The PSU Thanks Festa, Global Comments and Suggestions Thread

[Itsuki]

Ok, I thank everyone for participating. And I do hope that everyone enjoyed it. I know some people have some frustrations and I don't intend this to be the last contest that I hold and it likely will not be the last contest that is done by the PSU Phashion group. So, as such, we would like your input as to what was done well or could have been done better. It probably will be atleast little while till we do another one, so don't get your hopes up. But the idea is always there.

My Comments
The idea of a theme was something that was pushed by me personally. The theme was never meant to be something that was strictly judged upon, but was more of something designed to spawn more creativity and direction in the entries.

The event was split up into two groups. Photoshops (based on screenshots) and Fan art. Now, the leading reason for this was that both me and Arika agreed that we really wanted it to be open to people that may not normally participate. By design it was meant to be more creativity based, while on the other hand, the fan art portion was mean tot be skill based. That may not have been very clear in the initial post, but that was the intended purpose.

Also, the judging didn't have extremely strict judging criteria, but more of loose guidelines. But there was by no means any biases. The judges didn't discuss any works with eachother before judging, and had there been any biases from one of the judges it would have been counteracted by the fact that there were 4 very different judges there.

I don't want this to turn into a flame war or anything, lets keep this civilized. If you respond, you don't need to answer all the questions on the survey, they're just again, giving it direction. So lets go:

#1 The contest was designed to feel like a phantasy star contest even though it took place out of game. How do you think this format worked out?

#2 The contest was split up into two groups, photoshop (based on screenshots) and fanart. Sadly, we did not have a good turn out for photoshops, but do you think that this idea could have worked out? Do you think a straight screenshot contest would have been better? Or should it have been left out entirely?

#3 There were two judging stages. The selected judges, who chose the winners of the out of game prizes, and the open judging, which took the cream of the crop and allowed everyone to participate for the in game prizes. This was done for a couple different reasons, mainly that we wanted a lot of community participation. Even if you did not have the skill or time to have an entry, we still wanted you to participate and critique other works. Do you think that this served its purpose?

#4 Similarly, the participants were told to upload their works to the fanart thread. This was also meant to spawn more community participation. In some ways, seeing other peoples works can scare off some participants or can cause community biases and other problems. Do you think that this worked out well or not?

#5 Themes can be limitting and can help. Originally I wanted a crossover type theme that included fashion since it was me and Arika of the Phashion group organizing. Would you have rather had a very strictly enforced theme? Or a crossover theme with something outside of PSU?

Overall I know we can't satisfy everybody, so I only hope that we satisfied and a majority. So heres the more broad question:
#6 Is there something you think that we did poorly and could have done better? If so, why?

And finally because this is an art related contest:
#7 What is your favorite work, and what do you think they did better than everyone else?

#8 What work(s) did not make it into the final poll that you think deserved to be there. What could they have done to improve, and what did they do good?

[Syl]

1) I think for the most part every entry go the feeling of it being based off PSU to work.

2) As for Photoshop... it kinda depends. When I designed my entry, I thought it was just supposed to be about like, our characters. Had I know the main focus was actually creativity, I would have gone in that direction rather than the one I took.

3) I feel like it's getting the job done.

4) I did feel intimidated by some other works (hell, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it in). People did pretty good work on them, but it's a contest for a reason. You'd get intimidated regardless of what kind of contest it was. Not sure if it worked out the biases though.

5) Yeah, having a bit more of a strict theme might have helped out a lot more (because if you look at my entry, it's just... there lol) when it came to the entries. At least then judging on both behalfs would have been much easier as well.

6) I think the only thing that I have a gripe with is the voting poll. While you're supposed to pick out the best from both categories, you only get to vote for one, ultimately just having one category getting the votes. While I can't think of a way that could have worked if you had split them up, it just seems kinda broken to me.

7) My favorite piece was one of the ones that didn't make it to the finals. The one with the three casts stuck in a fire made by Zer0_ConvoY. That piece really stuck out to me. As far as the ones that made it in, Lost in the Forest by Yueri was my favorite ;3

While I can't say for sure, I feel I put a lot of detail into cropping out my characters. I strayed away from the magic wand and strictly used the eraser tool. Only one character was actually easy to crop out... the other three took anywhere from 1-3 hours >.> I used all kind of effects (such as stroke and color overlay) to make sure there weren't any jaggies, artifacts, etc. on the outside of the character. Needless to say, I got really good at that just from working on that piece ^^;

8) Like I said, I really liked that piece by Zer0. If anything I was really really confident he'd make it in. Not sure what he could improve on, but he got a very nice mood going for the pic.

[Ceresa]

#1 The contest was designed to feel like a phantasy star contest even though it took place out of game. How do you think this format worked out?

No 2 weeks of holy luck in the prize selection isn't very PSUish!



#5 Themes can be limitting and can help. Originally I wanted a crossover type theme that included fashion since it was me and Arika of the Phashion group organizing. Would you have rather had a very strictly enforced theme? Or a crossover theme with something outside of PSU?

Themes are lame restricting and should be ignored. Unless the theme is drawing Kesara losing every single rare to Lyrise.


And finally because this is an art related contest:
#7 What is your favorite work, and what do you think they did better than everyone else?

#8 What work(s) did not make it into the final poll that you think deserved to be there. What could they have done to improve, and what did they do good?

These two have the same answers for me...

This Arcia one
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/moggy_kupo/artwork/arcia_wallpaper.jpg

I don't know where they can improve, it's a fantastic piece, great drawing, coloring, style, no busy background to distract the eye from the main piece, just excellent.

Also
http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs36/f/2008/247/f/6/Strength_by_Aussei.jpg

Could have used a Psychowand instead of okarod in my incredibly okarodsuckspsychowandrules biased opinion. Actually it's not biased if it's the truth. Otherwise same as above, it's cute, fun style and great coloring.

[Itsuki]

No 2 weeks of holy luck in the prize selection isn't very PSUish! If they weren't already getting luck from MAG, perhaps we could have XD

Themes are lame restricting and should be ignored. Unless the theme is drawing Kesara losing every single rare to Lyrise.That theme would be so horrible. T_T but so so true.


