Presenting: The 2011 Graphic Contest!

[pupintheturd]

OK, Sweet May, your assignment will be sent to you tommorow so keep an eye on your inbox.

Now it's your turn, Skiyomi, choose your judge.

 

[Skiyomi]

Alrighty then, I'll choose Northern Lights.

 

[pupintheturd]

OK then, I believe it goes without saying that junpearl63's judge shall be none other than zhanton.

All assignment PM's should be in tommorow, if not then, the day after. If your PM hasn't arrived around then, you should contact your judge personally.

 

[Northern Lights]

Alrighty then, I'll choose Northern Lights.

*cracks knuckles* alrighty then ... now to think of something challenging.

To these all-female head-strong artists

Wow, I only just noticed that ... *headdesk*

 

[pupintheturd]

Northern Lights
zhanton
pupintheturd

Skiyomi

Banner
>Following of the theme/requirements: 10
>Appeal and expertise: 6
>Originality: 8

[24]

Banner
>Following of the theme/requirements: 10
>Appeal and expertise: 7
>Originality: 9

[26]

Banner
>Following of the theme/requirements: 10
>Appeal and expertise: 6
>Originality: 9

[25]

[75]


Junpearl63

Banner
>Following of the theme/requirements: 9
>Appeal and expertise: 5
>Originality: 7

[21]

Banner
>Following of the theme/requirements: 10
>Appeal and expertise: 9
>Originality: 8

[27]

Banner
>Following of the theme/requirements: 10
>Appeal and expertise: 5
>Originality: 7

[22]

[70]

Sweet May

Banner
>Following of the theme/requirements: 10
>Appeal and expertise: 7
>Originality: 8

[25]

Banner
>Following of the theme/requirements: 10
>Appeal and expertise: 9
>Originality: 9

[28]

Banner
>Following of the theme/requirements: 10
>Appeal and expertise: 8
>Originality: 7

[25]

[78]

Spoiler: entries

Skiyomi

Theme: Space [you can interpret this however you wish]
Medium: Banner 400pxls x 200pxls
Requirements: You can only use ONE image, and the colour scheme must be blue based [btw this does not mean entirely blue, but any other colours you use must "blend" or "compliment"]

any questions? =]

Theme: Dreams
Medium: Banner

Requirements
~420 x 150 in size
~The main colour needs to be a shade of green
~Black border of 5 pixels, only on the top and bottom
~There must be text
~You may not use stock images/photographs/pictures of that band that are in 99% of your banners.

junpearl63

Sweet May

Dear Sweet May,

This is your assignment.

The theme will be "Music". And the medium will be a vertical banner.
Simple as that.

Peace,
pupintheturd

http://i56.*******.com/72sxe9.png

---

Such amazing entries. But it can't be denied, one was the best in this challenge, and that one is no other than Sweet May, she did her best and it will be rewarded. She gets to make a jump to the last stage of the Grand finale!

Let me explain.

junpearl63, Skiyomi, you two will face-off in a special signature battle. The winner of that battle gets to enter the last stage of the Grand finale and bolt off against Sweet May... but should you lose, it's bye, bye.

Sweet May can rest for a while. You'll need your focus when you're competing in the final stage of the Grand Finale!

Do remind. When you're having a signature battle, people that may or may not know anything about forum signatures will grade yours. So be prepared, for the battle that may even be harder than the finale!

It is time, for the

Grand Final - Stage Two

Skiyomi and junpearl63 shall engage in a special signature battle. With the the following requirements:

• The theme will be 'Green'. Interpret this theme as you wish.
• The medium shall be a banner. But the total banner size (Height x Width) cannot exceed a total of 90000 pixels .

Everything has to be handed in before 25 July. The Signature Battle thread will be open for seven days for voting. Everyone can vote. The person who has the most points will win and gets to do the final challenge. If seven days is not enough for one contestant to be declared the winner, the thread will open until it can be declared.

It's only a three day deadline so get cracking.

Good luck.​

Any further questions?

