[FAILED 07/15/09] [Citizen] maxmazi (Patron: YMCA LEGO)

[Astaroth]

Client: maxmazi

Hello,

My name is Max known as maxmazi in the forum, and i am very honored that i have the chance to appear in front of you. I am a huge TW games fan, and i would like to offer my services as an Artifex (as proposed by Legio Caesar) for the TWC community. I have decided to contribute to the community because it's my only way to try to recompense the moders who tooked my gaming experience to higher levels, and also because i recently found the pleasure in working with different programs that helped me to achieve a better experience for mods material.
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I will humbly present my work to you, as i realize that there is still much room for improvement. But with time passing and with a continuity in my work, i am sure that i can provide the TWC community members results that will appeal their needs and needs.

My work mainly consists by doing screenshots, screenshots later transformed by me in unit info cards for various submods of Third Age Total War. I work in collaboration with Louis Lux for his submod Visual Enhancement providing him with my screenshots and recently i did the unit cards. Louis had the patience and amability to teach me his secrets for unit cards by providing me with great tutorials. I've also done avatars, signatures, wallpapers, all from my screenshots. Here are my results:

Unit Info Cards and Screenshots for MORDOR
Link to respective reply in the release day.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Unit Info Cards and Screenshots for ORCS OF THE MISTY MOUNTAINS
Link to respective reply in the release day.

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Unit Info Cards and Screenshots for ISENGARD
Link to respective reply in the relelease day

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I realize i occupy much space, therefore i will spoil my 6 other factions, this were done when i didn't had the knowledge to do the unit cards, so Louis did them, i've did this screenshots:

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Visual Enhancement GONDOR Unit Info Cards:

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Visual Enhancement HARAD Unit Info Cards:

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Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me!

Visual Enhancement High Elves Unit Info Cards:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Visual Enhancement Silvan Elves Unit Info Cards:

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Visual Enhancement Rhun Unit Info Cards:

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Visual Enhancement Dale Unit Info Cards:

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Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me! Click me!

I've also done screenshots and unit cards for another submod called Reworked Gondor Militia:

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And here are their unit cards:

Here you can see my screenshots done from TATW non related to any submod:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I've also did some signatures from my pictures:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Here are some avatars i've made from my screens:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Some wallpapers i've done from my screenshots:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

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A video tutorial i've done for the ones that are trying to learn to take screenshots with cinematic editor:

I've entered also in some competitions like POTW and UESW with my screens, but so far i didn't won, always getting close, reaching second or third place. This is not important, i am just glad that people react to my work, posting positive or negative comments. Both of them are good, because i am still learning and i will achieve better results by listening and by practice.
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I understand my duties as a Citizen, i will keep modding, always trying to improve my skills by taking in consideration what other members say about my work, no matter if it's good or bad, i will continue to help others providing them with answers that will resolve their problems or by working on graphics requests such as signatures, avatars, etc. I am a friendly person therefore i will always be friendly with other members.

Thank you for "listening" me. Again, i am very proud that i had this chance provided by Legio Caesar to appear in front of you.

Best regards,
Max.

Patron: YMCA LEGO

Dear members of the Consilium de Civitate,
I noticed maxmazi when I was browsing the Third Age Total War forum. From the start he struck me as a kind and respectful member. Not only that, but he is very active in his modding for the TATW Visual Enhancement mod. He does quality work along with Louis Lux, who has already been recognized for his efforts. In conclusion, his friendly attitude and modding make me believe he would make a good citizen.
Thank you for your time,
Legio

[Xavier Dragnesi]

From all the content he's put forward in his application, I would say a yes, but I will look a bit further to make sure.

[y2day]

This is almost the amount of work the first time I was patronized and failed. I think he is very talented and I know how much time it takes to create all those cards. I had done 4 factions for Stainless Steel and also had been a member for over a year and contributed tons by answering questions in the SS forum. So have the requirements gone down since I was patronized? Are we accepting citizens on talent or on contribution?I think he is on his way but I would like to see him continue to contribute in the next few months and it would be a guaranteed yes.

[Augustus Lucifer]

Will have to think about it. There was a lot of turnover after your last patronization y2day, most of the Councilors on the first one weren't on the second one so it's possible the change was merely one of perception rather than standards.

I'm going to have to try and not let my desire for people who can do this kind of work helping out on AUH to impact my vote, because I can't seem to retain more than 1 2D artist at any one time. I will say that it probably isn't work that you need to have extreme acumen to perform, but I'd venture it takes a bit of time to get the right angles of the shots and apply some of the effects(though the effects in themselves seem minor).

If anything my opinion of this candidate, as it would have been in your case y2day, is that users who make and release work that improve gamers experience are valuable contributors. There's a lot of people who skin/model and have passed Artifex votes even though their mod releases are perhaps years away. We should definitely look to reward and appreciate finite work that gets done and gets added to the community.

EDIT: And the topic title should be Artifex rather than Civitate.

[Astaroth]

EDIT: And the topic title should be Artifex rather than Civitate.

I put "Citizen" because that's what his patron did in the Pater Familias sub-forum.

