From YPPedia

The Portrait Background Contest runs on an ongoing basis. Winning entries are implemented in game as limited edition portrait backgrounds.

Contents 1 Rules 2 Entry Specifications & Suggestions 3 Judging 4 Pirate Cutouts 5 How to Upload Entries to YPPedia 6 Prizes 7 Previous Winners 8 Links

Rules

Entrants will create original backgrounds from their original artwork that are consistent with the theme and style of the game. The image must look sensible with characters placed on it in any of the orientations possible for its size.

Reworking entries and multiple entries are both acceptable.

A very small signature in the lower right corner is acceptable.

Entries should be uploaded to YPPedia according to the instructions below. After uploading, post links to the thumbnails for comment in the contest thread. If you want your pirate name to appear rather than your account name should you win, please post your pirate name at the bottom of the post containing the thumbnail.

Entry Specifications & Suggestions

Entries must fit the appropriate scale. (sizes below are width x height)

• 1-pirate backgrounds: 348 x 650
• 2-pirate backgrounds: 696 x 650
• Large backgrounds: 1600 x 1170

In game portrait painting crops part of the background when placing pirates in portraits. For the single portrait, it crops 47 pixels from the bottom and 23 pixels from the top of the final portrait (which is half-size of the original background). For two pirate backgrounds, it crops 50 pixels from the bottom. Take this into account on your entries. In large backgrounds, up to 207 pixels are cropped from the right on a "1 row 4 pirates" portrait and up to 260 pixels are cropped from the right on a "2 rows 5 pirates" portrait.

You may use the following image masks to determine the safe frame. Put them on top of your image to see how much will be cut off.

Single-pirate-image mask. Click for full-sized image.

Two-pirate-image mask. Click for full-sized image.

The preferred file format is PNG.

Make it look like it came right out of the game. Get your line weights down, and compare with existing portraits to be sure. Keep your lighting consistent with the lighting on the pirate portrait art. Choose a scene that many in the game would like to use, and display it faithfully. Take your time and rework, going to others for advice and critique. Polish.

Judging

About every month, a single entry of sufficient quality will be chosen by the developers for use. The same winning artist may be chosen more than once for different entries. Quality of work and usefulness to the game and its style are the primary determining factors. All submitted works are eligible for winning any month's prize henceforth. If yours didn't win this time, it is automatically entered for next month.

All entries eligible for winning can be seen in the portrait background entries category.

Pirate Cutouts

You can test out what your background looks like as an actual portrait by using pirate cutouts (before they are resized by the system). The masks will be cropped out and the final protrait will be scaled down a bit.

Click on the thumbnails to go to a page where you can download the full-sized cutout.

Single Pirate Cut Out /w Mask. (PNG Format)

Two Pirate Cut Out /w Mask. (PNG Format)

Four Pirate Cut Out /w Mask. (PNG Format)

Five Pirate Cut Out /w Mask. (PNG Format)

How to Upload Entries to YPPedia

PNG format is preferred. Please use the filename format of Art-YOUR_FORUM_NAME-filename.png for your background. Replace "YOUR_FORUM_NAME" with your actual forum name. This will help cut down on confusion if there is more than one "dock" or other filename.

Please read these directions prior to following them.

1. Make sure you are logged in to YPPedia, you can login using your forum account & password by using the "Login" link at the upper right corner of the page.
2. Click on "Upload file" on the menu bar to the left.
3. Click on the "Browse" button to select your portrait background's filename on your computer. Selecting your filename will automatically fill in the Source filename & Destination filename fields.
4. You should then fill in the Summary field with {{Shoppes1-Portrait|YOUR_FORUM_NAME}}. Remember to replace "YOUR_FORUM_NAME" with your actual forum name.
5. Click on the "Upload file" button.

If an image file with the same name already exists, please rename yours (unless you are updating your entry).

If you make changes to your entry and need to update the image, login to YPPedia. Go to the page for it (the URL will be something like http://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Image:filename.png) and click on "Upload a new version of this file." Follow steps 3-4 above and click on the "Save file" button to replace the old image with the new one.

If you have already uploaded a background to YPPedia and wish to correct the image tag, go to the image's page and click on the "edit" tab. Edit the text to use the correct tag detailed in step 4 above (in the text editing box, not the edit summary field) and click on the "Save page" button. Reuploading the image with a new upload summary will not change the text.

If you have trouble uploading or updating your entry, you can ask for assistance on the help desk page.

DO NOT VANDALIZE OTHER ENTRIES OR MAKE CHANGES TO ENTRIES THAT ARE NOT YOURS. Any malicious changes to other people's entries will be rolled back and the vandal will be appropriately punished.

Prizes

A winning entry will be included in the in-game list of available portrait backgrounds for one month. Anyone in the game can use it, but after that it is used no longer. These are limited time collector backgrounds.

In addition to the fame and thrill of their work being included in the game, each month's winning entrant will also receive a Puzzle Pirates mug in the mail, a free copy of her portrait in-game, and a clothing item of her choice in the color(s) of her choice. The item cannot be the box edition Savvy Hat or Atlantean blue, but can be black or gold.

In the event of the same artist winning multiple months, an additional clothing item can be substituted for the mug if the artist does not feel like having a household full of Puzzle Pirates crockery.

Previous Winners

Mock's Inn	Sadiekate's Throne Room	Mattronic's Gundeck1	Peterpan's Night Watch
Loremipsum's Autumn Dock2	Sky's Winter Aurora	Annedroid's King	Annedroid's Queen
Lillmill's Dusk Sky	Nordenx's A Whale of a Tale	Nordenx's Black Ship	Nordenx's Good Sailing
Nordenx's Icebergs Ahoy	Nordenx's Ship in Port	Nordenx's Skull Island	Deadstarr's Playing in the Cane
Nemo's Organ by Nordenx	Monet12's Old Photo	Deadstarr's Secret Cove	Aryet (Loremipsum)'s Stone Urns with Flowers
Azmoda1 (Corwyn)'s Sunset in Paradise	Nordenx's God Games	Pinky77's Green Night	Nordenx's Longships
Captainada's Valentine Arch	Damayi's Lucky Pirate	Benzene265's Window

¹ Prior versions of Mattronic's background can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
² Prior versions of Loremipsum's background can be seen here, here, and here.

Links

• Current portrait background entries category
• Current contest forum thread
• Previous contest threads
  • 6 February 2008 - 13 March 2008 contest forum thread
  • Entries and discussion from 23 November 2005 until 5 February 2008
  • Original contest forum thread - entries and discussion from 3 May 2005 until 23 November 2005.
• Current portrait backgrounds
• Retired portrait backgrounds