It's back the unofficial, official Animator Dominator Contest that began as a friendly face off between Ryco and RoTV and kind got a life of it's own. As current title holder I get to run the latest incarnation of the competition with my rules and my animation requirements.
This time around the theme is "You're never going to believe this."
Watch the launch animation at the link below - which includes links to videos explaining both your animations requirements and how the winner will be decided.
If you have any questions leave them in the comments under the relevant competition video and I'll answer them there and with a private message on your profile page.
Animations should not be published before November 16, 2009
I hope you'll all give this contest some serious consideration. I'll be giving some tips explaining strategies for winning in the next few days. It's not just about who can get the most views this time!!
Good luck and most of all have fun!!!
Thanks Mojochi - the voting system adds another layer of strategy... you don't necessarily have to vote for who you think is the best... I'll elaborate on that later in my tips.
Thanks Ro and Audacity... Truth is I had a much better way of presenting the Animation Requirements and Winning Criteria planned (animated TET talking you through it with my voice) but it all became too much work and scrapped it for the simple approach. Learning a new respect for those of you that add voices or custom sound tracks to your animations. That stuff is time consuming!!
I'm maybe considering pondering the possibility of theoretically thinking of entering this or future contests- depending on whether my announcing it is discouraging or not.
I haven't been involved in this since the original...which I LOST! LOL Maybe I should consider redeeming myself. Hmmmmm. Nah, my situation outside my virtual life here really isn't conducive to me entering another contest at the moment. But I certainly will enjoy watching. :-)
@Coady: As usual, you're crystal clear about your intentions... LOL
I was planning on entering but I still didn't get a chance to watch TET's animation (I haven't got my laptop with me at the moment) with the rules and dates, so I guess is a "maybe".
Seen it, and I think I'll try to enter, it all depends on what I'll be able to do (dates are a bit too close for me). About rules... I'll have to watch it again LOL, great vid!
Tip for winning No#1: Enter the Competition!!!!!! (Tell me you knew that please!)
Tip for winning No#2: Not thinking 'it's too much work'. You only need a minimum of 1 minute of animation. You need to include the words "You're never going to believe this". Include 1 custom character, 1 custom background, 2 custom props. Must mention another GoA member with a link to their profile. Tag your animation with 'tetanimatordominator' and you're done. Publish your animation between Nov 16-23. (if your animation makes no sense at all call it an 'Art Video' if it does then clearly you know nothing about 'art' and we're all thankful for that! LOL)
Tip for winning No#3: Don't try to be too clever just tell a good story. Yes there are many great animators who can do lots of flashy stuff (pun intended) but take a look at some of Ryco's most popular animations... very little in the way of 'showy' customizations just good stories told well with the available props, characters and backgrounds.
Tip No#4: Stay within your comfort zone. For example if you like the Star Trek theme and that's all you use then adapt the competition to that theme. Don't try to do something completely different. You may already have your custom props, characters and animations made as part of your previous animations. The rules don't say your customizations have to be ones you've never used before.
Thanks TET.
I highly recommend for as many people to enter this contest as possible. The first contest was the most fun I've ever had on the site. And when we ran that contest, the rules, and judging criteria was very crude.
TET, I can tell you put a lot of time and thought into this contest. Cmon everyone, and don't let all his hard work go to waste. Enter the contest.
And I don't want to hear the BS about how "I won't win, there are too many top animators to compete against" or "I wont win, so why should I enter" TET has clearly made this contest with intentions of not just letting a top animator walk away with the title. Anyone has a shot at the most esteemed title on the site.
So put your animating face on, and make something that rocks!
Thanks for your support Ryco... I'm already hearing the 'I won't win' excuses.
This is just a bit of fun that could help you get more views and more fans simply by entering. Winning would be a bonus however with only one winner the odds of winning are just as low for even the best GoA animators.
