~*~ SOTW #24 ~*~ WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Rules:
- Your entry must be your own work and made by you; stealing other people's work will not be tolerated.
- Your graphic cannot be pre-made. The graphic must have been created during the allotted time.
- Within the signature you submit you must have it say SOTW or what the theme is.
- The submission cannot exceed 500x250 horizontally or 250x500 vertically.
- No animated graphics or explicit images or text.
- Must follow all Smokin Mils rules (found here).
- You must post up the original render or image you used to create your work. If you did not use a render or stock photo to help create your work, you must show proof of this by showing a picture of your screen whilst having the graphics program you used open to show it. If some sort of proof by using a render or stock photo is not present, you must show the other to prove it is your original, unique creation. Failure to do so results in your entry being void.


Prizes:
- 1st place: 5M
- 2nd place: 3M
- 3rd place: 1M
- Public favorite: 1M


Theme: 3D (suggested by: Akarui)
Entry Deadline: Friday, February 17, 2012


___


First place: 1PsYckO1

Ruins
Altering the background waves with a more calm and cool blue water touch was a nice idea. Only thing I see wrong here is the board hanging off the bottom of the picture, I just don't feel it when it was doing that. Makes me think.. hmm.. Could have possibly gave it more surf to the bottom instead of a cut-off.

Theta Zero
I wish this could have had more color to it, but it's still made my favorite. The way the image bursts out of the 2D static box is effective and really conveys breaking into that third dimension. Not my favorite piece of art, but definitely the most successful at the intended theme.

Frekwency
Not a fan of this at all. It looks flat despite the surf board hanging out of the picture. It's textured fine, but I believe something needs to pop for it to be 3D. I need to feel like I am not looking at it through my laptop.

Kelly
I like this, but I wish you had added more colors. It almost, in my opinion, looks as if he's surfing in the artic. I do really like that you made something 2D look 3D by making it pop out of the 2D surface. I also like the little icon you put near your text; it works well. Perhaps you should have added a bit more shadow behind SOTW, as it's almost hard to read (for me), but other than that.. I think perhaps just a bit more color and it would have been a lot better.




Second place: Jiggie

Ruins
the illusion it pulls on your eyes is magnificent. Simply loved it, transition background to match our current background would be great too.

Theta Zero
Bonus points for the attempt at the effect. Unfortunately since I don't own a pair of dual-color glasses, nor does 95% of internet users, it loses a lot of its effect. I've ranked this in my top 3 for the uniqueness though.

Frekwency
At first I didn't like it. But then I remembered this was a 3D contest. If I had some of those 3D glasses I would give this a shot. I really like your thinking on this one. This one was outside of the box in my opinion. you got my #1 for thinking outside of the box.

Kelly
I will honestly admit.. I have gone to the movies a lot and seen 3D movies, so I have some 3D glasses. I put them on to see if it worked or if you were just doing a good job at trying to make it look movie-3D. However, it does not work (for me at least!), but I'm still highly impressed with what you did. The only thing I don't care for the text, however. I think that should be the only thing that needs work.




Third place: Stealthy2u

Ruins
Being able to take the flame paper, rotate it, and manipulate into words is awesome. Might just be my computer but give it the transition background to match the color of our background would eliminate the black box around it.

Theta Zero
This is my favorite image/design, although I feel others met the theme a bit better. My one complaint compared to the others is that while it's a bright thing on a dark background, the lack of transparancy makes it very boxy, and thus very 2D. The effect itself is nice though.

Frekwency
I've seen this tutorial years ago and have actually made this myself. That's the reason I don't like it. You did a good job following the steps I guess.

Kelly
I love this graphic! However, there are a few things that do irk me quite a bit. The first is the fact that you have this big black canvas and when you were done with the graphic, you did not eliminate it (make it transparent), or condense it to just the size you need. The black canvas itself is not really needed to be out that far. The last thing that irritated\irked me is the fact that the #24 and the SOTW text are different colors. I'm unsure if you were attempting to do this to show that one is hotter than the other, but it does not look real appealing being different colors. I am impressed with the use of FX and how you changed it from that tutorial.





Public favorite: TheBlob

Ruins
Magnificent work designing the mace, but its a bland picture. Some more justification with the background to appeal more to the audience would have been nice touch.

Theta Zero
A good 3D render, but it doesn't really feel like a signature. More like a random 3d object.

