ABC #8 - Voting/Bitching Time (Now With 50% More Drama!)

Omega_Viscant · November 29, 2005, 7:09pm

Ok! here are the entries for the 8th avatar battle challenge!

Again, I want to thank everyone who entered, as well as my generous sponsor, OrangeCat. (I’d thank Evil Morrigan too, but I already thanked him for the one where he didn’t pay, so now we’re even :P) As you may know, the three of us are providing the prizes for this competition.

I gotta say, I’m rather disappointed with the turnout. I know a lot of it can be blamed on the holiday weekend, but that’s really a feeble excuse when I gave you an extra week to compensate. What it comes down to is this: #1) You people wait til the last minute, no matter how much time I give. WTF? I usually get like 2-3 entries on day 1, and then all the rest the 2 days before the deadline. I have a feeling that if I gave the extra week after thanksgiving instead of before, there’s be a much better turnout.

Also, about the theme. You people who didn’t enter because of the theme simply lack imagination. How hard is it to stretch the theme? You don’t have to make an “I love Rock and roll” av. Stretch the theme people. In ABC #6, the only one who stretched the term “weapon” was shatterstar. Come on, guys. Why not do rock n’ roll-cancel? How about a Bebop and Rocksteady av? the options are limitless. the fact that you guys couldn’t see 'em is completely fuckachunkz.

To those of you who did enter, I really love the more creative ideas. You guys pulled off some of what I was hoping for with this theme.

Lol, now we have 2 judges to each animated av…but again, the animated section carries its weight despite the lack of entries.

First off, the standard rules:

PRIZES:
1st place animation: 1 month of premium membership to shoryuken.com
2nd place animation: 1 month of premium membership to shoryuken.com
3rd place animation: 1 month of premium membership to shoryuken.com

1st place still: 1 month of premium membership to shoryuken.com
2nd place still: 1 month of premium membership to shoryuken.com
3rd place still: 1 month of premium membership to shoryuken.com

#1: No one discusses the avs until ALL EIGHT judges have passed judgement. This is to prevent people from giving away who the artists are. This is not limited to the artists. Even if you did not submit an av, please refrain from commenting until after the judges have voted. The judges do not know who has submitted an av, and I don’t want you giving away to them that you DIDN’T submit an av by starting to comment on them.

#2: Judges: you are to pick your favorite 3 in each category based on whatever criteria you want. You will then order them from 1 to 3. Your #1 pick gets 3 points, your #2 pick gets 2 points, and your #3 pick gets 1 point. The points will be tallied, and a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for each category declared.

**#3:**Judges can feel free to discuss among themselves any aspects of the avatars they like. They may confer with each other before voting, but do not have to. Feel free to discuss what you like or dislike about any of the avatars --1 Restriction, though! Judges may not speculate as to who the artists are, as your speculations may affect the other judges.

The judges are:
DarkGiygas
Hail And Kill
<JonnyQuest>
Master Chibi
OrangeCat
OrochiTempest
SunocO
Zandwich

#4: After the judges vote, the points will be tallied and I will reveal the artists behind the avatars. Discussion is then open for anyone and anything about the avatars.

That being said, here are the avatars (in order by title…as in all the previous competitions, if the artist did not provide a title, I made one up)

STILLS

“Athena’s Song”

ROBOTRON

“KISS - Rock n’ Roll All Night”

Nightraid

“Mienai Chikara”

tru3tn01

“Neinhalt Seiger”

givequicheachance

“Poison KISS”

Taichi

“Rock & Roll vs. Ryu, Gouki, and Zangief”

Shim Sang Joon

“Rock Party”

BIG BEEF!

“Rock Poster”

OrangeCat

“The Elvis of the Opera”

ClouDC

“Tribute”

Rei

ANIMATIONS

“MTV Dan”

ROBOTRON2084

“Rock On.”

DarkDragon

“The Beatles - Yellow Submarine”

givequicheachance

“Yoga Death Metal”

m1x4h

CREDITS:

Executive Producer: OrangeCat

An Evil Morrigan production:

Directed by givequicheachance

Get voting, judges!