This Arcia one
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/moggy_kupo/artwork/arcia_wallpaper.jpg

I don't know where they can improve, it's a fantastic piece, great drawing, coloring, style, no busy background to distract the eye from the main piece, just excellent.

Also
http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs36/f/2008/247/f/6/Strength_by_Aussei.jpg

Could have used a Psychowand instead of okarod in my incredibly okarodsuckspsychowandrules biased opinion. Actually it's not biased if it's the truth. Otherwise same as above, it's cute, fun style and great coloring.
Suprisingly enough, I actually preffered Arcia's OTHER entry ( http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/moggy_kupo/artwork/gangOfFour.jpg ) and Aussei's OTHER entry ( http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs37/f/2008/242/6/c/The_n00b_Guide_by_Aussei.jpg ). But I think thtas more of personal preference I guess. XD The only real critique I would have is for Aussei, because I don't think he really efficiently used space. The actual characters are rather small and theres not much in the way of background on either piece. Though thats probably partially why I prefer the n00b guide one more.


2) As for Photoshop... it kinda depends. When I designed my entry, I thought it was just supposed to be about like, our characters. Had I know the main focus was actually creativity, I would have gone in that direction rather than the one I took. I don't mean any insult to arika by this, but I think some things may have been lost in translation when it came to intent and what was said. But either way, I do agree we could have been more clear on the issue.


5) Yeah, having a bit more of a strict theme might have helped out a lot more (because if you look at my entry, it's just... there lol) when it came to the entries. At least then judging on both behalfs would have been much easier as well.

6) I think the only thing that I have a gripe with is the voting poll. While you're supposed to pick out the best from both categories, you only get to vote for one, ultimately just having one category getting the votes. While I can't think of a way that could have worked if you had split them up, it just seems kinda broken to me.Theme was a big player when me and arika first started it. I mean we argued for days about it. I truly thought that especially when comparing across the two groups, you couldn't even start to compare them unless there was a theme in place. But at the same time we couldn't combine them. But I wanted everyone to be equally available for the in game prizes since a lot of them we didn't have duplicates of. So, they had to be combined in some way. It really was the only way we could find to get it done reasonably.


7) My favorite piece was one of the ones that didn't make it to the finals. The one with the three casts stuck in a fire made by Zer0_ConvoY. That piece really stuck out to me. As far as the ones that made it in, Lost in the Forest by Yueri was my favorite ;3

While I can't say for sure, I feel I put a lot of detail into cropping out my characters. I strayed away from the magic wand and strictly used the eraser tool. Only one character was actually easy to crop out... the other three took anywhere from 1-3 hours >.> I used all kind of effects (such as stroke and color overlay) to make sure there weren't any jaggies, artifacts, etc. on the outside of the character. Needless to say, I got really good at that just from working on that piece ^^;

8) Like I said, I really liked that piece by Zer0. If anything I was really really confident he'd make it in. Not sure what he could improve on, but he got a very nice mood going for the pic. Zer0 had a lot of interesting entries. But I think the problem was that a lot of them needed like... some sort of title or explanation to really work. Like the pop art one only really had "Ubwaaaaa!" as the text on it. Which didn't really have anything to do with the pop art nature of it. And the 3 casts in a fire one, perhaps if they were saying something or there was some explanation of what was going on, it might have worked better. With the way it was, it just looked like 3 casts and some photoshop effects. You can't really tell if they're burning the building or if the building is burning itself or they're trying to escape the burning.

[KayaHime]

1. I think it worked fine? I don't know. XD I am usually not too active in the in-game events, so it's hard for me to say. I'm not really that competitive.

2. I think the photoshop category would have worked better if more people took tons of screenshots. And it's hard to get the right moment captured, even if you're staging it for a contest. I've got a few thousand screenshots and I still had nothing suitable for this.

3. I guess? I have never been a fan of open voting because it tends to lend itself to favoritism of a particular artist/writer/what have you. But hey, this was all in the spirit of community, so I think it works here.

4. I'm kind of torn about this. In some ways, I think it's fun to see everybody's work. But on the other hand it is discouraging, because I went into the contest knowing I wouldn't have a chance at winning anything, and that always takes some of the fun out of it.

5. I would rather have had a stricter theme. There's such a broad scope of ideas that can come from themes that are even narrowed down to one specific word. I participate in a writing contest where we get a random word every two weeks, and then all of us write something based on that. We have never had two entries with the same take on the word.

Having really no thematic restrictions (and "how you roleplay your character" is very broad XD) at all makes it more difficult to judge what is better than what in terms of theme.

Someone brought this up earlier, but the theme was kind of confusing, and it's kind of annoying when you see entries that focus on characters' moods and interactions get brushed aside in favor of flashier ones that fit the theme less well. But that kind of thing happens all the time in every sort of competition, so I don't really think much could be done about it here. So much of it depends on personal opinion, too.

6. No, not really. I think you guys did a fantastic job! The contest motivated me to actually do a vector of my art for the first time in a while - AND finish it! XD

7. My favorite work is this one by Skids (http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l230/Skids40578/Phantasy%20Star%20Universe%20Screenshots/Wallpapers/PMAttack.jpg) because it never fails to make me laugh.

8. I like this one because it's adorable (http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/7272/tsubasajd2.jpg)... But there really are not any in the top 10 that do not deserve to be there, and I don't think I would be able to boot one of those in favor of one that did not make it.

[haruna]

#1 The contest was designed to feel like a phantasy star contest even though it took place out of game. How do you think this format worked out?
======================
It seemed like a chaotic mess and the timing wasn't too great. If it was held during that update drought between MAG1 and 2, that would have been the best.

#2 The contest was split up into two groups, photoshop (based on screenshots) and fanart.
=====================
I think it's nice that you had the Photoshop section for people who weren't super skilled at drawing a chance, but photoshop can still be labor and time intensive. Looking at Mia_Viola's vectors, that must have taken a serious amount of time.

