Hello to Our Fan Art Community and Open Discussion
By
Altoholic_Monkey,
Posted on: 2006-11-04 13:15 in Multi-Media Fan Creations
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I'm not keen on the idea of fan art being displayed in-game. It breaks immersion.
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... you don't think that various Heroes in Paragon City have fans ...? You don't think that a city most visually distinct form others due to colossally-huge-a-mongous statues of various heroes wouldn't have an art show centered around ... well ... heroes? ^_^
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How about we finally... FINALLY wake up the 'Web Forum Admin.' and getting them to raise the Avatar screen-space from 80x80 to at least 100x100 pixels? This is the only web-conference I attend where I am forced to size down (or crop) all the av-pics to be that small. 
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I would like it if they at least allowed us multiple settings. A new account with the default settings would have no avatars displayed. The user can then go in and set it so they can view avatars at 60x60, 80x80, 100x100, or even up to 120x120. Users would either have to provide avatars for every size I'm guessing, unless we would actually upload avatars and a program would scale it to all desired sizes. I'd also love to be able to use forum signature images.
If the concern is making the forum available to low bandwidth users, they can view it at the lower settings, while those of us with more powerful computers and connections can use the larger images. I'd also love a program created by Cryptic/NC Soft themselves that works like City Game Tracker and City Info Terminal. Being able to select that as one's avatar (or even better, having it displayed in addition to one's avatar) would be awesome.
...never have been a fan of images in signatures. they tend to get outta hand. as such, I am quite happy with the current ruling of no images in sigs
...but thats just me *shrug*~
...the sword is truth...
~whiteperegrine~
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I'm not keen on the idea of fan art being displayed in-game. It breaks immersion.
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... you don't think that various Heroes in Paragon City have fans ...? You don't think that a city most visually distinct form others due to colossally-huge-a-mongous statues of various heroes wouldn't have an art show centered around ... well ... heroes? ^_^
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That's an excellent point. If they could find a way to display art in a method that doesn't break the immersion, I'd be all for it. Perhaps opening an Art Gallery in one of the Hero and Villain zones with updated images about once a week or so. I'd be for that, but I suspect that would require quite a bit more work than the devs are really willing to put into this. I think updating the Fan Art page and providing a Screenshot Gallery and Wallpaper Gallery would probably be more than sufficient though.
your = Belonging to you.
you're = Contraction meaning "You are."
Ur = The name of an ancient Mesopotamian city.
ur = This is not a word.
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I'm not keen on the idea of fan art being displayed in-game. It breaks immersion.
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... you don't think that various Heroes in Paragon City have fans ...? You don't think that a city most visually distinct form others due to colossally-huge-a-mongous statues of various heroes wouldn't have an art show centered around ... well ... heroes? ^_^
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That's an excellent point. If they could find a way to display art in a method that doesn't break the immersion, I'd be all for it. Perhaps opening an Art Gallery in one of the Hero and Villain zones with updated images about once a week or so. I'd be for that, but I suspect that would require quite a bit more work than the devs are really willing to put into this. I think updating the Fan Art page and providing a Screenshot Gallery and Wallpaper Gallery would probably be more than sufficient though.
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Hence my suggestion, above.
Picture this: a painting/picture/portrait object, hung on a wall - like the semi-generic "fine art" decorations in office maps, and also available for use in SGs. The appearance is a lower-resolution "thumbnail" of the picture itself.
So far, so good, yes?
The catch is this: it's "clickable" - and opens a window much like an NPC dialog, where a much-nicer-quality ingame rendition of the art is displayed, along with pertinent information - i.e., things like the name of the picture, a brief description that perhaps names the character(s) and/or palce(s) depicted, the date it was included in COH (as a "created on" entry), and the (pseudo)name of the author.
So ... let's say someone submits a picture of twocharacters, a duo of characters ... theirs and their S.O.'s, maybe; hero characters, for simplicity's sake (yeah, I'm sure even Villains have "fans" ...). The title might be "Two for T", especially apt if a big "T" is their chest emblem; the artist's name (as included on the contest submission) and the year/month the piece was submitted; and it might name the specific characters depicted, and even a breif (1 or 2 sentences) description of the events depicted, if it's an "action shot".
Of course, if you don't go into the actual art gallery, you never see any possibly immersion-breaking elements. Even if you do, if you don't CLICK on the pictures ... they're just different wall decorations.
And since it'd be a contest, with rules, and maybe even a THEME, set by Cryptic and/or NCSoft? The odds of having anything immersion-breaking even BE there goes waaaaaay down.
...
