EVENT 1: Art Contest

[NanTheDark]

No 2nd and 3rd place medals, I see.

[MessengerOfDreams]

This post by MessengerOfDreams was thumbed up by:

Oranjui (August 5th, 2015, 10:59 am)

[Raz]

This post by Raz was thumbed up by:

NanTheDark (August 5th, 2015, 11:24 am)

[Oranjui]

What's an art contest

And why am I the winner

[#4715]

Because you're funniest member and most notable site friend of funniest member

[Doram]

Nope. There have never been any 2nd or 3rd place medals for an art contest. Mostly because there's never been one with a bunch of entrants. But I digress. Without further ado, my judgings:

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I agonized over this, guys. I went over each score several times to see if I can differentiate them a bit more. In the end, I still ended up with a tie for second, and I felt that I was already starting to get a bit harsh with some of you. Everyone did an amazing job. Every entry was fantastic in one way or another. This was wicked hard, but here's what I got, in my order of highest to lowest score:

"Staff Roll, or, How to assemble a team to assemble yourself" by MessengerOfDreams - Overall: 17/20: show

APPEAL: 5/5
MoD. Bloody hell. Just. How in the hell am I supposed to rate this? This is the masterpiece of the contest. And, I'm reading it, and totally feeling my own inner director setting up camera angles and lighting, and putting a thick Russian accent on Supershroom, even though I know he's German, just because it's perfect, and everything. It's expressive, and gritty, and tender, and distraught, and inspired. It's all kinds of meta as a movie about movie makers. It's an effing masterpiece, ok?
ORIGINALITY: 4/5
Well, I lived through a bunch of that too, so I can vouch for the historical accuracy of it. Original? That's hard to peg. Technically, there should be some points off for just recounting site history, and yet, setting it in an excellently rendered alternate Hollywood was pure genius. I suppose a point off, purely because I helped write the story just as much as everyone else included, and so the story isn't originally yours. And I can't justify just giving this a perfect score.
TECHNIQUE: 4/5
Well, the whole capitalizing names thing annoyed me, until I read the comment on screenplays, and remembered seeing exactly that in others that I have read. So, you get a pass on that. This time.

Seriously. I was enjoying watching the dust motes dance in the slice of evening light cutting through the gloom in the tavern as it shone on your table. To say your writing was evocative, would be understating the elegance of the prose.

My only negative, and I realize how personal and inappropriate it is, is that I hate the mid-sentence fade-to-black. It's artsy as ♥♥♥♥, and a statement in itself, that the story, as ever, is only beginning. So, you lose another point to pure pique.
OTHER: 4/5
Oh, and the other thing I hate about it? I want more. I'm pretty sure that no matter how long you made it, we'd all call it too short. Now, that's 3 points I've taken, to give you some room to improve. Now get your @$$ in the Runouw.com Anime subfoum, and make this ♥♥♥♥ happen, sir.

"We Shine even Brighter" by NanTheDark - Overall: 15.75/20: show

APPEAL: 4.75/5
I love it. It's just pure Olympic awesome - Runouw Style. Nan, you have really outdone yourself this time. It looks great, and everyone is absolutely recognizable. Nice use of the logos on the flags, too, though it's not 100% there (more on that in Technique).
ORIGINALITY: 4/5
Well, again, this is so unique to the site that it can't help but score well on originality. However, the pose isn't super complex or original (wasn't sure if this belonged here or Technique), so it loses a point for that.
TECHNIQUE: 4/5
Very stylized, but still well detailed. Good job on the grass (I've used that very same technique myself, and bonus points for not making it look out of place with the simplified rest of the drawing). I would say that you did a fairly good job on adjusting the logos for being on the flags, but it was just a parallelogram distort, and you are putting them on a more complex surface than that. You either needed better tools, or to piecemeal distort chunks of each logo to match the wave in the flag material. I've tried to do it myself a number of times, and I know it's VERY difficult, so I don't blame you the choice you made, but since this is technical, the point comes off.
OTHER: 3/5
Good solid effort. +1 for bringing the other characters into your signature style. -.5 for no Amp.