#3 There were two judging stages. The selected judges, who chose the winners of the out of game prizes, and the open judging, which took the cream of the crop and allowed everyone to participate for the in game prizes.
=======================
I'd hardly call what the judges picked "the cream of the crop" but that's just my opinion. Judges should certainly have their pick but everyone ought to be included in open voting. Maybe have 2 phases of open voting.

#4 Similarly, the participants were told to upload their works to the fanart thread. This was also meant to spawn more community participation. In some ways, seeing other peoples works can scare off some participants or can cause community biases and other problems. Do you think that this worked out well or not?
======================
Hard to say, I think it cuts both ways. What other people do can either fire you up to work a little harder or possibly inspire something as well as intimidate. It really depends on the individual.

#5 Themes can be limitting and can help. Originally I wanted a crossover type theme that included fashion since it was me and Arika of the Phashion group organizing. Would you have rather had a very strictly enforced theme? Or a crossover theme with something outside of PSU?
=======================
If you're going to have one, make it matter. Judge entries based on theme fulfillment. The theme actually kept a few us from entering(me and some of my 360 friends.) I PM'd Arika with a list of things I thought about doing, and the one I personally was most inspired to do got a pretty MHEH response from Arika. Maybe it was how I worded it, but that was a downer.
Had it been a free illustration contest? Sure, we most likely would have participated.

I wouldn't want to cut people off either, like the original rules stated. Namely, post a draft to claim your sub-theme as yours. Wha? What's wrong with a little competition? A lot of the entries were "slice of a character's life" but there was plenty of variation even then.

#6 Is there something you think that we did poorly and could have done better? If so, why?
==========================
Let the judges have their pick but let the public vote from all entries. Have the PSOW community pick matter more.

And finally because this is an art related contest:
#7 What is your favorite work, and what do you think they did better than everyone else?
========================
Arcia's first pic, hands down. How the judges totally passed this up is beyond me. *shrug*
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/moggy_kupo/artwork/arcia_wallpaper.jpg

#8 What work(s) did not make it into the final poll that you think deserved to be there. What could they have done to improve, and what did they do good?
========================
Nice composition, coloring and artwork. Seeing how the contest was for wallpapers, of all the submissions, I'd say this is my #1 pick for use as a wallpaper.
A very very close second is Carma's 2nd.
http://digitalkiske.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/psu-behind-the-scene.jpg

As far as actually telling a story, Aki wins. And it's a nice piece of artwork too.
http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs37/f/2008/245/2/5/PSOW_Festa_Contest_08_by_Aki03.jpg

[Cracka_J]

I don't have the time to run through all 8 points you made, but I will list a few things off the top of my head. And I don't feel bad or pissed about the results, I ended up with a piece or artwork both me and my friends got a good laugh out of, and the only prize that I really needed (them casino coins), so it's all good.

The main point I was trying to make in general was regarding judging. Arika replied to my post, but I still think missed the point of what I was talking about. I don't want to clutter up that thread anymore, so I'll explain a bit more in detail here.

What you had were 4 judges, with no set standard of criteria of which to judge. When you take 4 people and give them no checklist or set of standards, they can judge pretty much based on their own personal opinion. When that happens, you derive 4 individual sets of criteria that a piece of artwork must pass in order to get a hi or even mediocre score. So instead of having some of the highest scored pieces of artwork judged in the final 10, you get the 10 that received average scores from all 4 judges, basically the ones that received neither high or low marks from the judges.

As arika said, some work received hi marks from some judges, and low marks from others. If you watch any other competition that has live judging (use the olympics for this example), you won't see scattered scores across the board. Despite each judge having their own personal opinion, they are all trained to look for certain specific things. These judges scores will differ slightly across the board, but not to the point where someone gets a 10 from one judge and a 0 from another. When you have a competition judged on 4 different sets of criteria, or opinions, or whatever you want to call them, you will only get the most average results. Judges need to have a set of standards to go by, not just personal opinions. The fact that artwork was submitted OF one the judges was also a bit deterring...stuff like that should have been disqualified.

On top of that, there's a vote to determine prizes for in-game winners. I get how the judges were meant to select their top pick for each category, but also determine which pieces should be selected for a community vote seems like someone was on their high horse. If the artwork was going to a community vote, then who cares anyway? Put all the artwork together, and let the community decide what the top 10 will be for in-game prize selection. What makes 4 random judges opinions better then everyone else's opinion here? I don't get it.

Then you have the theme...something you had to come up with to be able to submit a piece, but something that was taken into 0 consideration when judging. Why was this even a requirement for submitting if it had 0 bearing on the contest? There are many pieces that even made it into the top 10 without any hint of story or theme. In Arika's post about the contest it stated you had to have a grasp on the theme when submitting preliminary work so your piece would be considered. But why did you need a grasp on a story theme when it was not judged? This whole part seemed tacked on and unnecessary to the contest, as there are winners and top 10 placers with no theme at all. It was basically the rule that you had to break to be able to participate. It had no point.

On the plus side, I will say that the prizes were awesome and the participant-locked system of earning prizes was really cool. It encouraged people to go through all steps of the event so everything could be earned. I give props to whoever decided to incorporate that one, and hope it sticks around for future events.

The advertising and promotion of the event was well done as well. It made 1st page here at psow a few times, and got Ruby to back it as a GM with additional in-game prizes. We need future events to follow the same advertising/promotion of this event as well, if not moreso.

So while I do have mixed feelings at the end of this event, and believe some incredible pieces and an overall winner were overlooked (arcia), I also think some portions of the event were done really well done and should be used as a format in the future. Take that how you will, that's my .02¢

[CelestialBlade]

#1 The contest was designed to feel like a phantasy star contest even though it took place out of game. How do you think this format worked out?
Worked fine from my eyes. It was really nice to have something that's normally JP-exclusive. Really brings to light the kind of things we're missing out on.


