SMASH! 2008 Character Design comp. Prose, Comic, Art - CLOSED

[Dev Kimiko]

SMASH! are proud to introduce a whole new art competition for 2008!

Flex your creative muscle in a variety of different mediums for the SMASH! Character Design Competition!


But first, a tale of two twins; the SMASH! mascots, Skadi and Cyrus:

A long time ago, before the age of Akira, a pair of twins silently arrived the earth.

Cyrus and Skadi are the 27th Prince and Princess of a small green planet in the Ota Kuu galaxy, called Sumashcomianganimelis (or “Smash” for short.) The twins received a special mission from the King of Cosmos, to spread the unique culture of the Ota Kuu galaxy to other planets and promote future tourism to their galaxy.

It wasn’t going to be an easy mission, and they soon realised they had no idea where to start! The two travelled to Earth, curious about this small green and blue planet. Little did they realise that everywhere they went, they left a piece of their culture with the people they met and the places they visited. Images and encounters which would inspire many artists, writers and animators for years to come. Far beyond their expectation, the mission became very successful.

The twins decided to tour around the world to investigate the secret behind their success. Unfortunately, they were separated and lost their way in Australia; how would they find each other now? Having lost contact with each other, Skadi soon thought of a plan to find Cyrus: if she could organise an event that could gather all the anime related people and objects in Australia, Cyrus would be there too!

She named the event SMASH!, after the planet they lived in, so Cyrus would know he could find Skadi there.

And now…

Skadi and Cyrus have been gone from their planet for a while. The King of Cosmos is beginning to worry about the state of their mission, so he has sent one of his trusted subjects to find Skadi and Cyrus and see how they are progressing with their quest to spread the culture of the Ota Kuu galaxy.

Your mission!

Design a character who will go in search of Skadi and Cyrus as they travel throughout Earth. Male, female, alien, robot, food… the interpretation is up to you!

The Prize

The winner will be presented the prize at the Awards Ceremony at SMASH on August 2nd 2008.

The prize for this competition is sponsored by:


Submission Guidelines

For this competition, you can select your medium of choice! Be creative, maybe even try something new. It’s all up to you how you want to present your character. Entries are limited to either:

• Static illustrations: 1 page, maximum 420mm x 297mm (A3)
• Comic: Minimum 2 pages, maximum 5 pages, 182mm × 257mm (B5)
• Short story/script: 750 words minimum, 1000 maximum, to be submitted as a rich text format file (.rtf)

Submit your entries via e-mail to art@smash.org.au before the convention date. See below for the full competition entry details.

Closing deadline for entries is midnight, July 15th 2008(AEST).

[Dev Kimiko]

Entry Guidelines

• The maximum rating for any entry is PG, and must comply with the SMASH! rating guidelines
• Entries will be accepted from 28th February 2008. Closing deadline for entries is midnight on 30th June 2008.
• The only criteria for the character design is that he/she/it must be on a mission to find our mascots, Skadi and Cyrus.
• Entries must be either a static illustration, a minimum two page comic or a short story/script. Please see the Submission Guidelines below for more details.
• Entries may or may not become a part of the official SMASH! mascot canon. Creators may be approached in the future by the SMASH! committee, should their original character design be desirable for use within the SMASH! mascot canon. Creators retain the rights to their original characters and may choose to deny the use of their designs beyond this competition.

Eligibility Guidelines

• Entries accepted from Australia and New Zealand residents only.
• Entries from the SMASH! Committee 2008 and its current volunteers may be posted in the Character Design Competition discussion thread, but are not eligible for entry to the competition.
• A disclaimer will be required declaring intellectual property rights to the original creator.

Submission Guidelines

• Entries should be submitted by email to: art@smash.org.au
•   * Entries are limited to either:
            o Static illustrations: 1 page, 420mm x 297mm (A3)
            o Comic: Minimum 2 pages, maximum 5 pages, 182mm × 257mm (B5)
            o Short story/script : 750 words minimum, 1000 words maximum, to be submitted as a rich text format file (.rtf)
•     * All images (for static illustrations and comics) must be submitted for judging:
            o as jpeg (.jpg) images with the dimensions specified above.
            o must have a minimum resolution of 72dpi.
            o may not exceed more than a total of 2MB.
• Written entries must be in short story or script format. We DO NOT accept character bios/data sheets.
• Once the winner is selected, they will be notified. For static illustrations and comic entries, please note that we may request a print resolution version of your entry (300 dpi).
• Please use the following submission form when sending in entries. You must provide your full name (we do not accept first-names-only or nicknames/aliases). Entries may be disqualified if the information below is not provided, or is false or inaccurate.
            o Personal Details
              Full Name:
              Contact number:
              Email address:
              Location: (Town, State/Country)
            o Entry Details
              Title:
              Medium:
              Rating: (G/PG)

Judging
Entries will be judged by a select panel on the following criteria:

• Originality
• Creativity
• Overall competency in the medium of choice

The Judges’ decision is final.

Winners will be announced on the SMASH! Website prior to the date of the convention. Prizes will be presented on the day of the convention, August 2, 2008. If the winner is unable to attend the convention, please contact the SMASH! committee at art@smash.org.au

SMASH! reserves the right to disqualify entries that do not comply to the above rules.

SMASH! takes no responsibility for the entrant’s use of copyrighted material.

If you have any questions about the guidelines or anything about the competition in general, feel free to send us an email at art@smash.org.au

[Poshua]

*Hands Up* when's the deadline?

[Dev Kimiko]

Closing deadline for entries is midnight on 30th June 2008.

'twas slightly hidden in there

[Syku]

The results of my procrastination. And Dev invited me to post and I took her up kindly on that offer 8D.
I feel like a fool. I've done no study, although my Half-Yearlies are finally over.
And I failed miserably at maths.

Out.

[Mae]

Syku: Wow, that looks good~~ I like the KH-esque shoes!

[Darek Khort]

@Syku - Really nice! Blue-man!

[Keneko-chan]

Ahh this is a really cool idea -u-~  Would it be possible to send the entry via snail mail than electronically (my computers really hate me -u-; )  Like to a shared address or something?

[arutea]

WOW Syku - I think that's pretty awesome!! =D good work!

Keneko-chan - wow... is it hard for you to upload 2MB? At the moment we only require low resolution files...

[Syku]

Thank you, Mae, Darek and Aru 8D!!
Lawl, who can guess where the map is of?
It's a bit hard so I won't be surprised if no one got it...

[Keneko-chan]

arutea  - Its just that my scanner loves to fudge up anything I upload with it, and its hard to resize

[arutea]

Ahh I see. evil scanners. Anyhow I think Nadia sent you a PM. =3 Altho you probably know that already.

But just incase anyone else has the same question then yes - we have a PO Box you can send entries to if you're having technical problems sending it to us via mail.

[Darek Khort]

It's a map of Cremorne, cause Cremorne is awesome like that.

Eh, No idea. City?

[mortisflux]

I have an idea for this, but before I get ahead of myself, I'd just like to ask something. I've reread the rules about six times now, and they haven't mentioned anything about the character having a pet, "noble steed", transportation device that you can include ... would it be alright if I drew my character riding on something as she searches for Skadi and Cyrus? (or does this just fall under creative license??)

[Dev Kimiko]

That would be totally coooool~

Yes, please use as much creative license as you like~ Include spaceships or flying mounts or pet insects or whatever you want your character to have