Question/s about fan creation featured at Story, Art & Sound.

Whyte Lyon·Jan 14, 2018·3 votes·2,433 views

I would love to know what is the in-depth rules / guidelines for fan made content, specifically art creations and what of that kind can pass for SA&S acceptable?

I bring this up because over the last 5-6 months I've noticed a slight rise in fan creations making their way into SA&S. I feel very passionate about incorrect types of fan art being shared to SA&S and I like the fact that moderators (sometimes) lock those threads, because they do not belong there. However a few hours ago a generally talented fan shared their recent efforts with the community ~~[Young Ahri]~~ (oh great the artist removed it). And I think because of the 'young' aspect of the illustration, makes the art work lore-related content. In what may be my naive opinion, is acceptable for SA&S and shouldn't have been locked. ~~In fact I would campaign that the artist's thread be unlocked.~~

However I would love to understand more because as a "casual" fan artist myself, I've illustrated a few of League's characters in the past. The difference with my art compared to almost any other League fan artist is that I don't draw the game's playable champions, instead I illustrate the faceless NPC's from the lore. I have read the rules of Story, Art & Sound and to me, based on the lore-focus of those drawings [This being my most recent] I can be confident that they and any future illustrations like them will be exempt from thread locking, right?

9 Comments

sumerskaJan 14, 20181 votes

I'm fairly certain that only official artwork created by Riot is allowed on the Story, Art & Sound section. Fan art goes on Concepts and Creations.

Whyte LyonJan 14, 20181 votes

So this just slipped through the cracks did it?

Not to mention the large number of fan-made maps that've been uploaded to SA&S, and more importantly been encouraged by moderators as acceptable for it [Example]. So why is that given a free pass but when someone creates lore accurate fan art with the same justifications, even if it's of a human or non-human figure, is somehow deemed less tolerable? How? What is meant to be the key difference?

Dont get me wrong that was a rhetorical question, hoping for moderator's to answer instead.

ModCaptainMårvelousJan 14, 20182 votes

Sorry I'm mass responding to your comments. Just trying to make stuff cleared up:

The reason that the map was acceptable but art/music/etc. isn't is due to the map being less about "Check out this cool league map I made" and more about the ongoing discussion of plotting out the world map of League. The OP was aiming to show a possible idea of what the canonical map could be and discussing why/his reasoning for placing it in those places.

By contrast, lore-accurate fan art is still fan art. In addition, C&C threads generally advertise their art for people to talk about the art/music/etc. that they made. The map thread was not aimed at having players look specifically at the map they made but rather showing the map they made and provoking discussion for people to share thoughts on what the canon map/world would look like. As a rule of thumb, think of it in the sense that your art thread in C&C is to promote your art and to share a cool thing you made. Conversely, the map thread is using the information Riot had given the author over time to construct a map. From there, they wanted to discuss how they came to these conclusions and compare/contrast with other users about how canonical his predictions were to the lore.

I hope that makes sense to you. TL;DR: Map thread was discussing the world and piecing together information Riot has given us already about the universe. The art was supplementary. Fan art threads are not about discussing Riot-created stuff but the creation that the artist or writer made.

Whyte LyonJan 14, 20181 votes

Nah this is exactly what I wanted, you are here to shed light on my confusion.

Map thread was discussing the world and piecing together information Riot has given us already about the universe. The art was supplementary. Fan art threads are not about discussing Riot-created stuff but the creation that the artist or writer made.

Ahhh okay here we go, the gravy that I was looking for here. This distinction helps me comprehend the difference between fan-made content and fan-made concepts.

Thanks anyway, the clarification is appreciated and I'll apply that understanding if I ever share more art of my own

Im still a bit disappointed, granted it's individualized to me personally because I don't appreciate the C&C community. Not that they're bad or didn't share any support for my Yago & Saito illustrations (FYI they were uploaded to C&C, it was only the Boram image that was to SA&S). But I got the feeling no one understood exactly who or why I was drawing those characters.

C&C puts me in a less enthusiastic position because I realized that although I'm not so talented like most fan artists, my work isn't going to be any where near appreciated unless displayed in SA&S. Simply cause the characters I chose to draw from League aren't commonly known to the wider community, except by those who hang about in Story, Art & Sound.

