Animation Competition Ideas (Patreon)

A couple weeks ago I thought of the idea for an animation competition and pitched it around to some other artists.  It gained a little bit of traction and reactions seemed generally favorable, so I thought I'd do a little write-up and see what you guys thought.

Description

My idea was to fund/sponsor a competition where participants are given a set of restrictions and a time limit.  Afterwards their work would be rated by a set of judges on specific criteria, with the top ranking artists receiving a cash prize.

The goal of the competition would be to encourage the creation and improvement of pornographic art within the bounds of healthy contest.  Artists interested in entering would be incentivized not only by the prizes, but by the audience exposure and valuable feedback from veteran artists.  Audiences are of course rewarded by the extra influx of free artwork into their feeds, with the possibility of discovering new and upcoming artists they may not have heard of.

It's a simple idea, but it comes with a few hiccups.

Issue 1: Skill Gap

As with all competition, it's normal to expect a differing level of talent and experience between the contestants.  I'd hope that less experienced artists would still be incentivized to enter even if they didn't expect to place.  My worry, and the worries of several other artists I've talked to, is that a single individual could enter and sweep the competition.  It may be anti-climactic, but could be less of an issue if for instance 2nd and 3rd place received cash prizes as well.

Issue 2: Platforms

I'd like for the competition to be centralized on Twitter.  It's where many people consume their porn in this community and the format of the platform lends itself to spreading the word.  However, Twitter isn't the proper platform for organizing information and materials, so it would have to be supplemented somehow.  This could be in the form of a Google doc, MEGA folder, or sponsor hosting site.  I'd like to avoid creating an original website for this; the less overhead the better.

Issue 3: Entry Criteria

This isn't a big issue, but I think it would be important to provide ample context to the competition.  Entrants should know the specific criteria of the contest including technical requirements, time constraints, and even what specific fetishes will be covered.  A lot of this can be done in the advertising process, like calling it the '1-Week Futanari Animation Competition' or the '24 Hour Threesome Original Character Animation Competition', or perhaps something less long-winded.

Though the contest wouldn't require any sort of entry payment, I think it would still be important to require entrants to apply.  This mechanism could be used to make sure they meet the minimum requirements,  understand the rules, and possess the minimum level of skill necessary.  This could be streamlined with a Google form or something similar.

Issue 4: Organization

A lot of artists were interested in funding and promotion, but no one seems to be interested in organization (including me, though I would be willing to supervise).  I've spoken to a few people about organizing, but I'm still looking for people who have the time, interest, and skill.  The organizer(s) would be responsible for creating promotional materials, putting together forms, making announcements, corresponding with entrants and judges, and in general being the public-facing component(s) of the competition.  This could easily be a paid position on commission.

Alternatively I try to work with a sponsor website or organization like slushe.com or one of the Rule34 sites and have them take care of most of the work.  The competition would obviously be less flexible in this case, but perhaps with a small enough organization it could work out.

Conclusion

Doing a small-scale 'test run' could help hammer out a lot of these ideas, so perhaps I'll start with something in my own niche like the '7-Day Animation Competition: Futa Edition'.  Contestants would have 7 days to put together a 3D pornographic animation involving 2 or more characters with at least one futa.  Something like that, anyway.

Let me know what you guys think!