Submission Deadline
March 1, 2012
Six Finalists Notified
March 15, 2012
Online Public Vote
April 1 - May 1, 2012
Winning Town Announced
May 15, 2012
Return to the Current Competition home page.
Anyone age 13 or over may enter (with the exception of citizens in countries not eligible to participate; see below). If you are under 18 years of age on March 1, 2012, you must have an adult on your team as the team leader, and you must have your guardian's permission to participate. If your team is chosen as one of the finalists, we will ask your guardian to complete a permission form.
Yes. In fact, we encourage participants to form teams. Teams are limited to 6 people. If you're entering as a team, please specify the name of your team leader on your entry form. Team leaders must be at least 18 years old. If we need to contact your team, we'll contact your team leader.
Residents of Iran, Sudan, Cuba, Syria, North Korea and Myanmar (Burma) are not eligible to participate. As well, residents of Brazil, Italy and the province of Quebec are not eligible due to local regulatory compliance requirements.
Entries must adhere to the following acceptance criteria for inclusion in Google Earth, and will be judged on the basis of the following general criteria:
Up to 5 finalists will be selected by an internal team of experts at Google. The finalists will then be posted to the competition web site for the public to vote for the grand prize winner.
The winning team will be announced on the competition website on or around May 15, 2012.
We encourage you to model as many buildings as you can, but keep in mind that quality is more important than quantity.
This competition is all about showing off your community to the rest of the world; please model the buildings in your town that have significant meaning to you and the rest of your town. Consider starting with civic institutions like local government, schools, religious buildings, meeting places, business districts and other prominent structures.
Yes.
Yes, but the buildings you enter must not have been entered previously in a past Google competition. Please do not include buildings entered in previous competitions in your 3D Warehouse collection, or your entire entry will be ineligible, and excluded from judging.
Not at all. Your competition entry should include buildings that are important to you and the other residents of your town.
No. You can use the free versions of Google SketchUp and Google Earth.
You don't need to have the Pro version of SketchUp in order to enter this competition. The model-making features needed for the competition are available in both the Free and Pro versions of SketchUp. You can also read this article to learn more about the differences between SketchUp and SketchUp Pro.
We suggest using Google Earth to obtain your aerial imagery. However, if the Google Earth imagery isn't adequate for modeling, you may consider checking with your city government for data and then you can create an image overlay.
To enter the competition, your building models need to reside in the Google 3D Warehouse. If the models are made with Google SketchUp, you need to upload them to the 3D Warehouse one at a time. If they're made with Google Building Maker, they're automatically stored in the 3D Warehouse. When you're ready to enter the competition, create a 3D Warehouse collection that contains all the building models in your town. Copy the web address (URL) for your collection and paste it into the entry form. This is how the judges will be able to find and view your models.
Please visit our Get Started Page.
To preview your models in Google Earth from SketchUp, choose Tools > Google Earth > Place Model.
Please read this article to resolve this issue.
You can import a Google Earth terrain "snapshot" into your SketchUp file at any time, then position your model in the right place. Doing so gives your model a geographic location. Read this article for more information.
At this time, SketchUp won't display images larger than 1024x1024 at 72dpi. We suggest using textures at this resolution or smaller. To reduce the resolution of your original photos, we suggest reading the 'Optimizing your Textures' section in this article.
Yes. Take a look at this article for advice on building your own terrain. Please see specific terrain acceptance criteria.
You can make changes anytime before March 1, 2012. After that, no changes should be made.
Please visit the 3D modeling for Google Earth and Maps Forum to get fast answers to your questions. This is also a great venue for finding other people in your community who might want to join your team. Please post a request in the group specifying what you are looking for.
