SOTM 2011 - January (Silhouette!) - Entry Thread

[Solace]

!!!Welcome to the SOTM!!!

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~Congratulations to Frailty for winning the December Contest!~

The theme chosen for January is - Silhouette!.
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 Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 and lasts until Friday, January 21st, 2011. Entries will be gathered and put up for voting on Sunday, January 23rd, 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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Good luck to all contestants, and most importantly, have fun!!!

[Haladflire65]

My first (rather rushed) stab, can I get some quick critique so I can figure out if I should just scrap this idea or not? Thanks guys



Theme was trickier than expected.... -_- I like it though, I'm sure everyone'll come up with brilliant stuff.

[KiNA]

So ... silent~

My 1st try end up with 157Kb gif ~ .. Idea scrapped. Dont think any new ones will surface now lol

btw .. do this type count as silhoutte?

[ganbaru]

@ Haladflire65 it's a good start.

It might be a stupid question but, would a gradual silhouette ( for lacking of better expression ), a subject with light at the side insted of at his back/ front ?

[JRendell]

Originally Posted by KiNA

btw .. do this type count as silhoutte?]

In my books it does. However I remember reading that the silhouette has to be caused by the backgrounds backlight. So...

This theme seems quite difficult at the moment :/

Originally Posted by ganbaru

It might be a stupid question but, would a gradual silhouette ( for lacking of better expression ), a subject with light at the side insted of at his back/ front ?

I guess not, as that isn't a silhouette. Maybe an example would help?

[LKK]

Originally Posted by KiNA

btw .. do this type count as silhoutte?

Originally Posted by JRendell

In my books it does. However I remember reading that the silhouette has to be caused by the backgrounds backlight. So...

My first impression of KiNA's example is that yes, it's a silhouette. Then like JRendell, I thought of the the backlight requirement and decided no, it isn't a silhouette. Then I thought again about the issue of secondary light source. The primary light source is still the backlight, but the highlighted areas come from secondary light sources. Secondary light sources aren't mentioned one way or the other in the theme specifications. So I guess the answer to KiNA's question depends on whether secondary light sources are allowed to highlight some portion of the silhouette. For the answer, we need a judgement call from Frailty, I guess.

[PreSage]

Originally Posted by KiNA

So ... silent~

My 1st try end up with 157Kb gif ~ .. Idea scrapped. Dont think any new ones will surface now lol

btw .. do this type count as silhoutte?

Backlighting aside, I wouldn't consider this as a silhouette because you have some objects fully viewable (ie. necktie, headphones, skirt hems). A silhouette would be what Haladflire65 has: full shadow across the individual with no specific objects on their fronts highlighted (otherwise, it wouldn't make much sense, lighting-wise).

[ganbaru]

My first tries, not even sure if it fit the theme:




I am not really sure if I will continue on one of those direction

[KiNA]

lulz

[JRendell]

First draft; does this fit the theme people?

[CMSensei]

1st Draft~ I think it fits well. It turned out good~

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by JRendell

First draft; does this fit the theme people?

Still able to get a clear view of parts of the character with the effects that shows (especially at the hands) As said before, it should completely be blacking out everything that shows part of the character. Also does seem a little dark for the background that it completely covers up the character's design.

[Suomi]

Originally Posted by Hooves

Still able to get a clear view of parts of the character with the effects that shows (especially at the hands) As said before, it should completely be blacking out everything that shows part of the character. Also does seem a little dark for the background that it completely covers up the character's design.

in a silhouette, you can still sometimes see pieces of light on the person...I don't really think it has to be completely blacked out but alas, we must ask Frailty I think.

[Frailty]

Originally Posted by KiNA

So ... silent~

My 1st try end up with 157Kb gif ~ .. Idea scrapped. Dont think any new ones will surface now lol

btw .. do this type count as silhoutte?

the iPod silhouette syle?
I think it's still called a silhouette
but I'm not getting the feel of it being one if you know what I mean
that's why I placed the backlight on the definition some time ago

it's like that "who's that pokemon?" segment from the past episodes of pokemon

@all
so far all signature drafts are fine by me
they pass the theme IMO

Originally Posted by Hooves

Still able to get a clear view of parts of the character with the effects that shows (especially at the hands) As said before, it should completely be blacking out everything that shows part of the character. Also does seem a little dark for the background that it completely covers up the character's design.

not necessarily completely
if the figure's characteristics are vague and dark enough
it's fine

and since there's light at the back
you could see some of the figure's features but not completely

[Kagayaki]

Advice, anyone?

Edit: Good call, Kina, this should fix it.

[KiNA]

Her left feet, just fix it so it wouldnt look like her toes swollen/shrink alternately (I dunno how to said it) .. its funny ..

Overall, its animated and fits the theme perfectly.

[LKK]

Thanks for the additional clarifications, Frailty!

[JRendell]

Originally Posted by LKK

Thanks for the additional clarifications, Frailty!

Seconded, it helps alot. Cheers.

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by LKK

Thanks for the additional clarifications, Frailty!

I'll third this, really explained everything about how far things can go for the Silhouette theme

[Mr. Wang]

This is my first draft.


Personally, I think I handled the silhouette part of the signature much, much better than I could have ever imagined... unfortunately, I hate almost everything else about the sig. Especially the left side, which seems so... so plain... and my text stands out, really... If I can, I'll try to find a livelier background, but... well, some C&C would be appreciated for right now. I still have quite a bit of work ahead of myself... I mean, this WAS just like a 20 minute project right now... Blegh... the fact that I work with larger resolution images, and having to scale it down to AS size is painful for my quality, and a habit I should get out of...