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| Introduction | Privacy Policy | Submission Categories | Content Rules | Registration and Accounts | Submission Management | Voting Procedures |
X-Day 2004 accepts submissions among a wide variety of media types and content subjects. The submissions are grouped into categories based partly on their media or method of production and on their subjects. This allows visitors to find the submissions they want to view more easily, and it allows a more fair competition as works compete just among those that are similar.
Note that all art pieces must be done completely from scratch by the artist (or artist team, which are both credited) unless the category explicitely states otherwise.
Note that anything designated "hand-done" requires that the artist (or team) creates the work outside the computer using media such as pencils, paints or any other on paper and that the finished work is then scanned into the computer for electronic display. Only necessary post-scanning corrections to brightness and colour readability, and cropping are allowed.
A piece of fan art is allowed to compete on its own in a fan art category regardless of whether it is also used by a non-art submission, such as a fan fiction or a fan website, which is competing at the same time.
There is no separate Fan Art category for original characters; these compete in the normal categories alongside Marvel characters.
All fan art submissions must include an HTML page which is used to display the artwork (embedded using an "img" html tag), and can optionally display title or creator info or link to the creator's web site; you must give the url of that html page in the X-Day submissions form, and not the url of the image file itself. This rule exists mainly to account for the numerous web servers that refuse to display images, showing instead an error page, when someone goes directly to it from an external web site, such as the X-Day site. Because of this, the image may look fine to the submitter, but other people can't see it. A side benefit to this is that fan art submissions that include multiple image files can be kept as separate files that display together.
Every submission to a fan art category must be hosted on its own page or set of pages which contain only that submission. Those same pages may not contain any other fan art works which are not part of the one being submitted. This rule is also true even when the submitted work is quite small, such as a web doll. It must be easy for a visitor to distinguish the content of your submission from other things.
All fan art images must be in JPEG or GIF or PNG format. Generally speaking, JPEG is recommended for use, especially if the image has more than 256 colors; of course, experiment for yourself to see what makes your art look the best. PNG supports all the colors of JPEG, but it is lossless compression, so these tend to be bigger files. Of course, you should keep the original copies on your own computer in something like TIFF format for best quality.
It is recommended to keep the art you submit within about 800x800 pixels in size (about the height of a screen set to 1024x768); while you could make it bigger to show off more detail, that size will let people see the whole image at once (scrolling sideways is annoying). A side benefit is that this also helps keep the file size down. Note that under 500x500 is common. Of course, it is up to you.
For any art submissions in categories where you are creating a derived work from an existing work, such as photo-manipulation or re-coloring or comic art derivations, you will be required to provide both 'before' and 'after' images for each item; preferably side-by-side. The reason this rule exists is to make it easy for viewers to know the scope and type of changes you made, and be able to distinguish what parts of the new image were made that way by the artist, and which attributes of the image were already there before. To do this, have your submission url point to a simple HTML page which displays the two image files, your art and the original(s); said html file would have no other images on it. Note that this is mainly important when you are actually changing the contents of source images, such as by re-coloring. However, if your output is simply a collage, then you can probably disregard the requirement for the source image, since your source is obvious. If your source is a nude figure, then you must not include the original since nudity in fan art submissions is forbidden; in this case, just leave a comment that the original was nude when describing how you made your submission. If you discarded or lost your source but otherwise would show it, then say so in the description when you submit the work.
Note that any of the following may be separated further such as into single and multiple character pieces, or they may not be.
These are drawings, typically with pencil or ink, which are composed of two solid colours, usually black ink on a white surface. They are often called "line art" and any shading is done in the same solid 'black' as the lines; there are no multiple shades of gray. Examples of this are typical black-and-white comics like in daily newspapers, or the original art that is made for coloured comics. When well done, some may look like they are in multiple shades of gray at a distance, but when you look closer they clearly are composed just of 'black' lines.
These are drawings, often in charcoal or paint or oils, which incorporate multiple shades of a single colour, usually gray, each of which is either solid or gradiented. They should look like multiple shades of grey even close up, and there often won't be any part of the drawing surface that isn't covered (except at boundaries). When done well, these may closely resemble grayscale photographs or television.
These are drawings which incorporate multiple colors, that can be either solid or gradiented. Tools used to make them are often paint or oils or pencil-crayons. When done well, these may resemble colour photographs or TV shows; alternately, they may resemble older "four-colour" comic books.