Just remember everyone...this is supposed to be FUN. Win or lose, the entire contest is all about fun. A prize less title...quirky rules...great entries. Have fun creating the animations...have fun watching the animations...have fun scoring the animations. Let's keep the nastiness and trolling that often appears in contests like this out of this one. TET has obviously put a lot of thought into this one and it has the potential to be the best, fairest, and most fun of all the Animator Dominator Contests. I look forward to seeing many great entries. :-)
LOL...well, thanks for that Johnny...but I won't be entering. I just plan on viewing and enjoying. I can live with my title as the original Animator Runner-Upinator. ;-)
Well, I will enter, I had fun with the Halloween contest, and I plan on having fun with this one! I guess we should ask the staff not to pick a "Staff Pick" when the animation is tagged for the contest? You're the boss here TET, I don't know if you agree...
@CoadyTNP: I agree, Ro can win even without submitting any animation... unless he shaves his beard... that's the source of his powers! :)
... and as for me, I don't have any idea for the contest yet, but something will come out!
If you go to TET's page, you will see he prepared some animations stating the details of the contest. That should give you all the info you need. One is also a staff pick, and hopefully that will get this awesome contest some good attention.
LMAO @ gypsy's fixation on my beard. Actually, it's just a goatee...when I grew the full beard the powers were just too overwhelming that I couldn't control them so I trimmed it back. LOL
And I truly believe TET's contest is going to rock!
You're never going to believe this but once upon a time Maine was actually connected to Nova Scotia by land, but when Ro's beard grew in it actually ripped apart and made the bay of Fundy. Ro ran out of beer & ladies that night :P
Since we've firmly established that Ro is going to win whether he enters or not we can put all this "I won't win" sentiment behind us and just have some fun. The rest of you will be competing for the not quite so shiny title of Animator Runner-Upinator (which obviously will be vacant now that Ro is going to win) ;-) LOL
@Bob thecreater - if you read my number 2 tip for winning above I describe the least you have to do to have a valid entry. You can of course do more but your animation may be no longer than 3 minutes (and no shorter than 1 minute).
So long as you tag your entry with 'tetanimatordominator' and publish it no earlier than Nov 16 (or later than Nov 23) I'll find it.
There probably will be a thread in the forum to post links to your entries but really how you promote it is up to you - remember your base score before voting is how many views you can get - so post links to your animations everywhere you can think of after the publishing date.
Thanks to all of you for your support of this contest thus far. I'm really hoping to see a good range of entries. I'll be posting some more tips within the next few hours so be sure to keep check back on this thread.
As suggested in the Promotion Animation this contest has more strategies to win. Here are just four:
Strategy No#1: The I'm That Awesome Method. Simple... you're so awesome not only can you command the views but everyone who enters will immediately realize their Awesomeness pales in comparison to yours and will vote for you. (Ro appears to have refined this method to a whole new level of awesomeness where competition entry is optional).
Strategy No#2: The My Friends/Fans Think I'm Awesome Method. Do your GoA friends and fans think you're a great animator but you haven't quite reached site wide Awesomeness status yet? Recruit your friends and fans to watch and share your animations around. Ask your most Awesome friends to enter a valid entry into the competition. It doesn't have to be great it just has to be valid. Then ask them to vote for your entry. If you can get just 5 people enter and vote for you that's 100 additional points!
Strategy No#3: The Staff Pick Method. Staff picks are a legitimate method of getting views on GoA so I'm leaving it up staff to decide on whether they do or don't staff pick entries (so this method may not be available). For any staff reading this I'd suggest favoring staff picks towards good but lesser known GoA animators and I'd automatically exclude anyone from a staff pick who asks for their entry to be staff picked. (I don't want to see entrants hounding staff).
Strategy No#4: The Evil Genius 'Do-it-yourself' Method. This is similar to method 2 but you'll need multiple GoA accounts (at least 10 minimum 40-50 to stand a real chance of a guaranteed win). From each account you'll need to enter a valid entry into the competition (again it doesn't have to be great just valid). Next you'll need to choose one of your animations as the one you want to win. Now use all your other accounts to share that animation around, and to vote it as the winner.
