I was wondering what art is acceptable so that I will know next time?
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What art is acceptable?
- Thread starter billy ross iii
- Start date
So glad you asked.
First of all, here's what we straight-up don't allow.
Work by Artists Who are Not the Uploader
Whether or not the work was found somewhere on the internet, was drawn by a sibling/friend/pet, is uploaded with or without credit to the original artist (or worse, claiming credit for the work when you did not make it) - uploading works that are not your own creation is considered stealing, and will not be tolerated. This should be obvious and does not bear further explanation.
Traces, Blatant Copies and Edits of Other People's Works
There is a fine line between deriving inspiration from another artist's work, using photos as references and the like and blatantly copying a work and attempting to pass it off as your own. Tracing has its place as a tool for learning and understanding the forms in a picture - but the bottom line is that you cannot claim credit for copying someone else's effort. The same principle applies for edits - be they minor edits such as color-swapping or painting over someone else's work, or using it as part of a collage or a composition, with or without the use of filters - if an image contains an element that is not original to you and was not created by you, you can't truly call it your work - at least, as far as the Creative Corner is concerned.
There are, however, two exceptions for this.
The first involves official Pokémon art - namely the official art by Ken Sugimori (such as this Volcarona), the 'Dream World' illustrations (such as this Ivysaur) and official sprites from the actual games. These may be used and edited - although obviously, their use is still frowned upon as you, my dear children, are not Ken Sugimori and should probably strive to develop your own style rather than using his (fairly questionable one, to be honest) as a crutch.
The second involves the use of bases - there are numerous bases, colouring pages and the like that can be found in multiple places online which have been created specifically to have images built upon and are provided by their creators for free. These may be used in Creative Corner works - as long as the base is credited to its original creator, with a link to the original base as uploaded by its creator in the description of the work, and that said creator made it free to use and edit and such is clearly stated on aforementioned creator's page.
Any work created through the use of a generator.
A "Generator" is a program, a website or an application that makes it possible to quickly 'generate' an image based on selectable components which it puts together for the user. Our Trainer Card Maker is a textbook example of a generator, and other commonly spotted examples of such include Alex Onsager's Pokemon Fusion generator, assorted Fake Card Makers, miscellaneous avatar and doll makers, and the character customization screens of miscellaneous video games. Images created by this method are not allowed as they are technically parameters fed into a program that does all the actual work for you using assets that you did not create - and as such, images created in this method are not considered your work, and may not be uploaded here.
An exception to this is if the product of a generator is used as inspiration for an actual creative work created by the artist, and provided as reference alongside the actual work, such as in this example by AstralNightmare. That is an example of valid use.
Any work which falls under the above three (unless the exceptions mentioned apply) will be removed with a Posting Other Creator's Works warning issued to the violator, the severity of the warning depending on the severity of the offense and/or how many offenses have been performed. A first offender who posted someone else's image because they thought it was cool and wanted to share it with others would be likely to receive a less major warning than a person who has, for instance, claimed to have spent a long time creating an image that they most certainly did not create, or a person who has been warned before and still has not read the rules. As in all matters of enforcement, however, this shall be determined by staff on a case-to-case basis. Bear in mind that the Creative Corner is not Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Imgur, Photobucket or other similar repositories of often-unsourced material, and should not be treated as such.
Got that? Good. Now we can get into what we consider Creative Content. There are certain broad categories of works which may include images considered or not considered creative works. Without applying too many restrictions, here's a few categories worth special consideration.
Screenshots
In general, a screenshot from a video game is not considered a Creative Work unless it contains elements created entirely by the uploader of the work outside the confines of the game. If, for example, you've painstakingly created a mod for your favorite game, crafting your own assets and wish to show them off as screenshots, these may be allowed provided your custom content is the most prominent element of which. Or, alternately, if you've actually made a game with your own assets and wish to show screenshots from which - that's fine too! But if you take a random screenshot of your battle party from, say, a Pokemon game on the 3DS - that is not a creative work. An exception, of course, is games with a creative focus by nature, such as Pokemon Art Academy or elaborate constructs made in Minecraft - those are allowed, again, provided that your custom-made creative content takes center stage in the upload.
