• 🏆 Texturing Contest #33 is OPEN! Contestants must re-texture a SD unit model found in-game (Warcraft 3 Classic), recreating the unit into a peaceful NPC version. 🔗Click here to enter!
  • It's time for the first HD Modeling Contest of 2024. Join the theme discussion for Hive's HD Modeling Contest #6! Click here to post your idea!

Icon Contest #10 ~ The Poll

Which entry do you like the most?


  • Total voters
    96
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.
Pharaoh_ said:
Did I say that he is breaking any rules?
Did I accuse you of accusing him of doing that? That was a general statement.
Pharaoh_ said:
And by the way, there should be no 'deadline', because a) that will show people that they are willing to withdraw whenever they feel like it (with no specific reason - "I am bored of giving a review" is not an excuse, really - you were supposed to know what your task of judging was, in the first place), b) you shouldn't apply as a judge, if you are unsure of what it takes to actually judge.
Could you elaborate on a)?
I don't see how a defined deadline for possible judges to withdraw themselves shows contestants their will of doing so. It would merely be a nice "think before you apply" pointer. Getting accepted as a judge is not necessarily binding, so a defined deadline would make sense.
 
Did I accuse you of accusing him of doing that? That was a general statement.

Could you elaborate on a)?
I don't see how a defined deadline for possible judges to withdraw themselves shows contestants their will of doing so. It would merely be a nice "think before you apply" pointer. Getting accepted as a judge is not necessarily binding, so a defined deadline would make sense.

See, the whole "Can I be a judge?" thing is for cases like this. There are those that can't provide an insight of what they see (inability to pick the right words, inability to perceive those 'details' that the common eye ignores, etc.), the ones that are competent to provide decent reviews, but they only have a basic knowledge in the fields, thus unable to make suggestions that go beyond their skills and finally, the ones that are experts in their fields, but several random things prevent them from shedding their light of expertise in the public [our case].

Anyway, deviating from the topic already. Post a VM, if you want this further discussed.
 
Level 22
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Messages
3,091
Apheraz and Sind obviously have the best quality of icons, which surprises me because they aren't in 1st and 2nd place. But I voted Fjury, for the originality.]

Also Marcos DAB voted for himself? Isn't that grounds for disqualification?
 
Also Marcos DAB voted for himself? Isn't that grounds for disqualification?
Oh sure, let's screw a contestant for a mistake that was actually announced.

Or let's do what Pharaoh_ said, or, even better, let's try and program the polls so that they forbid self-votes in the future? Bah, screw idea #3, too much work, won't get done anyway.
 
Level 22
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Messages
3,091
Oh sure, let's screw a contestant for a mistake that was actually announced.

Or let's do what Pharaoh_ said, or, even better, let's try and program the polls so that they forbid self-votes in the future? Bah, screw idea #3, too much work, won't get done anyway.

This post is overtly hostile, I don't like your tone.

I didn't realize he had announced it, I just noticed today.
 
No the interesting part is, Sin'dorei and Apheraz have the highest quality icons and they are very far behind.
I'd like to hear your definition of quality in this case.
Actually, no, I don't.

Also, what Apheraz said. Polls don't count that much towards the actual results, for a good reason. I am looking forward to the results, as this should be a pretty close call between some contestants.
 
Level 22
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Messages
3,091
I'd like to hear your definition of quality in this case.
Actually, no, I don't.

Also, what Apheraz said. Polls don't count that much towards the actual results, for a good reason. I am looking forward to the results, as this should be a pretty close call between some contestants.

Well it just seems to me, PeeKay's icons are very undefined, and not sharp, they just lack a crispness, especially the unit icon, which lacks shading on the beak, and generally looks pretty cartoonish, and the colors don't contrast at all. Apheraz's on the other hand are very sharp, very defined, good flare effects, really nice contrast of colors.

Sin'dorei has a nice color scheme, very clear and defined, though the unit icon is a bit cartoonish, the heavy bash icon is absolutely superb.