ModCaptainMårvelousJan 14, 20181 votes

That's unfortunate but I can understand why you feel that way. Have you ever considered using your illustrations as a "who's who" of unknown lore characters? I know a lot of people probably aren't aware of these lesser-known characters but you could always make it a point to illustrate them and go "Who is <x>"? Maybe make it a series.

Plus, I think if you don't make your art the main focus, you could probably post it in SA&S considering you're discussing a relatively unknown character, not the art itself?

ModWulf HelhammerJan 14, 20181 votes

Hi!

So when a thread with some kind of fan concept gets posted on SA&S, we usually try to catch it and remove it, directing them to Concepts & Creations. However, we don’t always catch them in time, and if it’s a popular thread, it can rise up pretty quickly and get a lot of discussion, and threads like that we try not to delete (unless there’s something really bad in them).

But in general though, any artwork type content relating to the game that isn’t produced from Riot goes in Concepts & Creations.

Whyte LyonJan 14, 20181 votes

any artwork type content relating to the game that isn’t produced from Riot goes in Concepts & Creations.

Well that's very upsetting to hear.

Although I don't know if you read my other comment before about fan-made maps or checked the link where a Herald- someone whose apart of the group to maintain Board rules had officially accepted fan maps as appropriate SA&S content. And as far as majority of the community is aware they CAN share their maps to SA&S instead of or as well as C&C. But you suggest that nothing fan-made should appear anywhere else other than C&S.

So either there should be a greater crack down on fan-made content appearing in SA&S, and make sure all the Moderators and Heralds equally understand the rule or it needs to be revisited and softened. Because at the moment that feels unfair and misleading, especially misleading that the rule is clearly only enforced occasionally.

Also I'm suspicious because you're comment sounds like a formal response but you lack the visual flair that indicates your profile is apart of the Moderator group. Even if I checked the list of mod volunteers, and you're not among them...

ModCaptainMårvelousJan 14, 20181 votes

Also I'm suspicious because you're comment sounds like a formal response but you lack the visual flair that indicates your profile is apart of the Moderator group. Even if I checked the list of mod volunteers, and you're not among them...

Wolf is a mod-in-training. He's still learning the ropes. Don't worry too much, he's just incredibly excited to help out. We have a few of them on the team who are getting their feet wet with moderation but might not have the fancy colors or bells/whistles yet.

ModCaptainMårvelousJan 14, 20181 votes

Wew, I missed this. So, lemme just get this out of the way:

Generally, we -do- want to encourage people to post on C&C instead of SA&S with their content. Most of the time we delete stuff and encourage them to shuffle things over there. That said, mods and (by extent) archivists are humans too. We might miss a post that ends up blowing up on SAS or something might not be reported for incorrect board. That's where the lock comes into play: We don't exactly want to delete the thread because it has so many upvotes/posting/etc. At the same time, we do have to make a point that these sorts of things are in the wrong place. In general, while it might not be the answer you want to hear, the fact is that things do slip through the cracks and we make mistakes or people don't accurately report things.

Now for some other questions you probably have:

##"WTF why not just move the thread!?"

Trust me, if we could? We would. Tech isn't there yet and Riot is the one who holds control over the boards. All mods would like to just move threads but, simply put, we can't.

##"So I guess you're gonna lock my thread now?"

Naw. The general rule-of-thumb I like to use is if it's not on the front page and it was up for hours, there's no real point in forcing action. Yes, it SHOULD be in C&C but I'm not going to come barging into your thread with a handful of views and scream at you. Just know for the future, if that's ok.

##"You didn't answer the main question though!"

Right then. To me, I think the only time I'd view fan art on SAS as accept is if the artist is now working at Riot and has done concepts for a skin or a VGU. It's incredibly iffy and something that might vary on a moderator basis but, to me, it's discussing a Rioter's work. Take Riot Hylia for example: He's done incredible concepts for all sorts of champions and he now works at Riot. It's entirely possible he could translate the work he's done into a full-on skin or VGU. Other than that very rare, very specific circumstance? All fan art, writing and concepts should go to C&C regardless if you're drawing a piece of Lux shooting lasers at Cassiopeia or Scrumpo the Shuriman Shovelboy shoveling dirt in front of his terrible farmhouse.