Dominance War Mini - VOTE NOW

[blankslatejoe]

Soldiers,
The initial skirmish has been fought and it's time to declare our mini champions. Voting has been enabled and you can pick your top five 2d and 3d Game Artisans entries via the links below. Be sure you log in to GA with 'remember me' checked in order to vote!

3d -- http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/minis/view_entries_gameartisans_3d_1.html

2d -- http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/minis/view_entries_gameartisans_2d_1.html


Now, as many of you know this mini was being run across all the different forums that will be participating in the main event (coming up soon). You can check out the other forums entries by clicking their icons/logos near the top of those links.

You can also VOTE for your favorites of these.

Yes, everyone can vote for their favorites from EACH faction. You can pick a top five from EACH (assuming there are five entries--some of the factions have less)..

All in all, that's hundreds of entries to ogle at! When you hit submit, it saves the results for that page alone, so you can then thumb through the other pages independently. You don't have to vote on all the pages.

[JacqueChoi]

I really don't like the format for this miniwar.

CGhub only has 4 entries, and one of them is a Concept Art entry accidentally submitted on the 3D side.

Don't like how those 3 entries are automatically in the finals, when there's a WHOLE lot more volume of stronger entries from GA and PC that won't get such recognition.

(Just flagging this as a HUGE concern, because I'm hoping the main contest won't be judged like this).

Also it's not disqualifying a lot of the contestants who mis-read the rules, and submitted entries NOT baked onto the original meshes (while many of the other contestants painstakingly sacrificed silhouette, and normal map baking quality to get them back to the base mesh).


I personally don't think the rule bending should be tolerated on the mini-comp, because you're sending the signal that the rules are relatively malleable for the MAIN comp.




That said.. AWESOME showing by GA!

:D

[DreameR]

i think there was always going to be things that were lost in translation, Joxx because this wasn't a very straight forward mini. But you're right. There was lots of grey areas about the rules, and some rules were hard to understand due to different people's perspective.

congrats to the finishers nonetheless

[Draxxuss]

I'm pretty much 100% with you on this Joxx.
While there were some fantastic entires in other forums... there were many of those that broke the base mesh rule. I would have loved to add a bit to mine to help bring out some features but I baked and used the base mesh we were given. Anyways... Perhaps the rules weren't thought through enough or explained well enough but in the end I still enjoyed the mini and am looking forward to the main comp. I only hope that any issues that arise now will help to avoid futures ones for the main and 2nd mini.

[Yozora]

Totally agree with Joxx. And oh my god I cant believe we still gotta open all of them in separate tabs by middle clicking/gesturing for EACH image, or go back and forwards constantly :( Not to mention the fact that you gotta scroll down for EACH tab because half the page is filled with banner/google ads/artist info.

You deserve so much more whine, damn GA for being so soft and carefree. I dont even feel like voting anymore, the process alone is so tedious it just doesnt feel worth it. And whats worse, I actually did bother to look at the teams that only had less than 10 entries because there was less to click.

On the plus side, you are hosting the greatest game art competitions on the internet so thanks.

[Draxxuss]

I was just thinking more on this.

While picking the top 5 across each of the forums is a great way to narrow down the field for the final judging, it is not the best and most fair way of doing it.

It should be based on amount of submissions per forum.

For every 10 submissions entered, the top 1 is chosen to represent in the final.

IE. if I forum has 10 guys or less, then only 1 may be permitted to go to the final based on community voting. If the forum has 40 then they can vote for their top 4. In GA we have 100+ entires which would allow us 10 finalists.

This is war correct? Shouldn't the army with the most soldiers have the largest representation? Why should an army of 5 soldiers have the same standing as an army of 100? Why should GA be penalized for having so many enthusiastic artists? We have more than doubled the other sites in terms of entries which means an artist has 1/2 the chance to get into the finals where some artists have automatic entry... what is fair about that.

1 entry per 10 submissions is what I say!


It isn't too late to use this type of system as voting is still underway.

What do others think of this?

[Absorber]

Im going to vote :) If i got some time ill check all the other forums.. But about the voting on the other forums: They can also sabotate the 'winners' by voting on the uglyiest ones right??

Btw: Draxxuss, good point about the x10 rule ;)

[Draxxuss]

Mittmac - yes.

[Gill Bates]

Very good points Joxx and Draxxuss. I also think voting should be confined to your forum. Our challengers can easily come over and vote based on who they feel will be the easiest to beat. I would love to rely on the honor system, but I must say my faith in the online honor system is non existent. :think:

Also whats up with all the entries that are shown but didn't follow the rules of the mini challenge? I see this a bit in the 2d challenge but it seems overwhelming in the 3d challenge.

[Centrifuge]

I pretty much agree with the fact that this format of open forum voting seems to be a bit unfair to me. maybe I am understanding this wrong. I thought each forum would be closed voting, meaning only that forum can vote on their entries, so as to choose the best 5 to represent the team. the fact that other forums can vote on our top 5 seems to be unfair. especially since some forums only have limited entries that are automatically chosen. there are those who have accounts on polycount and GA and others, that could very easily sabotage our top 5 decreasing the level of representation we get in final voting...

[Hearshotkid02]

This is way to friggin hard to do... Like Joxx said, there's a few places with only a handful of entries. But then places like GA, PC, GGTalk and a few others where 5th place was just about as good as 1st...:brick:

edit: Oops, by the time I was through the voting there were a lot more posts here lol... The 1 finalist per 10 submissions does sound rather fair for a comp like this.

[walrus]

In the end, this is a contest between individuals. I mean, it's cool that one forum or another gets to say "we have a great team!" (Especially if that forum is GA!) but it's the individual who makes the great achievement, wins the prize, gets in include the great work in his or her portfolio or resume. Where I'm going with this is, it's important to recognize any individual artist's achievement, and I think most people voting will do that: Vote for GOOD art as opposed to sabotaging the voting system. And if you really want to be cynical about the process, the people you have to worry about most are your own teammates: Only 5 people from each forum get in, so someone here on this forum who entered has more to gain by giving you a crappy rating (to elevate their own chances) than someone from somewhere else. Not to make anyone too paranoid: I still feel that enough people vote honestly that it all evens out and the best artists get in.

That being said, I totally agree with all of the other posts and concerns above: It's not fair for people who didn't obey to explicit rules to get awarded for doing so. and i like Draxxuss' idea of having the forums with the most soldiers be represented by the most generals. No offense to anyone there but there isn't a single entry at CGTantra and CGHub combined (a total of 7 entries) that matches the 10th-place entry in some of the larger forums' "armies."

And I totally agree with Yozora about voting functionality. i know some of this stuff isn't easy to do, but someday, please...? :)

[Fusspot]

I definitely agree that the way we vote has to change. So many entries and so much back-and-forth is downright dizzying after a while. Oy...

The thought of others trying to perform sabotage was at the back of my mind, but really, I think people would have to be very desperate/dishonest to do such a thing. I think for the most part that people are honest enough to want those who put in the hard work and followed the rules to be elevated to the top.

Of course only time will tell, but I want to hold out at least a little hope for the human condition. ;)

[slipgatecentral]

You guys taking it way too serious


Backgrounds are optional. Presentation is optional. Posing is optional. Basically... everything is optional. This challenge is here for those desiring to practice their art before the main event. So keep it easy, keep it quick, and keep it real.

Not like you all participated for a chance to win some real stuff, it was meant to be a little fun event to practice your skills and watch others doing the same . Well, like it always was.

I personally dont really care who wins this, which forum is strongest biggest shiniest balls etc. I got my fun, learned few very useful things, encountered some really skilled artists, whatever else needed? :> Chill, guys. It was awesome as it was.

[MRico]

I agree with Mr. Draxxuss, that's a pretty good idea.

Since this was an SDK, in the end are the files from the winners going to be available for download? That way we can all check that the normal maps were put onto the supplied mesh, cuz a lot of people didn't follow the rules in the end. And what the hells does SDK stand for?

