Qualifying Round 1 - Selphie For A Day

First Prize: $35 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com

Round Opens: Saturday, November 27, 2004 Submission Deadline: Monday, December 27, 2004 at 11:59pm PST Winners Announced: Saturday, January 1, 2005

The Challenge If you've ever been to a videogame or anime convention or any other place where people dress up (or "cosplay") as videogame characters, you may have noticed that one of the most popular characters to cosplay is Selphie, everyone's favorite super-cute, extra-hyper girl from Final Fantasy VIII and Kingdom Hearts. After all, just put on a yellow dress and some brown boots or sandals and--TA-DAH!--you're Selphie! Well, sorta. This round will test your ability to tolerate my insane contest ideas create a great piece of artwork from a relatively silly idea. Your task is to depict any character or characters of your choosing from any RPG covered by RPGamer. However, your artwork must adhere to these two guidelines: That character/those characters cannot be Selphie. At least one of the characters depicted in your work must be "cosplaying" as Selphie. Obviously, cosplaying Selphie is open to a wide degree of interpretation, so if you really need a stronger definition, here it is: someone who is cosplaying as Selphie means that he or she would be recognized (either very easily or after a bit of thought) by someone who has played Final Fantasy VIII and Kingdom Hearts as wearing a Selphie-inspired costume. You can find pictures of Selphie's outfits in our Final Fantasy 8 and Kingdom Hearts screenshots and art or by searching for Selphie in any major web search engine. Got it? Great! Remember, your choice of character or characters is up to you, and only one needs to be dressed up as Selphie. And to be fair, you are not limited to using only female characters in your artwork. In fact, I would not be surprised to receive 100 submissions of Barret in a Selphie outfit. Frightened? Yes. But not surprised. Oh, and Selphie can be in your piece, but there must be at least one non-Selphie character cosplaying as her as well.

Judging Criteria 40% Implementation of Idea 30% Creativity of Idea 30% Fulfillment of Contest Guidelines

FAQs/Clarifications Can I use Selphie's SeeD uniform? Yes. Don't forget the cute yellow bow for that extra Selphie touch! Can I have Selphie in my artwork, as long as I also have someone else cosplaying her? Yes.

Winners 1st Guillaume Chartier "Quina as Selphie" Quina 2nd David Mitchell "Mario Fantasy VIII" Luigi, Peach 3rd Lauren Nicolo "Switch-a-roo" Quina

Honorable Mentions

Qualifying Round 2 - A Little Summon Summon

First Prize: $35 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com

Round Opens: Saturday, January 15, 2005 Submission Deadline: Monday, February 14, 2005 at 11:59pm PST Winners Announced: Saturday, February 19, 2005

The Challenge It's time to summon up your creative and artistic skills for this round. You have a choice of two challenges, but you'll find they have summon in common. (No, putting up with my silly puns is not part of the challenge.) Choose ONE and ONLY ONE of the following... Character --> Summon Take an RPG character who is not a summon creature and redesign him or her as a summon creature. Feel free to draw on mythology, religion, literature, or anything else to help you transform your choice of character into a summon. For example, something you may have seen before, Aerith from Final Fantasy 7 depicted as an angel. Summon --> Summon Take an RPG summon creature and redesign him/her/it as ... a summon creature! If you go with this option, your challenge is to give a summon/Aeon/GF/etc. a new look. You may recall the Character Redesign Contest a while back; it's just like that, except with summon creatures! Remember, there ARE summon creatures in series other than Final Fantasy, though you're also free to use any of the countless FF summons. Along with your art, please also submit a brief (no more than 50 words) written explanation of your redesign. What character or summon did you choose? Why? How did you redesign him/her/it? Except as specified above, all other normal fan art submission guidelines apply. Please be sure to include "[CONTEST] Artist Name - Title of Work" in your submission e-mail's subject line. All entries should be submitted to fanart@rpgamer.com by 11:59pm PST on Monday, February 14, 2005.

Judging Criteria 60% Implementation of Idea 20% Creativity of Idea 10% Written Description 10% Fulfillment of Contest Guidelines

FAQs/Clarifications None yet!

