OFFICIAL THREAD TO COMP CAN BE FOUND
HERE!
I'M CHANGING THIS TO A DISCUSSION THREAD FOR THE COMP WHERE YOU CAN TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES AND TO THE MENTORS! ORIGINAL MESSAGE IS BELOW.
****************************
Hi all! I'm antebellum, and you may have seen me crop up around the forums a whole lot lately. I'm one of the co-editors of Just Sims Magazine, and among other duties, I'm also responsible for creating the design and layout of every single page, as well as ordering and uploading to the internet.
I started modeling only about 2 months ago, but I've come leaps and bounds since my first entry. What I've noticed in these amazing modeling competitions is that they can come off as rather intimidating to newcomers. Not the hosts! The hosts are AMAZING and always so helpful in helping us grow! But sometimes it can be hard to have confidence in yourself when you have limited editing/photography skills and you see so many other Simmers entering amazing photographs that look so professional!
So the idea I pitched to the staff of Just Sims Magazine is to do a modeling competition that is ONLY FOR BEGINNERS. It's fine if you've entered other contests, but you have to have either been eliminated early on, placed pretty low, or just feel inadequate in your editing skills. OR you might be someone who's always loved to watch the contests but never felt confident enough to join up!
And if you're just lurking or feel you're too advanced for the comp, feel free to try out some techniques you've never seen or tried before. Just because you're not competing doesn't mean you can't learn something new!
The competition would be NON-ELIMINATION. The goal is to grow as a photographer and as an editor, and you can't do that if you've been eliminated after the first assignment!
Each assignment, I will post a tutorial on a particular skill and ask you to execute that skill. I will try to keep it GIMP and Photoshop-friendly. Photoshop is expensive and usually anyone who owns it received the copy free through a relative or through friends. GIMP on the other hand is completely free and takes up little disk space. Neither program uses a lot of CPU, so it likely will not bog down your computer if you are running a lower-end PC, which many of us are! You will be scored on your ability to follow the tutorial and execute, but in this competition, the scoring exists only to let you know how well you're grasping the concept. In the end, we will place your beginning shot with your finale shot and the judges will decide who has best improved.
Things you might learn in this comp include:
Pose Player usage
Basic editing
Filters & Effects
Lighting & Backgrounds (in-game)
Taking an outdoor shot
Hair Stock usage
Advanced editing
Pose creation
and more!
Depending on the complexity of the assignment, you may be given up to TWO WEEKS to accomplish your photograph. But fret not, we will start easy and work our way up. The purpose of this comp is to improve your skills and boost your confidence!
So I'm putting it out there, to see who might be interested in such a thing! If I can get at least 10 people interested, then I will set up the comp and away we'll go!
And did I mention the whole comp will be featured in Just Sims Magazine and the winner ("Most Improved", though you will all hopefully be very improved!) will get their own spread?
INTERESTED PARTIES:
1. lovebirdelounor
2. bubblegum17
3. brunettesimgirl
4. WissaWolf
5. jojo784379
6. lijahlexi123
7. mmitchel
8. CraigyBoy2 §
9. lexidarling123
10. easypeaze §
11. OceanRose56
12. 1423smile
13. TearsDropFast §
14. bongani §
§ = Survey answers received!
Comments
To everyone whose new to modeling or old (not that old, like Bebs or Chell old XD It's a compliment Meaning they're too advanced ;-;), I'd recommend this ! It's a great stepping stone ^^
Seriously, when I joined modeling forums I wish something like this was here because practically every single talking person in this forum scared the hell out of me and I was practically on my knees XDD Take advantage of this~!!
@Antebellum Mind if I spread the word about this on Tumblr; I think it'd bring a lot of newcomers to the forums? Or did JS Magazine already make a post? (If so I'll reblog it ;3)
OH MY GOD. O.O.O.O!!! I'm actually teaching a few people the basics with photography and I admit I'm having trouble because there's like 4 of them! I'm going to direct them to here !
Thanks so much for your comment! It's good to know I wasn't the only one who felt intimidated and a little lackluster in comparison to the amazing editors entering the same comps as myself.
Heyyyy ^^ Call me Angel I can't wait till this starts
@Antebellum Great I'll set up a post about this now !!
They are hidden in the mist and in the silver rain...
I am Tylersimslove On tumblr. I am fairly new to the simblr/Sims community. I wanted to learn how to edit for a while now. I love seeing everyone's pictures. I would love to join and learn how to improve my skills.
Hi tyler~ It's Azurexangel from tumblr ^-^!! or just call me Angel Glad the post got some tumblr users interested Spread ze word
But remember, the "winner" or "winners" will be based on "Most Improved." It has nothing to do with the quality of your work throughout the competition, but rather the difference between the very first shot and very last (you should be able to see a very obvious difference in quality). So if you are slightly at an advantage, we would see more of a refinement of skill between images rather than a huge improvement, if that makes any sense.
I'm pretty shy, so I think I'll be too nervous to actually enter the competition. If all the assignments and tutorials are public, then I'll for sure follow along on my own.
As a general note to anyone else who might be nervous about entering: There will hopefully be a lot of new people on here, and it will be in the rules that nobody can be negative with each other (this is a rule I have seen in every single competition I've looked at or participated in), but I have never ever seen a Simmer get nasty with or intentionally put down a fellow competitor or general Simmer. In fact, this is probably the nicest group of people I've ever been around. We judge on a strict constructive criticism basis. I've entered horrendous photos before and the judges had nothing but nice things to say as well as very constructive tips meant to guide me rather than discourage me.
For anyone else who decides to follow along rather than participate, please, feel free to post any photo you're proud of accomplishing as a result of the tutorials I'll be posting for each assignment! You don't have to compete to post photos!
I will definitely be following along, thanks for doing this!