[DemonPrincess]

It stands for "skin development kit", from back in the day when people were making "skinz" for games, which stands for "custom character textures" in our current, more evolved lingo. :)

[Centrifuge]

all in all, even though this was just a mini comp for warm up, it still feels better when everything is above board, and entries that did not follow the rules are properly disqualified etc, etc. the main comp will have set judges and this wont be a huge problem then. I agree this is an individual competition, but that doesn't negate the fairness factor. either way, there were tons of great entries from the various forums and I'm pretty sure we are all looking forward to the main comp. team GA ftw, lets keep rockin it

[Amethyst]

:) My voting is done and I'm amazed on the level of imagination by artists from all over the world; art so colourful and often done with great humour. My expectations for the big event increased quite a few notches. Good points are brought on by several people, but I support firmly what slipgatecentral expressed. All forums worked hard to make this happen, so we might as well enjoy it in spite of the flaws. I just love art and I think artists are the nicests people on earth and I'm very happy that GA had such a great turnout and that newcomers to the field of game art learnt a lot. GA rocks!!:) :thumb:

[walrus]

I respect what you're saying, but if this were just for fun then there wouldn't be any rules at all, not any voting at the end. It would just be, "Hey, let's all have fun doing whatever we want on the theme of generals." But once you have voting and rules, along with them comes the expectation from many participants that those rules will be followed. It doesn't seem unreasonable for people to want the playing field to be level, even if there are no prizes at the end.

[Blenderhead]

Too many entries to be hitting back and forth with...and its a shame about the open voting. Really talented artists are the ones who will lose out, and all their time spent will be for nothing, because there are some really petty people out there for sure, who will abuse the system. Only reason why I am going through the annoyance of voting with so many entries this time. I think people's good ideas regarding the voting system over this DW should be colated and applied to make a better voting system here. :)

[Yozora]

I doubt a significant number of people are gonna bother "sabotaging" things. Thats really the least of the problems, well it aint even a problem yet. Artists are too cool for that kind of immaturity :(

I agree with walrus that some of these team's #1s dont even come close in quality compared to some of the bigger team's #10s. But its not that big of a deal tbh, you dont get anything for being #1 in the team except for being considered in the final judge phase right? And they wont stand a chance in there so theres really no problem.

Anyway while I was voting I noticed some guy submitting the same entry for 2 teams;
http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/minis/finals_cgsociety_3d_1516.html
http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/minis/finals_hxsd_3d_1519.html

Not gonna bother throwing ideas out to improve the voting system, I've been going on about that for months already :/

[velvetrevolver]

lets just move on. the voting system is set. and im pretty sure that most people on these forums have good intentions. play fair win fair is the best. great achievment to those who finished was super great fun!. there will always be competition, just be honest and fair. then it will be all good :D

[Amethyst]

Hm walrus, I hear you and I'm thinking further about the judging of the main events in the past where artists, who were judged and actually could have won, were disqualified for specific reasons.... The work to judge 949 mini entries (2d and 3d) at the entrypoint could probably have delayed the voting... :think: Anyhow, I think it's important that artists express their opinions freely which usually helps to improve things, if feasible. :)

[Mitch-king]

ahhhhh Slipgate you are soooo right it hurts my sides, who cares who wins the warm up lap? and sabotage or not, a good 3d/2d will always stick out.

This was a good insight into numbers/ability of the main event.

Just chill and awe at all the nice work.

[Josh Singh]

You guys, the real DomWar has Never used a system like the mini system. The real dom war has official judges.
The mini comps use the community vote because it is a pain in the ass for the mods to find judges every two weeks for these fast paced minis.
It was even a pain in the ass for the monthy challenges at cgchat to find judges.
SO if you feel the mini voting system is flawed, it's our own damn fault because We as the community are the Judges.
Yozora, You are a cool guy, and your art is getting better, But seriously, you are sounding like a Broken Record. You are complaining that you have to click your mouse to see artwork. Think about that.
And for those who feel like they do not get the proper critiquing that they want and that nobody votes for their art, and feel like their entry gets lost in the crowd, MAKE BETTER ART.
I had to go through it during the cgchat days, Mirabello went through it, Dublin went through it, Keegle went through it, Mathis went through it, everybody in the damn history of man who has ever wanted to do anything had to go through it! You too must go through the process of making things that suck and nobody comments on it.
You don't make this art for the community. You make it for yourself, to achieve your own goals.

[Yozora]

You are complaining that you have to click your mouse to see artwork. Think about that.

Yes, its all about efficiency. Its the reason people invented mouse gestures, its the reason there are hotkeys, its the reason for a whole lot of things. I love striving for maximum efficiency in everything I do and I like thinking of ways to improve my own workflow that can reduce the amount of time I spend doing any task, no matter how small.