Note: due to the legally dubious nature of emulation, uploading screenshots taken using emulators is not allowed.
Memes
While we do recognize the internet is a patchwork of cat photos and misattributed images from miscellaneous sources badly captioned over with all-caps Impact, the average 'meme' is not a creative work and it is not allowed unless the work and all its elements was fully and 100% created by you. You can caption photos you took, or draw something that is a reference to a popular meme - but, for example, captioning a screenshot that wouldn't pass as creative content and sticking a caption on it would not.
So this, for example, would be allowed.
Whereas this:
Wouldn't be, regardless of how stunning Mega Gengar is in Purple.
Similarly - to use an example relevant to you specifically. Posting a photo of Donald Trump next to the official art of Gumshoos and being all "Hurr durr they're the same" is not creative content, but were you to actually draw a picture of Trump and Gumshoos posing together and going on about Making Alola Great Again - or sharing hair care tips, I don't know - that would be considered creative content. Not that I endorse giving that particular convergently evolved weasel more screen time than he already gets. (That is to say, Trump, not Gumshoos).
A bit about Written Works, as those are important too!
A creative work within the context of written works can be a story, a poem, a character bio (to an extent), an article/or opinion piece or multiple things in between provided they were entirely written by you. However, it is important to point out that the Creative Corner is not the forums, nor is it a blog or a Facebook-like community - and it is definitely not the place to leave updates for your followers about your life, or about why you've been gone for a while, or start role plays and the like. This is what your profile is for, or any of the relevant threads on the forums. Comments and conversations are encouraged, of course - but remember that the Corner is, first and foremost, a place to post creative works. Warnings for non-creative content will be issued for non-creative works.
Lastly, it is worth noting that we do not support audio and video works, and have no intention of doing so at this time. Any work containing embedded audio or video will be promptly removed.
And that's about it! Everything else that you create yourself and complies with the applicable sections of our global rules as well is allowed and encouraged. Of course, if a work is found in violation of a rule that I have not listed here and needs to be removed - the person will receive a clear explanation of what they've done wrong in the text of their warning. If you have any further questions or require further clarifications - ask away, and one of us will get back to you. ^^
First of all, here's what we straight-up don't allow.
Work by Artists Who are Not the Uploader
Whether or not the work was found somewhere on the internet, was drawn by a sibling/friend/pet, is uploaded with or without credit to the original artist (or worse, claiming credit for the work when you did not make it) - uploading works that are not your own creation is considered stealing, and will not be tolerated. This should be obvious and does not bear further explanation.
Traces, Blatant Copies and Edits of Other People's Works
There is a fine line between deriving inspiration from another artist's work, using photos as references and the like and blatantly copying a work and attempting to pass it off as your own. Tracing has its place as a tool for learning and understanding the forms in a picture - but the bottom line is that you cannot claim credit for copying someone else's effort. The same principle applies for edits - be they minor edits such as color-swapping or painting over someone else's work, or using it as part of a collage or a composition, with or without the use of filters - if an image contains an element that is not original to you and was not created by you, you can't truly call it your work - at least, as far as the Creative Corner is concerned.
There are, however, two exceptions for this.
The first involves official Pokémon art - namely the official art by Ken Sugimori (such as this Volcarona), the 'Dream World' illustrations (such as this Ivysaur) and official sprites from the actual games. These may be used and edited - although obviously, their use is still frowned upon as you, my dear children, are not Ken Sugimori and should probably strive to develop your own style rather than using his (fairly questionable one, to be honest) as a crutch.
The second involves the use of bases - there are numerous bases, colouring pages and the like that can be found in multiple places online which have been created specifically to have images built upon and are provided by their creators for free. These may be used in Creative Corner works - as long as the base is credited to its original creator, with a link to the original base as uploaded by its creator in the description of the work, and that said creator made it free to use and edit and such is clearly stated on aforementioned creator's page.
Any work created through the use of a generator.
