DC Universe Online Animation Contest Starts Today

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DCUO MassAnimation

The DC Universe Online/Mass Animation – Animation Contest has officially kicked off! Now, budding animators and fans alike can compete by animating shots in a cinematic trailer or animating character gestures for in-game emotes for the upcoming PlayStation 3 game, DC Universe Online.

All of the tools that you will need to enter will be provided including a special edition of Autodesk Maya 3D Animation software, storyboards, designs and fully-rigged 3-D models, along with access through the Mass Animation application on the DCUO Facebook fan page. Once your entry is complete, you can upload your submission for viewing, voting and sharing with friends through the Facebook application. Each week voters, and a panel of judges which included members of the DCUO team, will help determine what shots qualify as the “best” and will be eligible for voter prizes.

There will be 60 submissions chosen as runners-up for the game trailer and each will each receive $500.00 and a copy of DCUO when it ships. The 40 runners-up of the Emote animation entries will win $150, the opportunity for inclusion of the submission in the DCUO Game, your name in the game credits, and a copy of the DCUO when it ships.

Finally those who choose not to submit, but wish to vote are also eligible for great prizes! A top weekly voter prize will be drawn from each week’s voter database for both the Game Trailer and Game Character Animation!

Sign up now on Facebook!

Below are the official rules and regulations:

To enter the contest you must be at least eighteen (18) years of age at the time of entry (twenty (20) years old if resident of Japan) (iii) are registered users of the Facebook website located at http://www.facebook.com (the “Facebook Site”) and (iv) did not purchase any products, services or equipment for the purposes of entering this Competition. Limit: The Competition is open to only the first ten thousand (10,000) persons who meet the eligibility requirements in accordance with these Official Rules. Employees of Mass Animation, LLC, Sony Online Entertainment LLC, DC Comics, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Autodesk, Inc., Reel FX, Inc., and any entity involved or affiliated with the promotion or execution of this Competition and any of their parent and affiliate companies are not eligible. The Competition is subject to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations and is not open to any individual person who resides in any country in which this Competition is prohibited or otherwise restricted. Void in Cuba, Burma/Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Sudan, North Korea, the Netherlands, Quebec (in Canada) and where prohibited or otherwise restricted.

For Contest Rules please visit: http://www.facebook.com/DCUniverseOnline

ABOUT SOE: Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games which have entertained millions of players around the globe. SOE creates and delivers compelling entertainment for the personal computer, online, game console and wireless markets. Known for its blockbuster franchise EverQuest, its successful online trading card game Legends of Norrath, as well as the recent kids’ phenomenon Free Realms, SOE continues to raise the bar for online gaming and players worldwide. Headquartered in San Diego, with additional studios in Austin, Seattle, Denver, Tucson, and Taiwan, SOE has a slate of engaging, high-quality games currently in development across new genres for all platforms and audiences.

SOE, the SOE logo, EverQuest and PlanetSide are registered trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC.

All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

DC Comics, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is the largest English-language publisher of comics in the world and home to such iconic characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Sandman. These DC Super Heroes and others have starred in comic books, movies, television series (both animated and live-action) and cyberspace, thrilling audiences of all ages for generations. DC Comics’ Web site is located at www.dccomics.com.

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24 Comments

6 Author Replies

  • im 12 and what is this

  • Will this game make it out next year? or will the wait be even longer.

    • Thanks for your comment, we have not released a final ship date. The only thing I can say is that it will be worth the wait!

  • darn, you guys are making me finally want a facebook account

  • Definitely a cool contest. Surprising too. Special edition of Maya? Wow.

  • fixing to sign-up. I want this game NOW…you see the keyword there lol…this game is gonna rock

    • Wow, nice to hear. Stay in touch with us on Facebook.com/dcuniverseonline and you will be among the first to know when we open beta registration, when we are bringing live demos to events and other plans as they evolve.

  • haha i find it funny where the contest void. the commies(Cuba,N.K) want in on the guds and(Iran,Syria,Sudan) gonna have there own Superhero named Bomberman.

  • Will there be a beta for this game?