These are just some of the strategies I've come up with if you can think of others let me know or keep it to yourself and try it. I'd suggest you steer clear of Evil Genius Methods though... Creating a ton of multiple accounts could get you booted from the entire site as a spammer.
For anyone contemplating the Evil Genius method... I've got 1000 Non flying, computer literate, winged monkeys for sale... (if you don't know what I'm talking about... never mind - insider joke). LOL
Apparently there are people with multiple accounts (yeah I know shocking revelation right LOL) I'm just trying to show I'm catering to everyone - even people with 80+ accounts (so I've heard).
@PandaBoy2 - the final scores will determine placings so technically yes there will be 2nd and 3rd place but the competition is about winning a title - to do that you need to come first. For everyone else it's just the excitement of seeing if they're good enough to win (and of course the FUN of participating!)
Nope I'm going to keep the runneruppers chained to a wall in my basement... uh... if I had a basement... oh well I guess I'll have to release them then ;-)
You'll be able to calculate the winners and runneruppers yourselves... you'll be able to see who is voting for who etc. However I will make a note of placings in the final winners announcement.
LOL...laughing my head off (NOT my a**) at my stupidity. I didn't phrase that well, did I?
Don't worry, you can borrow my attic and put it in your basement.
@Coady... somehow I think people like that can only game the system for so long then quickly get bored of their own genius once they realize how much work it takes to make yourself awesome the DIY way on a regular basis.
I think I've come up with an idea for the contest. If I get some free time this week, I'll make it into an entry. If not, I'll release it afterwards.
In any case I am on my way to setting up my 80+ accounts. Only twenty more to go. :)
Oh, one of my 90+ accounts will surely win...
Kidding, I'm really unhappy with myself that I don't have enough time right now to join in. This would be a really great contest to be a part of.
@CS4, I bet if you entered, you would have a good chance at winning. You should enter.
What is wrong with you people... you only need 40-50 accounts to guarantee a win. 80+ accounts is like saying not only do you want to win but you want to squash you're nearest rival like a bug... that's going beyond 'Evil Genius' to 'Dark Lord of Death' territory. You're all way too intense this is meant to be fun LOL
LOL @Ryco... I came so close to adding that GoA only had one Dark Lord of Death and I was, strangely, thinking of you at the time. However, I was told by some eternal optimist guy, named Luke Skywalker, that he believes there is some good in you just because he can 'feel' it... I think he was some kind of hippy flower child though so watch out for him!! ;-)
Probably too many drugs... children don't do drugs or you will believe there is some hope for Ryco. Everyone can see he's beyond salvation: the dark has him now! Mwahahahahaha (NOTE TO MYSELF: I should practice the evil laugh).
(Ryco and Ro may want to give the post a read just to make sure I've researched it correctly - let me know if I've got anything wrong).
You'll also notice that at the end of the article I've stated that I'll be featuring the winning entry and the runners up on my blog... whilst you may think "meh... nobody reads TET's animation blog" you'd be wrong.
If I feature you on my blog the post then goes into my master content feed and is distributed to all my social networks including twitter, facebook, Netvibes, myspace Yahoo, feedburner, my web site newsletter and more... just to name a few places.
@ TET, are you sure the hippy child you were referring to wasn't Ro? Well, he's not much of a child though. lol
And yes TET, everything seems in order, nice blog.
LOL @ me being a hippie child....or child in any regards. Ryco, anyone ever tell you to respect your elders? ;-) And TET, your blog was very accurate. Nicely done. I even signed up for your newsletter. Like Ryco, I wish I had the time to enter this contest, but I just don't see it happening. But it sure will be fun to watch. :-) Best of luck to all that enter.
Oh, and about Ryco being "The Dark Lord of Death"? Don't let his animations fool you. He's a pussycat. Coady even told me he has a collection of Hello Kitty porcelain figurines on a shelf above his computer. ;-)
I would think the Hello Kitty porcelain figurines would solidify his title as Dark Lord of Death. How did all those kitties turn into porcelain? My personal theory is Ryco caught all the neighborhood cats and somehow changed them in, most likely, the most painful way possible... Plus, what truely evil genius doesn't have "Hello Kitty" paraphernalia? You know, or at least a cat... lol. Dr. Ryco, Dark Lord of Death. Got a nice ring to it.