I dont understand how some people can use the default hotkeys/UI in 3d max and stuff, they're so badly placed. But that doesnt affect me, so I dont comment about it. However this voting thing does affect me so I would like to try and improve it as much as I can, and the only way I can do that is to give my opinions. The good thing is it doesnt only benefit me, it benefits everyone in the community and everyone that has yet to join the community in the future.
The other alternative is to setup my own voting system on a external site, I did think about it at one point but I know that not enough people would care to use it since it ain't official :/


SO if you feel the mini voting system is flawed, it's our own damn fault because We as the community are the Judges

This is exactly right, in more than 1 way.


I'm sorry if it annoys anyone... and thanks for the compliment Josh, that really meant a lot to me coming from you!


Edit: In response to twindragon's reply below; That is a very poor comparison and its on a completely different scale. The voting thing is only tedious because of the masses of entries, its less tedious in a thread - but you are right, even that can be improved. One way I can see is some day in the future, where comments get tied onto a image so you can actually comment directly on the image - so it will be kinda like the GA gallery with the comments under the art - except its not on a separate page and is somehow tied in with the .jpg and viewers can "expand" the image to see the comments attached like some kinda flash thing. I duno, just random thoughts for the future :p Anyway that cant be done easily right now, but the suggestions for fixing simple things like the navigation for the current vote system can easily be done.

Like putting a single button that "opens all entries in tabs" - that would save 900 clicks, 200 or something worth of lines scrolled (to scroll to next image and click) and 5~ minutes of time/annoyance to navigate to each thumbnail and clicking. All I'm asking for there is 1 button.
EDIT: Found a solution for firefox users; http://snaplinks.mozdev.org/
Edit #2: Doesnt work that well for me, Right click is used for gestures, middle click for scrolly thing and left click default. If you assign this to left click it messes up text selection, if you assign it to right click it gets messed up by gestures and middle click is just messed up since it will scroll and select at same time :/
Edit #3; Alright after some further research apparently making a button to open all links in seperate tabs is harder than it sounds -.- Even though this kind of function has been built into browser bookmark systems for a while now :/ But no problem, the next suggestion is better anyway!

Now if theres a page that laid out all the entries in 1 huge page for me to scroll, that would save another 900 "tab closings" and save the time of tab-switching on top of the time saved with opening everything in tabs.

Or another idea, imagine a page like the current vote page, where each thumbnail is actually the full size image and the page width and height itself is enlarged by 10x. That would involve side scrolling of course, but overall it would be a much better way of viewing the entries than opening them all in tabs or clicking back/forward. Plus you can even use the middle mouse button thing so you dont even need to scroll, just move the mouse. I can actually do this right now using the browser zoom function, but the problem with that is zoomed in thumbnails look like crap and is not the way the art should be viewed imo.

Both of these are tiny suggestions, I have better ideas for bigger changes but they are significantly more difficult to implement.


And remember this is a new thing with dom war it will get better next time. It always does.

True, and one way to make it better is by pointing out the flaws in the current one. We shouldnt rely on just the organizers to come up with fixes to everything, we as a community should provide them with suggestions - which they can choose to ignore if they wish. And here I go again, sigh :(

[Twindragon]

I usually pick my 5 best while the competition is going on anyways so I don't need to look at each individual entry to vote. That's the good thing about being part of this community and showing your wips is that you get a good sense of who's doing what. On the other forums I didn't get the privilege but at least there are fewer entries.

Complaining about having to click back to see other artwork is like complaining that when you are critiquing peoples work when the comp is going on you have to go back to previous pages and look at ppls name and write your comments etc. I usually grab a pad of paper and jot things down to make it easier.

As for the artists that broke the rules don't vote for that artist its simple... I know others might but those who know the rules won't.

I am just happy I participated in a competition again and learned new things. And remember this is a new thing with dom war it will get better next time. It always does.

[DeAtH_SmiLeS]

I think that the 10:1 ratio would be a great way to solve this problem.

[innate]

Most of you are right, this isn’t a make it or break it situation. We do this art for ourselves and if we stick to it we will eventually get the recognition we seek. I learned a lot and gained a piece of work I’m proud of which made it all worth it. As well, I too believe that sabotage will be hardly a factor.

But in overall fairness I think Draxxuss hit it on the button. Based on some of the community sizes, 1 in 10 qualifiable entries should be considered. It may or may not be too late to apply this, but lesson learned for future wars.