As for themes? Here's a few ideas:
"Comic Book Covers" (make the piece look like the cover of a comic book, complete with over-the-top title, a price, and so forth. Hey, if we can get those sorts of things to hang in our SGs as in-game items [Vet Rewards] ... ^_^)
"Heroes (and villains) in Flight" (pretty self-explanatory, IMO)
"Signature Characters" (Any of the signature characters - hero or villain; since it's for submission to Cryptic, they can put a clause that a submission is also anacknowledgement of ownership/copyright/trademark, and legal worries on that front can be assuaged)
"Holiday Spirit"[/i] (Depending on the holiday ... theme the image to suit; for Christmas? Think of Heroes manning Salvation Army kettles, helping Marines at a Toys-for-Tots dropoff, or just plain shopping for presents; Villains mugging Santa Claus [heh!!] or delivering suspiciously-ticking presents to the Freedom Phalanx's base ... )
"Dance Party!" (Anyone and everyone, partying in Pocket D; especially interesting as a theme immediately after a major in-game Event held there, actually ...)
... that's five already. ^_^ I'm sure others can be thought up. Heck, "Enemy Groups", featuring various enemy groups but NOT, neccessarily, centering on any one particular hero or villain ... there's a sixth one.
^_^ I can't draw, paint,or ANYthing for crap, and those ideas make even MY fingers itch to try something ... ^_^
I believe like stated before, that we should have maybe a costume suggestion thread in this forums as well. THere are a ton of creative people here that don't go to the Suggestions part of the forums becuase half of them are...not nice. Also, maybe they could draw stuff to show examples. And you would get suggestions for every body type, depending on the type they like to play the most, which I think is pretty rounded out. With i8 coming, and so far, only 1 pattern for guys, I think it would be nice to get some more creative juices flowing. 
Scarf_Girl�s Official Kid Brother!
I like the idea of an art gallery that could be updated every new Issue. I mean we are getting 'Comic book covers' as supergroup posters as a vet reward *eyeroll for that*, it would be MUCH more cool to have player create artwork instead.
And NO to forum images/signatures. I can't stand those forums where that is allowed, because people put in these HUGE giant pictures, and only say one line worth of reply, so you're scrolling through and it's just a giant slideshow of pictures. I like how things are now. 
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How about we finally... FINALLY wake up the 'Web Forum Admin.' and getting them to raise the Avatar screen-space from 80x80 to at least 100x100 pixels?
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I would like it if they at least allowed us multiple settings. A new account with the default settings would have no avatars displayed. The user can then go in and set it so they can view avatars at 60x60, 80x80, 100x100, or even up to 120x120. Users would either have to provide avatars for every size I'm guessing, unless we would actually upload avatars and a program would scale it to all desired sizes.
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This Board software already does such scaling, but with mixed results. Sometimes it distorts an image if it tries to expand a small Pic less than 80x80 in size.
But the opposite would work well. If someone submits a 100x100 and a Forum'er only wanted to see everything 60x60 in size (though /why/ is anyone's guess), it could be scaled down with the aspect-ratio of the image kept intact.
Number 1 on the agenda...is you have to sort out the fanart page, I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that have submitted fanart and although it may not make it into the comic, it would still be cool to see your pictures on the official site.
CB
ps I'm think of some more stuff.
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I'm not keen on the idea of fan art being displayed in-game. It breaks immersion.
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... you don't think that various Heroes in Paragon City have fans ...? You don't think that a city most visually distinct form others due to colossally-huge-a-mongous statues of various heroes wouldn't have an art show centered around ... well ... heroes? ^_^
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That's an excellent point. If they could find a way to display art in a method that doesn't break the immersion, I'd be all for it. Perhaps opening an Art Gallery in one of the Hero and Villain zones with updated images about once a week or so. I'd be for that, but I suspect that would require quite a bit more work than the devs are really willing to put into this. I think updating the Fan Art page and providing a Screenshot Gallery and Wallpaper Gallery would probably be more than sufficient though.
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Cycle through a few pics on the front page of the newspaper. Make /newspaper something newsworthy.
Re: Having artwork in the game. No thank you. I'd rather have them work on the issues with the game at hand than simply add in artwork here and there.
Right now on the theater there's a title of a movie that was the winning entry in a contest a way back when. It took them forever to add that title to the marquee. I'd hate to see the flaming that would go on if they decided to add in player artwork in the game without fixing some of the bugs and issues that affect all players of the game.
The #1 suggestion: Update that Fan Art section of the website.
The #2 suggestion is Official Contests.
Those seem to be the most reasonable and easiest to do. I agree with these suggestions the most.
Re avatar size:
80x80 for avatars isn't that big of deal. Work with the space you have. As one of the people who made a tons of avatars, I couldn't give a crap about increasing the size to 100x100. 20 more pixels wont make that much difference, when you're making an avatar. If you make something 100x100 then make it 80x80. No big deal.
As for signatures: No thank you. This form drags along as it is because of its size and that flash header isn't make things any zippier. Adding in sigs on to that isnt exactly going to help matters any.
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I couldn't give a crap about increasing the size to 100x100. 20 more pixels wont make that much difference, when you're making an avatar. If you make something 100x100 then make it 80x80.
