It's summer! And you know what that means...graphic makers cookoff!

What's that? You don't know what that means? How silly of me! Let me tell you more.

The Graphic Makers Cookoff is something we've been doing here the past few summers. Basically, people try to make as many graphics as they can during a certain amount of time. You can read about the planning of last year's HERE.

My questions to you are ---

Are you interested?
What would be a good time to do this year's GMC?
Should we do more than one? (In the past we did two.)


In terms of how it's being run ---

We seem to have a hard time finding judges/getting results/etc. Do we want a point system still? Or is it all about the challenge?
Keep the daily/weekly challenges?


This years GMC will be based around challenges and experimentation, trying to stretch yourself as well as making lots of graphics. We will be doing it very late July/early August.

The dates I'm thinking (as I'll be gone most of July) are July 30 - Aug 7? That would give two weekends and the week inbetween. Thoughts?

Themes! In past years we had themes, like fairy tales and around the world. The themes usually related to challenges, but if we're trying to shake people up, is that useful? Or is the theme "Challenge"? Or perhaps a theme of Lord of the Rings, so that we can have a GMC and a Return of the Rings at the same time!

And on with the show! It would be nice to have help on ideas about challenges and things. So leave comments on that!


Questions, comments, concerns, hopes, dreams, aspirations?

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going on a journey through my old claims

oooh, this sounds cool! I would be interested - not in making graphics, of course. I can't do a thing even though I've got the programs. but it would be kinda fun to see a ton of new graphics and so forth!

weekly challenges sound cool, because daily sounds really... difficult and stressful. but then again I'm not the artist. if I can help with other stuff though, let me know

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thanks for the Hobbit Team banner, Lembas!

Oooh this sounds like an awesome idea

Are you interested?
YESSSSSS

What would be a good time to do this year's GMC?
For me personally any time between July and September as I'm travelling/examing all of June

Should we do more than one? (In the past we did two.)
I think this really depends on the themes and numbers of graphic makers we have, I've been away for a while, but it looks to me like theres less graphics makers than when I've been around before, and there seems to be more traditional artists . Maybe it would be possible to do an art(traditional/digital) cook off and a Graphics maker one so more people can be involved

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Even In Darkness [Updating]

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

Can't or don't? You should totally try doing things! Plus, an activity like the cookoff forces you to try out new stuff without being worried about what a potential requester thinks!


Glad you're interested! Regarding the traditional....I don't know about any of the other traditional artists on here, but if I had to make as many pieces as I could, I'd go crazy. I'm too much of a perfectionist - there'd be about 2 pieces by the end of the time! We can always ask around though, not everyone is as crazy as I am.

@Enno: So if, say, no one were to judge the challenges, you'd still want them just for the challenge of it?



Aye, the judging. That is why I asked the question about if we still want to do points and all of that. I know that for me, personally, I don't really care. It's about the challenge of seeing how much I can make in a short amount of time. And while yes, I could do that on my own, it's more fun to be a part of a group doing it. But then there are others who want results, want to know rankings, and all that. And they may not be interested in just doing one if there's no points involved. I see what you mean about putting in a lot of effort though. I can be disheartening. But I don't think it would be a total flop. We have some new folk around who like to make things, and it could be fun to get fresh blood.


I guess what I'm kind of saying is that I'm willing to run it and put it together, if no one is too concerned about there being judging going on.

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going on a journey through my old claims

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Even In Darkness [Updating]

@Johnny's Fan, I've tried doing some simple stuff on things like Illustrator and Photoshop (my mac came with some Adobe suite or something...) and I'm just not very proficient yet.

and Ennostiel ^, I think what you said about judging makes a lot of sense. I wasn't here for the last "cookoff", but I think it would be better if there wasn't any judging. I myself am completely awed by any sort of talented graphic artistry, and there's so much versatility that judging might take away from that. maybe there could only be a few competitions, and the rest could be done by the artists at their own leisure.

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thanks for the Hobbit Team banner, Lembas!

If I may say something...
True, we don't have as many graphics-savvy people around these days but I think a cookoff would be a great opportunity to kickstart that part of the forum and possibly get some graphics-competitions going later on. And personally I love looking at the magic you guys work.

But would it be an idea to make it comments/feedback-based like some of you suggested in stead of focusing on competitions and judging? I know I wouldn't be able to judge it fairly because I don't have a clue about a good blending or a different kinds of textures etc. - and I'm sure a lot of people would feel like me. And the people who actually know this stuff would be you guys and you can't judge if you're in the competition.. but I'm sure you can give useful comments!
And perhaps having so many great artists around would lure some people to take their first step in making graphics too...

