New Battles!

*MoodsR4Cattle* · 10-15-2007

Have some fun and participate in the latest battles!

Check out:

• Contests
Photoshop Costume Shop
Autumn Leaves Photography

• Free-for-All
Celebrity Zombie
Autumn Desktop

If you have a great idea for a battle, don't hesitate to start one yourself!
Describe your battle idea as clearly as possible!

agentxi · 10-15-2007

what if we started a Work In Progress thread for every battle, and people can show their progress, and we can see how many people are participating... and what's out there, give advice...help out, etc... What's the point of a battle if you don't learn and improve right?

*unleash* · 10-15-2007

I must agree with Agentxi,
I've seen such a system at work on cgsociety(no ad),
and it work great there....but the only problem is that the battle section was created so that there is no need to create an thread every time a battle is started

Anyways, maybe we can do both start up a thread for the WIP and the finals and everything else is going through the Battle section.....

supertackyman · 10-15-2007

wouldnt a W.I.P. section for battles kill the anonymity factor of the battle and its participants during the final phase of voting?

just wondering.

allthough im also intrested in improving my work, and sometimes input from a few fellow artists would be good to have before a battle. provided that the advice was given fairly with no favoritism. that could make for an unfair contest/battle.
perhaps there is someone out there that would be willing to refrain from voting and instead offer advice and pre-entry critiques?
perhaps the battle creator could offer to peform that task.

*MoodsR4Cattle* · 10-15-2007

I see what you're getting at, but as far as a battle goes, it's the place to show what you've learned, not the place to do the learning.
The entire forum is dedicated to helping everyone learn and get critiques/help/suggestions on their work.

*unleash* · 10-16-2007

supertackyman,
It can indeed take the anonymity factor away, but if the battle will be corrupt I think not. Because everybody has an idea on how his artwork should look like.....so seeing some other artworks for the same battle will not corrupt the battle as everybody wan't to be the best with his idea......Then there could be the part of members voting for specific other members because they know eachother....I just hope that the members here will not do so, but you can't really take that away..you can recognize someone at his/ her artwork, right?

MoodsR4Cattle,
I agree that the forums are the "help" section of biorust, but the battles can be an extra help....it's more like a forum section for each battle, so then the helping part fits in with biorust. In that manner people can make suggestions to the WIP section of a battle........

just my 0.02$

*MoodsR4Cattle* · 10-16-2007

To actually show your Battle work in progress and request suggestions/comments/changes makes is a community project and it's no longer their individual work. A Battle is like taking a test - without crib notes.

The forum is the teacher, but the Battle is the test.

You can still get constructive criticism on your battle images when the voting is taking place. Yes, it's after the fact, but you can learn from them and there will always be more battles.

*unleash* · 10-16-2007

That's true,

but you can see it both ways....an artwork that won an battle, isn't it interesting how the creator did it, how he made the picture....where he put in the effort?

That way people can learn from an battle, and the combatant can learn later on....It is not necessary to comment on the WIP, just an simple thread that is partly closed or something alike.....

*notjustgraphics* · 10-16-2007

I think that if a person whats to submit a piece for comment or wishes to learn by example, they should do so through a thread ie. the showroom / wip

The battle essentially puts members in a competition of skills against other members and therefore it should be a singular effort.

Though i would love to see some of the battle winners digested afterwards in a special thread!

That might work...

Mike.

*unleash* · 10-16-2007

I will lay down my arms now, and stop the quibbling about this as I am an minority...I still believe everything I said but if multiple members do not agree there is few I can do.

So there you have it, let's have fun with the battles!

chuggs · 10-17-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by notjustgraphics

Though i would love to see some of the battle winners digested afterwards in a special thread!

That might work...

Mike.

That right there is probably the best solution. I don't know about other artists, but I rarely get rid of the raw PSD files until months, if not years, after the work is complete. So a how-to after the fact isn't too difficult to create.

Battle or not, I know I haven't posted too many of my works here, but if anyone has a "how did you do that?" question brewing for me, feel free to ask.

agentxi · 10-17-2007

well, the reason why i posted what i did, is because i find that a lot of people are not participating, How many battles are going that have only 1 or 2 competitors involved. I believe that a WIP thread would help create awareness of the battles going on, and by showing the process from start to finish, might spark more ideas and interest by people viewing the forums, a lot of battles are won because there is only 1 entrant.

Also, I personally do not like the anonymity factor, I think to feel competitive, I'd like to see what I am up against. This will get my creative juices and my competitive juices flowing, to force me to come up with something bigger and better, pushing the limits of the competitors.

On a side note, No body posts up reasons or processes for how and why they came up with a design that they did, I think having people post up WIPs will show us and possibly make the entrants think more about their designs before entering the battle.

supertackyman · 10-18-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by agentxi

Also, I personally do not like the anonymity factor, I think to feel competitive, I'd like to see what I am up against. This will get my creative juices and my competitive juices flowing, to force me to come up with something bigger and better, pushing the limits of the competitors.

i would think that one would want to allways give thier best effort.
why enter a battle with a halfhearted attempt?

agentxi · 10-22-2007

Quote:

i would think that one would want to allways give thier best effort.
why enter a battle with a halfhearted attempt?

I never said "halfheartedly".
Yes I would think people would always do their best, but this is not always true. In a foot race, you run your best but even when you get close to the finish line, you grow tired and exhausted. If no one is around you, you would probably just keep the same pace as you are doing or even possibly slow down, but if someone was right behind you and catching up, would you not dig deep down and find a little more energy to speed up and finish the race in front of that person. This is my point. I'm not saying people will do it "halfheartedly" but rather, do their best without pushing their limits. When someone is pushed, they will find out their limits or at least redefined their limits, and with that, I think the battles would gain more interest and competitive.

supertackyman · 10-22-2007

I hear that. and I do agree with your point.
perhaps its mostly that im not a pro, so I feel I should keep pushing myself all the time inorder to maintain my mediocrity. ive seen what im up against, and I aspire to surpass it.

I agree tho that somtimes it would be nice to know what the other entrants are doing so that I might kno before the voting stage that my submission is so far below the competetion that i would feel embarassed to have entered it.

perhaps, perhaps there may someday be the possibility to add critique to the entrants you did not vote for as well (ie "I felt that your colors were too saturated")
it would go a long way towards helping entrants improve on thier future work.
helpfull criticizm teaches more than praise.