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[choose just one entry per category]

Clicking on Haggis doesn't show his full-sized entry (but the scaled-down version), and clicking on mine doesn't show anything at all.

Very sorry about that! I've fixed it now although your entry will be shown without the characters in as i kept getting errors by 'saving image as' for your entry proper. Hope that's ok.

ps. OUXX, I'm counting your votes as only half points (and I urge GreenBeams to do the same )...

* If I were to pick my top-three backgrounds looking at them as a whole (so not within the context of the three parameters) then my votes would have been different. And I hate to not necessarily being able to give my vote a piece that I think is overall the best.

I agree with this but i have to insist that MONSIEUR OUXX choose just one entry per category. Sorry for being a hard ass but this opens the door to decimalising votes. The way i see it, this categorical kind of voting allows more recognition to the artists than the conventional first, second and third places. This is inkeeping with the fun, friendly and growing experience of producing any kind of art for AGS competitions. However, from now on we could add the category of "People's Choice/Vox Populi" or something similar which would incorporate things like "i don't know why, i just like it the best" kind of votes. I'd be willing to paint another award for that.

I'd like to know what people think about that idea and whether or not it'd be something worth trialling?

[Voting is now OPEN]

Wowsers trousers, OUXX! Lovely stuff as we've come to expect from you

OK, Voting is now OPEN and will remain so until Friday 3rd April whereupon the winners shall receive their hard-earned shiny shinies and bragging rights!!

Good luck and i apologise for any funky formatting that may be happening in the first post now on different devices. I'm not a handy man

[OUXX]

OK, i'm not sure how much time you need, OUXX.

I'd like to ask the community if we're ok to wait, or, would you rather press on as it's well into "Voting Day".

What say you all? Are you happy to wait or will there be pitchforks and firebrands thrust at me for not cracking the whip?

[@loominous]

@loominous - Holy! Sheep! I think one of my eyes just fell off!

So glad OUXX asked for that extension 

[@WRK]

Dammit I work with a monitor that has terrible, terrible contrast.
Every evening, I work on it and I'm happy, but then every morning I look at my drawing at work and I realize it's all black.

Hmmm, just thought i'd weigh in on this one too - when i view it on the laptop, i get the detail (a little dark but i'd have to see the whole picture to tell if that shadow is justified given the light source) However, when i view it on the ipad it's mostly just solid black. with no detail whatsoever. i've no real clue as to why this is the case though =(

What i can see of it on the laptop looks typically excellent and up to your usual high standards!

And, @WRK, that's some mighty, puurdy fine work! Lovely stuff

[@OUXX]

@OUXX - ok, I'm making an executive decision and extending the deadline up to and including Friday 27th March; voting to begin on Saturday 28th.

@Haggis - Nice work there =)
@Misj - Aw, that's lovely! Nice way to think outside the box... or should that be "inside the lamp"?
@Monsieur OUXX - How long would you need, monsieur? I must confess to being a sucker for a good old lasr-death-chair!

Aaaaaand finally landed but still without a painty computer so here i am on the laptop:

@Mouth for war - very realistic... and kinda creepy. Nice =)
@OUXX - I do so love the buildup of your pieces. keep going!
@Haggis - An other-world-y, underwater-y feel to it. Nice use of the vegetation/kelp stuff for the foreground, too =)

Still time to get an entry in; there're 9 days left

[@selmiak]

@selmiak - nice twist on the theme, there =D
@Creamy - Yeah, i'd say this is a viable background. You've got interaction points, a way in and out of the scene. The guards may be better off as animated characters and not part of the background unless you're looking through a CCTV camera - If that's the case then they could be static while the camera pans round. Nice style, too!
@MonsieurOUXX - New job, yay! Congratu-ma-lations!

Quick personal aside - I'm at the end of a long visa/emigration process and am finally moving/flying out this friday (6th March). I won't have a computer straight away but i'll do my best to get online as soon as i can! Oh, and the trophies have been added now so that's that donesies!

Bally heck fire! Kicking off with the complex-inducing bigguns, indeed!

Marvellous stuff, 304! Just the simple addition to of the red banner has really grounded the piece out. It also does really well in the "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here" department!

Ah, Grundislav, loving the water and the whole feel to this! Sort of like the prisoner could be locked in the cage on the ramparts and forced to watch the rescue attempts thwarted form cannon fire. Or could it be that the player is actually being stolen away in the night from their castle home to be imprisoned on a slaver ship? So much to wonder about!   

[Loominous!]

WEEEEELLLLLLLL that was an incredibly close run race! Oozing talent like some kind of.... erm.... septic.. genius...?

Bad vocabulary aside, what a belter of a competition. Thank you for actually all turning up to my first hosting gig and please feel free to help yourselves to curly meat paste sandwiches and little hot dogs on stick. We have cheese on sticks for the vegetarians and pineapple chunks on sticks for the vegans!

I've counted the votes and the winners are as follows:

goes to...

Spoiler

Congratulations, Loominous!

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goes to...

Spoiler

Another cracking entry for 304!
[imgzoom]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/107389340/AGS/BG_Blitz/Dungeon/VOTING/304.png[/imgzoom]

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And the
tortured mind of dungeon madness is...

Spoiler

Fantastic job, WRK!!!

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Well done and thank you to everyone who entered!! The standard was exceptionally high in all of the voting categories and there's not a background here i couldn't see in a good game! I may be devaluing the exclamation mark by using it so much for everything but i don't care - you all deserve a round of applause...!

I can't wait to see what the next Background Blitz turns out

Aw, that was great! It's fantastic to enter these and everyone's so talented and supportive at the same time! I can only hope to keep the bar raised as high when making up the next one

[Concept]

This is a really difficult month. So many good entries and for different reasons too. But, as i can only use the three categories, here're my votes.

Concept - Andail - There feels like a solid story here and i think it's the level of finish that's making me feel that way. Fjord cruise taken out by a Kracken being smuggled in the hold... mmmm? Yes! It feels impressionistic in the sense that you've put just enough things in the picture for my mind to make up the rest. Really well done. (and thanks very much for the crit - i can't believe i completely missed tightening up the plane )
Playability - Kasander - dark in value and it feels dark in concept too. I want to know more about what's going on there and the larger, possibly more nefarious story is calling to me. I want to explore the darkness and find potential hidden loot and routes. i also really love that torchlight coming out of the hole at the bottom of what looks to me to be a stone temple (i apologise if it's actually metal). I might be banging on here more about the concept than playabolity but, what i mean is that it's so dark, it makes me want to play it more, to explore.
Artistic Execution - ThreeOhFour - The painting looks so effortess, it looks like it's been done by a serious pro but the skeletons have a lovely, accessibe tongue in cheek quality to them. It's moody and well lit, cartoon enough to be stylised and rendered well enough to be grounded in recognizable reality. Artistically inspirational and a personal yardstick for my own development. Excellent work and thanks for sharing it!

Other words i have to say -
@Cassiebsg - I want to say that i'm really impressed by your committment to make your work better. Not excusing yourself on render times and sticking with it is, i believe, the main reason why it turned out so well and why i think you're going to get so much better so much quicker.
@Misj' - I'm sorry you squidged through the cracks for me as artistic execution was already taken but, i wanted to say that with this and your character work, i think you're work is fantastic!

Hey Anshinin =)

Firstlyt, i'll apologise as i'm not familiar with the style but just in general I'd say that as long as you stick to the 4 major walk cycle positions, you can't go wrong:



All the best!

[@Andail]

@Andail - nice work! with the cold sky and huge ship, the whole piece feels barron and inhospitable. Sort of like "oh, no... I'm in the poo this time" kind of thing. Lovely, atmospheric stuff =)

OK, i'm calling it a day on this one. it's easily the biggest thing i've ever painted but that's because it started big and I couldn't half arse it when i'd alrady done some of it. I tried to make the thing playable and ported it into AGS. I noticed a perspective problem at the start of the rope bridge as it's not directly stright. Lesson learned with that for future!

Anyway, i had a load of fun and love this compeition for pushing me to paint hard or go home (that's a saying, right? xD)

it's meant to be scrollable 640x480 screen that was painted at twice the size:
[imgzoom]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/107389340/AGS/BG_Blitz/WRECK/final_480.png[/imgzoom]

[@cassiebsg]

@cassiebsg - wonderful! Adding the background really puts you in the picture and makes the ruin feel like it has a place in the space there. Well done for sticking with it, i know how infuriating rendering can get =)

@amy - Ah, broken sword, my favourite! (although possibly not The Sleeping Dragon, but my favourite franchise hands down) The plan was to just use the competition to help me learn how to paint, learn about composition and also how to get some story into a picture. So, and sorry for waffling here, to answer your question, there's no game attached to it.... yet  

8 days of painting jungle:

@cassiebsg - that's really nice!

I love the lighting choice of having the golden yellow sunlight behind the ruin. It puts the front wall in shadow and really highlights the doorway in. It's a very big - here's where you go next - kind of player/composition clue =) Well done and some great improvement!

ONE

WEEK

LEFT



Pressure Pressure.

Argh!! plants and trees and plants and trees and plants and trees... paint faster!!!!

That's looking really nice, Cassiebsg! I know you didn't ask for a crit but i'll offer one anyway

At the minute, everything's coming together really nice and, although you may not think it, there's a lot of positive difference between this month's entry and last month's entry. It looks like you've got a Depth of Feild issue, though. At the minute, the focus is on a small portion of the ruin and a lot of the image is blurry. This much DOF gives the scene the impression of being miniature. I don't know the story behind it and maybe that's what you're going for but that's what immediately hits me about it. I found this tutorial on DOF in blender and it may help =)

Anyway, like i said, you didn't ask for a crit so i apologise if i'm stepping over my bounds here. You're doing some really nice work and are definitely improving as an artist =)