[prototyp3]

"Vote for Pedro!"

[crazyfool]

yea it says on the website that the main comp is professionally judged completely, they pick names of all good entries and slowly siv through til the winners are announced. The mini comp systems will never work perfect due to personal opinions but theres no prizes, just an end product which if you worked hard will be a nice folio piece, congrats on all entries, I hope you all learned as much as I did :)

[DreameR]

as long as the final comp is judged well, by more than one country all is well.

people have different tastes from around the world, so naturally westerners are gonna like western models cos they see all same things. would like to see more international range in the judging this year

[Ksan]

I enjoyed looking at all the entries. GA had an outstanding turnout, so be proud people. It was a fun warmup, and whatever heppens for those that win, good job! I got a lot out of it, so thanks for making it happen :thumb:

btw....I had a damn hard time picking just five.....there were more than 10 on GA I would have like to given points to, great work.

[dione22]

I thought the mini-tournament is not the prize.
But the winner is a personal honor.
Most people know and think. Some more excellent work out.
Does not necessarily agree with all.
Will match most people's opinion.
Most of the work of the people they're shown to a lot of people will be satisfied.
I'm happy to be able to submit either to participate
mani contest the left to the future.
I know this guess is in the tournament judge.
Enjoy the tournament itself as a mini-tournament.

[Blenderhead]

You are complaining that you have to click your mouse to see artwork. Think about that.

Yeah;two clicks forty times for each damn category. That's 160 clicks to see everyone's work full size so we can vote. It's just this particular mini that it was annoying, the other ones were fine.

[Mitch-king]

I have to agree with Twindragon and Josh,
This is a inter-community competition and most of us on the forums were fully aware of the best 2d/3d well before the deadline (apart from the last min entrants grrr). This gave me loads of time to leisurely browse the other communities.

Also for feedback of technical problems on voting/browsing I think its wise as a first step to distinguish between very minor and major problems.

[Dusty]

I just voted. Very EXCITE!

I have even started practicing drinking caffiene again for the real contest.

[JacqueChoi]

I just voted. Very EXCITE!

I have even started practicing drinking caffiene again for the real contest.

COOL! I started crack!

:uhh:

[Gill Bates]

COOL! I started crack!

:uhh:

/dead....ROFL!

[cashfire]

This turned out real big, I cant wait till the main even this is gonna be epic!

[jandaku cintaku]

Well, i just voted and just wanna say excellent job for those who enter, can't wait for the main one...
anyway about that clicking complaint, i'm not sure i can give a good opinion but i was thinking that probably a pop up image. Like you click on the art and a pop up comin' up displaying full size the art and the artist short brief...you still have to click each art but it better than a new tab for each art.
Me my self are much similar like twindragon, i usually pick ma fav during progress so when voting i usually knows who make what and how.....but still every opinion from one of us probably for ensuring a better future for our beloved and fav forum.....

[qsort]

Voted. I have to say i had really hard time picking top 5 on 2d side, harder then for 3d - but nice work all around, gj.

ps: my system for voting is just going over page where all the entries are shown, and then i open those that look promising in new tab ( in the end it turns out i almost open all in new tabs :s ), then i just go slowly over them and closing those that are not, in my opinion, top 5.

...again great work GA! cya' in main comp.

[_S9_]

Just voted for both 2d and 3d entries, dunno if the voting is actually submitted though, after hitting "submit" it just brings me to the same voting page and resets all the votes, maybe it's better to have some kind of "thanks for voting" thingy as a confirmation. As far as the comments on the voting system goes, i'd have to agree with walrus, overall some really interesting work.

[walrus]

I've found that if you vote "correctly" (i.e. one vote each for places 1-5, no two votes for #4, no skipping any numbers) then clicking on submit will have the result of making all of your voting options go away (which essentially means "you've voted already.") Anything "incorrect" in the procedure resets the page. Not as friendly as giving you an error message telling what you did wrong or telling you a helpful "thanks for voting," but at least knowing how it works now may help. :)

(I know I've messed up several times in the process, accidentally awarding multiple 5th places!)

[blankslatejoe]

Just voted for both 2d and 3d entries, dunno if the voting is actually submitted though, after hitting "submit" it just brings me to the same voting page and resets all the votes, maybe it's better to have some kind of "thanks for voting" thingy as a confirmation. As far as the comments on the voting system goes, i'd have to agree with walrus, overall some really interesting work.

walrus has it right--if you vote correctly then the voting options go away and you can no longer vote. You might have to make sure you have remember me checked when you log in here.