    • Yes, there will definitely be a beta. We are not sure when it will be opening but we’ll announce it for sure on our Facebook site, Facebook.com/DCUniverseOnline

  • will there be a beta for the PS3 for this game?

  • I pray this game comes out this year, I’ve been waiting forever.

  • just signed up, added you all, also on twitter, i’m ready!

  • Such a hard choice between MMOs. Either this or FFXIV will have my attention. I’ll be sure to try both and give them an equal chance.

  • Do I have to use Maya? My native app is XSI and I can convert the files, do the work, then convert them back into .mb/.ma for you guys.

    • Yes, the contest is really set up to use Maya 2008 and that is the best way to ensure your upload will pass the validation.

  • Wow…nice! And its open to Canada…even better! Except for Quebec; but then again Quebec is only part of Canada when its to their benefit anyway. ;-) jk.

  • Is there any chance you guys might start pumping out more info on this game? Hardly anybody knows it’s even going to be on the PS3 much less who DC comics is.

    All the buzz right now is over Marvel….. (Who was just bought by Disney, and then the owner of the Marvel characters in the franchise pulled all rights to them from Disney……)

  • This game is going to be great, I’ve been following it since it was announced. The devs are doing a great job with keeping the gamers interested with contests like these.

    However, a few questions.

    We keep hearing that some characters we create have a chance to make their way into DC comics, any news on how this story-arch will happen?

    And ofcoarse the one I’m sure you guys hear the most. When will beta start?

  • How long is the contest gonna go on?

  • Wow, that is a lot of money on the line…Might be incentive for me to finally learn Maya haha.

  • Hot diggity!

  • I know you guys haven’t announced a ship date yet, but I do want to know two things:

    1) Will this game ship day-and-date on the PS3, or will it be on PC first like Free Realms?

    2) Will Free Realms ever actually come out for the PS3 as originally intended?

    Thanks! I’m looking forward to this game. I’m a big fan of the DC comics, and I hope that some day Animal Man makes it into this game, because I was disappointed when I saw the big list of characters confirmed for the game and didn’t see him there!

    • Right now we can\’t make any promises but our goal is to ship it at the same time on both the PC and PS3. As far as Free Realms I would say to keep visiting their Facebook site and as soon as there is any news on that subject it will certainly be posted there.

  • i’m not on facebook, dont you guys have a blog?! facebook is evil!

  • I’m not on Facebook either and don’t plan on it. You guys can at least do this on Twitter or right here on the blog.

  • I cant wait for this game to release. I have been waiting since you guys uploaded the 2 videos in the PS store. Hopefully I can get in on that beta when you guys release that.

  • cant w8 for this! i want more info in the game.

  • Facebook not a member (never will be) sorry.

  • This is a cool contest, I guess; but it shows how far behind DCUO is on production. They need free mass labor for their game animations.
    Here’s the math:
    60 game trailer grand prize winners:
    (500+50)x60=$33,000
    42 game character animation first prize winners:
    (150+50)*42=$8,400
    7 trailer first prizes:
    1199*7=$8393
    7 Game first prizes:
    179*7=$1253
    14 top voter prizes:
    40*14=$560
    Approximately $51,606 in available prizes
    42 seconds in game animation
    (42 shots@1second)
    84.75 seconds in trailer animation
    (53 shots@various times)
    That’s 126.75 seconds of animation; this only accounts for phase one of the contest We won’t know how long the shots for phase 2 are until Dec 14. All submissions (win or lose) forfeit their right to intellectual property in section 7 of the official rules, so if there are other good animations they could use for other characters, that’s free labor for them right there. Good way to get your name into the game and make some small change but if the community is going to work on the game it may as well be cheaper (or free!).

  • what can we see in the future for character design?

  • Do you mind telling me why Quebec is void?

    I can’t believe this…

  • @WindedHero

    Gotta love the fine print eh?

  • @WindedHero

    Even if they are behind and need mass help from freelance animators, I myself am 100% ok with it. Being a freelance animator, the chance to get my animations into a game and my name in the credits is worth much more then the $$$. :)

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