Am I allowed to create custom skins for other players? Can un-shared custom skin designs be sold for Silver Coins and/or Gold Coins?
No. To avoid problems with copyright, user can upload only his own artwork. We plan to introduce another feature which will help authors earn more profit from their skins: author will be able to set a price for using his skin. Users who would like to use this skin will pay the author this price.

Any artwork which you would like to use as a custom skin must be entirely yours! The only exclusion is using of the official greyscale bases.

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In my opinion (and I've seen other people agree) this rule needs some kind of change. This means that non-artistic players are basically being told there's no way they can ever have a custom skin for their pets, and I see that as being a big thing that'd end up driving people away from the site.

I've also seen people who want to create custom bases to allow anyone to use, but that's essentially against the rules too.

This basically just limits the art so much that even for an artist it's pretty disheartening and is the biggest reason I can see at the moment to make me, at least, lose interest in the site.

Support. I think there should be a discussion opened about this so everyone can share what they want changed about this rule. 

I agree... I am TERRIBLE at lineart... I can color things and draw on paper... but I have such a hard time with lineart... I have a tablet and photoshop- and have been practicing a lot... it's just not coming to me....

I know we are trying to stop art theft and what not... Perhaps make a feature... If a user has something colored or uses another user's skin they MUST enter the ID of the creator of that skin and the user who made it must accept it?

This could be a good middle ground.

I've seen other sites where custom art is commissioned and sold to others. A great example of this is Aywas. I haven't been on there in a long time, but they had a pretty good art policy. Artists have rules about their art, how much their design/lines can be used and by who, etc. Staff help enforce these rules if there is any trouble with it. It works out really well how they've set it up. I too, would like to see this rule adjusted. Copyright is a big issue and should not be over looked. But as it stands, I see a lot of people who are less talented being unable to comission art, for example, their OC (Original Character). That puts a huge damper on a lot of people, understandably, when a site offers to allow original art in the first place.

They do have a fairly good policy there... Then again if your an artist its easy to be rich. Artists have it either way :p

We just need to make sure that we protect artists right.

I love how people can share their free-use skins. It's an AMAZING feature and I really like it. That being said... I wish that I could do better lines to do justice to what I want for a pet..... but I need help from other people.

I support some type of change. I'd like to make PSDs of skins and then just sell those off so people can color their own type of special pet.  I love it that people can share skins, but not every coloration is going to be wanted. Especially if someone wants to use a skin to create a character, but they can't make a skin on their own, and want just a PSD.  

Yeah. I would love that too... I think part of that is why we have sharing- so people can share PSD's. But I'd like to be able to commission one...

Angel did post something about this:

http://beastkeeper.com/thread/280

1. Are we allowed to create custom skins for people? And if so, is it allowed to charge for them?
No. To avoid problems with copyright, user can upload only his own artwork. We plan to introduce another feature which will help authors earn more profit from their skins: you will be able to set a fee for using your skin. Users who would like to use your skin will pay you this fee.

Angel also posted this... which is sort of helpful in understanding the artists role.

http://beastkeeper.com/thread/247/2

5) Also, besides being a cash item, just how accessible is the item that allows pet images to be switched going to be? I'm very interested in this feature and possibly doing some skins but not if it will be too limited.

If to say of getting a Rainbow Jar without paying real money, it will be available trough Events. There's a small chance to get Rainbow Jar from treasure chests on the islands and from the gold quests. Also we have ways to get Gold Coins without paying cash, so there's always a way to get a couple of Rainbow Jars for every player. But the main statement here will be that we're still on Beta. We're testing everything now and trying to figure out the balance. We don't want to undervalue the work of artists. If we will see that there's not enough motivation for artists or not enough Rainbow Jars in the game, we will increase the chances of getting it without paying cash. We're not greedy enough to be stupid :)

I'm wondering if this is a way to circumvent this rule fairly, without breaking it, or changing it.

Someone commishes an artist. When the art is done, and paid for, the buyer sends the pet and rainbow jar to the artist, who uploads it. When it is confirmed, the artist sends the finished pet back to the buyer.

This way, the art is uploaded by the actual artist, and the person gets their pet the way they want. I understand this would require a lot of trust, but it would be scamming if the artist didn't follow the agreement, which would get them banned.

I support.

I'm sort of annoyed about that rule.

I would love to commision some lineart and use it to color my own bases and such to upload here, but I cannot because of this rule.

Support.

Couldn't people at least commission art from on-site artists? The artist could confirm they drew it, and give permission for the other to upload it as a private skin.

From what I understand so long as you're the one who uploads it the person who commissions the art can send the artist the pet and they can give the pet a custom skin and send it back? 

That's how I'm understanding it so far anyhow while working with Fya anyhow. 

I've done up a custom skin for them and they're going to send me the item to overlay onto the pet and I'm going to be sending them the pet and since it's a mod I'm assuming that it's fine to do that? 

Though I do agree, it would be nice to just sell designs without having to go through all that hastle.