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The short story: Hey guys! This is the somewhat late translation of the awarding ceremony event of the computer graphics contest I organized in the GRAPHILLA.COM digital art forums. It happened more than a year ago, in the beginning of 2006 – I had taken a break from my work in Black Sea Studios and was actively re-thinking my life, so I basically had the time to undertake something that eventually turned out to be really serious and really big. Initially, I wrote the whole contest conditions in rhyme. I contacted the jury – all of them great world renowned professionals, which to our honor agreed to participate and judge the contestants’ works. Every further thing that happened made the event even more serious, even better, thus making it that more demanding –when you see the great opportunities that open before you, you just cannot satisfy with something that “will do”, and can’t help but go for the best. Initially the idea was to just launch a contest with some symbolic awards that we ourselves (the guys at GRAPHILLA) could afford, and more like compete for the sole idea of it. But after acquiring a jury that awesome, I just had to find some decent awards – which I did, thanx to all our great sponsors. We now had tons of hardware, electronics, books and magazines, we had serious sponsors and media partners, and printed tons of posters featuring the mascot I made for the contest – you can check it out in the gallery. Eventually, after the contest finished, we held an awards ceremony at the New Bulgarian University hall. The text that follows is basically the script I wrote for it ( We led the show together with Dara Pefeva from Creative Commons Bulgaria ) with some comments, translated in English by a friend, so if there are any mistakes – she’s to blame ( points an accusing finger ). The text is accompanied by some of the slides that were projected on the screen behind to try and recreate the atmosphere at the ceremony – which was awesome, I think we all had great fun with this. The long story: It’s not fair at all. I don’t understand how come, when it’s that one time in the year that I have decided to get drunk willingly, with a totally set purpose – it appears that I just cannot, no matter how hard I try. And I was trying 'till tree in the morning. I was really, really trying. I was waiting for this moment for so long, and I kept on telling myself “Once I see the end of all this, I’ll first get drunk just like a Fantasy Mount Hog from the Betelgeuse system, and then I’ll have my sleep out like a Little Green Ant-eating Polecat from Alpha Centauri after the termite season. And that thought alone kept me sane and conscious, cause this last week was a weird, special level of hell – the jury had been broken up all over the world and this delayed the results, then suddenly everybody was back at the same time and the New Bulgarian University’s rector agreed to give up the ceremonial hall. Suddenly we were ready to rock, except for that everything had to be done in a week or less. Every single thing that was happening was somehow increasing the requirements and demanding further efforts. The finer opportunities were being discovered, the more necessary it was to use their full potential. I had the clear knowledge that the time is not enough to get all the stuff done as good as it was possible, but I still wanted everything to kick ass in the end, and was under a lot of pressure till the very last minute... Everything concerning the organization and awarding, coordination of everyone, writing the scenario, the Penguins’ shaping, the slides … - it was all associated with night-and-day writing, drawing while calling everyone and going about all over the place. Anyway, let’s just get back to the main point here. I was so impatient to see the end so that I finally get drunk and get everything off my back… Just to get drunk. Well, I couldn’t. That’s not the important part however. The important part is that if I had gotten drunk, it would have been in a celebrating way, ‘cause everything went awesome. I could have gotten drunk, having the clear conscience of a job well done, if I would succeed. Instead, I ended up with a terrible headache the next day because of all this time spent on trying. That’s just not fair. One day earlier: I woke up having the clear idea that I have another squared sheet of paper on my desk, full of tasks that had to be done. There were actually more on the sheet that was normally possible, because I had it written not only horizontally (X) but vertically (Y) and even diagonally (XY), creating a complicate and scary tangle of important and not so much important “to do” stuff. The most important thongs were done, except for the penguin part of the scenario plus the saving in separate files the 74 slides for the presentation, which I have been drawing until dawn. The time was flying fast; the hours left to the ceremony were reducing progressively and fast, as though they were minutes 4….3…2… Little by little the tasks on the sheet were crossed off one by one. The work was in full swing ‘till the last moment – until Lucy (nickname Add, one of my two trusted co-workers) was waiting for me in her car outside my house. I still had just a towel on me, and while I was talking on the air in the “Microphone and mouse” show of Darik Radio about the competition, I had my other hand saving the last files. Before I dusted off, I came back a several times to check weather I have forgotten something. Every time it appeared that I had everything with me, which seemed way too unrealistic. We arrived at the university around 4.30 loaded down with a bunch of posters, printers, prizes, and even one quite big green box, containing exactly 15.5 Official Penguins. We were met by Maria from New Bulgarian University – the PR manager of the university. Dara was already there (the other one of the two priceless muses of the competition, a coordinator of the Bulgaria Internet Society and the Creative Commons Bulgaria project). She was waiting for us together with the well-known Snaker, who helped us to drag everything to Maria’s office. Everybody from the university was just great, they helped us by all possible means, in the kind of a way that you just can’t help but notice how a team of young people are truly interested in