[Updated] Black Pearl Clarification

The Black Pearl

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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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zra wrote:

How do I keep it transparent?


Depends on what program you are using, when you download it make sure it's a PNG and not a JPEG or anything else. PNGs usually have some transparency in them.
nash12
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zra wrote:

How do I keep it transparent?
zra wrote:

How do I keep it transparent?


If you’re using GIMP, then the alpha Channel will do the trick which is located in the Layer window at the top— Transparency — add alpha Channel.

Or you can do it by selecting the existing layer in the layers tub, right click will open a window, go to “add alpha channel “

Either way works.

Have the Layer you’re working with already transparent if you want a blank background to work on for better visibility just create another Layer on top of the transparent one...and always create your drawing on a separate layer so you could just delete the background layer and have the transparent one at the ready.

And save your work on a PNG format.

Your work must be placed in the available space of the template ( do not go over the grey space of the template) and then saved along with the template, so your work can be submitted.

Hope this helps.
Aℓina
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I keep getting the error “ Your coat does not use the compulsory format (display format for the Golden Apple, for Helios' Ray)”

I’m not sure what’s wrong since I downloaded the exact format and drew my coat inside it, didn’t change the size (and have tried submitting in multiple different sizes just in case), the background is transparent, and it’s a PNG file… I don’t know what else I might be doing wrong?
RMT
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RMT wrote:

I keep getting the error “ Your coat does not use the compulsory format (display format for the Golden Apple, for Helios' Ray)”

I’m not sure what’s wrong since I downloaded the exact format and drew my coat inside it, didn’t change the size (and have tried submitting in multiple different sizes just in case), the background is transparent, and it’s a PNG file… I don’t know what else I might be doing wrong?


Are you sure that the background that you’re submitting is transparent? Because you can save the image with a background in a PNG format regardless. It has to have a transparent background ( you should see the little black and white squares behind your image). If your background is indeed transparent, maybe you should check thoroughly if there any paint marks left on your drawing that may overlap the template.

If you resized the image, be sure you did not resize your template along with your drawing.
Aℓina
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it’s definitely transparent and i can’t find any issues with the border default smiley :'( i still can’t figure it out, i might just have to wait til the next time the pearl is open and hope i’ve solved it by then
RMT
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RMT wrote:

it’s definitely transparent and i can’t find any issues with the border default smiley :'( i still can’t figure it out, i might just have to wait til the next time the pearl is open and hope i’ve solved it by then


If you want, send me a screenshot and I will see if I can find the issue.default smiley (y)

Because I just submitted a creation and had absolutely zero issues...
Aℓina
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What's the policy on using AI generated images? I've seen a number of Helios' Ray entries during voting that are so colorful and abstract they really remind me of the AI generated images I've seen elsewhere on the internet. I would imagine this would fall under "images from another site," but it's technically a one-of-a-kind image so it might not fall under people's definition of plagiarism. Of course, it's possible that these backgrounds are painted digitally and the artist just has a very creative style, but given the recent popularity of such AI websites I became curious about Howrse's official stance on the topic.
lauralololili
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lauralololili wrote:

What's the policy on using AI generated images? I've seen a number of Helios' Ray entries during voting that are so colorful and abstract they really remind me of the AI generated images I've seen elsewhere on the internet. I would imagine this would fall under "images from another site," but it's technically a one-of-a-kind image so it might not fall under people's definition of plagiarism. Of course, it's possible that these backgrounds are painted digitally and the artist just has a very creative style, but given the recent popularity of such AI websites I became curious about Howrse's official stance on the topic.


