Single post in Updated Art Usage And Crediting

In general, art credits should be placed in the same general location as the art that is being credited. When using art as your forum avatar, the ideal place for it to be credited is in your forum signature. The credits for art pieces in your About Me are best kept in your About Me. However, it is also acceptable to keep art credits in your Journal, provided you make it clear in your forum signature/About Me that credits are in your Journal. When using art created by a specific artist, it's best if you can link directly to the artist's profile, art shop, or website (if not a PokéFarm player). Exception: As it is against site rules to link to inappropriate offsite content, if linking to the artist would break this rule, please either use a Mature hidebox within your About Me to contain the link, or contact a Moderator. The Moderator can note the credit in a location not visible to underage players.

• Official Art: This includes using unmodified images or gifs from movies, TV shows, anime, video games, manga, comics, and webcomics. Example: "Gif from the Pokémon Anime."
• Modified Official Art: This includes using images or gifs from movies, TV shows, anime, video games, manga, comics, and webcomics, but that have been modified or edited in some way. Examples: "Gif from the Pokémon Anime, modified by me."
• Commissioned Art: If you commissioned art from an artist, you now own the art and may use it. However, you still need to credit the artist through either a direct link, or through showing proof of your commission, such as a screenshot of the transaction.
• Free-to-Use Art: This includes art where the artist has specifically stated that their creation is free-to-use. The artist still needs to be credited, ideally by linking to or showing a screenshot of their statement of free-to-use.

But what if I'm the artist? You do still need to credit yourself as the artist. "Art by me" works just fine, or linking to your DeviantArt/other art site. This makes it clear to other players (who might report you otherwise) that the art is absolutely not stolen. What if I found the art using Google Search, or a site like Pinterest/Reddit/Instagram? Then you're going to need to do some research to figure out whether you can use the art or not. All of those sites encourage the sharing of images, which means the art can be posted multiple times, and by persons other than the artist. TinEye and SauceNAO are both sites that can be used to track down the origin of an image. Once you've tracked down the artist, please make sure the image is free-to-use, or you're going to need to contact the artist for permission to use the image. What if multiple artists worked on the art? Every artist that contributes to a finished piece of art must be credited. For example, if one artist creates a lineart base, a second colors the base, and a third shades the base, all three artists must be credited.

"Tracing" is exactly or closely duplicating all or part of an image, either by outright tracing over the image, or by heavily referencing it to the point it might as well be identical. If you trace something, the majority of the effort of the resulting art piece was put in by the original artist, not by yourself. Do not state that you are the sole artist of a traced piece of art.

• Players who trace official art for personal usage must credit their source material (Ex. "Official art of Eevee, modified by me").
• Tracing official artwork to give to someone as a gift is acceptable, as there is no profit involved.
• Attempting to sell traced official art that has not been sufficiently modified from the original, for profit, will result in a lock being placed on your account for art theft, and you will be required to reimburse your customers. "Sufficient modification" of official art includes the following: a full recolour, modification of at least half the image, addition to the image of a significant piece of original art, etc.
• Tracing art other than official art, whether for personal usage or profit, will also result in a lock being placed on your account for art theft.