SOTM 2011 - March (Musical Nature) - Entry Thread
 

The Signature Of The Month contest is open to all members of the Animesuki Forums. The goal of the contest is to provide a fun and competitive way of showing off and improving the signatures and personal skills of contestants. The winner of each months contest is given the privilege of choosing the theme for the next month.

The contest begins on the first of each month and consists of roughly two weeks of entry creation/submission, one week of voting, and one week off. The entry and voting periods may be extended or shortened slightly as needed.

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Each month prospective contestants are given a theme to base their entries on. This theme is decided by the winner of the previous contest. The theme can be anything, as long as it does not break forum rules regarding inappropriate material. At the end of the month, voters choose which entries they liked best out of all submitted entries and a new winner is decided. Themes cannot be used twice in a row.

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1. Contestants are allowed to create, work on, and submit their entry from the start of the contest until two weeks from the start date. This period of time is specified by the organizer every month. Once the entry period expires, all submitted entries are gathered up and sent to the Voting Thread.

2. Contestants must submit original works. This means you cannot simply cut a picture out, slap your name on it, and call it your own. Claiming someone else's work as your own is also not allowed. Anyone caught doing this will have their entries removed from the contest.

To further expand on this rule:

2A. Unless proven otherwise, all entries made by contestants are derivatives of works made by someone else. Thus, no claim of "ownership" shall be made in reference to the image(s) used in the signature entry.

2B. Misrepresenting someone else's signature work for your own is prohibited and will result in an immediate expulsion of the entry and disqualify the contestant from the current month's contest.

2C. In the spirit of originality, "crop" sigs are frowned upon, but not discouraged; however, the contest organizer can call upon all contestants to show the source of their entry(ies) at any time.

2D. Also in the spirit of originality, new signatures are encouraged. However, if you feel one of your older signatures is perfect for the theme and wish to enter it, you may. Just remember that the signature still has to follow the rules stated above.

3. Contestants are allowed to create as many entries as they wish, but are only allowed to enter one. To submit an entry officially, the contestant must mark the post in the Offical Entry Thread containing that entry with the words "Final Entry", or they can submit the signature to the contest organizer using the private message function.

4. Contestants who wish to keep their entries private until after the submission period can private message the contest organizer with their entry. The entry will not be displayed until submissions are closed, unless the contestant displays that entry publicly.

5. Entries must comply with Animesuki rules regarding signature size. This means each entry can be no larger than 500 x 160, and must be less than 50,000 bytes. They must also comply with forum decency rules. If you think your entry will be offensive or reported to the moderators, don't post it, even as a joke.

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Every month, a new entry thread is created. Each month's entry thread is a central spot meant to give contestants a chance to create and improve their entries as well as their skills, in addition to providing them a place to post their official submissions.

The thread is solely about helping contestants with entries, and as such these things will not be tolerated:

1. Nonconstructive and negative criticism (if you truly dislike something about an entry, be polite and helpful)

2. Comments, questions, or complaints about General SOTM affairs

3. Flaming, trolling, and other uncivil behavior that breaks Forum Rules

Anyone disrupting the thread will be asked to take it privately, to the SOTM Generic Discussion Thread, or if the offense is severe enough - reported to the moderators.

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This months entry period officially starts Wednesday, March 3rd, 2011 and lasts until Friday, March 25th, 2011. Entries will be gathered and put up for voting on Sunday, March 27th, 2011. Voting will end on the following Sunday.

The due date ends at 11:59 (midnight basically) UTC/GMT. The polling will be up one day later after 11:59 (again, midnight). I will try to be as lenient as I can with last minute submissions but only slightly.

It is up to you as a contestant to know what your time zone is in relation to UTC/GMT. I cannot do this for you.

Here is a site that can help you figure that out: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/convert_time_in_UTC.aspx

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My firsts tries for this month's theme (I had one of them already started but unfinished), hoping than they would fit:

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/1...honeflower.jpg

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8523/guzhengsig.jpg

C&C would be welcome...

@ ganbaru: The first one doesn't say music to me at all. The second one is better for music but could use some more nature in my opinion.

@ganbaru - LKK is right. right now none of the entries have the two elements combined properly - the first one qualifies for nature only (i see no music reference in it) and the second has music but only a few flowers don't really qualify as nature - you need MOAR :heh:

indeed this is actually a tough theme because it gets a bit hard to combine both of the elements. However that's where the fun is ;)

Mmmm, I like your second entry, ganbaru, what if you put her in a garden or something to up the nature element? It looks really good though.

I guess than the headphones on the first one wasn't obvious enough...
I reworked the second sig; adding more flower and a little text, C&C are always welcome:
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/2346/guzhengsig0.jpg

(More flower ? )

Text is bad IMO, you should fix it.
Try incorporating it into signature somehow, not just splattering it in top right corner.

@ganbaru: I agree with The Drunk for the text, the sig is beautiful! I love the colors :)

I did a try too, hope it's fits the theme :)

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...ture-music.jpg

C&C ?

@rikikai - the sig is awesome as it is but I think it needs a bit more nature ~

rikikai: I'm agreeing with vanda, but it looks great so far!

I have a question regarding the theme. Does the sig need to necessarily contain flowers and trees and that sort of thing, or can it be in some other natural setting (e.g. mountain)?

The nature part was Mittwoch's idea so I'm not sure but I think she had "green" in mind - I mean, trees, leaves, flowers - spring related nature really... and unless the mountain has "green" in it I don't think it counts... you better ask Mittowch just to sure though :heh:

When I said nature I kind of meant the setting of it, you know, something different than what was until now :P You can use gardens and landscapes and forests etc as backgrounds, not just adding some leaves and flowers and voila :P

Just like Vanda's sample image for example.

Thanks for the replies :) So just for a final clarification, would a snowy mountain setting be a yes or no? I'd just like to make sure.

So I try to put more nature ^^

V2:
http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...naturesotm.jpg

V3:
http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/a...turesotmv3.jpg

My V3; I reworked the text:
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/6...zhengsig0a.jpg

@ rikikai you should make the flower on the background more apparent.

Well it is better than first ones, but it could still be better.
I'll maybe enter this one bit later.

Eh, I need to combine both music and nature, I'll pass this one. :D

I disagree with ganbaru, I think the flowers look great as is. Beautiful! V3 is my favorite ^^
Hmm. Maybe choose a different font?

Colors are too bland, you should make focal point stand out (her face).
Also render looks bit low quality.

Hope you don't mind CnC.

@Rikikai: Interesting, slightly morbid, twist on the theme - me like. :heh: I would choose v3. The flowers on her face and background coordinate well together.

@ganbaru: perhaps an asian/classical Japanese type font might fit better with the overall sig? And blend the text in with the background better.

So I took a screenshot of my sig (I'm still working on it, no need for C&C right now) just for everyone to understand what Mittwoch said - basically it needs nature as a setting - so rikikai, I don't think your sig counts right now. But the nature part is really for Mittwoch to decide, I'm just giving an example:
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/1...reenshot3w.png
(I still don't have music really incorporated, I'll do more - but the nature part is covered)