Difference between revisions of "MTS2:Creator Guidelines/Pets"

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==Screenshots==
 
==Screenshots==
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{| class="collapsible collapsed wikitable" style="width:100%"
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|-
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! style="text-align:left" | Required Pictures
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*For all pet uploads, we require:
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**A full-body shot, showing your pet from the side nose-to-tail.
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**A facial close-up shot, showing your pet's face close-up.
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**For pets based on real breeds, alternate animal species, or cartoon/video game/anime pets, we require a picture of the animal the pet is based on, for comparison purposes.
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[[Image:Akita-Comparison.jpg|300x300px]][[Image:Akita-Face.jpg|300x300px]][[Image:Akita-Body.jpg|300x300px]]
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{{Guidelines-Screenshots-Tips}}  
 
{{Guidelines-Screenshots-Tips}}  
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*[[Image:Toodark-pets.jpg|right|300x300px]]When taking screenshots, make sure you do it outside during the day, with your pet in the sun - or in a well-lit room.  Pictures taken at night or in too dark a room will not really show off your pet.
 
*[[Image:Toodark-pets.jpg|right|300x300px]]When taking screenshots, make sure you do it outside during the day, with your pet in the sun - or in a well-lit room.  Pictures taken at night or in too dark a room will not really show off your pet.
|}
 
 
{| class="collapsible collapsed wikitable" style="width:100%"
 
|-
 
! style="text-align:left" | Required Pictures
 
|-
 
|
 
*For all pet uploads, we require:
 
**A full-body shot, showing your pet from the side nose-to-tail.
 
**A facial close-up shot, showing your pet's face close-up.
 
**For pets based on real breeds, alternate animal species, or cartoon/video game/anime pets, we require a picture of the animal the pet is based on, for comparison purposes.
 
 
[[Image:Akita-Comparison.jpg|300x300px]][[Image:Akita-Face.jpg|300x300px]][[Image:Akita-Body.jpg|300x300px]]
 
 
|}
 
|}
  
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==Right Info/Right Files==
 
==Right Info/Right Files==
  
===ZIP or RAR===
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{{Guidelines-InfoFiles-ZipRar7z}}
 
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You will need to put your .sims2pack file(s) into a RAR or ZIP file to upload here. Please see [[MTS2:Creator_Guidelines/RAR_or_ZIP_Your_Custom_Content|here]] for instructions on doing so.  Please do not include both a ZIP and RAR with the same contents - just choose one.
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Please do not double-compress your files - you should not have a ZIP inside a ZIP or a RAR inside a RAR.  This does not increase the compression, and it just makes an extra step for downloaders.
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===Upload in Sets===
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If you have created several pets in a similar style, different colours of a breed, etc., upload them all together in a set, all on one thread.  This is easier for everyone: on our upload moderators, as they only have one thread to review rather than several... on you, as submitting a single thread is much quicker and easier than several... and on downloaders, as they can get everything they want all in one place rather than having to hunt around.
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===Good Title===
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You'll need a good title for your upload - something descriptive... like, "Akita Dog Breed" or "Persian Cat" - titles like "My first upload" are not good titles.
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===Good Description===
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You'll need to write up a little basic description of what your upload is... you don't have to get too fancy, but you do need to write something to get people interested.  For instance, "This is an Akita, a Japanese dog breed known for its strength, loyalty, and gentleness with children."  Something like, "This is my first upload... I don't know what to put here..." really doesn't make it sound like you've put any effort into it - and will reflect poorly on your creation.  You don't have to write a novel, just something that makes it sound like it's worth taking a closer look at.
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==Checklist==
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This is a checklist of everything gone over above so you can be sure you've done everything you need to do to ensure your submission is correct.  This is just for your own use - checking these boxes doesn't actually -do- anything, just is an easy way to keep yourself organized.
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===Quality===
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<html>
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Creativity/Effort</b> - You have spent a decent amount of time on your pet, creating a unique and interesting pet that not just anyone could make.  If based on a real breed, your pet closely resembles the breed.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Weird Colours</b> - Your pet is not a holiday themed pet or with unnaturally-coloured fur.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Alien Pets</b> - If your pet is an "alien" species, it is a unique, unusual, and different alien species - not just a regular pet shape turned green.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Cartoon Pets</b> - If your pet is based on a cartoon, anime, movie, etc. pet, there is a clear and obvious resemblance with the pet you've based yours on.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Other Animal Species</b> - If your pet is meant to be something other than a cat or dog (like a bear, sheep, zebra, etc.), it closely resembles the animal it is meant to be.</input><br />
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</html>
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===Screenshots===
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{{Guidelines-InfoFiles-UploadinSets}}
  
<html>
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{{Guidelines-InfoFiles-Title}}
<input type="checkbox"><b>Big Enough</b> - Your screenshots are large enough to clearly see what you have made - limits are 1280x1024 pixels and 195 kbs.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>In-Game</b> - Your screenshots are taken from within the game, either on a lot or in Create-a-Pet.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Close Enough</b> - Your screenshots are taken from close up, so your pet fills the image and can be clearly seen.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Enough Light</b> - Screenshots taken outside are taken during daytime, with the pet in the sun - or screenshots taken inside have the lights on, and enough of them so your pet is clearly visible.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Required Pics</b> - You have the required full body (nose to tail) picture, facial close-up picture, and if your pet is based on a real breed, animal, or something from a cartoon/movie/anime/etc., you have included a picture of the source animal for comparison purposses.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Inline/Attached Screenshots</b> - Your inline screenshots are no more than 800x600 pixels, you don't have more than 4 of them, your required screenshots are actually attached to the thread, and you don't have more than 8 screenshots attached.</input><br />
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</html>
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===Right Info/Right Files===
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{{Guidelines-InfoFiles-Description}}
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Right Files</b> - Your files are .sims2pack files from your ''My Documents\EA Games\Sims 2\Packaged Sims'' folder.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>ZIP or RAR</b> - You have compressed your files into a zip or rar archive (but not both).</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Upload in Sets</b> - If you have created a set or several similar/related pets, you have uploaded them all together in one thread, rather than on separate threads.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Good Title</b> - You have given your thread a good, descriptive title.</input><br />
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<input type="checkbox"><b>Good Description</b> - You have given your thread a nice description that makes people want to download your pet.</input><br />
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</html>
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[[Category:MTS2 Creator Guidelines]]
 
