3rd Annual Halloween Art Contest (Results)

Wurms looked a lil ... off? But that was damn cute.

I can understand arena net giving props to the people who made costumes, that would take a lot of work. Making a costume and putting pictures of myself in it online is way to nerdy for me tho, for those of you with the confidence to do it, good for you. thanks for all the compliments on my piece, ima check the timing on my email to make sure i submited it on time. Good point aera, costumes are part of halloween, but they are also for larping.
PS: i've never larped, and never will
PSS: why do i need a question in my post?

for this one i barley see any halloween resembelance, and zero GW resembelance.http://www.guildwars.com/events/cont.../mention13.php. Random emo drawing ftw??

Other than that they all looked fine, dressing up is very halloweenish .

Who are you? o.o; how do I know you?
Hieee I'm Alasadair Devorian in GWs ^_^

about costume not being art.... ummm.... if this is the case, why do they have concept artists to make so many costume designs so your chars can look different and unique... why do people pay so much for name brands... all clothing starts as a drawing.. a costume is art all art is subjective.... So, you don't like costumes... don't bash other peoples hard work :P Costumes take planning creativity (how do you expect to defy gravity to make some costumes? carefully placed wiring.....)

My costume was a complete and total rush job haha it took me an hour to an hour and a half to make (I got fabric the morning of the deadline... damn mail and dorms don't cooperate ;p) I also picked that photograph location specifically as it looks most elonaesque of my neighborhood, I mailed in 4 emotes and they chose to display that pondering one, it was fun ^_^ and next year my costume will be much better ;p;p

That's just too cute!! Those 2 kids are adorable, and I really loved the whole family concept. Grats!!

Good job.
Didn't congratulate you while I was pissing and moaning about Error 7s.

ah, art is just that way....let me tell you with an MA in it ----the real world is just the same:
You think you busted your butt off to get the best dang piece (I spent just as much time on my entry as many of the costumers--and have made costumes from scratch in the past as well) and then you see that this year was "its a costume art" contest....and you didnt get that announcement so you dont even place while others you see are clearly very, well not to be rude, 'easy' pieces.
Like has been said its all the judges and since we have no idea what kind of background they have (they could have just grabbed some guys from the mail room with high school diplomas!) we have no idea what they wanted or what the criteria was for their judging......its a crap shoot at best.

(yeah I am a bit upset as well seeing as I didnt even place and yes I do actually have an MA in art, yes I use it as a dart board most of the time--and no it was NOT in graphic arts! )

i've got to agree with diddy, that was a pretty lame peice. cosy is right tho, it's all up to the judges, that would be cool if arena net had the gamers judge tho.(that would be pretty tedious with hundreds of entries tho.)

Mini Gwen ftw! Great entries. I loved the winner. The Candy Corn Jack O'Lantern is my second fav. I loved carving pumpkins as a kid but my pumpkins always turned out somewhat...lame.

It's not posted. Here's the link to my entry.

I dunno about Anet but my definition of art is not costumes, but that is my opinion, just an opinion

Congratz to all the won

Here was my entry

http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?i...lpaper2id3.jpg

From http://www.guildwars.com/events/cont...007/rules.php:

I dunno, that looked pretty clear to me. :: shrug ::

And "sketch a costume by hand or on the computer" means "copy our work"?

I like your entry. keep up the good work, hope you win next time.

Ok I'm going to chuck my oar in on this one. Im a tailor, and make costume for the stage, my partner is a designer, who has worked on TV shows, stage productions, and made more sets and costumes than I can remember. With that said, making a costume in my mind is no more an art form than being a builder, while I often look at somthing Ive made with a strong sense of pride, and consider it a minor work of art, I know that its not.
The design that I made yes would qualify, I have sat down, put ink to paper and created somthing from scratch using my imagination and created a traditional form of art. Anything that comes after that is on par with being a mechanic. I draft my patterns over the course of an hour or two, cut my pannels, and then sew them together.
If the entrants had made origional works, designed the costume in full without simply copying from existing art work, I may have a little more respect for them, but atleast the other entrants used thier imaginations.

