Alright, Ladies and Gentlemen - it is time to announce the winners of our Flas^hing Blades and Longing Romance Contest!

But first of all, we want to thank each and everyone of you for entering - you gave us a very hard time in deciding who would be the winner as there were so many wonderful entries and surely everyone of you would have deserved to win. But - however - we had to make a decision and here are the results! (Drumroll please! ;-))

• The first place goes to: Zachrael2002! The lighting, the background and those colors were just wonderful!
• The second place goes to: Banshee42! A great nostalgic mood, perfectly set into scene!
• The third place goes to: RNKarenER! That postwork is just great - no more words needed!

But this is not all - we have also decided to give one item of choice from either Eleria's or Valea's store the following - our honorable mentions:

• Shaybear All three of us loved this image and it became one of our favourites very quickly.
• Tiari A very lovely scene with great postwork and wonderful colors.
• digitell A classical swashbuckling scene - we bet that he's gonna cut the front of her dress really soon.;-)
• PCGaijin What a pirate captain - Lady Darkholme will love him and so do we!
• Luminaa A truely classic scene once again - everything fits so well.
• prae Classic - and it surely was a lot of work to do.
• markdoc Great details in this one!
• Vadlor And here they are - the three musketeers! Great posing for the three gentlemen!
• kmw A wonderful point of view - this one must have been a real hell to do!

Attention, dear winners! In order to let us know, which of the items from our store you'd like to have, please send one of us an IM with your choices and we will get them to you as soon as possible!

Flashing Blades and Longing Romance Contest

Beautiful courtesans, courageous musketeers or cunning pirates � everyone knows those old Hollywood movies, we have grown up with or the famous novels by Alexandre Dumas like The three Musketiers or The Man in the Iron Mask. There were daring men swinging on chandeliers, fighting their way out of the taverns or pirates winning the hearts of beautiful ladies. Zorro was one of our childhood heroes and who would ever forget the Princess Bride? Alright, and if you�re one of the people in love with the swashbuckling genre like we are, then come in and take a look at our contest!

And here are the rules:

1. Contest will begin on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 at 12:00 am Renderosity server time (they are on CENTRAL Time, CST), and end at 11:59 pm CST on Saturday, January 15, 2004.
2. Entries must be submitted to the "Flashing Blades and Longing Romance" Contest area right here (see below).
3. THEME: You are to depict a scene that could be taken out of any old swashbuckling film or story, no matter if it is a beautiful courtesan waiting for her lover, fencing musketeers, lovers meeting by moonlight or pirates on their ships. Anything that can be found in those old (or newer) Hollywood movies will be right. Please remember that the images have to be set in an era starting with the renaissance and not in modern times!
4. The maximum image size is 1000 x 1000 pixels.
5. Nudity is permitted in entries, but it should still be fitting the genre. ;-)
6. Your image must include at least one human Poser figure, either the standard Poser figures or one of the Millenium figures.
7. Postwork is allowed.
8. Your entries may be posted in the galleries before the end of the contest with comments and ratings enabled if you wish once they have been approved into the contest.
9. There is only one entry per member allowed.
10. It must be new and original artwork not previously seen in the galleries and it must be your own! Collaborations are not allowed.
11. All images must comply with the Renderosity terms of service.
12. This contest is open to everyone.

Prizes: 1st Place

• $25 gift certificate for the Renderosity Market Place purchased by Arvanor
• 5 items of choice from Eleria's or Valea's store.
• The Orchid Dress - Blood shades and Night shadows by Arki

2nd Place

• $15 gift certificate for the Renderosity Market Place purchased by Valea
• 3 Items of choice from Eleria's or Valea's store.
• Arki�s Real Wings by Arki

3rd Place

• $10 gift certificate for the Renderosity Market Place purchased by Eleria
• 2 Items of choice from Eleria's or Valea's store.

Jugdes: Judges will be Arvanor, Eleria and Valea. Winners will be announced on Saturday, January 22, 2005 somewhere around noon, Renderosity time. Judging Criteria:

• The depiction of the contest theme.
• Artistic merit (composition, lighting, color).
• The contest sponsors reserve the right to award additional prizes for honourable mentions at their discretion.

Judges' decisions are FINAL. HAVE FUN! :O)!!!! Artists grant permission to Renderosity for the use of submitted images for an undetermined period of time. This is strictly for posting the image on the front page and within the contest archives. The Artist will remain the intellectual property holder.