Frekwency
It's a great looking weapon. Shiny, textured, and just overall looks good. The reason I don't like this one is because of how that's all it is. You should have included this in something instead of having it stand on its own. Although, considering this is a 3D competition, I think you did very well. you would have gotten first, but I don't think you thought much before actually making it.

Kelly
I am absolutely impressed with this. It's a fantastic 3D model. I would honestly love to learn how to create this. I think the only thing that irks me about it is the shadow doesn't look real because closer to the base (where your hands go) should be darker because it's almost touching the "ground" (imaginary, but still), whilst the top where the mace itself is should be lighter, as it is not near the "ground" as much.





HearRoH

Ruins
You took the batman symbol and just added 3D SOTW to it, you altered the background but it looks like the artwork only took 5-10 minutes to accomplish.

Theta Zero
Big, bold and effective.

Frekwency
There's nothing special. The quality makes it look like you sharpened it way too much or it was a tiny image and you just made it bigger. I have too much to say about this one.

Kelly
I like this, but SOTW and the Batman symbol are two different shades of yellow and the background doesn't feel as if it matches at all. It needs to be smoothed out a bit; I can see where there are jagged edges on the Batman symbol. Overall, it is very effective how it almost looks like it is literally popping out of the picture.





Xavy01

Ruins
When I look at it, all I can think about is the ghosts from Super Mario Bros. 3. Not much I could say, its nice, but just didn't make the cut for top 3.

Theta Zero
Too pale and faint. It feels...uninteresting. More color or effects would help you, but a white orb by itself just isn't very eyecatching.

Frekwency
I see you know how to use the blur tool Doesn't look 3D though. You got the 'SM' logo on the ball right, but it doesn't look good and is too blurry.

Kelly
I like that you included the SM symbol and that you used blurring to try to show depth, but it isn't extremely eye-catching. I think if you were to work on this a little bit more, perhaps look at some tutorials, you could have made it look a bit more appealing. I do, however, like that you already know how to work depth into graphics. I did not think about that until I was six months or so into graphics






Slycho

Ruins
Just didn't feel much was altered here from the original picture. The character is nicely done, but all that appears to be added the glass board, maybe something more artistic in the background or add another character falling down would have given it a nice touch. Maybe not a rectangular glass but broken glass around the edges, with a mirror image of the character like was done with the SOTW

Theta Zero
I like the idea and the general movement into the foreground. Sharpening the closer parts and blurring the further away ones would help convey the 3D effect a lot better.

Frekwency
Not sure what you were trying to do here. It looks like he is standing on a floating board. I know it's supposed to be the floor, but it makes the entire graphic look off. I like the effect you used outside of the character, although it should have been limited to the weapon he's using. It's overused.

Kelly
I love the idea. I looked at the render you used and I saw exactly what you did; it looks pretty good, honestly. However, I think you should have blurred the parts in which you had already blurred slightly so then it does not look so choppy-ish. I feel that the extra blurring worked against you rather than for you. It would have been better if you had blurred everything so it looked like motion of him swinging his leg.

This will be interesting!

Oh god, 3D...i suck at this -,- i might not enter this though, my other comp got a keylogger and i cant download gimp on this one, although ill try to get an entry in. Good luck to all =)

I feel like there will be no medium in this SOTW. Either really good, or REALLY bad.

Difficult theme, so this should be interesting.

Here is mine! Really like this one.



Only resource I used- http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=batman+logo#/d4zdq3

Here's my attempt!

EDIT: Added some texturing

I wasn't sure what was meant by "3D" so I just made a 3d dragon mace and hoped for the bes?
Below is the screenshot of me making it

Spoiler:

TheBlob wrote:

Here's my attempt!

I wasn't sure what was meant by "3D" so I just made a 3d dragon mace and hoped for the bes?
Below is the screenshot of me making it

Spoiler:

Damn :L i was gunna do attempt something like that D:
looks good though
blender looks alot more simpler than C4D might get that too

This is a nice, but challenging, theme. Will give it a go.

EDIT : Kelly, are we allowed to used models that we've ripped from video game files?

Kelly wrote:

ViralBR0 wrote:This is a nice, but challenging, theme. Will give it a go.

EDIT : Kelly, are we allowed to used models that we've ripped from video game files?

As long as it's something like..

For example, one person did a Dragon Mace. They took the idea of a Dragon Mace and did their best to re-create it. Something like that. You can use things to help you along such as renders, stock photos, or ideas.

No I meant taking a model from the game files. Of course it would not be the ONLY 3D but I, personally, cannot make good enough models.

ViralBR0 wrote:

Kelly wrote:

ViralBR0 wrote:This is a nice, but challenging, theme. Will give it a go.