One of my in-laws sent this in. I might be biased but I thought it was funny. I guess the judges didn't get all the jokes. LOL. It still cracks me up...

I just want to point out that you don't have to be great at drawing/sculpting/painting, or be good at sewing, or even be good at baking or cake decorating or anything to actually win something.

Believe me on this, I'm not great at any of those things, but I still placed as a finalist. I spent a whopping $20 on supplies, half an hour in the kitchen, and maybe an hour tops on everything else (including the very bad Photoshop work).

I've seen some entries that even I would consider to be more "artistic" than mine that didn't win, so I have come to the conclusion that I must have won something simply because they either a) felt sorry for me or b) no one else submitted anything similar to my entry. I didn't do anything spectacular, and I parodied a T.V. commercial to boot (which does fall within the guidelines and the law btw).

Here's a link to my entry. I do expect flaming to ensue, either to me or to Anet for deeming it worthy of a prize.. or possibly both.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5...stentryro3.jpg

I liked yours.

50 ecto to come and cook for me
good work!!!

Wow, if that took you that little to cook all that and put it together, you must mutlitask a lot. Just looking at it, it looks like you spent near five hours at least. Great job!

BTW did you ever eat that XD?

Oh hell no. But then... I actually know what it's made of.

That should of been the cover of Factions!!!1

(Since I won with the costume entries I know a bunch of the flack is directed at me, so yes I am taking some of these comments personally and why I feel the need to defend it.)

Unkillable Cat, since tailoring is something you do as a career it isnt suprising that it is also something you now take for granted. For an average fan the undertaking to take something from a digital game and give it a physical form is a great task that does involve a lot of creativity. Especially when some of these things are so unrealistic. I have never seen a fabric that can flail out so far while spinning yet when the person is relaxed have no bunching like for the dervishes. The GW team made some great models in a CG world but it is the artistic fans that took those and brought them to the physical world. You say you think your work is minor art yet then say it isnt, so I am not clear on where you truely stand. Is it just not art if it is someone else doing it?

For all those that are saying constructing a costume based off an ingame armor shows no creativity, is not their original idea, and so is not art:
* (This is a general art remark) The bronze horse statue at the college must not be art either because they didn't take the photographs of the horse they referenced and they sure were not the mare that foaled it. Yet it is considered art. Thats what the costume makers did... they referenced something in a game and they brought it to life in a new physical material.
* The pictures with a Lich, Gwen, Mad King, etc should not be valid either because they are just copying someone elses creations. It's not thier own original characters, correct? Yet those are art because they took that someone elses creation and altered, constructed or just used it. Is making a physical representation of the Melandru statue original? Not really but it looks darned good! And when pumpkins were added to it is now Halloween themed! Why is that acceptable but making a costume for a costume wearing holiday isnt? Guess we all should have put more pumpkins in our pictures.....

This contest was "crafting Halloween art with a Guild Wars theme". If someone made an armor costume of their own design and sent that in people would complain that it isnt Guild Wars related. Making a trick or treating costume that is already in game makes it identifiably GW themed. My entry's concept was "Trick or Treating, Guild Wars style". Obsidian derv and necro plus their minipets quite fits that.

So please, stop with the ''costumes aren't art and don't deserve to be up there'' junk. It is (to what degree is a personal opinion, but it is), they are, so please stop picking on or trashing people just because your personal taste differs.

QFT.

I think of creating costumes based on existing designs as an exercise in creative problem-solving. What materials should I use? How can I drape this fabric in a way that looks most like the physically impossible in-game model? I can't find thin leather, how do I mimic that? What looks like small bones, but isn't actually bone? How can I make this totally seamless garment actually wearable? Etc., etc., etc. Perhaps if one has infinite funding and time, it would be a piece of cake, but working in the constraints that most of us have, a costumer has to get, well... creative.

