NOTICE: The official starting date has been pushed back to February 14th. Hopefully, TREC will be finished (or at least the actual walling will be) by that point.
I've already contacted a number of interested parties on the subject and have received quite a few positive replies. It's time to put out the official thread.
Arete is Minitokyo's first purely Amano-based "walling" competition. It will encompass one round, feature one scan, and have one aim--honor.
Hosted by the SchattenRand, Arete is nevertheless open to the whole public of Minitokyo. There is no restriction--any who wish to join may by simply replying in this thread or giving me a shout through private messages. The aim is honor--and honor will, indeed, be granted to the ultimate winner.
The Process
Arete, as previously mentioned, is one round. All participants are welcome to nominate as many Yoshitaka Amano scans as they like in this thread, and non-participating members who express interest will be allowed two nominations each. A running tally of nominations will be kept on SchattenRand's group page, under the heading of Arete, so please check there to make sure you aren't nominating something that's already been nominated.
Nominations will be accepted from this day forth. Participants do not have to nominate if they do not wish to, though it is heavily encouraged so that the eventual pool is comprised of a wide variation of scans.
Voting will begin on a date (to be announced later) not long before the starting date, February 14th. The submission date will be March 14th, which will give each participant exactly four weeks to finish their works. These dates are subject to change based on the participants' schedules, but the reason it has been pushed back so far is due to kuroimisa's Rotten Egg Challenge (which is still accepting participants, incidentally).
The voting process will be open to participants only. Each participant is alotted one vote, and must cast it. If a tie occurs, the second-tier judges will decide between a pool including the tied scans and the most popular scan after those.
The Rules
The Rules are simple.
Each entry must be in the form of a 1600x1200 desktop design (wallpaper).
No entry may utilize any scan, artwork, etc., outside of Yoshitaka Amano's artwork and/or the designer's own
works.
Multiple scans are allowed at the discretion of the designer, but each wallpaper must focus primarily on the scan chosen
in the voting process.
There is no theme. Each designer is free--or, perhaps, trapped--to take the wallpaper anyway he chooses.
Judging
Judging will take place in a two-tiered system. The first tier will be the participants themselves--each participant
must grade each entry on a 10 point basis. These scores will be tallied and added into the final score.
The second tier of judges will be non-participants who have expressed interest in the competition to me. There will be
no less than three and no more than five judges. Those interested should PM me, and I'll give them more information
about what will be required of them.
Prizes
As of yet, no prizes have been announced. The ultimate goal of this competition will be to bring honor on yourself and on Yoshitaka Amano's artwork. In view of this, SchattenRand will host your entry in full thumbnail view for two full months after the competition, and the small thumbnail will be featured for four further months.
Participants (tentative roster)
omni, kuroimisa, smilebit, tecnophreak, Regenbogen, Hanazaki, Makhan, DREAM,
biriwilg, OracleAngel, candy-chan, DernierCri, chrno, kalicodreamz, Tama-Neko
Arete
And wherein, then, lies your virtue?
