Icon Rules
General Guidelines
All general site rules apply. This includes prohibitions against any offensive or pornographic art.
Freehand Content
All icons must be at least 50% freehand created. Non-freehand techniques include mirroring, cloning (or brute cloning, as in clear copy-paste), recoloring, resizing, and rotating.
Icon Quality
Quality is really very important: making a scratch icon will not be enough if it is poorly done. Throwing in some filters will generally not produce an acceptable result. Make sure that the final icon is detailed (not blurry or badly resized) and looks good in the game. Icons lacking an active alpha channel will not be approved.
Recolored Icons
Recolored versions of (author created) icons are allowed as long as they are made for certain purposes- such as potions.
Original Work
Stealing shall be severely punished with -25 reputation/icon. Stealing up to 2 pieces of art will result in a temporary ban (1 week). If the stealing continues, any offender shall be permanently banned.
Copy and Paste
If you partially copy-paste parts of your icon, mention the source or else it might be considered stealing.
Model/Skin Icons (for a unit, doodad or building)These icons are special: ONE screenshot icon is allowed by the author (compatibility object-icon). The resource model/skin must be uploaded on the site: a link is required otherwise the resource will not be considered valid.
- Example
If RDZ makes a gorgon unit model and uploads it to the site, he is allowed to upload in the icons section ONE icon obtained through a screenshot of the Gorgon, with the condition that the icon is decent (screenshot taken decently) and that a link to Gorgon model is included in the icon's description.
Public Domain Icons
In some extremely exceptional cases (when author cannot be contacted and someone else posts an icon for a resource which lacks one posted by the author), it may be accepted. DO NOT abuse this rule (especially if the author is actually active but not visiting the site daily). Inactivity period: 2 months.
Icon Borders
Icons must ALWAYS include both active (with Blizzard border!) and disabled version. Passive and Autocast borders are required only for abilities & spells. Methods of obtaining and properly producing icon borders include the following.
Disabled and other border types may be added using either
W3IR or
Icon Layer for Photoshop
Possible Exceptions
IF THE RESULT PROVES TO BE EXCEPTIONAL, THE ICON MAY BE APPROVED EVEN THOUGH IT DOES NOT RESPECT ALL THE RULES ABOVE (In order to promote not only good artistic icons, but also useful ones.)