**********
Totally unrelated, obastable, that is wicked sweet! (Even if you wouldn't eat it...) XD

The winner.. that asuran baby.. TOO ADORABLE!! xD


[Edit]

The moment I saw this picture.. reminded me of this wallpaper I saw on deviant art i believe?
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/4004/39640651mc3.jpg

/shrug

Some may not understand what you've written, but obviously we do. The amount of detail in the costumes is easily equal to and very often exceeds that involved in a drawing, a piece of sculpture, or the many other fine pieces that placed in the contest. The "Halloween theme" is especially supportive of costume-as-art. I would trust that professional artists are very good judges of art, so I'm comfortable with where they placed the entries.

That is exactly what we did. If you count the number of winners you'll see a precise division of five and five, and the grand prize winner was chosen from the top 11.

But they are not just "dressing up as a character." They're taking time and trouble and effort to make the costume in which they dress up. One contestant put in time over months to finish the costume. What, did you think those things are sold at Costco?

If you believe that, then anyone dressed as a vampire is "copying the work" of Bram Stoker, and no one should be a witch, because they surely didn't conceive of a black conical hat accessorized by a black cat and cauldron. Every piece of art that uses a Guild Wars character is "copying our work." Please, don't be so unfair!

In 90% of the cases, they used Guild Wars art in their art. How is there a difference? Is fabric less than paper? Those people drawing Ritualists and Necromancers are not doing something from their own mind; they're interpreting the art of Guild Wars artists, as are the costume makers.

Please note the poem -- it's quite evocative and seasonally-appropriate. The entry did not consist solely of a photoshopped piece of art.

No, you didn't miss something, and I did send the web team the list, but they did not post it on Tuesday. It's there now, and apols for the delay.

What a nice thing to post. Thank you!

LOL! At the little kid the Asura outfit! That's the best thing I've seen in a lonnnnnng time!

Also loved the pic of Grenth.

Fist off, my remarks are not aimed at you but the majority of teh costumes that were placed as finalists.

As to what I said, it was I belive that I sometimes view it and feel like its a minor work of art but know that its not. One example is of a woman that came to me last year, her figure was almost shapeless to the point that her own description of it was "like a boys body" but wanted a corseted outfit for her boyfriends army ball. I was given the brief "like a spanish harlet but classy, and no steel boning" using every trick I knew, and learning a few along the way I managed not only to make her look like a classy harlet (yes a contadiction of sorts) but she went away looking like a woman in every sense of the word, with hips, curves and a bust to be proud of. I spent 2 weeks designing, buying and making this one outfit. While it was a labour of love and a minor feat of engineering reguardless of my feelings it could never be considered art. I could comment on the construction of your armours and give advice on materials but its not required.

The horse statue, without seeing which one in particular your refering to is a little tricky to counter but... The creator of the sculpture would have considered a dozen and one things when they created it. What space was it going to be in, how would the lighting effect his choice of materials, what did the sculpture say about the area it was placed, what pose would the horse have, and what would that pose communicate. I could keep going but you get the idea.
None of the people who used the games CG assets placed as finalists and only one made it as an hounorable mention, but they filled the breif perfectly "Halloween art with a guild wars twist" they created a pumpkin head using only skill icons, yes its crude and a little naieve but its still art.

The definition of art is to express the essence of somthing in a creative medium. Most of the costume entries could have just as easily been set on a snowy background and called a guildwars christmas. Only one costume that made it to be featured, and fills the brief set, only made it as an honourable mention, and as much I hate to call a hip thrusting warrior art this it is art: http://www.guildwars.com/events/cont.../mention20.php
It is instantly recognisable as a warior, complete with pumpkin crown and the pose of the photograph qualifys it as art, since by hip thrusting he is expressing the commonly recognised essence of a wammo.

