Special Effect Contest #6 - Poll

[Vinz]

As we wind on down the road, effect creation calls out to our souls. Contestants were to create two light-themed effects.

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• Trying to manipulate the poll in any form is not allowed.
  If you're aware of ip-sharing with any voter, for any reason, you should contact the staff.
• Harassment towards others to influence the result will lead to punishment.
• A neutral recommendation to take part at the poll isn't problematic, though.
• Voting for yourself is not allowed, and will lead to a malus of 5%.
• Participating in the poll will not prevent disqualification.
• Judges are not allowed to vote.

You are very welcome to make a short statement about what you like the most, so contestants get a bit of public feedback!

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• 1st place: 40 reputation points.
• 2nd place: 30 reputation points.
• 3rd place: 20 reputation points.
• Entry: 10 reputation points.
• Judge: 10 reputation points per entrant.

The three winners will receive an award icon representing the winning entry.

Contestant	Entries
Mythic	Heaven's Gate & Judgement
xYours Trulyx	Righteous Guard & Celestial Assault
JetFangInferno	Wrath of the Archangels & Auriel's Blessing

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• @blink
• @PROXY

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Aesthetics	Are the effects impressive, and made in good measure? How is the attention to detail?	/30
Animations	How natural, smooth, and appropriate are the animations?	/15
Creativity	How inventive and original are the ideas?	/30
Integration	How well do the models work in-game? Do they have fitting sounds? Are they excessive to the point of hindering visibility?	/10
Theme	How well do the effects fit the theme?	/15
		/100

Results calculation

• Judgement: 70%
• Poll: 30%

FinalScore = (30*Reached_Votes/TOTAL_VOTES) + (70*Average_Judge_Score/POSSIBLE_SCORE)

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The poll shall begin on 23rd August 2020 and conclude on 6th September 2020 GMT.

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Assigned Staff: Mythic

Contest | Results

 

[Mister_Haudrauf]

These Entires look lovely. Gonna enjoy Approving and/or reviewing them once the Poll has ended.

 

[Devalut]

 

[deepstrasz]

The funny thing about the stairway to heaven here is the stairway down from heaven seeing the downward direction of these effects.

 

[Chaosy]

Wrath of The Archangels [SFX Contest #6] is mind blowing, the dark flash at the end wins me over.
Mythic would be my second choice but only 1 vote so sorry

 

[MyPad]

Astounding effects, and brilliant eye candy. Truly a sight to behold..
It was really difficult to pick one among them, so a choice was made based on the story below.
(My vote goes to JetFangInferno's Wrath of the Archangels & Auriel's blessing)

Spoiler: Not for the Beast, Babylon and the False Prophet

In their encompassing brilliance, the angels had all but forgotten their ladder towards the Seven Heavens, as they had descended on the earth. Jacob Leiter, a priest, had discovered this ladder, and up he went. To the Heavens it may lead, he thought, and as he ascended, he beheld the very ladder on which he had climbed, as it seemed to reach far beyond his sight. He also saw people like himself, who had climbed the ladder out of curiosity. With each step, the world seemed to slowly pass away, as the stars faded into their twilight years. All of this was a spectacle to him, for he knew that in his lifetime, these fleeting objects were eternal.

Again, he climbed when behold, a flash of light burst. At the end of the ladder was not Heaven for people, it was their descent to the earth. Surprised, Jacob Leiter found himself on the very ground where he started his ascent, as with all the people he saw. His senses betrayed him, he thought, when an angel appeared. Taken aback, he stumbled onto the ground, which had cracked on the weight of the angel's brilliance, when a forethought came to pass. He knew what would happen next, but he was left to wonder why he knew of it.

Accepting what he knew with a full heart, he could only listen as the angel said,
"Made in Heaven"

 

[pick-a-chew]

These are incredible.

Can't really fault any of them, I voted JetFang's in the end just because they both look amazing.

If I was to vote based on how likely I'd use them in a map though, I'd vote for xYours Trulyx as the file sizes are more practical (i'm a stinge when it comes to imports).

 

[Deolrin]

Wow. All 6 of those effects are absolutely gorgeous. These are some fantastic entries, it was incredibly hard to chose between them!

In the end I went with Mythic's entry. I like the incorporation of sounds in Judgement and I absolutely love how vibrant and beautiful Heaven's Gate looks in-game. Wrath of the Archangels is extremely impressive as well and it was my 2nd favorite after Heaven's Gate overall, but I felt like the colours get a little bit too washed out in-game when compared to Heaven's Gate. I also liked Judgement better than Auriel's Blessing - while impressive, I felt that the wings are too large to work with most units except end-game bosses, and I didn't like how they animated, at least, while testing them on a Paladin. They seemed to bend a little bit too much while in movement when attached to Origin, as suggested by their creator JetFangInferno. I also thought that some sounds would do nicely when they spawn and dissipate, although the same criticism goes to Heaven's Gate as well.

One thing I will say about Mythic's entries though, is that the polycount is absolutely, needlessly through the roof for both of them. When it comes to Warcraft 3, less is more. The same level of detail could be achieved with a LOT less tessellation than seen here. Still, one cannot argue with the end results, unless one were to complain about the lag they cause when spammed in an already resource-intensive map.

Celestial Assault and Righteous Guard are both very impressive as well - the former in particular is the most creative effect in the contest in my opinion. Overall though I think that they lacked stronger colour variation - I did not like the "piss-yellow" colour of the effects, even if this how the holy light effects look like by default in Warcraft 3 - and I also think that Yours Truly could've been more creative with Righteous Guard. As it stands, it is a more particle-heavy Divine Shield, and given that the game only has a few Holy spells to begin with, recreating one of them for a Holy SFX contest doesn't feel as creative as it could be.

In case anyone wants it - although it is definitely a bit late considering when the poll ends - I've made a simple test map and attached it to my post. It showcases all 6 effects on a Paladin (Shockwave, Inferno, Blizzard, Divine Shield and Mass Teleport) and a Priest (Inner Fire) unit, with low cooldowns and no mana cost, plus conveniently placed Undead. Should save some of y'all some time in setting up a way to check those effects out in-game, though do be warned that I saved the map in version 1.26a and I make no guarantees about it working in Reforged patches or any patch above that one.

 

[aeman]

oops i voted wrong

 

[Vinz]

oops i voted wrong

Please post in Admin Contact to have your vote removed.

 

[Daffa]

Dayum, an auto third place

 

[Ralle]

Update. I have deleted a vote and allowed you to change your votes.

 

[aeman]

cant believe all of this started with a broken keyboard

 

[Rui]

Damn, I just noticed this poll. Very good entries from everyone anyway, so I'd probably be in dilemma. Good job!

 

[Yours Truly]

So when's the closure?

 

[Yours Truly]

 

[Devalut]

Hey you can't doubl- Oh...

 

[Yours Truly]

Both judges are active, so I'm gonna need a good explanation on why this is taking so damn long.

 

[Vinz]

I recently received reviews from PROXY, and followed up with blink, who has not gotten back to me since.

The_Spellweaver just agreed to judge.

 

[Vinz]

Special Effect Contest #6 - Results

Archived.