About Avatar Contests Here

[es!]

Hi All!

There are many avatar contests for all the series. I'm curious - how do you choose your favorites? Do you prefer high quality avatars? Is it important, if they fit the corresponding theme? Do you prefer funny ones? With captions or without? Is it important for you whether an avatar could be actually used as avatar or not?

My favorites have to be of high quality AND theoretically usable as avatars. I also like funny stuff.

What about you?

~es

 

[RJDiogenes]

It should definitely be usable as a real Avatar; it is an Avatar contest, after all. And it should definitely fit the theme of the contest. I prefer minimal animation; captions can be okay, but are not a plus for me. The Avatar can be either funny or just a good, interesting picture. It would depend on the specific contest as to which carried more weight.

 

[Capn Flukie]

I like ones that make you go "WTF?".

 

[Michael]

I'm curious - how do you choose your favorites?

Well, I'm a sucker for good animated avatars. So I will usually choose them. But I also look for an interesting choice of the images shown; how the image is framed and how the composition works. And I also look for good picture quality (color, sharpness etc). It's also good when the avatar conveys creativity and an idea.

Is it important, if they fit the corresponding theme?

Yes, I think it is.

Do you prefer funny ones?

Yes, I usually do. But I also like ones that feature a scene or character I'm particularly fond of.

With captions or without?

I tend to like the ones without captions more, because I think the need to add a caption to an avatar usually means that the image/animation doesn't work on its own. Also, most captions on avatars are not very well done; as a graphic designer I know how hard it is to handle text on such a small space successfully.

Is it important for you whether an avatar could be actually used as avatar or not?

Yeah, I think that is not unimportant. I like the idea that one can actually go into any avatar contest thread and find an avatar he can use. That said, there were times in the past, when an avatar was so good, I didn't mind that it was unusable as an avatar on the Trek BBS.

 

[nevermore]

^ I was under the impression that avatar entries have to be within the constraints of board rules. Maybe only the ones in the fora I go into...

I prefer well-animated avatars that require both skill and effort to make. I rarely vote for static avs unless they represent either a very interesting take on the topic or are very creatively framed. Sometimes a little dose of the funny will be enough to get em to vote for an otherwise sub-par av. I also generally restrict my voting to one avatar, though if there are two that really seem above par, I'll vote for both.

I do not vote based on whether that person used my favorite character, show or film though. It seems like a lot of people do that these days, which is a shame. We used to have so amazing avatar creators around here, and some new ones have certainly popped up in the recent past (like the guy above me), but a lot of people seem to just google and crop and base their entry entirely on the subject not the "art" of avatar making.

 

[Cali]

Framing, sharpness and colour catch my eye for the most part. Sometimes a caption will put me off or make me vote for it, depending on what the caption is.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

A great avatar is simply a great avatar. It has to have some special quality about it, no matter if it has a caption, a series of frames telling a story (one of my favourite LOST avatar contest entries [which didn't win] was exactly that, even though one of the entrants said at the time they didn't like that sort of avatar ) , a carefully sculpted single frame, or an amusing animation. (One of my all-time favourite avatars, not for a contest, gave the initial impression that it was a single frame... that is until you waited long enough... I later made another avatar which was animated, except that all the frames were exactly the same. )

I prefer to have avatars that stand out from the crowd, that you can easily make out even through scrolling quickly through a thread, one that says "That's him/her, for sure..." Although on occasion I will choose an avatar on something I like (as opposed to how others feel).

 

[Michael]

I was under the impression that avatar entries have to be within the constraints of board rules. Maybe only the ones in the fora I go into...

Yes, that's true. But I especially remember one time in the SF&F avatar contest, where one made an animation whose file size was going way over the maximum, but everyone agreed that it was too good to not include it in the final poll. After all – and that's also my philosophy – the various avatar contests are just meant to be fun. One shouldn't take them too seriously.

I do not vote based on whether that person used my favorite character, show or film though. It seems like a lot of people do that these days, which is a shame.