"The Flower and The Flame" by Raiyuuni - Overall: 15.75/20: show

APPEAL: 4.75/5
Now, this has some seriously epic feel to it. I love the writing style. Very personal, and very well paced. And, I like the alternate-reality take on a fireflower. (Yes, I saw the "It's not a fireflower." conversation in your forum, but it's totally a fireflower. I still love it, though.) I would have loved to see more of that blurb, but it's a decent length. You've left me wanting more, sir, which is always a blessing and a curse...
ORIGINALITY: 5/5
See, this is how to do originality, when you are trying to invoke well known stuff. It's a fireflower, but it's totally not a fireflower. You elevated it to the symbolic status of the Olympic laurel wreath, and gave it a great mythic feel, and it's both recognizable and fresh. Great job.
TECHNIQUE: 3/5
Great writing, though, again it was a little short, plus the connection to the picture wasn't super clear, leaving it confusing for those not really paying attention or getting it. Especially, considering the fact that the writing is clearly a single person thinking to themselves, while the picture suddenly has 3 people. The text is very anonymous (which isn't a minus), but then trying to put a face to it with a picture is almost jarring (for example, which person in the pic is the one that was having that internal dialog in the text?).

Also, I knew it was supposed to be an arena in the background from what I saw of development conversation, but it is not all that clear in the final picture, further distancing it from the text. You would have benefitted from more stadium and less mountain.

The text is great, and the art is very good, but there's a disconnect there, and it's hard to ignore. You might have benefitted from just going with one or the other. Plusses and minuses end up a bit of a wash here, but that text was beautiful, so let's call it a +.5 overall.
OTHER: 3/5
Good solid effort. Bonus half point for a really great ethic in the text.

"Runolympics" by nin10mode - Overall: 15.5/20: show

APPEAL: 4.5/5
You know what? This is totally my style. Understated, deep, introspective. It's almost got as much pathos as MoD's piece. Certainly about as touching, considering the overall direction indicated in the script. I love the message as well. I like that you left us with the original script at the end, too. It keeps it from totally leaving a bad taste in the mouth from incompleteness.
ORIGINALITY: 4.5/5
Nice style, interesting approach (focusing on the approach to the Runolympics, and thinking about the meaning of it while on the way). It has an almost dreamlike feel to it. Very nicely done. I can't judge half of it because it was incomplete, but I'll only take a little off for that.
TECHNIQUE: 4.5/5
Your artwork is very good, as usual. Bonus point for good use of a half-tone. Not many can pull that off. It wasn't too clear to me who was who in several group frames, but I also see that you were putting everyone in the team colors, so that's understandable (there IS a bit of loss of individuality when working as a team). Not quite sure who you were surprising in the third page, but for abstract thought's sake, I'll gloss over it. Definitely liked the non-standard panel shapes - very modern.
OTHER: 2/5
+.5 for ambition and potential, -1 for incomplete. I loved what I saw, and think it would definitely have been even harsher competition for MoD had it been finished.

Runolympics 2015 mascot by Arturia - Overall: 15.25/20: show

APPEAL: 4.5/5
Well, you certainly captured the Mario influences on our community. And, more than that, I like the feel of it. It's joyful, and dynamic. Nice touch with the triangles for the Shyguy face, and working the RO tri-rings into the skates.
ORIGINALITY: 3.75/5
While very good in a number of senses, it is lacking a touch in originality. Fairly stock characters in fairly standard poses does not scream originality. (The black and white prevents you from even setting the Yoshi apart as a unique or unusual color, for example.) You've chosen the elements well, and brought them together well, but it's still lacking a certain spark of awesome that sets it apart.
TECHNIQUE: 4/5
Well posed, and arranged. You certainly kept them all to as close to anatomically correct as cartoon/video game characters can get. The perspective on the back leg of the Yoshi was the only real test of it, and that was pulled off very well. The eyes on the Yoshi also look the TINIEST bit off (I would personally have hidden more of the iris on the background eye). I would have liked to have seen it inked, even if you were going to keep it as line-art, and that makes it feel a touch unfinished, so that's a minus. However, one of my favorite parts of the piece was the detail on the ice skates. Unnecessary, and a very nice touch. It really looks like a great start to a piece, though, so certainly good job on that point, though I would really love to see it finished.
OTHER: 3/5
Good solid effort. Bonus half point for good use of Mario characters.

