48KHz embedded uncompressed PCM. No exceptions.
*Not including the length of slates
Entry Content
Your entry is made of two parts:
The work you are submitting for the judges to view (the Work to Be Considered). Descriptive information about how the VFX for the project were created (the Before & Afters material).
Entrants are responsible for their own quality control. The VES accepts no responsibility for viewing materials that do not play properly, are submitted at the wrong resolution or format, or are of inferior quality (see Submission Format, below).
FACILITY IDs: Viewing materials (including Before & Afters),supplemental written materials, or slates may NOT contain the names of facilities, production company logos, logo bugs, or individuals that worked on the project. Entries containing such material will be required to resubmit without identifying marks or they may be disqualified
Work To Be Considered
This is the project material you wish to enter for an award. All Work to Be Considered must be submitted as premiered. Long single shots may be edited down for length by trimming the head or tail of the shot, or lifting one continuous section from the middle. However, you may NOT:
- Change the order of sequences from how they appeared within the project
- Change the order of or edit shots (except very long shots as stated above) within a sequence
- Put different contextual material around the Work to Be Considered other than how it was premiered
- Add fades or dissolves to “smooth” awkward transitions created by cutting down the sequence. However, you may place a few frames of black between segments
- Use sound other than the original sound track as premiered
- Add watermarks to any viewing material
You should provide some contextual material surrounding the Work to Be Considered where it is available. “Contextual Material” is the shots (visual effects or otherwise) immediately preceding or following the work you are submitting. This contextual material shows how the Work to Be Considered fits into the scene, sequence, or project. Contextual Material must be short and solely shown to set up the effects being presented.
Before & Afters
All entries must submit Before & Afters. The Before & Afters material must be unique to this entry and tailored to the category you are entering. Where the special (practical) effects played a major role in the project, the Before & Afters should include footage demonstrating this fact. Before & Afters entered in different categories from the same project must be significantly different from one another and must specifically address the shots and category being submitted. Before & Afters must demonstrate how the work was accomplished through one or more of the following:
- Storyboards Animatics and/or previs
- Raw plates
- Raw elements
- Work-in-progress (developmental progression of shot)
- The finished shot
In addition:
- Company logos, logo bugs, or individual names identifying who worked on the entry are not permitted. Entries containing such material will be required to resubmit without identifying marks or they may be disqualified.
- Special Venue entries must include video footage of the project from the perspective of the audience.
- Real-Time entries should include video footage demonstrating game assets in their native authoring environment. Overlays showcasing hardware and software performance are also welcomed.
- You may not use the same Before & Afters clip for two different categories, though limited reuse of individual shots is permissible as long as they fit the intent of the category.
Your entry may be disqualified if the Before & Afters material contains any of the following:
Extraneous material that does not relate directly to the Work to Be Considered Shots or sequences that are not shown in the Work to Be Considered except for brief references from external sources, such as YouTube or other films
Talking heads explaining the work (voice-over narration is acceptable)
Written Supporting Material
Submitters may, at their option, provide a concise written description of how the Work to Be Considered was created. Please submit a PDF file of your written material at the time of submission by uploading the PDF by clicking on “Actions>Upload supplemental material” on the Submission Form. PDFs of nominated entries will be posted on the View & Vote website. Do not send printed copies of written supporting material to the VES.
Guidelines for Written Material:
- Put the Submission Number on every page
- Keep the number of pages to a minimum
- Written material may not include the names of individuals or facilities that directly worked on the visual effects.
- Reprints of magazine or web articles are not allowed
- Please name the PDF file the same as the submission number of your submission (e.g. 01- 9999).
Audio
All sound used in the Work to Be Considered portion of the entry must be the original sync sound as premiered. Entries may be submitted MOS, but they must be clearly labeled as such on the slate. However, the Before & Afters material may have alternate audio, including relevant commentary. Commentary may not include the names of facilities or individuals that did the work, be self congratulatory, or otherwise off-topic.
Slates
- The Slates contain the Entry ID needed for the filename. It is the same number as the ID on vesawards.awardsplatform.com/, but in a different order needed for our records.
- The Head Slate goes at the beginning of each submission, and the Tail Slate goes at the end of each submission. Tail slates will be automatically generated when you create your submission. If revised materials are submitted, you do not need to update the Slate.
Submitting Viewing Materials
Viewing materials must be submitted in electronic form. We will not accept a submission in physical media form.
Electronic Submissions
When you first made your submission you created a unique username and password to use for electronic material submissions. Use the same username and password for all your submissions. But keep in mind that each individual entry will also be given a unique file name that corresponds to only one specific Submission Number.
Submission Format: ProRes Proxy (new for 2023)
The new submission format for 2023 is Apple ProRes Proxy in a QuickTime wrapper (.mov).
The submission/encoding format is easy to use, and is compatible with all major computing platforms (PC, MAC, Linux). It has been designed to be practical on all but the slowest of Internet connections.
One tool that you can use to create a correct entry is Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve, the free version available for PC, Mac, and Linux is sufficient.
