- Oct 16, 2010
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Signature of the Month is a simple competition open for all members. While it is focused on graphics design, it's often not the only criterion that's taken into account: there's also the issue of how well your entry represents the theme, how well all the elements you use in your piece blend together, whether it's pleasant to look at, and other such factors (as well as personal biases of the voters). Therefore, you're invited to join in and help liven up the party even if you're not very much into graphics design. This is just for fun!
Winning isn't everything, buuuuut it gives you a trophy to decorate your collections with. Or not. It's not physical, after all. But you can still brag to your friends―wait, do you have any?―and getting one gives a warm and fuzzy feel inside. Whoo, would you look at that. Pure gold! Or maybe bronze? Copper? Brass?
Nah, not any one of those materials. Just #FFE14D.
Winning isn't everything, buuuuut it gives you a trophy to decorate your collections with. Or not. It's not physical, after all. But you can still brag to your friends―wait, do you have any?―and getting one gives a warm and fuzzy feel inside. Whoo, would you look at that. Pure gold! Or maybe bronze? Copper? Brass?
Nah, not any one of those materials. Just #FFE14D.
I suppose it's more appropriate to call these "criteria", but referring to them as "rules" may help ensure that people pay attention to them. At least, I hope so. Anyway, the rules for SOTM are pretty simple:
- Your entry must be 500x300 or smaller. This means that you can submit an entry that's 500x300, 400x200, 300x100, or any size within the limit. I changed the old SOTM rule mandating that entries be of exactly 500x300 in size. If you can achieve the kind of goal you have in mind with a smaller size, why not?
. - Your entry must contain the words "SOTM" and either "Anime-Sharing", "AS", or "ASF". It is not necessary to append the ".com" to "Anime-Sharing". Capitalisation does NOT matter. You CAN have your username in your signature. This is another rule that I changed, because if your creativity lies with typography, why not show it by signing your authorship on your work?
. - Your entry must be in either JPG/JPEG, PNG, or GIF. Yeah, I know BMP is big and sexy, and TIFF has this charm yung'uns just won't understand, but no.
. - No nudity, profanity, or other such material that may be considered offensive. This isn't as vague as it may sound. Just don't flash uncovered private parts (some skin is fine, but don't go overboard either), stay away from slurs or profanity, and you'll be fine.
. - Your entry must be your own design. Well, duh! No, you don't have to create all elements in your entry from scratch, as art isn't so much about creating something from scratch (that's inventing) as it is making use of assets available to you. Just don't ask someone else to make a signature for you and enter it in the competition.
. - Your entry must never have won any SOTM before. You can submit an entry that has never won any SOTM before AT MOST TWICE. Let's say you entered SOTM #30 and didn't win. You can submit your old entry again here in SOTM #32, but regardless of whether you win this one or not, you may not submit that entry ever again in the future. Submitting the same entries over and over can bore our observers. Let's try to avoid that!
The theme for this month's SOTM shall be...
VERY DARK. MUCH SCARY. WOW.
Relatively speaking, the modern world is full ofeuphemisms love. In the middle ages, a witch used to be feared, persecuted and demonised; an entity to suffer public execution right upon discovery. Now, however, you'll find that the typical witch is a scantily-dressed cocktease, especially if you defer to anime/manga/eroge stereotypes. (There's even stuff like Luminous Arc where (spoiler!) [inline-spoiler]pretty witches team up with you to fight... God.[/inline-spoiler]) Similarly, where 118 years ago Bram Stoker penned a depiction of the vampire as the prideful and ruthless Count Dracula, today we have the also-world-famous delicate brat who sparkles under the sunlight.
This theme is an expanded interpretation of a Halloween theme that some members suggested. Why not simply have a Halloween theme? As I wrote here, in my experience, it can be a somewhat controversial object sometimes as it doesn't have a global interpretation like, say, Christmas. The most common interpretation, of course, is the current version of Halloween as the United States/North America celebrates it.
Therefore, I'm thinking of expanding it to a more general theme that doesn't need to be specifically Halloween but can still cover Halloween-related stuff (as seen through the North American perspective). Besides, by expanding it to cover dark and scary stuff in general, it includes things like the archetypical gothic lolita fashion as well, which just happens to be my favourite kind of fashion.
Anyway, to clarify:
Please notice the scary quotes surrounding "dark and scary"! Nobody's going to refuse seeing cute witches, cute vampires, cute succubi and the like, really. If you want to make a Halloween-themed entry, go ahead. If you want to go with something darker like something similar to the image I used above to depict the theme, best of luck to you.
Just please keep it sensible! Itruly like can appreciate the artistic beauty in a psychopathic yandere licking that tasty red liquid (I mean wine! Were you thinking of something else?!), but please don't depict her during the act. Yes, lass, we know you've got a knife/scalpel/hatchet and you know how to use it. You don't have to show us that you know how to use it. We believe you, really.
Please submit your entry before the deadline. If you're unsure about aspects of your draft entry, feel free to ask around in the discussion thread. You can have only ONE post in the entry submission thread, but you're not restricted from discussing the SOTM as much as you want in the discussion thread. The deadline may be extended on our discretion if circumstances necessitate it, but it won't be shortened for no reason, so rest assured and don't rush. Take your time to make a masterpiece!
VERY DARK. MUCH SCARY. WOW.
Relatively speaking, the modern world is full of
This theme is an expanded interpretation of a Halloween theme that some members suggested. Why not simply have a Halloween theme? As I wrote here, in my experience, it can be a somewhat controversial object sometimes as it doesn't have a global interpretation like, say, Christmas. The most common interpretation, of course, is the current version of Halloween as the United States/North America celebrates it.
Therefore, I'm thinking of expanding it to a more general theme that doesn't need to be specifically Halloween but can still cover Halloween-related stuff (as seen through the North American perspective). Besides, by expanding it to cover dark and scary stuff in general, it includes things like the archetypical gothic lolita fashion as well, which just happens to be my favourite kind of fashion.
Anyway, to clarify:
The theme for SOTM #34 is "DARK AND SCARY".
You know. Dark. And scary. Like witches. Or vampire girls. Or succubi. Or monster girls.
You know. Dark. And scary. Like witches. Or vampire girls. Or succubi. Or monster girls.
Please notice the scary quotes surrounding "dark and scary"! Nobody's going to refuse seeing cute witches, cute vampires, cute succubi and the like, really. If you want to make a Halloween-themed entry, go ahead. If you want to go with something darker like something similar to the image I used above to depict the theme, best of luck to you.
Just please keep it sensible! I
The deadline is on 31 OCTOBER 2015.
You MAY edit your entry submission post as many times as you please before the deadline.
You MAY edit your entry submission post as many times as you please before the deadline.
Please submit your entry before the deadline. If you're unsure about aspects of your draft entry, feel free to ask around in the discussion thread. You can have only ONE post in the entry submission thread, but you're not restricted from discussing the SOTM as much as you want in the discussion thread. The deadline may be extended on our discretion if circumstances necessitate it, but it won't be shortened for no reason, so rest assured and don't rush. Take your time to make a masterpiece!
This thread is only for ENTRIES!
For discussions, questions and comments, please go to this thread instead.
For discussions, questions and comments, please go to this thread instead.
Shine