beastxyz on BudgetPixel

"Childhood toys, lost in the sea of memories, but never truly forgotten for good." When I saw the challenge, I knew I didn't stand a chance against the bigger and more glamorous toy worlds that creators are more than capable of putting out, so I decided to create a more emotive image of toys leaving their old owner to find a new one. I came across a beautiful image of blue marbles, and it reminded me of the sea. So I decided to use it and put the toys in small little boats, creating the image that they are rowing to a new destination in a straight line. While thinking of a caption for the visual, the term "sea of memories" appeared in my mind, so I kinda threw away that backstory earlier and pivoted the idea to "the forgotten toys remained in our sea of memories" (not that the backstory really mattered to anyone except myself). The execution felt somewhat awkward (the toys were supposed to be of different sizes in reality and not fit in the one-size-fits-all boats), and I couldn't think of how to make it better, so I just left it as it is. I was expecting this to again be in the lower ranks of 40 and below. Being eventually ranked 30 out of 55 is still in the lower half of the cohort, but it is already better than I thought and I will take it as a win.

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