(Second Annual) Lilim Design Contest (End Discussion)

Chowwow · Last edited by Chowwow on Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:24 am; edited 1 time in total

Welcome to our final day of Awards Week for the Second Annual LDC! These are the most prestigious Awards of this Contest, rewarding the heart and soul of a Character and acting as testaments of a Designer's talents.

The Award for Best Presentation was rewarded to the Character that was presented in an attractive and enjoyable way. Attention was paid to format, grammar, use of word play, illustrations and the like.

Our top nominees were:

Avatar of Dreams with Makie Horie
Formless One with Commander Spencer Lemel Draper

And the winner is:

Avatar of Dreams for Makie Horie

The cliché that a picture says a thousand words applies here, and in Avatar's case he's got 4000 already on top of his Character's profile. The profile itself was formatted quite well and the use of spoiler tags for the pictures was well appreciated, allowing one to zip right through it and carefully digest all of its information at once. The writing itself was nothing special and simply informative, but it was the artwork that conveyed who Makie really was. Not just for eye-candy, the art allowed one to really grasp her personality and character. From the silly comic detailing her exploits to her shocked look upon gazing on Unit-02, we get a feel as to how Avatar's Character fits in the greater whole of NGE.

One Judge simply wrote:

Avatar's artwork was superb.

Another wrote:

A little art goes a long way, as does a sense of style in the presentation. AoD's Makie left something to be desired in the writing quality, but the effort put into the accompanying art can't be denied.

A Judge for the artwork wrote:

I'm giving this to AoD because he is one of only two people in this contest to have proper artwork (the other being Agentomega), and because it seems he took [the idea of integrating] a comic page into the entry and ran with it. No wordy descriptions, no prose. In those comic panels we learn more about Makie Horie than I personally think I could convey in a thousand words, and I think that should be rewarded.

Formless One won kudos for his simple yet brilliant take on his presentation. Quite the opposite of his entry for last year, he opted for a tell-all interview of the Commander Draper with the audience, detailing the mysterious aspects of his life and how it was impacted by SEELE. It's not flashy but it is quite stylish, and though it was edged out by Avatar's more all-aspect profile, it's a highlight as to the kinds of creative ways one can present their Character in this Contest.

One Judge wrote:

Formless One edges out the rest for the very well delivered 'in character' presentation style.

Another Judge wrote:

I found Formless One's mode of presentation something new and very interesting.

The Award for Best Design was presented to the Character that was the most interesting or attractive psychical design. Attention was paid to illustrations and/or detailed text descriptions of the Character.

Our top nominees were:

Omegagouki with Isha Telmut
UrsusArctos with Erica Ranger
Avatar of Dreams with Makie Horie

And the winner is:

Omegagouki for Isha Telmut

Despite not having an actual illustration for his entry and the fact that his description of her covered only a few short paragraphs, Omegagouki won this Award for his vision of a visually distinct Character. Invoking images of Revy from Black Lagoon in some ways, Isha's description is unique in her style; her wardrobe unassuming and bristling with guns and body adorned with interesting tattoos. Not like any NGE character, she stands out among the secret agents and teenagers (or a combination of the two) in this Contest's history.

One Judge for Isha wrote:

Isha has a great sense of style ... , if perhaps a little overkill on the tats.

Another for Isha wrote:

I'm tempted to give this to Makie Horie again due to the artwork, but it seems like Omegagouki really paid a lot of attention to the design of his character, and tried to add a touch of uniqueness. The descriptive text he used is quite specific and detailed, which is good. Its a shame he couldn't actually draw this character, but oh well.

Erica's design was noted for being very unique and descriptive as well, invoking images of an ungainly, unsightly, and unhappy girl. With a robust build, modified plug suit and strange birth defects, Erica is a subversion to the model-esque females we are used to seeing in NGE.