what they do. For quite a short time we printed everything needed, divided up all the stuff – three scenario versions – for Dara, Lucy and me. Since I finished it the night before, both haven’t had time to read it yet. I had to mark Dara’s cues with marker, so that they can be seen clearly, since I decided she was going to run the show with me. Hardly had it become 5 o’clock when my phone began to ring - the sponsors who were supposed to come earlier, stated crowding and everybody made his way to the ceremonial hall, shouldered with as much baggage as he can carry. For my surprise there were several guests who had come before us and were already in the hall. The little technical problem with the software was suddenly and flatly solved by Gabi from Haemimont Games, one of our main sponsors, who came in the nick of time, saving the day. Everything was now fine, we were ready to start, except for that one of the 2D jury members – “rldler” – wasn’t coming and he had to bestow one of the prizes. After some reorganizing and last-minute editing we were almost ready. Little by little people began to gather. Some of them came and men us, presented themselves with their forum nicknames, others did not, and with third ones we greeted brotherly, while I was wondering “where the hell I’ve seen this guy, he looks so familiar, and how come we are that much close to hug” (sorry Implant, bro, but these 10 kilos that you’ve lost have changed your figure all round, I couldn’t identify you – my only comfort is that I was not the only one who failed to recognize you that day). The ceremonial hall was getting full of Graphilla users, and soon it was just Dara and I that were loitering along – clear sign that we should be starting. While she was finishing reading the last lines of the scenario, I ran out to have some water – my throat was a little dried up and I was nervous like hell… But of course we were nervous – a crowded 240-people hall isn’t one of the most motivating things for a debut in public speech… Actually it was the total opposite of motivating, but Lucy didn’t manage to finish her countdown to the start and before I was on stage. Well, if I was going to die, I would just as well do so with my boots on. We started. The ceremony: Hello dear ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends, dear competitors. Welcome to the Official Awards Ceremony of the Competition “Fantasy Mount”. First let me introduce myself, I’m Kosta Atanasov, most of you know me under my nickname “Jovi”. I’m one of the organizers of the Competition “A Fantasy Mount” that ended not long ago in the Graphilla digital arts forums. So, before we start I want to say few words about everything that made this competition possible. Behind me you can see a scheme, made for your convinience by a team of Graphila professional submarine biologists. As you may have noticed, this is an illustrative scheme of a little catfish. You probably wonder what has one ordinary catfish to do with the “Fantasy Mount” competition. Not long ago, as I was sitting with Morgoth and Joro* in a cafй behind the hotel of Pliska, eating sandwiches with weird French-sounding cheese and even weirder taste, watching the game of the catfishes in the aquarium, we were trying to think of a topic for our new competition. Back then none of us could assume even for a moment that this competition will bring us all together, here in this hall, now. The catfishes were the detonator of the consequent creative explosion and thus, I want to thank them first of all.* *This is a real story. Last time we were at that cafй the catfishes were gone* - so thank you catfishes (looking upwards) wherever you are now. *This is not. But honestly, I’ve never liked catfishes in general… …But I’ve always liked sponsors. That’s why I want to thank from all my heart to the people that were collaborating in the creating of this competition; the people, without whose support the contest wouldn’t have been the same; the people who took to heart our ideas, devoted time, efforts and resources, so that we can make together something big. It is our pleasure to thank so many, many people and we probably won’t be able to mention everybody but at least we’re gonna give it a try. One of these people is the girl that you know in Graphila as “Add”. She is operating the sophisticated computer installations in this moment; Ludmila Marinova from Mark Communications. Lucy was tough – during her first confrontation with the scenario (in contrast to Dara, she hasn’t read it not even once) she succeeded in changing slides on time and on the exact place. Now I would like to introduce you another one of our friends – the people that have contributed a lot to the competition’s organization – Dragoslava Pefeva from Bulgarian Internet Society, which I would like to invite here on the stage to run this ceremony with me. After all, you have to have someone the guys in the audience too will find pleasure to look at. Dara came on the stage and from then on she didn’t do not even one mistake. She just amazed me, although she had read the scenario only once. In fact, she had finished reading it a minute or two before we started… Kosta: First we want to thank our sponsors. Thank you: Dara: Game Development Firm Black Sea Studios Kosta: Advertising and Effects Studios 5-th Degree Dara: Computer Game Development Firm Haemimont Games Kosta: Logitech Company Dara: Computer Literature Publishing Company Soft-Press Kosta: The mysterious and incognito Phantom Company Dara: Computer Game Development Firm Pulsar Kosta: Gamers’ Workshop Magazine Dara: Download.bg magazine Kosta: Internet Society Bulgaria Dara: Saga Technology Publishing Company Kosta: Computers Newspaper Dara: The well known trade-mark Love-Hate Internet Company Net-Is-Sat Dara: Hi-Comm magazine and HP Bulgaria Kosta: And not last - New Bulgarian University, for giving up this ceremonial hall, for the collaboration and lending their support to the organization of the ceremony. Dara: If we try to mention all the people that have helped us, we won’t have enough time to bestow the awards, that is why we will have to stop here. Thank all of you, friends of Graphila ! Without you this competition wouldn’t be the same. Kosta: Kosta: And last but not least, we would like to thank all the competitors interested in this contest – out of 84 people