Grand Re-Opening & Your Free Subscription!

This announcement comes a few days late; we apologize!

Welcome back to Mystic Eclipse everyone! It's been a few months of planning and we're happy to be public again! On behalf of the entire staff, I'd like to remind everyone that your Free Subscription on Mystic Eclipse to celebrate our opening will end SEPTEMBER 10TH! A global announcement was sent from pladywolf to all users informing this, but I've decided to list here as well for the sake of the question thrown about.

Since everyone has the ability to upload free art, I and the rest of the staff would like to remind you that there are standards you have to keep in mind and follow! Yeah, I know, it's a pain in the butt. However, we're not as strict as other sites and we need to make sure we still look nice and professional.

When you browse around for free poses and rooms, remember that:
- We do not accept direct links and unofficial photobucket links! These contain stolen poses and can be falsely uploaded with rules that the original artist has not set.
- We do not accept Google Images! "Bots" and tags attach themselves to specific image information that is stored in Google (and other search engine)'s library. This does not mean it's free, or you can use it for personal use! You'll need to look further into the image you want and find the original article/submission to where the artist talks about their piece. Look for a "May use for personal use / background" label, we allow these!
- If it has a copyright/watermark, it doesn't mean you have permission! That's the artist being smart by labeling the piece as their own. It's to prevent copying/claiming, that's all. The original source is what we're looking for to show what they allow and where.
- A lot of you are using DeviantART, this is FINE AT AN EXTENT. Many Deviants will upload art that is not theirs, this is not proof, this is considered art theft! Do not do it, and do not use it as a permission resource! Find the original artist's account and look for the piece there. If they have no information, ask them in a comment or note them and show us!
- We will automatically accept poses/rooms that are from our "Freebie Heep". (As long as they're in our size/pose standards!)
- You all are uploading incomplete poses! A lot of you are new at this, and this is okay! Today we can learn how to better educate ourselves on what uploading poses is all about. :)

You rejected my uncolored pose! I don't know how to color.
Poses, ungrayscaled or grayscaled, are meant to be colored to reflect your character or your personality. Poses are supposed to be colored to display uniqueness to the environment and to add quality to the site and users. Uncolored poses are seen as unprofessional, and will not be accepted unless your character is albino and the art indicates this clearly with the right characteristics.
If you need help coloring, ask around the community! There's tons of locals willing to color poses for free on their free time, and sometimes they'll ask for deltas. We'll be opening a Volunteer Group soon on the forums so you can have your poses colored by us for free on the forums.
You can color your own poses yourself by using pixlr, GIMP, Photoshop and other art software.
Programs that are safe and free: GIMP, FireAlpaca, MyPaint, OpenCanvas, PaintToolSAI TRIAL and much more.
Programs that require purchase: Photoshop, PaintToolSAI Subscription and other professional software.

Check out our Resources Board to learn how to use these programs, or use Youtube or other locations of the internet.

You rejected my pose for being too big! I like em' big.
Having large poses distorts the surrounding of the room and can be very displeasing for the rest of the users. It's obnoxious and hard to appreciate the quality of the art. The original artist may make big poses simply because of the canvas they were using, or to keep the line/detail quality from deteriorating. Although it is kind and convenient to resize the poses for us, it is not their responsibility to make sure it's the right size before uploading it. That's ours! And it's myself and the rest of your Art Staff that need to make sure everyone's species are at the reasonable and nice-looking size! :)

Need something to use for size comparison? Here's the exact chart our Art Staff uses!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] For anthros (humanoid)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] For quad/feral (non-humanoid)

What's wrong with my layers? You said my coloring was incorrect.
When coloring a pose, you need to make sure you color it on the second layer as "MULTIPLIED." This means any color will go underneath the lines, much like a coloring book! Having a transparent/alpha background (the grey checkered background you'll see) keeps the color clinging to the pose, instead of sticking outside of it.
Think of it as the ground. A white/solid background is like land around your pose; your coloring/markings are going to go everywhere and this creates ugly loose pixels. It also confuses us with the distortion of the pose. If you have a transparent background, not solid, your land now turns into a cliff that the color can "drop" into. Now there's just your pose with your lovely markings! Your avatar seems to come to life! You must save your pose as .PNG, to automatically flatten the layers and keep the quality of the pose. The uploading system is only familiar with .PNG, .GIF and .JPG images. We want .PNG!

What's so wrong about loose pixels?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] This looks much more nicer than [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]this.
Both images are made by Galagya and myself, and are not free.

Why is it nicer? It compliments the transparency of your pose and doesn't add something "distracting" to look at against the background. Stray pixels show poor, lazy work and doesn't make your pose look professional at all. These can be cleaned by gently using an eraser around the outline, inverse growth selection or the magic eraser tool on some programs.
It's annoying but pretty looking in the long run!

My pose was revoked, it was accepted in the first place! What the heck?
Some submissions will get passed our ninja-reviewing skills! Some members are fresh out of training and will make mistakes, and this can be very annoying for our users. We apologize ahead of time and some of us may offer to help you so that it can get properly accepted. The best thing to do for the situation is to cooperate with us and delete the pose when asked to. If you believe you'll be able to convince us otherwise, we're afraid you're wrong! By the end of the discussion your pose will be deleted wither you like it or not, in harsh terms. We're trained to do what's visually best for the site, and we're going to do just that.
For us who make mistakes, we're going to correct ourselves and make sure your poses get back on track to our pose-standards. Simply go to your pose control panel and delete the pose, and re-upload it with the fixed version saying "Accepted before, this is a corrected version." So you don't have to worry about getting the resource again. Do not use this as a loophole! We know when you've uploaded it before and when you haven't.

- - -

Maybe you're still getting the hang of pose/room usage or you're completely new! Do not worry, together we'll learn how to better ourselves as artists and animal-art enthusiasts! With patience and practice, your uploading experience will only improve.

Since subscriptions are free, we get a lot of submissions every day. We're people too, don't forget! We have homework, food to eat, people to see and talk to and time to breathe. Please be patient with your poses and don't pester our art staff about your poses and rooms. Some don't mind being politely asked to take a look, like myself, but we will not tolerate rude or bossy behavior. We're taking time out of our day to check your poses and rooms, so please be kind, patient and respectful!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, you're welcomed to personal message us staff members or our experienced members on the forums or chat. Or come see us in person when we're not busy!

-Admiral, art staff gamma