#2 The contest was split up into two groups, photoshop (based on screenshots) and fanart. Sadly, we did not have a good turn out for photoshops, but do you think that this idea could have worked out? Do you think a straight screenshot contest would have been better? Or should it have been left out entirely?
I don't think photoshops should have been ruled out, even though it's hard to judge an artwork and a photoshop on the same criteria.


#3 There were two judging stages. The selected judges, who chose the winners of the out of game prizes, and the open judging, which took the cream of the crop and allowed everyone to participate for the in game prizes. This was done for a couple different reasons, mainly that we wanted a lot of community participation. Even if you did not have the skill or time to have an entry, we still wanted you to participate and critique other works. Do you think that this served its purpose?
I have no qualms with the judging, but next time, let's actually explain how the judging is going to work beforehand. Would've silenced a lot of whining the contest received.


#4 Similarly, the participants were told to upload their works to the fanart thread. This was also meant to spawn more community participation. In some ways, seeing other peoples works can scare off some participants or can cause community biases and other problems. Do you think that this worked out well or not?
Given that the community is voting anyway, biases are already going to be present. There are going to be some that are going to pick the popular member just because they're popular, there's no way around that. There's nothing wrong with encouraging participants to upload works to the fanart thread, if they're scared off by that then they're probably scared off by the contest as a whole.


#5 Themes can be limitting and can help. Originally I wanted a crossover type theme that included fashion since it was me and Arika of the Phashion group organizing. Would you have rather had a very strictly enforced theme? Or a crossover theme with something outside of PSU?
I liked the theme we had here, personally. I don't see any reason to change the format.


#6 Is there something you think that we did poorly and could have done better? If so, why?
Just explain the judging at the outset, that's about it.

[Itsuki]

It seemed like a chaotic mess and the timing wasn't too great. If it was held during that update drought between MAG1 and 2, that would have been the best.You know, placement was something that we did think about. And the original plan was to have it start about a week or so earlier than it did. But, in the end we couldn't agree on things until later. We definitely did consider that the timing, but in the end, Arika wanted it to relatively coincide with the japanese version of the contest that was going on at the same time.


I'd hardly call what the judges picked "the cream of the crop" but that's just my opinion. Judges should certainly have their pick but everyone ought to be included in open voting. Maybe have 2 phases of open voting.Well, the idea here was to have enough finalists so the judges have already chosen them to get a prize. Since we have prizes roughly equal to the number of finalists. The open voting is really chosing the order that they chose their prizes. I think that if we did a open voting system with all entries, there would have been no poing to the judges.


Let the judges have their pick but let the public vote from all entries. Have the PSOW community pick matter more.I'm torn on this one really though. Communities always have favoritism. That was the biggest reason why we did not want a solely community vote. Also, when it came down to it, although we were helped by PSOW and by Sega, it wasn't a PSOW contest, it was a contest run by Me and Arika.


Arcia's first pic, hands down. How the judges totally passed this up is beyond me. *shrug*
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/moggy_kupo/artwork/arcia_wallpaper.jpgArcia's were all really good. I'm a bit sad arcia didn't make the cut, but there were just so many good oens. But as I said before, I always liked arcia's 3rd one better. Perhaps if something else was done with the background. I mean, the actual cast is very nice, but the capsule shes in really clashes and looks hokey in comparison.


Nice composition, coloring and artwork. Seeing how the contest was for wallpapers, of all the submissions, I'd say this is my #1 pick for use as a wallpaper.
A very very close second is Carma's 2nd.
http://digitalkiske.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/psu-behind-the-scene.jpg

As far as actually telling a story, Aki wins. And it's a nice piece of artwork too.
http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs37/f/2008/245/2/5/PSOW_Festa_Contest_08_by_Aki03.jpg
I whole heartedly agree with Carma's 2nd. I really loved that picture and thought it was the best of Carma's three entries. But the fact that the other judges chose the magashi one instead didn't really bother me though because the other 2 were also very good.

Akis was definitely a great idea and had great composition. In my list it was tied for 10th (with a few entries, which actually included Arcia's 1st entry). But I think the drawing quality was overshadowed by some of the other entries. The girl in the foreground has a few proportion issues, the hair is a bit rough, and the entire entry kind of goes back and forward in shading and photoshop styles. It makes it overall look a bit unorganized.


As arika said, some work received hi marks from some judges, and low marks from others. If you watch any other competition that has live judging (use the olympics for this example), you won't see scattered scores across the board. Despite each judge having their own personal opinion, they are all trained to look for certain specific things. These judges scores will differ slightly across the board, but not to the point where someone gets a 10 from one judge and a 0 from another. When you have a competition judged on 4 different sets of criteria, or opinions, or whatever you want to call them, you will only get the most average results. Judges need to have a set of standards to go by, not just personal opinions. The fact that artwork was submitted OF one the judges was also a bit deterring...stuff like that should have been disqualified.And you can't really compare it to the olympics for 1 major reason. In the olympics, you have several judges, and the highest and lowest scores are taken out to ensure consistency among judges. And when it comes down to it, one of the biggest internal problems with the olympics in some events is that the judges ARE very inexperienced. The reason for this being that the judges can not be from any of the competing countries. And all the countries with experienced people are competing. But thats a whole different discussion entirely.

With that said, although I think as a whole, the majority don't disagree with the judging since none of the top 7 score low marks with any of the judges. If there were any disparities it was with somebody scoring high with 1 judge and low with the other 3 judges. But I already stated that if there is a next time, we make it more clear beforehand what will be judged on.


On the plus side, I will say that the prizes were awesome and the participant-locked system of earning prizes was really cool. It encouraged people to go through all steps of the event so everything could be earned. I give props to whoever decided to incorporate that one, and hope it sticks around for future events.

The advertising and promotion of the event was well done as well. It made 1st page here at psow a few times, and got Ruby to back it as a GM with additional in-game prizes. We need future events to follow the same advertising/promotion of this event as well, if not moreso.