that had declared participation, 49 got to the finals – which is an unprecedented case. Thank you for your great works! I’d like to add, that thanks to this competition I now like catfishes… And I like sponsors even more than I did before. Thank you once again! Dara: Not all of you, present here, are artists, designers or photographers, and not all of you are clear about what exactly those Graphilla forums that we talk about are. That is why, before proceeding forward we would like to say a few words about that whole competition in general. Kosta: The name Graphila inevitably brings to mind associations to the Godzilla monster. In fact, it’s not only the phonetic similarity, as you may have thought. Looking at things from this perspective, the story illustrated by Graphilla’s own applied graphilology experts’ team would be nearly the following: Dara: Graphila was born three years ago. Imagine it as a newborn monster – just like Godzilla… Just bit more charismatic… …and slightly different kind of green …but just as friendly and nice even in its adolescence Kosta: The news of the new forum being born spread through designers’ ICQ-s, Managers and Mirandas like virus, and the forum expanded fast… …it swelled up and came to life. While stretching its infant tentacles with hunger for new appetizing users… …its sub forums grew up, connecting to various spheres of digital art. Like all the other children, Graphilla was quite capricious when eating, and on its huge large-toothed mouth a membrane grew up… …called the “Presentation forum” – the place where candidates needed to publish their works before being devoured. Dara: a year of cataclysms ensued... …flames, floods, directed by the critical rejected users, that wanted to be eaten but were also inevitably chewed up and spitted out. The waves of the flood abated and people gradually started to realize that the scheme functions in their favor, because the forum was designed for the creative, promising authors – people that can build a community of experts, able to really help and enrich each other with shared knowledge. Kosta: The people that took part there were supposed to know all this and much more. Now, three years after its foundation, after the dust of buildings ruined in skirmishes allayed, a new Graphilla rose out of the dust clouds… …already grown, it became the center of the Bulgarian computer graphics and a place whrere the talented professionals would attend. And there are a quite bunch of them here indeed. Dara: Fertilized of this concentration of talent, Graphilla laid its eggs. Then big and small competitions and tasks began to hatch. They helped for the development of the artists, assuring there were new challenges and new peaks for them to climb. Thus the competition was born, so do not believe if anyone tells you that the stork brought it The fault is entirely yours, of the talented and skilled users of the forum. Kosta:When the competition first started it was called “The third 3D Graphila competition “A Fantasy Mount”. The contest’s goal was to shape and form three-dimensional fiction creature – coming from a fantasy or science fiction world, on the only condition that the animal is entirely invented by the competitors and that it is a mount, i.e.to be able to be ridden by someone/something. No matter if it’s mounted by people or by small bald green dwarfs, disordering words while talking, brandishing powerful colored flashlights*; or a little better talking cocker spaniels that have affinity for cats* - It doesn’t matter at all, as long as there’s something that shows that it’s a mount – reins, saddle, a seat on its nose or a ribbon on its antennas – whatever you could think of. Dara: This assignment granted the competitors the absolute and total freedom to use their imagination and create their own animal that has its own story and lives in a fantasy world or inhabits the world of their favorite movies and books. 30 people got to the finals. Because of the high interest in the 3D competition on the part of artists that work with one dimension less, we decided to expand the competition and give them a chance and include their pictures. As we expected the result were 19 people participating with 2D illustrations. Kosta: So, it’s time to proceed to the reason we are here – awarding to the winners in the competition Graphilla “A Fantasy Mount”. Kosta: In contrast to the 3D one, the 2D picture competition was rated by a Bulgarian Graphil jury consisting of highly experienced Graphilla moderator experts’ team. The jury of the 2D part was consisting of: Veselin Efremov – “Morgoth” And Dara: Ognian Petkov “ridler” As you know, in contrast to the 3D, the 2D competition has only one prize winner. Before announcing the winner we will read and present to you the nominated works in alphabetical order. Every picture is supported by explanations for the mount that it shows. And now, the seven nominees are: Alex Sokerov – Graphilla nickname Alex Every nomination was accompanied by a slide of the Animal on the screen, while we were reading the information that was written in the templates. Alex’s work didn’t contain information, so we proceeded forward. Kosta: Simo Sokerov – Bio Among the nominations "became", cause this is how it's being born, a Micropotam – one of my many personal favorites. .... Dara: George Banderov – GB The only GB’s sentence was that Ru is a reindeer which has run away form Santa Claus and has mated with a fiction pony. Kosta: Rosen Manchev – maceman Rosen’s work was described really funny and raised laughter among the audience several times. Naudeskinned Human Furfuraceous Species… It was not easy to read this on a pixel font, believe me. Do not try this at home; you might hurt your eyes, your vocal chords, or both. Next time we will have to put in a clause to forbid those hard to pronounce names… Dara: Dimitar Nickolov – Raven Dara read the whole information about the great work of Raven - I never thought there is so much space in the template. She kept on reading and reading, and just when I thought it’s over, she read one more sentence while the audience was already applauding loudly. Kosta: Martin Nickolov – Shmud I nearly deprived Velinov of nomination, as I glimpsed automatically at the next cue and said: “These were the nominated works…” Dara “Hey, wait a minute, I’ve got one more