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It may be a silly suggestion, but could they not upload to the gallery instead and link from there? Assuming, of course, they can do that!
The thing with adding the attachment is more to help me with the voting thread than anything else. People do weird things when they tell the forum software how to display their images and when I go through the entry thread, I sometimes get an image that gets blurry when blown up past 600 px which kind of doesn't do me much good. But the attachments are usually the full sized image which I can work with much better when it comes to creating the voting thread.
I can do a work around if needed by having the attachment sent to me or if needed, I can download the image from the person's gallery. I'd rather not as that's a few extra steps when I would already have a lot to do at the end of the contest. Having the attachment just makes my life easier. That said, if anyone can't get the forum to attach their image, we'll work something out. Just make sure to leave a note with your entry that you had problems and go ahead and submit your entry. At some point, the attachment might take. As @isidorn said, we have two months to sort out any kinks in the upload process.
I can't upload to the gallery, either.
Guess I'll just have to keep trying.
What I've done in the past is attach the image to the post, but then add the image to my Gallery and embed the image from the gallery. That gives KM access to the full-sized original for voting, but keeps the embedded image smaller. (I highlight and copy the image on the gallery page, then paste that into the post. That uses an image that the gallery software has resized to 730 pixels wide, so it's a smaller file and loads faster than the full-size images.)
This is going to sound incredibly noob, but I'm very green on any image editing beyond MS Paint: How do you get the file size down without reducing the size of the image?
@TigerAnne, You don't. The Gallery software does it automatically.
If you open any gallery page, the image displayed will be 730 pixels wide, regardless of the size of the original image, unless that image is already smaller than 730 pixels wide.
For example, Heart of Winter is 4700 pixels wide, but the image displayed on the Gallery page has been sized to only 730 pixels. If you look at the url of that image the filename includes the width: galleryimage/image/869541/heart-of-winter_730_auto_main.jpg. If you click the image to open the larger image, you'll get access to the full-size image. View the url and you'll see: galleryimage/image/869541/heart-of-winter_full.jpg. That image will be the full 4700 pixels wide and. It will conform to the width of your browser window until you click again. Then it will show the full size, and you'll need to navigate up and down, side to side to see all of the image.
On the other hand, both the Galleries and Forums have file size restrictions. I'm not sure about the forums, but the Gallery software will upload images greater than 2MB, but then size the image smaller to fit the 2MB restriction. The way the software works, that means a smaller dimension for your "full-size" image. I'm not sure just how much bigger you can go than 2MB, though. I've had 8MB rejected, (when I inadvertently uploaded the png instead of the optimized jpg.)
I use a program called Irfanview. The 64-bit version has the built in ability to constrain the file size when saving a jpeg. I'll open the image, usually a png or psd, then "save" as a jpg with the file size option set to 2000 KB. The resulting image will always be the highest possible quality while still remaining below the threshold size. (Last time I looked, the 32-bit version could do the same, but required a plugin for it.)
Save or convert it as a jpg instead of a png does it for me on 90% of my renders.
[edit] nevermind
EDIT: I just managed to upload an unedited image that was 2.83MB. The gallery is just bullying me!?
What file type is your image and what is the file size right now that you're trying to upload? Also, write out the name of the file so we can see if there's anything the forum software might be trying to flag.
Uh, can we just pretend that post never happened? Because I'm pretty sure it was something dumb I did.
Poor @TigerAnne I have had my share of problems uploading Renders!
Thanks to judicious handling of coupons, @isidorn has increased his prize donation for the Re-purposed category from $10 to $15. I've just updated the Prize post to reflect the new prize adjustment. Thank you, @isidorn! :)
It will refuse to upload some file names with some types of special characters.
Here's my two cent.
Not participating this year because of this recurring rule.
Open public survey site for voting (Within the DAZ Community)
It's too bias and why I never voted. I rather have 3 judges that is not part of DAZ to vote. Some of the top best three / follow ups were questionable, but eh, it is what it is.
Have fun everyone
Did we come a conclusion regarding signature? Since it seem to me (from reading the comments earlier) that many of us don't find the rule against it necessary. So I just want to be sure before I put up an image :)
Add my store to the price pool! I'll message you :D Also, I might participate as a PA. Happy to see some lovin' for the gents <3
Contest update. Listen up, there's a lot of important updates.
First, thanks to @Sylvan, we have another prize added to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places. Winners of those each get to choose 1 product from Sylvan's Daz store. I've amended the prize post. Thank you, Sylvan, for the donation.
