SOTM 2008 - April (Dress Code: Female: Elegant/Ceremonial) - Entry Phase

[Zaku Hyuga]

CrowKenobi I like that a lot better than the last version. The last one looked hazy and the glow was to bright. looks like you got it right this time though

mimi girl I think you need to tone down the brightness behind her it makes her dress look really faded and wierd.

Any suggestions for mine? I'm not quite sure I like all of the words i used around her.

[KiNA]

Kimono sources

-AND-

Yukata sources

For those that still struggling to find source material and dont wished to download the image pack.

[Solace]

Thread grew a bit.

Originally Posted by Cyz

Then wouldn't it be better to change the title to "Femininity" (sp? ) since it can be girls on any dress as long as they look feminine.....minus those ecchis or scantily clad types

Because femininity is far too open of a word. It's not just any example of femininity, it's the special occasion type. The theme could have just been "pretty girls", but it had to be narrowed down a little bit because the winner wanted a certain "look" to the clothing (hence the dresscode in the title). We do want femininity, we do want pretty girls in pretty clothing, but the theme is meant to narrow the clothing down to something more elegant/ornate/special. Unfortunately it was difficult to express the concept with mere words, especially just one or two.

Originally Posted by Spectacular_Insanity

One thing I don't get for these contests is... why the hell is it always female characters? Are male characters not allowed? I'm not usually one to bitch about these kinds of things, but I feel like the SOTM is kinda sexist in that way.

February theme: Ecchi. No rules stating that there couldn't be ecchi pictures of males.

March theme: Female Combatants. Theme states female only.

April theme: Elegant/Cermonial. Theme originally was going to include males, but since people were confused on what the theme meant, it was restricted to females for simplicity in explanation.

I actually bribe all the winners in secret to choose female only themes and disqualify any signatures containing males.

---

Aria's clothing is certainly beautiful, but I agree with Sephi's points. It's not clothing they wear to look pretty and it's not for a special occasion, they wear it every day for work. On a side note, I liked the show...but I hated that cat....thing....


The entries I have seen so far are doing a pretty decent job of sticking to the theme. For those still not sure about what kind of images to use for the contest, Sephi has provided a very large amount of images to choose from, or at the very least will give you a really good idea of what to look for. If you have found an image and are not sure if it will work, don't hesitate to ask.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

Originally Posted by Zaku Hyuga

Yeah probably Men were cut out this time to prevent a lot of guys in military uniforms and and other odd outfits from being mixed in. Also I don't see to many male characters being picked above girls in dresses.

If I may say so, a bunch of girls in yukata and dresses isn't all that different from a bunch of guys in military uniforms and suits. In fact, I'd say it's more or less the same, just gender swapping.

Again, this is just me being the devil's advocate and being nit-picky and stuff, but it just seems, well... discriminatory.

[KiNA]

Opinions? Besides the sucky BG (which is fully agreed on since its a slap on work .. Its the least worried problem right now)

[bkg9990]

@KiNa: Nothing I could find xept the BG XD all in all its ok.

Ok back to topic, is the signature I currently have is acceptable? Although Im not gonna use this on the contest. I may have another render for this.

[KiNA]

I think I knew which render you talking about.. It should be okay IMO. Its a freaking evening gown

And my BG havent evolved yet.. Just caught it on the pokeball.. need more XP

[Aoie_Emesai]

Originally Posted by Kira_Naruto

Opinions? Besides the sucky BG (which is fully agreed on since its a slap on work .. Its the least worried problem right now)

Ur too creative Kina ^^. You and ur animated sigs ^^

[KiNA]

Static sigs are overated !

(because I sux at making them)

D:

[Sephi]

Originally Posted by Cyz

Then wouldn't it be better to change the title to "Femininity" (sp? ) since it can be girls on any dress as long as they look feminine.....minus those ecchis or scantily clad types

The word Femininity might give people the wrong idea. Just to name someone. Tieria from Gundam 00 is somewhat feminine. But i can assure you i definitely don't want to see him in a wedding dress, and it wasn't what i had in mind with this theme.

Originally Posted by Solace

I liked the show...but I hated that cat....thing....

Must be the fat white cat your talking about, president Aria. And yea, hes a bit strange. But got use to it. I think i need some aria again.

If I may say so, a bunch of girls in yukata and dresses isn't all that different from a bunch of guys in military uniforms and suits. In fact, I'd say it's more or less the same, just gender swapping.

Again, this is just me being the devil's advocate and being nit-picky and stuff, but it just seems, well... discriminatory

The first time i announced it, i allowed males. But seeing the huge amount of confusion Solace and i thought it was better to scrap males from being allowed. I wanted to give contestants more freedom. But it appears the less restrictions i made the more people tried to turn in in to a freestyle and the more stranger questions arise. So to protect myself from going bald i agreed to put this restriction on.

