DG Art contest

[Miranda of Admin]

Hello, artistic mortals.

So, the nice man at facebook has decided that we have to move to the new 'timeline' look on March 30th at the latest. This means that I am looking for a cool DG-themed picture to use for our facebook 'cover' - the big picture that goes across the top of our page. I'm sure we can come up with an interesting prize.

Closing date: March 25th (two week duration) at midnight EST. I have no idea what that will be in UK time as I think you guys are on BST rather than GMT now but honestly this time of year confuses me. Anyway, if you submit by the end of the 25th your time you will be fine.

I have absolutely no idea what I want from this. In a way that's difficult for you because you are working without any guidelines as to what I expect, but on the plus side you can be super creative as I'm not restricting you in any way.

The only thing that I have to be specific about is size. It must be at least 720 pixels wide. The best size is apparently 850x315 but as long as it is over 720 pixels wide it should be usable.

Email your artz to [email protected] with the message title 'facebook cover' and reply to this thread to tell us you have entered (this is in case we don't get your email for some reason.) If you like you can show off your entry by putting it on this thread too. Include your character number in the entry.

We are looking forward to seeing what you come up with =)

M.

[[Null]]

All done and sent.

Lucius - #188349

[Urkki]

Sent. Pretty sure I won't win this one.

[Miranda of Admin]

If you want to PM me in game, I'll happily answer. I haven't given any direction because I'm really not sure what I want -- if you think by asking some questions you can get a clearer idea of what to do, then by all means go for it. That goes for anyone, not just Nael =)

Edit - by the time I hit enter on this it seems the post I was replying to had been removed. But it still stands, message me if you want to ask anything.

[Erobos]

Completed and sent.

[Zarock]

Zarock 12804

Sent entry

[Blythe]

Made a thing

[Ellyana Lilli]

Email sent. =)

[Nael]

Sent a first draft. As there are far too many concepts to explore, no time to spend on anything but drafts for now.

IMPORTANT:
Miranda was close to a dimensions quote. Cover page dimensions are 851px x 315px (which is converted roughly to 4 3/8" x 11 5/8" for those of you who might render on paper 1st). Anything less than this, wither it's 850 or 851, there will be a problem. I'm disregarding whatever it is FB quotes for dimension limits and going with what web designers advise. If a file is too small, it will balloon (get far too large and will be blurry) once you download for timeline cover. Why does this happen? Because it automatically does it. Why? FB interface is strange (?) I've got no clue,there...
I recommend when you guys save your files, do it a bit larger than 851 x 315. Think of it as a "bleed line". When a designer sets up an image for print, they set the document about 1/8th larger than printed final product. A measure to make sure all of the image covers every edge.

1/8th = .125 decimals = 12px

Also, IMPORTANT:
Roughly, a 2" x 2" square, on the bottom left hand side of your image will not show as it's reserved for the profile picture. In the timeline thing, we still keep our profile pics. I recommend considering this fact. Anyone who's submitted here already and can't go back to adjust your design because of this, sorry for the bad news. It might cut out detail from your image that will mess with overall composition. There's a way around this, however. It involves creating a second file. An image for a profile pic that will work with the over all composition of what you've made. All of this unless the existing prof. pic works with it.

2" = 2.0 = 192px

But, like a "bleed line, as it were, make it a smidge larger than that.

[Ellyana Lilli]

Miranda,
I did notice facebook compresses images. Based on Naels advice I noticed when I re-sized mine to 851 there was slightly less compression and the image still fits once positioned up into the facebook banner space with no problem. Might I resend my entry with these dimensions? It looses a bit less color and I'd like to give you the better quality image.
Thank you for the tip, Nael.

[Nael]

Ah, Ellyana thanks for reminding me. A tip on color -
Some imaging software lets you define a file as "RGB" or "CMYK". RGB format looks better for anything that will be on the screen. "Safe for the web" colors. CMYK is best for print. Sometimes colors can appear different than intended depending on these formats.

[Korba]

Entry sent

Korba
37985

[Aikia]

It wasn't much, but I did send in an entry.

Char 183354

[Miranda of Admin]

Please note - I have extended the deadline slightly on this as I won't have time to look at this until Tuesday. That gives you time to submit an entry (or entries) or to rework anything you aren't happy with.

Aim for noon on Tuesday, EST. Which is early morning for anyone in the UK region and possibly late Tuesday if you are Australia-side.

M.