Oh, it's true, I read TET's blog once. ~And as we all know- I'm not nobody (I think the size of my head proves that), and I've- Yes, I, Coady J. Nickerson formerly TNP (aka The Nickerson Project) alias CoadyTNP, -read TET's blog... just to realize I, Coady J. Nickerson GoAnimator extraordinaire, mastermind of ingenuity (and pomp), didn't even get an honorable mention in the AD post! Sheesh. :P Throw me a frikken bone. I dressed up in a cheer-leader outfit and had pink pom-poms! It may not look like it, but cheerleaders work hard. George Bush was a cheerleader, and I think we all agree on what an intelligent, hard-working man he was... Aww, I just figured out why... forget that last paragraph...
Someday, I'll show you, someday I'll show you all! Muahahaha... Ah, who am I kidding? It's always the strong bulky football players that get the credit for working hard and winning- not the super important, ear piercing, airheaded, hot babes, who distract their own team with uber high leg lifts, booty shaking, and with promises of post-game "rewards".
Wow. Totally don't know where I'm going with this one...
I'm hoping to get an entry in. I've kind of bogged myself down though... :S I can most likely put in a low quality animation, at least then I'll get to vote. :D
I don't think I'm going to have time to put anything together. I spent all my time on my tutorial, & now I'm a bit too busy to get anything done before the 16th . I won't get to vote :~(
Well, I'll just wish everyone well, from the sidelines then :~)
What is this... all these high profile animators standing on the sidelines??? No time? An unlikely excuse... Did I let 'no time' stop me from entering the Spooktacular Contest four days late and then blitzing the field, three fields back from the field that had the finalists in??? Ahhhh... victory is sweet!! LOL
No pressure really but like Coady says, even if you don't manage a great entry, putting in a valid entry will give you a chance to vote. You could then use your vote to help your favorite entry win. (Or, if you really want to further your evil genius careers... band together to form a Dark Lord of Death Judgment Day Consortium and start taking bribes for your collective vote - I swear I'm not an evil genius myself, honest... but I do own a black cat.)
@Ro... thanks for subscribing to my newsletter. For some reason the idea of Ryco having a collection of porcelain Hello Kitty figurines just has a ring of truth to it. Coady makes a compelling case for his collection too ;-)
@Ryco.. Ro could have been the hippy child... I mean he does have that beard with the mysterious powers.
@Coady... You dressed up in a cheerleader outfit with pink pom-poms... and you want people to be reminded of that?!! That calls for the big Acronym.... ROFPMPL
Hmmm...me, a hippie child with a magical goatee...Coady parading around in a cheerleader outfit...The Evil Dr. Ryco "porcelizing" kitties...and TET on the floor in pee-stained pants. Ladies and gentlemen, some of your top animators!!! LOL...we are a diverse group...to put it mildly. Who'da thunk that Gypsy would emerge as one of the more sane members. ;-)
Pandaboy2 looks different wearing a symbiote. There's no doot aboot it, Panda is a force that will need to be reckoned with... Just trying to figure out why a Canadian is named Pandaboy2... He must live near the Toronto Zoo...
RoTV- we've definitely been handing out AD winning tickets :P Hey, but it'll make all those who said you'd win honest. They may animate it, but it's your idea that's the winner ;)
"You only need a minimum of 1 minute of animation. You need to include the words "You're never going to believe this". Include 1 custom character, 1 custom background, 2 custom props. Must mention another GoA member with a link to their profile. Tag your animation with 'tetanimatordominator' and you're done. Publish your animation between Nov 16-23." - quote from TET in this forum.
If you get the most views- You win a title. You get extra "view" points added if someone votes for your animation. The only ones who can vote are people who made an animation.
Hope that helps.
If there is something you don't understand, let us know what exactly it is that you don't get.
Thanks Coady. I also PMed Bulldog explaining the competition as well.