here…” Whoops. Sorry Svetlin, not on purpose. Dara: Svetlin Velinov – Velinov As soon as Dara read and the last information, I could then read the same cue with a clear conscience. Kosta: These were the nominated works. Kosta:Ladies and Gentlemen, take a look at the person sitting next to you. If you see a man with a little sweaty forehead, clenched teeth, and lunatic feverish look in his eyes, then you are sitting next to a nominated 2D artist, having to deal with much stress right now and being impatient to find out who the winner is. Tap him gently on the shoulder and calm him down – he needs your full support because he will have to wait a little bit more. Dara: I wonder who the winner is. We’ll find out in 10 days, when… I’m just kidding! You will have to wait just a bit more. And now the winner prize in the 2D competition is: 512MB USB Drive USB2.0, Kingmax ( осигурен от WWW.GRAPHILLA.COM ) Kosta: A set of books Ballistic Publishing – a leading publishing company in the world of digital arts – Expose 3 and Painter (provided by Creative Cafй) Dara: To announce the winner and bestow him the prize, on the stage will appear: Kosta: Lubomir Panaiotov – copywriter (Creative Cafй) Together with Lubomir from Creative Cafй on the stage had to appear also a representative of Graphila; however Dara and I decided that Implant wasn’t there. Wrong. Cause he had lost weight. The hooligans at “Logo and Shrift Design” Graphilla forum must have been really getting on his nerves. Besides I wonder what they feed them with at “Painer Music”. And if we judge by their star Ivana, they obviously everybody eat different things. Never mind: It turned out that in the envelope was the name of Rosen Manchev – better known from Graphila as Maceman. Blushing (it was not only a sunburn), he thanked heartily to Graphilla. A truly professional artist, one of the co-authors of “Rainbow” (immensely popular in Bulgaria comic book we’ve grown up with), the lead artist of the computer games Tzar and Knights of Honor. What Rosen still didn’t know was that just in few days he was going to take on a moderator’s post in “Graphics and Illustrations” – a forum that promises to be brutally corrected both graphically and linguistically. Kosta: Let’s continue forward. Yesterday one journalist asked me whether we, the 3D artists consider the 2D artists lower ones. I can assure you that there is no such thing – although we obviously have a whole one D more than they do. Well, the moment that we all expected impatiently finally came… It is time to put one more D in and continue with the awards for the 3D part of the competition “A Fantasy Mount”… Dara: The 3D competitors were rated by using a point rating system, specially deviced for the event by the Graphila team of professional researchers of rating systems. As you know the jury on the competition was international and consisted mainly of famous experts in the digital arts’ area. Kosta: First we will award a prize nominated not by the jury but by you – the users of Graphilla – the people who participate in our special forums. This is your award – The Audience Award. The complete 3D works, sent by the participants, were exposed to voting in a special topic of the Graphila forum. During the defined voting period of one week, 92 people have voted. Unfortunately I’m not one of them, because I wanted to keep my casting vote for the end, in order for it to be decisive… and I missed the moment. Stuff like that happens, unfortunately… Dara: Наградата е: The prize is: Mp3 player Samsung YP-ST5V + CD wallet with built-in portable speakers provided by Phantom firm Kosta: Books for the programs 3D studio max or Maya at winner’s choice provided by publishing house Soft Press Dara: PC game Knights of Honor from Black Sea Studios Kosta: PC game Rising Kingdoms provided by Pulsar Dara: The prizes will be granted by: Maria Petkova – PR manager of New Bulgarian University Kosta: Мая Иванова - ПиАр manager на Интернет Компания Нетиссат Maria definitely had some difficulties with opening the envelope… Opening… And opening… And opening… In the end, both with Maya read the winner’s name. It was an open voting and it wasn’t a secret that the award goes to Oleg NIckolov – Choki – the results were exhibited in Graphila for weeks. I did some futile attempts to make him say more than a “thank you” but I failed… Dara: This was the Audience Award. As we have already mentioned, the 3D competition jury is international and consists of superb professionals the area of digital arts. Let me introduce them, they are: Kosta: Meats Mayer Meats Mayer is an artist that has more that 10 years experience in digital arts. Meats worked as illustrator, animator, computer games’ artist and technical manager – advertisement and short movies composer. In 2003 he won the award Maya Master from Alias. He is the he is the person who has made the graphics we use now on the boxes of the programs Maya 7 and Z-Brush. I really wanted to play a video of the jury that shows their main impressions in the competition, their opinion on the participating works and so on… The only reason we couldn’t do this was that Meats had a problem with the sound of his camera, though he kept on trying until the last minute. Dara: Khang Lee Khang Lee worked on the visual part of movies, games and music video-clips. Some of his customers are Dreamworks, Sony Imageworks, Monolith, 3D Realms, Raven, Mattel, Blue Sky Studios, Lego, Microsoft, NCSoft. Kang was in Vietnam at that time, and had severe internet problems due to no internet. Kosta: Rich Diamant Richard Diamant had been working as an artist of video games for 6 years. He worked on many computer and console games, some of them are: True Crimes 2, 50 Cent Bulletproof, Fight Club, Outlaw Volleyball, and Outlaw Golf. Some of his latest works include the video of GuildWars, work on Tabula Rasa and some of the forthcoming projects of NCSOFT of new games generation. Presently he leads the 3D team of NCSOFT studio in Santa Monica and has devoted himself to advance the games to a next level. Dara: So, the jury introduced the following nominations, in alphabetical order of their nicknames: Kosta: Oleg Nickolov – Choki You won’t believe what planet names there were – the home planet of Megastep – Mhru something from what I can remember (Choki, I hate you!). It was totally unpronounceable, especially