LMS3: Round One | RESULTS ARE IN FIRST POST

**arttorney** · February 9th, 2008, 02:46 PM

Win or no win, if your piece was good, then you had some top people looking at a good piece of yours. That's a win anyway, in the grand scheme of things. My main goal was to make it as hard as possible to cut me. That practice makes it tough for judges but it also means they have to look at the pieces that much longer, and that many more times. Better to lose a tough match than to breeze through a match full of sketches. (I'm not talking about any specific matches at all or in any way here including my own. Just saying that just because a certain piece didn't win out over another one doesn't mean it got any less attention.)

**Dirty C** · February 9th, 2008, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by Shamagim

umm...Certainly interesting calls in some rounds.And I'm not meaning any disrespect to the judges, there were a lot of rounds, pictures and time expended judging every single one( valuable time).

I feel that some of the results made less sense than what was reasonably expected, some of you might already know which ones, and I well know that opinions are subjective and many times biased....But I do have objective reasons to suspect that something might have gone wrong with the system used.

what's done is done, it would be unfair to ask for anything else than a slightly new system for the next round to remove probable error and subjectivity from the context. A suggestion would be to replace the names with numbers to make voting easier and objective.

I don't mean to question the integrity of the judges either, but it's possible for a name to hold some weight in a difficult choice, both in positively and negatively.

Personally I don't think it's a big deal and I'm not trying to pick a fight. So please forgive me if I'm contrary to your opinion or if I'm being a pain in the ass.

OK, I thanked Sham, but also feel the need to reiterate what he's said about not questioning the integrity of the judges. And also that this isn't a personal issue - being handed my arse by the Chanman isn't exactly upsetting

But changing names to numbers and getting rid of the pussout logos might ensure pussouts don't accidentally get voted for and that there's no room for confusion from the judges. Possibly asking for a more standard set of measurements also may quell weird scrolling issues and whatnot.

Excellent job though, Cody - I know there's a hell of a lot of work which goes into this and don't want to appear ungrateful. But chu know what I mean bro.

Pea's out

**strych9ine** · February 9th, 2008, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by Shamagim

umm...Certainly interesting calls in some rounds.And I'm not meaning any disrespect to the judges, there were a lot of rounds, pictures and time expended judging every single one( valuable time).

I feel that some of the results made less sense than what was reasonably expected, some of you might already know which ones, and I well know that opinions are subjective and many times biased....But I do have objective reasons to suspect that something might have gone wrong with the system used.

what's done is done, it would be unfair to ask for anything else than a slightly new system for the next round to remove probable error and subjectivity from the context. A suggestion would be to replace the names with numbers to make voting easier and objective.

I don't mean to question the integrity of the judges either, but it's possible for a name to hold some weight in a difficult choice, both in positively and negatively.

Personally I don't think it's a big deal and I'm not trying to pick a fight. So please forgive me if I'm contrary to your opinion or if I'm being a pain in the ass.

While it was my initial intention to create a separate page for 300+ pieces, I found that the process of just compiling the entries and putting them together in the thread already took a lot of fucking time. With that being the case, I did not have the time nor the interest in setting up a thread with only numbers attached to pieces, then going back and putting the names up after the judging.

So here's the deal... this isn't exactly a science, and you knew that coming into it. Every single iteration of this dome is met with some sort of complaint, which is fine if it's constructive, but this is as good as I intend to make it. I think we have a hell of a judging panel voting with integrity making the tough decision of picking only one piece out of 5 to move on.

Could there be a better scoring system? Of course there can be. Do I or the busy judging panel have the time to record and tally individual, per piece scores for the hundreds of entries submitted each round? Fuck no! Why would you expect that from a guy who puts together a contest where there are 5 people to a match in the first round? I would never even consider doing a scoring system like that in the first round, there are just too many people. There are 3 more rounds to this, that's when something like that can be implemented.

This is all just a stupid internet art contest, there's no reason to get bent out of shape about it regardless if you did or didn't make it to the next round. If you have a buddy that you think deserved to win, he can have my spot.

I know you're not trying to pick a fight and you've got many valid points, I'm just getting tired of answering this question after every round. Let's hug.

**strych9ine** · February 9th, 2008, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Dirty C

But changing names to numbers and getting rid of the pussout logos might ensure pussouts don't accidentally get voted for and that there's no room for confusion from the judges. Possibly asking for a more standard set of measurements also may quell weird scrolling issues and whatnot.