 

[junpearl63]

Wait wait wait 3 days?! I can't possibly make it, since I'm on vacation, and I won't be back until Monday. If this is the case, I'm afraid I have drop out and step down

 

[Northern Lights]

Wait wait wait 3 days?! I can't possibly make it, since I'm on vacation, and I won't be back until Monday. If this is the case, I'm afraid I have drop out and step down

3 days is a bit short notice, I would have atleast given them a week, seeing as they had no idea what was in store for them for this Round.

 

[pupintheturd]

Hmmm... that sucks.

Oh, well, take your time. You have until August, 1, although I do hope you guys hand it in before then.

 

[Zhanton]

filler post is filler-y

I just wanted to saw congratulations to Sweet May on making it straight to the Grand Final, and best of luck to Skiyomi and junpearl in your Signature Battle challenge

Once again, if you have any questions regarding why you got a certain score, don't be scared to send one of us a PM or VM.

:]

 

[pupintheturd]

http://serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?t=533369

And that's the judging, guys.

It has been one month now... I am sorry for slacking, just enjoying my holiday, as I think you all have been doing too. But now, now, there's no reason for me to be slacking off any longer as the two contestants for finale have been chosen. Skiyomi and Sweet May. (Fun fact: both moderators of the digital media.) That being said, we wave goodbye to our third place winner, junpearl63 also one of the best and as a token of our gratitude and her accomplishment, she shall receive a prize.

Now, without further ado;

This is the Grand Finale, you show what you have learnt and what you already knew before this contest in this challenge. This challenge shall be a freestyle one. You are free to choose what you make and how you make it. But of course it has to be Digital art. That being said, you are allowed to use pixel art, etc.

You both have two weeks to complete your work and we shall judge it afterwards. It shall be without the form you all know and love so much but we shall eloborate on our line of thought and why we think that one is better than the other one.

Any questions?

If not, good luck, Sweet may and Skiyomi!

 

[Azure Wolf]

This thread was quite interesting. I'm eagerly waiting for the final voting thread now.
See you guys in the 2012 contest, I'll be off again for a few months.

 

[pupintheturd]

I didn't actually know that people other than us three and the contestants followed this thread, so that means a lot to me and will hopefully get me motivated enough to not be a lazy butt and actually get everything on time and stuff.

So yeah, thanks for that. Means a lot. :]

 

[wolftamer]

Good luck Skiyomi and Sweet May! May the best artist win!

(I've been following it even after I was eliminated, It's too exciting to stop looking!)

 

[Northern Lights]

This round will finish tomorrow if i'm not mistaken, so if you have forgotten to "hand in" your entries, you had better do it soon.
Hopefully juding won't take too long, we will try to give you detailed glowing reports if your entries are superb, or Constructive Critism if they are horrendous lol, jk, your entries will be awesome

 

[Cassiopeia]

Good luck to Skiyomi and Sweet May!

 

[BlazingCold]

GL to Skiyo and SM, I think SM has the advantage but Skyiomi is still amazing..

I don't do banners but they're cool to look at.

 

[Zhanton]

the end is near.

If all goes well, the results of the final round should be posted in the next few days. We apologise for the lengthy delays, but I'm sure you'll agree that it's well worth the wait! Best of luck to our two finalists once again.

 

[pupintheturd]

FINAL CHALLENGE
This day will be more memorable than your wedding... ?​

If full caps didn't make you excited, maybe the fact that these are the finals will. Are you excited to win? Are you maybe excited to lose? Either way, lets hop right to the designs and hear what our judges have to say about it. Uncensored and uncorrected. Thats when you realize it's serious business.

Sweet May, I love the texture use, added in with th scanlines. The colours you've got match well with the render you've chosen and the soft tones of the figure have been highlighting by the soft lighting. my only problem is that, personally, I find the thatt he figures face could have been darkened slightly as the details like her nose and mouth have almost dissapeared.

Sweet May, the moment I took a look at your banner, my mouth fell open. In a good way, of course. The piece you have submitted is breathtaking in terms of depth. Your use of fractals and c4ds has really created a sense of flow and depth in your banner and it all complements the dynamic render. The colour scheme matches beautifully and looks great. I love the mood you've conveyed through the use of colour and lighting. You've also managed to make the text stand out without making it steal the focus. The only nitpick I have is the fact that the character has two different coloured eyes; it bugs me for some reason. Other than that, it's a stunning banner.