if you try to speak clearly while peering at the tiny words of the printed text – we had to print the very templates and read them, ‘cause rewriting the texts was totally unacceptable… Dara:Tsvetomir Georgiev – nickname Alfred Hitchcock Kosta: Simo Sokerov – Bio The animal that will never have the chance enjoy ice-skating during the winter… Dara: Biser Parashkevov – Bobby The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences” researched animal definitely fascinated the audience… Kosta: C “C” didn’t have his name written in his template, and it is a mystery for the time being… Dara: Kremena Georgieva – Crow She was the second girl to fittingly join the 3D competition with a great concept. Out of 10 nominations, 2 are girls – this is a good sign for the 3D graphics, don’t you think so? Or where do you think the next 3D artists will come from…Storks? Together with her the crows and ravens in this forum are now enough to form a nock. Kosta: Philip Tsokin – fil3d Dara: Konstantin Kostadinov – hton Kosta: – Silvi-E Dara:Sergei Samuilov – nickname Tz Dara: Now let’s continue with our special awards of the Graphila competition “A Fantasy Mount”. Aside from the three front positions, there were also awards for special achievements in two categories, defined before the competition. One of them was for original and creative conception and the other was for best technical performance. Kosta: The first of the two awards is for “Original and creative conception” and it will be bestowed to a participant that had represented an innovated and resourceful idea. Digital Camera Polaroid Provided by Phantom Dara: PC game Heroes of Might and Magic 4 in Bulgarian provided by Pulsar Kosta: The prizes will be granted by: Alexander Bakalov, also known as Snake – Gamers’ Workshop magazine One of my favorite journalists from one of my favorite magazines, Snake a cult figure – no matter what he writes about. Dara:…and Ognian Angelushev – marketing manager of Download.bg magazine His son was born not long ago, congratulations! Once again – I hope he takes after his father in every respect! Besides marketing in download.bg, Ogi also takes initiates many charity events of the Sofia bikers’ community. I was terrified when Alex said “Oh, this envelope’s empty”. But fortunately it turned out that there was a name in the envelope – Philip Tsokin – fil3D, the author of Beast. Kosta: The second special award tonight is the prize for Impressive technical performance, which we will bestow to a participant that had showed a good technical level in his work. The prize is: Digital Camera Polaroid Bulgaria Internet Community We were actually out of Polaroid models that were announced for prizes so we had to give vastly better models. We apologize to the winners for the caused inconvenience… Dara: PC game Heroes of Might and Magic 4 in Bulgaria provided by Pulsar Kosta: The prizes will be granted by: Dara:Emi Petkova – Hi Comm magazine Kosta: The well-known Stefan Gionev – LoveHate Stefan’s appearance was monumental– in just a few words “LoveHate” confessed in public that he doesn’t know what he is doing there (on stage) at all, and doesn’t understand anything; and in the end it turned out (after a brief explanation from “Le Brute” in the audience) that he was drinking ‘till late last night. Nevertheless his presence on the stage was absolutely deserved – not to mention that he made the great design of the posters and took care for their printing… The technical performance award was given to Sergei Samuilov – Tz for Miicho Kosta: We continue forward with Third Place on the 3D Graphila competition “A Fantasy Mount”. The suspense is growing progressively... If you take a look at the person sitting next to you again, and he is shaking and speechless on his seat, then he is again one of the nominees. However, he may just have choked, so tap him on the back just to make sure he's not gonna die before he recieves his award. The third prize is: Dara: A wireless keyboard Cordless Desktop® MX™ 5000 Laser From Logitech Kosta: A book for the programs 3D studio max or Maya at winner’s choice provided by publishing house Soft Press Dara: PC game Heros of Might and Magic 4 in Bulgarian provided by Pulsar Kosta: An annual subscription to Download.bg magazine (Provided by Download.bg) Dara: An annual subscription to Gamers' Workshop magazine (Provided by Gamers' Workshop ) Kosta: Annual subscriptions to PC Magzine and IT Forum newspaper (Provided by publishing house Saga Technology ) Dara: The prizes will be bestowed by: Irina Litskanova, PR Manager of Logitech from the PR agency of the company - Action Global Kosta: Hristo Damianov, a graphic designer of the game distributor – Pulsar The third place in the competition was won by Konstantin Kostadinov – hton and his animal Atav. Hton, just like LoveHate, confessed that he doesn’t know what he is doing there, and that it was the first time he did 3D. Well, it’s quite a nice start then. Dara:Are you hot? Do you need some fresh air? Maybe you need a little break, to get rest and go for a walk? But no! As we have already mentioned in the forum, we actually enjoy torturing you. Kosta: Take a deep breath, because it’s time to announce second place in the 3D competition “A Fantasy Mount”. The second winner prize is: Dara: Monitor Sony 17'' TFT SDM-HS75B ( provided by Haemimont Games Company) Kosta: A book 3ds max 7 – Official Study Course from Discreet or Maya, at winner’s choice I made a little mistake here, instead of “from Discreet or Maya” I said “from Discreet on Maya”. It was funny, I read it once again slowly and carefully, and this time it was good. This kind of study book is not published yet, but it’s just a matter of time as we all know... A book Adobe Photoshop CS2 - Official Study Course ( provided by publishing house Soft Press ) Dara: game "Heroes of Might and Magic IV" in Bulgarian ( provided by Pulsar ) Kosta: An annual subscription to Download.bg magazine (Provided by Download.bg) Dara: An annual subscription to Gamers' Workshop magazine (Provided by Gamers' Workshop ) Kosta: An annual subscription to Computersnewspaper (Provided by Computers newspaper) Dara: Annual subscriptions to PC Magzine and IT Forum newspaper (Provided by publishing house Saga Technology ) The prizes will be bestowed by: Gabriel Dobrev from company for computer games development