Well, in my opinion it's part of 'the "art" of avatar making' to choose a good scene/moment/series/movie/character as a basis for an avatar.

(like the guy above me)

Thankeee! I can only return that compliment.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I like the funny ones. Some examples:

Evil Twin and Tuln's here.

ITL's here. (Jackface is always a winner.)

All time favorite: Boromir's Invisible Phone, which Neroon wore once upon a time.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Being one who is fairly decent at Photoshop, I like avatars which I know display a certain amount of both artistic talent/good eye as well as technical expertise in PhotoShop. This doesn't necessarily mean animation...and I'm pretty tired of the avatars which display a series of pictures (with or without captions) as those aren't very hard to make at all. No...I'm really talking about good use of photos, cleaning up of imperfections in photos, good blending ability of two photos together, good but not overdone use of color/tinting, good or creative cropping, interesting use of brushes and effects like blur or texture, good color coordination between the photos and any captions, etc. Nothing ruins an otherwise good avatar as quickly for me as a garish font or font color on captions.

I also look at entries in terms of what that person has entered before: do they have just one skill that they used over and over and over in every contest they enter? Or do they show evidence of having spent alot of time in Photoshop, experimenting, learning, collecting & using interesting brushes & fonts, etc.

I also like avatars which display clever ideas - not necessarily funny (although they can be funny and I love funny avatars), but clever.

Obviously, the entry must meet the thematic requirements of the contest - for me, that's a given.

And I like original entries - not the people who enter the same avatar over and over in different contests around the board.

And finally, originality and use of one's own work is essential. Once or twice I've seen entries in contests that I saw elsewhere - like in contests on LiveJournal. If I suspect someone is plagerising avatars, I obviously don't vote for them. This has happened only a couple of times and I haven't noticed it recently (maybe because I've not been able to do LJ like I used to). But if I notice a plagerizer, I never vote for them again. PERIOD. As in, ever.

 

[trekkiedane]

I'm curious - how do you choose your favorites?

I'm a very visual person, so I choose the ones that are graphically well made (crop, colours, animation, borders -or not…).
Whether they're just a googled image or someone actually did some work on it also matters to me. Doesn't have to be a lot of fancy graphics manipulation, just something (besides resizing) has to be done by the contestant, something that elevates the work from the googled image.

Is it important, if they fit the corresponding theme?

Of course it is! -Think of it as a job; if the boss says you have to do the accounts, it's of no use if all you do is play games on your computer…

With captions or without?

Sometimes captions can put a spin on the imagery that mere images cant.
-but generally without is more to my liking.

Is it important for you whether an avatar could be actually used as avatar or not?

If it can't be used as an avatar (worn by the contestant during the voting) it isn't an avatar but merely an interesting image.

I do not vote based on whether that person used my favorite character, show or film though. /.../ a lot of people seem to just google and crop and base their entry entirely on the subject not the "art" of avatar making.

QFT

 

[es!]

Thank you all for your interesting answers!

With the point "usable as avatar" I meant not technical restrictions but the idea. When I make an avatar I always think - could there be a person who would like to take it? I see sometimes entries that are good as (funny) pictures but useless as avatars. I hope my rambling makes sense O.o

Ah yes - about captions. I like captions if they add a new meaning to a picture. In such a case a picture can't have that new meaning by definition. My present avatar is a good example imo

 

[trekkiedane]

Ah yes - about captions. I like captions if they add a new meaning to a picture. In such a case a picture can't have that new meaning by definition. My present avatar is a good example imo

I made a couple of captioned ones for contests in the past, mostly because I thought the scene fit the contest theme perfectly.

These I made for the themes of Food and drink and Blue collar:

I suppose I could have made something that didn't need captions, but the seriousness of one and the joke in the other I just couldn't pass.

 

[Spot's Meow]

The best avatar is the funniest avatar, in my opinion. It doesn't matter much to me how much skill went into it (probably because I suck at it), what matters is that it can make me laugh.