GuildWiki:Style and formatting/Armor/Art gallery

Armor art galleries are articles that display a particular art type for inclusion into armor art articles.

General
There are two separate gallery subpages for each armor art type, one male and one female. This means that separate articles must be created for each gender using the main articles name followed by "/Male" or "/Female". For example: Mesmer Ascalon armor/Female.

Each gallery subpage has three sections: Overview, Component view and Colorable areas.

This section does not require a heading. Instead include the subpage into the armor art page like this:

Template
Each of the armor subpages should use the following template. The following example may be copied and pasted to create a new article, filling in the correct information where necessary. Instructions on how to use this templates can be found below.

Template:Armor art gallery

Optional parameters: Undyed Alternateside Clipping Note1 Note2 Note3

Required parameters

 * Profession
 * Full name of the profession (i.e. Necromancer).


 * Type
 * The name of the armor art type (i.e. Ascalon, Ancient, Elite Woven).


 * Sex
 * M or F


 * Head
 * Specifies how many views to provide for headgear images. This applies to both the Component view and the Colorable areas sections.
 * 0 specifies no headgear (Paragon or Elementalist armor, where headgear is not attached to armor art).
 * 1 specifies only a front view is required (some Mesmer masks).
 * 2 specifies front and side views are required (Ranger, Assassin, and other Mesmer masks).
 * 3 specifies that front, side, and rear views are needed (Warrior helms, Ritualist headdresses, Dervish hoods).
 * LR specifies that front, left, and right views are needed (Necromancer scars).
 * If the armor has earrings, you can specify this by adding an e after any of the above values, i.e. 0e for earrings with no headgear, 1e for earrings and a front view, etc.


 * Color
 * Lower case. Color of the dye used in the images.

Optional parameters

 * Alternateside
 * Set to yes if the armor is asymmetrical and full-body views from both sides are desirable. This will replace the "Profile" shot in both the Overview and Colorable areas sections with "Right" and "Left" shots.


 * Clipping
 * Use if you need to add a note about clipping issues (where the armor model overlaps or passes through other items, like guild capes, shields, or even the character model). This should only be used if the issue is specific to either the male or female version - clipping issues that apply to both genders should be placed in the main armor article instead.


 * Note1
 * Use if you need to insert a note in the gallery between the Overview and Component view sections.


 * Note2
 * Use if you need to insert a note in the gallery between the Component view and Colorable areas sections.


 * Note3
 * Use if you need to insert a note in the gallery at the end of the Colorable areas section.

Note: Ensure that you read the instructions below before uploading any images.

Do

 * Do use the following graphics settings:
 * Resolution: highest possible
 * Texture quality: High
 * Anti-aliasing: 4x
 * Enable post process effect: unchecked
 * Do use an area with "white" light and a neutral background. The best area for this is the northern beach of the Isle of the Nameless - the light is the closest to "white" of any area in the game, the sand/ocean/sky provide a uniform neutral background, and any character can access it.
 * Point the camera towards the east-northeast to get the best lighting on the armor. Refer to this gallery or this one and consult this overview to help you find the correct position and camera angle.
 * Do save each view of the armor as a separate image. The views needed for each armor are already specified by the gallery template.
 * If there are redlinks in the template, simply click on them to upload the image. On the upload form, be sure to select the option that says "This is a screenshot from Guild Wars" from the Licensing drop-down box, then copy and paste the following into the Summary box:  .  This will automatically categorize the image as an armor gallery screenshot.
 * If you are replacing an image that already exists, click on the image, then click on the link that says "Upload a new version of this image" near the bottom of the image page. You don't need to worry about the Licensing or the   in this case, as the one that's already there will stay.
 * Do use the same height for all images when cropping them so the different views can be easily compared. The exact width is not as important; we strive for an aspect ratio something around 3:1 (height = 3 * width) as a guideline; use your judgment.  Headgear images, of course, will have a smaller ratio, but should still all have the same height.
 * Do attempt to get the highest camera zoom possible. To do this, hold the right mouse button and move the camera as close as possible to your character.  You can usually zoom in even closer if you turn off the Interface using the   command, which would remove the Skill Bar and other Interface objects from the screen.  (Use the same command to turn Interface back on when you are finished.)  The larger the size of your character in pixels, the clearer the details of the armor will be.  A height of about 500 to 550 pixels is a good approximate size, while the width will vary depending on your Profession and Gender.
 * Do use an image manipulation program other than Microsoft Paint to crop and save your images. Make sure to get a high quality compression to keep the image crisp and clear.  Bad compression quality results in blurriness and loss of detail.

Don't

 * Don't use the character select screen. While it does allow for very high-resolution images, the lighting and background are much too dark.
 * Don't include paraphernalia like weaponry or guild capes. These are screenshots of the armor, nothing else.
 * Don't have any animations active, such as skill animations or emotes (including "posed" emotes).
 * You may notice a number of galleries that use the /attention emote. At one time this was the preferred pose for armor galleries, but it has since been decided that the pose is unacceptable for being too unnatural and for causing excessive clipping of the armor, especially the hands into the leggings for skirt/robe-style armors.

Tips

 * For best quality, use the -bmp command line switch to force Guild Wars to save screenshots as uncompressed .bmp files. You can convert the images to .jpg when you crop them. Do not upload uncompressed images to the wiki unless they are under 100 kB in size!
 * Use an image manipulation program to crop the images that allows you to set the jpg compression/quality when you save them. The compression should be set to 95% for the best balance of image quality and file size.
 * Microsoft Paint can't do this, don't use it.
 * The GIMPis a fully-featured free and open-source graphics editor; consider getting the GIMPshop interface for that.
 * Irfanview (simple & free) Browse through your screenshot folder with the mousewheel, draw a frame, crop with Ctrl-Y.
 * Some editors use Thumbs Plus (www.cerious.com) (trial version available).
 * To get very high-resolution images, use two separate accounts, one as the armor model and one as the photographer.
 * For uniformity, once both characters are positioned, the only movement that should occur is the modeler rotating for the different views.
 * Before the photographer positions to take pictures, the modeler should first rotate, as the initial rotation can cause his/her position to change from the perspective of the photographer.
 * The modeler should not zoom in to a first person view, this can cause the modeler to move (not just rotate) slightly.
 * Whenever possible, favor using a short character as the photographer, and a taller character as the modeler. This will help to move the perspective towards the waist of the modeler, which is the standard for armor images shot using a single account.
 * Guild Wars uses low-quality textures for other characters' armor in outposts, but while on the Isle of the Nameless, you should be seeing the high-quality textures on the other character. If this doesn't seem to be the case, you can install KSMOD (read and understand the attached warnings; you may consider editing the .ini file to turn off the associated sound effects) to force the high-quality textures.

Related policies/guidelines

 * Image use policy
 * Style and formatting/Images