Design Challenge #2 - April 2012 - COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, CHIT-CHAT

[frogfish]

Some guidelines have changed, please read the information below even if you have participated in the Design Challenge before. Refer to the full Design Challenge Instructions here.

Use this thread to make comments, ask questions, and chit chat with each other.
Please post a written description of your (planned) submission in THE KIT thread.

Color Swatch for Design Challenge #2 - April 2012

Hex Codes: # 6f479c, # d5e18f, # f97db3, # fbd9da, # ffb74b, # ffe89c

Here are some suggested uses/themes for this color swatch although you are not limited to them (Thanks Roni!):
Princess Tiana (The Princess and the Frog), Piglet, Elliott (Pete’s Dragon), Tinkerbell, Sleeping Beauty, Daisy Duck, Marie (The Aristocats), Piglet, Tangled, Boo and Mike (Monsters Inc.), Figment, Kermit and Miss Piggy, Non-traditional take on Halloween, EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival

Deadline - Friday, April 27 (by 11:59pm CST)

There were 36 participants in the March Design Challenge! That is excellent and I want to thank everyone who participated. However, with that many participants, there was so much stuff that it was very difficult to describe and display everything as a cohesive kit in the MouseScrappers store. So we are going to change things a little bit for the April Challenge and see how it works out.

The Design Challenge will be split into two distinct parts and you choose how you want to participate each month:

1. "Earning My Ears": This category is for people playing just for fun and to learn some design techniques in the process.
   • The "Earning My Ears" category will run exactly the same as the March Design Challenge did with no new restrictions on papers/elements. The minimum number of unique items is 5; the maximum number of unique items is 15. [/B] The same paper/element in different colors counts as one. A full alpha fulfills the minimum requirement.
   • These submissions will be distributed to all participants in the “Earning My Ears” category but will not be put into the MS store. If you choose to share your submission on your blog or as a challenge PP, you may do so.
2. "Mouseketeer": This category is stricter and is for people playing to improve their design skills and possibly have their submission included in the MS store.
   • Submissions must be themed mini kits (Dumbo, Typhoon Lagoon, general use, etc.). They must include 3-5 unique papers and 7-10 unique elements (the same paper/element in different colors counts as one) with no more than a total of 20 papers and elements. An alpha is encouraged but not required.
   • These mini kits will go through a quality check process. Participants should be open to constructive criticism and be willing to fix any problems discovered in the QC process.
   • These submissions will be distributed to all participants in the “Mouseketeer” category and may be placed in the MS store with all proceeds from sales going to help the MouseScrappers site.

Some quality issues to pay attention to are listed below. If you have questions about what these things are or how to prevent/fix them, please ask! Everyone can benefit from adhering to these bullet points, not just those participants going through the QC process.

• Do not pre-shadow elements or elements on papers.
• Make sure paper textures aren’t blurry at 100%.
• Check that elements are not cut off or missing parts.
• When extracting or creating elements, be sure the edges are not jagged.
• After creating a paper or element, check to be sure it is in gamut.

I will hopefully be getting some tutorials together that deal with these topics and more very soon.

Additional Submission Guidelines (for both “Earning My Ears” and “Mouseketeers”):

• You may submit any combination of papers, individual elements (such as ribbons, scatters, frames, etc), word art, alphas, and clusters. You may not submit items for which you do not hold the copyright. If you use overlays, elements, etc. to create your items they must be labeled for commercial use (CU) and if their terms require, include with your submission a statement that gives proper credit.
• All papers and elements MUST use the provided color swatch—you can use any shade (darker or lighter) of the chosen colors. You may also use these neutral colors: black, white, shades of gray, brown, silver and gold.
• You must include a TOU/copyright notice in your submission. A basic fill-in-the-blank TOU can be found here if you don’t have one of your own.
• There is no mb maximum for submissions, but please make sure you are sizing a saving your items according to the following guidelines.
  • Papers should be:
    • 12”x12” 300ppi (which is 3600pixels x 3600pixels),
    • Saved as a JPG file that is about 3mb.
      • In Photoshop, after clicking on the “Save As” button, enter the desired file name and select “JPG” from the dropdown menu; click on “OK”. A popup screen should appear entitled “JPG Options”; change the quality value to “8” and click on “OK”. Saving the file with a value of “8” for quality will ensure it is the correct size (approx. 3mb).
  • Elements/Alphas should be:
    • Sized appropriately for a 12”x12” 300ppi layout; make your items the same size you would want them to be when creating a layout. For example: 12"x12" is not a reasonable size for flower elements; 2"x2" is more appropriate,
    • Trimmed so there is a minimal amount of blank canvas around the item,
    • Saved as a PNG file—the file size (mb) will vary based on the size (inches) of the element.
  • A preview of your submission is required. It should be:
    • 600pixels x 600pixels 72ppi,
    • It must minimally include your name (the one you used to save the files) and pictures of the items that you created for the challenge,
    • Previews may be as basic or elaborate as you want them to be.
      • A basic preview would tile the papers and/or line up the elements,
      • A more elaborate preview would arrange papers and/or elements in a more creative manner—as designers do to advertise their kits.

IMPORTANT:
You may NOT include:

• Any items trademarked or copyrighted by Disney. This includes but is not limited to names, words, song lyrics, and phrases (for example, you cannot create word art that says “Cinderella”, “Splash Mountain”, “Pop Century”, etc.).
• Photos, clipart, silhouettes, etc. of Disney characters—no Mickey heads either!
• Park, attraction, resort, restaurant, or movie signage/symbols/logos.
• Photos of buildings/structures on Disney property.
• Elements that are too similar to images copyrighted by Disney (for example: you may create a turtle that has similar coloration as Crush, but you may not create one with the same markings, eyes, expression, etc).