No idea what that has got to do with what I said.

Most cosplayers copied your work and did nothing else, they didn´t try to put in a Halloween context. Or as Unkillable Cat said: "Most of the costume entries could have just as easily been set on a snowy background and called a guildwars christmas."

That is the difference between the costumes and the picture from Zav, he put those chosen, copied characters into a Halloween context.

Congratulations everybody, i like the person dressed up as a paragon, the mini gwen girl and the melandru statue personally.




But maybe that's just me.

I don't know why there is so much whining that costume entries won a Halloween contest.

What happens at Halloween? Kids dress up in scary costumes and go trick or treating. Adults dress up in scary costumes and go to costume parties.

The costumes of the winning entry fit a Halloween brief simply by BEING scary costumes! They don't need anything else to put them into a Halloween context. The winning entry also brings in the family and kids element too.

Had these same costumes won a Christmas themed contest, I could understand people getting upset, but for a Halloween competition, they are absolutely deserving winners.

lol QFT
Yeah because costumes are not art... huh?

Mini Gwen & Asura Child freaking own all.

That was the whole point of my post try reading it.

Should've slapped a skull on it and colored it black, then enetred it, probs would have been a finalist xd.

a list of names, well we are getting somewhere (now I KNOW I didnt win since I dont see anything similar to my name in the list) however, would like to see what the heck these people did to get on the 'list' now please show the entries of the finalist as well, ok?????????

[and I still think that they should break the contest up into 2 parts if they are going to award half of the winners (6 of 11) to a small group of costumers (hm and finalists dont seem to be winners in gaile's view)----give them a whole contest to themselves, please!!!! That way the artists and the costumers are not fighting for the same recognition and half of this thread would have never even existed!!!!---especially since if you look at the pics of those on the guildwars site you will notice that of the 20 hm only 4 are costumes, the other 16 are art....so it seems that if you made a costume you were more likely to get into the winners than if you just made art from what I have seen on the guildwars site of the winners and hm-s listed, this may change if they post the pics of the finalists as well, or it may just reinforce what I already said, but that's to be seen, we hope]

In a literal sense, Finalists are not winners, that is correct. We show extra regard for our contestants by having invented the category and giving the prize. Honorable Mentions are not winners, either, but are judged on a higher level than Finalists. We show the Winners and the Honorable Mentions to give more recognition. We could show only Winners, of course. We will not be placing the 71 Finalist entries on the web page.

My team works exceptionally hard to design, execute, and support the community contests. From writing contest pages, to getting legal reviews (and trying, every time, to broaden the scope of the contest), to working until past 10 at night sorting entries, to sending a personal email to every winner, HM, and finalist, to packaging and shipping physical prizes where a simple code would have been more than enough, to every other element that few, if any, even know about, nor care about. Which is just fine, really.

Just know that in the end, the contests are well received, the team has fun seeing the fruits of your labour, and we go above and beyond to reward players in meaningful ways.

I doubt winning had anything to do with if it was a costume or not... winning is based on what the judges saw in your entry.. so stop griping about costumes! halloween is all about costumes in america... costumes candy and booze... lol at least thats how it is in college.. I had fun making a costume... if they do the xmas contest again I wont be doing a costume :P I'll do a drawing as thats more appropriate.. don't worry about the winners its been done and chosen so get over it if you didnt win dont trash talk the people who did >_>

to Cospfiep: I know you said you aren't going to put your entry up because you don't want the criticism. But I really want to see your entry. Please please please?

Let me put Darksun's comment through the sarcasm filter "Yeah (rolling eyes) because costumes are not art... huh? (rolling eyes)" You say you make costumes and in your heart you consider them art of work but you tell yourself they are not. Well which is it? Art or not art? Search your feel you know the truth.

I had some people ask to see bigger versions of the pics, so for everyone that was interested I added a few here along with explaining the work put into it.
http://hw2007.kirins.net/details