[[Category:MTS2 Creator Guidelines]]

Revision as of 14:03, 22 May 2011

Contents


Creator Guidelines - Pets

Uploading a pet to MTS? This guide will walk you through every step of what we require. Please make sure you read these guidelines carefully, as our standards have changed over the years, and there may be some items you weren't aware of before.

Quality


Screenshots

Big Enough
The larger your pics, the better! Tiny pics won't show enough detail to see what you've made.
  • Minimum Size: 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall is a good size for the smallest pic you would want to upload. You may have smaller pics for thumbnails and the like, but for your required screenshots, please go as big as you can!
  • Maximum Size: MTS allows pictures up to 2560 pixels wide by 1440 pixels tall, and a file size limit of 800 kbs - so you can have nice, big, pretty pics. You may have to resize your pictures or apply compression to get them to fit within that limit.

Please don't just take a small pic and size it up in your graphics program to get bigger pics - this only makes the dimensions larger but doesn't add any detail and just gives you a blurry, pixellated larger pic, not a nice clear one.

Maximum Number of Inline/attached screenshots
  • Inline screenshots are images that appear in the text of the upload that load for the viewer along with the rest of the text. Inline screenshots can either be linked from the attached screenshots, or from an external hosting site like Tinypic, Photobucket, or Flickr.
  • Attached screenshots are screenshots that have been attached to the upload using the "manage attachments" feature on MTS. They display as small thumbnails until clicked on.


You may host your inline screenshots elsewhere like Photobucket, Tinypic, or Flickr - however, these screenshots hosted elsewhere must be additional "bonus" screenshots. All of the screenshots we actually require for your upload need to be attached to the thread itself. If your Photobucket account runs out of bandwidth or you delete the pics, people still need to be able to get the required screenshots on your thread.

You may now upload up to 100 pics! Of course, please keep it to a reasonable quantity... only things like huge sets, full worlds, etc. should have that many pics! Remember, you can always collage several different images together into one image if you have a bunch of stuff to show off, or want to show multiple angles of an item.

For the bonus photos, we recommend you use a spoiler tag to hide the images, then people can click on it to see them. Their pages will load faster if all the images aren't downloading at once. [spoiler=interior rooms]http:// wheveremypictureis/picture.jpg[/spoiler] The 'interior rooms' can be replaced by whatever grouping you want to present, 'hidden garden', 'pool views', 'master suite', 'kids room', etc.

You may place as many photos within a spoiler grouping as you'd like.


Packaging Your Pet

Packaging pets is done via the Create-a-pet screen in your game.

Breedscreenie.jpg
After you have finished creating your pet, you need to save the breed. You can do this using the icon shown here.


MTS2 404968 daysies petsguidelines2.jpg
You'll see the package icon located to the right of your Create a Pet screen. Select the icon to package your pet into a file.


After packaging, pets will be saved to your My Documents\EA Games\Sims 2\Packaged Sims folder in a Sims2Pack format.

Born-In-Game Pets

If your pet has a litter of pups or kittens in game that are not created in Create a Pet, and you'd like to share one, it's super easy!

Load the lot with the pets you'd like to share. Have a sim pick up the phone and call the pet registry to register your breed. This will create that pet in Create a Pet's breed selection so you can now go in and package your pets born in-game.

Right Info/Right Files

Zip, Rar, or 7z
To upload your file(s) to MTS, you will need to compress them into an archive file, which makes them smaller and allows you to include many files in one download. The archive file formats we currently accept are .zip, .rar, and .7z.

For instructions on compressing your files into an archive, please see: Creator Guidelines: Creating Archive Files.

  • Do not include multiple archives with the same contents - that is, please don't put your files in both a .zip as well as a .rar because some people only want .zip files. Choose one format.
  • Do not double-compress your files... a .rar file inside another .rar file (or any other archive inside another) doesn't compress it anymore, and it makes it so we can't see the contents without downloading, and also just makes an extra step for the people downloading.
  • The file size limit on MTS is 50 mb. If you exceed this limit you will need to split your archives. This should probably never come up except for large worlds for The Sims 3, or huge sets of smaller items.
Upload in sets
If you have created several items in a set, or similar items in the same sort of theme at the same time, please upload these together in a single set, all on one thread (instead of all separately, one by one, on different threads). This is easier for everyone: on our upload moderators, as they only have one thread to review rather than several... on you, as submitting a single thread is much quicker and easier than several... and on downloaders, as they can get everything they want all in one place rather than having to hunt around.

If you are doing a huge set, you can always break the set up into pieces, posting more screenshots along with the downloads as comments in the thread, as is done here and here. To do that, create a new thread in the Creator Issues Forum and arrange your thread there, using the first post as an introduction, and attach your uploads and images to subsequent posts in the thread. When you're done, PM a moderator to have it moved to the upload queue. For more information, read the message that displays when you go to post in Creator Issues.

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