All taken into account. Will do that for next round.

**redehlert** · February 9th, 2008, 06:00 PM

wow....to all that i know that have made it to the next round...congratulations are in order. good luck!
to those that entered and did their best, my hat is off to you. everyone deserves a round of applause.

all the best,
dave

**Irene Gallo** · February 9th, 2008, 06:25 PM

It is impossible to unknown what you know. I’ve judged Spectrum, Communication Arts, and Society of Illustrators (pro and student) and there are always lots of questions that are very difficult to answer. One of the hardest for me is that, if you know a person’s full body of work, you understand their language better and respond to it differently than if you came across the same work cold. It’s impossible to get around. And then there are questions of judging a person against themselves or against their competition. As a judge you balance it out slightly differently with every individual piece your looking at. In the end, you are thankful that there are other judges to balance out your decisions.

There were some really tough rounds here – sometimes I went in favor of concept over technique, other times I went the other way. It depended on each situation. There are rounds where I didn’t vote on the winner but I’m really happy they won – usually in cases where I truly thought two paintings were equally good, but done in completely different styles.

It’s the nature of the beast. I’ve heard many first-time judges comment that they never realized how hard and how fair the system really is. But it aint perfect. It’s a compliment to win, but it’s NOT a diss to loose.

Cody - Hiding the names might help a bit but most people can pick out a person's style anyway. Is anyone here not going to notice a Jason Chan painting when they see it?

**Alday.J** · February 9th, 2008, 06:53 PM

I second what Irene said about hidding the names. Plus, that can be for some judges a "who's who" thing that could be a perfect waste of time. I don't think the judging system is the thing to question here.

And that's a looser talking here !

No way, that first Round was gold, an avalanche of great pics. Props to the judges and Cody for the hard work.

Rusty, bastard, I expect you will drop some Graphic A-bomb for round two.

Peace everybody, be sure I will watch following rounds very closely.
Julien.

**alesoun** · February 9th, 2008, 07:01 PM

Hey! Competing was great fun ! I stretched myself and I got to be on Finally Finished without being moved!
(Might be the only time I ever get to say that...)
Cody, you're doing a great job! Thanks!

*blows kisses*

**OYO!** · February 9th, 2008, 07:42 PM

Congratulations to the winners of this first amazing round. Am amazed by the diversity of visions coming from the same theme.

Congratulations too to my opponents and especially Mike Dutton for his poetic and subtle artwork. A great learning.

Cant wait to see the next round !

Stoot !

**bluefooted** · February 9th, 2008, 08:27 PM

That was stressful and fun! Congrats to everyone who entered and all the winners.

Now, I can work on getting my ass seriously kicked.

Also, Pan, your pic is my desktop now - one of my absolute favorites out of all the matches!

**cmalidore** · February 10th, 2008, 03:29 AM

I honestly couldn't be happier, and I lost in round 1

Massive congrats to all of the winners of their respective rounds, and especially to Dutton for pulling out the win on match 29! Great work man.

And a giant thanks to both Cody and our judges. A lot of work has gone into this thing and I'm very thankful for what I learned. Can't wait til the next LMS.

**Mikael Leger** · February 10th, 2008, 04:43 AM

Congrats Octopus Interphone. Good luck for round two dude.

**Paul_Harrison** · February 10th, 2008, 05:30 AM

Well what can I say my first posting on conceptart ... Thanks to some encouragment from my buddies Poshspice and Matt Dixon.
Firstly congrates to Aly for getting through to the second round. I know it was a toughie and you didn't think you'd get through...but eh in my opinion yours was the best.
Matt, what can I say, commiserations buddy extremely tough group and beaten by a very nice piece of work...
And thanks to the judges for putting me through. Some great pieces of work in the first round and some tough choices for the judges. Overall I think they made the right decisions although I was dissappointed for Dirtyc and a few others, but eh art is personnel and subjective.
Oh well congrats to those who got through and commiserations to those that didn't.

**mcmatz** · February 10th, 2008, 09:03 AM

Congratulations to all the winners!
This was my first time competing in anything here and the quality of the entries was outstanding. I am now more motivated than ever with the bar set so high.
A huge thanks to the judges for taking the time out to judge this little slugfest. I know it must have been difficult to pick a winner in a lot of the matches.
And huge thanks to Cody for taking on this massive task.
Finally, Baron Impossible, you have to kick everyone's ass now and win this sucker, so at least I can say I was beaten by the best!

