THE Sig Contest V4.0 (finished.)

[Alex™]

@Graham - that;s really good, and you HAD to get the bubbles/circles in around the edges in one of your sigs didnt you? lol nice work

[LuckyShot]

Ok going in alphabetical order:

Graham: First Sig:
10/10 for text. Far and away the best of the competition. You nailed Rhy down and captured what he wanted with an amazing style.
I love how you use that torn page drop shadow – much like the telephone pole sig a few weeks back. It works well… an idea for the future – and write this down because you will thank me… Take that AWESOME effect of the torn page look with the drop shadow… and then have the main focus render of the sig POP out over the torn page border, it would look 3d like it’s popping out of the screen! Man I’m going to make a sig like that now… haha.

Ok I love the circles! I really do like abstract never before done tricks and risks. You obviously know by now most want that same type of drop shadow effect so that they blend in with the rest of the sig. I disagree whole heartedly, and instead argue they needed the texture of the brush work to blend in… and then you could have RAISED them off the page with the drop shadow OUTSIDE instead of inside, making them look like they were torn out of the sig and are laying out to the side.

I give this sig overall 9.5/10 with the .5 from the slightly odd look of the circles no QUITE connecting with the rest of the sig, and the bolrog needed a bit more contrast, if even just some glow in the eyes – just something since it’s a bit too dark.

Second Sig:
Low and behold the circles are back. And no I didn’t write the above feedback today – it was a while ago and how AWESOME is it that you raised the circles off the screen like they are drops coming off the rest of the sig, and I SOO called that last sig. Haha. Moving on.
Colors: 10/10, beautiful.
Creativity: Fluid flow, stark contrasting non fluid render. Awesome lighting effects, 10/10
Text: 10/10… the tribute to your avatar and classic “GrahamLif3” with more color and splatter brush, plus the faint text of subject matter and foregn characters was epic EPIC win.
Ok, I love this sig to death, top to bottom, the light rays coming out to the right are awesome – could have used maybe a few more through the middle…. Splatter brush here and there for good measure works really well.
Overall 9.9/10 because I always give room for improvement, I don’t give perfect scores.


more to follow, when I'm done typing it up.

[LuckyShot]

Rhy’s turn:
Great work here, with tons and tons of effort put into each aspect. I love the sunburst effect, and especially how you cut it off to the left in the typical sig rectangular shape… paralleling the overall shape of the sig. Beautiful touch there. The exploded view of the camera is amazing as well, making for a great cetral focal point as well as nailing graham’s hobby.
Speaking of graham, you threw HIM in there, and really worked the colors through out. I love the simple tight fitting border.
I’m not a fan of the blotchy texture, but it doesn’t really look bad – just not my thing. The text is awesome, and gets nailed with the curving around the lense. But you could have copied it and pasted it on top of itself, blurring the back one and making it darker to mimic the existing text on the lense exactly.
Little room for improvement here: 9.45/10
Edge goes to Graham in round 1

2nd Sig:
Epic win. You got in the torn page edges, and ANOTHER border on top of that just for the heck of it. I looks great – think about using texture on those gradient borders you’ve been making like the resident evil one you did, just some canvas texturing would do wonders for the complexity of the border itself.
There is no need to point out the complexity of the rest of this sig. The hand crafted Balrog looks so professional, I CAN’T believe you made it from scratch. The gradient light from the mouth could use a faint texture overlay, maybe a fire texture here. But seriously amazing job there.
I love the text, it glows, like cryptic unholy writing that I shouldn’t be reading for fear of this thing in your sig coming and eating me.
The texture of the background is awesome – reminds me of the walls in the later stages of Doom 3… and I really appreciate the work you put into this – for example the lava like texture masked over the balrog’s horns, then the fire work coming off of it… as well as how that same firey texture was carefully pulled around his mouth and jaw as well.
Overall, this is just awesome…
9.95/10
Rhy gets the nod here, this is ridiculous – winner to follow…

[Rhyfelwr]

OMG Graham - you rock!!!!

Serious improvement on mine and I feel that, after reading Lucky's first write up, I am so out - how on earth can I beat that!!!

Icey thinks its seriously good and she should know, because she is seriously good at knowing what's seriously good!!!

Before the final write up, I can honestly say I've thouroughly enjoyed this competition and am so honoured to be competing with some extremely talented artists here.

Thank you to everyone who took part.

Rhy

EDIT
_______

Aaarrrgghhhh - the tension is killing me!!!!!

[LuckyShot]

AND THE WINNER IS...

[SPOILER]Rhyfelwr

The last round could not be closer, it was basically a tie - and the tie breaker was the shear amount of original work Rhy put into his, literally creating the whole thing on his own - that intangible won him the contest.

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Round 4:

Finals round 1:

Finals Round 2


Congratulations - Sig Contest V4 Champion, Rhyfelwr.
Now pick out a sticker here and let me know which one it is... take your time to come up with some categories and rules, and start V5 so Maiden has something to do and Coxy can get some redemption.
[/SPOILER]
As for that second place guy...

[SPOILER]Graham, this was going to happen wether you won or lost - this was the extra something I had for you previously mentioned...