So while I do have mixed feelings at the end of this event, and believe some incredible pieces and an overall winner were overlooked (arcia), I also think some portions of the event were done really well done and should be used as a format in the future. Take that how you will, that's my .02¢I actually thought of the participant system of earning prizes. I thought it would be more "PSU" like. It was originally a bit more in depth and we almost through it out because it was too complicated. It originally benefited more for people critiquing other people's works.

Arika and I did a lot of talking with GMs and Mods here before the event started. That was actually our biggest concern initially was that it would not get enough advertising and nobody would see it unless they go to the fan works section on PSOW. I think people in general are scared of approaching the gms and mods, but they'd likely atleast help a bit if they were contacted ahead of time about events.

[haruna]

You know, placement was something that we did think about. And the original plan was to have it start about a week or so earlier than it did. But, in the end we couldn't agree on things until later. We definitely did consider that the timing, but in the end, Arika wanted it to relatively coincide with the japanese version of the contest that was going on at the same time.
I do thank you and Arika for the extension and having this contest all together, seeing how you had no control over this.


I'm torn on this one really though. Communities always have favoritism. That was the biggest reason why we did not want a solely community vote. Also, when it came down to it, although we were helped by PSOW and by Sega, it wasn't a PSOW contest, it was a contest run by Me and Arika.
I can understand, artwork is always subjective and as a provider of prizes, you certainly deserve to have your say.


I mean, the actual cast is very nice, but the capsule shes in really clashes and looks hokey in comparison.
Now that you mention it, I see your point.

All of Carma's work was great. I think Carma's magashi entry is also very very good and deserving of 1st place.

I see the shortcomings of Aki's work you speak of artistically. Hence I said as far as fulfilling the original theme is concerned, she did exceptionally well.

Her work has a variety of subject matter. Wow, I hope my advice to her made her lose, I don't know if I can forgive myself. I recommended that she pay attention how light and shadow behaves in each type of material. Aki, please don't hate me! D:

[Aussei]

#1 The contest was designed to feel like a phantasy star contest even though it took place out of game. How do you think this format worked out?

I think the concept of the contest was really good, also this was the first ever contest I even BOTHERED to enter because as I was reading it I could picture in my mind ideas. lol

#2 The contest was split up into two groups, photoshop (based on screenshots) and fanart. Sadly, we did not have a good turn out for photoshops, but do you think that this idea could have worked out? Do you think a straight screenshot contest would have been better? Or should it have been left out entirely?

The idea of a photoshop section was really good, people did awesome jobs I don't really understand by what you mean by it didn't have a good turn out because I believe that there were some amazing editting skills in that category. I don't think it should have been left out I think it was very different from other contests I've seen and I really liked that. ^ ^

#3 There were two judging stages. The selected judges, who chose the winners of the out of game prizes, and the open judging, which took the cream of the crop and allowed everyone to participate for the in game prizes. This was done for a couple different reasons, mainly that we wanted a lot of community participation. Even if you did not have the skill or time to have an entry, we still wanted you to participate and critique other works. Do you think that this served its purpose?

Yeah I guess. The responsibility of real-life prizes is important to leave in the hands of the official judges of the contest since a tablet was at stake that was worth 80 dollars.

#4 Similarly, the participants were told to upload their works to the fanart thread. This was also meant to spawn more community participation. In some ways, seeing other peoples works can scare off some participants or can cause community biases and other problems. Do you think that this worked out well or not?

Well by personal experience it did intimidate me, I started losing confidence but I pushed through anyways, I think seeing other's work inspired me more and helped more organize my ideas.

#5 Themes can be limitting and can help. Originally I wanted a crossover type theme that included fashion since it was me and Arika of the Phashion group organizing. Would you have rather had a very strictly enforced theme? Or a crossover theme with something outside of PSU?

You could've added Fashion to it as well the only thing would be to strictly organize the theme. Like say for instance something like, "The theme of this contest will be to take a momment in your character's life that is of importance but remember to keep in mind this momment, he/she must be dressed fashionably" like for instance it could've ended up with something like a romantic momment on a date at the Kugo Hot Springs, or the momment where they finally got all the materials to trade to the clothier for Guardians Girei Fuku (That'd be my momment of glory @_@)

Overall I know we can't satisfy everybody, so I only hope that we satisfied and a majority. So heres the more broad question:
#6 Is there something you think that we did poorly and could have done better? If so, why?

Honestly everyone else has been saying this and maybe it would've helped a little more with the organization of this contests criteria. Like for instance the judges could've had a checklist as mentioned by someone else for certain aspects that were important to the contest since all judges have different taste in style maybe there could have been questions asked, for example

Do yout hink that this picture portrays story at the first look?
Does this picture fit your tastes?

And then you start scoring after organizing your thoughts....

Creativity - 0/10
Concept - 0/10
Detail - 0/10....

^ ^; Or at least that's how I would've done it lol

Honestly I can't answer the last questions because I don't want to offend anyone, I wish I could critique all of them to be fair like I did in the poll. But I will add something that bothered me int he begining..... I know this is gonna sound a bit unnecessary but I'm a huge organizer and I dont see why this wasn't done....

The real-life prize of a tablet.... How do you know if the person who got first place already HAS a very nice working tablet? To be honest this only bothered me because it stressed me out alot because I've been trying to get a tablet for over 2 years now and they're so expensive for me since I don't live a very economicly stable life, and all I have is a mouse to work with. I used to have access to a tablet when I was in school but I graduated now so now my skills in art has dropped a ton now that I have to use a mouse and my works take alot longer to finish..... Also I am starting to show signs of carpel tunnel. I remember when I did my final entry my wrist was flaming @_@;

I'm not trying to make you feel bad about me but I'm just giving example.... Like there were people that enterred the contest that werre really content on winning the tablet bu the people who already have a tablet exceed the skill of those without one, because tablets are so beautifully pressure sensitive it's alot easier to add more details to your work and more heart into your work because a mouse can't move like a pencil, it can't do the movement of one.....

Ok enough of that..... My point is..... I think there should have been a part in the contest if the person entering wanted thier piece to be considered for getting a tablet or not. I don't think it fair that a person who already has one has the chance to win one.....

