The VG Resource Icon Renovation

[Petie]

I'm reposting this from the archive to go along with the launch of the new version of the site!

It's announcement time!

As pretty much all of you know, we're currently working on a project to replace all of our old style icons with new ones across all of our sites. This is a massive undertaking given that, at the time of this writing, there are a total of 69,593 items with icons that need to be replaced. So far, 37,545 of those icons have been made, many of which were with your help (thanks!) which puts us at 53.95% of our goal. This is where you come in.

While we certainly appreciate the help we've gotten so far, there is still a ton of work to do. To that end, we figured we'd make things a bit more interesting and give you a little motivation to donate your time. So, we're turning this into a contest! Here are the details:

The contest will run until all icons have been completed and is open to anyone who can show us that they're up to the challenge. This means submitting a couple of samples in this thread using the format below. Those who pass this test will be invited via PM and granted access to the systems required to participate. There is no entry deadline (short of the end of the contest) but the sooner people get involved, the faster we can be up and running.

Code:

[tsricon img="http://www.spriters-resource.com/resources/sheet_icons/58/60651.png" url="http://www.spriters-resource.com/ds/jeweladventures/sheet/60651/"]Mage[/tsricon]

The above code will produce the following:

Mage

So, now that you know how to enter, let's talk about why you should want to (besides helping out the site, of course)! I said that it's a contest so of course there will be prizes. First, everyone who participates will be awarded a participation badge (). The top three participants will be awarded special badges for 3rd (), 2nd () and 1st () place. These awards will be permanently attached to your account as a thank you for your efforts! Also, as a bit of a bonus, you'll get a first-hand look at the new version of all of our sites that we've been working on for the last couple of months since you'll be using that interface to submit your icons!

But wait, there's more! If you call within the next 10 minutes... The first place badge also comes with a real-world prize - a (yet undetermined) newly released video game that comes out towards the end of the competition! More details will follow as the we near completion of the project.

So, with all of that out of the away, let's get to the specifics. New icons no longer require any of the border or text, just the main image in the center, as shown below. This image needs to be exactly 148x125, saved as a PNG (we will allow animated GIF icons in the future but for simplicity's sake, we're limiting submissions to PNGs for now - get in touch with me if you'd like to make an animated icon and we'll work something out), and on a transparent background (unless the image takes up the entire icon, of course). Additionally, sprites should not be enlarged beyond 2x their original size. 2x is fine (and often necessary to fill these larger icons) but anything more than that distorts the image too much.

Here is the part you'd be submitting for the above sample icon:


Like I said above, entrance into this contest is only allowed with your successful submission of sample work. The templates for posting the icons for all three sites (there are no "sound" icons so a tSoR template isn't necessary) are provided below:

Sprites:

Code:

[tsricon img="ICON_URL" url="SHEET_URL"]SHEET_NAME[/tsricon]

Models:

Code:

[tmricon img="ICON_URL" url="MODEL_URL"]MODEL_NAME[/tmricon]

Textures:

Code:

[ttricon img="ICON_URL" url="TEXTURE_URL"]TEXTURE_NAME[/ttricon]

We haven't created the BB code for the large preview icons on tMR yet but when created, you'll be able to post them as follows:

Code:

[tmrbig img="ICON_URL" url="MODEL_URL"]MODEL_NAME[/tmrbig]

And for reference, the image requirements for tMR large icons is as follows:
750x650, PNG (see above for animated GIF exceptions), transparent background (again, see above for exceptions).

And of course, just to encourage some friendly competition, we're making the current status of the project visible to everyone at the following address:

http://www.vg-resource.com/icon-stats.php

You can use this to track your own progress as well as that of your competitors (or just to see how things are going, if you're interested). And don't worry, Dazz has a major head start because he was submitting icons to test the system but he isn't actually a part of the contest. That being said, there will be a bonus badge (which hasn't been created yet) awarded to anyone who manages to beat him by project end.

So, on that note, let the contest begin and thank you all in advance for your continued assistance in getting everything up and running!