New award banners

Mumbling · **on:** July 28, 2020, 12:39:53 PM

Hello everyone

The annual award session is once again approaching, but we have run into somewhat of a snag. We currently have around 43 unused banners, which may seem like a lot... But if we want to offer 3 or 4 banners per category for winners to choose from, and have a banner for Member of 20xx, fanfiction banners, and have multiple Patreon banners, etc. Well... we will very quickly run out. The past few years we have scraped together a few images every time to keep up the supply, but this is a time consuming process and well, not something we have time for at the moment!

So as a one off, we would like to ask all of you to contribute. We are looking for screenshots featuring at least one character and somewhat of a background. We can "duplicate" the background if necessary, so most important is the character. Furthermore we like to have a screenshot that is somewhat relevant to its category. As a reminder, these are the categories that we have:

Proactive Member
Role Play
Fanart
Friendly Member
Feedback
Appreciated Member

Plus the more "generic" ones:
Fanfiction awards banners
Patreon banners
Member of 20xx banners

We asked some of you to help out last year and you were a great help, but it would be even better if we would be set for years to come! What would we need from you? Cool screenshots! You can attach them to your posts, put them in a zip, make a gallery on imgur, whatever works best for you. You don't need to crop the screenshots down to banner size, we will do that on our end. I have attached the banners that we currently have "in stock" so you can see what kind of vibe we are looking for for each category, including a few that don't have a category assigned yet.

And of course, since we will probably have plenty of banners to go around, this one-off request will be awarded with a banner as well. We've decided we'll grant a banner based on participation. If you send in 5 screenshots we can use, you'll receive a bronze banner, 10 for a silver one, 15 for a gold one.

Any questions for now? Shoot!

OwlsCantRead · **Reply #1 on:** July 28, 2020, 01:00:11 PM

The .zip file has the award banner pictures at a 200x50px resolution. Is that supposed to be the file size we send the images in if we wish to submit?

Mumbling · **Reply #2 on:** July 28, 2020, 01:07:40 PM

Quote from: OwlsCantRead on July 28, 2020, 01:00:11 PM

The .zip file has the award banner pictures at a 200x50px resolution. Is that supposed to be the file size we send the images in if we wish to submit?

No need to resize the images. Please send in full-size screenshots, and we'll do the cropping and resizing on our end

Flathead770 · **Reply #3 on:** July 28, 2020, 01:36:38 PM

Yeah I'll see if I can dig some images up if I have time. Are the awards voting happening in September?

Mumbling · **Reply #4 on:** July 28, 2020, 01:39:51 PM

Quote from: Flathead770 on July 28, 2020, 01:36:38 PM

Yeah I'll see if I can dig some images up if I have time. Are the awards voting happening in September?

That's the plan for now! We'll see if we can make it happen

Anagnos · **Reply #5 on:** July 28, 2020, 02:46:49 PM

Sure, I can poke around and probably find some. Does it matter how many one person has to submit? Like is there a specific number you're looking for or is it just what the individual wants to posit?

StardustSoldier · **Reply #6 on:** July 28, 2020, 03:45:40 PM

Would you consider any banners just featuring some cool backgrounds/landscapes? LBT was always really good with scenery, I think. Or is it essential that the images feature a character?

Sneak · **Reply #7 on:** July 28, 2020, 05:13:39 PM

I love how banners for drawing awards and prompts were made.
What about making drawing for banners' backgrounds for this year, or for next year? At least for Fanart category, for example?

And maybe for other categories as well? Maybe we will get enough users who would help with them.
How about that idea, guys and gals?

jassy · **Reply #8 on:** July 29, 2020, 01:01:10 AM

Quote from: Sneak on July 28, 2020, 05:13:39 PM

I love how banners for drawing awards and prompts were made.
What about making drawing for banners' backgrounds for this year, or for next year? At least for Fanart category, for example? And maybe for other categories as well? Maybe we will get enough users who would help with them.
How about that idea, guys and gals?

I really like this idea! I’d be willing to draw some of the banners, if time allows it, of course. Not 100% sure about this year, but next year for sure!