These drawings are started by hand in a line art or monochromatic fashion like the above few categories, then scanned into a computer where they are coloured by a computer program. Some works in this category may have computer added backgrounds or fill patterns taken from other sources.
These are for two-dimensional images that were made from scratch entirely in a computer, with nothing being done by hand and scanned. (No tracing of hand art is allowed.) Whether or not there was any attempt to add 3D-looking attributes, these were made entirely in a two-dimensional editing program; no use of 3D-featured programs allowed here.
These are three-dimensional images that are made from scratch entirely in a computer, and made using programs especially for creating and rendering 3D images. As is common in 3D art, you are allowed to create 2D art in a 2D program that is used as "textures" on your 3D models. To qualify for this category, the work must have its final composition in the 3D program, and consist entirely of 3D objects; no post-editing or finishing in a 2D program is allowed.
These images are made from scratch entirely in a computer. This is where you put works that were created partially in a 3D program, and the final editing was done in a 2D program. It doesn't matter what the 2D program is used for in post-production, whether it is to paint the objects, or just to add a background.
These are for small pieces of art, which are intended to be used as 'web dolls'. Sometimes these are intended to be used as personal avatars online, but they are often done just done for the art. To qualify, the art should be in a GIF file (which is limited to 256 colors), and it should be no more than 200x200 pixels in size. Animated or not doesn't matter. If the image contains other elements besides the character, which is rare, then the image size may be larger as long as the portion holding the character fits within about 200x200. If the character is larger, then it must go in a different art category than 'web dolls'. This specific category is for web dolls which were done from scratch by the submitter; they may be hand done and scanned, but often they are generated in a computer.
These are for web dolls which take a 'base' or outline that someone else or a computer program has made, and then they manually edit it to look like the character they want. Since the same pre-defined bases are reused constantly, web dolls based on them have a tendency to resemble each other. Note that web dolls made entirely by 'drag and drop', with no manual editing, are not allowed to compete in X-Day.
'Image Manipulations' involve taking images that other people have created, either photographs or comic artwork, and altering them in some way. Entries in this category look like portraits or photographs of people. Often it is a photograph of a real person that is manipulated to look like a comic character, but sometimes it is an existing comic image that is manipulated somehow. If you submit one of these then you must also provide (as a separate image) a copy of the original so that visitors can see how much of a submission was your artwork and how much was there before; any exceptions to this are described further up the page.
Entries in this category would look like movie posters or comic covers or otherwise advertisements for something. They may involve single or multiple images, but they should all have some kind of text.
These are collages of multiple images, either photographs or comic art, which tend to have a common theme or character in them.
These are web sites that are mainly a showcase for the submitter's art work, and they are distinct from the other web site categories that deal more with information. This category is shown under the Art group since it allows an artist to submit a large body of work in aggregate *instead of* individually. How the collection is organized is also being voted on for style. The website must have only the work owned by a single participant, and not work made by others, unless that is clearly walled off, and it won't be considered.
Note: When a story comes in multiple chapters or parts, all of the parts are submitted as a single entry; the total word length of the set determines what category it is listed in.
Note: Fan Fiction can be either text-only, or it can also have illustration images that accompany it.
A piece of fan fiction is allowed to compete on its own in a fan fiction category regardless of whether it is also used by a fan website which is competing at the same time.
Every submission to a fan fiction category must be hosted on its own page or set of pages which contain only that submission. Those same pages may not contain any other fan fiction works which are not part of the one being submitted. This rule is also true even when the submitted work is quite short, such as a short poem or an original character biography. It must be easy for a visitor to distinguish the content of your submission from other things.
There used to be an obligatory rule for providing a summary with longer fanfics so readers could effectively scan it and decide whether to read the whole thing afterwards. This requirement no longer exists. If you think it should, then give feedback in this to the X-Day manager.
A series is a plot arc compsed of stories that are, in themselves, complete works, and that depend on one another for sense to a lesser degree than book chapters. In order to qualify as a serial, the work should have at least four stories. Duologies or trilogies should be treated as one story with two or three parts, and submitted as a single work with a combined wordcount and entered in the appropriate category, such as Novels or Novellas.
This is a serial where each part is written by a different author; also the submission rules are different in that Round-Robins MUST be complete, while other serials only need 4 or more installments.
This is a standard format narrative which is equal to or greater than 70,000 words in length; it often comes in multiple chapters. This category may be combined with Novellas if there aren't enough submissions over 70,000 words.