Haemimont Games Kosta: Radoslav Donev – a main designer of publishing house Soft Press On the picture: The insidious Ultrapotamus waiting for his creator to turn his back so that its appetite directs towards Rado… The envelope contained the name of Simo Sokerov – Bio and his Saddle Animal “Ultrapotamus”. Besides being ridden, the cups on its legs give the animal the opportunity to: a) Do a fantastic massage to his rider b) Do a great plumbing job with his legs ... Kosta:The competition is coming to its columniation, to the boiling point, reached the “G” spot – “G” for “Graphila” If you have some handkerchiefs, now it’s the time to pull one and mop the brow of the person sitting next to you, because the time has come, the hour has stricken. As Arnold would say “Id iz daem!” Dara: Yes, it’s time to announce the mysterious winner in the 3D competition of Graphila “A Fantasy Mount” and will receive the first prize, enlisting many things: Kosta: Графична карта ASUS GF 7800GT 256MB PCI-Express A graphic card ASUS GF 7800GT 256MB PCI-Express (provided by Black Sea Studios) Dara: Graphic Tablet Wacom Intuos III Intuos3 A5 USB Tablet for PC & MAC with Intuos3 Grip Pen, 5-keys Intuos3 mouse. ( provided by 5th Degree company) Kosta: A book 3ds max 7 – Official Study Course from Discreet or Maya, at winner’s choice A book Adobe Photoshop CS2 - Official Study Course A book Adobe Premiere Pro - Official Study Course ( provided by publishing house Soft Press ) Dara: PC game "Heroes of Might and Magic IV" in Bulgarian ( provided by Pulsar company ) Pulsar was definitely the most applauded sponsors. Every time people heard the words “Heroes of Might and Magic”, they were breaking into applause and laugh – this same prize was given to all the winners… Kosta: An annual subscription to Download.bg magazine (Provided by Download.bg) Dara: An annual subscription to Gamers' Workshop magazine (Provided by Gamers' Workshop ) Kosta: An annual subscription to Computers newspaper (Provided by Computers newspaper) Dara: Annual subscriptions to PC Magzine and IT Forum newspaper (Provided by publishing house Saga Technology ) The prizes will be bestown by: Silvia Rasheva – manager of 5-th Degree Company Kosta:…and Veselin Efremov – the head artist of Black Sea Studios Company – well-known as Morgoth from Graphila Guess who the winner turned out to be when Silvia read his name? Choki – Oleg Nickolov. Even that he spoke a little more this time, he got away with a satisfied smile again. But on the other hand he promised Graphilla that despite of the great deal of work that he has to do, he will write tutorial to explain how he created Magastep. When the tutorial is ready it will be published in this forum, as well as the interview with Choki, which you can expect soon. Dara: The awards ceremony comes to an end. However our program continues, please stay tuned. Carefully move your hands away from your neighbor’s posters that you were trying to pull towards you, and take your seats. Silence. “This was a joke by the way” – I inserted. Laughter. Everyone that was at the event had the chance to take away a free poster of the 3D contest. Stephan got carried away when he ordered them, and I still have 500 lying around… Kosta:As I promised there will be more surprises and more news, there will be Penguins and more surprising and absolutely unexpected Fiction Animals in Graphila, as well as a few words about fireplaces in general. I forgot that I have never promised such things since I scrapped the first version of the script and I rewrote the intro… Kosta: What you see on the screen behind me is a schematic made for your convenience from the Graphilla’s team of professional mason experts. I’m sure you already recognize this is an outlined constructive image of the device, usually called “fireplace”. I presume that you know what it serves for, but I will nevertheless give a brief explanation just to make sure. In general the practical applications of fireplaces may be: Dara: : A. As a source of heat - Kosta: : B. As a source of romantic lighting - Dara:C. Enter / Exit for C1. Santa Claus C2. Harry Potter C3. Incompetent chimney-sweepers C4. Various types of ninjas et cetera - Kosta:And D. A place to hand all your awards and medals Now we will explain why you Graphilla users do not need a fireplace. Dara: Dara: This year passed a new tradition in the digital art forums of Graphila. It was planned long ago to set galleries that represent the best works of the forum users in every section. It is a place where everybody has the opportunity to see the participant’s works and the shining colors of Bulgarian digital arts in their full brilliance. Thanks to the collaboration of Netissat Internet Company now we have this opportunity. It is a fact from next week and you are the first to know that, because we announce it in public here and now, on this ceremony. Kosta:The works that enter the galleries will be defined by the moderators in the particular forum part. The winners will receive a virtual prize – banner that certifies the high art value of their works, verifies the presence at the specific gallery and the Graphila recognition for their work. This specific prize will be a banner-image that every participant can put on his website – his virtual fireplace. So if you don’t’ have a virtual fireplace, now is the time to create one, because we give you the Graphilla award for gallery participation in the following sections: 2D, 3D, Logo, Web design and Photography… Kosta: : …”The Sink Crusher” is the name of the award that will be granted for exceptional works - works that really break sinks, and which will enter the galleries of Graphila. Dara:Normally this is the place to say “But wait a minute, there is more!” In the end of the year we will celebrate the anniversary of Graphila. The jury will rate the gallery works, it will define and nominate the best works in every category. The nominated works will be given specific annual awards of Graphila. Kosta: I suppose it is easy to guess their names… “The Fish Killer” But wait a minute, there is more! After defying the finalists, the users allowed to participate in our special forums of Graphila will vote. The chosen receive the opportunity to hang their awards on their websites, as a Graphilla sign of recognition in the area of digital arts. Dara:We introduced