EDIT : Kelly, are we allowed to used models that we've ripped from video game files?

As long as it's something like..

For example, one person did a Dragon Mace. They took the idea of a Dragon Mace and did their best to re-create it. Something like that. You can use things to help you along such as renders, stock photos, or ideas.

No I meant taking a model from the game files. Of course it would not be the ONLY 3D but I, personally, cannot make good enough models.

I think that's illegal? o_o

TheBlob wrote:

ViralBR0 wrote:

Kelly wrote:

ViralBR0 wrote:This is a nice, but challenging, theme. Will give it a go.

EDIT : Kelly, are we allowed to used models that we've ripped from video game files?

As long as it's something like..

For example, one person did a Dragon Mace. They took the idea of a Dragon Mace and did their best to re-create it. Something like that. You can use things to help you along such as renders, stock photos, or ideas.

No I meant taking a model from the game files. Of course it would not be the ONLY 3D but I, personally, cannot make good enough models.

I think that's illegal? o_o

I don't think so.. unless it's for commercial use.

ViralBR0 wrote:

TheBlob wrote:

ViralBR0 wrote:

Kelly wrote:

ViralBR0 wrote:This is a nice, but challenging, theme. Will give it a go.

EDIT : Kelly, are we allowed to used models that we've ripped from video game files?

As long as it's something like..

For example, one person did a Dragon Mace. They took the idea of a Dragon Mace and did their best to re-create it. Something like that. You can use things to help you along such as renders, stock photos, or ideas.

No I meant taking a model from the game files. Of course it would not be the ONLY 3D but I, personally, cannot make good enough models.

I think that's illegal? o_o

I don't think so.. unless it's for commercial use.

As long as its edited in someway and not used for commercial use it would be ok

Sure, sounds good. Just need to figure out a way to convert these damn NFS Shift files now..

Nice work Blob, this is going to be tough!

Im not too great with 3D yet, but i'll just give it a shot xD

My Entry:



Proof:

Code:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e176/Stealthy4u/SOTW243DProof.png

TheBlob wrote:

Spoiler:

Here's my attempt!

EDIT: Added some texturing

I wasn't sure what was meant by "3D" so I just made a 3d dragon mace and hoped for the bes?
Below is the screenshot of me making it

Spoiler:

My eyes... just.... Wow... that is stunning in detail... o.o

Stealthy2u wrote:Im not too great with 3D yet, but i'll just give it a shot xD

My Entry:



Proof:

Code:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e176/Stealthy4u/SOTW243DProof.png

That really is awesome man, I'm just wondering though does it count as 3D? I can see how it's in 3D space, but the '3D' theme isn't very specific. Your entry is brilliant, I'm just unsure about the details of the theme :/

ViralBR0 wrote:

Stealthy2u wrote:Im not too great with 3D yet, but i'll just give it a shot xD

My Entry:



Proof:

Code:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e176/Stealthy4u/SOTW243DProof.png

That really is awesome man, I'm just wondering though does it count as 3D? I can see how it's in 3D space, but the '3D' theme isn't very specific. Your entry is brilliant, I'm just unsure about the details of the theme :/

Thanks a a lot Viral. I assume it would count as 3D, since its supposed to be hollowed into the ground, with the flames coming out, but as I said, i rarely ever make 3D images, so it is a little choppy in places. Also, youre right on the specifics of the theme, so im hoping for the best

Stealthy2u wrote:

ViralBR0 wrote:

Stealthy2u wrote:Im not too great with 3D yet, but i'll just give it a shot xD

My Entry:



Proof:

Code:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e176/Stealthy4u/SOTW243DProof.png

That really is awesome man, I'm just wondering though does it count as 3D? I can see how it's in 3D space, but the '3D' theme isn't very specific. Your entry is brilliant, I'm just unsure about the details of the theme :/

Thanks a a lot Viral. I assume it would count as 3D, since its supposed to be hollowed into the ground, with the flames coming out, but as I said, i rarely ever make 3D images, so it is a little choppy in places. Also, youre right on the specifics of the theme, so im hoping for the best

I really do hope it counts, I love fiery themes Sorry about my wording, I just didn't want to seem as if I was insulting your entry/trying to get you disqualified. Again, I'm just unsure about the details :/

Stealthy2u wrote:My Entry:

I knew I saw this before somewhere. http://abduzeedo.com/hell-tutorial-photoshop . Where do you go to find your tuts? I'd like to check them out myself.