SOTM 2009 - October (Spooky!) - Entry Thread

[Solace]

!!!Welcome to the SOTM!!!

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~Congratulations to ~Eps for winning the September Contest!~

The theme chosen for October is - Spooky!.
What is that? See here for details.

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About the SOTM:

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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About the SOTM Theme:

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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The Rules of the SOTM:

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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About the SOTM Entry Process:

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 Month's Entry Period::

This months entry period officially starts Monday, September 28th, 2009 and lasts until Friday, October 23rd, 2009. Entries will be gathered and put up for voting on Sunday, October 25th, 2009. 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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Good luck to all contestants, and most importantly, have fun!!!

[Chaho-Chi]

I just finished a quick draft of the base of my sig.
As you can tell It needs a lot of improving but C&C will be appreciated. ^_^

[White Manju Bun]

Originally Posted by ayu-smepai

I just finished a quick draft of the base of my sig.
As you can tell It needs a lot of improving but C&C will be appreciated. ^_^

Render looks kinda odd, like it needs to be blended into the background more epsc around her hair. Blood is nice I have a feeling we'll be seeing alot of Rena.

[ganbaru]

One thing than I would add to what White Manju Bun said, but her eyes are soo blue so diffenrt of the rest of the sig than it's catching my attention ( it could be a good thing or not I am not sure...)

[Evil Rick]

Ehem... ehem...

Holly s@%$&, this is the theme I wanted since I joined the SOTM!!!

[Cyz]

I do hope this theme don't give me nightmares . Well, let's see what we can do and happy hunting guys

[KiNA]

Originally Posted by Cyz

I do hope this theme don't give me nightmares . Well, let's see what we can do and happy hunting guys

I'm sure it wont

Spoiler for Boo!:

[Evil Rick]

An early idea:

[vandakiara]

Originally Posted by Evil Rick

An early idea:

the 'fear text' should be smaller or movoed more to the left side so it'll stay just in the black area and look better...

below that text should be... something or else it feels too empty...

and hmm, btw wth is that on your sig? I can already see myself having nightmares D:

@ayu - I say the same white manju bun said

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probably not going to submit this (unless I really have no time) but I made this sig last year and wanted to hear about it (and I don't know the whereabouts of the .psd file I know the border has some issues at least)

[Evil Rick]

Originally Posted by ayu-smepai

I just finished a quick draft of the base of my sig.
As you can tell It needs a lot of improving but C&C will be appreciated. ^_^

Well, yeah, the render should be bleneded more, you know? In these cases having the render in grayscales opnly with the intense red of the blood turns out to be very efective.

Originally Posted by vandakiara

probably not going to submit this (unless I really have no time) but I made this sig last year and wanted to hear about it (and I don't know the whereabouts of the .psd file I know the border has some issues at least)

Text would be the bigest problem. Also the render doesn't looks too blended.

and hmm, btw wth is that on your sig? I can already see myself having nightmares D:

Well...

Spoiler for >_>:

Have good dreams. >:3

[vandakiara]

Originally Posted by Evil Rick

Text would be the bigest problem. Also the render doesn't looks too blended.

yeah, definitely going to submit something else thanks for feedback btw :3

Originally Posted by Evil Rick

Well...

Spoiler for >_>:

Have good dreams. >:3

D: you didn't.... how am I ever going to sleep after seeing this?

I'm doomed now ;_;

*ok back on topic x)*

definitely prefer the sig version of that however, after seeing the original image I feel like the sig is a bit confusing - you should clear up what's going on a bit more *not too much though or else you'll scary the hell out of the contestants, me included *

[KiNA]

@ Rick.. awesome pick.. however, the chosen part wasnt all that spooky TBH

I would pick the big mouth as my main focal point. However, your pick are still workable IMHO

[Evil Rick]

Heh, heh... yeah, I think I should catch the idea of the creature a bit morer with the sig. Oh, btw, belive it or not, that monster is Cerberus, torturer of Gluttons. To see him in action check 1:25 in this vid. O.o

Now, have pleasant dreams.

[KholdStare]

If we do a horror theme, would that also work?

[KiNA]

^ From his description

Spooky environment and/or photos
For instance scary places, houses, a dark forest, games like STALKER and so on. Of course by all means, you can also include a character to be present in the environment or photo.

I gander yes.. if he answer no, I'm gonna kick his butt silly until he answer yes as well XD

[katiemirmo]

This months theme had given me nightmares!O.o
>.< It's scary to look for renders like this..

[Eps~]

Originally Posted by KholdStare

If we do a horror theme, would that also work?

Alright, after getting severely punished for hours by KiNa, horror is allowed. Well to be honest, horror is just a close synonymous to scary/spooky anyways so I see no harm in it.

Eps has spoken.

[ganbaru]

@Evil Rick thisd is quite a interesting render but it shouls be more present/seen on the sig. For now, some of it'S part are just lost on the surrounding black.

My first try, I hope it fit the theme. C&C are welcome

[KiNA]

Horror enough.. but feels like crop picture TBH.. if it isnt a crop job then GJ ^^

[ganbaru]

No, it's not a crop, this is the picture source: