Challenge link: https://civitai.com/bounties/12008/five-tag-challenge
This was a tough one to judge, not just because of the bounty UI, but there were so many great entries. Limiting to just five tags is genuinely a challenge, since you are subject to randomness more so than usual but there are so many options that it can be hard to decide on what direction to go.
I want to thank everyone for taking the time to submit an entry, I appreciate the time and effort.
Here are the top 10 entries with listed buzz rewards. Go and give them all a follow, plus all the other awesome entries that didn't make the cut!
Grand Prize - 50,000 Buzz
watercolor, warm color , @_@ , psychedelic , koiI'm a sucker for watercolors, probably why I put in effort to ensure Hyphoria v0.02 responded to those style tags better. There's something about the piece that kept me rating it highly that it stayed at the top with only the second place one making it a hard choice.
Second Place - 20,000 Buzz
watercolor_pencil_(medium), cherry_blossoms, waterfall, (abstract:1.2), stamp_mark, Again water colors are nice, this piece just feels so composed for such a simple prompt and I just love the look of it. I had trouble between this and first place, and even now waver a little but it's so cool to see what people come up with given limited choices.
Third Place - 10,000 Buzz
pinup \(style\), 1girl, white theme, from behind, surreal, dynamic view, This one relies a lot on randomness but I really like the composition, scale, and contrast.
Fourth Place - 5,000 Buzz
dynamic angle, ligne claire, looking back, forest, nape, window shadow, There's a mood to this one that I enjoy, but choosing to use a distinct style like ligne claire is a bold choice and it pays off and adds to the piece.
Fifth Place - 1,000 Buzz
multiple girls, watercolor \(medium\), horror \(theme\), glowing eyes, marionette, dynamic angle There's that water color again. This one oozes horror and the water color really adds to the vibe. I hadn't considered horror with water colors but it really does work well with it.
Sixth Place - 500 Buzz
arena, ((by kkix25)), fantasy, neon, impressionism, Seventh Place - 500 Buzz
(art_deco, impressionism, surreal:1.2), VHS_artifacts, retro_artstyle Eighth Place - 500 Buzz
candlelight, shushing, shaded_face, blood_on_knife, gunjyou_(gunjyou_00), dynamic view, dynamic angle Ninth Place - 500 Buzz
(redum4), saber (fate), upper body, nature, horizon, dynamic view, dynamic angle, Tenth Place - 500 Buzz
dynamic view, dynamic angle, sf-a2 miki, Jersey Maid, red border, sumi-e. sketch backgroundRetrospective
To make judging easier I ended up making a web app to let me track overall entries and judge two at a time with an ELO like rating system. After the challenge I did last year, I was frustrated with the judging process. The civit UI would reset loaded image state with the way images are loaded that I started collecting links to entries in a spreadsheet and using that for judging. I didn't want to repeat that experience and built my own thing (with vibes of course) and it helped immensely.
I don't plan on releasing it as it was a quick low effort app, but in case it inspires anyone else to make something like that to share or just for themselves.