This is a standard format narrative which is 30,000 - 69,999 words in length; it often comes in multiple chapters.
This is a standard format narrative which is 17,500 - 29,999 words in length.
This is a standard format narrative which is 7500 - 17,499 words in length.
This is a standard format narrative which is 3000 - 7499 words in length.
This is an incredibly short narrative which is 500 - 2999 words in length.
Each entry tells a story and is formatted like a script for a movie or tv show or play. If there are a lot of these submissions, they may be split into two categories based on word length.
Each entry is a poem, which for example may tell a short story or be a set of disjointed thoughts. If there are enough submissions, this category may be split into two based on length.
This is where entries fashioned as lyrics and intended to be sung will go, if the submitter wrote them to music that they created themselves.
This is where entries fashioned as lyrics and intended to be sung will go, if the submitter wrote them to pre-existing music that someone else created; the submitter is taking someone else's music and putting new words to it.
This category is set aside to showcase original characters, meaning new characters created by a fan to exist in one of the X-Men universes; it is not for Marvel-created characters. Each submission to this category is a single biography-style page (or set of pages) that describes one original character; it is *not* a narrative or poem that uses the character. As with other Fan Fiction, this biography can be either text-only or be text with accompanying illustrations. Separate fan fiction narratives which use the same character that this biography describes may compete independently in X-Day. Fan art or or fan costumes or fan media or fan web sites featuring the character may also compete separately. In the case of the fan web sites, they have to be a lot larger than a simple bio to compete as a website; if they are just a bio, they go here only.
This category group exists for the Wearable Costumes category, whose works are distinct enough to warrant their own group, not really being similar to any others. Most generic rules are shared with Fan Media categories.
This is where costumes that are meant to be worn by a person go. It doesn't matter whether they were made for a costume play or Halloween, or whether it is for an adult or a child. At least some of the clothing items need to be manually assembled or modified; simply throwing together items made by someone else is not allowed to compete.
What you actually submit in this category is photographs of your costumes, preferably modelled. A picture of yourself or another person dressed up in a costume that you made, such as a halloween photo, can be used. Since costumes are 3-D works, it is good to have both front and side view photographs (or more). You should also include a brief textual description of the costume, and how it was made. You should have a list of what clothing items are included, including accessories.
This is for those people whose love of the art extends to having a tattoo emblazoned on their skin. The submittable would be a photograph of the tatoo, as worn by either yourself or someone else you drew it on. The relevant date of this work is when it was etched on the skin.
This category group is for miscellaneous types of creative works that didn't fit in the other main categories and hence were largely ignored before. Some of these items simply weren't common before, but the ability to make them has since come into the mainstream.
A distinct fan media item is allowed to compete on its own in a fan media category regardless of whether it is also used by a fan website which is competing at the same time.
There is no separate Fan Media category for original characters; these compete in the normal categories alongside Marvel characters.
All fan media submissions must include an HTML page which is used to display the non-text creations; you must give the url of that html page in the X-Day submissions form, and not the url of the image file itself. This rule exists mainly to account for the numerous web servers that refuse to display images, showing instead an error page, when someone goes directly to it from an external web site, such as the X-Day site. Because of this, the image may look fine to the submitter, but other people can't see it.
Every submission to a fan media category must be hosted on its own page or set of pages which contain only that submission. Those same pages may not contain any other fan media works which are not part of the one being submitted. This rule is also true even when the submitted work is quite small, such as a single page comic strips. It must be easy for a visitor to distinguish the content of your submission from other things.
Physical dolls such as of plastic or ceramic or cloth or clay go here. Currently so do dolls derived by transforming off the shelf dolls/toys.
What you actually submit in this category is photographs of your dolls. Since these are 3-D works, it is good to have both front and side views (or more). You should also include a brief textual description of the doll, and how it was made.
Single-page comics go here, which may contain just one panel.
Comic strips must be in JPEG or GIF or PNG format, or be composed of multiple images, each in those formats.
Multi-page comics go here.
Comic strips must be in JPEG or GIF or PNG format, or be composed of multiple images, each in those formats.
This is where fan-made independant films or movies go, should we get any. Currently they will all go here, regardless of length, or of whether they are animated or not (Flash et al excluded). If we get enough entries, the category may be split.
All film or video (that is not a Flash movie) needs to be in Quicktime format, which is a film industry standard, is high quality, and is playable anywhere, or use another format supported by Quicktime 6. DivX is also an okay format, since a free plug in for it exists for the Quicktime architecture. Do not use Windows Media or Real Video.