Your papers/elements should be useful for Disney layouts without infringing on the copyrights that Disney has on its characters, movies, parks, rides, attractions, etc.
The following website has a searchable database where you can look to see if a name/phrase is trademarked: http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp

*** If there are any questions about minimum requirements or copyright infringement, please ask. ***

Files and Zipped Folder:

Naming your files:

Your MS username_DC#_element name
Paper Example: MMouse_DC50_paper_green.jpg
Element Example: MMouse_DC50_element_button_red.png
Alpha Example: MMouse_DC50_alpha_uppercase_A.png

Naming your folder:

Your MS username_DC#
Example: MMouse_DC50

If your username is longer than 8 characters, please use an abbreviation. Avoid using spaces anywhere in the file/folder name. If you design under a different name, you may use that name instead of your MouseScrappers name.
To zip files place all your elements and a TOU inside a folder, then zip that folder. This is automatically creates a folder containing your files in whatever folder the user unzips to.
There are many ways to compress (zip) a folder. You can use a program such as WINZIP/WINRAR or, if you are on a Windows operating system, there is a utility built into Windows that you can use.

• Right click on the folder containing your items and select “Send To”. Click on “Compressed (zipped) folder”. A new folder will be created in the same directory with the same name but it will be compressed (zipped).

Uploading Submissions:
Upload your completed submission to the file sharing website of your choice (4shared, Mediafire, and Box are some free ones) and contact frogfish (Christina) by PM with the link. Submissions will be checked for copyright compliance and size before being added to the distribution list. When submitting your items please indicate whether you are entering the "Earning My Ears" or "Mouseketeer" category.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. You DON'T have to be a designer; anyone can do this! The more people who participate, the bigger the monthly kit will be!

[Fran98765]

Great changes, looking forward to it!

[frogfish]

I just want to take a minute to explain the changes that were made to this month's Design Challenge and why things are different this time around. Since the March Design Challenge was the first one, this is very much a trial and error process. Some changes were inevitable...

First, anyone can enter either the "Earning My Ears" or "Mouseketeer" categories; they are not specifically newbie and pro categories. Even with absolutely no designing experience, you can enter the "Mouseketeer" category as long as you are willing to create items that follow the specific guidelines set out for that category and go through the quality check process.

The quality check was determined to be necessary because these items will be offered for sale in the MS store. When someone purchases a kit from a store, they expect it to be a high quality product. Expectations of kits in the MS store will be no different. The quality check process will help ensure customer satisfaction. With the enormous variety of submissions in the March DC, it also became evident that a more structured set of submission guidelines was necessary for items that will be put into the store. Everyone needs papers for their layouts, but if the DC collab contains 100 papers and only 5 elements it won't be very useful to most people. Hence, the "Mouseketeer" category.

So why two different categories? Understanding that some people may be intimidated by the quality control process and may not be ready to compile a complete mini kit, the "Earning My Ears" category was created. Challenges should be fun and if you just want to create what you can to have fun, the "Earning My Ears" category is for you.

If you are serious about designing, even if you have never done it before, entering the "Mouseketeer" category would give you the benefit of feedback and constructive criticism on your submission. There is a lot more to designing than many people realize and going through a QC will most certainly make you a better designer.

We are trying to make this the best it can be and I appreciate your patience and continued participation! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask in this thread or contact me by PM. Thank you!

[jr4mni]

thanks Christina! I wasn't as good as I thought for the March Challenge and just getting PCS the week before the due date last month. I'm hoping that I'll feel better in my Photoshop skin this month to be able to submit something in the Earning my Ears category.

As a definite newbie to designing, I'm not as intimidated sending in a submission in the Earning my ears category and working my way up to the Mouseketeer category.

Thanks for setting this all up. It gives little old me a chance to see if I really want to start designing and if I have the stamina to be any good. It's a dream come true for me to dip my toes in the design pool in a "safe" and trusting environment.

I can only imagine how much work goes into coordinating all of this! Here's to hoping that this month, is my month!

[kaylalovesminnie]

I think the changes are great. This still enables each contributor the opportunity to design for fun or to improve upon their design skills.

One thing I noticed on DC1 is that we ended up with a lot more papers than elements. If each contributor does a mini kit each like you suggested, I think that would make the next kit even better.

[Cindyrelly]

So much fun to be involved in this challenge again and see how it evolves. I have One quick question about the no pre-shadow rule though... what about if you have a "clustered" element? Sometimes I thought it was necessary to pre-shadow the top layers?

[Pooh46]

Great changes! Thanks for all the time and effort you've put into this!

[Ronisdragon]

I'm still not sure whether or not I'm going to participate but I might try. Can anyone explain how to use HEX codes in Photoshop Elements? Thanks so much!

[frogfish]

Originally Posted by Ronisdragon

I'm still not sure whether or not I'm going to participate but I might try. Can anyone explain how to use HEX codes in Photoshop Elements? Thanks so much!

In the lower left corner of your screen, you should see two squares, one represents your foreground color, the other is your background color. If you click on either of them it will open a pop-up color chooser menu. At the bottom right there should be a text box with a six-digit code, the hex code for the current color. Just input the desired hex code in that box and click ok. You will then be able to draw or fill with that color.

If you have trouble let me know!

[MJAJmom]

Quick question about your "Mouseketeer" category.... Will all the participants be rolled up into one giant kit like DC1 was? Or will they be each packaged individually and sold as a mini-kit by itself? Or maybe all the Rapunzel ones grouped together?