So after a week of receiving one beautiful outfit after another, the dreaded day came that I had to sit in judgement which ones I thought had all the right ingredients to win. It was really hard, and because I didn’t want to just randomly pick something, I defined a few criteria that I thought would help me judge the entries. I subjected every outfit to the following scrutiny:
- blending and coordination with the PAX mount colour scheme
- integration and harmony of the combined pieces
- originality
- overall impression
The first criterion had me discard some of the entries that I didn’t think really matched the red, white and blue of the horse tack. Some had very different colours, some had a mix of too many colours and some a lack thereof. The second criterion is a relatively subjective one, as what I believe to be a bad combination might look really cool to someone else. There really are no bad combinations per se, but in my opinion some things work better than others. Nevertheless I discarded some entries based on what I see as a less successful combo as well. I don’t think I discarded any entries based on a lack of originality as I am absolutely super impressed with all the creative outfits that were sent to me! The last criterion had me take a look at the overall impression of the colours, pieces and picture. I did not pass judgement based on image quality, because I can see a great outfit even through blurr and pixeled edges. One of the winning outfits has lower graphical settings, but that was no basis to discard it.
After thorough examination I was left with about 12 great outfits and my heart sank. Why don’t I have more codes to give away? They all deserve it! I decided I was going to pass the remaining outfits through a second set of criteria. For 5 codes I picked one winner, the outfit that simply charmed me the most, for whatever reason or personal taste. The other 4 codes were split up in half: 2 outfits for lower level requirements and 2 outfits with a higher level requirement. So here it is, the winners of the Cosmetic Lotro PAX East Mount contest 2011!!
Number 1 outfit: McFarlane, hunter on the Brandywine server!
Head: Straw Hat – red dye (skirmish cosmetic)
Shoulders: Threadbare Cloth Shoulder Pads – red dye (light armour)
Chest: Common Long-sleeved Tunic and Pants – default dye (outfitter cosmetic)
Back: Day Pack – red dye (outfitter cosmetic)
Along with a Pitchfork, item from the Mathom Society
Runners up (higher level requirements):
Hanador, captain on the Riddermark server
Arrianya, hunter on the Firefoot server
Runners up (lower level requirements):
Bandilac, warden on the Landroval server
Torkon, guardian on the Silverlode server
If you are interested to see all the entries that participated in this contest, you can view them in a slideshow here:
Click this link to view a slideshow of all the entries.
Thank you all who participated, you have my admiration and honest applause, and thank you Turbine for providing the codes for this fun event!!
Cosmetic Lotro 
great to see all enteries 🙂
and congratulations to all winners!
Congratulations but, are you sure you didn’t get any better submissions? No offence for the winners or any submissions but, I was expecting flashy, godly-looking submissions. I mean, would a real fashion maven aprove these? Just skeptical myself. I mean, I don’t play for a while but, pretty sure they could have put up somethin’ better? Oh well, enough dynamite, sorry, gratz to winners.
wooow it’s exciting to see so many cute outfits 🙂 congratulations to the winners!
Really? A straw hat and overalls takes first place?
Congrats to McFarlane!
Old McFarlane had a farm …..
Some really inventive ‘looks’ in those submissions.
Now I need Turbine to expand the wardrobe space considerably!
Grats to winners but I agree with Denrilo/Chosukabe/Torii.. for someone like myself with maxxed wardrobe space, outfits etc, I spent 3 years grinding, researching, mixing matching pieces/sets found throughout middle earth, I am kind of disapoint in these winners. I didnt participate since I dont really like that mount.
Anyway, grats to winners
Congratulations to all the winners. I really struggled with this colour scheme and enjoyed the challenge,Tokon’s is great and Hanador’s is my favourite out of those, damn forochel background too, gets me everytime ❤
Congratulations to all the winners!
Thank you so much to Hymne for facilitating this contest! I ended up submitting 7 outfits on different toons, several of which are found in the slideshow, and created a few others that did not get submitted. Trying to put together a red, white, and blue outfit isn’t easy, and limiting it to that particular color palette is even more of a challenge! I too have a full wardrobe, full shared storage, couture mules and would pay handsomely to have wardrobe increased x10! This was a truly enjoyable contest, and it made me appreciate even more what Hymne does and how much time she must spend each week on creating her outfits – not just putting pieces together, but having all the settings right for proper resolution, tending to the light as well as the background to frame yourself in or the actions of your character to make it look more interesting, waiting for the right time of day only to be put off by a downpour that goes until nightfall lol – I don’t know how you manage to do all this, Hymne. It was an eye opener for me, for sure. I hope this can happen again, and thank you for all the time you have spent!