Second, there was an error and the PA category didn't have a prize. It wasn't even in the list of prizes and I didn't notice until it was brought to my attention. I had decided not to have a special category for PAs this year because it didn't seem to encourage very many PAs to enter the contest. However, I accidentally left the category in when I was editing the post so I'm leaving the PA category in. I've added a prize for it to the list. I really hope more PAs decide to join in the fun this year. PAs started doing this as a hobby just like all of us. They do it because they love it. Somewhere along the line, they get so caught up in being a PA, because now it's a job, they forget to have a little fun with the rest of us. That's sad. I think more PAs should enter the contest.
Third, I've gone through the thread several times debating the issue of signatures in an entrant's image. The general consensus seems to be most don't consider the use of signatures an issue as long as they are unobtrusive which most signatures should be. I've never voted on an image based on who the artist is and I would hope others voting on the contest vote based on the image rather than the artist as well. So in the case of signatures, I'm amending the rules to allow signatures. However, they must be unobtrusive and blend into the image without detracting from it. Who gets to decide that? For now, I do. That's not up for debate.
Fourth, as to the issue about the contest being open to voting. When the contest ran that first year, voting was done privately. It took weeks for the mods to come to a decision because of time issues and the staggering number of entries. It is not an easy thing to decide on the winner when there are that many entries with so few people involved in the voting. I know because I ran the contest the following year and was faced with the same issue because voting was again privately done. There were snags and issues with timing between getting the entries ready to vote and then actually doing the vote.
Opening the voting up the following year for at least the big categories, made the voting process much smoother than when it was voted on privately. There were still a few hiccups, but then there always are with a contest of this nature where there are so many entries. Each year I do this contest, I've managed to streamline some aspects of the entire voting process. Going back to private voting is not going to happen while I'm in charge of the contest. Believe me, I considered not doing the contest this year because of the issues that always come up that make my life more difficult simply by running the contest. But, I love this contest and wish to see it continue. If I didn't run this contest, I'm not sure anyone else would step up. It's a very big undertaking.
This year had a lot of challenges for me. Some very good and some very bad. It would have been very easy for me to say I'm not doing it this year. Except I don't wish to see this contest end. Despite the hassles and the headaches each year, I love this contest. I love rendering men even if most of my male renders aren't forum friendly. One of the highlights of the year is sitting back and watching the talented people in this forum come together and show their love of the male figure. They give proof that not everyone wants to see NVIATWAS images. You have no idea how long it took me to figure out what the heck that meant when I first started cruising these forums!
So, the contest has open voting for most of the big categories. That's just the way it is. Open voting stays.
I sincerely hope this is not the last year this contest gets run. It's one of my favorite times of the year dispite the headaches that ensue.
Thanks for the update info KM :) and I too hope this isn't the last time, it's probably my favorite contest here at Daz!
Thanks for hosting this again!
Knittingmommy,
Thanks for the e-mail reply. Much appreciated. Tried to reply the same way, but three tries all came back as undeliverable. The results were about what I expected. Not good. Just for you information, the second year you mentioned had three not just two entries. Further to that, the year before that also had three entries (but I know you didn't control that year so you wouldn't know what those results would have been).
But thanks for the info.
Considering where my entries ended up, any chance for a worst entry prize? Though I'm not sure how that would work.
@BronzeDragon It's possible I missed an entry when I was looking. There were a lot of entries and I'm not the best with spreadsheets. I'm sure the entry is there in my records and I just missed it. I'll look again when I have a chance to see where it landed in the results.
Even considering the last thing I need to keep track of is another category, I'm honestly not sure sure anyone would wish to win that particular prize.
I think I will enter this year, and am currently render a first image for the contest. Still need to decide what specific category I will enter, since I doubt 10 years using DAZ Studio would allow me to enter the New User one.
Does the image need to be rendered in Daz Studio? Is Poser okay as long as I'm using mostly products from Daz3D?
Rules
No. 4
would suggest it is ok to use Poser
4. Entries can use any render engine/program of choice as long as the main focus is the male figure.
Thank you for posting the updates here, so we all see them. Updates in the first post might get missed, (though I assume those have been revised as necessary.)
I think your reasoning for the decision on open voting makes perfect sense. I support you in this 100 percent.
I have a questions on the Best Storytelling catagory. Does that need a text 'story' with it or the picture tell the story? Or doen't it matter. I'm working on my first entry at the moment and think it fits that catagory.
I think I'll be taking an evening to see what I can whip up. ;)