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.

Image quality expectations

 * All full-body images in a gallery should have a uniform height and width (or as close as possible; height is more important), so that the different views can be compared equally. The exact aspect ratio is not as important, but something around 3:1 (height = 3 * width) is the general guideline.  Headgear images, of course, will have a smaller ratio, but should still maintain uniformity.
 * Images should show the armor without obstructions such as weaponry, guild capes or skill usage.
 * Use the following graphics settings:
 * Highest possible resolution
 * Texture quality: high
 * Anti-aliasing: 4x
 * Post-processing effects: off
 * Make sure you are in an area with neutral/white light: the Isle of the Nameless is commonly accepted as having some of the most neutral lighting in the game.
 * Specifically, use the northern beach behind the Master of Axes, where you can use the sea and sky as a neutral background. Point the camera to the northeast, so that the sun is about 3/4 behind the camera, to ensure that the armor is well-lit.
 * DO NOT take screenshots on the character select screen! The lighting and the background are much too dark.
 * The character should be in their neutral standing position, not using any emotes.
 * Each view of the armor should be saved in a separate image. Crop the screenshots to the character.  When you save the cropped version, make sure to keep the JPG quality set at 95% - higher is unnecessary, but too much lower will introduce compression artifacts into the image.
 * File names are determined by the template. Use the redlinks or the images already in the gallery to upload your images.
 * If you are uploading a brand-new image (from a redlink), then on the upload form, be sure to select the option that says "This is a screenshot from the game" from the "Licensing" drop-down box. Also, please copy the following line into the "Summary" box, which will automatically categorize the image as an armor gallery screenshot.  This step is not necessary if you are uploading a new version for an existing image.

Headgear screenshot tips

 * 1) Use 2 accounts and 2 computers.  Log in on both, go out to Isle of the Nameless for lighting (see above).
 * 2) Set GuildWars to produce high-quality screen-shots by running it with the -bmp switch.  Note that these screen-shots take substantially more disk, but lack the JPG degradation the standard screen-shots might suffer.
 * 3) Set graphics settings to the highest values, including anti-alising, and turn off post-processing effects.
 * 4) Position yourself as close as you can for the headpiece screen-shots, using one account to take a screen-shot of the item on the second.  Get just on the edge of where the headpiece starts to clip.
 * 5) The game actually uses different quality artwork for other players than you see for your own character.  By themselves, the above steps will produce poor quality screen-shots, but only if you use two accounts -- you only suffer from lower resolution doing this with one account, you still get the high quality artwork.  With two accounts, you can get better resolution, but you need to do something about the texture quality used to render other players. One way to do this is to install KSMOD ( http://www.k-u-n-t-z.com/ksmod -- read and understand the attached warnings.  You may consider editing the .ini file to turn off the associated sound effects.)  Remember, if a program melts your fridge and eats your microwave, Arena Net and GuildWiki are not responsible.  You have only yourself to blame.
 * 6) Take the screen-shots.
 * 7) * If taking a series of screen-shots, of the same item but with different dye or angles, do not move either account. Only rotate the character that is wearing the gear to be photoed.  This gets you a set of images that can be cropped to about the same dimensions without having to re-size the images.
 * 8) Load in generic graphics editor, that allows you to save as any-quality .jpg (one possibility is Thumbs Plus (www.cerious.com) -- not really an editor, but it works for this well enough).  Crop to suit.  If preparing a set of screenshots, (armor from different angles...) crop at the same time so you can match sizes of the cropped images.  Adjust the quality of the cropped JPG so that the saved file is sized to be just under 150kb, which is the maximum file size that wiki recommends.

Related policies/guidelines

 * Image use policy
 * Style and formatting/Images