Sprite Jam 9/19/2004-9/26/2004

[Escargot]

Okay, topic for this SciFi-themed sprite jam:

The face that launched a thousand ships

In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy's beauty caused a major 10-year war between two giant civilizations by making the leaders of those civilizations send their troops into battle to win her favors (yeah, favors).

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to show us the "Helen" of a future of your choice or imagining. Draw a sprite of a creature of such beauty and stunning that hordes of fighters would climb into their destroyers, stardrifters, space whales or astral projectors, whatever, and risk their life, limbs and sanity, just for a chance to tell their grand-kids or grand-whatevers that they fought in the war for this unforgettable beauty.

Things you might like to consider:

• Standards of beauty change. Fashions change. Your entry doesn't have to fit our current standard of beauty. But make us believe that your entry is irresistible to warlords and soldiers of the future!
• On the other hand, space opera cheesecake or Queen Amidala-ripoffs are of course acceptable.
• Your "Helen" could be male, female, or not human at all.
• Your sprite can be a face, a full character, or anything else you can imagine.
• You get extra bragging points for having a good backstory for your character, but since this is a sprite jam I won't judge your entry on it.
• Sprites should be 300 X 300 max, and 256 colors max.

I know this will be next to impossible to judge, but I'm looking forward to lots of kick-ass entries, and let's hope no wars break out over this!

[BlackMan890]

sorry, could't resist
(not an entry)

[Eggie]

Oooh, this subject rocks!!

[Cluey]

Ok, heres my entry, basically, it says that there is beauty in code, but people will fight over it eventually, and when that day comes....

If you wanna know what the binary says,
"Go to war again,
Blood is freedoms stain"
Iron Maiden

[Damien]

Here's my entry, 137 colors with background.



No imagination, no background story.

[Phemar]

teh pr0n!

I might enter this one, just give me some time...

[Al_Ninio]

Nudity isn't always 'teh pron'.
Which reminds me a question I've been wanting to ask for quite some time, is nudity allowed in contest entries?
Artistic nudity is fine by me, and in Damien's entry, I think quite awesome.

[Haddas]

I've always found nudity to be okay. Why not? It's not like it's hardcore porn. For once it's the woman that is alien, and not the tentacles!

[Cluey]

I think artistic nudity is fine, as long as its not sexually explicit (unless the artist is trying to make a strong point).
But at the end of the daym if it wasn't drawn for peoples (ahem)sexual gratification, then I think its fine.

[Pesty]

In the year 2525 (if man is still alive), a giant snake lady appeared in space, prepared to attack Earth. The governments of the world pulled together and several ships to combat her. After several of years of battle, one final ship defeated her. The thousandth ship to be sent after her. She was soon referred to as 'the face that launched a thousand ships', in an allusion to the legendary Helen.

The end.

[Oz]

But... why are they all green?

[Escargot]

 

But... why are they all green?

Photosynthesis, of course! But then again, a photosynthetic alien hardly fits our image of a bloodthirsty monster... maybe all those teeth are for defense from herbivores?

I think artistic nudity is fine, as long as its not sexually explicit (unless the artist is trying to make a strong point).
But at the end of the daym if it wasn't drawn for peoples (ahem)sexual gratification, then I think its fine.

Trying to figure out exactly what constitutes porn is a lot like figuring out what constitutes art. The best definition we have to date is "I know it if I see it." I've seen some "porn" that was very moving and thought-provoking, and I've seen tons of clean "art" that was neither. So I think if you are passionate about what you've created, it's okay to post; even if some people don't like it.

But keep in mind the rule that has been stated elsewhere in this forum: if it has nudity, post it as a link rather than an image, because some of us read the forum at work, and some of us are young enough to get in trouble if their parents catch them looking at "nudie pics"... (I think Damien's post is fine, though, because it's very subtle)

[SSH]

I hope you all know that the "miliHelen" is the international standard amount of beauty required to launch one ship.

btw, if I had any photos of my wife handy, I'd post them becuase she is beautiful.

[Rincewind]

Hm hm, since all of you seem to go for the cyber/sci-fi theme, I though of a different twist... I hope it's legit enough...



In the future, technology has caused man's downfall. Weapons and warfare is deadlier and more advanced then anything ever seen before, but the advancement has turned to a knife in the back. The power from the new world's arms race has caused a imminent holocaust to turn closer. Doom is near, humanity is divided and fragmented into groups of anti-technology-cults, corporational attack squads, and confused common people, just fighting for their own survivial.
Amongst of all this, the symbol that they all either follow or hunt for is the beautiful Helen, reborn and returned to earth in the form of a seductive and deadly demon.Ã, 
Her ominous and partly encouraging smile is the final sign of the coming armageddon...

[Mr Flibble]

But... why are they all green?

Why not?

Pesty should get a prize, if for nothing else then for the backstory.

[Phemar]

What about Rincewind?

[Mr Flibble]

Yeah thats good too, but the smile scared me.

[Rincewind]

Yeah thats good too, but the smile scared me.

Haha, yeah, that's right - Every mortal flee in terror as Helen whips out her grim and terrifying... ...Smile?