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It does mean a lot to me and some others. And if you don't care to make any Avatar bigger than 80x80... fine. Leave yours at that size. No one is forcing you to change anything. Mine can use the space-increase as it adds visual definition I want others to be able to see in my compositions. So increase the canvas-size limit and we are BOTH happy.
avatar size?
80x80 works for me and seems to be the standard for few forums I frequent. increasing to 100x100...could be done I suppose but how long till we increase to 120x120 and beyond? at some point a line has to be draw in the interest of saving bandwidth and being user friendly for all forum goers.~
...the sword is truth...
~whiteperegrine~
I like the suggestions gven by the artists here, while i have no artistic talents(minus writing but hey who reads anymore :P j/k) I think the artistic community as a whole should be spotlighted more than it is now. Either by company supported contests or perhaps a different medium. Just give them thier "props" so to speak. They work hard in the hero community and there talents are free advertisement to your product.
my 2 cents
going along with updating the fan art section of the official website, i think the writers out there would appreciate it if the fan fiction section were updated regularly too. we have some good writers playing CoX and they deserve as much recognition as the visual artists
Goodbye, I guess.
@Lord_Nightblade in Champions/Star Trek Online
nightblade7295@gmail.com if you want to stay in touch
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avatar size?
80x80 works for me and seems to be the standard for few forums I frequent. increasing to 100x100...could be done I suppose but how long till we increase to 120x120 and beyond? at some point a line has to be draw in the interest of saving bandwidth and being user friendly for all forum goers.~
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Which is why I suggested that each forum user can set in his options the max size that he would like to view, and the ability to enable/disable (disabled by default) whether they can view signature images. Also, I think seperate files should be used for each size category (so that lowbandwidth users aren't stuck with large 120x120 avatars scaled down to 80x80 but still take just as long to load as the display size and not the file size is what was scaled, unless there is software and storage space to create scaled files of each size). There could even be an option to disable images over a certain file size.
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in the interest of saving bandwidth and being user friendly
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Who is saving more 'precious' bandwidth: A Forum'er with a 12K, 100x100 avatar... or a Forum'er with a 298K, 80x80 Animated-GIF avatar that would make, Cecil B DeMille jealous? Bandwidth *ain't* the issue on this one. So please, let's not use that as an excuse *not* to do something beneficial here.
Okay this is really derailling the spirit of the thread. I suggest you move your avatar suggestion to the suggestions board or PM Lighthouse directly. It's very likely that they aren't going to change anything as far as that goes anyway.
*not meant to be flaming just trying to get the thread back on track! No offense intended!*
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It's very likely that they aren't going to change anything
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Or they could. It is only a change to the forum software, and miracles *have* been known to happen on occasion once fresh-blood rides into town.
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just trying to get the thread back on track! No offense intended!*
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None taken. Thanks.
Okay - here's my two cents, seriously this time:
1) YES on better updating of the fan art gallery page on the main COH/COV site. (Question: has anyone submitted anything lately? How recently?)
2) YES on "Officially Sponsored" fan art contests - with or without in-game prizes. Either way, just SOMEthing!
3) A more clear and consistent understanding of what sorts of things we can and cannot post - in particular to Fan Art - would also be nice.
4) ...and (if we're dreaming, here) perhaps, a word from the "powers that be" as to whether they like some of the work these artists post here, or even if they hate it, or just don't ever bother to look... ? (ah, whom I kidding ? )
>> UN-serious: How about our own South Park episode!?
I would loooooove incorporation into the game, but considering that probably won't happen...
Yes, an update to the fan-art section would be really nice. Maybe a poll-based monthly or weekly art contest even..
And yes, our own south park episode would rawk :P
incorporation of art in game, while nice in theory is something I wouldnt hold my breath on. as mentioned previously, I would rather see new content versus finding some way to slip in art work.
the big winners and most probably would seem to be the route of at least keeping the fan art section up to date.
I suppose a question I have is what are the limits here....are there lines that NC and Cryptic won't cross? it is fine and dandy having a discussion on what we want to see but some limitations would help refine it over all to focusing in on what we can do versus what we cant. just a curious.
in regards to recommendations on people placing graphics in signatures and changing aspects of avatars...not sure how that really has anything to do with the intent of this thread. while I am sure it could be argued that it relates in the end does it really? not in my eyes...these would best be served in the suggestion forum, imo.~
...the sword is truth...
~whiteperegrine~
Of course there is a line.
Fan Art Nudity / Hentai.
That's what I found in DeviantArt that I am afraid to tell my wife.
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Of course there is a line.
Fan Art Nudity / Hentai.
That's what I found in DeviantArt that I am afraid to tell my wife.
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*tells your wife!* 
I'm guessing the "cross posting" might have been the issues too... but it's only a guess. Without a PM, that's all we can do.
So, is there to be absolutely no posting of art in those other forums?? Again, it goes back to the OP of supporting the Art Community.