Battle of the Month March Phase 1 Results

Congrats to all winners, below are the duelists and who won out.



Session 1: Balance vs Arrancar Grimmjow

http://www.yinyanganime.com/uploads/...alelegance.png

http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/p...is/touhou1.jpg


Balance set the stage for this one, as the first entry, you see a weird almost floral pattern being used in almost every other signature. Where that be from Balance's influence or the entrants choice is strange. Balance's tag being a good use of text and focus, but lack the usual use of explosive flow for a slat white background. Grimmjow's colors are more varied, and it has an interesting set up with the text.

Overall, the duel goes to Balance.



Session 2: Annie Hall vs MaruDashi

http://i56.tinypic.com/99ibl5.png

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/2323/botm2copy.png


Annie uses great color, and a superb job at keeping the text nice and together, even emphasizing it more with the dots and variety of type styles. It does however lack so much blending and could have done more with the background. Maru's entry is all about the focus, keeping the lighting, color, and depth all around it. The text is an absolute nightmare with it being scattered and lacking a good hierarchy.

We hand the victory over to Maru. Although not the most perfect tag, its overall composition wins out.


Session 3: Hyphen vs Oizuyex

http://i342.photobucket.com/albums/o...otw/Botmn1.png

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...io-d3b5aec.png

Following some of the above entries, Hyphen's tag following the same floral theme by using many bright colors and shapes to a do a superb job. However, a poor use of text, and the shapes being clutter and unrefined to fit bring it down. Oizuyex does the same basic thing, although does a better job. Refining more of the colors to the tune of origianl stock, even though certain aspects get a little a lost.

Oizuyex wins on the grounds that both tags are going after the same basic design, the Oizuyex just does it a little better.


Session 4: Arxia vs Tattster

http://visioneyes.webs.com/mystia-sig.png

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lh...szgno1_400.png


Arxia strays away from her usual style and does a good job by keeping things simple by using only 2 simple colors and keeping the effects centered. However its a little too simple, and could be improved with blending and a better text choice. Tattster follows a unique path, choosing to have the overall design appear yellow, reminiscent of an old oil painting. But it looks flat overall.


Choosing he is difficult, but Tattster wins by sheer creativity, but neither signature brings much to make it stand out.


Session 5: Kazenokaze vs Daken

http://i53.tinypic.com/23kru45.png

http://i54.tinypic.com/2s7gn41.png


What Kazen does exceptionally well here is color. What isnt done so well is the overall flow in where the color should direct the piece. Daken keeps simple, but overly simple. The text isnt very readable, and there isnt too much to remark on it.

Hands down, Kazenokaze wins with a superior use of contrast in the colors.


Session 6: Kaitou vs Zenister

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...te/Suika-1.png

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...cirnobotm1.png


Kaitou keeps as many other tags do, and that is keeps it simple. Although whether this is intentional or not isnt so clear. The entry lacks overall effect to draw in any particular attention. Zenister, using C4Ds, better takes advantage of effects and colors. However, the entry lacks blending with the character to all the effects and almost hints on the notion that the focus shouldnt be there.

Overall, Zenister wins by pure use of effects, to keep the entry interesting.



Congrats to all winners, see you in the next theme. Below is a list of those who will continue on.


Participant List:



Zenister
Tattster
Xeyuzio
Maru Dashi
Balance
Kazenokaze

Grats to all the winners! And some of the losing pieces were also pretty damn good in my opinion!

Congratulations to the winners of phase 1~

Um, just so I know and can get some feedback because this is the first one and all, do you guys want long explanations of why certain entries were chosen? Or just, "such n' such won over whatshisname?"

Well I would like reasons better because knowing if I won and no reason for it seems bad and I always seem to feel as if things aren't done fairly and reasons just give me a peace of mind. Congrats to the winners and these very well done entries. ^_^

A brief explanation is fine with me. =] I don't need a huge paragraph for every entry.

Honestly, there were so many good entries, I didn't expect to advance. Congratulations to everyone!

Ah, I forgot the judges were voting. I gotta say, I kinda knew I wouldn't move on after I found out I was up against Balance. Congrats to everyone, though

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zenister

A brief explanation is fine with me. =] I don't need a huge paragraph for every entry.