NCC1701 - Great to hear it :-)
I just realized Pandaboy2 asked about timezones for this competition and I didn't give an answer.
So as not to confuse everyone lets use the same timezone that GoA used for the Spooktacular contest which I think was EST for the USA. For example you can't publish you animations until 12:01am (EST) on November 16th, 2009. Hopefully that's easy enough to understand.
LOL @ this thread, look what I've been missing lately...
AND YOU GUYS LEAVE MY PRECIOUS KITTY FIGURINES ALONE! OR I"LL TURN YOU ALL TO PORCELIN>>>MUHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
Porcelain statues of TET, Coady, and Ro would look great next to my kitties, and it would give them someone to play with...
Well there's still the weekend to go... so lock yourselves in your computer rooms and pretend you're doing homework... then make an animation that starts with "You're never going to believe this but my parents actually thought I was doing homework but instead I was..."
Now I've got you started - just finish it off :-)
(oh and do your homework if you have any... I don't want your angry parents coming over to my house 'cause I told you to lie about doing your homework!)
Ok, maybe I'll try to make something this weekend. Even if I don't get it done on the first day of the entry period, maybe I can have it done before the last :~)
Set yourself a challenge.... see if you can come up with an entry in a couple of hours... I hear there's a web site that makes animating easy... oh wait that's this site. ;-)
I'm going to be away for a day or so but I'll be back for November 16 - so if I seem a little quiet, don't worry, I haven't done a runner. I will be back. :-)
Yep, Ryco, check out TET's video and add up all the comments of people on there who are going to enter, than add up the same type of comments here, and there's alot of entrants :P
@Ryco lol, we'd be pretty cute in porcelain. I already have Voodoo dolls of you all. I'm trying to force you all to make animations. I have extra needles in Ro's back, but it seems to be not working... Maybe a couple in his eyes will help?
@PB2 Ahhh yes. Panda the Gorilla- Only in Canada! All you have to give is an arm and a leg to see him :D
I should have asked this sooner. Do the new props have to be hand drawn or can you take something already in existance and bring it in to goanimate? I'm assuming they have to be custom made unless I hear otherwise.
I understood it as any custom prop, either one you made or someone else made. But TET knows for sure, and he's away for a few days. I think you should be safe if you use any custom prop.
I haven't quite gone yet... just time enough to say... Yes you can use any custom props for this. You don't have to have made them yourself. I thought that would be fairer for people who either don't have a lot of time or don't have the skills yet to make their own.
Mine is almost complete, but I don't think the timing will work for everyone, I've been having problems right from the start with it load 4 second in...
Actually the same happens to me! I have a couple of scenes at the beginning that are not shown, and I don't know why, and the shockwave flash keeps on crashing! And I still haven't used any sound :(
I have some problems with the studio, but basically it only rests to put the sounds... but my wife needs the laptop for work related stuff, so I guess mine is going to be a late entry too :(
Late entries may not be as much of a set back to your chance of winning. Remember, for every person that votes you as their winners pick you'll get an extra 20 views (points) added to your final view score.
Just wondering in your rules you wrote "publish it no earlier than Nov 16". I've noticed that a few are publish before this and started with some views. I understood this to mean that the publish date should be the 16th. Obviously I was wrong. I had like 70ish views on my other before I copied it. If I keep it to prove how many I had can we add that to my view score?
You are talking about mine correct?
Oops my bad, I forgot to copy mine and start fresh, it had around 25 or so views on it when I released it.
And as far as the publish date, I was going to share it with someone before releasing it, so I took it off of draft and set it to private, but never did end up sharing it with anyone.
You are talking about mine correct?
Oops my bad, I forgot to copy mine and start fresh, it had around 25 or so views on it when I released it.
Um, I did the same thing and forgot to copy mine. But mine was not published until 12:01 November 16. I hope this doesn't disqualify Ryco and me then? :(
I don't want you guys to be disqualified. I'll take the extra views :P
I guess it would be up to TET. I'm hoping he'll use his Mad Math skills to make it even. NCC do you remember how many views you had when you made yours public?
