For the past few months, we've been drafting a more formal and standardized set of policies and guidelines for art-related events. While the majority of these policies are the same as what we used in art events, the revisions we have made are looser in some places but more strict in others. Where we could, we tried to explain the rationale behind our decision to allow/disallow certain things while trying to keep things concise.
Unless stated otherwise for an event, the following guidelines apply to all art events:
Asset Referencing Policies and Guidelines
The purpose of this policy is to refine and outline our criteria for evaluating artworks in our art contests. As artistic practices (digital, traditional, mixed media) evolve over time, we aim to maintain standardization in the way our Bell Tree Forum staff accepts and/or nominates artwork while continuing to encourage creativity and originality among participants. Due to the number of art-based events and the number of submissions, there have been an increase in incidents where members have been reported to have traced or otherwise used assets. This has resulted in an increase in vigilance necessary for both members and staff, and after some discussion, we have decided to write a formal set of guidelines to clarify what is and isn't allowed.
The intent of this policy is to:
The general intention is that while using references to help with character silhouettes and likeness is now allowed, "all lines, colouring, etc. in your submission should have been manually* done by you."
* Manually is a bit broad when we talk about digital art, but the process of laying down base colours (with a bucket or not), layering, lines, etc. should be done by you.
✔ What is allowed
What is not allowed
By heavy referencing, we generally mean "looking at and copying an asset in a near 1:1 recreation." The main difference between what is and isn't okay is the act of manually creating all parts of the submission. The following are some specific example of what is and isn't okay:
Generally speaking: if we are able to overlay the original asset over your work and see a large amount of overlap, that would be considered heavily referencing. "Heavily referencing" does not include looking at a reference or drawing inspiration.
What do we mean by "credit"?
To credit the original asset, you should do at least one of the following:
What happens if we forget to credit a source?
If we notice your art looks too similar to an asset, we may ask you to edit your post with credit before we accept it (as opposed to disqualification or any other punitive action.)
✔ Examples of acceptable referencing
Examples of unacceptable referencing
Notes and Future Revisions
This section is meant to keep track of comments that we've made and clarifications/notes/future revisions below:
⚠ The policies and guidelines below are not a final version: we have left this thread unlocked so as to hear any feedback! ⚠
If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to share them here. While we may not respond to all comments, we will be taking feedback into consideration and having our own discussions and making adjustments as we see fit.
General Policies and GuidelinesIf you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to share them here. While we may not respond to all comments, we will be taking feedback into consideration and having our own discussions and making adjustments as we see fit.
Unless stated otherwise for an event, the following guidelines apply to all art events:
- Both digital and traditional submissions are acceptable.
- If you are submitting traditional artwork, please make sure the image quality is clear.
- Your username must be included on your submission.
- For traditional art, your username must be added to the entry itself and cannot be added digitally.
- One entry per participant. No collaborations allowed.
- You do not need to be an artist to participate, but some level of effort must be apparent. If we feel your entry lacks effort or has been submitted as a joke, then it will not be accepted.
- Do not edit or change your entry after submitting. Make sure that you are happy with your piece before submitting!
- If you need your entry to be edited, please ask the event host.
- All entries must meet forum guidelines. Keep it PG-13!
Asset Referencing Policies and Guidelines
The purpose of this policy is to refine and outline our criteria for evaluating artworks in our art contests. As artistic practices (digital, traditional, mixed media) evolve over time, we aim to maintain standardization in the way our Bell Tree Forum staff accepts and/or nominates artwork while continuing to encourage creativity and originality among participants. Due to the number of art-based events and the number of submissions, there have been an increase in incidents where members have been reported to have traced or otherwise used assets. This has resulted in an increase in vigilance necessary for both members and staff, and after some discussion, we have decided to write a formal set of guidelines to clarify what is and isn't allowed.
The intent of this policy is to:
- Allow for heavy referencing of some assets with credit, with the aim of:
- Reducing the burden of vigilance on both members and staff
- Reducing the burden of creating works that are different enough from source material (i.e., so members no longer have to worry about things such as "Does my Animal Crossing leaf icon look traced?")
- Forbid certain assets (e.g. generative AI)
- Keep everything else the same: For submissions that do not heavily reference assets, the addition of this policy should not matter.
