[Updated] Black Pearl Clarification

The Black Pearl

You need at least 60 days of seniority and 5 karma points to use the Black Pearl.

We'd like to clarify a few things concerning the proposals for the Creative Space. We've had the time to see how things went and made some changes along with some additional advice.

For the Horses, Pegasus, Unicorns, Donkeys, and Ponies.


Using shadows in your creations:


We are probably going to add them ourselves in the future to have something that has the right perspective on the backgrounds, and that has a uniform texture across the coats.

You can use shadowing, but we ask that you keep them very light so that the images will fit with most Helios Ray backgrounds.

Cut out your edges more.


When we place the coats on a dark background in a lot of cases, there are stray light colored pixels all around the drawing. This makes it impossible to use on a dark background.
Tip Please take the time to take a look at your coat on a white and on a black background, in order to get rid of any leftover smudges or pixels. Also, look a little further away on just the outline. Often the coats have a smudge around the corners or along the border of the image.

Use the smudge or blur tool sparingly.


It's a pity to see a coat that has been worked on then filtered with a blur filter, and it comes out all smudgy. It's also a pity to see a coat with smudge marks on one side and not the other.

Be careful when playing around with reformatting an image.


Sometimes we get perfectly nice drawings of Sausage horses because the file has been altered, and the horse has been squashed or pulled in another direction.
This might be a great way of transforming an Irish setter into a Teckel, but it isn't very pretty on horses. Also, avoid making your resolution too low and giving the picture a pixel art look

Backgrounds


Using brushes is allowed.


They can be used as well, but we'd like to also remind you of the Black Pearl page information as seen in the quote below.

“Excess airbrushing is not allowed”. It is allowed but not too much!"

We have received tons of entries like this and have been very cool about it up until now. However, seeing the same tree used 4 times in different backgrounds is starting to get a little old.

From here on out, we'll start to be a bit more strict about this type of thing. This is due to the fact that it's unfair and the aim of the Creative Space is to work things with your own hands, not make photo manipulations. The same thing goes for photos or bits of photos.

Painting, blurring or smudging landscape pictures.


Moving forward, we'll simply remove the right to propose any creations to the Creation space forever for those who do try to do this.

Check the perspectives.


When you make a background, please consider that there has to be something for the horse to put his feet on. It's quite strange the have a picture with a nice pond in the background and the horse is floating in the middle of it in thin air.

The same goes for outer space and clouds etc. Just try and make the backgrounds usable for everyone, not just the Pegasus. Also, make sure that the horses won't look like giants in the middle of a forest when you decide to draw trees or other items.

Rules


Plagiarism is forbidden!
Respect the author's rights: we do not steal images off of the Internet; we do not trace photos; we do not use the basis of someone else if they have not given their authorization, preferably publicly.

What is plagiarism? Plagiarism is taking someone else's work and passing them off as your own.

We can take inspiration from a style, a movement, a mane or a coat without copy-pasting it. It’s the same idea for literature, graphic arts, video games or cinema - there is often inspiration taken from another creation. Inspiration is imbued with another creation in order to interpret it and create something new! Copying is recreating identically. Copying is not having a style or a vision of your own. Try to have the imagination and bring your unique personality to your creations.

Please also note that any cheating can get you excluded from proposing any artwork to the Creative Space forever and/or be followed by sanctions.
Players who submit an artwork not created by themselves, AI-generated or plagiarized will be permanently banned from using the Black Pearl.

Otherwise, all the usual rules still apply.

Before posting:


It is forbidden to mock or ridicule creations/creators
Don't post too many steps regarding your work to avoid flooding of the topic.
IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ASK FOR VOTES!

You are welcome to promote your creations or creations you voted for using #HowrseBP on social media or promote your creations on your profile page.

This topic can be used to help each other understand the Black Pearl rules with respect to your creative content.

Players who do not follow the rules are exposed to sanctions.

Regards
The Howrse team

 
Ow
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Yes, plenty of people submit different colors of the same coats at the same time. It's totally fine.
blacknazgul13
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Timpin wrote:

I was wondering... The rule about plagiarism, does that mean i cannot submit one coat with a brown horse and then another with the same horse but in a different coat color? If i made the horse myself? How do they know i made it myself? And can they see the name of the submissions? Because then they can see that i submitted both.


What you are describing is generally called cloning, and while it's generally looked down upon a lot of players do it (including me default smiley (lol)) and it's perfectly fine so long as its from the same player or if the player gave special permission for someone else to use it.

Sometimes you'll see coats that look similar but are from different players, and that's usually because another person made a lineart that everybody can use, or is in the Creative Commons.

However, if you manipulated a normal image, even if it was your own, that can be really bad. Players can easily spot the plagiarized images from the internet, or even using reverse image searching to tell that a person didn't make it themselves.
nash12
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(also sorry for my bad grammar default smiley (d))
nash12
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Mine keeps saying that it does not use the compulsory format, even though it does... Any help?
kittygirl03
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Never mind, I figured it out default smiley xd Sorry!
kittygirl03
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By Retired breeder, 2nd March 2021 02:00:42
1
Hello! I'm trying to submit a piece of work but when I try and put it in the model it's so pixelly you can hardly make it out! And I'm unable to draw inside the square as well for the same reason--it's like the ppi is at 10!. It's set at 400 x 400px with a 300ppi. I'm having this issue both on gimp and Krita. What do other people do to make their work not so blurry?
Retired breeder wrote:

Hello! I'm trying to submit a piece of work but when I try and put it in the model it's so pixelly you can hardly make it out! And I'm unable to draw inside the square as well for the same reason--it's like the ppi is at 10!. It's set at 400 x 400px with a 300ppi. I'm having this issue both on gimp and Krita. What do other people do to make their work not so blurry?