…seriously.

SunocO · November 29, 2005, 8:07pm

Stills
#1

at first this was my least favorite thinking there was nothing to it…but after i kept staring at it, i kept wondering how he did it? the mask on his face looks so real, it looks like elvis really had it on. to top it off, the person who made this av made it look like a real picture. i like this one.

#2

this was the most eye catching out of the stills bunch. i like it but something bothers me. the 2 border thing i don’t really like and something wrong with the perspective of athena. it should have look more fluid from the back of the room to the front. damn i can’t really explain but notice her head? it feels like it’s cropped out. either way though, it looks really pretty so i put it at #2.

#3

maybe it’s at #3 and not higher cause i don’t know who these people are…if i had more emotional attachment to them it would’ve ranked higher. It’s very clean and nicely put together. for some reason i really like the color scheme.

Animation
#1

at first glance like the elvis one…i didn’t like this one cause i was bugging out. i was like why isn’t the guitar in front of him! then i saw the full thing again and savored it… i really really appreciated it. the guitar was suppose to appear behind him and he puts hands up like a tribute…that was so beautiful. it gave me shivers. i don’t know i really liked this one but one thing bugged me. There should have been no talking! it should’ve been all in narration like the other text…like a history lesson. that would’ve been great. :tup: :tup: like this one a lot.

#2

the psychedelic background could have been sharper but damn it does do it’s thing. i love the extra message it’s sending. The beatles were on drugs! all about drugs this song was about and putting it with that background totally makes sense! great AV here… this would be the one i probably want to rock…maybe i will.

#3

this one i really liked…would’ve been first but the emotinal impact of the first 2 got me. I love the lighting effect on this piece and the colors are so nice. the animation is smooth through the loop. “yoga death metal” had a similar concept but i like this one much better. good job :tup: one problem though… the drummer looks so blurry. his hands that is.

now that i’ve seen this theme and what people created…i wish i put more effort into trying to make a RnR AV.

shatterstar · November 29, 2005, 9:06pm

“rock on” is god tier.

TempestFox · November 29, 2005, 9:16pm

STILLS

#1
"Athena’s Song"

Simply the most eye catching of the bunch, and the band of fighters is certainly cool. Check out Iori rockin’ that bass! I don’t know how SNK explains Nakoruru in the same time period, though. >.>

#2
"The Elvis of the Opera"

Kinda… creepy. In a good sort of way. It’s really eerie and looks like it was photographed this way.

#3
"Rock Poster"

I like the poster feel to this. It could have used some different colors maybe, but it’s aight.

ANIMATIONS

#1
"Rock On."

Best story, best animation. Awesome ending. Just good all around.

#2
"MTV Dan"

Heh, this one made me giggle slightly. I love pocket fighter Dan, karaoke Dan’s even better. I think the blurryness in the drummer’s hands is actually good, most drummers hands move so fast, they DO blur.

#3
"Yoga Death Metal"

Eh, I just felt this was better than the other one.

ROBOTRON2084 · November 29, 2005, 10:08pm

When you said the turnout was small, I had no idea…well, for the animations anyway.

Nice work everyone…stuff looks great as usual.

Omega_Viscant · November 29, 2005, 10:32pm

Shit.

Somewhere in the shuffle I forgot to post one of the entries:

“Tribute”

It’s there now, and I’m gonna try and make it up to the artist by buying him a month of prem.

Also, if either of the judges who’ve already voted want to re-evaluate their choices to include this one, they may.

…seriously.

OrangeCat · November 29, 2005, 10:44pm

Since I’m quite busy today, I’ll have to settle with doing the top 3 for now.

STILLS

[list=1]
[*]“Mienai Chikara”

Composition is the best with this one. I love it because it just shows great balance, the colour scheme is perfect, never too overbearing. It’s much like a highlight to the av rather than taking away from it. The text is gery good, and more to the point, they made it look more like a symbol than text which is quite often hard to do. The flow of the colour makes it look like the music is flowing with the rockers.