All viewing material must follow these guidelines:
- 1920x1080p, 23.98fps ProRes Proxy Video
- Color encoding per Rec709
- Gamma 2.4
- Audio should be stereo, embedded uncompressed PCM 16-bit 44.1/48KHz.
No exceptions to these requirements.
The VES is not responsible for any artifacting present in video files used for online voting that may be caused by interlaced footage.
Upload Order
The entry must be uploaded in two parts:
- The Work to Be Considered (the entry) is one upload; and
- The Before & Afters material is the second upload.
Use the VES slates on both uploads and follow the upload order below in assembling your submission:
Upload No. 1:
Part 1:
WORK TO BE CONSIDERED
A) :05 VES HEAD SLATE
B) :01 BLACK
C) — WORK TO BE CONSIDERED MATERIAL
D) :01 BLACK
E) :01 VES TAIL SLATE
Upload No. 2:
Part 2:
BEFORE & AFTERS
A) :05 VES HEAD SLATE
B) :01 BLACK
C) — BEFORE & AFTERS MATERIAL
D) :01 BLACK
E) :01 VES TAIL SLATE
File Naming Conventions
Your uploaded submission(s) must be named as follows:
For Part 1: Work to Be Considered
- Entry ID.mov (This is the original project material)
For Part 2: Before & Afters
- Entry ID.beforeandafters.mov (This is your Before & Afters file)
For example: For Submission ID 02-0003, name your files as follows:
- Work to Be Considered: 02-0003.mov
- Before & Afters: 02-0003.beforeandafters.mov
What Are The Important Dates?
SUBMISSIONS OPEN: Monday, October 9, 2023
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: Thursday, November 30, 2023, 11:59PM PST
NOTE: Unavailability of personnel to prepare submission materials in time to meet the entry deadline is not a valid reason to be granted a deadline extension.
22nd ANNUAL VES AWARDS TIMETABLE
(Dates subject to change)
2023
Period of Eligibility for Entries | January 1 – December 31
Rules & Procedures Posted | August 28
Entry Forms Available, Submissions Open | October 9
Submission Deadline | November 30, 2023
2024
Global Nominating Panels | January 13
L.A. Nomination Judging Panels Hold Vote | January 13
Nominations Announced | January 16
On-Line Viewing & Vote (Members Only) | January 22 – February 4
22nd Annual VES Awards Gala | Wednesday, February 21, 2024
What Are The Entry Fees?
The total fee for each entry is $460, regardless of how many individuals are named on the submission or their VES affiliation.
Vouchers
Each VES member is entitled to one personal Submission Voucher that will cover that member’s entry fee for one entry only or that member’s pro-rated portion of one entry if he or she is a part of a team entry.
For purposes of pro-rating, VES vouchers are deemed to have a value of $115 regardless of the category being entered. Therefore, the non-VES entrants must pay the difference between the $460 total entry fee minus the value of the VES vouchers being applied to the entry.
- Example #1: Assume that an entry in category 4 (where a total of five entrants is allowed) is using two vouchers valued at $230. That leaves a balance of $230 to be split among the remaining three entrants for a total value of $460.
- Example #2: Assume that an entry in category 12 (limited to four entrants) is using one voucher only. That leaves a balance of $345 to be split among the remaining three entrants.
Each member may make a voucher by photocopying their valid VES membership card and including it with the submission as their portion of the entry fee.
Vouchers are non-transferable.
Payment
Payment must be received by the VES no later than 5 PM PST, November 30, 2023. Entries are not complete and will not be vetted until payment has been made.
How Do I Submit?
Submissions may only be made through this VES Awards website by following the directions below.
- Designate ONE person to be your primary “go to” person for all VES Awards matters. This person is the official Submitter. He or she must sign the Submission Form.
- The submission form will be available starting on or about October 9, 2023 on this site.
- Click on “Submit an Entry” below.
- After clicking “Submit an Entry”, click on “Create New Submission.” Instructions will take you through the complete registration and submission process and will guide you on how to prepare your materials for upload.
- Give each entry a distinct project title (preferably the project’s main title) and entry name on both the entry form and on the slate (e.g., Main Title of Project: Avengers; Name of Clip: Hulk Smashes Loki).
- When you have completed the Submission Form, click ”Submit”. A unique submission number will be automatically issued. At the same time, slates will be automatically generated for your viewing materials.
- One submission per form. Do not combine multiple entries on a single submission form.
- Making a note of the official Submission Number. Do not lose this login information or share it with an unauthorized individual. You will need this information later if you have to make changes to your submission.
- Print or Download your completed entry form, have it signed by the appropriate individuals (electronic signatures are acceptable), upload the completed form to the site by the deadline, November 30, 2023.
- Entry fees should be paid by using the online credit card authorization form in the section “Submit an Entry”.
- Use the Submission Number in all correspondence relating to your entry.
- Upload your viewing materials in Submission Format (ProRes as specified above), no later than Thursday, November 30, 2023.
Exceptions and Petitions
How Do I Get Support?
Questions about these Awards should be directed to awards@vesglobal.org.