Some might think that Avatar would have gotten away with this Award pretty soundly. After all, Makie's descriptions and illustrations are quite attractive and high quality. But behind all the gloss and glamor, and Avatar's raw skill in drawing, Makie's design is actually quite generic and may have the some of the least distinguishing features of any Character in the Contest. Her shape and patterns strongly channel Asuka's design (in contrast to last year, where his early rendition of Yae strongly channeled Rei), making her design and her role seemingly redundant. Makie is beloved, but she is a very typical design.

This Judge on Isha and Erica wrote:

These two went the furthest to deliver a character who really stands out, but Ursus gets the nod from me because he managed to make me feel a little sorry for Erica.

This Judge mainly for Avatar of Dreams wrote:

Avatar's artwork speaks a million words. That's a pretty nice art design, too. Omega, in the absence of artwork, has quite a nice description of Isha, but I prefer Avatar's art.

The Award for Best Story was rewarded to the Character with the most engrossing, interesting, or memorable story.

Our top nominees were:

UrsusArctos with Erica Ranger
Formless One with Commander Spencer Lemel Draper
Holy Diver with Kasuga Yamakaze

And the winner is:

Formless One for Commander Spencer Lemel Draper

Finally Formless One nabs an Award, and it is rightly earned. Cmdr Draper's profile uniquely hits two (or three) birds with one stone by describing his background as it fits into Formless One's rendition of the SEELE conspiracy. A story spanning a lifetime, about spy intrigue, friendship, revelation and desperation, the Commander's life and times makes for an interesting read and a primer for a much grander tale that Formless One apparently has in store.

A Judge for Cmdr Draper wrote:

Cmdr Draper's tale of global conspiracy and his struggle to bring it to light is far and away the most cohesive narrative in the contest.

A Judge commending Formless One's writing wrote:

Very impressed by the story and presentation. Kudos to him, again.

Erica received attention for having a tale that didn't take much suspension of disbelief to get over. UrsusArctos managed to make it so that people could feel for Erica and care about her horribly disadvantaged ordeal. Holy Diver's story for Kasuga was quite rich without disturbing the timeline too much. A journey onto the path of a natural-born sociopath with ties with the upper echelons of SEELE, Kasuga's story was intriguing, thought not to the levels of Cmdr. Draper's.

A Judge for Erica wrote:

Of the rest, Erica's story is the least tl;dr-prone and avoids things 'just happening'

The Judge for Kasuga wrote:

He's just like Isha, only without so many plot holes. The other characters are a little too sparse on plot, and Shirou just takes the episodes of the show and adds a character who does not affect the story until late into it.

The winner for Best in Contest was given to the Character who was the best designed and well-rounded individual in the entire Contest. Everything from story, presentation, illustrations, etc were weighed together to find the ultimate winner.

Our top nominees were:

Avatar of Dreams with Makie Horie
Formless One with Commander Spencer Lemel Draper
UrsusArctos with Erica Ranger

And the winner is:

Avatar of Dreams for Makie Horie

Who would have thought it? Makie wins the overall best Award for a combination of things: her profile's outstanding Presentation, attractive design, and simple story that belies a greater sense of humanity. The differing styles of the three body illustrations highlight very differing facets of her character: from a silly and mischievous, to shocked and horrified, to a concerned and close friend. Makie may not have been a major character nor did she have a really deep and involved plot, but Avatar of Dreams did make us feel like we got to really know her after seeing her profile.

A Judge for Makie wrote:

Surprisingly, less is more. Also proves that a picture is worth a thousand words. I get the feeling that she has the most depth to her character, despite not having a huge, epic tale to go with her. Everything she does seems to have a purpose and furthers her character's development from a mischievous cheat to a very good friend.

A Judge for both nominees wrote:

Can't decide which one is better, but these two impressed me the most, and their characters aren't bad at all either.

Formless One's Commander Draper was a close second for this Award. Like Makie, we were able to get a sense that we came to know him just by reading his entry. The format and unique presentation allowed all of the information about his history, motivations, and life to flow right through you and stick. His entry allowed someone to really get a feel for his world.