This is where movies made for Flash go.
This is a narrative in pure sound, like radio plays.
All music or radio plays need to be in one of the following formats: AAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AIFF, WAV, or another format supported by Quicktime 6. Do not use Real Audio or Windows Media.
This is where sampled music goes. MIDI is currently collected here too.
All music or radio plays need to be in one of the following formats: AAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AIFF, WAV, or another format supported by Quicktime 6. Do not use Real Audio or Windows Media.
This is a game that the submitter created by themselves, and is not furnished by their web host. They can be either computer programs unto themselves, or conversions of existing computer games. They could be either compiled and/or downloadable for use on a PC, or they can be built into a web page and/or server based. Single player or multi player.
Generally speaking, any submission which is physically like a web site should have a hyperlink back to the X-Day site front page ( http://www.xday.info/ ); it should be in an easy to find location on your site, such as either your site's front/main page, or its "links" page. This is to help spread the word about X-Day as effectively and early as possible, as well as to return the favor for X-Day linking to your site. Ideally, the hyperlink would display the official X-Day logo graphic; however, you may have a plain text link, or substitute your own tasteful logo graphic instead if you want. This hyperlink is mandatory if the web site is going to take part in the competition portion of X-Day; however, you do not have to have a hyperlink if the site will just be in the showcase. If your web site is competing, you may at your discretion remove the hyperlink after X-Day is completely finished, and the award winners are announced.
There is no separate Fan Web Site category for original characters; these compete in the normal categories alongside Marvel characters.
These web sites are dedicated to exactly one character, although they may have smaller amounts of info on others. If there are multiple characters which are more or less different versions of each other or that have a strong connection, such as Phoenix, those can go here too.
These web sites are dedicated to exactly two characters, each of which is treated with about the same importance, although they may have smaller amounts of info on others. The two characters usually have a professional relationship, such as being a team of two (regular or casual), or one is the other's "sidekick". Or, they don't have to have any connection (the website owner just likes both characters). See also "Couples".
These web sites are dedicated to a small number (usually two) characters and focuses on their personal (usually romantic or "buddy") relationships with each other. This category is not for work-related partners; see "Partnered".
These web sites are dedicated to a group or team of characters having at least three members, with most characters being treated with about the same importance. The site may focus on more than one similar team, but it should still be conservative, such as just New Mutants and Excalibur; sites that try to cover every team in detail don't belong in this category.
These web sites attempt to cover all the bases, such as doing all the teams and all the characters, whether focusing on story summaries or reviews or character / team information. Use this category if you cover too much to qualify for 'Groups or Teams'. This category is distinguished from 'Daily News' in that its entries focus on older information, rather than newer.
These web sites are primarily focused on reporting new happenings in the community, such as new products that Marvel is planning to release, or what their hired talent is doing; they also often have interviews. These sites are generally cutting edge, being updated regularly with breaking news. They are not focused on past issues, and typically won't offer details on characters or older books. These sites tend to be formatted like newspapers and their content changes daily.
These web sites are more like research journals or alternately research magazines. They are not so much interested in late-breaking information as they are interested in writing well thought out articles discussing a subject, and they are updated less frequently.
This category is for websites whose most important feature is that they host a collection of fan fiction, or alternately that they are homes for communities of fan fic writers.
This category is like 'Fan Fiction Archives', but it archives art instead. This is not where sites showcasing one person's own art goes.
These are web-accessible (standard HTTP/web protocol) resources whose most important feature is an open discussion forum, where visitors have meetings and conversations on various topics of interest (somehow X-Men related). These can be implemented either by bulletin board software (such as UBB), or as an email distribution list, or the likes of a "Yahoo group". In order to qualify for listing in X-Day, the majority of group conversations (those not between just administrators) must be regularly visible to all members of the public, without requiring a password or login first. However, posting or editing can be restricted to those with passwords. Groups that restrict viewing to members are not allowed. Groups that deny posting membership to the general public, aside from ex-members who violate posted rules of forum conduct, are not allowed. (Ask the X-Day Manager if you are unsure of whether you qualify.) Note, "fan listings" do not go here, but in the ordinary web site categories. This category may be split up, such as bulletin board vs email.
Note that an official website for a discussion forum and the discussion forum itself can be submitted to X-Day as two separate items if they are physically separate. The forum goes here, and the other website goes in the appropriate other category.
Last Updated: 2006 March 4.
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