by Browallia/Nukleus
“To all artists out there with too much prestige in your pants:
this is not for you.”
What if you know that a boat + fast shit + jolly data friends are highlighted ingredients to float?
What if you know that fast graphic compo involves is fun and can engage the scene?
What if you did not know that the Diskmag fixed that compo for you?
Here comes the pixels behind the fast compo arrangement.
Nukleus has been involved in compos before, but I think I was most proud of this so far. And weyland/Fairlight (ex flowersFX) way to rely on people to do what they can, so kudos for letting us design this for Edison in our way. Think we would not get motivated else tbh.
FAST ON FAST GRAPHICS
Fast graphic (fast gfx) compo is what it sounds like, a compo where you produce something fast.
And to not “cheat” with starting in advance, the outlines for some mandatory things that have to be included are announced later. That’s fast gfx in a nutshell. At Edison, the compo was officially announced on homepage a day before the party sailed off, with an announcement video Saturday 4:ish and deadline four hours later 19th of July 2025.
| ** 9 entries ** ** whoop2 ** |
So in summary – with short notice on Saturday we collected a shit load of entries in our ship cabin at M/S Borgila. So first of, thanks to this engagement from people! I think it showed success. \o/
2nd and 3rd place at Edison 2025 fast gfx compo. “Arrrrrr” by Platon42/Desire^TTE^Nectarine, and “Fett Coola Klubben” by gr0gg0/FCK
From left: “The Commodore Sea” by Filippp/Damage ^ MS, “Sailing into the fast compo” by Corel/Five Finger Punch^iNSANE. Sketch: “The Seven Scenegulls and the legendary hunt for the Cursed Floppies” by kaoma. “Boat with 7” by Marcus, and “A day on the harbour” by DopefishJustin.
From left: “Insert duck” by Fred/The Gang, entry (not in fast gfx) from the graphic duel by Frost/Tulou^Triad.
bottom: 1:st place Winner entry – “Le Crew” by velinje/TAONGAD
These where the nine entries presented later that evening. As your trained eye may observe, some elements are blowing wind in the Diskmag sails or? Thats right, a mandatory object was to include a floppy disk in your picture, what more?
THE RULES
It has to be fun and easy. With other words jolly and not overwhelming, and at Edison the compo elements were no exception, or how about these…
1) a floating obstacle (may not be a boat, but not exactly a submarine on the sea floor was in mind…)
2) seven sceners on board (e.g. a seagull not sitting on the boat would be disqualified)
3) a floppy disc somewhere in image (maybe a tattoo on Guybrush Threepwood’s arm? Arrrr!)
Sound simple huh? well, the rules were not totally ready that day when I walked into the bar and presented the idea a few months earlier. The party itself was evolving but they did have the “the seven sceners” ready as catchphrase that Weyland shouted out as brainstorming announce on Facebook some months when Edison 2025 was in embryo state.
Most the the entries actually did old skool so that was nice. One entry was a paper sketch, and Corel/FFP^iNS took photo from swimming pool for his background. Good mix! Beside these rules with aim to be easy to remeber we also set up, no AI, your own material and maybe 16 colors and 320×256 as max resolution was part of the description. I know it was a collision with the 8/16 bit gfx compo at the party, so I decided to not have low res as mandatory. Better to let people do their art is my experience.
Left: announcing the rules for fast gfx. Right: main hall onboard the ship M/S Borgila.
THE ANNOUNCETRO
Finally, some words about the announcetro that was 3.5 minutes long and too me around 6h to fix.
The idea what kind of soundtrack came kind of early. Already with the “the seven sceners” in mind, it literally spoke to me to us the classy OMD song “sailing on the seven seas”. While discussing the credit patterns about the intro “Tribute to Castlevania” with saiibot, me and Smaugur made some stop motion animations with the snacks used for Posadas demo stream.d
The announcement video wasn’t special in that way, but I was pleased myself, and hope you like the sense of humour in it (linky at bottom). When I had all ready, Smaugur was kind to get a software so we could just fix over the music in it. I couldnt find a cover of OMD’s track. But I love it <3 . If you watch closely, some of the objects are from our latest intro. rEST Of aNIMs R lIKE… well, what to say… 6 hour to complete… .ppt-ruleZ!
WRAP UP
If you are open minded to try things without having the private club scenerish elite gabble-babble-gibbish, you can do as Platon42, who made his debute in the Fast Gfx compo ever (be kind to a coder – “Done within three hours“). In contrast to all graphicians out there with too much prestige in your pants to show off some non-pride pixels: this compo is not for you.
For me, fast compos goes well hand in hand with encourage everyone to test a compo (compete). To provide a competition for all people who may spontanousely think “oh yeah, why not try something”.
We know that graphians sometimes prepare days or weeks to prepare their image. And respect for that of course. But if you want to try out where people dont really care because its just fun and to discover/improve your art skills.. So some may be shy to compete there while others dont give a dirty anchor.
In Versus #10, a lovely story made by the two anchors of Edision, radiantx and weyland about the complete party saga. Party was declared dead so everything from scratch to R.I.P was put down in the chronicles. Now Smaugur and Guokte are taking care of the Edison 2025 party report (google it).
One nice thought is that all entries actually got some points.. That says something about a good spread of entries. In a normal graphic compo, some may get 0 points, just becuse some artists just have have stunning nice images. So points to all, and a true *Bollywood* ending indeed! Another thing is that organizers didnt ended with minus for this party, good job! Thanks to all who made this compo this good. Im pretty sure organizers of Edison loved it too (one extra thank to Zworp).
the Diskmag is open to support you with more special events. This was fun!
REFERENCES
Edison 2025: www.edisonparty.com
Fast gfx announcement: https://scenesat.com/videoarchive/RY1Eqx?bs5#show-RY1Eqx
(SceneSat, bookmark day 2, 1:25:00)
Edison saga: article in Versus 10 (not published online, use your Amiga obstacle to read it!)
Scene.org – Orginal gfx found here: https://files.scene.org/browse/parties/2025/edison25/fast_graphics/
photos: from Fred/the Gang, thanks! (edited by the author)
OMDs lovely song on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMST3H69-Os
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Frost was not taking part in the gfx compo. In fact, that image was from live duel. Sorry for beeing fooled :/