Either way, while I acknowledge that the candidate does a good job at taking and editing screenshots, I don't think that this is enough to qualify for Citizenship. If he kept on contributing - especially if he broadened his focus a little - I'd probably give him a yes in the future but I don't consider him ready yet. Therefore, I'll have to go with a no.

[Viking Prince]

A few questions come to mind:

• Specific outline of what work was done on I've also done screenshots and unit cards for another submod called Reworked Gondor Militia:
  It seems to be just the screen shots, but the claim is the unit cards as well. I might be misreading the thread.
• Since the applicant worked with Louis Lux , but is not being patronized by Louis Lux -- I think a brief statment by Louis Lux as to the extent of the applicant's contribution to the project is in order.
• Once again, I am uncertain as to the work involved with creation of unit cards. Is this really sufficient for citizenship? I am not suggesting the applicant needs more unit cards. I am suggesting that more than unit cards is needed.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

I think he's trying to show that the main focus of his work is as a 2D artist. He doesn't actually do much actual modding, its just the 2D art that he does which is contributing to the mod such as the unit cards, and I'm sure his wallpapers, sigs and avatars do appeal to the people who are taking an interesting/liking to the mod. Contribution to a mod, contribution to the community enjoying the mod, looks just about enough to me, unless someone can convince me otherwise.

[Astaroth]

I think he's trying to show that the main focus of his work is as a 2D artist. He doesn't actually do much actual modding, its just the 2D art that he does which is contributing to the mod such as the unit cards, and I'm sure his wallpapers, sigs and avatars do appeal to the people who are taking an interesting/liking to the mod. Contribution to a mod, contribution to the community enjoying the mod, looks just about enough to me, unless someone can convince me otherwise.

You do have a point but you have to keep in mind that other modders often spend a lot of time modelling and skinning entire factions, writing thousands of lines of code and creating great new scripts. Therefore, everything has to be put in perspective. While it isn't necessarily bad that his focus lies on taking screenshots, we should still try to evaluate whether his contributions are sufficient.

Many people contribute to mods but some of them do (a lot) more than others.

[y2day]

If he broadens his modding contributions it will be a yes for me for Artifex but not yet. If I look at just the title of Citizen, with his friendly nature, sig and avatar making it still isn't a yes. I would advice him to join a mod team or start one of his own. Look into skinning, creating faction symbols, and continuing contributing to the community by creating sigs, participating in comps, creating tutorials and answering questions. That is what I did and was voted as an Artifex. His road could be very similiar to mine if dedicates himself. He has already shown he is capable of doing just that.

[Soulghast]

Poll added.

And Legio requested that I post an additional link, so here goes.

[y2day]

Soulghast please let him know if he doesn't pass to keep doing what he is doing. He truly is talented, but we vote on contributions not talent, or atleast we are suppose to I think. If you want please tell him to contact me if he has any questions or concerns. I may just contact him after poll closes anyway.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Is he allowed to include that in his notification? Perhaps as a PS

[Astaroth]

Is he allowed to include that in his notification? Perhaps as a PS

Yes, the Curator can tell the applicant why he failed and what he should improve in order to pass in the future.

[Squid]

I will have to vote no, I'm not finding any of the unit cards he says he's created and the images that he says are unit cards seem to be just screenshots.

EDIT: Dangit, I didn't get in in time, I need to pay more attention when I got back from vacation.

[Augustus Lucifer]

EDIT: Dangit, I didn't get in in time, I need to pay more attention when I got back from vacation.

That's happened to me a few times. I'd rather not vote than vote uninformed though, so if I miss it by a sliver on the back end due to like, misreading AM for PM, I'm alright with that as opposed to voting early without doing research.

[Squid]

I though I'd have today to research and vote on both the closed polls, but I obviously misread the close times.

[the Black Prince]

I clearly misread the poll close times too, I thought I had till tomorrow for some reason.

My vote would have been Yes, but I see it would not have made a difference.

I do not think that we can reasonably ask a dedicated member to broaden his contributions within the modding world. The guy is a 2D artist, to get citizenship, there is no requirement that he must work in at least 3 different areas of modding. Afterall, we don't expect our debators to make contributions in all the possible debate fora... I would be opposed to a perception that only modders capable of doing all the work on a mod themselves should get citizenship. If someone is a good 2D artist and his artwork sucessfully contributes to and enhances the community, thats what we want. I'm not going to tell a debator that he has to debate ethics or history as well as politics, i'm not telling a scripter that they have to do research and artwork before we accept them. Its not reasonable, nor is it necessary.

[y2day]

I agree tBP and if he had done Unit info cards on a whole mod then I would have leaned more to a yes. It takes a lot of time to do what he has done but cropping a pic to the required size using the border that is already there for 4 or 5 factions just isn't enough for me. It looks like he may have done some small adjustments with brightness and contrast but not much else. I do agree he is talented I just feel more is needed. If some one skinned one faction does he qualify for artifex? All his unit cards are not as much work as skinning one faction if that. I know I have done it. I did more than he has and failed my vote the first time. It is like a good debator with 300 posts. I think if he continues and tries again in a few months it will be a yes with no problem.

Creating symbols, menus and the like all fall under 2-d art. He has room to expand and I may just contact him and ask if he would like an opportunity.

[Soulghast]

Failed.