Not sure if I'm supposed to be making announcements in forum news or if I need permission, so if this shouldn't be here, move it to main as a sticky or something.
I'm making this thread in response to bunch of reposts of deleted content in the portal. I doubt any of the animators in question actually go on the forums at all, so maybe an announcement by Zulu on the portal frontpage would help more.
Anyway, for those who don't know, Zulu is busy coding a much needed blam feature for the portal. Until this coded system is in place, a powerful and sexy elite team of portal moderators does the job.
All moderators technically have the power to moderate the portal, but I've made it my unofficial duty to do so. Until the blam feature is coded, I am essentially the blam feature.
It's clear that the traffic to this site is divided into two groups. There is the relatively small group of us who inhabit the forums. Then there's an assload of other accounts that exist solely to use the portal. Because of this, most of the contributors to the portal are unaware of how things work around here, and probably don't even know that a "blam feature" exists.
So you're an animator wondering:
[SIZE="4"]WHY ARE MY ANIMATIONS DELETED??[/SIZE]
There are many different reasons why I may have chosen to delete it.
-Stolen Content I actually see a lot of this, especially games. Not cool. Even if you admitted you didn't make it, which some people actually did, that doesn't make it ok. The portal is for submitting content that YOU MADE.
-Animation Tests I try to keep the portal free of test animations. By that I mean, animations you made simply to experiment with some sort of effect. Now you may notice a lot of animation tests are still on the portal, lots of them are even winning awards. There is a very fine line between a crappy test, and a test that's decent enough to pass as its own animation. I trust you to make the judgement call on that.
-Cut & Paste "Games" These are basically where you open flash, make a few objects, and then copy and paste some actionscript code from the internet and call it a game. I see these all the time. A "car game" which was just a picture of a car that was controlled with the arrows. "Ultimate Flying Stickman", which was a stickman that could be moved around the screen. THEY DO NOT PASS AS GAMES. If there is no objective, and I'm reasonably sure that you did not write that code yourself, I will delete the submission on the spot.
-MS Paint Art I get this a lot too. The art section is for actual artwork. Not a picture of some stick figures covered in blood scattered around the screen. I see a ridiculous amount of these sorts of entries. Ms Paint drawings are fine, but only if you can REALLY draw. The same way, I wouldn't accept a shitty drawing, just because it had a bunch of simple photoshop effects on it.
-Pivot in the Art Section I know pivot exports as an animated GIF, but that doesn't mean they belong in the art section. If you have made a really nice pivot and you want to share it, you can do one of two things. If you have flash, import your pivot and save it as a SWF, this means you can also add a preloader. OR, if you don't have flash, find somebody who does, and ask them to do it for you. There are plenty of flash people on the forums that could help you.
-First Attempts Alright, I know you guys are eager, you want to share your animations with the world and become a flash god. The problem is, you got flash a week ago. Keep your first animations to yourself until you are reasonably skilled, and can make a flash worth watching. We were all noob animators at one point. Be realistic, realize you haven't made the next Bitey of Brackenwood, and don't submit it. Period.
If you want feedback on your first animations to help improve, there are threads for that on the forum. See the Showoff section.
Those are just some simple criteria. I ultimately have judgement over what stays, and what is blammed. Use common sense when you submit, and if your animation is crap, don't be too proud to accept that fact.
And please, if your animation is deleted. Spare me the nuisance and DON'T RESUBMIT IT. Take it as a sign that you need improvement, and keep practicing before your next submission.