[Ming1918]

Just a suggestion:
and what do you think if we could see updated voting progress for each one piece?
I suppose that's only curiosity by my side, i mean, something like seeing a car race.
But i want people know it's NOT to emphasizing competition over the pleasure that contest should bring
Something wrong about that?
let me know
(hope my english be understandable:)
M

[EVIL]

if they would show how many votes each entry has then you have a situation where there are people who can't make up their mind and vote fore the most popular. It would be a bit unfair, and in 2 or 3 days we will know who goes trough anyway! So yeah, it would be nice to see but there are only a couple of days left so its not worth it in my opinion.

[Yozora]

Yep, like evil said. It would upset all those people who complain about commenting on finished entries before the results, and there would actually be no benefit for anyone to see the votes before the results anyway.

[Ming1918]

Yeah guys, know what your mean, it's just something irrational, probably only big curiosity(is it written like taht?), even because it's my first contest with a lot of well prepared folks!!
Anyway, thanks foor your answers, i appreciate them a lot
i'm kinda newbie here but it seems to me a really good community,lot of passion, i feel at home:)
bye guys!

[walrus]

I agree with the guys above that seeing the votes in progress would skew the results and shouldn't be done... but I'm right there with you, Ming, about wanting to see the results. I'm curious as heck how voting is going and how my entry is doing, too! :)

[aymar1]

i just want to say congrats to all

[devoid]

Just voted on all of the forums both 2d and 3d and would like to thank walrus for his (obviously simple - why didn't i think of it) suggestion of using tabs to sort ranking. I did notice a few things overall I think might be good to mention.

1 The quality gap between the best and next best entries is much larger on 2d than 3d. Seems we have a broader range of talent 3d artists.

2 GA an PC had hands down the largest number of awesome entries in 3d. Way to go. These 2 forums were incredibly difficult to choose.

3 I was surprised to see most the entries i was very excited about in the beginning failed to impress me at the end. There were some amazing initial sculpts that ended not nearly as impressive as final game models. Many failed at the diffuse level.

4 Across the boards there seems to be an issue with rendering and presentation. With obvious amazing exceptions, we seem to not do a good job at presenting ourselves well. Some of the other forums models looked much better than they actually were purely because of the quality of rendering.

5 I was disappointed in the lack of "general-ness" in a lot of the entries (mine included) When i ended up two entries that i wanted to rank the same, the one that nailed the brief better won out.

Sorry if i rambled there, looking through hundreds of images has fried my brain.

Bring on the Main Challenge!!

[walrus]

I just finished voting tonight too. I learned something interesting about generals in the process: I never realized before what a large contingent of military commanders have a single, milky, glassy eye. And pets. You learn something new every day! :D

[Twindragon]

After creating my war general I realized I should have decorated him with more medals(bling) lol. I failed to really reference what real generals looked like but I was still happy with the quality that he turned out I just think sometimes I need to focus on those finer details. Its a learning experience and that's what I like about these mini comps.

[David79]

ei congrats all! too bad i have no time to do this one XD!
be ready for the main challenge guys :D

[Bal]

Don't forget how all generals love cigars too Walrus... =) Then again it kinda seems like many people that had cigars on their WIPs removed them for the finals...
I finished voting yesterday, was long but fun, great work all around, congrats to all those who finished.

[EVIL]

I just finished voting on 2d and 3d across all boards and damn, 75% made me want to gauge my eyes out presentation wise. I tried looking trough the bad presentation and I did not vote to any who did not come across to me as a general. One even named his general, king (the character looked like a king, so I did not vote for him because of the name) so he fell off the list, even when his rendering was ace, such a shame.

[Blenderhead]

One even named his general, king (the character looked like a king, so I did not vote for him because of the name) so he fell off the list, even when his rendering was ace, such a shame.

:uhh:

Anyways...by far my favourite was the sentient squid one...with his tentacles in the poor guys head. :inocent: So very funny, really well executed. Kinda reminded me of Walrus' sense of humour in his work. I had to give that my first vote. :thumb:

[Bal]

I admit I was fairly open-minded about the whole general idea while voting, most of the characters are aliens or weird animal-mutants and stuff, who's to say what a general looks like in that context...

