Help

#1 SIGNING UP FOR PICTOFOLIO

In order to experience the full functionality of Pictofolio, users are required to sign up for an account and provide the following information:

EMAIL ADDRESS (your email address)
PASSWORD (required for log in together with your email address)

You will receive an email with a verification link (should nothing show up within the next few minutes, please check your spam folder). Once you've verified your account by following the link, you'll be asked to complete your account with the following information:

FIRST NAME, LAST NAME (your artist name / display name, can be changed at a later stage and will result in your personal Pictofolio handle: http://pictofolio.com/artist/artistname)
COUNTRY (the country you are currently based in, and—optionally—your City/Town)

That's it. Now you're able to set up further profile information such as your mini artist bio or website URL, manage your account settings, add and maintain your character artwork, “empathize with” or comment on other creators’ artwork, follow your favorite artists to keep up to date on their work, and join the growing character community!

#2 YOUR PICTOFOLIO PROFILE & ACCOUNT

Once you've logged in to Pictofolio, you can access your personal profile from the main menu, where you have access to several functions and settings:

A) EDIT YOUR PROFILE
Add, edit and manage your Pictofolio profile picture, your artist (display) name and biography, information on your current location (country and city) as well as your external website URL.

B) ACCOUNT SETTINGS
Access and manage your Pictofolio account settings, such as your email address and password, your privacy settings and activity notifications, and if you want to be notified via email when someone interacts with you on Pictofolio.

C) PORTFOLIO NAVIGATION
There are several tabs publicly displayed below your artist profile and contact information

CHARACTERS (all character artworks you have added to Pictofolio)
FOLLOWERS / FOLLOWING (a list of the artists that are following you, and those you are following)
FAVORITES (all characters on Pictofolio you have "empathized" with)

Additionally, once you’re signed in, you’ll have access to:
+ ADD CHARACTER (from here you can add new character artwork to Pictofolio)
NOTIFICATIONS (online alerts when other artists on Pictofolio interact with you or your characters)
PRIVATE MESSAGES (private conversations and messages between you and other artists on Pictofolio)

#3 ADDING A CHARACTER

In order to add character artwork to Pictofolio you’ll be asked to first set up your basic profile information.
Once that's in place, here's how it works:

CHARACTER IMAGE (required—upload the main image/portrait of your character)
We can handle jpgs, gifs (also animated!) or png files. Images are proportionally resized for display if they exceed a max. of 1000 px in width or height.
In general, as things are currently set up, uploading original files with a minimum of 600 px (and up to 4000 px) should look great.

CHARACTER NAME (the name of your character, or title of your work)
CHARACTER SPECIES (required—what species is your character? Choose the most appropriate)
CHARACTER MEDIA (required—what medium/style is your character made with/in? Choose the most appropriate)
ABOUT (add a brief description of your character, information about the project or further credits you want to provide)
OPTIONAL (mark your character as NSFW, if your artwork may not be suitable for younger viewers)

As soon as you’ve submitted the required information, your artwork will automatically be added to Pictofolio, greeted by a friendly cluster of like-minded characters, and other artists will be able to empathize with your work, comment on it and spread the word via their social networks. Should you at any point want to change the image, title, about text, species or media—or even delete it all together—you’ll be able to do so via the edit icon (pencil) over the image in single character view.

#4 FOLLOW THE SIX CHARACTER ESSENTIALS

Before posting anything to Pictofolio, please make sure to have read and understood the following essential rules of showing character:

1 Keep it character related!
Pictofolio is all about character design. Don’t post unrelated artwork, content or links on Pictofolio. Also no Spam. Seriously. Don’t use Pictofolio as a vehicle for spreading unrelated products or services. No phishing. In other words: keep it character related!

2 All characters welcome!
Pictofolio will not tolerate any violent or harming content, including hateful postings or comments involving race, sexual orientation, religious or political belief, whether they are personal or general. If you can't make the world (or at least this site) a welcoming, supportive, inclusive and friendly place for all characters and humans alike, Pictofolio is not for you.

3 Adult characters—for adult viewers!
We are cool with occasional mature content—but for adult viewers only.
If you post adult content, no matter how tasteful, you must respect those who do not wish to see it by marking it Not Safe for Work (NSFW in the option menu).
If you fail to do so, we may ask you to do it, or do it for you. If you abuse these rules, we reserve the right to review your account without warning and possibly delete it.

4 Show some character—but be yourself!
Don't impersonate other artists, services or companies by setting up fake accounts using a misleading artist name and/or profile description.

5 Only post characters that you have created and have permission to post!
Don’t infringe on other people’s copyrights and trademarks. Don’t post content that you haven't created or that belongs to third parties without their consent. Absolutely make sure you have the right to post the content that you put on Pictofolio. Pictofolio complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). We take creative ownership very seriously, and will terminate copyright infringers when legally required or appropriate.

6 Help us keep Pictofolio clean & respectful
Should you stumble over content on Pictofolio that violates any of the above character essentials, please don't freak out, but help us fix things by letting us know immediately via email or the REPORT CHARACTER feature (... above each image in single character view).

#5 WHAT'S NEXT?

While we continue to smooth things out and add new surprises, we are currently working on some pretty neat features that we hope to reveal soon(ish).
The next mayor step will be the introduction of the PRO account, allowing the professional creators amongst you to upgrade your profile and contact information for full visibility, upload beautiful additional views of your character projects, offer your character services and products directly through the site, unleash powerful search tools for endless inspiration, start collections and hook up directly with other creators!
Future plans include the introduction of team and company accounts, an all-new and enhanced character connection cluster (Character-Tinder!), a Characters-To-Go app version, exclusive content such as online PictoTalks, animation previews, tutorials and case studies, personal portfolio reviews, and a community calendar allowing you to set up and invite like-minded friends to your own real-word character related events, such as exhibitions, happenings or art collaborations.

#6 CAN'T FIND THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION?

If you have questions or remarks on the overall flow and functionality, please don't hesitate to reach out anytime via email from our CONTACT page.
Also, like all betas, please be aware that not everything will necessarily go smoothly at this stage.
Some minor glitches and hick ups are to be expected, so your comments and feed back are more than welcome. As are your characters!