Mumbling · **Reply #9 on:** July 29, 2020, 01:43:34 AM

Quote from: Anagnos on July 28, 2020, 02:46:49 PM

Sure, I can poke around and probably find some. Does it matter how many one person has to submit? Like is there a specific number you're looking for or is it just what the individual wants to posit?

Post as many as you like! We're hoping to have a proper supply of images to last us a good couple of years. I've had a chat with rhombus and we've decided that we'll grant banners for this project based on participation. 5 screenshots we can use for a bronze banner, 10 for a silver one, and 15 for a gold one. Will also update the first post with this info.

Quote from: StardustSoldier on July 28, 2020, 03:45:40 PM

Would you consider any banners just featuring some cool backgrounds/landscapes? LBT was always really good with scenery, I think. Or is it essential that the images feature a character?

With characters please! Don't want to deviate from that

Quote from: Sneak on July 28, 2020, 05:13:39 PM

I love how banners for drawing awards and prompts were made.
What about making drawing for banners' backgrounds for this year, or for next year? At least for Fanart category, for example? And maybe for other categories as well? Maybe we will get enough users who would help with them.
How about that idea, guys and gals?

I'd like to see some community input for this, but I don't have anything against it myself.

Quote from: jassy on July 29, 2020, 01:01:10 AM

I really like this idea! I’d be willing to draw some of the banners, if time allows it, of course. Not 100% sure about this year, but next year for sure!

That's great! We're hoping to "wrap up" this project before the awards of this year, but that doesn't mean we cannot accept any works past that date. We'll see if there is more interest (wouldn't want to pile it all on you, Jassy)

Sneak · **Reply #10 on:** July 29, 2020, 09:24:22 AM

I decided to try to pick only screnshots that fit with award names. For example: Proactive Member - character is running or jumping, Role Play - characters are playing or pretending, Fanart - handdrawings or imagination, Friendly Member - friendly faces, Feedback - talks, Appreciated Member - tanking, etc.

Edit:
And as I look at some previous banners, it is correct decision, or backgound images can have different context than award names?

RainbowFaceProtege · **Reply #11 on:** July 29, 2020, 12:16:59 PM

I saw this last night, went on a mad banner hunt, and came up with about 30! Keep 'em, crop 'em, turn 'em down, do whatever you want with them! I'll start with the Friendly Member category (or at least the ones I collected with that purpose in mind, of course you don't have to categorize anything I upload the same way I did).

RainbowFaceProtege · **Reply #12 on:** July 29, 2020, 12:18:22 PM

Here's Appreciated Member banners!

RainbowFaceProtege · **Reply #13 on:** July 29, 2020, 12:20:54 PM

Roleplay banners! I tried to get some shots of the Gang pretending or playing together for this one...and then, of course, there's Pterano telling his grand self-insert fanfiction.

RainbowFaceProtege · **Reply #14 on:** July 29, 2020, 12:22:36 PM

Proactive Member banners! Sorry I didn't come up with many for this one, I kind of forgot about that category...

RainbowFaceProtege · **Reply #15 on:** July 29, 2020, 12:25:05 PM

Fanart banners! For this bunch, I went for a theme of fantastical-looking or interestingly-colored scenes.

RainbowFaceProtege · **Reply #16 on:** July 29, 2020, 12:27:28 PM

Here's some Feedback banners! I guess I went kind of over the top on this one, but I just kept coming across scenes that matched this theme in funny ways. It goes without saying that you don't have to use all of them!

OwlsCantRead · **Reply #17 on:** July 29, 2020, 12:33:12 PM

People are posting so I don't feel as apprehensive about posting now

I didn't see the addendum about the number of images so I sorta overshot. First up are the images which kinda fit a specific theme... or at least I think they do.

OwlsCantRead · **Reply #18 on:** July 29, 2020, 12:36:43 PM

And here are the ones that I can't think suit any category. But who knows, maybe you guys might reorganize them. Oh well, hope they were of help.

Anagnos · **Reply #19 on:** July 29, 2020, 12:52:16 PM

I'm going to post mine now that others have done so as well. There's 21 of them in total. Enjoy.

Here's the first load. They're mixed in together.