Winners 1st Nyanko-chan "The Holy Mother" Xenogears - Elly 2nd Jamie Jennings "Spirit of Luna" Lunar - Luna, Lucia 3rd Maiji/Mary Huang "Summon of Light" Star Ocean 2 - Claude

Honorable Mentions

Qualifying Round 3 - Youth Is For The Young

First Prize: $35 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com

Round Opens: Saturday, March 5, 2005 Submission Deadline: Monday, April 4, 2005 at 11:59pm PST Winners Announced: Saturday, April 9, 2005

The Challenge There's a little kid inside of us just screaming to get out. This round will help you release your inner child along with those of your favorite RPG characters. For this round, the challenge is to depict one or more characters from an RPG as children doing something children do! For example, you might show Sephiroth playing hopscotch, or maybe you'll illustrate the cast of Dark Cloud in their third-grade classroom. The possibilities here are limitless, but here are a few guidelines you should follow: You can choose any characters to depict as children as long as they can actually be made to look like children. All characters you select to "kiddify" must be primarily shown as teen-aged (approximately 13 years old) or older in their games. When you kiddify a character, you must show them at an age no greater than approximately half of their primary in-game age. For example, if you select Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy 7, he is approximately 21 years old (except for some in-game flashbacks, but you can ignore those), so you should depict him as a child somewhere in the age range of 0-11 years old. No character should be depicted as being older than age 18. So if you pick the Old Man from The Legend of Zelda, for example, you can show him as being any age from 0 to 18. You can have some characters depicted at their normal in-game age, but they should serve to support the kiddie characters. Don't forget to show your RPG kids doing something that helps show their ages! Want some more examples? For toddlers, you might have your characters playing with toys or crawling around their crib. Show older kids playing sports, going to school, hanging out with their friends at the arcade, or anything else you would associate with kids! Clarification #1: Age zero (0) means newborn. No sperm, eggs, or zygotes, please!!! Clarification #2: Drawing a chibi version of a character does not automatically make him or her look younger. While chibis are not forbidden, they are discouraged unless you can successfully make the character look younger in addition to looking smaller and/or super-deformed. Please be sure to specify what character(s) in what game(s) you are turning into kids in your work because it might not be very obvious! Except as specified above, all other normal fan art submission guidelines apply. Please be sure to include "[CONTEST] Artist Name - Title of Work" in your submission e-mail's subject line. All entries should be submitted to fanart@rpgamer.com by 11:59pm PST on Monday, April 4, 2005. Please note that we cannot accept entries after this deadline for any reason. For confirmation that your entry was received, please include an automatic read receipt request with your e-mail.

Judging Criteria 60% Implementation of Idea 25% Creativity of Idea 15% Fulfillment of Contest Guidelines

FAQs/Clarifications None.

Winners 1st GlassShard "Summertime" Cast of Vagrant Story 2nd animetayl "Entrepreneurs in Training" Priest x3, Thief 3rd S.C. "Young Alucard's Sorrow" Alucard, Dracula, Alucard's Mother

Honorable Mentions

Qualifying Round 4 - Shades of Grey

First Prize: $35 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com

Round Opens: Saturday, April 23, 2005 Submission Deadline: Monday, May 23, 2005 at 11:59pm PST Winners Announced: Saturday, May 28, 2005

The Challenge Round Four's challenge is simple to state, but it could prove to be the biggest challenge yet for some artists who like their reds, yellows, and blues. For this round, your challenge is to create a piece of black & white RPG fan art. As the challenge title implies, all the shades of grey are fine, too. That's the only rule! You can do anything else you like with your submission, but your palette is limited to just black, white, and greys. Except as specified above, all other normal fan art submission guidelines apply. Please be sure to include "[CONTEST] Artist Name - Title of Work" in your submission e-mail's subject line. All entries should be submitted to fanart@rpgamer.com by 11:59pm PST on Monday, May 23, 2005. Please note that we cannot accept entries after this deadline for any reason. For confirmation that your entry was received, please include an automatic read receipt request with your e-mail.

Judging Criteria 60% Implementation of Idea 30% Creativity of Idea 10% Fulfillment of Contest Guidelines

FAQs/Clarifications None.

Winners 1st Lynntendo "Mt. Ordeals" Cecil 2nd Runic1 "Mr. Saturn and the Women" Mr. Saturn, Momo, Etna, Selan, Jessica 2nd Lauren Nicolo "The Silver Maiden" Chris 3rd DivingSiren "Hell of a Trip" Yuri, Alice, Anastasia, Blanca, Gepetto, Cornelia, Karin, Joachim

Honorable Mentions

Qualifying Round 5 - Till Death Do Us Art

First Prize: $35 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com

Round Opens: Saturday, June 11, 2005 Submission Deadline: Monday, July 11, 2005 at 11:59pm PST Winners Announced: Saturday, July 16, 2005