And MarcosDAB has a good color scheme, but the icons are relatively misshapen in certain places, and I can't really tell what they are, or what they represent.

I voted for FJury just on originality.
 
Level 25
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Messages
2,572
Well it just seems to me, PeeKay's icons are very undefined, and not sharp, they just lack a crispness, especially the unit icon, and the colors don't contrast at all. Apheraz's on the other hand are very sharp, very defined, good flare effects, really nice contrast of colors.

Here is my opinion on some of the icons:

No offense but to me Apheraz's icons seem to be trying too much.
They got all these effects and background elements that are trying to hide some flaws of the actual icon object.
I am not an artist so this again is my subjective opinion.

On the other hand i found Peekay's icons quite marvelous, thus my vote for him.
The beak of the unit and the freedom one could use a little tiny bit more work perhaps but others are superb really.

The other contestant i wanted to vote for was certainly Sin'dorei300 as the bash icon is just spectacular but the drink ale is meh.

Fjury would have probably made a much better entry with his last 2 skills if he had the time, i really like 3 of those.

Others did good also, i am just pointing out some i find personally peculiar.
 
I always looked at contest entries regarding multiple criteria, an important one for me was improvement. I really love all of PeeKay's work, yet he is set in his style already, hence you don't see any "improvement" there.
Sin improved well since he started, Apheraz aswell. Both have their unique style, but still try various things out to stretch their limits and reach new areas.
Marcos has improved a lot starting from IC #9 aswell.
I haven't seen too much of Fjury, so I can't say too much about him as an artist.
Jolly finished quite some journey aswell, he improved over time, yet there's still more for him to learn (techniques, experimenting with effects and stuff).

All in all, as I said multiple times by now, the entries of this contest very impressive, hence it will be interesting to see the results. Also, every contestant shows a different style, which makes contests even more interesting and the results versatile.
 
Level 22
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Messages
3,091
Here is my opinion on some of the icons:

No offense but to me Apheraz's icons seem to be trying too much.
They got all these effects and background elements that are trying to hide some flaws of the actual icon object.
I am not an artist so this again is my subjective opinion.

On the other hand i found Peekay's icons quite marvelous, thus my vote for him.
The beak of the unit and the freedom one could use a little tiny bit more work perhaps but others are superb really.

The other contestant i wanted to vote for was certainly Sin'dorei300 as the bash icon is just spectacular but the drink ale is meh.

Fjury would have probably made a much better entry with his last 2 skills if he had the time, i really like 3 of those.

Others did good also, i am just pointing out some i find personally peculiar.

Yes the drink ale icon and unit icon are meh, too cartoonish.

Where we disagree, is that I think the flares and effects in Apheraz's make it look all the more spectacular, rather than hide some obscure flaws, the icons wouldn't be the same without the effects.
 
I am really tired of this "too cartoonish" argument. If you want icons to fit in with Warcraft 3, they have to be cartoonish to a certain degree. If you want photo realism, icon creating is not the way to go, and it is ridiculous to go that way. Why waste your time to create a photo-realistic image for a 64x64 picture?

Hence "realism" is no judging criteria, Blizzard feeling (cartoonish looks, positioning, colours, dynamics etc etc.) is.
 
Level 30
Joined
Jan 31, 2010
Messages
3,551
Spotted the secrets of my style, haven't you? :)

If you take a closer look, there are two main colors used in each icon: Pink skin tone color and Purple armor color. Since they are next to each other in the color circle, they do wonders in color matching. Blue goes after purple, green afterwards, so everything matches well and flows, due to lack of opposite colors. That's where white comes. The energy burst, the eye blink, the runes and the comets kick that monotone colorset in the face, and also reunite the whole iconset even more (like a silk fabric), at the cost of dramatic impact.