Thanks Mc, it was a very enjoyable but not so easy assignment. How do you choose between good and good? In the end I gave your “straw hat” first place because it was so wonderfully basic, yet refreshingly different from all other entries and enchanting in its simplicity. You picked the right colours and created a beautiful scene to give it some context. I liked the fork as a finishing touch. You showed how simple outfitters’ and skirmish cosmetics can be used effectively to create a true “outfit”. However there were many other entries that I liked too, and by not giving them a prize I feel like I haven’t done them sufficient justice. This is the hard part of having to make choices and being the “maven”. But you are the winner of this contest! Congratulations!
Well done everyone and grats to the winners! I really enjoyed the slideshow you put together of all the entries. 🙂
I approached this contest concentrating on two goals: designing a good-looking outfit that matched the mount’s colors, and telling my character’s story with only his outfit.
McFarlane did that, hands down, and deservedly won top honors. Colors, sure, but so much storytelling in her costume and photo shoot. Well won!
I thought of a captain working in a foreign land. Struggling to gain respect from the indigenous people. He might have a piece or two of their ceremonial outfits, but he wouldn’t have much, and he wouldn’t wear the fancy stuff day-to-day.
I’m a bagpiper, and I’ve played for many combat funerals for those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our soldiers are aliens in those lands, but they want to blend in. That’s why I mixed the ceremonial cloak I loved (and it dyes so well!) with a robe that has so much white (like the horse) with much less fancy gear.
This contest was a lot of fun and big kudos to Hymne for running it and judging it! Congrats to all the participants, and many thanks again to Hymne!
Thank you, Hymne, for running the contest! It was so fun to try to find a cosmetic piece that tied both blue and red together and to finish off the outfit with a little flair. I’ve always liked the hauberk of glory, but the red tones in it have always made it difficult for me to love. However, I loved finding this would be the perfect piece to tie in the two colors.
I’ve always been impressed by your fashion flair, but this contest certainly impressed your photography skills on me as well! It was wonderfully challenging to scout a spot where I felt the outfit and the character belonged and where I could take advantage of the beautiful scenery in LOTRO.
Thanks again for running the contest, and thanks for not discounting those who may have computers with less than stellar graphic cards. 🙂
LOL I hear you, Arrianya. I normally run in DX9, on high settings when soloing or on medium, unfortunately, when raiding as my computer is pretty basic and can’t handle higher settings in large groups (the skirmish raids can be nightmares for me lol). But I switched to DX10 for the photo shoots, and ultra high settings, etc. Just standing around it had my fps at about 5, which made it even more of a challenge trying to get my shots set up – I’d try to turn slightly or take a step and go way overboard lol. I even had a death by misadventure because I fell off a cliff for one shoot when my fps all but ground to a halt. I’m back to lower settings on DX9 and while the world may not be so pretty, I can at least move lol. It makes me appreciate even more what Hymne and others like Devonna and Freyjuska etc. go through to get good shots! And Hanador I enjoyed reading your post – I love the pipes, but I suppose with a name like McFarlane, not surprising. 😉 You all have given me some ideas for using some of those pieces.
I thought I would chime in with the amount of appreciation this contest gave me for what Hymne does. The little things she mentioned like location, lighting and dye quality have never really irked me as much before! It was a fun, frustrating blast trying to find the right color coordination, and then spending 20 some-odd minutes in ultra-high, DX10 graphics trying to position the camera right (I normally run on medium/high for soloing, and very low for raiding and such).
And I have to echo what Hanador said about telling a story. That was how both this and the other outfit I submitted formed. I like the idea of the warden as a soldier because so much about the class plays to that ideal. Trying to get the effect of “standard issue” clothing given to a militia-hobbit was basically what I was going for.
Also, thank you for posting up all the other entries! I got a couple of stellar ideas I want to use in future costumes!