Hi everyone,
again, thank you for your participation and interest in this challenging contest. The judges have cast their votes now. Besides the NWDA folks and Oshyan, we would also thank our sponsor judges Stephen Schmitt and Stewart McSherry, who have both donated some really cool prizes to make this challenge even more compelling!
Before I disclose the winners, let me point out again that the voting was really a thriller for me. I've added new votes as they were cast, and some images changed places over and over again. In the end, the judges votes 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for almost all image submissions - which means that almost everyone of you who sent in their storyboards, was among some judge's top 3.
But now let's turn to the winners:
1st Place: Ulco Glimmerveen with "Garden of Eternity"Ulco's "Garden of Eternity" is of obviously high quality and detail, and has enough of a mix of terrain, vegetation, and other object elements, not to mention great variety and atmosphere, to be our top pick. The way Ulco puts together complex scenes amazes us, and there is a wonderful sense of magic and mystery in this.
2nd Place: Jani Peltola with "Ancient Valley"No matter how you look at it, it seems that Jani's "Ancient Valley" has something that pulls you in, and you can imagine flying across this beautiful landscape quite easily. We start from high above with amazing clouds rolling over a mountain summit, and consequently we descend through forests and over a lakeside. And all the time the image elements are well done and fit together nicely.
3rd Place: Greg Sandor with "Road Trip"Greg's "Road Trip" was a close challenger to 2nd place, I was afraid we might have a tie while I was summarizing the scores. It also got a few first place votes, so you can see how close this must have been. That being said it's a remarkably convincing scene, it has a mundane, almost incidental reality to it that really got us. The love and attention to details is very apparent in this storyboard, and it was a great pleasure to see it's development here on the Planetside Forums.
Lastly, I would like to sincerely thank Hannes Janetzko with his "Carribean" work, which also got decent scores from the judges, and which amazed many of us here on the forums as well. Then, Balázs Pál's "Naodel Canyon" is a beautiful work and was great fun to follow its development. Let's not forget James Fullen's "Mountain Air" and Lane Henderson's "Forgotten Forest" which both also emanate a great sense of magic. Lane must have created one of the most read forum topics of all time on this forum, I believe. With his frequent updates we really became part of the creation process
- What I really liked was Jahnu's entry to the contest. Jahnu was relatively new to this forum but despite this, he took the challenge and created his own storyboard of a fantasy world. I'm sure Jahnu you had a great experiences and learnings along the way.
Please join me in congratulating the winners and all other participants!
Best regards,
Frank
PS: Winners will be contacted for receiving their prizes.
