Ambition Designs proudly presents:

The Artistic Screenshot Competition

Recently, Ambition Designs decided to host an Artistic Screenshot Competition. And with "artistic", I mean screenshots that have a certain atmosphere. I’ll give an example: A Snowy Winter, some time ago submitted to the AoMH eyecandy thread by WhoAskedYou.

As you can see, there isn’t really much spectacular eyecandy. There are only a few objects - a couple of deers, some trees, a bridge and thats it - but still I enjoy looking at it! How come? It’s the atmosphere in the screenshot. It has *something extra*, and that little extra is what we’re looking for in this contest.
So, please mind that this competition is not an eyecandy contest! To be honest, most submissions to the eyecandy thread won’t even have a slight chance of winning, however beautiful they are. So, don’t just put together tons of taproot sprigs to create a huge dinosaur’s skeleton - it’s beautiful eyecandy, but it’s not a contest winner!

Conditions:

• Your screenshot has to illustrate one of the larger themes in life. Possible themes could be: anger, jealousy, friendship, loneliness, freedom, sadness, death, and many many more!
  
• The use of mods is not allowed. However, the following things can be used legally and should give you some ideas: lighting; triggered effects (in example creating SFX objects, render snow/sky, unit animations and godpowers); camera angles; object enlargment; object overlap; and in fact all the effects achievable with Reyk’s New Editor Mod (this makes the New Editor the only legal mod!).
  
• The maximum amount of submissions is five screenshots per person.
  
• Not all screenshots of one participant have to illustrate the same theme, of course.
  
• Once you have submitted a screenshot, you cannot exchange it for another one. So, think twice be for you submit one.
  

The prizes
We will be giving away three prizes, generously put at our disposal by Foute Shirts.nl.
The three prizes will be mousepads printed with the winning screenshots! Each winner will of course recieve a mousepad with his/her own screenshot on it, to avoid people from ritually burning them.

Submitting your screenshots
For questions, suggestions, or of course to participate in this contest, send your screenshots in .JPG format to: ambition@oddworldjunkie.com
Make sure your email with the attached screenshot contains the following information:

Quoted from Submission email:

!!!Send them BEFORE August the 15th! Any submissions made after this date will not count!!!

The Judges
The jury will consist of 6 judges. Each of them will pick the 10 screenshots they like the most, and rank them. Each one’s number one will get 10 points, number 2 will get 9 points, number 3 will get 8...and their number 10 will get 1 point. Each screenshots points will then be totalled, resulting in a new top 10. That will be the outcome of this contest. The judges will be:

• Archaeopterix, leader of Ambition Designs
  
• Kor, leader of Woad Creations
  
• LJC, co-leader of Ambition Designs
  
• SilencedDisciple, minister of development in Ambition Designs
  
• Skydragon, lead designer of Ambition Designs.
  
• Auron, Member of Tsunami Studios.

We will do our very best on judging your screenshots fairly, and we'll try not to keep you waiting for too long!

Competition Tips

• Keep it subtle and simple! In example, a town created following my Realistic Greek Town guide will not win this contest. Don’t use too many objects: it’s the atmosphere that counts.
  
• Pick your lighting set with care: it makes or breaks the atmosphere!
  
• Once you’ve created a (in your opinion) nice screenshot, don’t immediatly send it! Wait a day or two, look at it again, wait a little bit more, do one last check and THEN send it.
  
• If you want to illustrate the theme ‘death’, it’s very very hard to keep it subtle! Most people will most probably make some kind of a fiery erebus map with skeletons to illustrate this theme. Don’t do that, it won’t win you the contest.
  

Sponsor
This competition is generously sponsored by:

“Foute shirts” literally means “wrong shirts”, which points at their taste for shirts. It's a Dutch web company that offers various things next to shirts, either printed with one of the funny pictures and texts available, or with your custom print. Check out their website and enjoy either playing around with their mascot or staring at the shocking, funny or just beautiful prints!

Questions? Suggestions?
If you have any questions, suggestions, you can post it here or contact ambition@oddworldjunkie.com. Next to that, I suggest checking the contest-thread in the Ambition Designs forums every now and then.

Good luck all, be creative! The judges are looking forward to your entries!

[This message has been edited by Archaeopterix (edited 08-09-2004 @ 01:42 PM).]