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A Thought about Resolution...

A Thought about Resolution... by Stratadrake on September 22, 2017, 1:49:52 AM
StratadrakeThis is something of an inpromptu announcement, but after glancing at today's submission queue I think the issue needs to be acknowledged openly, once and for all...
(...and also better enforced by us, the staff):

Please review your image size before submitting it to your FAC gallery.

While we have no 'hard' limit or policy rule on how large an image file you can submit to your gallery, images larger than a certain threshold (about the 3 megapixel range) are always held for manual review by site staff. This has become, by far, the number one reason a submission is held for manual site staff review. It's actually becoming rare to see a submission queued for any other reason!

Apparently, a few of our users (not many, and you know who you are) are in a bad habit of submitting their art "as is" - directly from the scanner, camera, or digital art program. What you should be doing instead is keeping the original size/version archived safely on your computer, and creating a resized (i.e. smaller) copy for posting and sharing in your FAC gallery.

I'll be posting a longer rumination on this topic elsewhere and later, but if you have any thoughts before then feel free to post them on my user profile page.

Happy Mario Day

Happy Mario Day by Stratadrake on March 11, 2017, 3:09:29 AM
StratadrakeIs it a week into March already? Well, in absence of any major news updates, have a happy Mar.10 day!

Again, if you've seen anything submitted that's good enough to be showcased on our front page, please let us know -- swing by the forums, or drop a reply on my profile page with the piece and we'll review it.

Welcome, 2017!

Welcome, 2017! by Stratadrake on January 8, 2017, 11:54:01 PM
StratadrakeYes we may already be a week in, but it's never too late to welcome in the new season.

Our first resolution of this year is to rotate the items on our main page. Do you have suggestions of good artwork worth featuring on our site's mainpage? Let us know!

We have a forum thread for tracking suggestions, but you can also just drop a link or two on, for example, my userpage. (I still receive those email alerts!)

Happy October!

Happy October! by Stratadrake on October 22, 2016, 3:39:08 AM
StratadrakeWell, with only ten days left in the month, you know what that means: it's time for Christmas!

(Relax, I'm kidding.) Halloween is approaching in less than two weeks, and if it's known for one thing these days it's the costumes.

Anyone want to get into that holiday spirit? What would your favorite character (original or fanart) dress up as for Halloween? What other characters might they go trick-or-treating with?

This isn't limited to human/like characters, animal and creature characters are welcome too. If this idea inspires you, show what you've got in that imagination of yours - get creating!

August 2016 Update

August 2016 Update by Stratadrake on August 1, 2016, 4:24:20 PM
StratadrakeWhat happened to July? No, I wasn't kept busy by the 4th...

Anyway, today I'm going to talk about the approval panel and EXIF metadata tags in specific. This one may run a little long, but I'll try to keep it quick:

What's EXIF? Well, among other things it records whether your image was created in portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) orientation. Most scanners/cameras on the market these days will tag a captured image accordingly so that it can record the image faster, and when it is later viewed, the viewing program will 'know' if it needs to rotate that image rightside up before showing it to you onscreen.

Unfortunately, our submission process currently does not acknowledge these tags when it compiles resized (thumbnail) versions of your submission; this may cause some images (mostly digital photos taken in portrait orientation) to appear sideways after processing.

If this happens to one of your submissions, unfortunately it's your job to fix it. Exactly how to do this depends on your program of choice, but in general, try opening the image up in your editor, then save a secondary copy of it in a different file. After you've submitted (or updated) the piece, check back up on it later to see if our servers processed it correctly.

And that is all for now. Enjoy the rest of your summer!