The Challenge The challenge for Round Five will put your creative juices to the test as you figure out how best to fulfill a rather broad theme. For this round, all entries should revolve around the notion of weddings. As those who have gone through the long and arduous process of wedding planning know, there's a lot that goes into planning a wedding day--hundreds, even thousands of hours for something that lasts just a few hours. So in addition to depicting a scene from the actual wedding ceremony or reception, your submission can showcase any of the dozens of events that lead up to the big day. From the proposal to the honeymoon, as long as it is has to do with weddings or wedding planning, you can put it in your submission. (Quick reminder: As with all submissions to RPGamer Fan Art, please avoid sexual or other inappropriate themes in your work.) If you have no idea what goes into a wedding, or you'd just like some help coming up with a particularly creative idea, here are a few links to wedding checklists that enumerate all of the little details that go into a wedding: http://www.mvy.com/weddings/checklist.html http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/forms/wedding/checklist.htm http://www.weddingsgalore.com/wedding_checklist.html One last guideline, and it's an important one. You must somehow include the bride and/or groom in your work. It should be pretty obvious who the bride and/or groom is, though they don't need to be in their wedding day attire if your work doesn't take place on the wedding day. Also, while this probably goes without saying, you can pick any RPG characters for your wedding party, and you can even cross characters from different RPGs. Clarification #1 Same sex marriages and polygamous marriages are acceptable for this contest. Clarification #2 Marry anybody to anybody. They can be already married, divorced, complete strangers, anybody! Just make sure they're RPG characters. Except as specified above, all other normal fan art submission guidelines apply. Please be sure to include "[CONTEST] Artist Name - Title of Work" in your submission e-mail's subject line. All entries should be submitted to fanart@rpgamer.com by 11:59pm PST on Monday, July 11, 2005. Please note that we cannot accept entries after this deadline for any reason. For confirmation that your entry was received, please include an automatic read receipt request with your e-mail.

Judging Criteria 60% Implementation of Idea 30% Creativity of Idea 10% Fulfillment of Contest Guidelines

FAQs/Clarifications None.

Winners 1st Nanami Yuki "Wedding Photo" Cloud, Aerith 2nd Jenyf86 "One Hour To Go" Marle, Lucca, Ayla 3rd S.C. "Odd Couple Moment" Ifrit, Shiva 3rd Thunder Blossom "Flowers for the Earth" Yui, Citan

Honorable Mentions

Qualifying Round 6 - I Wanna Draw With Somebody

First Prize: $35 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com

Round Opens: Friday, July 29, 2005 Submission Deadline: Monday, August 29, 2005 at 11:59pm PST Winners Announced: Friday, September 2, 2005

The Challenge This is your last chance to clinch a spot in the finals of OmniArt 2005, so give it your all! This is another simple theme challenge, but the hard part is making your submission stand out from the rest. Your submission for this round should include an RPG character or characters dancing. Any dance will do. Maybe you'll have a disco battle between the Final Fantasy characters, or perhaps you'll show off Mario's square-dancing skills. Make the music come alive and make us feel like we're right there dancing with your characters. As long as it's dancing, it's fair game. (That said, several judges strongly encourage you to stay away from Dance Dance Revolution.) Except as specified above, all other normal fan art submission guidelines apply. Please be sure to include "[CONTEST] Artist Name - Title of Work" in your submission e-mail's subject line. All entries should be submitted to fanart@rpgamer.com by 11:59pm PST on Monday, August 29, 2005. Please note that we cannot accept entries after this deadline for any reason. For confirmation that your entry was received, please include an automatic read receipt request with your e-mail.

Judging Criteria 60% Implementation of Idea 30% Creativity of Idea 10% Fulfillment of Contest Guidelines

FAQs/Clarifications None.

Winners 1st Matt McMillan "Hyrule Jig" Zelda, Link, Medli 2nd Kenton Alkemi "Honkytonk Boy" Nami, Peeky, Jack, Ridley, Gantz 3rd Sebychu "Fire Bringer" Hugo, Lulu, Beecham, Fubar, Jimba

Honorable Mentions

Quarter-Finals - Real Emotion

Round Opens: Friday, September 9, 2005 Submission Deadline: Monday, October 10, 2005 at 11:59pm PST Reader Voting: Monday, October 17 - Thursday, October 20, 2005 Winners Announced: Friday, October 21, 2005