Erica got a vote because her story was short, sweet, and allowed you to really sympathize with her. The entry did not over-extend itself with descriptions over everything she did. Rather, it described what her world was like and really set up just how really unfair her life came to be. Though it was not quite that rich of an entry, Erica did resonate with the Judges through out this entire Contest.

A Judge for Erica wrote:

Erica is the entrant that, upon re-reading, does the best job overall in making me actually care about her. The rest have interesting things going on around and to them, but her silent suffering hooks me in a way the other's just don't.

He also made a good point when he wrote:

Formless One tells an excellent story around Draper, but that's ultimately his downfall: I want to know more about the conspiracy, not that character.

This is not all for Awards, stay tuned for more! Also, feel free to post your afterthoughts on this Contest, and discuss the future of the LDC!

_________________
Live, Fight, and Die!

Now Judging for the EvADC!
The LDC soon!

Formless One · Evangelion Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Location: Universe M801d

I'm not sad to only win one award. In fact of all the awards I could get, "best story" is the one which makes me the most proud. Thanks guys.

Now I'm just afraid I wont live up to your expectations when I finally write that fanfic!

_________________
[/opinion]
My (fan-)fiction — My art

My 1337'th post.

NemZ · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:18 am Post subject:

In retrospect, I wish I had used a few different screenshots to fit in the other bridge crew somewhere... say, Maya's hand/splash for best death and Hyouga gripping his manga for best story, maybe? Oh well.

The certificate-style awards might have worked better if I just made them all with black ink and added a color overlay to the paper instead... hmm.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Congratulations!

_________________
Take a rest, Asuka...

"IGNORE ME!" - The Galactic Inquisitor

Evanglion is "the equivalent of throwing an Abnormal Psych textbook into a woodchipper, gathering up the little scraps, and pasting them together with robot violence and flaming airborne crosses." - Wax Banks

**UrsusArctos** · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:58 am Post subject:

FO: No doubt about it, you know how to write an impressive story.

NemZ: It's actually the fanservice award that surprised me, because the show has quite a few classic fanservice moments, but the one you chose was Toji and Kensuke looking at the photographs and saying something to the effect of "The photographs don't capture her lousy personality"(I forget the exact line).

Erica's performance in this contest has been way above my expectations. I certainly didn't expect two awards and three nominations!

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The main point of idiocy is for the smart to have their lulz. Without human idiocy, trolling would not exist, and that's uncool, since a large part of my entertainment consists of mocking the absurdity and dumbassery of the world, especially the Internet.-MaggotMaster

Omegagouki · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:35 am Post subject:

Holy shit, I actually won awards! THREE of them (only won one in the first ADC)! Awesome. Thanks goes to the judges, and Chowwow himself for setting up this contest.

I'll admit, though, Isha was kind of rushed in the end, and if I had spent the time to smooth out the plot holes, who knows, I might've won more (or at least gotten votes).

As to what happens to Isha after her death, well...

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**UrsusArctos** · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:59 am Post subject:

Omegagouki wrote:

I'll admit, though, Isha was kind of rushed in the end, and if I had spent the time to smooth out the plot holes, who knows, I might've won more (or at least gotten votes).

Don't fret too much, because rushing seems to help. Erica won two awards, and she was done in barely an hour and a half.

_________________
Avatar: THIS is how I say Hello!(Too bad, webuild-Shinji and Shiki)
WAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!(<-link to lunacy)...Taste me, if you can bear it. (Warning: Language NSFW)
The main point of idiocy is for the smart to have their lulz. Without human idiocy, trolling would not exist, and that's uncool, since a large part of my entertainment consists of mocking the absurdity and dumbassery of the world, especially the Internet.-MaggotMaster

NemZ · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:55 pm Post subject:

UrsusArctos wrote:

NemZ: It's actually the fanservice award that surprised me

Yeah, my overall goal there was to show reactions to fanservice, not an example of it. For a while that slot was taken by Asuka's reaction to Toji 'returning her change', but I liked this idea better... and Asuka had enough appearances in the awards already (she was also going to be on the canceled "most awards" award)

_________________
Take a rest, Asuka...

"IGNORE ME!" - The Galactic Inquisitor

Evanglion is "the equivalent of throwing an Abnormal Psych textbook into a woodchipper, gathering up the little scraps, and pasting them together with robot violence and flaming airborne crosses." - Wax Banks

Holy Diver · Arael Joined: 25 Nov 2008 Location: U.S. and A.

