A new year - A new art contest?

[Tarlanon]

Well, a new year is upon us and I am wondering if it is time to have another art contest for DC?

Obviously the forum has been quiet lately and if there is no one to participate, then another art contest is really a moot point. However if the DC groupies are still around, maybe we can bolster the default art a little again?

I was thinking this time around of maybe doing wallsets/backgrounds? Specifically, having people doing wallsets/backgrounds similar to the ones in Ulimited Adventures(UA), but updated (obviously) to look better. Specifically, I was thinking of working towards DC having the same art available to it like UA had, with many different wallsets, background, etc. In UA, they had a wallset that was for Adobe, Brick, Stone, Wood, etc., and I would like to see those wallsets mirrors in UA. If nothing else it would help convert some of those great old UA mods over to DC easier, and have them look great "out of the box". So for instance when you convert a mod and it used the Stone wallset, instead of searching out the net(or your HD) to find the perfect stone wall, you would simply select the "W-UA-Stone" wallset from the default art set that comes with DC. Simple, and it will help maintain the 'look and feel' of the original design but with much better detail.

My other thought was to have an open media contest. Artists can enter art into whatever category they like (Icons, wallsets, backgrounds, sounds, etc.), with maybe a maximum of 1-2 entries per artist per category. Then after x period of time, the community can vote on which 1-2 entries per category they like the best and all of those are rolled into the default artset.

Any thoughts?

[manikus]

I love art contests! [img]smile.gif[/img]

I think they are both good ideas, maybe these are the next two contests...

The only problem that I see is that the community has been very quiet lately. Maybe now that the holidays are passed, things will pick-up, though.

-manikus

[Tarlanon]

No takers?

Everyone still digesting from all those Holiday meals?

[Telwyn]

Since my wallmaking ability is pretty low, I like the idea of an open contest, since I can try a few new icons. Of course, it would be great to see any kind of contest being run, as it will certainly mean at least some new content being created. [img]smile.gif[/img]

- Telwyn

[Steve McDonald]

I have a large number of walls which I made quite a long time ago, some of which are similar textures to the original UA walls.

If you don't mind the fact that they have been seen before, I'd be happy to enter some of those into a process of replacing the original walls.

I don't have much time for creating new art though, I'm afraid.

To Telwyn - If you are interested in making walls and the only thing holding you back is a lack of ability to get the perspective right, I have found that the EasyWallTex program makes it quite easy to make walls - the only problem is that it does blur them a bit in the "far away" view. Once they're made, I generally cut and paste the walls from the EasyTex format to another wall format as they seem to line up a bit better that way. The way I do this is to select the relevant wall segment in the other wall format, copy the selection shape, then place it over the same wall segment created by EasyTex. It cuts out a few pixels at the top and bottom of the EasyTex-created wall and this makes the walls fit together more nicely.

[Tarlanon]

Well, why don't we do an open media contest then?

I'm thinking a contest with several categories an artist can enter into :

Walls
Combat Walls
Character Icons
Monster Icons
Character Small Pics
Monster Small Pics
Generic Small Pics (Towns, objects, etc.)
Spell Animations
Overland/Big Pics
Border Art
Sounds
Music

I'm thinking rules wise :

- All entries need to be original (i.e. Not ripped from games/magazines/books, converted from UA, etc.). If you had already created something prior to the start of the contest, you can enter it as long as it meets originality guidelines.
- Each artist can submit a maximum of 1 entry PER CATEGORY. This is to prevent any one artist from flooding a category if they specialize in any particular art form.
- The contest will run until a meaningful # of entries are available to vote on.
- Once the submission period has ended, say 1 month to let the community decide which they like the best (similar to the previous art contest)
- The winning entries in each category are included as part of the default art that ships with DC, and the winning artists get their names included in the DC Development credits!

What does everyone think?

[manikus]

It sounds good to me. We might add one thing, that if enough entries warrent in a particular category, that the judge(s) might choose 2 entries.

I can't wait to get started.

-manikus

[Tarlanon]

Yeah, I agree that if there are a lot of submissions within a particular category, there should be more than 1 winning entry allowed.

[manikus]

I was just thinking that you might want to stipulate what resolution graphics should be in, as well. I would think that 640x480 would be best.

-manikus

[Steve McDonald]

Hello

I have my entry for the art contest ready. It is a combat icon of a dragon. I have done 10 versions (one for each chromatic and metallic dragon) but it is all based on the same icon.

The attack position is very lame - just the same as the ready position but with a breath attack added. If anyone thinks they are able to improve on this (I'm sure HiveTyrant can judging from his other art) then I'd love them to have a go - perhaps then we could enter the contest as a joint entry.

I have posted these icons in the files section of the DC yahoo group. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UAForever/)

Cheers
Steve