Originally Posted by Kira_Naruto

Opinions? Besides the sucky BG (which is fully agreed on since its a slap on work .. Its the least worried problem right now)

On frame two. The background blue gets brighter when the spark goes out... It's ok for the cloth/face, but the small piece of bg that gets brighter is hmmm

Originally Posted by bkg9990

Ok back to topic, is the signature I currently have is acceptable? Although Im not gonna use this on the contest. I may have another render for this.

Yes it's definitely ok for the theme.

[bkg9990]

As long as its Elegant, its ok with guns? XD

Oh yeah, it would be great if Sakura is near a lake or someting, and have some fireworks reflect on the water ^^ just a tip :3

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Spectacular_Insanity

If I may say so, a bunch of girls in yukata and dresses isn't all that different from a bunch of guys in military uniforms and suits. In fact, I'd say it's more or less the same, just gender swapping.

Again, this is just me being the devil's advocate and being nit-picky and stuff, but it just seems, well... discriminatory.

SOTM has no rules that favor one gender over another. The winners choose the themes they want to see, the only thing I have a say in is making sure the theme doesn't break forum rules regarding decency. I do offer advice on how best to illustrate the theme (see my spartan joke and the posts in this thread as examples), but I leave the final decisions on what the winner wants for the theme in their hands.

As I illustrated in my last post, we've had a female winner choose an ecchi theme, one theme that was restricted to female only images, and one theme that was open to both but restricted to females because people were getting a little crazy with the misunderstandings of what the theme was about.

I assure you the discussions about this month's theme were not taken lightly. The gender choice was debated over and removing males as an option for this months contest was decided as the best way of making sure people not only understood, but stuck with the theme. It wasn't intentional to restrict options but with so many people confused about what the theme was supposed to be, narrowing down had to happen.

As OceanBlue stated, if someone wants a male oriented theme for a future contest, all they have to do is win. At the risk of sounding harsher than intended, participation is not mandatory. If you don't want to join because you don't agree with the theme, no one is twisting your arm to make you submit an entry.

Originally Posted by bkg9990

Ok back to topic, is the signature I currently have is acceptable? Although Im not gonna use this on the contest. I may have another render for this.

It's fine. But amazingly purple.

Originally Posted by Kira_Naruto

Static sigs are overated !

(because I sux at making them)

D:

Nonsense. You make great signatures, of both varieties.

Originally Posted by Sephi

Must be the fat white cat your talking about, president Aria. And yea, hes a bit strange. But got use to it. I think i need some aria again.

Ah yes. It's been a long time since I've seen the show. Perhaps I should marathon it again.

[Simple1]

btw we can get c&c here or once posted the sig can;t edit it ?

[Solace]

Originally Posted by bkg9990

As long as its Elegant, its ok with guns? XD

See quote.

Originally Posted by Solace

What we don't care about, is the setting of the image. It could be Clare in a wedding dress cleaving a Yoma in two. We don't care, as long as she looks elegantly dressed doing it.

Originally Posted by Simple1

btw we can get c&c here or once posted the sig can;t edit it ?

This thread is for c&c as well as submissions. Just tag the post that contains your chosen entry with "Final Entry" once you've decided so I can have the correct version when it's time to gather them up for voting.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Kira_Naruto

Opinions? Besides the sucky BG (which is fully agreed on since its a slap on work .. Its the least worried problem right now)

The highlight effect on her seems to follow the full sparkling effect of the fireworks. This makes it look like the high lighted part of her is not related to the fireworks (which is not intended imo). I suppose you use different layers for the effects, maybe you can re-arange just the highlight effect to be better coupled with the sparkling effect? Oh and the highlight effect change is too intesive and isolated for isochron repetition. Thus it looks like a police signal (sort of). Maybe this can be made more subtile. ^^

[Simple1]

Is this elegance .... C&C plz....

>< Kinda....

[KiNA]

^ :Jinto .. @.@

Care to elaborate .. @.@ EDIT: Ahh... shit, my gf understand you better -_____-

@ bkg, i did consider a lake somewhere before, but the best place for it would be near the bottom part and its quite hard to animate it as well.. We'll see.. but thats at least 1 week away from consideration still.

[Furuno]

Umm... is this image below is elligilble? If so please count me in in this competition.

Spoiler for Images:

Don't worry about the size... It's still in 30% progress...

[konstargirl]

@KiNa: It feela a bit simple but the animation is cool. I don't really feel elegance in your but it is cute.

@sis: I love your entry but the text is too bright to see. But pretty elegant in my opinion.

[xxmimixx]

@Zaku: I know lol. I got that same advice from Sweethoney on my thread, but thanks for the comment .

Originally Posted by Kira_Naruto

Opinions? Besides the sucky BG (which is fully agreed on since its a slap on work .. Its the least worried problem right now)

I like the animation, but I think I'm too concentrated to it than the whole sig XD~

Originally Posted by Simple1

Is this elegance .... C&C plz....

>< Kinda....

Yeah it is kinda elegant. But Maybe you should add some dreamy looking effect. Maybe a blur or some pebbles or something. I don't know XD, but be creative swt.