[Fusspot]

I wanted...just once...to see a bubble pipe.

But perhaps that's asking too much.

Oh, and amen to the tabbed-browsing suggestion. That's the only way I managed to sift through the entries on some of the sites. I wish I'd done it from the beginning.

Also, I gotta ask: Is it wrong of me to not put in votes in the 3D competition? Being that it's an area I really have yet to explore, most of the technical jargon goes straight over my head, and I feel it wouldn't be fair of me to pass judgment on something I know so little about at this point in time.

[Blenderhead]

I think that flash rollover thing works well. If you mouse over the small Icon, a big version appears beside the mouse until you mouse off.

[mradamw]

just finished up voting! man there were some really tough decisions to make!

i tried to keep as open minded as possible with regards to voting. I will agree that there were some very poor presentations, but at the end of the day i recon that is something subjective, so what i may think is a "poor presentation" might well be great to someone else. So presentation was definitely NOT the basis of my vote...i took the model/textures/idea above anything.

i completely agree with Bal. There have been a couple of comments made about people not getting the idea of "general-ness" across. Whilst i agree in many cases, the way i was thinking about it was that just because we (humans) have a ranking system based on medals and so on in military, that is more than likely not the case for other races - ie aliens - (which made up the vast majority of models submitted). So, if i got a feeling of power/authority from the model (regardless of it having medals/stars etc) then im my eyes that person conveyed the message perfectly. maybe thats just me though.

voting in these sorts of things is always very tough, because everyone has preconceptions on just about every topic, and i will be the first to admit that overlooking those preconceptions (be it about what makes a "good" model, what makes a "good" presentation and so on) can be very tricky indeed :)

On a side note, thanks to all of the people who gave me advice and guidance throughout this mini comp! there are some incredibly cool and helpful people out there (part of what makes GA the best forum!) thanks everyone!

[EVIL]

blenderhead - its a contest which had a topic and rules, if the entry's do not match then I find it normal to not include them into my top 5. There is a subtle line between general and king, they both have a sense of authority, but the king is different from a general in that they are softer and have a much wiser look, less arrogant as well.

I also know that aliens would not use medals to show superiority but still a brutal looking alien who is in the mids of combat does not make me say: "ooh a general" then an alien who looks like he is in control. No Mather how alien the creature looks, its still possible to depict him like he is in charge and having him look dominant, arrogant, etc.

Basically I followed what the final judges would do, and its looking at the topic and how well the entry's match that topic then I reward them points for technical skills (textures, rendering etc.)

I rather judge the entry's like that then the "ooh I like the textures on that one" or "the normal map is very well done" but none match the topic or took any regards to the rules.

[jocz]

Personnaly, I like how people in this comp have totally deform the standard general cliché,
There is a lot of funky generals, you just have to imagine them moving or speaking to make them general to you ^^' or p4 :lucky:

[Dash-X]

I wanted...just once...to see a bubble pipe.

Dammit! I was tempted. SERIOUSLY tempted.

Voting for this one was tough. Lots of good entries all around...

Somehow, I think that the fact that everyone uses different criteria, metrics and methods in their voting kinda helps to ensure that it stays fair.

[f_riley]

fantastic work everyone, I finished voting and it was a real pleasure viewing so many great entries. :)

[sinz]

I finished voting last week amazing amount of talent by the asian groups, they are out for blood!

This DW is going to be super tough, can't wait to read the story/brief on it.
Good Luck all! even thou half of you don't need it. :p

[Fusspot]

Dammit! I was tempted. SERIOUSLY tempted.

It's all right. I'll forgive you on account of the fact that she'd probably look pretty ridiculous with bubbles coming out of that thing. :approve:

[Draxxuss]

Are we going to find out who is going on to the finals.. that would be nice to know...

[walrus]

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. It's been more than 24 hours since pols closed. When do we find out the tallies? Soon, or not til Thursday?

On a tengential note, Fred and Joe probably have this all figured out by now, but here's my idea for the next mini-comp, the one that follows DW4. After all that work, we're going to want something light-hearted, so... Take any DW4 entry, yours or someone else's, and make a chibi character or super-deforme racer out of them. (Please credit the original owner!) Just an idea... :)

[ThatDon]

That's already been done, it was the mini comp before last years main event, I will be running a fun and light hearted 3D mini after all the main activity's are finished.