I got 2 and was nominated for 4, although I wasn't exactly shooting for the fanservice award (Isha should have gotten the nomination, her tatoos would give her a pleasing "alt" look). I was hoping that there would have been more entries (and thus more competition), but it was a very good turn out. I've already got some ideas for next time.

_________________
Deus Io Vult! (God wills it!)
"Get your ass in gear!" Asuka

"Catdog has an S2 engine in his stomach. He does not need to eat, and whatever he does eat is reacted with antimatter to provide endless energy." Ruthlessly stolen from anon.

NemZ · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:19 pm Post subject:

Honestly I think the best feedback would be had by asking the people who dropped out along the way. Higher turnout and people delivering on time would make for a MUCH better contest... so what got in their way, and how can we eliminate it in the future?

_________________
Take a rest, Asuka...

"IGNORE ME!" - The Galactic Inquisitor

Evanglion is "the equivalent of throwing an Abnormal Psych textbook into a woodchipper, gathering up the little scraps, and pasting them together with robot violence and flaming airborne crosses." - Wax Banks

Formless One · Evangelion Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Location: Universe M801d

UrsusArctos wrote:

Omegagouki wrote:

I'll admit, though, Isha was kind of rushed in the end, and if I had spent the time to smooth out the plot holes, who knows, I might've won more (or at least gotten votes).

Don't fret too much, because rushing seems to help. Erica won two awards, and she was done in barely an hour and a half.

The longest phase for me was the planning, which took weeks. When it finally came together typing it up took only a day or two.

_________________
[/opinion]
My (fan-)fiction — My art

My 1337'th post.

**UrsusArctos** · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:27 pm Post subject:

The concept of a manly girl has not been very far from my mind, but this particular manly girl was planned and given an identity at the last minute. Erica's unusual details (such as her extra thumb and her partial "descent" from Yui's dad) were made up along the way.

_________________
Avatar: THIS is how I say Hello!(Too bad, webuild-Shinji and Shiki)
WAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!(<-link to lunacy)...Taste me, if you can bear it. (Warning: Language NSFW)
The main point of idiocy is for the smart to have their lulz. Without human idiocy, trolling would not exist, and that's uncool, since a large part of my entertainment consists of mocking the absurdity and dumbassery of the world, especially the Internet.-MaggotMaster

Holy Diver · Arael Joined: 25 Nov 2008 Location: U.S. and A.

NemZ wrote:

So what got in their way?

Life

Quote:

How can we eliminate it in the future?

We can't without committing any felonies.

Sometimes things just happen that require one to rexamine their priorities.

_________________
Deus Io Vult! (God wills it!)
"Get your ass in gear!" Asuka

"Catdog has an S2 engine in his stomach. He does not need to eat, and whatever he does eat is reacted with antimatter to provide endless energy." Ruthlessly stolen from anon.

NemZ · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:10 pm Post subject:

I wrote Mr. Aida last year in one sitting (though I did do a few more passes for errors, inconsistencies or weak spots), though I did think about it for a while before typing anything.

_________________
Take a rest, Asuka...

"IGNORE ME!" - The Galactic Inquisitor

Evanglion is "the equivalent of throwing an Abnormal Psych textbook into a woodchipper, gathering up the little scraps, and pasting them together with robot violence and flaming airborne crosses." - Wax Banks

Formless One · Evangelion Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Location: Universe M801d

By planning I mean mostly research, by the way. I wanted to be sure I wasn't just ripping off James Bond and Indiana Jones flicks (especially on the spy stuff). As a rule I try to keep the BS in my stories much more subtle than that. It's a smile.

_________________
[/opinion]
My (fan-)fiction — My art

My 1337'th post.

