3 Bloggers entered Microsoft Photosynth Photo360 contest. They did not win the Open Category. However, the experience prompt them to come up with something better (IMHO). BTW, the contest is still on-going for the highest number of votes. Click pass the break to let the story unfolds…

It all begins with some innocent tweets about a contest from DK (actually, I found that the original source is Chester!). Then, among us, we started talking about forming a team. Finally, the team was formed, secretly with Chester, DK and myself. We carried our conversation via email, MSN, Twitter, SMS and etc and attended the Launch of Photo360 contest at Microsoft on 13th March 2010.

So, we registered online and named our team, “Dee DigITall Lobang” which is a combination of our 3 blog names. The registration cum start of competition day is on the 13th Mar at Microsoft office.

There were a quite number of people at the event. The idea about this contest is to create as many synth on tourist spots, heritage sites and etc to showcase Singapore to the World. Another important aspect of the contest is YOG (Youth Olympic Game) which will start from the 14th August 2010. Microsoft is trying to build a nice user experiences for people who wants to visit Singapore by visiting those Synth. With its interactive format and 3D scenes, it will be one of the kind of experience. And together with Bing Map, these Photosynths will be integrated into them.

It was a simple process to let you understand more about Photosynth, how you can create beautiful 360 degrees 3D scenes and of course, the outline of the contest.

Competition Rules and Guidelines

• Synth is tagged with Photo360 and geo-tagged
• A minimum of 100 photos taken
• Above 80% synthy
• A minimum of 70 words to describe each site

Judging Elements

• 20% – Location and Orientation:
  • The choice of locations within a particular site and their orientation
• 20% – Detail:
  • The emphasis on things that make the site unique.
• 20% – Coverage:
  • The degree of coverage of the site; whether the synth to provides a captivating experience for online visitors.
• 15% – Photo Quality:
  • Quality of photos
• 15% – Judges Discretion:
  • The overall look, presentation, quality of synth, details and user experience.
• 10% – Description:
  • The quality of metadata about the sites

We discussed our game plan after the event and narrowed down to Clarke Quay. In the afternoon, we received Chester’s MMS about a secret weapon..

We decided to meet the next day at Clarke Quay at 7:00am (to beat the tourist crowd) for the shoot. I was late and DK was early!

It was surprisingly a good day with nice weather. I love the Eco Roof at Clarke Quay.

Ok, as Chester is the master of the secret weapon, we were there to assist him. In fact, I just watch only la 🙂 .

This is the first time we are showing off these pictures. We actually installed 3 Canon EOS DSLR onto the rig. We did a few trailers and teasers. Will come to that later.

Very serious look.

And the not so serious test shot.

And now, the positioning of the camera for the overlapping effect. This is important for a good synth. I am the one supporting the close ups so that the user can zoom into the area.

And there we go, we started to take pictures and at the end of the session, we took almost a thousand pics. We headed down to HackerSpace to analyse and uploaded the pictures to Photosynth.net.

Trust me, the Photosynth software will take out most of the juice of your computer. Luckily, we were using a Lenova Core i7 and it maxes out all 8-Threads of this 4-Core monster.

And the worse fear is confirmed, some of the shots had to be retake. As I have to leave early, DK and Chester went back to retake and kudos to their commitment to this contest. 🙂

The dateline was 18th Mar 2010 2pm and we decided to create a Group in Facebook. We thought that even if the competition is over, this group could still contribute to the photosynth in Singapore. It is also a small part of us to support YOG.

We created some trailers/teasers to entice people to join the group. Thanks to everyone for their support, we were able to garner a steady stream of supporters.

Our first teaser.

And prior to the dateline, we did another one.

On the actual award ceremony, we have the honor to have Mr. Teo Ser Luck to present the award. I think he is the most appropriate person to give out these awards as what we have done is a great way to promote Singapore, prior to YOG, which he is the person in charge of it.

Unfortunately, Dee DigITall Lobang did not win the open category.

But they doesn’t mean that all our efforts are wasted. We will continue with the group and hope that more will join in the fun with us to create more synths on Singapore.

Click Here to Dee DigITall Lobang Group

Ya, this VIP reception is NOT for us. Nevertheless, Microsoft provided some food for us.

BTW, after the event, we continued to talk about the group and decided that we will let everyone know about the group by this week. So, we did another video.

Right now, we hope to concentrate on the group and also we are still in competition mode 🙂

We are now in the voting phase. That means if people favorite our Synth, we stand a chance to win a prize. The most number of favorites will win. The contest starts from 19th March and will end in May.

Click Here to See our Photosynth on Clarke Quay

We hope to hear your comments on our synth so that we can learn and improve for future synths. Join our Facebook Group to get connected too!

And if you think we deserve a vote, please help us to favorite our Synth. Many thanks!

Here is the link again

http://tinyurl.com/clarkequay

PS: You will need an MSN, Hotmail account to favorite a synth. After sign in, click “Add to Favorites”.

After clicking on it once, you should see this.

PPS: We really appreciate if you have voted for us. If you have time, please make a comment on it. This commenting is NOT part of the contest. We would just like to hear your view. Thanks.

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