Hey, contest time! For those of you who purchased my Dungeon Lighting Kit rom DAZ, you may want to know that there're 2 mor Dungeon Lighting Kits on the way -- in progress. They aren't finished, but both are more than half done. And here's a chance for you to get what's done on the other 2 kits so far! This is an art contest to be judged solely by Me. If anyone doesn't think that's fair, you can think that, that's cool. Doesn't change a thing B^) Here are the rules: 1) I am going to post a few images in this thread. You have your pick of which of these images you want to use as your template. We're going to see how well your work would go on a book cover. You must use one of these as your template. To use these templates: You must make your image match the aspect ratio of the template you choose. It can be larger (you don't want to make it smaller, trust me), but the height-to-width ratio must remain the same. Constrain proportions. You will notice that the templates have words on them. Do NOT include anything in the template. Do not put words on your piece except your signature if you want, somewhere subtle, which is okay. What those words are for, however, is to tell where your 'Safe Zones' are. If an area in the picture has words on it, don't put detailed stuff in those areas. For an idea of what I'm talking about, look at the work of professional fantasy artists. You can look at any of their images and see that there's an empty-looking spot here and there -- for instance, the top of the pic might be covered in clouds or a repeating wall pattern or something. This is because while your piece will not actually have any words on it, if it were going to be used as a book cover, you'd have to leave that space for words simple so that the words on top will be easy to read and not chop out an important part of the picture. You can have some detail in the 'text zones', but it should not be contrasty or of particular importance to the image, and it's best to keep it to something patterned-ish like bricks or ivy or foliage or something if you do. Be creative and work with the restrictions -- trust me, the challenge will bring out the best in you. 2) You must own my Dungeon Lighting Kit and you must have purchased it from DAZ. Beta Testers and the couple people I gave the kit to are not eligible, sorry. Half of you already have the rest of this stuff anyway B^) 3) Your image must incorporate at least three posable figures, at least two of which must be humanoid. This means you could do two humans and a dragon, three humans, an elf, a humanoid robot, and a giant snake, whatever. At least two of them must be man-shaped and you have to use three. The other can be man-shaped or not, at your discretion. It's up to you. None of the figures may be any sort of 'toonimal' thing (whether it's an official DAZ toonimal or anyone else's). Why? I hate toonimals. Sorry. I have cats who are very unbelievably cute, escpecially the little girl, Runt. I have cute pet rats, mice, and a ferret. Even my red-tailed boa can be cute sometimes. If any of them were translated into toonimal form I would not find them cute at all, and would rather think of them as disturbing mutant baloonimal things. You can like toonimals all you like. Just don't use them in your contest entry or you'll lose, 'cause I don't. 4) You must use at least two of my Dungeon Lighting Kit props in your image. The gravity props and omnilights do NOT count towards this. Both the posable props and the non-posable props are okay. The corks in the potion and firefly jar, as well as the individual firefly and bug-free jar, do not count as seperate items, (no matter how many fireflies you add). The to items must be distinct items. Let me explain that better: If you use the bug-free firefly jar and one or fifty fireflies, the whole lot count as one prop. If you use the firefly jar with fireflies already in it, it counts as one prop. If you use both the pre-bug-filled jar AND the empty jar AND an individual firefly, it still all counts as one prop. If you use three Staves of Light, they all count as one prop even though you used three instances of it. If you use the firefly jar in whatever form AND the Staff of Light, it counts as two props and you make the quota. Make sense? The DLK props must be where they can be seen. I shouldn't have to say this, but I'm sure if I don't someone will say they're behind the wall or something. This is how I know you purchased my DLK, too (though I will check my selections with DAZ to be sure, so don't try to enter if you've warezed it already B^) 5) Your image must demonstrate a sense of tension, action, or conflict. I other words, it must conjure the concept of struggle in some way. 6) Your image must not be deliberately humourous. If I find it funny, I won't reject it, but if I find it to be trying to be funny, whether I think it is or not, I will. You have no idea how skewed and weird my sense of humour is, so don't try to evoke it. I may well find an image funny without you meaning it to be -- that's okay. But don't attempt humour -- I'll know you did. Trust me. Besides, I'm a surly bastard. 7) Use cast shadows in your render. Set your lights' maps high enough that the cast shadows do not have jagged/ragged edges. Use antialiasing in your picture. If you use P5, read GraphicFoxx's Dodger's Lightsabres in P5 Tutorial and apply the same kinds of techniques to the glowing stuff as look appropriate. And of course, if it even needs mentioning, do your render in Poser. 8) Postwork is okay. Postwork is even encouraged. However, do NOT add a 'motion blur' or any other blur to the flames of torches. It really does look pretty bad when people do that. The flames and glowing things shouldn't be touched-up, either, except as is absolutely necessary to integrate them with any other postwork you do. Do not run it through a 'painting effect' type filter or anything like that. 9) Nudity is not okay. Almost nudity is okay. That means lace clothing that you can see a little bit of aureola colour through -- cool. No problem. Genitals can't be shown. Butt floss can. But it's not going to earn you any brownie points to use gratuitous butt floos and chicks-in-chainmaille or anything, so don't think I'm looking for butt-floss and aureolas, either. Use them if they are necessary to your pic, avoid them if they aren't. Post your image in the Poser gallery. Title it what yu want your title to be but do not include 'Dodger's Contest Entry' or whatever in your title. Mention that in the comments. Credit me for the Dungeon Lighting Kit at DAZ in the comments (not in the credits, because the DLK is not available in the RMP, only on DAZ). Mention which DLK props you used in the comments, too. Your work will be judged on composition, adhesion to the rules, colour scheme, and overall appearance, beauty, and 'correctness'. Superrealism will not be the primary consideration, but don't, like, turn it into a cubist thing or anything. The winner will get all of the Dungeon Lighting Kit 2 and Dungeon Lighting Kit 3 things that I have gotten done at this time. I'll post images of the prizes after the image templates. You may enter as often as you like. The two runners-up will receive a copy of my Elf Mage Vicki clothing/character set available in the RMP.

List all contest entries in this thread, as well, so I don't miss them!

I'm not entering because I do like cute cats (sorry) but for those who are, is there a deadline for the contest?

dialyn: I'm gettnig to that :^) The contest is over at noon EST on the 27th of January. PS: You can like them, they just can't be in the contest entry... actually, cute cats can certainly be in the contest entry, as long as they aren't toonimal cats B^)

Thanks! I guess I jumped ahead....it kind of looked like you were finished there. It will be interesting to see the graphics. The dungeon lighting is very cool stuff. This way I'll remember to come back and look at all the great results. :)

Yup.. it's also my way of getting to see the cool results!

And no worries. I ramble, and I got sidetracked responding to an IM.

Cool contest. I'll definitely enter this one.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Yes&Artist=leather%2Dguy

leather-guy: it looks good. If you can rework it to match the aspect ratio, it will be a goood entry. Here's a tip on getting the aspect ratio going: 1) if you're using a background image, crop it to match one of the templates 2) if you're not using a background image, load up one of the templates as a background image and let your viewport be scaled to fit it Then all you have to do is set the camera angle, re-render it and viola, aspect ratio is done, and with the arch up in the top will also easily be fit to match the 'text xones' restriction.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Y&Artist=GraphicFoxx

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=322625&Start=1&Sectionid=1&WhatsNew=Yes

Okay, Leather-guy wins and GraphicFoxx gets second place. Sorry this took so long to get out, I've been usy and there was so little response to the contest that I didn't have any ebot messages dragging me back here. I'll IM each of you for your email addresses to send the prizes to.