Hello Pencil2D community! I’ve been thinking long and wide on this and I think it’s about time we begin to get the feeling of what it is to be a community geared towards animation.
EDIT: Due to some of the answers, I want to clear this up, first this initiative is a discussion to see if we SHOULD host a contest, it is not an announcement. Second this is NOT to change the current “logo” design. This is to add a drawn “character” to serve as Pencil2D avatar. It is different but equally important. We can discuss about what to do for the main design later…
I would like to propose you with a simple contest: To design the next mascot for Pencil2D! Every Open-Source project has it! (probably) So what about us? Well that’s where YOU come in.
The Idea of this contest is to get your creative juices flowing and come up with an original concept (no “inspired-by-other-artist” submissions) for what you think could be the ideal mascot for our Pencil2D Animation Software.
Make no mistake, Pencil2D needs funds to work in the future, and I think a mascot can be a great anchor for potential users of the program. Remember this software is open-source, but if we aim to have more development we need to start thinking forward.
As for the “guidelines” for the contest here’s what I’ve thought:
The submissions will be sorted in two cycles:
First via community vote. You know, the most voted submissions get to stay. We will have 10 runners at most.
Second, we do a criteria vote with a select jury. This is so it gets fair & square, because we hate those “I have more facebook friends than you do” kinds of contest.
Submission & Voting Criteria:
How well does the mascot communicates Pencil2D’s role(s) as an artist’s tool.
How well does it communicates it’s original purpose as envisioned by Patrick Corrieri & Pascal Naidon
How well does it communicates it’s present purpose
How “clear” and “easy to read” is? (i.e is it aesthetically pleasing? Does it have “appeal”?)
How well it’s design can help to market it (i.e does it look good on a T-Shirt? On a mug?)
Everyone's welcome to participate...This will not be decided by mere technical ability.
For examples on software "mascots" look at my response to another user below: Examples
To be honest, the current icon seems to be a perfect fit for all the criteria. It:
Communicates the idea that Pencil2D is a simple, no-nonsense software
Is very clear and easy to read, as it is a simple picture rather than an elaborate mascot
Since it’s a short and cute little pencil icon it would definitely look good on a t shirt or mug, along with the name of Pencil2D under or next to it
Maybe someone could make a revamped version of the current pencil icon, make it sleeker-looking while following the general outline. Cleaner lines and a tweaked color palette could make it very aesthetically pleasing on screen or on merchandise, and make it easy to remember.
The “Open Recent” feature is not working. It would be nice to have a “Reset Open Recent” feature as well
The Smudge and “Blend” (ALT+LMB) are of no use for smudge or blending colours in an artistic way.
When adding a New Camera Layer, it is not possible to delete it. Bitmap, Vector and Sound Layers can be deleted.
Pencil2D closed it very often. Code errors (?) showed on QtCreator: 255, line 377
“Alpha” feature on the Color Wheel always reset to 255 (max. opacity) when selecting another color. It should stay saved for the next color. It would be nice to have sliders for easily manipulate the HSV/RGB and Alpha channels of a color.
I was painting the Logo and after using the Eyedropper and moved the cursor to select another color on the Color Wheel, Pencil2D stopped working. On the QtCreator I read: “…failed to create dibsection (0 is incorrect)… ChangeCursor: Unable to obtain system cursor for 24…”
At the end, the image was glue to the bottom of the camera. No way trying
to move it to the centre.
Digicel Flipbook had “Jupiter” the dog, although he never broke the fourth wall, he was a character that helped the develoeprs to “present” the animation features as seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlEnxtFzG8U
Mascot design is not only a “branding” trend. It does help any product to gain or reinforce identity as well as to ease acceptance of the software for the users
