Aether d'Animaux

July 27, 2024 Aether d'Animaux ("Spirit of the Animals," complete title: AETHER d'ANIMAUX: The Best of Anthropomorphic and Furry Art) is an annual competition dedicated to the promotion of furry, were-creature, anthropomorphic, and transformation styled media.

Purpose
Aether d'Animaux ("Aether") loosly means "Spirit of the Animal", the theme for this published collection of anthropomorphic styled artwork.

The foremost stated purpose of this publication is to demonstrate to the outside world (i.e "non-fandom") the creative breadth of the Furry world through a juried collection of non-erotic artworks. Secondary to this goal is to provide an atmosphere of artistic growth and inspiration for veteran and up-and-coming artists alike. For these stated goals, an odd-numbered panel of peers and colleagues will perform as Jurors. Under the barest of direction from the publisher (the illustrator known as "KrossBreeder"), these men and women will use their life experiences, stylistic preferences, and personal interpretations of Aether's intentions and guidelines (see below) to independently select works matching the criterion from every work submitted. All works are submitted to Aether in response to a Call for Entries, which goes out near August of each year. Works are voluntarily submitted by the originating artist and/or artist's representative(s). Absolutely no submitted work is pre-screened prior to the Jury process.

The debut, 2007 edition has waived all Entry Fees.

The collected works are then organized into the book's layout by category. The submitting Artist/Representative is solely responsible for deciding which category their work is best fitted.

After artworking the layout and final edits have been completed, the book is collected and printed as a production-ready PDF and electronically transmitted to the Printer. The printer selected for the 2007 edition has been Lulu.com for their print-on-demand services.

Once approved by the publisher as acceptable for final print, Aether d'Animaux is made available for public sale. Sales are handled primarily online via lulu.com's ordering system. ISBN numbers are currently being sought to make the book obtainable via local brick-and-mortar booksellers and electronic web-stores.

All character Trademarks, Copyrights, and usage rights remain property of the submitting artist(s). Aether, its affiliates and volunteers have no interest in procuring or managing artwork.

All profits earned from the sales of Aether d'Animaux are to be donated to a chosen charity.

Competition
The process from start, selection to publication is as follows:

Mock-up
After three mock-up stages (or "waves",) a temporary sample is created in order to show interested parties to garner interest for the concept.

Official Competition
Once the last "wave" is completed, jurors start their call for entries, Any interested artist may submit as many submissions as they wish. The submissions are then reviewed by a pool of thirteen jurors. Each juror will assign a "Yay" or "Nay' on each entry, with any entry gathering seven "Yays" or more chosen with publication.

Jurors will also select a pair of images to use as cover and back cover of the book, and finally, they will select three works from each category, and be awarded Silver, Gold and Grand Master Awards. Once this jurists' tasks are complete, the book will be collected, assembled, and sent out for publication.





Categories
Any material or media submitted can, and will for the contest, encompass all branches of art (classic media, sculpting. computer graphics, fursuiting, doll or plush making, etc,...), Their complete list is as follows:
 * Traditional illustration - Classic art (not including life drawings, comic [sequential art], etc)
 * Digital illustration - Computer generated art (not including Animation, 3d or web-comics)
 * Conceptual illustration - Roughs, life drawing/sketching (includes Animation storyboard art)
 * Sequential art - Comics, web-comics, single page/illustration gags
 * 3d illustration - Any art created using any of the most common texture-based rendering and ray tracing programs (Not including Animation. includes Second Life works)
 * Animation stills - Still-frames from an animation project (includes Animation from 3d programs)
 * Sculpture - A tangible piece of art, created with any kind of available material (includes fursuits without the wearer [posed])
 * Fursuits and Cosplay - Owner created suits and costumes

Guidelines
Any media submitted, be it 2D or 3D, will be restricted G to PG13 ratings, while the amount of art that can be submitted is not. Originals will not be accepted, and all works can be submitted electronically (email, FTP, etc,...,) or via most package/mail delivery companies (UPS, FedEx, United States postal service, etc,...)

An entry is necessary, as well as being an artist. Older or pre-published works are permitted, copyrighted material is not.

Miscellaneous

 * The 2007 edition will be published by Lulu.com, switching to a traditional printer for the 2008 edition.
 * There's a "entry fee" if chosen for publication, but this fee its been waived for all participating artists until the 2008 competition.
 * Aether is non-profit organization, and all proceeds will go back into a charity, special interest group, and/or scholarships for the arts (as decided by this years Jury.)
 * There's no monetary incentive except being chosen for publication, but the artists keep all copyright rights on the work submitted.
 * This competition is the brainchild of Intrinsik Design LLC.