Sweet May, I do like the render you have chosen. And the placement of it is pretty nice and does somewhat obey the rule of thirds. The grungy theme you have chosen to use on the banner works great with the nature of the render. It's a really good banner in terms of design and concept. But I do feel you haven't brought it to its full potential. For example, I would have loved to see you use the sharpen and blur tool on the hand and body to make the hand and head really pop-out and increase the overrall depth. Really nice, though.

Skiyomi, good work with the text, I quite like the colour scheme and the patterns/textures merging the seperate images in together, however, I don't like how each image has a different amount of contrast or lighting, but no direct line of focus.

Skiyomi. I love the way you make text look so easy. The colouring of the text and the text itself looks so elegant, so perfect, so beautiful. It perfectly matches the tone of the banner and I do like the style you've used. The renders, brushes and textures you've used all add together to produce a strong feeling of emotion that looks spectacular. I like the layout as well; it's different, unique, and most importantly, it works. I do feel, however, that your banner seems a bit flat in that although it is all blended beautifully, there's little to no depth involved. I'm also not a massive fan of the circular texture you've placed, especially the bluer one on the left side. Overall though, it's a beautiful piece brought together by your nifty use of text.

Skiyomi, the biggest problem I have with most of your work is that you most of the time, lack a focal point, like now. Most of the time it's because you use multiple renders that don't go together in your work. On the other hand, the conveying of emotion is really cool, and does make up for that to an extent.

VOTING​

What does the female mind amongst us think about the situation? Sexism?

Spoiler

Sweet May gets my vote.

Ohhh, interesting, lets hurry over to the other voters!

But what does the Z think about the whole vote thingy?

Spoiler

I know it sounds cliched, but it's really difficult to pick just one and I wish you could both win. But, alas, it's a contest, and there can only be one winner, and my vote goes to Sweet May.

...

Sweet May is the first winner of the first Graphics Contest ever!

Give her a round of applause for her awesome design! With that, this whole contest is near over.

Skiyomi, second place is worth noting and you should be proud of what you have accomplished. Needless to say, you shall receive a prize too. You both will receive a signature that stands symbol for your accomplishments in this competition

I know you have waited for this one.

Spoiler

My vote would also have gone to Sweet May. The concept of her piece was refreshing from most designs in this competition and the piece was excersised good enough.

With that, this competition is almost over. But what would a competition be without sappy final words?

I'd like to start with a few words of thanks. Firstly, thanks to pupintheturd; he's put in a massive amount of work in order to ensure this contest has run smoothly, and that it has. Please join me in giving him a round of applause. I'd also like to thank him for giving me the opportunity to judge. It has really helped me to learn many a trick regarding the art of making graphics, so thankyou once again. I'd also like to thank all of our contestants throughout the year for consistently wowing us with your talent, and I'd like to congratulate both Skiyomi and Sweet May on making it to the final stage. Well done both of you; you two are truly the most deserving of our contestants to make it to the last challenge.

This competition was a really hard one to run. I felt discouraged quite a few times about this thing and didn't really wanted to continue with it. Northern Lights had also tried to a competition like this and I saw her post something like "Judges, you agreed to judge, do it!" or something along those lines. But you know I was kind of intimidated by NL at the time (still a little) and whenever I felt like quitting I remembered those words and feared for my Internet life, so I didn't quit. And am I glad I didn't. Thank you, zhanton for being a cool Internet friend and helping me out as a judge. Thank you, NL for being a real motivation and for being on our competition in general. Thank you contestants for even joining this contestants. And finally, thank you all for putting up with my laziness. I appreciate it.

If anyone has aything to add, feel free to.

But for now:

Congratulations Sweet May

AND

THANK YOU ALL! <3
See, I would even break the rules for you guys.​

 

[Skiyomi]

A big and hearty congratulations to Sweet May on her victory! And thanks so much to all you guys for running and judging the competition--and all the other competitors for making this possible as well