However, there are mistakes I haven't noticed. First icon lacks perspective and dramatic shading, second is too smoothly shaded and overall round, third is fine, I guess (green/blue gem/blade colors connect the fourth icon better), while the last icon lost details because she's too small and the bright effects overwhelm her and turn attention away from what should have been the center. In the end, the effects are really bouncing between overwhelming appearance and sharpness (or dramatic appearance).

I'm an Icon Mod, but I'm not an image of perfection. I do make mistakes. A plenty of them, actually. I tend to draw attention away from where it should be focused, overexpose the image to sharp outlines, make rubberish textures where noise is required, and sometimes nothing goes right (or left). But some people still like me and my style, and with every suggestion, I'm getting better, and that's what I strive for. And maybe, just maybe, I like being imperfect ;)

[/aph'sbitchyperiodsayings]
 

The Panda

Icon Reviewer
Level 57
Joined
Jun 2, 2008
Messages
8,893
I am really tired of this "too cartoonish" argument. If you want icons to fit in with Warcraft 3, they have to be cartoonish to a certain degree. If you want photo realism, icon creating is not the way to go, and it is ridiculous to go that way. Why waste your time to create a photo-realistic image for a 64x64 picture?

Hence "realism" is no judging criteria, Blizzard feeling (cartoonish looks, positioning, colours, dynamics etc etc.) is.

I agree with this.
 
Level 49
Joined
Jan 12, 2010
Messages
1,771
I am really tired of this "too cartoonish" argument. If you want icons to fit in with Warcraft 3, they have to be cartoonish to a certain degree. If you want photo realism, icon creating is not the way to go, and it is ridiculous to go that way. Why waste your time to create a photo-realistic image for a 64x64 picture?

Hence "realism" is no judging criteria, Blizzard feeling (cartoonish looks, positioning, colours, dynamics etc etc.) is.

I guess "cartoonish" not means "not realistic", but means something too simple and regular, with strange (broken) proportions, perspective and overall bad quality appearance. In other way - "realistic" stuff cannot include magic and fkin load of details, cuz then it become not realistic.

The most intresting part about iconmaking - that icon in 64*64 cannot be realy detailed, and it's not a "photo" to show some scene, it's more abstract works that need make feeling of expression and in same moment have some special looking to be not a random-shit.

And the only thing you need to do on your icons - just define object and make it look expressive and smexy. :)
 
Level 22
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Messages
3,091
Cartoonish = lack of realism, and depth.

There's no argument, there's just, a threshold for realism you must cross in order for an icon to look good.

And if you want to say you can't perpetuate realism in a 64x64 space, I highly disagree, many people have managed to do so, including PeeKay.

http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=88549 The dwarf remake and human icons are perfect examples.
 
Level 49
Joined
Jan 12, 2010
Messages
1,771
Cartoonish = lack of realism, and depth.

There's no argument, there's just, a threshold for realism you must cross in order for an icon to look good.

And if you want to say you can't perpetuate realism in a 64x64 space, I highly disagree, many people have managed to do so, including PeeKay.

http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=88549 The dwarf remake and human icons are perfect examples.
HQ shading not makes something looking "realistic", well, more realistic than unshadowed, but anyway - far from realy realistic looking.
For example,
icons_14408_btn.jpg
, this icon has fine shading and looks 3D, but overall style and appearance are cartoonish.

Shading, texture and other details are just a defination. Cartoon can be greatly detailed and still be cartoon, cuz of colorful execution and orginal design, or impressive appearance. So, cartoonish - not "lack of depth", imo. )
 
Level 22
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Messages
3,091
HQ shading not makes something looking "realistic", well, more realistic than unshadowed, but anyway - far from realy realistic looking.
For example,
icons_14408_btn.jpg
, this icon has fine shading and looks 3D, but overall style and appearance are cartoonish.

Shading, texture and other details are just a defination. Cartoon can be greatly detailed and still be cartoon, cuz of colorful execution and orginal design, or impressive appearance. So, cartoonish - not "lack of depth", imo. )

Doesn't look cartoonish to me honestly.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top