you to the new virtual awards of Graphila. But wait a minute, there is more! The represented banner-awards will be changing their appearance. If you have many of them, they may easily become boring, and we would like to avoid this. Kosta: Therefore we have decided to change the banner’s appearance periodically. In the beginning of every year, after the Graphila gallery awards, we will give to the 2D winner the opportunity to draw new banners for “Fish Killer” and “Sink Breaker” awards. These will be granted to the forum users during the whole next year. Dara: But wait a minute, there is more! Aside from the new virtual awards of Graphila, we would like to announce officially the creating of a new sub-forum – News and Interviews. The first news in this forum will be the First Official offline Awards of Graphila. And the first interview will be with the winners in the competition that we’ve just announced. Kosta: After so many official announcements, I think it is time to make one unofficial before the end. You can’t possibly imagine what it is like to be in our shoes – we have such a variety of beautiful fiction works in front of us. In the same time we can’t award all the people that deserve it, because there are just not enough prizes and awards. Of course, as far as it depends on us absolutely all the participants would have gotten awards. That is why we made up… symbolic awards and we called them “the Graphilla Penguins”. We will grant them for specific cases that have specific significance, because they are not only related to the competition, but to forum life in general too. Dara: The first Graphila Penguin we give to the first to declare participation in the competition. This is the man that initiated the first work in progress thread – Tsvetoslav Gerov – Grotesque – he receives the “Absolute and Primordial Graphila Penguin”. Grotesque received one of my favorite penguins and practically the first one that was created by the Graphilla highly experienced team of professional penguinologists… Kosta: You can count the girls interested in 3D graphics on the fingers of a carpenter’s hand. But this is not the only reason we appreciate them so much. The Double-headed Graphila Penguin we grant to the first female participation declared by Silvia Boyadjieva. Silvia and her multicolored Noctilicus Airbus definitely fascinated not only the women of the audience. Dara:“The One-eyed A Little Weird Penguin” of Graphilla we give to the 10th participant that declared his contest entry - Lock. …He also receives the “Three-legged Graphila Subsurface Penguin” for the craziest and most insane and WIP topic in the forum. Lock, also one of the favorites nominated for “The Half-Penguin”, wasn’t there to take his prize. Kosta: The Half Prize of Graphila. Out of 84 people declared participation, 35 haven’t finished their works. The non-submitted and uncompleted works were subject to a vote, defining those that people would most like to see finished. There were 75 votes, 28% against 18% in favor of AtmosFear – Nelson Ivonman. He is now the proud bearer of “The Graphilla Half Penguin”. Atmos promiced to finish his work next time…His concept indeed was one of the promising ones. Dara: In every online forum there are many special people that are always there and they are everywhere. They write a lot and they write frequently. They write all over the place, all the time, every chance they get. Ladies and gentleman, applauds for Alexander Botev, the winner of “The Official Flooding Penguin of Graphilla”. The audience was enthusiastically applauding but unfortunately Botev wasn’t there to take his award. .. Kosta: Coming up next – the Extraordinary and Unexpected Graphilla Penguins. The previous “penguins” were announced if advance in the forum threads and it was clear who will get one. On the contrary, the “Unexpected Penguins” awards were kept in secret until the last minute. It was such a deep secret that even I wasn’t aware of it, and I thought this whole thing up. I think it is right to start the Unexpected Penguins with the “Absolute and Indisputable Penguin” of the competition “A Fantasy Mount” of Graphila. It is given one of the two people that participated with accomplished works in the 2D and 3D competitions at the same time. What is more - their works were great. This competitor was nominated in the both categories, won second award in the 3D and we think that he has completely deserved his penguin. Ladies and gentlemen, Simo Soketov – “Bio” As I was reading the scenario I sort of renamed one Penguin to a Graphin. The Official Graphin of the Penguilla – it sounds good – another proof that there are no coincidences, nothing happens by pure chance. Anyway, Bio was the first lucky man to win an Unexpected Penguin. Dara: Dara: The next penguin is: the “Big Official Penguin of Graphilla”. Our forum is dedicated to the development of our users in the area of digital arts. It is such a pleasure to be able to see and trace the development of somebody, especially when he makes huge leaps forward: The penguin goes to Miki Petrov, Soul Survivor. Пингвинът отива при Мики Петров, Соул Сървайвър If you have never seen the two meters tall Soul (our graphic pride) live, then you have no idea how much the “Big Official Penguin” suited him … Kosta: Two contests running already we have a competitor that creates very beautiful and artistic works, always on the subject, but so abstract that everybody gives his own interpretation to them. This makes the jury wonder how to classify a work that is so different from all the others. In case you accidentally notice jury members scratch their heads hesitatingly, they must be rating the work of Victor M., the one that receives the “Purely Hypothetical Graphilla Penguin” Unfortunately, Victor wasn’t in the hall to take his prize either. Dara: As you know, the works of the competition receive Creative Commons’ license and this particular competition is precisely orientated towards the free licenses. We have one participant that has been using only free software creating his work – Blender and Gimp. We will even reveal the secret that this is the exact same winner whose work was doing to enter next among the nominations. If we had 11 nominations – this is Ilia Halembakov – and he receives the “Free and Independent Graphilla Penguin” Ilia’s appearance was really