Thank you for all who participated in the build contest! It really was an impressive turnout. I heard nothing but high praise for all of the entries the entire week.
Included in the results are compilations of the judges’ comments. Also, for pictures of the entries feel free to visit Scottie Melnik’s Flickr set at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottiemelnik/sets/72157627425842771/show/
1st Place – Chrono Cogshine’s Cogshine Kraken Zapper: Treats the kraken like flys and lures them into a flytrap, leaning more towards the mad science style but still a good design overall. Amusing option that pre-cooks your Kraken for you! Probably the most effective trap. a nicely scripted and executed idea. Effective, uses tons of power, and pre-sears the kraken meat for banquets. And because it’s a great big bug zapper for Kraken. Nuff said.
2nd Place – Vernden Jervil’s Airborne Bovine Kraken Lure: Vicious, final, and bonus kraken juice by-product. He knew the contest would call for more cow bell. (hehe) Nicely textured and explains why the cows have been going missing. And because I’m having Jurassic Park flashbacks. Also, it’s interactive and sautés the kraken once inside.
3rd Place – Nathaniel Lorefield’s Trap: Classic design and cleverly executed. Deployable at any altitude, few points of failure. And because it’s an upside down bear trap that snaps shut on your when you approach Jaws.
Honorable Mentions:
-Kimika Ying’s Kraken Trap: Sometimes the simple ideas for a trap work :) Extra points for the “noob redshirt.” High marks for humor and two forms of bait.
-Nightshade Sixpence’s NS6 Kraken Hunter: Elegantly simple, good use of clockwork birds, no kill/catch and release. An incredibly elegant design. And I want one of those mechanical birds as a pet!
Build entries should be picked up Tuesday evening to give people a chance to see the winners. Thank you again to all who participated!
Thankyou for the opportunity to take part in this contest. I have dabbled with “iron builder” competitions in some other sims and have always been amazed by how some people can shape prims in the most incredible ways. After a time i gave up on them though as there are still a lot of building skills i am learning and i never quite got the edge due to that.
The air kraken trap competition really caught my imagination. I have often found that i cannot build things for myself and that my best work is made as a gift for a friend. They are things that i do not plan, but that strike me as i am wandering about, much as this one did. I saw all the traps and thought “These are great mechanical traps and there is room for one using electricity”. Then i slapped down a prim, got to work and the bug caught me – i am glad i did!
Every builder used their strengths. I am no good with things like making buttons open doors or traps that reset. My scripting knowledge is limited to making alterations to scripts i have found or purchased. I knew i couldn’t build a trap that was anything like the others, so i tried my best with the tools i had. I also had in mind the iconic Tesla towers that have inspired a great many mad scientists. A wanted to make something that would be a little like those.
Animated textures were one of the first things i picked up when i first started building. I had a fair few electrical ones that i paid well for. I used them with my UFO and i figured they would work well here. My friend pixi took an interest and purchased some pipe textures that looked really good and i slapped those on and i had a few random dials and controls that i had found in the months of scavenging i had done on the grid. I purchased some pigs off the marketplace and slapped those in as well.
The squid were another thing that i wouldnt have been able to make on my own. I have become quite adept at finding things laying around and customising them to meet the needs of a build. They were actually very simple, moddable octopus toys that looked pretty rough when i found them, but which could be stretched and added to with my own prims, so that they looked quite a bit like kraken. I slapped a steam script i had in and found that i could alter it so that, when it was touched, it could “Say” a little story about them. With some tips from folks in the caledon university chat i was able to alter the script to get that done (originally they just told the owner how many steam pixels they were making).
The last component was a picture of an actual tesla tower that i put the Kraken Zapper title upon. Nathaniel Lorefield recommended me a simple, free paint type program a while back when i was trying to make tank tracks. That project never quite worked, but i found that the program was able to combine the picture and text to suit my needs.
So, overall, many people helped me in some way of other and i`m thankful to all of them. My builds are a traditional “bodge” of random stuff slapped together and sometimes it works just right. The Kraken festival was a great idea and i learned a little more about scripts with this build…..next i need to figure out those pesky buttons and resets….which calls for more tea.