artfight: NEWS TIME

Krystal (

forgetthatkiss) wrote in

artfight,
@ 2007-10-14 18:29:00

NEWS TIME
I want to thank everyone who has participated in these first three ART FIGHT! tournaments, artists and voters alike!

What's the hold up on the next tournament you may be wondering? Well, I am currently in the beginning stages of build a proper ART FIGHT! website!

This is an important time for me to get your feedback.

Please let me know your thoughts! Do you like the way the tournaments are run? Is there anything you would change, add, take away? How does it feel being an artist involved? A voter?

I am very interested in hearing what you have to say to make the best ART FIGHT! site possible!

(Post a new comment)

	dacnomaniac 2007-10-15 01:21 am UTC (link)
	I still think the rounds were more fun when there was an option to do new art... maybe do it twice a tournament rather than at every round, or something? Otherwise, honestly, I like how it's all gone thus far. (Reply to this)(Thread)

dacnomaniac
2007-10-15 01:23 am UTC (link)

Actually, I had a thought once where it would be nice to be able to list some of the powers and characteristics of the being, because there's some stuff it's extremely difficult, even impossible, to imply in the drawing. (Like, say, regenerative powers.) But that's only if one wants to make it more of a beast vs beast as well as art vs art thing. I know it often works out as beast vs. beast in the voting, but the balance would change if you added that, so you'd have to decide if that's a good thing or not.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

dustwing
2007-10-15 01:47 am UTC (link)

I like that, except for one thing. People arent unlikely to just kinda make god characters, all the time. How often do you want to see "ONG INVINCIBLE" or even "Immune to physical damage"? Of course there could be a list of possible attributes with points costs assigned and a total point number you could meet but not exceed...buuuut...that limits the creativity. You'd see artists looking at the list and drawing creatures from the list rather than just letting imagination run (Plus, we cannot account for some things..Batcat and the mobile shark, for example. Would we have had attributes that really covered that?)

So...instead..I propose two ideas. A short (SHORT..like...two paragraphs max, and not page long ones) bio to be posted along with the introduction of the character (like the same kind of background you get in a fighing game, like Guilty Gear, Tekken, Bloody Roar, Street Fighter ect.) and an honor system. Oh, wait, make that three. If voters feel that one character broke the honor system and is stupidly overpowered or underpowered, the artist could be contacted to change the attributes.

Ex. character has deadly appendages, is etherial, psychic, chosen of the elder gods and possessed of an army of horrible creatures it can summon at will.
change to
etherial, psychic, has some minions of considerable power. Much more reasonable.

oooor we could scrap it and just let people draw :) If someone wants to draw a shambling horde of minions, so long as they're all represented I say the character should be that much more powerfull for it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dustwing 2007-10-15 01:49 am UTC (link)
	hehe, sorry if I went too crazy btw- I'm in the process of publishing my own pen and paper RPG so tables and points are ruling my brain as of present edited for dumb spelling mistake :P (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	forgetthatkiss 2007-10-15 11:42 pm UTC (link)
	I definitely don't see the tournaments taking on any kind of point system in the future. Not because it's a bad idea! But just because it's an entirely different concept all together. This is less a game then it is a poll really. The simple idea is, who do you like better! (Reply to this)(Parent)

oddz_endz
2007-10-15 02:02 am UTC (link)

I will second the idea of being able to post a small (SMALL) bio along with your fighter!

However, I do NOT like the week wait period between each round if each artist gets to submit new art. It drags the entire round on for like a month... and that's a bit long to wait. To me, most of the excitement comes from seeing the FIRST pictures of all the fighters posted, and then seeing how they do. The faster we see new fighters, the happier I am.

In terms of commenting: as long as the comments posted for each round are polite, and not attacking the art skills of the person who drew each picture, I have no complaints ^_^ (since, after all, we aren't judging technicalities - just the creativity of the creature/character involved).

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	forgetthatkiss 2007-10-15 11:43 pm UTC (link)
	Good point! The most exciting part is the first round. The rest is just, get-my-favorite-american-idol-to-the-end kind of thing. (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Anonymous)
2007-10-15 02:05 am UTC (link)

Awesome! I love art fight!
It will be good to have a real website with a vote button instead of trying to explain to people that you have to leave a comment!
You should have radio buttons for each battle with a comment box under it so it's easier. And it will encourage people to vote on all the battles instead of just picking one. I'm sure you thought of that though :)

ps. Can we have a Halloween theme? Ghosts and zombies would be awesome!

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	forgetthatkiss 2007-10-15 11:44 pm UTC (link)
	Voting will be much easier on the website! No looking for a "post comment" link and trying to figure out how that worked. (Reply to this)(Parent)

arrwyn
2007-10-15 02:16 am UTC (link)

I don't like the idea of everyone being able to make up a list of magic powers. It doesn't seem fair and it just squashes the creativity of the whole thing. If everyone starts drawing boring little men with magic +40 or something then we're essentially playing a game of yugioh. I say that if you can find a way to draw it then all's fair, otherwise leave it alone.

