2008 March Madness :: Discussion Thread

I think the guessing could be tough, it seems like (almost) everyone is kind of shooting for the same style now. I was very impressed with the results, round 2 is going to be pretty serious business. I wouldn't count anyone who makes it to the next round out of winning this thing.

On a side note, do we really need another 30 hours of voting? If people feel we need to hang on for this round, maybe make next time around a 24 hour voting period? I'm sure we could use the extra day for the image and after the first 16 hours or so voting usually dies to a trickle...

Voted. E2 has some beeeeaaaauuuuutiful stock in there ;)

The photoshopping is phenomenal on A1 however i'm getting sick of seeing women in dresses looking out onto things, you know what I mean? I love the way the woman and the crow's stares are cutting across the frame, really adds a good dynamic to the foreground that could have been lost to the explosion. A2 would have worked better if the BG was 100% desaturated and the colour was kept from the text. Really nice mix of graphic styles there though.

C1... great concept, well laid on in the frame but I feel the cows could have looked more natural. I know that's the style you were going for, I just would have prefered it more realistic. C2, another woman in a dress, guns, blood, meh not my style. Great control over tones though, very subtle.

D1 is just a great concept and great photoshopping! I love the staircase protruding out, really fixes the 'planet' in the frame and really leads the eye in. I perhaps would have made it stand out more to enhance this 'leading' effect.

I had some trouble over voting between the Fs, I think compositionally though the first one was better so I went with that. Also the look on the guys face is quality! However I feel the photoshopping was tighter on F2 it just didn't do it for me.

G1, great film-noir style, not enough contrast for my tastes which makes the image very... flat to look at, nothing jumps out, which is what you need in a competition like this.

IL, another great concept! I feel the shift from light to dark is too much for one image, the sky is ridiculously burnt out, which is okay, but when coupled with the dark sand it becomes overwhelming.

J1 took it for me, is there a soft overlay on the bowl? Really subtle way of adding texture... J2, the BG image is a little bland and the colours you chose well kinda bland also. I do like the idea of organic vector shapes coming from the forest though.

I'll finish this later... great job everyone!

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Originally Posted by lefteyewilly

alright, who has guesses as to who belongs to who's image?

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hey, I didn't give anything away...everyone knows we were paired in the first round.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fearless

On a side note, do we really need another 30 hours of voting? If people feel we need to hang on for this round, maybe make next time around a 24 hour voting period? I'm sure we could use the extra day for the image and after the first 16 hours or so voting usually dies to a trickle...

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i wouldn't mind shortening it to Wednesday at 12pm (noon) for voting to end.

what say you all?

Works for me. Does that mean round 2 stocks are posted by 12:30? :D

why was G2 removed?? o_O

long story

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Originally Posted by herr_dada

why was G2 removed?? o_O

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It was requested by that person.

Allowing late entries isn't fair. That's all I'll say.
I'm pretty bumbed that the original stock images were not shown along the entries. I have a feeling some hard to decide votes might have gone another way had the voter seen where it started. I for one would have used much less of the image and done something more my own had I known the stock played such a small role.

At any rate, some of the entries are just awesome and leftys doing a great job. It's my first battle and everything has felt quite smooth.

Oh, and I viewed the voting as a limitation of vBulletin and that it was assumed we'd each vote for ourselves as a guarantee to keep it even.

Honestly, I'm the one that allowed that person to be added late. Why? Because of the sheer amount of stragglers and the fact that there's no way for that person to win.

The late entry, this time was "allowable" only as a judgment call when Lefteyewilly asked me... and to be honest, it was appreciated by me that the person had still sent in an image, but I won't allow it the next round nor if they win this round by some fluke could I allow them to continue.

It won't be tolerated in the next round; I personally allowed it this time due to the circumstances. So feel free to blame/argue with me on that one.

Only after both gerbick and I discussed the issue was the late entry allowed. It's a one time thing and won't be allowed again. Our thoughts were that the voting was already underway and the other image garnered enough votes to get it through. And if it REALLY came down to it and voting flipped, K1 would have moved on any way. Posting the late entry was more of a sporting thing than anything else.

i feel bad about the stock thing. i was more concerned about getting voting up and last night and didn't think about posting in each. I'll take that into account for round 2 and be sure that it gets there....the competition really gets tougher in the next round where the stocks will play an even bigger role.

I bet if we all took our jobs as seriously as we do this competition, we'd all be zillionaires! :)

Taking a stab as to who made what (this feels like Secret Santa) without looking at the board:
A1: Ctranter
D1: Creativeinsomnia/Ondraedan/>Flashlight<
F2: Fearless
G1: Thedarkness
K1: Herr_dada
O1: Nordberg/Lefteyewilly/Gerbick
O2: Gerbick

Round 2 is going to be SERIOUS business for all entries :eek:

Pairings that I had some trouble deciding between:
N1/N2
O1/O2
F1/F2
K1/K2

OK my turn...

A1) Ondreadan

C1) WannaBe
C2) Saint B

D1) Ctranter

E2) Gerbs

F2)Fearless

H1)>Flashl!ght<

K1) Lefty

M2) Silver?

Meh... I could be way off...

Damn, I was editing that previous post to make some changes/additions but I've gone beyond the 60 min mark.

Nevermind, I'll try to pry myself off this thread and do my uni notes.

my guesses:
a1. Fearless
as. Lefteyewilly
c2. Gerbick
d1. ctranter
h1. >flashl!ght<
g1. Saint Bennetta

If those guess insult anyone keep in mind I barely come around the arena and just don't know enough of your styles.

We could add it in the next round but definitely next year we should make tighter rules stating to vote in all brackets and just to leave out your own. Because every year we are going to have this argument and something awful like a drop out might happen.

I think that every image as it's good qualities and probably won't start commenting on the entries till later rounds. But if you want to know what I feel I 100% agree with Robb's post above.

Let's get past all this drama and onto round 2 already! I might just play around on my own time with the next round of stocks just for something to do.

This thread has officially killed the lounge :D

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Originally Posted by WannaBe_80z

I might just play around on my own time with the next round of stocks just for something to do.

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there's always been talk of setting up a 'loser's' bracket to allow everyone to keep playing...if someone wants to do that i think it'd be awesome.

otherwise, usually at the end of the tourney, 10 new battles start. So if anyone didn't make it to the 2nd round, start something with another person who didn't make it.

oh. and one more thing....
















were the HELL is EVP??????????????