That's all I have to say.....m(-_-)m

[thematesV2]

I agree with aussie, I could probably afford a tablet, but I'm thrifty, and have not wanted to spend more than about 50 or 60 bucks... anyhow, I picked my precess knowing that I didn't have a tablet to work on, I used photoshop's infinite layering power to make my work better.

I feel like the "photoshop" category was slightly off, only because of the idea or question "how many of the art entries didn't use a digital art program.." my image has screenshots in it, but they are so manipulated, and the screenshot images are only about 1/20th of the total image. I'm not complaining, i'm just saying perhaps the division should have been more clear :

image based on screenshots (45-50% of the image = screens)
image based on hand drawn design (44% or less screenshot..)

if some people used photoshop to trace certain spots, like weaps, or character faces, stuff like that, then they could still use the art category..

anyhow, good contest, twas fun, congrats all.

[Skids]

#1 The contest was designed to feel like a phantasy star contest even though it took place out of game. How do you think this format worked out?

It succeeded. The contest felt very PSUish. Espically with unlocking prizes by people participating nad earning points for the community.

#2 The contest was split up into two groups, photoshop (based on screenshots) and fanart. Sadly, we did not have a good turn out for photoshops, but do you think that this idea could have worked out? Do you think a straight screenshot contest would have been better? Or should it have been left out entirely?

I beleive the photoshop division did very well for the attemp on it. Even thou it had about half as many people enter as the main art division. It still had a decent entry turn out. Having little more then half on the main art division.
With a straight screenshot contest. Thats hard to say. While you will proably get more entries for that. It would proably need more define rules of what can be enter. Plus you proably get more people doing collabortaions to make a decent screenshot but on the other had you may get people complain about being used in someones screeenshot without their permission.
I beleive we should keep the photoshop division.

#3 There were two judging stages. The selected judges, who chose the winners of the out of game prizes, and the open judging, which took the cream of the crop and allowed everyone to participate for the in game prizes. This was done for a couple different reasons, mainly that we wanted a lot of community participation. Even if you did not have the skill or time to have an entry, we still wanted you to participate and critique other works. Do you think that this served its purpose?

Obviously I do beleive the judges did an awesome job but taken my bias out. The judging system you guys set up is what I would normally expect for a contest. For the main prize or special awards. You had a select group of people who did the harder decesion making. While you allow the community with a general group with the poll voting handle the rest for those who qualified to the next round.

#4 Similarly, the participants were told to upload their works to the fanart thread. This was also meant to spawn more community participation. In some ways, seeing other peoples works can scare off some participants or can cause community biases and other problems. Do you think that this worked out well or not?

To be honest I wasn't aware that were supposed to upload pics in seperate threads for the contest. I knew we had to post in the main thread but not seperate threads aswell. I'm not sure for overall community but for myself. While seeing the other entries I was intimidate. More so like I don't think I can beat that person in the contest then I'm not going to try intimidation. It also helps me get an idea of whats being submitting. So I know what to enter and not enter idea wise.

#5 Themes can be limitting and can help. Originally I wanted a crossover type theme that included fashion since it was me and Arika of the Phashion group organizing. Would you have rather had a very strictly enforced theme? Or a crossover theme with something outside of PSU?

With themes, I think this was more of culturaly difference and one of the main gripes I notice with the feeback on the contest. Alot people were under the assumption that the theme of having it base off your character or characters personal story would be taken as a more serious factor in submittion and judging. While in reality was what the picture should tried to be about and what allows it to be enter. Like I did a piece called Grinna Bete Road with my char, Skids, either leading an army of Grinna Bete S unit or about fight them on Parum depending on view point. Now If I didn't add my char. I don't think that entry would be allowed.
From what I notice with the community reaction it seems that are stricter enforce theme would be appreciated.
With crossover themes. Original I was planning to do two of them but decided not do it. Espically with seeing no one else doing any. So I wasn't sure if I could enter one and I didn't check with the judges on it. But I wouldn't mind doing one. Original the Kiyone Soliquey was one of the corssover ideas. In which I was going to use Tenchi Muyo pictures of Kiyone and her ship the Yagami in the screenshot background since my PSU char, Kiyone, is from that universe in a guardian / galaxy police work exchange program.

Overall I know we can't satisfy everybody, so I only hope that we satisfied and a majority. So heres the more broad question:
#6 Is there something you think that we did poorly and could have done better? If so, why?

A little bit clearly on how the theme effected the contest since lot of people didn't understand that. The only other thing I can see being better. Is explaining the judging process better for the majority of people. While you did say contestants will be score base off quality, creativity, overall design, and effort. It ended their and some people like to hear ever detail that takes part in the judging process. Like for example the 4 judges will score pictures on a scale of 1-10 in 4 categories where each picture can get up to 40 points from each judge. The point judges scores will be added together and divded by 4. The contestant with the overall best avergae will win. That might have help saved some headaches

And finally because this is an art related contest:
#7 What is your favorite work, and what do you think they did better than everyone else?

For the art divison I really like Jared T two entries. PSU-WPI1 and PSU-WPI2. The color job and details blew me away on these. His color job was perfect. Details were crisb. Plus he set the scene up very well in both of them. I actually enjoy the PM arguing with the cast which was a very distinctive entry. With the other one I like the nice relaxization feel you got from PM and beast taken time to worried about the beast's hair.
For photoshop that wasn''t mine. Its tie between Zero's Self portrait since the color scheme on the heads just rock and I love the Kireek homage. Ubwaaa! The other one is Voxiechan's Voxie'sjump. Really cool art mix with a good blend of screenshot splice together. Where everything flows nicely together. No bad editing on the screenshots and nanoblast beast.


#8 What work(s) did not make it into the final poll that you think deserved to be there. What could they have done to improve, and what did they do good?

For the Art division I have four

Jared_T PSU-WP1 Like I said in question seven. Colors, detail, and scene set up where great. The main thing they could have done to improve which sadly contradicts why I like it alot. Was the scene with the argument. Alot of people like to see happy pictures or more distince reason why their fighting. If it look like the pm failed a major synth the argument may have come off better or having them joke together might have work with getting qualified.