If they are Al generated it is not fair for the other people who take time and work to create their backgrounds, compared with a 1 second generated background. I've seen them too, and I got to tell that I have never seen this kind of surreal art before in the Black Pearl votes.
Aℓina
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Logicall speaking, AI generated backgrounds should be banned simply because the person didn't make them themself default smiley (8)
Typing in some words and then pressing a button until something decent shows up is not the same as actually making a picture and I'd view it as an insult to actual artists if AI was considered the same their work and someone got some quick passes for no effort.
A lot of Ai generated pictures don't actually work as a Howrse background anyway because they are closer to desktop backgrounds; there's no place to put the horse.
opıɐu∀
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And they are not only here, but in other art platforms as well...and people proudly showing them off as their art.
Aℓina
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I spent hours on a black pearl creation and then I couldn’t upload it i tried to follow the steps, but it just didn’t work. Just informing y’all.
Silversnowfox
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Silversnowfox wrote:

I spent hours on a black pearl creation and then I couldn’t upload it i tried to follow the steps, but it just didn’t work. Just informing y’all.


Did you erase the black horse along with the square? The background needs to be exactly 2006 x 840 ox , on a transparent background.
Placing the background on the exact spot can be tricky and it may overlap the template without you realising (maybe try to copy paste the background into the template so it automatically places it in the centre of the template).

Hope this solves the problem.
Aℓina
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Silversnowfox wrote:

I spent hours on a black pearl creation and then I couldn’t upload it i tried to follow the steps, but it just didn’t work. Just informing y’all.


also the black pearl is currently not open
Starynight
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How can I fit what I drew in the template without it losing quality?
BlueInkyWater
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How can I make the template bigger so that my artwork isn't pixelated?
BlueInkyWater
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BlueInkyWater wrote:

How can I make the template bigger so that my artwork isn't pixelated?

You cannot resize the template, as if you do they will not accept your art. Every art submitted here looses its sharp quality from when it was bigger, my art looses its quality too, so there is little that can be done to keep its quality same as the original.
Aℓina
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BlueInkyWater wrote:

How can I make the template bigger so that my artwork isn't pixelated?


The transmission fits the entire game on the platform, so you can't change the size.

But dont worry...
Draw the pictures really big zize.(2000px X2000px->)
And watch what is you drawing the resolution size(dpi) ... The bigger the resolution dpi value of the drawing stage, the better the image.(350 dpi - >)

(However, there are also differences in different drawing applications...
Ibis paint x as nice as it is. pixelate the pictures a bit.)

When the work is large and on a transparent level, it is only finally reduced to fit the game platform
Anusofiaart
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opıɐu∀:so true *looks at DA smacking itself in the head by proudly launching an AI, and then getting thrown off a cliff by artists* oh geesh I wonder why that happened..


AI backgrounds should be banned indeed. Not only did the person didn't make it themselves...the AI itself was probably trained using all pictures possible it could get its hands on (so...neither artists or photographers had a say in if their work was free to be used in training the AI in the first place (so, AI is using stolen content, possibly copyrighted content to generate the prompt user is putting in).

Just look at Deviantart Dreamup drama and you will know what I mean.

Sending in AI-generated artwork is equivalent to letting an AI write an essay for you that you send to school as your own work.
Shishi no Seirei
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new christmas pony wip <3



lines by Black-Veil-Illusion <3
Starynight
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Starynight
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What’s the best program to use when creating a coat/ray? I’d really like to submit some but I don’t even know where to start!
Jayco
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Jayco wrote:

What’s the best program to use when creating a coat/ray? I’d really like to submit some but I don’t even know where to start!


I use Krita default smiley :)
Starynight
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Oh thanks!
Another thing is I can’t seem to find what the measurement are? Like I don’t want to accidentally make a coat or ray that doesn’t fit in hoarsest box yk?
Is that something I can find out when the pearl is open again?
Jayco
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Howrse not hoarsest lol I’ve never been able to figure out measurements on this site lol hence why I’ve never changed my pfp bc it never seems to fit. Either to blurry or cropped weird
Jayco
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Jayco wrote:

Oh thanks!
Another thing is I can’t seem to find what the measurement are? Like I don’t want to accidentally make a coat or ray that doesn’t fit in hoarsest box yk?
Is that something I can find out when the pearl is open again?

You can still go to the black pearl page even when it's not submission time, but you need to have the link, and there you can find the templates for the coat and ray.
The template sizes are 400x400 px for coats, and 2106x940 px for rays.
Noctuarys
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