A "Generator" is a program, a website or an application that makes it possible to quickly 'generate' an image based on selectable components which it puts together for the user. Our Trainer Card Maker is a textbook example of a generator, and other commonly spotted examples of such include Alex Onsager's Pokemon Fusion generator, assorted Fake Card Makers, miscellaneous avatar and doll makers, and the character customization screens of miscellaneous video games. Images created by this method are not allowed as they are technically parameters fed into a program that does all the actual work for you using assets that you did not create - and as such, images created in this method are not considered your work, and may not be uploaded here.
An exception to this is if the product of a generator is used as inspiration for an actual creative work created by the artist, and provided as reference alongside the actual work, such as in this example by AstralNightmare. That is an example of valid use.
Any work which falls under the above three (unless the exceptions mentioned apply) will be removed with a Posting Other Creator's Works warning issued to the violator, the severity of the warning depending on the severity of the offense and/or how many offenses have been performed. A first offender who posted someone else's image because they thought it was cool and wanted to share it with others would be likely to receive a less major warning than a person who has, for instance, claimed to have spent a long time creating an image that they most certainly did not create, or a person who has been warned before and still has not read the rules. As in all matters of enforcement, however, this shall be determined by staff on a case-to-case basis. Bear in mind that the Creative Corner is not Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Imgur, Photobucket or other similar repositories of often-unsourced material, and should not be treated as such.
Got that? Good. Now we can get into what we consider Creative Content. There are certain broad categories of works which may include images considered or not considered creative works. Without applying too many restrictions, here's a few categories worth special consideration.
Screenshots
In general, a screenshot from a video game is not considered a Creative Work unless it contains elements created entirely by the uploader of the work outside the confines of the game. If, for example, you've painstakingly created a mod for your favorite game, crafting your own assets and wish to show them off as screenshots, these may be allowed provided your custom content is the most prominent element of which. Or, alternately, if you've actually made a game with your own assets and wish to show screenshots from which - that's fine too! But if you take a random screenshot of your battle party from, say, a Pokemon game on the 3DS - that is not a creative work. An exception, of course, is games with a creative focus by nature, such as Pokemon Art Academy or elaborate constructs made in Minecraft - those are allowed, again, provided that your custom-made creative content takes center stage in the upload.
Note: due to the legally dubious nature of emulation, uploading screenshots taken using emulators is not allowed.
Memes
While we do recognize the internet is a patchwork of cat photos and misattributed images from miscellaneous sources badly captioned over with all-caps Impact, the average 'meme' is not a creative work and it is not allowed unless the work and all its elements was fully and 100% created by you. You can caption photos you took, or draw something that is a reference to a popular meme - but, for example, captioning a screenshot that wouldn't pass as creative content and sticking a caption on it would not.
So this, for example, would be allowed.
Whereas this:
Similarly - to use an example relevant to you specifically. Posting a photo of Donald Trump next to the official art of Gumshoos and being all "Hurr durr they're the same" is not creative content, but were you to actually draw a picture of Trump and Gumshoos posing together and going on about Making Alola Great Again - or sharing hair care tips, I don't know - that would be considered creative content. Not that I endorse giving that particular convergently evolved weasel more screen time than he already gets. (That is to say, Trump, not Gumshoos).
A bit about Written Works, as those are important too!
A creative work within the context of written works can be a story, a poem, a character bio (to an extent), an article/or opinion piece or multiple things in between provided they were entirely written by you. However, it is important to point out that the Creative Corner is not the forums, nor is it a blog or a Facebook-like community - and it is definitely not the place to leave updates for your followers about your life, or about why you've been gone for a while, or start role plays and the like. This is what your profile is for, or any of the relevant threads on the forums. Comments and conversations are encouraged, of course - but remember that the Corner is, first and foremost, a place to post creative works. Warnings for non-creative content will be issued for non-creative works.
Lastly, it is worth noting that we do not support audio and video works, and have no intention of doing so at this time. Any work containing embedded audio or video will be promptly removed.
And that's about it! Everything else that you create yourself and complies with the applicable sections of our global rules as well is allowed and encouraged. Of course, if a work is found in violation of a rule that I have not listed here and needs to be removed - the person will receive a clear explanation of what they've done wrong in the text of their warning. If you have any further questions or require further clarifications - ask away, and one of us will get back to you. ^^