[*]“The Elvis of the Opera”

At first I thought this would be 1st no doubt. But unlike Suncoco, the more I look at it, the more faults I see to find. There really isn’t many faults to it, it just feels that the etched marks seem a bit too tacked on. It just doesn’t seem to meld with the parts of elvis as well as it would look, unless they were going for a picture in a scratched picture frame look.

The eye colour although nice, looks a bit too drastic at least for my tastes. Then again I don’t think there would be any other way to make it less dramatic and to keep the punch it has. But I’m biased towards some things that stand out too much. However the balance of it all is very good, perfect picture balance.

[*]“Athena’s Song”

It’s very nice because even though it looks simple it really isn’t. The thign is even though it was good, it wasn’t great. It didn’t wow me on a spectacular level, however it does make me appreciate and respect it very much. Love how they blurred out the characters in the BG and moreso making it look like a music video still or even a concert. Just how the light makes you focus on Athena, yet keeps the BG players in your vision.
[/list]

ANIMATIONS

[list=1]
[*]“Rock On.”

So many things great with this. But there are a few things that glare out. It’s animated very well. I felt the dust cloud could have been a tad larger since it almost doesn’t cover Remy entirely. At least it doesn’t look that way. The second thing is the text in the beginning about coke and sex, I was almost expecting soemthing to appear on the bottom.

I dare say I might have even put “And Rock and Roll” during the black part, then cut to Remy->never as good. It just seems bring it all together a bit more in sets of 3 at least. Lastly the final frame should have been a little longer. Considering it’s an homage, it should be as long as one.

But animated…man it’s animated well. Love that placement ofthe tombstone because it really balances out the left with the right and makes a great focus point. You could almost say that Remy is giving the flower to that grave. The colour is good and nice touch on having Zabel wearing the Remy palette. I would imagine the tagger considered making Zabel’s hair green…but I imagine it would look like shit. But good choice. Perhaps next time have Remy’s hair black.

[*]“MTV Dan”

Very nice. I can’t say much with this, perhaps later. But the MTV symbol is appropriate. Very good balance and it Dan looks very natural in the animation. It doesn’t glare out or anything.

[*]“The Beatles - Yellow Submarine”

I highly considered Yoga Death Metal to be the #3 spot, because it was actually original. I’m quite biased towards good ideas over execution had it have to be between two avs that are equal. The Beatles av never really grasped me. DOn’t get me wrong neither does Yoga Death Metal, but at least it had more of a SF aspect to it. But in the end a good av is a good av and The Beatles one works better. It looks like it had a bit more work put into it and it’s just working a bit better.
[/list]

EDIT: Well fuck me. If tribute was in there, I’d choose it for #3. However it’s not but it doesn’t matter. My standings sitll stand as is because it’s done.

OC

Rei · November 29, 2005, 10:57pm

Dramatastic!!!

Omega_Viscant · November 29, 2005, 10:59pm

QFE. Don’t let my fuckup spoil the scores, OC. Do what you feel is right.

…seriously.

EDIT:

(I think we may be exceeding the promised 50%!)

Rei · November 29, 2005, 11:08pm

How about we let Master Chibi be the only judge on this?

Omega_Viscant · November 29, 2005, 11:11pm

Naw, let’s just public poll this shit.

…seriously.

Korngo · November 29, 2005, 11:14pm

the yoga one is dope as fuck.

Rei · November 29, 2005, 11:20pm

Maybe 50% public poll + 50% Master Chibi = 100% Drama!!!

Korngo · November 29, 2005, 11:26pm

why do you say “…seriously” at the end of the post’s???

…seriously.

Shizuma_15 · November 30, 2005, 12:00am

oh snap good job you guys:tup:

Omega_Viscant · November 30, 2005, 2:03am

Because I’ve never made a single post that couldn’t be improved by adding “…seriously.” to the end. (even the ones that already have it. In fact, I did 3 “…seriously.'s” to my last post in the RoninChaos rant thread, and I’m not sure that was even enough.)

