SOTW #15 - WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Rules:
Your entry must be your own work and must be made by you, ripping will not be tolerated and there will be consequences.
You may only submit one entry. If you decide to change your entry, you may edit your original post before the due date.
Your entry must be made during the submission time; no pre-made entries are allowed.
Your submission must somewhere on the signature say SOTW.
The size of the signature may not exceed 500x250 pixels horizontal, or 250x500 vertical.
No explicit images.

Prizes are as follows:
1^st place - 5.5m
2^nd place - 2.5m
3^rd place - 1m
Public Favourite - 1m

Theme: Darkness
Entry Deadline: Friday, November 18, 18:00 UTC/GMT

Post your entries here. Good luck, everyone!
___

vection: 1^st place, Public Favourite



Lucky:
Again well done here, the lighting in incredibly well done and it gives the essence of a mist across the floor, while I think the highlighting on the person's gun could have been toned down a bit it isn't anything major, this signature seems to either setup or tell a story as if the center person has fallen into a secret crypt.. This is a great quality as it makes it interesting to not only my eye but my brain as well, but again you make the text very hard to read

Josh:
Love the sig. The text is amazing, and this sig matches the theme perfectly. You have a little of background showing to the left of him which i love but you didn't show any to the right which makes it off balance. and in the bottom right corner you have some light that you forgot to blacken out. And make sure the text is right next time .

Kelly:
I like this a lot, vection. I’m really impressed with it. However, I feel the render and overall focal area is blurred too much; I think you were attempting to go with a smokeydark theme for it, but overdid it and I think it killed it slightly. I like the fact that the “SOTW 15” seems to be hiding in darkness, but it does make it hard to read, which is not good, honestly. I would have probably placed it on the floor where the light is reflecting down right in front of his foot near the middle in black. I cannot truly tell what the stuff around him is—whether they’re affects or if he’s jumping down from, say, a manhole to see a whole bunch of bad guys wanting to kick his butt.


Charlie: 2^nd place



Lucky:
While being a dark signature yes, the bright light in the background is as if the person is falling into darkness, which is quite clever with the way you've made some of the colors seems as if they are being taken away from the person in the center, the lines are well done in the image as I didn't see them immediately until I actually looked for them.. In all a well done signature

Josh:
I like this sig a lot but what i don't like is the red c4ds to the right of his face that are very pixilated. Would have tried added a photo filter to this image. And the text is not good. its to thick of a font in my opinion and its placed in a bad spot.

Kelly:
I really feel that Halo is not really “darkness,” but I suppose it’s plausible. I like the tag itself. However, I feel that you sharpened the background FX too much that it just simply looks like distorted colors. I can’t fully tell what’s occurring in the graphic, either. I like the lighting; however, shinning off of the helmet he’s wearing, it looks very believable. You also showed a great deal of depth, just seems that the background itself is randomly put together.


eater: 3^rd place



Lucky:
This signature isn't a general shape, which makes it standout a bit from the rest, however I don't quite know what is going on with the upper right hand side of the image.. is it a scythe.. or what? I can see the shadow of one in the left hand side of the image. The text is a bit fuzzy to read but you didn't have much space to place it so I can understand why you placed it near where you did

Josh:
I don't like transparent sigs, but since i found that the only thing you really did bad with this sig is some of the text im ok with it. Work on the font choices and the spacing in between the letters. the Sotw text is good but the other to lines aren't.

Kelly:
Very simple. I like the render you chose; I feel it appropriately marks “darkness,” but I don’t truly like the FX you used in the background. It sort of just feels like it’s randomly thrown below the render and takes away from it. I think maybe had you added some more layers of different grays and “dark” colors it would have been very kickass. The text is very difficult to read. You would have done better if you had put that below the render rather than on top of it, as I can barely read –eater- SOTW 15.


xDamon



Lucky:
While I am a Harry Potter fan, I think some of the smudging could have been done a bit better on the tanish blob near He who shall not be named head, I feel like there is the opaque bathroom glass scattered throughout the image as well, however the text was well chosen to fit the theme of this SOTW, however some of the things in the background can't be overlooked the light near the center makes the blue color dull a bit too much in the background to me

Josh:
Not one of your bests Damon. Its a brilliant concept to use him as a render though and the colors are pretty good. but the right side seems a little empty. And the text doesn't work for me at all.

Kelly:
I really like the render; it’s a good choice and does represent darkness. However, the words “Damon SOTW” are very difficult to read and I would think would probably be better if it was centered a bit more (meaning moved it up just a little bit). As for the background, I really don’t know what you did. It looks a bit blurry and hard to even interpret. Although I know Harry Potter very well, I can’t really place what this background would be.


hold my dihhh



Lucky:
Well.... I'm not sure what was done here... the blade looks rather crude and the signature as a whole looks rather dull and flat, and the text SOTW looks very pixelated.. Honestly it looks like a blood was stabbed by a floating sword in the woods.. the white lines around the figure and the blood should be removed as well

Josh:
Too big, and personally i don't understand it. I think im looking at a person and they are holding a bloody knife? I think the knife is unnecessary. The text is also not working. its to bright and not blended that well into the sig.

Kelly:
Honestly, I like the idea that you took the word “darkness” and thought of horror movies and such. However, I think that your graphic is too large; it looks as if 23’s of it is dark, dark red or black, so you could have made it much smaller and still had everything look well. The little white marks around what looks to be the hood in this render seems to be a major flaw; if they were taken out, it would look much better; perhaps add depth? Also, the text “Sotw 15” doesn’t really fit in. I think maybe what would have been awesome was to work it in somehow with the flow of the knife—maybe could have written it below the knife, titling the same angle as it was.


CheekyStrawb



Lucky:
I really like this one.. the smoke causes my eye to float up across the sig, however the text suddenly appears in the middle of it, I think it could have been a bit more subtle but the contrast of black and white is done well in my opinion. My one problem is that the signature is just that, the girl and the smoke, there is more you could have done here

Josh:
I do think you picked a really good render, but the sig was ruined with the smoke, the text, and the size. Sig should have been smaller text should have been blended and the smoke doesn't work well with that render.

Kelly:
Your graphic really is large. I can’t really seem to understand how the smoke effects have anything to do with the woman taking off her hood. If she had a cigarette in her hand or something, it would be explainable, but since there isn’t one, it just seems like you added those in to try and fill a blank spot, which seemed to backfire a little. Also, “SOTW” seems to be randomly placed and nowhere and near your focal. However, I do like the render you chose.


Square



Lucky:
While the gradient of the light in the corner to the black night on the right hand side is wonderful for eye drawing, my eyes at first went to the glowing cross on the knight's chest and stayed there because there is nothing on the left hand side at all, the background needs some work here. Also.. I had a hard time locating your SOTW text... I literally had to squint to find it, however the right hand side of this signature is fantastically done

Josh:
Love the idea Square but you created tons of space on the left. Had you moved your render a little to the left not a lot but a little and put the text in the empty space in a cool way i would have loved this sig. You just have the render to far to the right. I love empty space like you have but you have little to much . And work on the text some more would love to see it.

Kelly:
I like the glow and depth FX you placed in for the night and on the lower left hand side of the tag. However, it is really simple and really lacking. I think perhaps if you had added something else, such as a bullet or throwing knives…Something believable for that time period that could have been an affect to take up more room and showing darkness and doom all in one.