And if there's to be new art throughout the tournament, they should all be sent in with the first one. Then there's no waiting between heats. Maybe extend the prep time between each tournament?

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	forgetthatkiss 2007-10-15 11:47 pm UTC (link)
	Absolutely. It's not meant to be a "game" between artists, but rather a creativity builder! Who can make the greatest fan favorite type deal. (Reply to this)(Parent)

cakeodoom
2007-10-15 02:31 am UTC (link)

A nice way to have a biography that doesn't encourage going OTT is perhaps to have specific fields to fill in that are optional, for example

Name:
Origin:
Reason for fighting:

Then you get a vague idea of what the creature is like without having people saying 'shoots a bazillion lasers a second and is invincible'.

That said, most of the people here seem pretty cool and unlikely to do that.

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(Anonymous)
2007-10-15 02:33 am UTC (link)

A second point I wanted to suggest is to be able to score each fighter out of 10 on two or three criteria, something like:

Art quality (1-10)
Concept quality (1-10)

'concept quality' being how original/entertaining/fun the character is, when judged separately from how good the art is.

Then, the scores are either added together or averaged and the fighter with the highest total score wins.

Thoughts?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	rikudrak 2007-10-15 07:52 am UTC (link)
	Doesn't seem like a bad idea at all, in my opinion. (Reply to this)(Parent)

rikudrak
2007-10-15 07:57 am UTC (link)

I don't like the idea of having abilities, or explaining anything about the fighters submitted into the rounds.

Imagination is as much a part of this (for me, and a few others at least) as creativity is. Though I think the suggestions to have two criteria for scoring fighters wouldn't be a bad idea. It might just get a little sloppy in comment form.

Either way, I think it's better to not have a time for everyone to draw new poses for their fighters. At least not for every round. I would say maybe let them submit a pose for if their character wins, but I don't think that would work in practicality.

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	forgetthatkiss 2007-10-15 11:48 pm UTC (link)
	I would definitely like to think of a way for artist to keep involved without slowing down the tournament. One idea I had was to allow artists to submit drawings of their fighters actually FIGHTING at any point during the tournament. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dacnomaniac 2007-10-19 09:41 pm UTC (link)
	I vote for that, doing fight drawings. That would be totally awesome, for one, and makes for a lot more freedom to demonstrate the specific prowess of the characters without limiting creativity or adding unnecessary complexity. Badass. (Reply to this)(Parent)

queenfrizzle
2007-10-15 02:36 pm UTC (link)

I agree with a lot of people previous to me - ArtFight is about the art, and the simplicity with which it runs is what makes it so wonderful. Stick with Art vs. Art, and not Art & Magic & Insanity vs. Art, and it'll stay awesome.

As far as submitting new art goes, I really think that the new art is fun, but I agree with

arrwyn that they should all be sent in at the beginning (if at all) because the pauses between heats got frustrating at times. Also, I think there should be some kind of check on the continuity of the art. For example, in the creatures Art Fight, there was discontinuity in the number of digits on hands between drawings. While it might not have changed anyone's vote, it certainly tweaked my ear a bit.

Otherwise, I simply adore the tournament trees, they look wonderful. And a site just for Art Fight? Sounds fantastic. I think that adding a separate page maybe as a winner's gallery or somesuch so we can keep track of who won previously, because I'm in love with archives like that.

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rahsyk
2007-10-15 03:26 pm UTC (link)

Hmmm...I know that I'm probably one of the artists you're talking about with the changing numbers of toes and such. I know for me, the reason my character DeFrAg from the second art fight kept changing was for two reasons. First, I tweaked my original character design to make it more acceptable for the event (the original character had extra tentacles in extra places, if you know what I mean). So from the start, I was working on a different design than I was used to. Second, in an attempt to make sure I met the deadline, I often had to draw the lineart while I was at work or at my friends house, AWAY from a refrence. Sometimes I couldn't remember if I'd originally given him five toes or four, four fingers or three. The changing number of tentacles was intentional, though, as he was getting more and more viscious with each new round.

Wow, I realize I just dropped a mini-essay on you there, and I'm sorry about that! I do understand the peeve about a character changing from round to round, but I wanted to explain at least why I ended up doing that sort of thing. :3

Also, since I know that voices get lost in all the text, I'd like to note that I'm not trying to come off as aggressive here. I'm not upset, and I hope I didn't come off that way.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

queenfrizzle
2007-10-15 03:29 pm UTC (link)

*nods* That's the one that stuck in my brain, and thanks for the clarification. I completely understand the weirdness that unreferenced drawing can cause.

And hey, better a mini-essay than nothing. I always like to actually know what was going on, rather than have to make wild assumptions.

And defensive, maybe, but not agressive. No worries.