The general intention is that while using references to help with character silhouettes and likeness is now allowed, "all lines, colouring, etc. in your submission should have been manually* done by you."
* Manually is a bit broad when we talk about digital art, but the process of laying down base colours (with a bucket or not), layering, lines, etc. should be done by you.
✔ What is allowed
- Heavily referencing official art or assets in your submission with credit. For example, you may reference a picture of Tom Nook in your submission so long as you include a link to the image you referenced.
- Heavily referencing material that you have created yourself. For example, past artwork, photos that you took, and other materials that you would have the copyright to.
- Heavily referencing TBT collectibles. TBT collectibles fall under the scope of official assets for the purposes of this policy.
- Using fonts. If you wish to have text in your submission, fonts are fine if you don't wish to use your own writing.
- Looking at other works for inspiration. This is not considered heavily referencing, and so does not need credit.
![Cross mark :x: ❌](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/274c.png)
- Heavily referencing official art or assets in your submission without credit. If we discover you have referenced another work without citing it, your submission may be disqualified.
- Heavily referencing non-official art or assets in your submission, even with credit. For example, you cannot reference someone else's fanart, submission, or other individual-created works.
- Editing official art or assets in your submission. For example, applying a filter or painting over an asset: this violates the intention of submissions being "manually done."
- Using vector assets. For example, you may not use vector assets in their unedited form from other sources (e.g. freepik). You may reference such works with credit, but using assets violates the intention of submissions being "manually done."
- Using AI to generate your submission or parts of your submission. None of the work is handmade in this case. Additionally, most AIs are built with models use art without permission, and so this qualifies as stolen art.
- Submitting a work that is mostly heavily referenced from a single piece without significant additions/differences. For example, submitting a traced version of Isabelle without any other changes would not be allowed, as it shows little creative effort.
By heavy referencing, we generally mean "looking at and copying an asset in a near 1:1 recreation." The main difference between what is and isn't okay is the act of manually creating all parts of the submission. The following are some specific example of what is and isn't okay:
- ✔ Tracing is okay
- ✔ Looking at an asset and trying to copy it in a 1:1 manner is okay
Applying a filter over an asset is not okay
Painting over an asset is not okay
Generally speaking: if we are able to overlay the original asset over your work and see a large amount of overlap, that would be considered heavily referencing. "Heavily referencing" does not include looking at a reference or drawing inspiration.
What do we mean by "credit"?
To credit the original asset, you should do at least one of the following:
- Linking the original reference(s) used
- Including the original reference(s) used, either individually or in a mood board/collage
What happens if we forget to credit a source?
If we notice your art looks too similar to an asset, we may ask you to edit your post with credit before we accept it (as opposed to disqualification or any other punitive action.)
✔ Examples of acceptable referencing
References: | ✔ Includes credit to the referenced assets in the form of a URL / image / moodboard ✔ Has additional work beyond the referenced art |
References: | ✔ Includes credit to the referenced assets in the form of a URL / image / moodboard ✔ Has additional work beyond the referenced art |
![Cross mark :x: ❌](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/274c.png)
![]() | |
References: | ![]() |
References: | ✔ Includes credit to the referenced assets in the form of a URL / image / moodboard![]() |
References: | ✔ Includes credit to the referenced assets in the form of a URL / image / moodboard![]() |
Notes and Future Revisions
This section is meant to keep track of comments that we've made and clarifications/notes/future revisions below:
- When we say "referencing" we mainly mean "heavy referencing" (e.g. things that seem very 1:1, to a point where we wonder whether it's traced or not)
- When we say "referencing" we don't mean looking at something for inspiration or a general idea of how a character/object looks.
- We mostly meant "tracing" but wanted to expand the wording to include "copying closely (but not tracing)", so we settled on "referencing" which seems to have been too vague
- Referencing collectibles is OK!
- For the most part, we imagine event submissions to be the same as before except in cases that we previously felt were a bit questionable in terms of too much referencing/tracing. The wording in its current state is a bit scary/too strict, so we'll likely try to find better messaging while still keeping things precise.
- If we do run into a scenario where we think something should be credited but wasn't, the idea is that we'll just ask for the credit to be added and then approve afterwards (as opposed to immediate disqualifications or punitive action or anything of the sort).
- For more context/rationale behind why we want to require sources and allow tracing, see this post.
Last edited: