Avatar Battle Challenge #4: Hang on to your Socks!

Omega_Viscant · October 14, 2005, 5:55pm

Ok! here are the entries for the 4th avatar battle challenge!

For starters…wow…I don’t even know where to begin. The participation in this one has been phenomenal…look at all the entries! 33! And they’re really good, too! You guys really made this one happen, and I hope you all keep it up for the next one!

Ok, the standard rules:

#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 winner 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, tho! Judges may not speculate as to who the artists are, as your speculations may affect the other judges.

The judges are:
Evil Morrigan
Master Chibi
OrangeCat
OrochiTempest
RandomNigga
shatterstar
Slide
Xenozip.

#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.

#5: The prizes are as follows:
Best Still - 1 month premium
Best animation - 1 month premium

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

“Anakaris”

http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a347/givequicheachance/anakaris_ds.jpg

“Cat License”

“Etch-a-sketch B.B. Hood”

“Foul Odor”

“Growling Gallon”

“Jedah”

“Marilyn Lilith Monroe”

“Midnight Victor”

“MMM…Pussy!”

“Rikuo”

“Talbain”

“Prince Of Hell”

“Pink-Stalkers”

“Qbee”

“The Mummy Arises”

“Weekly World News”

“Your Name Here”

ANIMATIONS

“A Darkstalkers Lesson”

“Air Zabel”

“April Fools!”

“Chase the Chuck-Wagon”

“Come Hoes”

“Darkness Illusion”

“Demitri”

“Demitri…Analyzing”

“Digital Morrigan”

“Emo Public Service”

“Karin Aensland”

“Morrigan’s Eyes”

“Raptor Chainsaw”

“Sorry About This Avatar”

“Spinnin’ Lilith”

“Strip Poker”

Get voting, judges!

…seriously.

System_1 · October 14, 2005, 5:57pm

damn… this is going to take a while…

EDIT: Jeebus! I was not ready! These are beyond new levels of dopeness.

Just in case I get sidetracked and busy today, I’m going to give my scores now and my critiques (don’t even want to call it that, I’m not worthy lol) later since they’ll take some time

Stills:

#3 Q-Bee

#2 Midnight Victor

#1 Jedah

Animated:

#3 Chase the Chuck Wagon (I love the old school Tiger handheld feel of it, though others may disagree)

#2 Morrigan’s Eyes (were the eyes too much animation to make it a still?)

#1 Darkness Illusion. (can I have this one after the contest? too dope)

SunocO · October 14, 2005, 6:11pm

wow just wow!

edit - oh my i already have my favorite!

Omega_Viscant · October 14, 2005, 6:33pm

In case everyone was wondering, we’ve got a pretty good distribution of characters. Here’s the number of avatars each character appeared in:

Anakaris - 3
B. B. Hood/Bulletta - 3
Bishamon - 0
Demitri - 4
Donovan - 0
Felicia - 4
Huitzil/Phobos - 0
Hsien-Ko/Lei Lei - 1
Jedah - 2
Lilith - 4
Lord Raptor/Zabel - 4
Morrigan - 3
Pyron - 0
Qbee - 1
Rikuo/Aulbath - 1
Sasquatch - 2
Talbin/Gallon - 5
Victor - 1

…seriously.

EDIT: I prolly woulda accepted “Morrigan’s Eyes” as a still, but the artist specified that it was animated when he submitted it, so it wasn’t really an issue. As for “Darkness Illusion”, you’ll have to ask the artist (once I reveal who it is)

EDIT2: Added Hsien-Panda

Master_Chibi · October 14, 2005, 6:47pm

Hsien-Ko is in there Quice my boy.

(TECHNICALLY!!!)

;p

Omega_Viscant · October 14, 2005, 6:51pm

Her name is mentioned, but she’s not visually in any of them…at least not that I can see.

…seriously.

SunocO · October 14, 2005, 6:55pm

Chibi vote plz~!

also give me your kill bill bleach AVatar THX!

Spooty_Whiteboy · October 14, 2005, 6:56pm

The panda in “Weekly World News.” That’s what Anakaris turns Hsien-Ko into…isn’t it?

Hunter_D · October 14, 2005, 7:26pm

Damn, crazy talent people.

shatterstar · October 14, 2005, 7:36pm

STILLS
#1 “Rikuo” 3pts

#2 “Jedah” 2pts

#3 “The Mummy Arises” 1pt

ANIMATIONS
#1 “Morrigan’s Eyes” 3pts

#2 “Air Zabel” 2pts

#3 “Raptor Chainsaw” 1pt

phew…judging the stills were the hardest for me…and im very happy to see that RN was the 1st judge to vote (this time). best battle eva:tup:

KryptoniteBoots · October 14, 2005, 7:38pm

the public service annoucement is preet y damn funny, question what happens to these avs after the challenge is over?

Evil_Morrigan · October 14, 2005, 7:39pm

OK I just got to work. I’m judging now. This is not going to be easy.

Edit - I call dibs on Morrigans Eyes

shatterstar · October 14, 2005, 7:41pm

you can ask the maker of the av if you can have it.

Master_Chibi · October 14, 2005, 8:05pm

Quiche, don’t let shit like “Sorry About this Avatar” in, it’s demeaning to the other folks who enjoy the game and / or did put in effort to enter your contest.

STILLS:

3rd:

YOUR NAME HERE:

I had trouble picking a third place because I had to find an avatar that caught my eye but still looked good, that is instead of just me happening to glance over at it because of one noteable feature about it while the rest of the avatar doesn’t do well to compliment said feature, etc.

Anyways, the space is controlled well here, with Raptor being placed in the middle, and the actual choice of sprite was a good one at that. My complaint lies in the colors in the background, and how they clash negatively (most noteably that block of peach in the corner). A better font could have been used for ‘your name’ as well, and hell you could have just put “RAPTOR” there instead of ‘your name’, this was a contest not a request thread.

2nd:

THE MUMMY ARISES:

This caught my eye because it just had a bold feel to it, which I think was best achieved through the border. Ironically I also think that putting him infront of the border was a good idea, as it manages to tie in with theme, like he’ll bust right out of the avatar and KICK YOUR ASS. The rest of the avatar is done well, the clouds fill up the rest of the space in the avatar, and even the placement of the moon is just right. Some text in the bottom right hand corner would have given this a personalized touch, but that’s just a personal nitpick. I only hope that this wasn’t just a simple crop and stop piece.

1st:

PRINCE OF HELL:

The only non-premimum sized avatar and I go and put it in as first in the stills category, go figure. I love this avatar because everything just works, even given the limited space. The space, the flow of the piece, the sprite, the colors, the background, it all just clicks into place. I can only pick at one thing, and that’s the black New Jersey shaped blob all the way to the right. Having used that font myself, I know that a few letters just end up as this giant splotch, but here it does hurt the piece (though I’m not certain what letter is used here). So save for that blotch, the entire rest of the avatar rocks. Smooth.

ANIMATIONS:

3rd:

CHASE THE CHUCK WAGON:

This would have gotten first if it wasn’t for that background. I’m actually confused why a bit more effort wasn’t put into finding a better background to suit the excellent animation. I love how the game ‘starts up’ just like a handheld, where everything on screen is visible, and then the game begins. A lifebar or ‘hud’ (is that the right term?) of some sort might have helped to give it more of a handheld feel. Regardless, I still love it, especially that BOOM part, haha. Damn that background though, totally ruins it.

2nd:

MORRIGAN’S EYES:

First off, wherever this art came from, it’s great (though the hair looks it was hue / saturated a bit much). I picked this because it looks good enough on its own without the animation, and honestly I had trouble making this second because well, the others pieces are much more (haha) animated, but then I decided that even subtle animations work well. Does she have pupils though? It could be a bit smoother / more fluid (much more actually) but as it is its subtlety works. That ironically being said:

1st:

RAPTOR CHAINSAW:

Man I was going to kill myself over picking one of the story avatars, but you guys have had your day in the sun, look at the fucking border on this thing, awesome! This immediately caught my eye, and with it fufilled the K.I.S.S. motto, it’s short, sweet, eye catching, and I think that in this case it works better than the story avatars (that are still done really damn well and creative mind you).

So there you go.

;p

Omega_Viscant · October 14, 2005, 8:18pm

That’s 3 judges down, and 5 to go!

The results so far:

STILLS

Jedah - 5
Rikuo - 3
The Mummy Arises - 3
Prince of Hell - 3
Midnight Victor - 2
Your Name Here - 1
Qbee - 1

ANIMATIONS

Morrigan’s Eyes - 7
Raptor Chainsaw - 4
Darkness Illusion - 3
Air Zabel - 2
Chase the Chuckwagon - 2

…seriously.

