[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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Actually the rule for 'no tack' was removed! default smiley (l) I found this out a little while ago when i was making a carousel horse.
nash12
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This is one of my first horse drawings in years, I think it’s pretty simple right now but I am hoping to submit something like it to the black pearl soon. Any tips on improving?

LilyHorse
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By Retired breeder, 5th November 2021 19:29:15
It's good idea to do it
Here's a question: can you put more then one horse in a picture you're submitting?
kimladris
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kimladris wrote:

Here's a question: can you put more then one horse in a picture you're submitting?


That is a little subjective, I think. If you are doing two horses together, probably not. But if it is a theme (Think of the Gemini divine, where they are stacked opposites), or a horse with several heads, two halves of horses, ect. Then yes you can usually do that.
HarleyQuinn
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Alright, thank you!
kimladris
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How do you use the Black Pearl? I was saving up my passes to get one until the event ended. I'm sad. Can someone lend me one I have a Fifth element!
ZZBlacksheepZZ
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ZZBlacksheepZZ wrote:

How do you use the Black Pearl? I was saving up my passes to get one until the event ended. I'm sad. Can someone lend me one I have a Fifth element!


You can only buy a Black Pearl during the monthly submission time. It's not like a Black Market Item you can win in an event or trade with another player, think of it like a key you can buy that lets you submit your design. You can save your passes and submit when the Black Pearl is available again next month!
lauralololili
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I'm struggling here... I have a large, high quality image that no matter how I save or transfer/copy/paste to Howrse's template, it turns out blurry. The original image is crisp and perfect, even if I resize it there, but as soon as I add it to the template it looks terrible. Can anyone help?
noro lim
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kimladris wrote:

Here's a question: can you put more then one horse in a picture you're submitting?
Unfortunately, no, that's specifically listed as something that will not be accepted in the Black Pearl guidelines.
noro lim
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noro lim wrote:

I'm struggling here... I have a large, high quality image that no matter how I save or transfer/copy/paste to Howrse's template, it turns out blurry. The original image is crisp and perfect, even if I resize it there, but as soon as I add it to the template it looks terrible. Can anyone help?


What program are you using?
If your drawing is a little bigger, you should expect it to lose a lot of quality if you're resizing down to the 300x300 pixels. It's just something that happens. but you can also use certain types of interpolation to make it look a little neater depending on the program that you have.
nash12
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where can i find the templates for the black pearl?
ᵉᵖʰᵉᵐᵉʳᵃˡ
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ᵉᵖʰᵉᵐᵉʳᵃˡ
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Hey I'm thinking of creating helios ray background but I'm having little troubles;

First of all I'm confused about the size? Somewhere it says that the background is supposed to be 2106 × 940 pixels while somewhere else it says 2006 x 840 pixels. I tried to look online but all the sources were like 5-6 years old so I don't know what to trust. What is the correct size for the background?

The template doesnt help me much since either as it doesn't let me download it in png form; it automatically makes it jpeg.
K̲n̲i̲v̲e̲s̲
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K̲n̲i̲v̲e̲s̲ wrote:

Hey I'm thinking of creating helios ray background but I'm having little troubles;

First of all I'm confused about the size? Somewhere it says that the background is supposed to be 2106 × 940 pixels while somewhere else it says 2006 x 840 pixels. I tried to look online but all the sources were like 5-6 years old so I don't know what to trust. What is the correct size for the background?

The template doesnt help me much since either as it doesn't let me download it in png form; it automatically makes it jpeg.


It has to be Jpeg, it can't be a png, only coats are png

The total plus the format you have to fit it in should be 2106 × 940, but for the part that you draw on it should be 2006 x 840 and then you can easily fit it into the frame.
nash12
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Alos don't forget to REMOVE the black horse and the box in the middle, it's a very common mistake. It's only there to make sure that nothing seems floaty and the perspectives are correct. default smiley (y)
nash12
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nash12 wrote:

It has to be Jpeg, it can't be a png, only coats are png

Oh I didn't even know about this, thank you!

And thank you for clarifying everything!
K̲n̲i̲v̲e̲s̲
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What is a good platform to design golden apple coats? I was told I could ask that heredefault smiley 8-)
MOMMY
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MOMMY wrote:

What is a good platform to design golden apple coats? I was told I could ask that heredefault smiley 8-)


I have heard many people here recommend GIMP; its a free drawing program and I've heard that it works well when re-sizing your pictures smaller and doesn't cause that much quality loss. I myself don't have experience with gimp so I can't speak for experience but its definitely worth a shot!

I myself use firealpaca, its also a free drawing program but the resizing isn't that good in my opinion, (the picture can get quite blurry) but I prefer it more because I like the tools and brushes better.

Both drawing programs have great tutorials on youtube that teach you the basics and how to use them.

But any drawing program will do if it allows you to save pictures as PNG and make them 300px300px size (so no microsoft paint)
K̲n̲i̲v̲e̲s̲
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I cannot submit my landscape to BP as it keeps telling me i did not follow the format?
i'm so confused.

what are the exact dimensions for landscape?
and also am i meant to leave the template or not?
bc i didnt and it just wont work default smiley :(
ᵉᵖʰᵉᵐᵉʳᵃˡ
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ᵉᵖʰᵉᵐᵉʳᵃˡ wrote:

I cannot submit my landscape to BP as it keeps telling me i did not follow the format?
i'm so confused.

what are the exact dimensions for landscape?
and also am i meant to leave the template or not?
bc i didnt and it just wont work default smiley :(


The landscape needs to be 2006x840 pixels, in jpg, and in the template.
nash12
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I really feel like they should make it more clear. because I had to rely on an outside website to get all the proper measurements.
ᵉᵖʰᵉᵐᵉʳᵃˡ
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Hi! Got a question: is it okay for my GA coat design to have transparency?

I don't mean just a transparent background, I mean the literal horse is partially transparent. I've tested it on a variety of backgrounds and it looks fine (the effect is pretty subtle so it's not jarring) but I don't want to risk submitting it then finding out it's not allowed.

Thank you!
Lorkhan
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Lorkhan wrote:

Hi! Got a question: is it okay for my GA coat design to have transparency?

I don't mean just a transparent background, I mean the literal horse is partially transparent. I've tested it on a variety of backgrounds and it looks fine (the effect is pretty subtle so it's not jarring) but I don't want to risk submitting it then finding out it's not allowed.

Thank you!


Yes! there are coats in the game that use the transparency effect well. Just as long as you can see the horse in the yellow background it should be fine.default smiley (y)
nash12
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By Retired breeder, 26th February 2022 17:03:59
censurer This message has been censored since it does not follow the forum rules.
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