And by the way? I love your art.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	forgetthatkiss 2007-10-15 11:50 pm UTC (link)
	"ArtFight is about the art, and the simplicity with which it runs is what makes it so wonderful." Absolutely what I'm going for! And I definitely plan on having a "Hall of Fame" page for all the winners! Thank you for your comments! (Reply to this)(Parent)

rahsyk
2007-10-15 03:19 pm UTC (link)

I really dig these things! I had a LOT more fun in the second fight than the third, because the main draw for me was drawing a new picture every round. I propose going back to that method. I see people suggesting that everyone turn in all their art at the beginning, but I don't agree with that. It took me a considerable amount of time to draw my characters, and I just don't think I'd want to spend all that time drawing for four rounds if I don't even make it past the first, ya know? That would mean that three of the drawings I spent all that time on wouldn't even be used. Instead, I propose that the due date for the next round be a week from when the previous round is POSTED, not from when the round ENDS. Yeah, there's a chance someone out there is going to spend time drawing for a round they might not even win, but I'm willing to spend time on ONE potentially unused drawing versus THREE.

Another suggestion based on questions my friends asked when I told them to go vote: is this fight about art or about the fighters? They didn't know whether they should be voting for how they liked the fighters or who's art was better. Mayhaps a little clarification on that subject for future fights. I personally think it should be a mix of both. I do like the ideas proposed above about having a little info posted on the characters. I remember the first round of the second artfight I went up against a character who looked like a human with a sword. Half way though, the artist posted that the character was, in fact, a werewolf. It would have been nice to know that from the start, as it may have influenced the vote differently. I don't think we need a life story or a list of super powers, just a little info on the character. Most of the powers and stuff should be visible on the character.

Well, that's my opinion. I hope it helps. I'm very interested in seeing an art fight site! :3

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	queenfrizzle 2007-10-15 03:31 pm UTC (link)
	Hmm. You know, that's not something that really occured to me. The difference in deadline I think does make a lot of sense. And I wish I'd thought of that. (Reply to this)(Parent)

arrwyn
2007-10-15 06:22 pm UTC (link)

I agree that it would be way too much to ask everyone to submit 4 different pieces all at once, I thought 2 would do nicely though. I don't know about the rest of you but the waiting between rounds nearly killed me!

And I'm still definetly against any kind of bio on the characters. I think that the artist should put the effort into showing us what their character can do, telling us just seems like cheating. Like.. screw creativiy and forethought, that takes too long, I'll just say it has magic powers then I have to win..

With Luciferous I used his eyes and bloody claws to try to portray that he was an evil little kitty. That didn't work so I added horns at the last minute lol. Anyway, I got my point across without needing words. I think that creativity should remain a part of Artfight.

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	forgetthatkiss 2007-10-15 11:57 pm UTC (link)
	I think I very much agree with you on the topic of submitting bios! It's something I thought about from the beginning. In the end it seems that artists are more interested in writing bios about their own characters than others are in actually reading them. Again, we are visual creatures and this is ART FIGHT! I want people to have fun with their drawings above all else! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	forgetthatkiss 2007-10-15 11:52 pm UTC (link)
	My intention is for people to simply vote for which fighter they like best! Us being the visual creatures that we are, quality of art will inevitably effect most people's vote in the end, but it does not have to. (Reply to this)(Parent)

angstinabucket
2007-10-16 03:41 am UTC (link)

I really like it the way it is, although, perhaps if someone withdraws, there could be a quick call for someone to fill the spaces, and if people do fill the spaces, maybe there could be a three or two day extension? I noticed some people withdrew last time, and I would have loved to hop in in their place. If no one fills the spots in time, then the voting could start? Or something.. I dunno. ._.

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	arrwyn 2007-10-16 06:56 am UTC (link)
	I like that. It's such a shame if people withdraw while others have to miss out. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	forgetthatkiss 2007-10-20 07:01 pm UTC (link)
	I agree! Unfortunately, only one person notified me last time that they were dropping out. I was able to quickly fill that spot, but the other two simply did not submit anything. I would like to have a way to prevent things like that happening too. (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Anonymous)
2007-10-26 02:42 pm UTC (link)

Bios and a list of powers seems a bit excessive. It was fun and interesting reading what people wrote of how they interpreted each character and what THEY thought the characters strength and weaknesses were (that was the best part for me). The onus then falls on the artist to ensure their design reflects the best qualities of their character. Keeps the creativity level high I think. If you want to show a guy can cast magic...give him a wand or pose him in a way that makes it look like he is about to cast a spell...bad example, but you get my point...it's better than just writing "my guy can do magic".

Also, in judging I think there needs to be a mix between quality of character and the actual quality of the art. A lot of people probably put tons of effort into making their designs look good, and it would be a shame to ignore that. There are lots of similiar "art battles" where the quality of the work is taken into consideration as well.

(Reply to this)

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