[walrus]

Darn, I missed it! Okay, well, I'll be looking forward to whatever fun you have in mind, Don. You haven't steered us wrong yet - the mini-comps have been great!

[Ming1918]

i can't wait, i'm very curios about the mini pool, when ww'll know?:cry:
M

[Absorber]

When do you guys think the results are in? :)

[Bal]

Voting seems to have been extended to tonight (March 10th 11:59pm Eastern Time). Can't wait to see the results.

[ninjastic]

me too ,me too

[damagecontrol]

either way, I wish everyone luck. I had a blast doing this comp.

[Tatarigamy]

Hey guys, dose anybody know when are we going to see the result of the voting, the voting was over on the 8 :eek: , and I can’t wait to see the results! :excite:

[EVIL]

the voting deadline was pushed back to the 10th, so I'm expecting them either on the 11th or 12th.

[Twindragon]

well its a bit passed 12:00 my time and its the 11th...I'm waiting patiently.

[W1r3d]

Twindragon: :thumb: /agree

[Snefer]

Yeah, I can still vote, so... I wonder when the results will be presented.. I assume its gonna take awhile :-P

[blankslatejoe]

Yup. Thanks for your patience everyone. For just a mini, this has surely ranked in a TON of entries. Can't wait for the main event!

[DemonPrincess]

Any specific reason? Tied entries, maybe? :think:

[blankslatejoe]

I don't believe so. Fred's just juggling the end of this and the start of the main event. Unlike the normal minis, I'm not as involved with the backend stuff, so I'm waiting just like the rest of you!

[Yozora]

Wouldnt it be better if Fred shared some more responsibility for handling things in DW4 to more people? Like the mini comp results is one thing I dont think he needs to do personally. I'm sure plenty of capable people are willing to help out.

[Tatarigamy]

Unlike the normal minis, I'm not as involved with the backend stuff, so I'm waiting just like the rest of you!

Aw :( , and I was hoping for some good news from you :p , but anyway lets be patient and lets hope for the best :)

I'm sure plenty of capable people are willing to help out.

I agree, but I can also understand Freds pont of view too, I`m also a do it your self person :p, I don`t like it when other people take care of my stuff.

[blankslatejoe]

Wouldnt it be better if Fred shared some more responsibility for handling things in DW4 to more people? Like the mini comp results is one thing I dont think he needs to do personally. I'm sure plenty of capable people are willing to help out.

Yup, he's got people helping him--but he's still the gatekeeper between many different forums and many different countries at this point--organizing DW is no small task :)

thansk again for your patience!

[Eclipse]

While that is true joe it's no small task, a little info wouldn't have hurt. It's un likely that Fred didn't see this delay coming, some forward notice on the site and boards would have gone a long way. Though this is the 4th year and I am pretty sure the 4th delay with no word, so it's not like it was a huge shocker or anything.

[Okmer]

Any news about when will be announced the ones who got through for each forum?

[Ming1918]

yeah!!seems that everybody forget it just because of the main competition, but we are still curious!!!:)
Please someone could answer?
cheers
M

[ninjastic]

:cool: i can w8

[blankslatejoe]

it'll still be a few more days--sorry guys!

[Draxxuss]

I just find it strange why the results of the finalists are taking so long to acquire. They aren't being judged by a handful of artists... the polls closed weeks ago which I would have thought are near instantaneous for gathering final numbers.

Just all a bit odd. Let's just say it is "one of those things"... ;)

[walrus]

Well, Fred and Ryan have both been out of town for a while, touting Dominance War at GDC. Cut them some slack! :)

[Draxxuss]

Just thought I'd poke my head in here to see if there was an update.

[Ming1918]

All Quiet on the Western Front ........................
:paper:
M

[blankslatejoe]

Yup. Still no news :(

[walrus]

For those who didn't notice, the finalists have been announced (http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/dw/4/mini1/en.php#cgs). Congrats to all of the finalists from all of the boards!

And, not that place matters, merely qualifying, but what a tight race for the top three entries for GA in the 2D division: PimpofPixels, GillBates and RobotPencil all within one point of each other!

[seven]

I haven't seen a race that close in a long time :o

Gratz guys :)

[ninjastic]

gz to all winners
btw it would be cool to see those points :p