Also, don’t think you’re cool because you’ve copied it. Everybody copies it. At one time, the entire AZ thread was saying “seriously” while they verbally jacked off onto the forums.

I think everyone has ganked it at one time or another, but I…I am the originator, and I am its sacred keeper.

…seriously.

DarkGiygas · November 30, 2005, 2:23am

STILL

1st

The colors go really well together, and its very clean and sharp. The text is also nice.

2nd

Pretty good job of making the mask look like its really on him, but I think its just a little too sharp. The colors on this one are also very nice.

3rd

I picked this one because I just didn’t really like any of the other ones, even though the strap on Remy’s guitar is perfectly rounded lol.

ANIMATED

1st

IMO this is easily the best animated one, since it actually has a story. Very well animated and there also doesn’t seem to be any quality loss.

2nd

The band animation is well done, as are the lights. The only thing I don’t like is how nothing really stands out in it.

3rd

The background on this one is pretty cool, and the sprite rotating looks nice.

Omega_Viscant · November 30, 2005, 3:22am

Scores so far:

STILLS
1st:
“The Elvis of the Opera” - 9

2nd:
“Mienai Chikara” - 7

3rd:
“Athena’s Song” - 6

4th:
“Rock Party” - 1
"Rock Poster: - 1

5th:
The Rest - 0

ANIMATIONS

1st:
“Rock On.” - 12

2nd:
“MTV Dan” - 6

3rd:
“The Beatles - Yellow Submarine” - 4

4th:
“Yoga Death Metal” - 1

…seriously.

System_1 · November 30, 2005, 4:19am

“Yoga Death Metal”
:lol:

Master_Chibi · November 30, 2005, 5:59am

98% of these avatars are bland, uncreative, and (expected to be) cliche. Like Quiche, I don’t understand how there were so little entries, and that ontop of that they’re so DULL. I know many of you don’t fully value your reputation as an avatar maker, or rather the art of even making one, but PUTTING as much as you can into it is the reason why the contests are so much fun in the first place, but instead we end up with last minute, half assed entries. Come on guys. I can still call who made what a mile away too.

That being said:

STILLS:

1st:

ELVIS OF THE OPERA:

[/center]
Jesus does this ever deserve first place. Great balance, creative use of the theme, perfect execution, really I can’t find anything to pick at here, I just can’t.

2nd:

MINNIE CHIKA:

[/center]
Everything in this avatar is done well, like the splash of colors, the font used (though that white block of gradient next it is distracting), use of space, flow and all that. Really the only thing wrong with it is that it isn’t as cool as the Elvis avatar. Yup. It’s a style I’ve seen done a bit much as well, but that doesn’t really take anything away from it.

3rd:

THE BALLAD OF c.FP:

[/center]
I could be horribly wrong but this looks like a little like two different one pixel wide borders were simpy thrown onto the art of Athena and co, but then that doesn’t really incite much anything negative save perhaps a lack of creativity I suppose. 95% of my avatars are crop and shops anyway, but really in comparison to the leftover avatars this one was easily much more appealing, regardless of how it came to be.

ANIMATIONS:

1st:

ROCK ON:

[/center]
Another winner. Everything comes together well, though I think a few of the choices of font could be looked into. Otherwise a bit of a tweak in the animation here and there, a few more frames here and there, and a switch of a few other frames, and you’d have a monster of an avatar. Even though I’m not a fan of story avatars, it still easily deserves first place.

2nd:

MTV DAN:

[/center]
I think God on Futurama said it best when he said, “If you do something right, people will think you haven’t done anything at all.” That describes this avatar, in the sense that all the pieces come together so well enough that it looks it was originally done that way. I don’t understand why a few of the judges would WANT something to stand out in this avatar because if something did it would completely ruin the avatar.

3rd:

YOGA SPEED METAL~:

[/center]
A hell of a fucking lot more creative than a spinning yellow submarine and a Windows 95 screensaver as a background.

There you go.