Honestly, there were so many good entries, I didn't expect to advance. Congratulations to everyone!

---

Crap, you beat me. TT_TT

Anyways, good fight though. =3

Congrats to you and the people who moved on.

I want you to rate Hyphen's and Xeyuzio's again on the following scale:

• Element Placement
• Color Balance
• Color Contrast
• Brightness
• Typography
• Depth

All out of 5 points, then tell me the overall score for both, because frankly I think only a blind man would choose Xey's over Hyphen's; they're literally in different classes.

I really like this judging system! It definitely makes everything seem more fair and less like a "popularity" sort of issue. The decisions in my opinion were all dead on and
CONGRATS TO ALL THE WINNERS!!! you guys murked it!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cantelope

I want you to rate Hyphen's and Xeyuzio's again on the following scale:

• Element Placement
• Color Balance
• Color Contrast
• Brightness
• Typography
• Depth

All out of 5 points, then tell me the overall score for both, because frankly I think only a blind man would choose Xey's over Hyphen's; they're literally in different classes.

---

I know it wasn't asked of me to do the rating, but I'll do it myself. Everything will be scaled from 1-5.

Before I start... don't mean to bash on you Cantelope, but I had a hard time trying to decipher what you were talking about when you said Element Placement. I'll just assume that you mean the shapes and C4Ds each person used. Also, Color Balance and Color Contrast should really be put together. They are essentially the same. Lastly, Brightness really has no factor to this. If you want the proper term, then you should be asking for value.


Hyphen

Element Placement: 3
Typical layout here. Place the subject in the center of the composition and use whatever solid objects we have to place emphasis on the extract. Not a bad technique, however this wasn't very well done. The shapes that were used were way too saturated for the extract. It also seems like there was a bit of too many different objects being placed here thus causing confusion and disarray. Almost an effective dissonance effect if you ask me. This will be explained further in Color (since balance and contrast should really go together). The rising sun is a bit cliche for this type of subject. There's hardly any unity going on with the selected shapes.

Color: 2
The colors that were used here resembled a dissonance type palette. It's a type of color palette that is neither complementary, split-complimentary nor analogous (aka monotone). The typical usage of the dissonance type palette is to create a spontaneous and confusing design. It's typically used for music type posters or covers to capture the eye of an audience due to its odd array of colors. It's not working too well with this signature however. The colors on the shapes are way too saturated, high contrast with each other, and there some analogous with each other with others that are not. The colors should be used strategically to compliment each other and bring out the most out of the subject. The fact that the background and midground are the same color while the foreground is an entire new set of colors... it really disrupts the overall feel of the composition.

Typography: 3
Your typography has improved slightly. Personally, I would not have placed the capital B so low and place the "animegalleries.net" where it is now. It almost looks like "Banimegalleries.net" because of the way you have set it up. We know better, but it still looks like that. I'd also change the font choice. That certain type of calligraphy just doesn't seem to fit too well with the composition if you ask me.

Depth: 4
You have demonstrated that you have a solid understanding of how to create depth in a composition several times and this is another one of those times. The only problem is the color choice.


Oizuyex

Element Placement: 4
You too have done the same centralized placement as far as signatures go. The arrangement of all your shapes are interesting though. You have created a nice sense of flow with what you have made. The composition shows some movement and rhythm to it. Not a whole lot of it, but it's there.

Color: 4
The reason why your dissonance type worked out better was because you had it in your background, your mid-ground and your foreground. I would suggest making your flowers on the bottom a little less saturated however. That's the thing that threw me off the most when looking at the colors of this composition. Especially compared to that of the mid-ground and the background. The colors at the same time seem too plain however.

Typography: 1
I'm sorry... your typography is horrible in this composition. It takes a bit TOO much out of the overall composition and doesn't really help add anything to the signature. I would have placed it in a small corner of the signature or add it in the border. Something like that. The fact that you used a blue... furry blob? to make the Anime part more clear, used a clipping mask for galleries and then made .net light blue? It's just not working with each other here.

Depth: 4
You have effectively used the leaves that was part of the extract and made your own leaves to create the illusion of a background, mid-ground and a foreground. Not much to say in this category. I would have added a little bit more in the foreground. Just a little.




Well, that's my two cents.