Arcas_V · October 14, 2005, 8:53pm

this contest is da truth:clap: nice work everyone:tup:

Xenozip · October 14, 2005, 8:58pm

I’m late for work. I’ll vote later tonight.

shatterstar · October 14, 2005, 9:18pm

where in the fuk have been?!

i got some av ideas for you son. i’ll get at you later:karate:

Evil_Morrigan · October 14, 2005, 9:24pm

STILLS

“Growling Gallon”

#3 (1 point)

The backround and the sprite work so well together in this one. I especially like how the Gallon sprite does not look pixelated at all it’s very smooth and clean. The black border works really well, I wonder how it would look in a different color, like Dark Blue or Purple. Eihter way, the black works and I think its probably for the best. I had a hard time choosing third between this one and “The Mummy Rises” Av. This one barely edged it out.

“Qbee”

#2 (2 points)

I love Q. Bee she is one of my favorite characters. This and the Rikuo still were my hardest decision on who should take first. What I like about this AV is his idea of making the av theme similar to the characters profile. The honeycombs is a ver unique and original idea. The Font is just amazing as well, and I like how he made the shadows, that way it gives the ilusion that the image is 3D. Good Job sir!

“Rikuo”

#1 (3 points)

The thing that caught my attention the most about this av is the way the border cahnges color from top to bottom. The image used for Rikuo is a very good pic that works well with the backround. I also like how his eye matches with the rest ot the AV. I cant really explain why I like this one the most. I think it is the somber melancholy look in Rikuos face matched with the Chaos-like backround he is set against.

ANIMATIONS

“A Darkstalkers Lesson”

#3 (1 point)

Very Funny AV! There were a few other that were humorous as well, but this actually made me laugh out loud. Every single pose and animation used is just perfect. My favorite part is the look on Tailbain/Gallons Face when he looks at the knife. I also like how he is licking his arm while he is waiting on Bulleta/BB Hood to get the goods. Perfect use of backround as well. Awesome job. I can tell that a lot of work was put into this. :tup:

“Darkness Illusion”

#2 (2points)

I fucking love this Avatar. I am so Jealous that Random Niggga already asked to have this. :sad: I was thinking about rocking this and asking the AV maker to put “Evil” in Dark Blue lettering across the horizontal space at the top and then putting "Morrigan"
in the same exact font vertically on the far right side. All those dreams cam crashing down on me when I saw RN’s post. All joking aside though, this was an excellent AV the animation of her hair coupled with the look in her eyes. I love how you made it look like a painting with the brush scratching techniuque. (As you guys can probably already tell I have no Artistic vocabulary, I’m sorry) I hope you understand what I was trying to get at. If not ask me after the voting is over And i can try to better explai what I mean by the techniuque you used. The blue color really reflects the mood that she seems to be in. I would say more on this but I’m going to shut up now cuz I already sond like an ass. :xeye:

“Morrigan’s Eyes”

#1 (3 points)

What can I say that has not already been said. This Avatar is Gorgeous. It would have worked just as well as a still. Ansd you know what? If it was entered as a Still… I would have also voted it as my Number one without a Doubt. When Quiche told me that the next theme was going to be a Darkstalkers one I was ecstatic. I was hpoing that somebody was going to make a really nice Morrigan Related one. And it turns out there was three really Excellent Morrigan AV’s. For that I guess you can say I was a little biased coming into this judging (i’m sorry but I couldn’t help it She is my Favorite CAPCOM Character.) But seriously this is a piece of work. I really hope thean maker lets me use this as an Av after this contest is over. The colors really stand out against the grey backround. So much more to say…but i gotta get back to work.

And with that I’m done. I Wish I can say that everyone did a good job, but this time there was one AV that I honestly didnt like at all and I dont thinks it should have been up there with all the other AVS. I think you know which one I am talking about. Other then that Good Job to everyon who entered. Theses challenges get better every time. I’m glad that I have the honor of jusging these. Thanks Quiche.

Omega_Viscant · October 14, 2005, 9:38pm

Update:

STILLS

Rikuo - 6
Jedah - 5
The Mummy Arises - 3
Prince of Hell - 3
Qbee - 3
Midnight Victor - 2
Your Name Here - 1
Growling Gallon - 1

ANIMATIONS

Morrigan’s Eyes - 10
Darkness Illusion - 5
Raptor Chainsaw - 4
Air Zabel - 2
Chase the Chuckwagon - 2
A Darkstalkers Lesson - 1

Looks like “Morrigan’s Eyes” is probably gonna take animated (though nothing is guaranteed…only half the judges have voted), but Still is still anyone’s game.

…seriously.