Welcome to 2017! Now that the steaming garbage pile that was 2016 is behind us, it's time for a new competition! This time our theme is Discovery Gone Wrong. This is a semi-open theme where we thought it would be interesting for participants to come up with the idea for a discovery of some sort (can be any kind of discovery, like finding a lost city, stumbling across $50 lying on the ground, discovering your ancestry, or a new scientific discovery - be creative and original!) and explore ways in which things could "go wrong" in relation to it - like as a result of the discovery, or while actually making the discovery. The details are up to you! We'll be focusing again on the story aspect of your animation, so make sure to take care with how the story flows! We had some very unique submissions last competition, think we can out do it this time?

Don't forget we would like all entrants to make a thread in the Works In Progress forum and keep it updated with your progress as you animate your submission. Doing this is not a requirement but we will be granting bonus points to those that keep their thread up to date, so make sure you make your thread to collect those points! Here are some past examples of the kind of thread we want you to make:

• Evangelion - 1st Place (Pro) Film Tribute Competition - exceld
  
• Gurren-Lagann - 3rd Place (Pro) Film Tribute Competition - Irian
  
• The Hobbit 3 - 1st Place (Intermediate) Film Tribute Competition - Barthimo1
  
• Super Mario - 2nd Place (Pro) Game Tribute Legion 2 - Syrius
  
• Metal Stick Rising - 3rd Place (Pro) Game Tribute Legion 2 - Xrebellion

Submissions will be scored on the following criteria:

Submission

• Story - Animation contains proper elements of a story such as setting, characters, plot, exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution
  
• Animation - Demonstration of technical animation skill. Things such as timing, rhythm, arcs, squash, stretch, etc. will all be taken into account.
  
• Art - Artistic ability. Includes aspects such as scene composition, use of color, perspective, lighting, attention to detail, etc.
  
• Direction - Your ability to direct an animation, taking in to account things like intent, story telling, emotion, use of music, use of sound effects, etc.
  
• Originality - We're looking for entrants to try new things! The more you set yourself apart the better.

Extra

• Posted Selections in Competition Thread
  
• Created WIP Thread
  
• Kept WIP Thread Updated

The animation itself accounts for the majority of total possible points, but final ranking is not determined solely by how good your animation is. The above criteria will be scored out of 30, with 3 extra points for following the Extra section.

These competitions are designed to last a total of 2 and a half months, but we understand that life can get in the way. If you're in need of more time, you can ask for an extension but be warned, there will now be a 0.35 point lateness penalty off the final score for every day past the original deadline you take, and we can only give up to an extra week before we need to move on to the next competition, so use this option wisely. Time management is a good discipline to have; this is to remain fair to those who put in the effort to finish on time.

To enter the competition all you need to do is reply to this thread with your selections. Every few days we will collect the names of people who've posted and add it to a list of participants which everyone will use to keep track of who's entered and their progress. You may still submit an entry even if you don't make a WIP thread or announce your choices here, but you will be at an automatic disadvantage to those who do! When you have finished your entry, ensure you've met all the requirements listed below and send me a private message with your PayPal email address and a link to the SWF or video download of your entry. We will collect submissions and announce the winners according to the timeline above. We will be releasing the submitted animations on a weekly schedule after the competitions ends, so remember not to leak your entry anywhere until two days after it goes up on official StickPage channels! If you do not supply a PayPal email address you will not be able to receive your prize if you win.

These must be followed in order for your submission to qualify. Failure to meet these requirements will automatically disqualify your entry.

• Must mainly focus on stick figures
  
• Must be a complete finished animation, cannot be split into multiple parts
  
• Must have sound effects & music
  
• Must contain a minimum of 90 seconds of animation excluding any introductions or credits
  
• Must contain official or custom StickPage branding (download official Flash package or MP4 video package), applied in the following ways:
  
  • Introduction - A brief animated introduction to be placed at or reasonably near the very beginning of your animation, after any preloaders and before any other introductions
    
  • Main Menu Link - If your animation is a SWF and has a menu, a link to StickPage must be present somewhere in it
    
  • Watermark - A StickPage watermark must be present in the lower left-hand corner of the animation throughout playback, must be a link to StickPage if it's a SWF
    
  • Credits - StickPage must also appear during the credits, must be a link if it's a SWF
  
  
• All released versions of the animation must contain the StickPage branding described above and no other branding except for the author's personal branding
  
• Must not be released until a two days after it goes up on official StickPage channels
  
• Must have a PayPal account to receive prize

• No Copyrighted Music - We will no longer accept submissions with copyrighted music for legal reasons. Please see resource list below for options.
  
• Cursing - StickPage is frequented by a diverse range of people of various ages and cultures, and as such we tend to air on the side of caution when it comes to a controversial subject like whether or not swear words are appropriate. We would rather you avoid swearing completely within an animation.
  
• Extreme Gore - In the past some talented animators have gone a little overboard with their graphic depiction of violence and gore in their animation, and it left some viewers feeling uncomfortable. To avoid upsetting our viewers we may ask you to tone down some gore if it's too much. This is only in very specific circumstances where the depiction is realistic enough to affect viewers. Your average stick figure cartoon violence is still perfectly fine!

For this competition we're once again offering up a $5,000 prize pool across 15 placements! Check out our prize breakdown below:

Not sure on something? Feel free to post questions in this thread! Common answers or good questions will be added below.

What Music Can I Use?

Here are our entrants and their progress so far!

Announced: 25 | Progress Threads: 8/25

Arch-Angel Genesis	Barthimo1 Log #52	guramecon
Irian	Atsukedaime Treasure	JasontheBoring ACXpedition
HyMaster ισχύς | Power	Externus? I think?	Fordz Love Birds
GuzFA Inscius	kronusFA	Dianism OVERPOWERED
Drifts	John Jobs	power fuse0 Natural Selection
rdhiyar Unbelievable	Seagull	S99D
quinsilva Framed	jaguilar	Kursura Interloper
exceld ooqeaaM	WaveSP	Lag Trip
brasick Avarice