It’s supposed to be very blurry like that, and it’s only acceptable if it is 300x300 pixels (within the model) at 72 ppi (I think) It should look normal if you zoom out to 100% on GIMP. As the coats are very small like that.
nash12
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I was wondering, can I put my golden apple coat design on my online art portfolio, or would my coat then be seen as plagiarism? (Because it would probably turn up on a reverse image search, and it has not been published here yet)

And would it be a different scenario to wait till my design gets picked by Howrse, and that I would put it in my art portfolio, afterwards?
Kipduif
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By Retired breeder, 17th March 2021 09:55:18
can anyone please help me regading that fanart rule?
I was thinking i might do to a white horse black mustaches that looks like Salvador Dali's... so sth like that:

or is this considered as fanart or sth else that goes against rules? default smiley (8)
Retired breeder wrote:

can anyone please help me regading that fanart rule?
I was thinking i might do to a white horse black mustaches that looks like Salvador Dali's... so sth like that:

or is this considered as fanart or sth else that goes against rules? default smiley (8)


In my opinion, it would not be considered fanart as it's more inspired if anything else, plus some horses can have mustaches like that irl (pic on the right), so I wouldn't be concerned.
nash12
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Quick question! default smiley :)
I‘ve never submitted a GA coat and I use Procreate to draw potential coats.

I heard that most of you guys use gimp or photoshop. Is it even possible to submit a coat that is drawn on Procreate?
Sauerkraut
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Sauerkraut wrote:

Quick question! default smiley :)
I‘ve never submitted a GA coat and I use Procreate to draw potential coats.

I heard that most of you guys use gimp or photoshop. Is it even possible to submit a coat that is drawn on Procreate?


Yes! So long as the background is transparent, it fits in the model and has no other issues. default smiley :)
nash12
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By Retired breeder, 28th March 2021 11:46:40
what is this
By Retired breeder, 28th March 2021 11:46:51
what is this
@nash12 , is it normal that the image saves itself with a white background, even though originally, it had a transparent background?
Sauerkraut
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By Retired breeder, 1st April 2021 12:31:39
Thank you!! And thank you for all that you do!!!
By Retired breeder, 1st April 2021 12:33:26
How do you get to it?
Hey there, I have a small problem
It says that I‘m not using the compulsory format, even though I did. I placed it on a 400x400 pixel canvas und put my coat inside and no pixel from the drawing was on the template. What should I do?
Sauerkraut
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Sauerkraut wrote:

Hey there, I have a small problem
It says that I‘m not using the compulsory format, even though I did. I placed it on a 400x400 pixel canvas und put my coat inside and no pixel from the drawing was on the template. What should I do?




Hi!
No it is not normal that your drawing should save with a white background, it should be transparent and PNG

Your drawing has to be 300x300 px and fit nearly inside the model provided by Howrse, otherwise it won’t read your drawing properly.

If you’re still having trouble you can pm me the drawing and I can format it for you.
nash12
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By Retired breeder, 2nd May 2021 09:45:01
Hi, quick question!
How do I use/download the template from Black Pearl? I'm doing a Golden Apple coat. I've tried copying the template, but in my drawing software the space where the coat should go turns black. Is it normal, or am I doing something wrong?
Retired breeder wrote:

Hi, quick question!
How do I use/download the template from Black Pearl? I'm doing a Golden Apple coat. I've tried copying the template, but in my drawing software the space where the coat should go turns black. Is it normal, or am I doing something wrong?


Sometimes it might turn black if your drawing application does not support transparency.
Which program are you using?
nash12
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By Retired breeder, 2nd May 2021 15:09:01
I use Clip Studio Paint
Retired breeder wrote:

I use Clip Studio Paint


I think that one supports transparency from what I've seen online. Otherwise, if you want to try downloading it just right click and then click "Save image as"



If you're still having problems you can also pm me with the picture of your artwork and I can format it for you!
nash12
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Hi guys, I am having the same problem as many others in the thread.

My GA coat is 300 x 300 at 72dpi, transparent PNG with the frame included and not being obstructed by anything, etc etc, but is still said to not be the compulsory format.

Would anyone be willing to take a look at my file and tell me what I've done wrong? I've tried it with many different ppi and sizes and nothing seems to work. I'm at a loss and disappointed that the effort I put in might go to waste default smiley :'(
xanuage
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xanuage wrote:

Hi guys, I am having the same problem as many others in the thread.

My GA coat is 300 x 300 at 72dpi, transparent PNG with the frame included and not being obstructed by anything, etc etc, but is still said to not be the compulsory format.

Would anyone be willing to take a look at my file and tell me what I've done wrong? I've tried it with many different ppi and sizes and nothing seems to work. I'm at a loss and disappointed that the effort I put in might go to waste default smiley :'(


I'll take a look at it, just pm me. default smiley :)
nash12
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