Contest 10/2017: HALLOWEEN PARTY


    The new SP-Studio contest has started! This time the topic is "HALLOWEEN PARTY", so you can show your creepiest, funniest or most creative costume ideas. But if you wanrt to show a general Halloween party setting / decoration this is allowed as well.


    HOW TO JOIN:


    • Submit your picture on the CONTESTS page until October 20. No registration required!
    • The pictures will all show up on October 21 for a vote. Same URL, no registration required!
    • On November 1 the winners will be announced.


    RULES:


    • Please use the "big" size (770x770px) when you save your picture. You won't be disqualified for different sizes, but it makes it easier to compare the artworks.
    • You are allowed to remove the "sp-studio.de" watermark (this is possible within the save screen).
    • The picture must be created at sp-studio.de and submitted until October 20, 11:59 PM (GMT+1). I might allow pictures which are a little bit late, but don't count on it. ;)
    • No editing with additional software! No effects, color change, zooming. Just SP-Studio pictures. Rotating is not allowed anymore.
    • If you don't want to tell me your email address this is okay, but I might not be able to contact you if you win.
    • If you have problems with the contact form on the website you can send the picture by email or forum / Facebook message.
    • Add a fitting English title or description so we know what's shown in your picture. Text like "VOTE!!!" will be removed.
    • If you upload more than one picture for a contest the newest one counts and the others are deleted.
    • When the voting starts you can lik the pictures until October 31.


    FIRST PRIZE:


    I will draw a SP-Studio item based on YOUR idea. Of course it should be useful in some way, but if I decline your wish you can make another one. The new item will be included in the next update with a fitting topic.

    Sorry, it took longer than expected to add the names and descriptions. And I recreated some pictures because they were send in in the smallest size... but I won't do this again next time and will change the rules to avoid this.


    Now everything is online and you can vote. :) 46 pictures!


    http://www.sp-studio.de/contests/


    It was difficult to choose which pictures fit the topic. In the end I kept everything that looked either bloody / creepy or was about costumes / a party. Perhaps some of these pictures were not supposed to be for the Halloween topic, but I wasn't sure and I tried to not be too strict about it.


    I wonder if I should mix up the pictures from time to time? In the last contest it did not look like the pictures on top had an advantage.

    Just a question, but could future contests prohibit the use of preexisting designs? What I mean is, if your entry is Batman, for example, I don't think it's fair that you can just use the Batman designs that are already available. I mean, where's the creativity in that?

    Art Vandelay: I understand what you have in mind, reducing the number of lazy, uninspired entries, but that's a terrible idea. It would discourage beginners, and It's the limitation of what parts to use that kills the creativity. Plus how would you implement it? If, say, I'll make an awesome looking, super creative picture of Batman, but I'll use the cowl, even in an unorthodox way, would my picture be disqualified? Or maybe Janina should make SP-Studio Contest Edition, with all the premade elements removed? As if she doesn't have enough work with the regular SP-Studio. Or Maybe, put a long list of banned elements at the beginning of a contest? That would be really tedious. The contests are for everyone, some people are more creative, some less. Some people are really talented and conjure up true SP-Studio Masterpieces, but the vast majority of users just prefer to make a simple image with what Janina has already provided, since they don't have skill, time, or will to do better. We can't all be Caribou, Lefiou, Ildorf or Joker. And that's okay with me. Diversity is the key word here. Don't ruin the fun, and try to make the contests some elite freemason bullshit, that only the most talented and creative may participate. If the lazy-ass pictures bother you, just ignore them, and vote on the more creative ones. Easy as that.



    tl;dr: Nope, that's not going to happen, don't be an elitist douchebag.

    Art Vandelay: I totaly agree that it is not creative to just use an existing costume. The problem is... from my experience most people do not read more than one or two sentences of rules. Even now the simple topic "Halloween Party" was not followed by many people who uploaded pictures and I had to disqualify them. Especially those who submit "lazy" pictures won't follow a rather complicated rule for costumes. Because I cannot just ban certain costumes, it always depends on the creative use.


    So this limitation would result in many disqualifications, confusion and discussions.


    But the situation might not be as bad as you think it is. The winners from past contests were the creative pictures. We always had boring pictures with existing costumes, but they never won. I have not checked the current votes for the Halloween contest yet, but I hope this continues. So I think we do not need an extra rule as long as the voters prefer creativity.

    Eggyslav, that was an unnessarily nasty and hostile post.


    Janina I get that there might be some who are less than talented when it comes to this sort of thing, but these people also are getting votes for their entries, in some cases even leading in the voting category. I guess there's no real way of discouraging that, though. But for me, the fun in trying to make an entry is pushing the available pieces as far as they can go, sometimes using them in ways they weren't intended for.

    When I look through the Hall of Fame ( http://www.sp-studio.de/hall-of-fame/ ) I see no leading pictures which were of the lazy type. If they used costumes, like Strider with his Star Wars themened pictures, they added interesting things to the background. And I think that's fine.


    So I'd say... let's wait for the outcome of this contest. Right now it looks like Pennywise and Freddy Krueger are the two pictures which do not deserve the high votes they get. But this can still change.


    An I will write a Facebook post about voting for the most ceative picture to encourage a fairer vote.

    Art Vandelay: I'm sorry if you felt assaulted, that wasn't my intention. Yet I fail to see, what was so nasty, or hostile in my post. I just stated my opinion on your proposal. Sure, it was negative, but I just tried to bring some valid argumentation to my point of view.

    I have to admit this sounded a bit hostile to me as well. I know Eggyslav did not mean it this way, but the last sentence was not neccessary to make a point.


    We are all sitting in the same boat. We want pictures to win which are creative and deserve to win, while we don't want to spoil the fun for newbies. After all it's about having a fun experience for everybody.

    Quote from Art Vandelay

    You don't think calling someone an "elitist douchebag" is hostile?


    I didn't call you an elitist douchebag, I just asked you to not act like one, and formulating it like that doesn't actually imply that I think you are an elitist douchebag. But yeah, semantics aside, It really was unnecessary, and I truly, truly apologize. My words might be harsh, and sometimes it is me who acts like a total douchebag, but I have only good intentions.

    THE FINAL RESULTS:


    Congratulations to Alex for his fist win!


    1) 21 points: Butters takes on a bad side, and he's going after South Park. (by Alex J. Giebelestein)
    2) 18 points: my character is it for 1998 (by Michael Warnecke)
    2) 17 points: Negan killed Kenny (by NilsFCB298)
    4) 13 points: Jason was about 3 weeks too late... (by Jetpack-Guy)
    5) 12 points: Headless horseman by Sleepy Hollow (by Léonard Blanchet)





    The winners were added to the contest page and the Hall of Fame. Thanks to everybody who joined the contest!


    Regarding Art Vandelay's concerns: I won't change the rules for now because we have a pretty creative winner and I still think it is very complicated to get this right. But I will keep an eye on the pictures which make the top5.

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