but nothing ever came of them
To date, I've designed and sketched out 3 or 4 possible ideas for an irrlicht mascot but posting them in an existing topic or even a new one wouldn't be the right thing to do
I'm making this topic to propose how I think this should be handled, so we can see more serious attempts and the community can actually have a choice of mascots instead of going with the first decent entry that gets posted.
Quick background:
Why does irrlicht need a Mascot?
- to add more personality to everything related with irrlicht engine! (presentation)
- give opportunities to artists and modellers to put their skills to good use (to promote irrlicht ofcourse)
- make it easier for people learning to use irrlicht to create tech demos with premade content
What are the requirements of a Mascot?
- look presentable and tie in with irrlicht themes (colours, style, logo)
- needs to be relatively humanoid so people can relate with it, to some extent
- should be simple enough to reproduce, as drawings or 3D models
- must be original creation! cannot be an existing or copyrighted work
How do we select the Mascot?
This is what I propose:
Irrlicht's "Competition Time" section would be the ideal place for it, otherwise most people will not take it seriously (as happened in the past).
It would need to be run similar to Monthly Screenshot competitions, where serious entries can be posted over some time period, and at the end a Poll is setup so the community can vote for their favorite.
The time-limit is an important factor, because one Month is too short for an art competition like this:
Maybe the deadline can be tied in with the release of Irrlicht 1.9 or even 2.0?
That should give plenty of time to artists and modellers to create their entries and submit.
The poll itself doesn't need to run for too long, although a few months time would be necessary to make sure enough people see it and vote
But to make sure the Mascot entries will be easy to create as models and to incorporate into future Irrlicht-related merchandising (logos, forums, etc), we should lay down special rules for how entries should be posted in the first place
Mascot entry rules
Each entry that is to be submitted for the competition must follow these rules
-1- design or work must be original creation! cannot be an existing or copyrighted work
-2- must match with existing irrlicht colours and themes
-3- must be somewhat relevant to irrlicht engine
-4- can be submitted either as drawings or 3D renders
-5- must show front AND rear views of mascot (allows other people to reproduce the design)
-6- mascot drawings, renders or images must be on White background (so no coloured or fancy bg's)
-7- optional: a separate drawing, render or image which shows how the Mascot can be integrated with the Irrlicht logo (the logo on the top of the forums),
either some part of the Mascot (eg, the head) or in a modified form (eg, different pose or view)
These are just my thoughts on it, so feel free to post here and use this topic to make suggestions or criticisms.
The competition doesn't need to go Live until most of us are happy (particularly the irrlicht mods, devs and admins)