The Challenge "There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion." Carl Jung Emotion is at the center of every RPG. Whether it's the joy felt by the heroes after defeating the villain and saving the world or the sorrow that comes with the loss of a comrade in battle, emotions permeate every aspect of characters and story in virtually all RPGs ever made. The way emotion has been depicted has changed in recent years. Writers and designers of 8- and 16-bit days had to rely on text and exaggerated emotion icons to convey the emotions being experienced by their characters. Now, as game graphics become increasingly realistic, artists can more easily show those emotions in faces and movements. Of course, many RPGs still often use those quirky and cute sweatdrops and anger veins. Why do they still use them? Well, for one, it's easier to give a character an anger vein icon than it is to perform the animation for moving the character's eyebrows down and clenching his or her teeth. Regulars to RPGamer's Fan Art gallery will also recall that many of our artists are also fond of using these emoticons. While there's certainly nothing wrong with that, these are the finals of the biggest RPG fan art contest ever, so the challenge for the first round will be a bit of an exercise in realism. For Round One of the OmniArt 2005 Finals, artists will rely on the faces, movements, and actions of their characters to convey the emotions of their scenes. Sorry, no emoticons allowed here! To start, artists will select one (and only one) emotion from the list below to depict in their piece: Dismay Anxiety Jealousy Hunger Scorn Embarrassment Confusion Panic Remorse Loneliness Loyalty Terror Curiosity Bliss Exhiliration Irritation Anticipation Benevolence Hesitation Despair Enthrallment From there, artists may use any character(s) from any game(s) they choose to create a scene that conveys that emotion. In addition to the usual information (artist name, title, game(s), character(s), website/e-mail), please include the emotion you selected in your submission e-mail. The Rules Except as specified above and in the Official Rules, all other normal fan art submission guidelines apply. Please be sure to include "[CONTEST] Artist Name - Title of Work" in your submission e-mail's subject line. All entries should be submitted to fanart@rpgamer.com by 11:59pm PST on Monday, October 10, 2005. Please note that we cannot accept entries after this deadline for any reason. For confirmation that your entry was received, please include an automatic read receipt request with your e-mail. OmniArtists, please pay special attention to the Additional Rules for the OmniArt 2005 Finals. Reader voting for this round will begin on Monday, October 17, 2005 and run through Thursday, October 20, 2005. The results will be announced on Friday, October 21, 2005 at 8pm Pacific Time in Fan Art's IRC channel (RPGamer IRC FAQ | RPGamer Java IRC Client) and later than night on RPGamer.com. The 12 contestants with the most votes will advance to the semi-finals; the other nine contestants will be out of the competition.

Semi-Finals - Cutting Room Floor

Round Opens: Friday, October 21, 2005 Submission Deadline: Monday, November 7, 2005 at 11:59pm PST Reader Voting: Friday, November 11 - Monday, November 14, 2005 Winners Announced: Tuesday, November 15, 2005

The Challenge One day, about seven or eight years ago, a movie came out in theaters that I really wanted to see, so I went and saw it. I had to cough up eight dollars for tickets, but it was a really good movie, so it was worth it. A few months later, that movie came out on VHS, so I coughed up another twenty bucks to pick up a copy. No big deal since it was one of my favorite movies of all time. A couple of years later, DVDs became all the rage, and the movie was released on DVD. I knew my poor little VCR was on its last leg, so I picked up a DVD copy of the movie for another sixteen dollars or so. Two more years after that, a special edition DVD of the movie came out, so that was another twenty-five bucks. That purchase was probably the most worthwhile. What made this splurge worth more than the others? Why, the deleted scenes, of course! It was like 20 minutes of the movie had been unearthed and it was simply delightful! Huh? Contest challenge? Oh, right! The OmniArt 2005 Semi-Finalists are hereby tasked with the challenge of depicting a "deleted scene" from an RPG. There are a few different ways artists can choose to go here... Depict a scene that was alluded to or could have happened in an RPG but was never actually depicted in a cutscene or in gameplay. This scene must have taken place sometime during the course of the events of the game. No flashbacks to pre-game events, and nothing that contradicts other events and facts depicted in the game. A good example here (and we'll use Final Fantasy 7 for all of today's examples, so consider that your spoiler warning) would be Sephiroth's attack on Presiden Shinra; we know it happened because the group finds Shinra with a big ol' Sephy sword in him, but the actual scene didn't make it into the game. Depict a logical extension of an existing cutscene or gameplay moment. Again, it needs to be something that fits in with the other events of the game and doesn't contradict them. A nice example here might be the events following Cloud's chocobo racing victory that earns the group their freedom from the Corel Prison. I'm sure Cloud had his moment in the winner's circle, and there was probably a rockin' after-party, too. You get the idea, right? Depict a scene from a possible extended ending. Endings are especially ripe with good pickings here since many RPG endings infamously don't show scenes we expect to happen. For example, it's quite possible that Yuffie made off with everyone's materia at the end of Final Fantasy 7, and we just might have seen that had the ending been a little longer. The Rules Except as specified above and in the Official Rules, all other normal fan art submission guidelines apply. Please be sure to include "[CONTEST] Artist Name - Title of Work" in your submission e-mail's subject line. All entries should be submitted to fanart@rpgamer.com by 11:59pm PST on Monday, November 7, 2005. Please note that we cannot accept entries after this deadline for any reason. For confirmation that your entry was received, please include an automatic read receipt request with your e-mail. OmniArtists, please pay special attention to the Additional Rules for the OmniArt 2005 Finals. Reader voting for this round will begin on Friday, November 11, 2005 and run through Monday, November 14, 2005. The results will be announced on Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at 8pm Pacific Time in Fan Art's IRC channel (RPGamer IRC FAQ | RPGamer Java IRC Client) and later than night on RPGamer.com. The six contestants with the most votes will advance to the Final Six; the other six contestants will be out of the competition.