On behalf of me and Maiden and Rhy and yarbone, and moleynator - we would love you to join the Sig Exchange Crew. You will get an invite momentarily to the social group, and will be added to the list of artists should you accept of course. [/SPOILER]

This was awesome, and I hope you guys enjoyed my help/opinion/format as much as I enjoyed your artistry, originality, and hard work. Thank you guys so much - and oh man I am scared to enter the next one.


PS - PLAY DEJA BOOM! RIGHT NOW, muah ha ha - shameless self promotion. But seriously, this is what I worked on while you guys worked on sigs, and is worth the play - check sig for details, and no flaming me for plugging my level!

[GrahamLif3]

Oh that's great! Congratulations Rhy! I knew you would win! I am honored to have competed with ALL the fine competitors and I will be back next round to claim my victory!!! Thanks so much for letting me join such a prestigious group! CONGRATS RHY AND THANKS LUCKY!

[Alex™]

Congrats to Rhy, condolences to you Graham, but hey, you can be a sig exchange guy now!

Good job to both of you, some amazing sigs, and to everyone else who competed, hope you all try again next time

Now Rhy, no time to celebrate, your turn to make and judge the sig comp

[GrahamLif3]

Haha yeah when I first read it I like "Oh my gosh I WON!" but I guess not. I guess I had my hopes a little high since Lucky considered TWO of my sigs to be "the best of the competition"

schucks, I guess next time I will have to find the money to buy fancy 3D-making software so I can truly compete with Rhyfelwr.

[moleynator]

Congratz Rhy!

I can't enter next round because I am going to italy in a couple of weeks. I will enjoy seeing all the new sigs that everyone will make though! I can enter in 4 weeks if you wanna wait! :P Haha!

[Roanoake]

Wow...just read all this from the beginning. This contest was beyond awesome. Ending was so tense. Sorry Rhy, but I was rooting for Graham at the end. I liked the abstractness of his better for the balrog. I'm a huge fan of simple and abstract and your balrog was a little to much. But, if overall in the competition, I agree with you winning. This was way to close. I think it stressed everyone out haha.

[Yarbone]

wow, @_@ ...... I thought that was pretty close. Congratz Rhyfelwr!!

and well done Graham. I really like the sig yuu made :3

[Coxy224]

Congratulations to both of you finalists - very good sigs. Of course Rhy steals the limelight, but don't forget how close this one was!
I couldn't call it between you two - the quality was ridiculous in the final (and dare I say also in the semi-final with me )
I'll be ready for V5.0! Time for me to get some payback.

[ARD•]

I've been watching this quietly since it started. Very interesting.
Now it's over, I have to say congrats to Rhy! And congrats to Graham for getting into the exchange! You both did exceptionally awesomely well. So...woo!

Yeah, that's all.

[Rhyfelwr]

Just logged on for the first time since seeing the result at stupid-o-clock this morning. I wanted time to calm down and post a reply that made some sense...

oh.. hang on..bit more coming out...

WAAAHHAAYYYYYY!! OMG I WON!!!!!!! AAAARRRGGGGHHHH *jumps around a lot waving my arms ridiculously in the air*.

.... OK calmed down again now..

I do feel a little speechless (or textless if thats a word), because in the end, I truly feel that were both evenly matched.

I suppose in the end, Lucky had an impossible task which I didn't envy (Oh god, its my turn next!) and he had to go either way on a knife edge. I felt that his marking was very fair and, on marks alone, we were indeed equal.

Its interesting that earlier in the week, after using standard googled Balrog images, I did feel that it would be too easy and might get critisized for not being original... hence the work on creating it from scratch (That soooo took longer than I wanted it to!). From what lucky said, I guess that was what tipped it, but artistically, I thought it was a head-to-head.

Graham.. my comiserations to you.. you were an awsome competitor and I worry about having to compete against you in the future!

Lucky - I have to say that this contest was superbly hosted. It was well thought out, well constructed, well maintained and brilliantly written up. I think that my efforts in V5 will mimic many of your ideas I'm afraid! Congratulations for guiding a truly tense and exciting comp!

I'll PM you about a sticker choice, but really, it was about taking part and I really enjoyed it.

As a mark of respect to Graham, I would like to donate the same choice of a sticker to you.. you really deserve it and I don't feel right taking all the glory.

BTW, all of the software I use is free (err Photoshop...not so free). The last package I used was ZBrush (in addition to DAZ STudio), which I learned in 3 days on 30 day trial... so anyone can achieve these results without breaking the bank.

To all the other competitors.. you were all awsome!! I feel that there is going to be some SERIOUS competition in V5, judging the feedback I've read!!

I'll be working on the format for V5 tonight, so certain individuals *ahem* won't have to wait long before getting stuck in!

Again... thanks...so much

Rhy

[GrahamLif3]

Great work, again! Can't wait till next round to see what crazy themes you come up with!

[Coxy224]

Rhy, I totally trust you to come up with some awesome themes - and you'll be a great judge too!

[AJ_187]

Congrats on the win Rhy all that practice on that 3D thing payed off =D Epic balrog you made Good luck being the judge lol ^^ if you need help judging, i have an idea :P just come back onto this page, and just look at the things Lucky commented on while judging and work that into your own :P will work like a charm XD C u soon

[TheArmedReaper]

Well done Rhyfelwr.. I've seen great sigs in this round. Sorry about not responding, but I became busy, and haven't had time to respond.
:/

[mrsvista]

Well done Rhy, you did a great job, congratulations.