Umm.. anyway, you probably already had that figured out but the reason I post is really that I've wanted for a long time to see different graphics.. I mean a lot of people are perfecting a certain signature style or they somehow end up making sort of the 'same kinds of graphics'... to the point where I can often tell who made a manner simply by looking at it. I would love to see some mash-up/crossover thingies.. like a LotR-themed banner in a film noir style or a bunch of banners with only the eyes of the characters/people or having different kinds of graphics that were all in the shade of say the colour red... Or whatever would challenge you guys.

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>>Be the change you wish to see in the world<<



Banner credit: Shadowcat & Nurrantiel Mashiara

^That stuff sounds really good!


So, to sum up what I'm getting here...

This years GMC will be based around challenges and experimentation, trying to stretch yourself as well as making lots of graphics. We will be doing it very late July/early August.

The dates I'm thinking (as I'll be gone most of July) are July 30 - Aug 7? That would give two weekends and the week inbetween. Thoughts?

Themes! In past years we had themes, like fairy tales and around the world. The themes usually related to challenges, but if we're trying to shake people up, is that useful? Or is the theme "Challenge"? Or perhaps a theme of Lord of the Rings, so that we can have a GMC and a Return of the Rings at the same time!

And on with the show! It would be nice to have help on ideas about challenges and things. So leave comments on that!

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going on a journey through my old claims

those are really awesome dates. I won't be home almost all of June, so the July/August thing works. (not like I'll be entering - just gawking at all the entries)
I think a Lord of the Rings theme is the best, and maybe it could have something to do with the AU Revival perhaps? or there could be separate categories for scenes from the movies.

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thanks for the Hobbit Team banner, Lembas!

Are you interested?
Most definitely! I love making massive amounts of graphics because it is indeed challenging. XD


What would be a good time to do this year's GMC?
Anytime you see fit. I'm free most of the summer until late August, when I start my first year of college.


Should we do more than one? (In the past we did two.)
Sure, I really don't see why not.


What's a good time/good times to do it?
Yeah, already answered this above.


In terms of how it's being run ---

We seem to have a hard time finding judges/getting results/etc. Do we want a point system still? Or is it all about the challenge?

I like getting the awards (even though last year the judging fell through). So I say yes to the point system and yes, it is about the challenge but I like seeing it pay off in the end. Maybe the mods should judge?


Keep the daily/weekly challenges?
Personally, I could never really keep up with those, but if others can, let them do it.


Questions, comments, concerns, hopes, dreams, aspirations?
Looking forward to this year's GMC. And I love the idea of having it be LotR-themed.

If the mods would be willing to judge, that'd be wonderful. But with the restructuring and everything, I wouldn't want to pull them from doing forum-y things that rightly deserve their first attention. The problem usually with the GMC is getting people to want to judge, and getting enough.

Ooh! Idea! I just had it rereading what Ea had written: "I know I wouldn't be able to judge it fairly because I don't have a clue about a good blending or a different kinds of textures etc. - and I'm sure a lot of people would feel like me. And the people who actually know this stuff would be you guys and you can't judge if you're in the competition.. but I'm sure you can give useful comments!"

Now, us as the makers wouldn't want to have to judge our things in relation to others, but what about judging one person's graphics in relation to one another? They could judge according to composition, color, text usage, etc. It would be kind of opinion, but then, judging usually is. Wow, that looks confusing. Let me try to explain better.

Let's say you, me, and Enno are all part of the GMC. At the beginning, we would determine that you would judge my work, I would judge Enno's, and she would judge yours. So at the end of the week you would look through all my work and rank them - probably a 1-3 place for each category (banner, avatar, etc) - then make shiny awards. So you would judge them based on graphic things like texture use or font choice - you know, graphicy makery things - and then decide what was the best. This would help me see what things I did that were better, and what things I should improve upon. I would do the same thing for all of Enno's work, and she would do the same for you. So with this judging, it would have less pressure on us compared to others, but would still be a challenging experience.

Anyway, that was an idea I just thought of. It could be really interesting and challenging and still less "racing". And, also, if we just rotated between ourselves, if someone didn't want to be judged they wouldn't have to be.

Thoughts?

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going on a journey through my old claims

I signed up but I don't even know where to begin! I don't do colourizations and with these movies there's just so much I could do and can't think of anything new! maybe I should just do challenges so at least I get a most specific idea? *scratches head*

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Well, you don't have to work with just LotR. You can make graphics of any pictures at all. If you still have no idea where to start (and yeah, it's huge! What to do, right?) you could go to a stock photo site and just see what catches your fancy. For instance, this page --> http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=search ... =1&x=0&y=0 is all pictures of Paris. Grab one and make a blend or something! It's all about experimentation.

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going on a journey through my old claims

So I have a bunch of graphics and stuff, but I can't make thumbnails cos I upload all of the stuff to my website. . . .any help?

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AKA Crutchie


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