Castle Contest!

Sir Terrance · Post by **Sir Terrance** » Sun May 09, 2004 9:02 pm

Hi, I decided to host a contest with my site now back up and it will be a castle creature one. Basically, make a fantasy creature and e-mail me a link to a picture of it. You can read more about it here: http://www.thebrickbin.com/2004maycontestrules.htm I hope to get lots of submissions!

Skudmunky · Post by **Skudmunky** » Mon May 10, 2004 12:02 am

Sounds good. I may enter with a sea monster, as that field is generally empty. I havn't seen any LEGO sea monsters....

Now, bragging rights are nice and all, but you should also give the winner a printable certificate or poster or something. Or, you could design an inventive trophy to mail to the winner... Or even make a Ldraw trophy. Just some ideas... Now i'm gunna hafta host a contest, so I can use my ideas. Hum..... maybe later.

Sir Terrance · Post by **Sir Terrance** » Mon May 10, 2004 1:08 am

Yes, I will fix up the page as soon as I can. You will a certificate that you can print.

Edit:
Okay, I made the changes to the site. Hope to see your creations!

Skudmunky · Post by **Skudmunky** » Mon May 10, 2004 12:34 pm

Excellent. A tangible* prize always makes more people enter...

*spelled right?

Sir Terrance · Post by **Sir Terrance** » Wed May 12, 2004 3:39 am

Okay, I am ready to start making the certificate and would like to know how people would want them. Should they be a jpeg file, or a .doc file with the sizing and stuff already done?

forester3291 · Post by **forester3291** » Wed May 12, 2004 2:03 pm

I don't kknow If I will enter Sir T. I don't have a digi cam unfortnantly. I might enter though I just might

Post by **rogue27** » Wed May 12, 2004 2:44 pm

Sir Terrance wrote:Okay, I am ready to start making the certificate and would like to know how people would want them. Should they be a jpeg file, or a .doc file with the sizing and stuff already done?

It should be a PDF. Not everybody has Microsoft word, but everybody can view a PDF and print it out. Now, you can generate the certificate in MS Word if you need to, but you should save it as PDF before sending it out. If you're using Windows, you'll probably have to download some bit of freeware to add that functionality to Word. (because MS removed it a couple versions back)

If you want to make it a graphic, it should be PNG because it is lossless. Jpegs are very bad for text because of all of the compression artifacts.

If you make the certificate in a good graphics program, it will give you the option to save as PNG or PDF. If you don't have either option, you are not using a good graphics program.

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The contest rules should be more specific.

For example, "around the end of may"? You should definitely have an exact deadline. You can't be vague with something like this.

You should specify a maximum picture size. Otherwise, the people with the best digital cameras will be able to submit much better pictures. If you limit everybody to a fairly common resolution like 800x600 it will level the playing field somewhat.

All Lego contests I've ever seen have a maximum number of pictures. I would advise that as well. It saves on judging time and keeps everybody on equal footing.

You may want a maximum number of entries, mostly to save on judging time. If you limit people to 1 or 2 per category, they are going to send you their best submissions anyway, so it doesn't have any negative impact on the people who enter.

Finally, you do not state who will be judging it. Is it you? If so, you should make that clear. If it is you and a couple buddies, you should say that instead.

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Anyway, I've never built a fantasy monster before. I have no experience with this at all. I'll see what I can come up with in the next couple weeks. Should be fun.

Sir Terrance · Post by **Sir Terrance** » Thu May 13, 2004 3:15 am

Okay, everything will be fixed. I am new to this whole contest thing and just wanted to give it a try.

Sir Terrance · Post by **Sir Terrance** » Sun May 16, 2004 2:09 pm

I changed the deadline date to June 31, 2004 to give people more time.