I don't have the ability to check how many views of your animation you made while you were creating it before the release date. I was aware of that particular anomaly in GoAnimate's view count but until they fix the system to stop counting views when an animation is in draft mode there's not a lot that can be done.
Most people, including myself, wouldn't think to copy an animation and then release it for the contest.
I do know that no one made their animation public before the correct time because I did check. So I don't think any disqualifications should be necessary.
Let's put this one on the 'learning curve' for future competitions.
I'll make a note of Ryco and Ncc1701's views that they said they had on their animation before it was made public and deduct that from their score at the end.
Everyone else will have to be on the honor system. i.e. if your animation had views on it before you released it (particularly if the views were excessive) then I'll leave it up to entrants as to whether they want me to deduct those views from their final score. Just PM me with the views you want me to deduct.
Remember, in this competition everyone will be able to see how your final score was calculated... and Coady is watching you (he notices this kind of stuff!!) ;-)
If anyone has a fairer suggestion for how to overcome this issue by all means suggest it.
I finally published mine, so no more crying on my part. What is done, it's done. And I copied mine and started fresh without views (yeah, I know Coady's watching, and he'll report you if you misbehave... LOL)
lol. It does help that I own an all-seeing eye... You'd think an all-seeing eye would be nice & quiet and obedient. Well, guess again. I can't get it to shut up!
Yeah, I'd only suggest disqualifying them if by the end they are ahead of me in views :P
I thought we discussed this the last 3 contests... start at 0 views on competitions where views is the factor that decides if you win. It's quite possible I had that discussion with the all-seeing eye... :s
Sounds good TET.
I noticed something, there are a few videos floating around out there that are tagged with the contest tag, but are not contest entrys, just so everyone's aware of that.
Right noted that down... disqualify Ryco and Ncc1701 if they are ahead of Coady in the views. ;-) ...um. not.
I am watching all entries that are tagged correctly and even those that have been put up as entries in the forum but haven't been tagged correctly. Where I find an entry invalid I make a note of that person and then send them a PM to make them aware that their entry isn't valid but they do have time to fix it.
If they fix it up before November 23 they're still in the competition. If they don't then their vote won't count just like their animation doesn't.
@Coady... I don't recall that discussion? I do know staff can tell, from their end, how many views an animation actually got from a specific date - like they did with the Spooktacular contest. Maybe if the out come is really close I could ask the staff to check the views on the top entries?
Hey etourist! You forgot to write a tip saying it's highly advisable to include a RoTV cameo in our animations! He's appearing in most of them! Oh, if I only had known before! ;P
@gipsy: It's all part of Ro's plan to win without entering... he truly is a mysterious force... a genius like no other... Hippy Flower child or Zen master? We've all been duped!! LOL ;-)
Oh, I think it was Ryco who commented about it on last competition. The competition before that the staff reset all the views to zero because having to copy the video would have meant me having to go back through all 10 videos and changing all the links. And I don't remember the contest before that -lol.
@ Gypsy & TET...Beware....I'm am EVERYWHERE! LOL Hmmmm, winning an Animator Dominator Contest without an entry? Ahhhh, my powers will be complete if that is accomplished. ;-)
WOW. I heard about this yesterday and i love the contest already! TET, this is such a well set-up contest. It must have taken a lot of thinking to come up with it!
I'll try to make an entry to get in before the deadline. All of the entries I've seen so far are great!
Yes... I wish people would stop resurecting old threads for no good reason.
Since this is floating around the top of the forums again let me be clear. I'm not running a contest and, if this contest were to run again, Ryco is the person who won the right to either run it or to delegate it's running to someone else.
For those who don't know about The Animator Dominator Contest it's widely considered to be the first truly community run contest that had site wide support. There's no prize other than bragging rights and the chance to benefit from running the competition.
And speaking of delegating...I remember speaking to PandaBoy and GIpsy about doing the next one.
Does everyone think GA is ready for the Next Dominator contest?
Topic: TET's Animator Dominator Competition