Help Center

Note: these questions are stupid as hell. They also dont make sense. Sorry.

1. How do skin shops work? Cant i jjst sell my skins alongside normal work in an art shop? And how much do i need to sell my skin for?

2. The heck is all the abbreviations in the skin subforum?

3. This one's more of a program specific question- fellow IbisPaint users, any way i can properly resize the skin down to 350 without getting a super zoomed in image, or a super crunchy low quality image?

@Acetheaxolotl

While I'm not a skin artist, I can certainly help!

1. You can learn a lot about any kind of shop by examining how other players have organized theirs! Analyzing the common rules, BBCode layouts, and general do's and don'ts that appear in successful shops can give you a better understanding of what they do and how they function.
   
   That's profoundly unhelpful on its own, though, so here are some specifics:
   • The basics: skins & accents require blueprints to be submitted for moderator approval. If they pass inspection, you'll receive a PM with the corresponding skin/accent; if it does not, you'll receive a PM returning the blueprints and explaining why it was rejected.
     
     To afford the high Gem cost of these blueprints, skin artists will generally make a thread in Skins & Accents to post preview images of their completed skins for other users to see, their asking price for each copy, and open a "preorder list" for each skin. Interested users can then ask to join a specific skin's list, meaning they're willing to pay the listed price when the skin is released.
     
     Since 10-packs have the best value per Gem, the artist will wait until at least 10 slots are filled - often called a "print run" - before requesting payment from everyone on the list, then buying the necessary blueprints and submitting their skin for approval. Once received, they will then distribute those skins to the people who paid.
     
     There are variants on this process, like retired skins, custom skin commissions, or having a skin rejected after a paid print run, but those are the basic steps. Artists will sometimes print extras (or even entire runs) on their own dime, and list them on the Auction House, but this is only recommended if you have confidence and Gems to spare.

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   • As above, notice that "skin" can refer to both skins & accents for the sake of brevity, unless it is specified as an actual Skin. The difference is that accents can only cover 30% of the dragon's body or less; any more cover than that, it officially becomes a Skin, and must be printed with Skin Blueprints instead of Accent blueprints.
     
     "Skincents" aren't some unique secret category, but a user-made descriptor. It refers to Skins that have more than 30% coverage, thus categorized as Skins, but do not cover the dragon entirely, resembling an Accent in practice. Coverage can be calculated by some art programs, but the skin mods will tell you if it doesn't pass muster.

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   • You should definitely start your own skin shop in the Skins & Accents forum. Small artists tend to make individual threads, but serious accent-makers maintain a single shop thread to keep track of all their past skins. See how other threads are organized to get an idea of how to build your own.
     
     Thing is, selling skins are a fundamentally different business to an art shop, as I described before. Trying to sell them in Art Sales could also be seen as improper advertisement and get your thread locked or moved, since you'd be advertising on-site items instead of regular artwork. (That's just the worst-case scenario, but you get the idea.)

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   • The price is up to you, but it is broadly dependent on the cost of blueprint packs. Since most artists are doing 10-print runs, they'll have to make over 5,000 Gems per Skin run or 2,500 Gems per Accent run. That might seem daunting, but doing the math with the listed prices can help.
     
     Common prices for public releases are 500g per accent and 800g per skin, but this varies depending on the skin & seller. Accents with little-to-no coverage trend towards 400g, 300g at bare minimum, and popular artists can get upwards of 1,500 Gems for a skin, particularly if it's a limited run - meaning only a small number of them will ever be printed, making them more valuable in the eyes of buyers.

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   • I can't neglect to mention G.A.S.P., or the "General Accent & Skin Pinglists." This is a massive pinglist where users can sign up for generic skin types they like - spooky aesthetic, Aether Male specifically, pastel colors, etc. - which are then added to those respective pinglists. Skin artists can then copy those corresponding pinglists to alert players to skins they'll like!
     
     If you use G.A.S.P., read their guidelines & steps very carefully! Don't ping any lists that don't match the skin(s) you're advertising. Avoid pinging twice in the same day, as excessive pings to hundreds of people will absolutely be noticed. It's also customary to list which pinglists you used, so that people coming to your thread immediately know what they're in for.
2. You might want to bookmark [Guide] FR Abbreviations. It's endlessly useful, even as a longtime player. You can use Ctrl+F to find the specific terms you're after. If the guide doesn't have what you're looking for, ask!
3. That, I can't help you with. I recommend searching for any official troubleshooting websites or forum discussions regarding IbisPaint specifically; if it's a common problem, there will usually be someone with a workaround. Good luck!

@NightmareJudge

Oh my gods, thank you mate! This is such useful info, thankyou thank you thank you!