Still, I can see why you chose Pesty's though - Great sprite/backstory.
Mine was written down rather hastily, I'm afraid...

[Mr_Frisby]

WARNING: *contains nudity*

Begin transmission-

The year is 2385347 - many things have changed, the world is peaceful and both sexes are equal except for the fact that there are nudy swim suit calendars everywhere.
Meet miss October.



Human race has evolved to it's optimum due to total reliance on techknowledgy or as it is known in the year 2385347
"Fred".

I have come back from the future with this calendar and as it is a little hard to get your head around, due to the vast amounts of differences between our cultures, I have labeled the picture (which is photorealistic) with colours (as numbers haven't been used for about 73 millenea.

Blue - notice miss Octobers beauteous head which is devoid of facial matter due to eveything being telepathic.

Red - Notice miss Octobers limbs or lack there of due to everything being remote controled.
Her skin is also orange as the sun is dimming and extra beta carotine is needed to survive.

Green - There is no need for hooters in the year 2385347 as all sexual activity and reproductivness is done by science - women were strangely happy when this occured around 3012 - men took longer to come to terms with it - finally being comfortable in the year 2385345.

Yellow - The posterior of the 2385346th century is much larger than in 2004 as all people do is sit around all day play testing AGS games while there robotic servants do everything else.

also in the future cars fly around in the air and then fold into suitcase like structures as foretold on the Jetsons.

I hope this has enlightened you as to what to be expecting from the future - I will now use my time machine to go to a time where everything was wonderful and happy - Which is strangely November 12th 2006. See you there - over and out.

(you may notice there are also no sundays in the future - this is so work can be done more efficiently. Even more efficiently - Saturdays are also workdays)

[WanderLady]

That is one risque squash.

[Eggie]

Bah, I'm not good at this whole 'proportion' thing. Whatever, I'll just claim it's my style and if you point out anatomy flaws you're a philistine and you need to be shot...

BACKSTORY:
There was a boy named Alex and he drew a skinny, grey cyber-babe with green hair, the end.

[big brother]

Here's my entry.

50x80, 19 colors (including background and initials)


After the High Council declared war on the neighboring nation, it was the task of the Princess and Chief of Military (pictured above) to launch a thousand ships for the first attack.

[Escargot]

Okay, it's time to declare a winner. Just like I predicted, it was really hard to pick one winner. So in this Sprite Jam everyone wins a prize! But given the nature of the contest, and given that I'm a cheapskate, the prizes are all inventory items. So lets have a look at the entries and the prizes they have won...

In the category of Best Non-Entry, blackman wins!



Don't know if you drew that, blackman, but if you had a good backstory you could have definitely had a shot at this contest Oh, and you would have had to reduce your palette by 27089 colors...

For his practical joke, Blackman wins a whoopee cushion!

For Best Effort for Furthering Code Appreciation, the winner is Clueless!



Keep up the good work on this front, Clueless, you have squarely earned your prize, a DVD copy of the Matrix.

In the category of Sexiest Webbed Fingers, Eggie takes home the prize!



Eggie wins a diving mask. Thanks for your entry, Eggie!

[Escargot]

Moving on to Most Mysterious Smile (aka the Mona Lisa Prize) -- the winner, of course, is Rincewind!



For his seductive and suggestive portent of Armageddon, with that incredible little curl of a smile, Rincewind wins a lipstick! I enjoyed your backstory too. Good work!

Next, we have Funkiest Entry with a Psychelic 60's Pattern -- congratulations Pesty!



I must say, your snakelady has the cutest nose and the most seductive jawline! And your backstory has all the stuff of great 60's TV scifi. Very classy work. For winning in this category you receive, how could it be otherwise, a lavalamp!

Best Costume, hands down, goes to big brother.



Okay, so maybe most of the other entries didn't have any costumes to speak of, but I don't want to belittle your entry, big brother. Your sprite really impressed me, from the shading to the realistic folds of fabric, to the dynamic swing of the hips - really first rate work. And all that in only 19 colors - awesome! For winning Best Costume, big brother wins the needle and thread.

[Escargot]

Now we come to the only entry to win in two categories, Most Artistic Use of Nudity and Most Creative Spelling. The winner -- Mr_Frisby!



Okay Frisby, I think you should have also won Best Backstory, but your entry was disqualified from this category on a technicality: Since your entry is a calendar page, this implies that your object of desire is one of many, instead of THE one. Also, I would really, really like to know what is a "nudy swim suit calendar"? Forgive my ignorance, for I have not seen the future with my own two eyes

I really wanted your entry to win, frisby, given the photorealism and all, but as it stands, you have won the coveted Dictionary for winning in Most Creative Spelling. And as for your prize for the Nudity category, just look in your new dictionary under "ploughshare". That page contains a portal to a place where you will be given plenty of opportunity to develop even more artistic uses of nudity....

Finally, we come to the Official Winner of this sprite jam - Damien!



Very evocative, very minimalistic, very well done! It makes me shudder to imagine what made the scratches on the post she is holding on to, and what they might mean. And those eyes...

Congratulations for winning the sprite jam, Damien! You know what your prize is...