Chowwow · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:45 am Post subject:

Now is the time for me to show you guys all the after-action reports.

Post-Contest Statistics:

The leaderboard for this year's Contest is as follows:

It's very interesting to note the patterns here: the number of nominations usually correlates positively with the number of Awards won, but there is always one entry with many nominations and few Awards actually won. That is to say that being nominated a lot is usually a good indicator of an Design's popularity with the Contest. However, in every Contest I've run so far, there is always one that has been found to be REALLY solid in every category, but some how does not quite make it to win a specific Award. It was like that last year with Formless One's Yae as well as NemZ's Dumah from the ADC. It's a very strange trend...

Also for this year, I really wanted to stress that people start reading the rules on the first page of the thread. There was a lot of important info there that usually could answer many of the typical questions that I had to answer personally. Since I also felt like hiding an Easter egg in plain sight, I decided to embed this onto the rules in order to encourage proper following of the rules:

It has been there since the beginning of the Second LDC. Check it out, it's still there.

The following people who spotted this were NemZ and... oh wait that was all. Ok, so it was his job basically to read the rules since he was doing the Awards for this year - he still get's kudos for following the directions properly. So to NemZ I present:

Thanks for that, NemZ. Let this be a lesson to all of you fools who join any sort of Contest without reading the rules first. You could be missing out on goodies, or signing away your soul for all you know.

And finally I would like to give final thanks to NemZ for his time and effort to producing this year's Awards, without you I may have had to put out a spread sheet list to our winners instead of a snazzy Photoshop piece of art. Fantastic work!

Stay tuned though, there is still much left to be discussed, such as: the future of the LDC, and a new, upcoming project related to the LDC that I have planned. Oh, and I still have to present my Character as well. Yikes.

_________________
Live, Fight, and Die!

Now Judging for the EvADC!
The LDC soon!

Omegagouki · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:59 am Post subject:

Oh, I saw that, I just didn't want to bother with it. I didn't want "something of it" as it was put lol.

_________________
Great, just great. Now I look like the huge, mighty king of
GUYS WHO TALK TO POSTERS! - Bowser, PM:tTYD

Now with SSI! $450 a month, bitches

Uu~! - Maria, Umineko no Naku Kro Ni

NemZ · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:38 am Post subject:

I just thought it was a joke... I mean, I assume it still is, but wow. I think I'd have given it a different name like "Read the damn rules!" award. anyway, lulz indeed.

_________________
Take a rest, Asuka...

"IGNORE ME!" - The Galactic Inquisitor

Evanglion is "the equivalent of throwing an Abnormal Psych textbook into a woodchipper, gathering up the little scraps, and pasting them together with robot violence and flaming airborne crosses." - Wax Banks

Formless One · Evangelion Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Location: Universe M801d

Chowwow wrote:

How do you miss this shit?!

By having ADD and only skimming the rules enough to understand what's expected of me as a contestant and judge without being put to sleep by the wall of text?

Yeah, really. I read them, but they could really use a trim.

Quote:

You could be missing out on goodies, or signing away your soul for all you know.

I'm the Formless One, all I've got is my soul.

_________________
[/opinion]
My (fan-)fiction — My art

My 1337'th post.

Avatar of Dreams · Lilith Joined: 05 Jul 2007 Location: 4:1:2.5

I too thought it was a joke (either that or someone hijacked your account and posted that). It's a smile.

Anyways, yay, so many awards! Looks like all the effort I put in my art paid off. Thanks to all the judges, Nemz for making the awards and congrats to all winners!

Formless One wrote:

Congrats, Avatar! er, Avatar of Dreams I mean, not the movie.

Ah, thank you old friend. Congrats to you too, your eloquent writing never ceases to amaze me.

Agentomega · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:08 pm Post subject:

NemZ wrote:

I just thought it was a joke... I mean, I assume it still is, but wow. I think I'd have given it a different name like "Read the damn rules!" award. anyway, lulz indeed.

Heh, pretty much this...

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