cool. After he shook my hand and I gave him the microphone, he took Dara’s microphone just to shake her hand – so nice – he absolutely deserved the audience’s applauses. He told us how his only opportunity was to use Linux and Gimp so he had to learn… His work clearly shows that you can create something beautiful using free software. Kosta: “The Terribly Weird, Half-melted, Hard-baked and Acquired Interesting Shape Penguin of Graphila”. There are concept drawings that can make you fall in love from the first sight. Such was the draft of the Fantasy Mount – ridden by … A frog-like mussel creature, threaten by its rider that if it doesn’t obey it will be torn into pieces by the explosive, implanted in its mouth. “The Terribly Weird, Half-melted, Hard-baked and acquired Interesting shape Penguin of Graphila” goes to Chirtata. … Thanks to his amazing artistic and esthetic conception treatment and creative genius, Chirtata had completely deserved his award. Unfortunately he wasn’t in the hall either. I’m sure that if he had his work finished, he could have competed for the award for Original Work. Dara: Before it became a “Terribly Weird, Half-melted, Hard-baked and acquired Interesting shape Penguin of Graphila”, this Penguin had actually been a really cool winged pig. I did my best; unfortunately those 250 degrees in the oven had a bad effect on it. Now I begin to understand what had happened to Ikar… the “Modernistic and Maybe a Little Cubistic Penguin of Graphilla” is granted to the always modern art vision of Alex Sokerov, one of the nominees in the previous 3D competition – Robot. Alex wasn’t there, so it was necessary that the other Sokerov, his brother, comes to take the Penguin – this was Bio’s third appearance on stage. Dara: After the “Modernistic and Maybe a Little Cubistic Penguin of Graphilla”, the next one comes naturally… Kosta: The “Entirely Cubistic Penguin of Graphilla” goes to the least participating in the competition Nicki Mihailov, which according to unconfirmed reports has just come back from the far away coastal acting capital of Sozopol – Varna. The appearance of Nicki was…Hmm. It’s hard to describe it. The moment I was saying “unconfirmed”, I noticed in the left side of the hall this guy, hugging a column, who suddenly started to dash his head against it – I can’t say I was surprised –the information was already confirmed naturally and spontaneously. Nicky was notably happy and shocked of receiving the “Entirely Cubistic Penguin of Graphilla” Dara: We know that some people wanted to participate but didn’t have the opportunity and had to just watch from the side. “The Obliging Voodoo Penguin of Graphilla” is given to the same person that won our first 3D competition – the 3D competition for a spaceship model. Now he will participate in our next competition without excuses, because otherwise his next 7 years will be full of bad penguins. This is Zdravko Pavlov – Spacer Не само това, ами ще бъде и обезпингвинен... Kosta: “The Quite Active Graphilla Penguin” goes to one of the newest and promising participants that often put great works in the forum. He is the second of the two guys that participated in the 2D and the 3D competitions at the same time. This is Deimos, Alexander Alexandrov. The cool thing about those Absolutely Unexpected Penguins was that nobody ever expected them. This particular Penguin wasn’t an exception either. D3im05 is one of the most active and promising young talents in the forum, so it is no chance that he received this Penguin… Dara:“The Especially Elegant Graphilla Penguin” is granted for great contribution and support in the competition “A Fantasy Mount”. The reason we are now here in this hall is the team of young talented collaborators of the New Bulgarian University because they really helped us in making things the way they should be. I would like to introduce to you Maria Petkova, the winner of the “Especially Elegant Penguin”. . Although Maria was really helpful, she was very shy and didn’t want to come on the stage initially at all when I told her that she was the one to bestow an award. It must have come as a surprise that she must come up on stage again, ‘cause she wasn’t even suspecting about this Penguin. She was just staring at the sound recorders when she heard her name and startled. I hope it was a nice surprise because she really invested so much time and thanks to the support of her entire team we did everything was just great. Kosta: the Almost Symmetric Graphila Penguins On this place of the scenario existed complete blank – it was on purpose, because these penguins were a surprise for the two girls – Lucy and Dara, for devoting so much time and efforts to help me do all this job. Well done girls – you did a great job! No penguins in the world can show my entire appreciation. The Comparatively Official Awards of the Competition “A Fantasy Mount” came to an end! I should write an Autro!* *Well yeah, but I didn’t. We had a plan to announce a name of a tavern, where we had to reserve tables in advance. But we couldn’t do it on time because the person who was responsible for this had been testing some other tavern the previous night, as it had become clear during his appearance on the stage. No names mentioned, Stefan (Looking accusingly at LoveHate). I can’t say whether the tavern turned out to be good, but he obviously had been testing it. And so was I, later on, but some people are just born for this…I am not. It is not fair at all. Since we just couldnt fit all the awards in packages, we had to ask the sponsors and the winners to stay after the show so we can do it together. I didn't manage to snatch any major award, some monitor or tablet or something... it was way to hectic to even try staling candy from a baby, that's why I decided to pass 'till the next time, when I plan to organize things even better.The distributing of all the stuff among the winners took some time - there were piles of books and hardware, electronics, magazines, contest posters and everybody went home somewhat happyer, I hope. And as far as the story goes, you know what happened later. We celebrated. Which is great. But then again, it's just not fair. P.S. photos by Elitsa Tsvetkova, Rosen Mantchev, Whitehell

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Posted by: ilko Email: ilko_zachi@abv.bg Koga e bila tova na koq data