Alternate Runolympics 2015 logo by -OJ - Overall: 15: show

APPEAL: 4.5/5
I like it, overall. It is very good. Very nice use of the Shine Sprite silhouette. I also am a big fan of impossible triangles. I would love to see that worked into the actual LL triangle design, but that's another conversation. Not really a fan of what happened to the tri-rings, but more on that in Technique.
ORIGINALITY: 4.25/5
I said it already, but it bears repeating here, the impossible triangle was a very cool idea, and the Shine in the background brings the two sides of the site together nicely. The Runouw logo is a little basic, and I'm not sure the meaning of having it eroded like that, but it fits in well enough.
TECHNIQUE: 3.75/5
Overall, very nicely done. I think the RO tri-rings could have been better placed, or scaled, or something, since the black triangle ring gets lost in the center hole/triangle. It's well scaled, centered, and layered, in general, but the FEEL of it is that it was shoved in as an afterthought. Something I might have done with is it is expand the Shine Spright a bit, and have it scaled fairly small over the top ball, for example. You could have also made the black triangle in the middle more of a ring, and skipped the tri-rings entirely (because they're already present otherwise).

Nice touch working all the team colors in there, though I can understand the issue in figuring out what to do with the black. I personally would have made the 2 in the 2015 a middle gray to 1) separate it from the word Runouw, and 2) work in the final team color somehow, but it's a minor point.
OTHER: 2.5/5
Nothing extra to mention here. Good solid effort.

"WE ARE THE GAME, RUNOLYMPIANS" (Anthem) by Supershroom - Overall: 14.75/20: show

APPEAL 4.25/5
It is well themed, and I liked the fact that it really tried to tie everyone together, including coloring the stanzas to match the team colors. The choice of "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" as the tune was an interesting choice (whether you knew that was the tune or not), though it does have the rhythmic beat of a good march, and I suppose that can see the thematic connection in that sense.
ORIGINALITY: 4.5/5
I did not think anyone would try to write music for this contest. Full marks there. Though one half point off for not writing the music too.
TECHNIQUE 3/5
While the words are nice, trying to actually sing them did not go as well as intended. It was not clear where to arrange the words across the notes, and a lot of it felt rather awkward. In the future, a little more research into as pure a copy of the original music would help (I had a bit of a hard time with trying to sing it until I found a base version to play with less obvious singing in it. That sports team belting it out was a little overwhelming). Also, trying to match one syllable or word to each note would make the whole thing click into place much better.
OTHER: 3/5
A good solid entry, and definitely not what I was expecting. +.5

Unnamed masterpiece by Chaukai ft. Leonardo da Vinci - Overall 0.5/20: show

APPEAL: 20/5
It's a masterpiece, with another masterpiece on top. It's a masterpiece. +15
ORIGINALITY: 30/5
Also, old is the new new. +25
TECHNIQUE: 50/5
It's perfection perfected. It shows how it is done on every level. 10x points.
OTHER: -99.5/5
You played right into their hands! Now the masses are distracted. Revolution Fail! -100 Though, joke entry is joke. +.5

[Oranjui]

Just saying, the yellow triangle on the interior the penrose triangle (which I guess was originally supposed to be part of a tri-coin, but then after some changes was turned into just the idea of unity and an intertwined community) was supposed to represent an actual tri-coin (or whatever they're called now). At first, I was going to have the entire triangle thing be a Big Square or whatever, with the outer triangle ring and the inner solid triangle, but pretty much everyone agreed that it would look better if the yellow was adjacent to the other colours. Sooo that's why there's a random black triangle in the middle. :B

[MessengerOfDreams]

Thank you, Doram. I guess this old girl still hasn't lost her touch after all

[NanTheDark]

Judgings seem fair. Good job Doram.




















I'm really sorry MoD but I still don't like your story for some reason xD

[MessengerOfDreams]

This post by MessengerOfDreams was thumbed up by:

Raz (August 6th, 2015, 11:52 am)