--Madeline

**Living Rope** · February 10th, 2008, 11:27 AM

Congratulations everyone for your entries. Again, I'm honored to be one of the judges. I'd like to say that some of these matches were REALLY painful to find a winner. If I could I would have given a handful of ex-aequo on the pure graphical side, and what permitted me to find a winner was the ability to find a good concept.
Talking about concept I've been nicely surprised by the number of people who got beyond the purely descriptive art in order to find a language of their own. Now that was one creative round !

I'd like to also say that, yes it's true, I know some of the competitors personnaly. But it wouldn't come to my mind to put them on top of the pile because we're friends. All of them (just like any of the competitors) were generous enough to do their best to help make live this community, and they spent a fair amount of their time in creating a challenging piece. And I'd find absolutely disrespectful not to judge them the same way as the others I don't know. I know that they wouldn't like it at all.

**arttorney** · February 10th, 2008, 12:53 PM

Creativity in interpreting the subject was one of the specific judging criteria mentioned in the first post. In defense of art that may have been "purely descriptive," though, this was also in there:

"This is an illustration-based contest, and you will be expected to turn in a completed piece that stands on its own without the aid of a description."

Thanks to all the judges for their effort. I know it couldn't have been easy.

**bdfoster** · February 11th, 2008, 08:54 AM

Congrats to all that made it through to the next round! Especially congrats to Ryan Demita. I thought I had a good chance to take you, but it was not to be. Go kick some ass in round 2!!

**Tetsuo** · February 11th, 2008, 11:45 AM

till next time. Great turnout from all and Cody needs an e-beer after all that pain in the ass work....

**mwillustration** · February 11th, 2008, 12:20 PM

thanks for a great match to everyone in match 21!
you all rocked.
- main loop: very cool action oriented piece with a great creature
- patriciaS: nice concept, storytelling and colors
- vorace: awesome creature design and overall mood

i was surprised but excited to make it through.
i'll try to represent well in round 2.

**rustikof** · February 11th, 2008, 12:26 PM

hey..uhh...cody...i'll take your spot!

Is it cool for us to post these in FF for critiques/criticisms?

**smugbug** · February 11th, 2008, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by mwillustration

thanks for a great match to everyone in match 21!
you all rocked.
- main loop: very cool action oriented piece with a great creature
- patriciaS: nice concept, storytelling and colors
- vorace: awesome creature design and overall mood

i was surprised but excited to make it through.
i'll try to represent well in round 2.

Thanks, man!

BTW, tis was an extremely fun learning experience for me and glad that I took part. So, mwillustration - go kick some R2 arse!

**strych9ine** · February 11th, 2008, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by rustikof

hey..uhh...cody...i'll take your spot!

Is it cool for us to post these in FF for critiques/criticisms?

Sure thing man, all I ask is that entries aren't posted until after they are posted in the big finish thread. Post away where you will!

**rustikof** · February 11th, 2008, 06:17 PM

NICE i'll selectively hear what I want to hear and assume you were talking about the first part of my previous post. YES!!! VICTORY!!...

alas, it is not to be. thanks sir!

**Pan** · February 11th, 2008, 09:48 PM

Originally Posted by bluefooted

Also, Pan, your pic is my desktop now - one of my absolute favorites out of all the matches!

Wow! Thanks! That made my day

Yes, I'm sad that it's all over for me, but I had a good time, and came out with a piece I'm pretty happy with. I knew I was in for a hell of a fight when I saw thom's website, but congrats man. You earned it.

Thanks, cody, for all the hard work. Looking forward to the next round.

**Vorace** · February 11th, 2008, 09:58 PM

mwillustration grats! I had fun doing this... now must wait 1 year before LMS IV !

**BRAT_777** · February 12th, 2008, 02:34 PM

When do we do round two? What's the topic?? Are we there yet? I have to go to the bathroom!!!

**ceberae** · February 15th, 2008, 08:41 PM

Ok, I'm a bit late and the train has long been gone, but I still wanted to chime in with a congrats to those who made it through to round two!

**romance** · February 17th, 2008, 08:13 PM

WTF? How the hell did I advance to Round 2. Seriously.

Thanks Firefly, Cartoonfox, and Conceptcreature for dishing out some stiff competition.

And thanks all for the kind comments.