The next one I like was Arica's, Arica's Wallpaper, to me it look very cool. With the female cast being in statis pod with all the wires. The scene made it look she was waiting to be free. Good balance with the colors. They had a good synergy. Like the pink hair and marron body being high light by the cast gray and black body. For improvements hard to say. Maybe a different background like a lab or maybe a more psu type statis pod. The one thing that I can say is match the "PSU" text witht he text effect on release and awaken.

The third one would be Tsukuyo's Maron and Maron. I really like the theme on this The artwork here is decent and the artist had a good theme which she showed with the text. Showing the confusion of the two figures with being chacters from PSO and now being in PSU. Plus I like the creativiness with using a bigger version of the figures heads as part of the background. With what she need to improve. With the text. I knows shes trying to present the confusion of identy between guardian and hunter. But maybe a bit more clear with the grammer. Plus watching the sentence structure. The "Iam" hurt it a bit. Plus it felt you had too much negative space in it. Where with the whiteness of the background. Maybe two images connected PSO to PSU in the backgrounbd could have helped. Plus maybe white instead or purple with the text to keep consitancy with the guardian and force text. Lastly show a little bit more of the Force if ya can.

The last one would have been Traize's, Purslangu. The artwork here was simple yet very catchy. Plus it had alot of good PSUisms. Like the planet trinity, the sweat death with hearts, the planet aligment thing were you fight falz, and the moatoob text. Plus I just love the blue beast nanoblast form in this. It looks so cute. Also the way the char is position with her other form looks very symbolic. The improve thing here while the maotoob texts looks good and fits the beast theme. The psu fonts are hard to read and a different font should of been chosen.

For the photoshop I had three

Mai_viola 6 elements. This one was one of the main pictures that worried me in the photoshop division. I really like how it look and how it incorporate the 6 PSU elements. Espically with how all the female chars were using them with their weapons and the baclground matching them. Plus how the two opposing elements were next to each other. The two things that can be improve about it is one, with the fire element. Where one portion of it is hard to tell source. Where the female beast with white hair is using twin DB saber making the fire effect where the from going left to right hard to tell the source on the first patch. The way to improve it lies with were the one of the sabers are. It looks its coming out of her body at an odd angle. Maybe use a different pose with the twin sabers can elimated that. Plus the chao rod which is earth element looks likes its making the fire element instead of the earth spell. Having them sperate more can help Two the picture doesn't really connected the girls together. Where if text was added to the picture it would help connect them. Like for example. The 6 elements sisters or the Guradian element squad.

The next would have been Zero's Self portrait. This one had me very worried. It had a cool use of famous art medium with the different heads. The cigar made him bad aft but not recommend for real life since remeber everyone smoking hurts organics. Not mechanical fictional life forms. Plus love the Kireek base head with the Ubwaaa! I don't know what to say how to improve it since were looking into what Zero sees his char as persoanilty wise.

The last one was another Zero picture, Whopper. It was funny and the wanted poster sold it well. Espically with the shocked body expression on Whopper. The thing that can be improve abound is the cropping on the 3 cast. You see some choppiness with them. Like maybe taking the source screenshot at high resolution or higher graphic can help or doing a slight blur to make less noticible. Plus maybe have the cast a little bit farther apart from one another would help.

Thats it for me until I write up my on post defend my PM attack entry.

[Itsuki]

The real-life prize of a tablet.... How do you know if the person who got first place already HAS a very nice working tablet? To be honest this only bothered me because it stressed me out alot because I've been trying to get a tablet for over 2 years now and they're so expensive for me since I don't live a very economicly stable life, and all I have is a mouse to work with. I used to have access to a tablet when I was in school but I graduated now so now my skills in art has dropped a ton now that I have to use a mouse and my works take alot longer to finish..... Also I am starting to show signs of carpel tunnel. I remember when I did my final entry my wrist was flaming @_@;
You know, I did consider this. And truthfully, there are people on the forums that use much better tablets. For example, if I had won it, it would be a tiny little puny thing compared to my tablet. First, I could get them for relatively cheap. Second, I wanted something that a something that would benefit the participants artwork, since the in game prizes were all benefiting the psu side of things.

I did consider that the person might already have one, but I figured if they did, well then, they could give one away or sell it and it would still benefit in some way. (though I would prefer them giving it away, I find every artsy person has a bunch of artsy friends that are in need of supplies).


The idea of a photoshop section was really good, people did awesome jobs I don't really understand by what you mean by it didn't have a good turn out because I believe that there were some amazing editting skills in that category. I don't think it should have been left out I think it was very different from other contests I've seen and I really liked that. ^ ^
By the turnout, I mean, there were only 16 entries in it, from 8 different people, while the fanart section had 34 entries from 21 different people. Almost 3 times as many people participated in the fanart section.


Well by personal experience it did intimidate me, I started losing confidence but I pushed through anyways, I think seeing other's work inspired me more and helped more organize my ideas.Heheh, that almost seems contradictory. But I guess it all worked out in the end.

#5 Themes can be limitting and can help. Originally I wanted a crossover type theme that included fashion since it was me and Arika of the Phashion group organizing. Would you have rather had a very strictly enforced theme? Or a crossover theme with something outside of PSU?


Honestly I can't answer the last questions because I don't want to offend anyone, I wish I could critique all of them to be fair like I did in the poll. But I will add something that bothered me int he begining..... I know this is gonna sound a bit unnecessary but I'm a huge organizer and I dont see why this wasn't done....You already did quite a bit of nice comments in the other thread though. ^^


Obviously I do beleive the judges did an awesome job but taken my bias out. The judging system you guys set up is what I would normally expect for a contest. For the main prize or special awards. You had a select group of people who did the harder decesion making. While you allow the community with a general group with the poll voting handle the rest for those who qualified to the next round.Hehehehehe, I guess you would have a bit of bias.


