Brawl Contest: 3rd Place goes to...

Oooh we're getting close! I had commented earlier and got my dates wrong about when 2nd and 1st Place winners will be announced. This Monday the 2nd Place winners will be announced with 1st Place winners being announced on Tuesday, the day after.

The Brawl Contest's 3rd Place winners are posted below. Congrats to you both!

As you may remember, the judges were sent the Top 5 FIGHTERS and Top 5 STAGES as voted on by the Polycount Community. From there, they rated the entries in 3 areas: Artistic Achievement, Technical Achievement, and Brief Criteria. The points were tallied and our winners were decided. In the event of a tie, we referenced the public vote and the Fighter or Stage with the most amount of votes was given the win.

Up first:

The 3rd place winners!

3rd place FIGHTER: rv_el's Haggar!!

The judges comments:

Chris George:

Artistic Achievement
I love the design behind this character. Incorporating the shark, and creating a theme as a badass fisherman was a great idea.  The harpoon, hat with lures, rubber pants....what great cohesion in design. The only area that was maybe lacking a little bit in character was his face. Compared to the over-the-top nature of his outfit and body, his face is a little plain. The artistic execution of the model was spot-on. Great high-poly work, nice normal bake, and solid materials. The surface of his rubber pants feels a little like a solid mound of clay, and less like rubber around his legs.

Vitaliy Naymushin:

Technical Achievement
So as far as technical stuff goes this model is great, everything is built in a smart way and optimized to the max. The UVs are good and the bake is very clean.

Artistic Achievement
Artistically this character is pretty cool, its whimsical and memorable, although it is a little bit monochromatic.

Brief Criteria
This entry did a good job of taking an existing character and putting a new spin on it. Its fun and light hearted although I do wish it was more different. Its a tough dilemma, if you add too much stuff then it doesn't look like the original character anymore, if you don't add enough then you end up with something that's perhaps not the most interesting character. I think this one walks the fine line where the character is still recognizable while looking fun and different, it might have been interesting to see a different stylistic approach.

Hanno Hagedorn:

Technical Achievement
Too many Polygons were put into minor detail while too less polygons where being invested into deformation areas. The shark is rather a waste of polygon and texture resources as it does not contribute to the model.

Artistic Achievement
The model contains some nice looking skin. The design impresses with a some nicely worked out details. The shark again takes away from this.

Brief Criteria
I like the creative approach on this character. He feels rather original and the hint to the popular Internet meme is a definite plus.

3rd place STAGE: EzMeow's Kaede's Stage!!!

The judges comments:

Ryan Monday:

Technical Achievement
Great use of texture space and the lighting is spot on giving the set a great mood with the back lit birds, and plenty of dynamic lit branches for the characters to pass under. Also the poly usage looks very simple without wasted polys, and the use of the material system helps sell your painted textures.

Artistic Achievement
The lighting in this set is what makes the whole scene. The sky really helps sell the mood of this graveyard. Also the splash of orange glows to the cool blue light really helps add interest around the set.

Brief Criteria
It was nice how you took the original concept of the courtyard and made it completely dark. I think the gravestones take it a bit far from the concept. Also, cutting the open gate from the scene took away a chance at making a nice, cheap vista giving the scene more depth.

Josh Cook:

Technical Achievement
Good use of texture space, nice lighting and FX.

Artistic Achievement
Great mood/atmosphere, colour palette and sense of style

Brief Criteria
Great job of giving the stage a very different feel from the original

Bram Eulers

Technical Achievement

I'm really impressed with the paintery look, I hope it holds up in motion. The assets are constructed very clean, with great use of the texture. There is a lot of reuse of assets and textures going on and it really shows up in the detail.

It does feels a bit small though, not really open for a fighting game. I can't really see the screenshot as what you would see in an actual game. I would expect a more wide open arean for a fighting game, maybe the grave stones arranged more to the background would be enough.

Artistic Achievement
Could have been a bit more daring with the color palette, but the end result still looks stunning. I actually like the simple colors on most of the materials, seperating the elements in the scene very well. The curvy look of everything and lack of straight grid-built shapes is a nice touch, and really adds to the paintery feel.

Brief Criteria
Though exactly the same setting, I think the change of seasons and time of day counts as a good reinterpretation. I like how a lot of the designs and shapes of the original got pushed  to something that looks a lot more interesting.

Great renditions of Haggar and Kaede's Stage from rv_el and EzMeow respectively. When I first saw rv_el's Haggar was an elaborate take on the meme it gave me a good chuckle. Glad to see it placed well in the Brawl Tournament!