Virtual Season X Files Artist Guidelines Revised

Revised May 12, 2006

Artwork requirements for each episode:
Cover art, No less than 3 and no more than 5 internal illustrations, title artwork, animated gif trailer. Please remember to read at least the first draft of the episode assigned to you before beginning any of your artwork. If you cannot create trailers, a trailer artist will be partnered with you to work on your episode.
If you feel you need to contact the author of your assigned episode, or if you have any other questions, please contact us at virtualseasonx@gmail.com, Attn: Art Director.
Cover Artwork:
Size for cover art: w360 x h504 pixels
Color: Full RGB or B&W, up to the artist
Resolution: 72 -100 dpi (standard)
Format: jpeg or gif
Specifics:
Title of Episode
Author's name
Should look like a book cover dust-jacket with a larger title and smaller font for the author. That doesn't mean that the title has to be on the top of the graphic. It could be in the middle, or the bottom, even sideways --just be sure it's the header, and the author's name is the subheader. Collages, if not overly busy are OK for the cover, but should still have the above mentioned specifics.
Illustrations/internal artwork:
Size: 400 x 319 pixels or smaller 400 x 114 (see VS13 illustrations)
Color: Full RGB or B&W, up to the artist
Resolution: 72 dpi-100 dpi (standard)
Format: jpeg or gif
Specifics:
Anything you want, any medium as long as it is more like a piece of art. This should be the place for conceptual art. It could be like an illustration inside a storybook, about a specific scene in the story, symbolic of the larger theme, or a collage.
Images don't have to be hand-drawn, they can be computer art or any representation is fine. Be original! Minimum number of illustrations is one. If the artist has time, we would like as many as 5 illustrations for each episode.
Header or Title artwork:
Size: w500 x h72
Color: Full RGB or B&W, up to the artist
Resolution: 72 dpi - 100 dpi (standard)
Format: jpeg or gif
Specifics:
This title image will appear at the top of the episode page. It should reflect the same style and elements used in the cover artwork.
Click here to see a sample.
Animated trailers:
Format: animated gifs
(Please note: if you are unable to create a trailer, another artist can be assigned to the same story to do it for you.)
Size of trailer: w200 x h100
Color: Full color RGB (256 web adaptive colors)
Resolution: 72 dpi -100 dpi (standard)
Length: 15-20 Seconds long.
File size in (k): Please try to optimize for smallest size. We try to keep our animated gif trailers down to below 200k, so that users on a dial-up internet connection will not have to wait for it to upload too long.
Loop: Neverending
Format: animated gif
Specifics:
We would like a teaser message to go in between still images, and then the title, the author, and ending with a Virtual Season end-tag. More creativity is better, but try to keep it short and to the point. Think of it like a print ad. Nail a concept and use some good copy to "sell" the story because there isn't much time to do it. Use creative transitions. (refer to VS8 & 9 for creative ideas on transitions.)
End tag consistency: We're talking about showing the name of story, it's author, the air date and the Virtual Season end-tag.
(I have included a gif image for the end-tag called endtag.gif This should be used as the last frame of your trailer, and it should appear with a delay time of at least 1 second.)
End Tag Format example:
Story title - 1 sec (or estimate how long it takes the average
person to read)
Blank screen - .3 sec
Author name - 1 sec
Blank screen - .3 sec
Premiere date - 1 sec
Blank screen - .3 sec
The Virtual Season end-tag - 1 sec
Any questions you may have, please contact Donnaj at
virtualseasonx@gmail.com Attn: Art Director.
Format: shockwave files
Use 400x300 for the dimension of the shockwave file; you do not have to be a slave to the timings but do keep it brief - your goal is to make a swf that doesn't take five minutes to download on a 56k modem. (There are still those out there with slow connections.)

Please let Donnaj know when you sign up to do artwork for Virtual Season X.
It will help in the scheduling of artists to episodes.