TNG Avatar Contest Discussion Thread

[Tom Riley]

Hey guys. I made this thread because I didn't want to fill the TNG Avatar Contest entry thread with too many posts while people are entering, just so it's organized and easier for me to pull them all for the voting thread later.

Back when we were approaching the start of season 4 in our contest I wanted to make things a little more interesting in the contest threads. I had the idea to give each season a unique contest banner and I toyed with the idea of a new award for the contest. I started posting the banner with the first season 4 episode theme but the new award didn't get off the ground in time.

Now that we're about 2/3s of the way through season 4, I was starting to look at next season. I'd like to get new award avatars this time and I wanted to get people's thoughts and ideas.

First off, I was considering doing a unique award for each category. I had two thoughts about where I could go with them. Originally, I was thinking of connecting them to what the category was about.

• I figured for the Episode Theme I could do the fly-by and warp jump from the opening credits with the text "TrekBBS TNG Forum Avatar Contest Winner" and "Episode Theme" fading in between those shots.
• The Random Theme I had the idea of showing the holodeck (to keep it connected to TNG) and having random things appearing and disappearing, perhaps topics we've done in the Random Theme before or something. The same text from the Episode Theme would appear with the proper category name in place.
• For the TNG Theme I wasn't 100% sure what to do. The holodeck idea was originally for this theme, with characters and sets from various episodes appearing on the holodeck instead. I'd obviously have the same text and appropriate category appear in the avatar.

However, I more recently had the idea of changing the awards with each season as well. The idea would be that the avatars could cycle through still shots of a small number of winning avatars in that category from the previous season (I'd keep track of and credit each winner's name in the corner of the avatar when their winning image pops up) and then fade to the same text and category names as I've mentioned before. I thought that could be a cool way to show off some of the winning avatars again, and give the awards some freshness every so often. Of course I'd contact you guys before using any of your winning avatars in the award avatars.


So, thoughts on these ideas? Any ideas of your own you'd like to put forward?

 

[Orac]

I like the holodeck idea for the Random Theme Award, are you going to try and keep them within the avatar size parameters?

 

[Tom Riley]

I'm going to try, so they'd have to be short. I had done an avatar before with Moriarty appearing and disappearing on the holodeck before they upped the limit to 140kb.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Yeah, that holodeck idea for the Random sounds cool! Actually, all your ideas are good, and I'm sure that whatever you end up doing will be great!

If you're still not entirely sure what to do with the TNG Theme contest, here's one possible suggestion. You could sort of combine a couple of your ideas. Make the Enterprise flyby award the TNG Theme one. Then for the Episode contest you could have an image of the main viewscreen, and then you could put your text, and cycle through a few winning episode avatars within the viewscreen. The viewscreen kinda looks like a TV, and since the winning avs would all be from episodes, it'd be sorta like the crew clicking through various eps on the viewer, but would also highlight winning entries.

Anyway, just a thought. I don't know how well it would actually work out in practice.

Thank you running these contests for us!

 

[Tom Riley]

^That is actually a really good idea... The flyby works for the TNG Theme because it's the opening for the whole show and the entries in that category come from anywhere in the show, and the viewscreen one you explained pretty well why it fits... I really like it. Thanks!

And, you're welcome!