To be honest I wasn't aware that were supposed to upload pics in seperate threads for the contest. I knew we had to post in the main thread but not seperate threads aswell. I'm not sure for overall community but for myself. While seeing the other entries I was intimidate. More so like I don't think I can beat that person in the contest then I'm not going to try intimidation. It also helps me get an idea of whats being submitting. So I know what to enter and not enter idea wise.No no, you weren't supposed to put it in a seperate thread. I meant inside of the main thread. But you're still posting it for public viewing. While in a lot of contests you submit your artwork via e-mail or something and nobody sees what they are competing against until after the contest is over.


For the art divison I really like Jared T two entries. PSU-WPI1 and PSU-WPI2. The color job and details blew me away on these. His color job was perfect. Details were crisb. Plus he set the scene up very well in both of them. I actually enjoy the PM arguing with the cast which was a very distinctive entry. With the other one I like the nice relaxization feel you got from PM and beast taken time to worried about the beast's hair.
For photoshop that wasn''t mine. Its tie between Zero's Self portrait since the color scheme on the heads just rock and I love the Kireek homage. Ubwaaa! The other one is Voxiechan's Voxie'sjump. Really cool art mix with a good blend of screenshot splice together. Where everything flows nicely together. No bad editing on the screenshots and nanoblast beast.I thought Jared T's had a lot of life in them aswell. It sort of felt like you just took a snapshot of what the world of PSU would really be like. Voxie's though I thought was a bit messy, but quite fun.


The third one would be Tsukuyo's Maron and Maron. I really like the theme on this The artwork here is decent and the artist had a good theme which she showed with the text. Showing the confusion of the two figures with being chacters from PSO and now being in PSU. Plus I like the creativiness with using a bigger version of the figures heads as part of the background. With what she need to improve. With the text. I knows shes trying to present the confusion of identy between guardian and hunter. But maybe a bit more clear with the grammer. Plus watching the sentence structure. The "Iam" hurt it a bit. Plus it felt you had too much negative space in it. Where with the whiteness of the background. Maybe two images connected PSO to PSU in the backgrounbd could have helped. Plus maybe white instead or purple with the text to keep consitancy with the guardian and force text. Lastly show a little bit more of the Force if ya can.

The last one would have been Traize's, Purslangu. The artwork here was simple yet very catchy. Plus it had alot of good PSUisms. Like the planet trinity, the sweat death with hearts, the planet aligment thing were you fight falz, and the moatoob text. Plus I just love the blue beast nanoblast form in this. It looks so cute. Also the way the char is position with her other form looks very symbolic. The improve thing here while the maotoob texts looks good and fits the beast theme. The psu fonts are hard to read and a different font should of been chosen.You know, these two haven't really been mentioned too much yet. Tsukuyo really sounded like they were beating themself up after the contest. I couldn't tell if it was serious or not. ^^; But, I think 'Our own Destiny' was a bit cleaner and worked a bit better. They both were a bit rough, and I think when you mix in text you have to be very careful about how you use it. Its hard to make it work for you. And I think if you keep it to a minimal, it works a lot better overall. Or if you use a lot of text it needs to be not just an intimidating block of text, like Kayahime's.

Traize is one where I think a lot of the effects used worked really really well. I mean, on the photoshop side, traize is great. But I think that on the actual artwork side is where it lacked. On Purslanegu though, the artwork is smaller, and its more focussed on the effects, which as I said, work really well, so overall it looks really nice. But even on the other two works, I think that if the drawing is improved a bit it can go from just good to great.


For the photoshop I had three

Mai_viola 6 elements. This one was one of the main pictures that worried me in the photoshop division. I really like how it look and how it incorporate the 6 PSU elements. Espically with how all the female chars were using them with their weapons and the baclground matching them. Plus how the two opposing elements were next to each other. The two things that can be improve about it is one, with the fire element. Where one portion of it is hard to tell source. Where the female beast with white hair is using twin DB saber making the fire effect where the from going left to right hard to tell the source on the first patch. The way to improve it lies with were the one of the sabers are. It looks its coming out of her body at an odd angle. Maybe use a different pose with the twin sabers can elimated that. Plus the chao rod which is earth element looks likes its making the fire element instead of the earth spell. Having them sperate more can help Two the picture doesn't really connected the girls together. Where if text was added to the picture it would help connect them. Like for example. The 6 elements sisters or the Guradian element squad.Some of the judges didn't like Mia_viola's works as much. Though they all do look very good and you can tell a ton of effort went into them, they weren't all without problems. I think that the lack of any shading on the vectors distracts a bit from the details. They end up loosing a lot of detail and coming off very flat, like an artwork in progress. Also, the effects used don't really fit in the style of the vectors. I think it kind of clashes. The exception to this though, is the 3rd one (the neverwinter slicer). Even though its flat, I think it works really well due to the colors and everything flowing. Though the floor could have used some work. Arika was very adamant about it, but I actually scored mia pretty well. I know arika felt the original screenshots looked better and it may have looked as good or better if they were used instead (with the same effects on top).

I've done a lot of vectoring in my days. So we will dig through my photobucket for a decent example... ok! This will work I guess... but it has some underboob and a lack of clothing (But no nudity).

Anyways, this is a partically shaded vector of Yuu's head: http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f369/Akukame/Coloring/PastelTowelHairColor.png
Compared to the final version: http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f369/Akukame/Coloring/PastelTowelFinal.png
Though with the manga image its a bit of a different scenario, you can kind of get the point how you know vectors with no shading look like cardboard cutouts.


The next would have been Zero's Self portrait. This one had me very worried. It had a cool use of famous art medium with the different heads. The cigar made him bad aft but not recommend for real life since remeber everyone smoking hurts organics. Not mechanical fictional life forms. Plus love the Kireek base head with the Ubwaaa! I don't know what to say how to improve it since were looking into what Zero sees his char as persoanilty wise.I don't mean this in any bad sort of way, but this desciption made me lol.


Thats it for me until I write up my on post defend my PM attack entry.I don't think you really need to defend it, especially considering your other entries were very good aswell.