Transformers Wiki:Images

When a user is new to this wiki, oftentimes they are eager to upload new images to make articles snazzier. We appreciate your enthusiasm, but request that you follow a few guidelines to make it easier for your images to be kept as part of the wiki. It's really not as complicated as it looks.

Acceptable image sources

Ideally, this wiki prefers to use official promotional images. These are images released by Hasbro or TakaraTomy in their press coverage, and can be clearly sourced to such to avoid confusion as to the ownership of the image. An excellent resource for Hasbro-owned Transformers toy promotional images is TFW2005.com's Hasbro photo archive.

Unfortunately, often these images are less than ideal themselves. Mistransformations, small image sizes, missing accessories, differences between the promo shot and the actual final product, and other issues have become very commonplace in promotional pictures. As this wiki strives to detail what the toys actually look like, fan-taken photos are allowed, and in fact have generally become preferable. Ideally, we would prefer photographs you take yourself of the toy, as you can release the copyright into the public domain. Fan-taken photos must be clear, well lit, and have a neutral background. The final image uploaded should be a composite of photos depicting each of the toy's modes. An example of a fan site with excellent toy photography is Remy's TF Kenkon. Note that this is just an example; swiping toy photos from other fansites is not acceptable unless those sites give permission for others to use their images (in which case it's not considered swiping). If you are considering uploading your own toy photos to this wiki, feel free to apply our watermark to your images. While it is not mandatory to use this watermark on your images, it helps other editors know where the image originated from and it simply looks professional. Don't be afraid to credit your work in the image description too! Examples of our wiki photography standard can be found here and here.

Concerning artwork, we can only accept art which has appeared in officially released Transformers media, including catalogs, package art, comics, art books and posters. Though there is a vast body of fan art, we can't really use those images on this wiki unless you wish to include one as your user image on your user page. Bear in mind that many Transformers artists create unofficial art that is frequently available on their web pages. Even though these artists may work directly in the Transformers brand, not all of their art is official, and much of it still has to be considered fan art.

When detailing cartoon episodes or live-action movies, screenshots of the media in question are acceptable, assuming it has already aired to the public. Leaked shots that have not aired yet are not acceptable to use unless they were in an officially released teaser or advertisement. In the case of theatrical movies, it is wise to wait until a DVD release before uploading large quantities of screencaps, as any source for screencaps before the DVD will be either very low-quality or pirated.

If you do not know the source of an image, or come across an image which has not been sourced, please tag it with the {{unknown source}} template.

Lastly, please note that in keeping with our "no leaks" policy, leaked/pirated images and images of leaked/stolen toys are not acceptable here under any circumstances. We will not post an image of a new toy until an officially released image is available, no matter how many stolen copies of the toy have been on eBay, and we will not use film screenshots from anything other than trailers and official home media releases.

Image naming

When uploading an image, please make sure that the file name is descriptive of what the image depicts. The Transformers franchise heavily reuses character names, so avoiding confusion about which character is depicted is crucial. A good rule of thumb is to include both character name and series name. In cases where multiple shots of a character from a series might cause confusion, cartoon episode or comic issue names often help, as can one or more descriptive words about the scene. Abbreviation is acceptable, as long as it doesn't obscure meaning.

For general images:

• Bad names - bumblebee.jpg, jazz.gif, prime.jpg
• Worse names - screen0034347.jpg, 3af47be99ccc0e.gif, qwertyuiop.jpg
• Good names - tfanimated_bumblebee_vehicle.jpg, movie_jazz_robot.gif, RID_prime_supermode.jpg,

For fiction-specific images (such as episode screen captures, comic book panels), we prefer to include the title/name of the fiction at the start of the file name, perhaps with a micro-description of what is occurring in the image, if need be:

• Good names - Auto-Bop_Blaster_Soundwave.jpg, movie2007_optimus_megatron_fight.gif, stormbringer3_roadgrabber_dies.jpg.

Image quality

Oftentimes, there will be issues with the quality of an image uploaded to this wiki that will require it to be replaced. These include:

• Grainy graphical artifacts due to too much compression.
• The image dimensions being too small to really see anything.
• The image being zoomed in too much on a given detail, thus limiting its usefulness.
• The image having an overly obtrusive watermark on it when a suitable unwatermarked image could be obtained.
• For photographs, if the image was taken under poor lighting conditions.
• For screenshots, if the image is not a direct screen capture but a photograph of a television screen.

Images with quality issues are often tagged with the {{badimage}} template. If you were directed to this page by an image bearing this tag, this is why.

Image format

Most images you will see on this wiki will be in the JPEG format. We have found that in all but a select few cases, this is the ideal format for our purposes, as it helps keep file size down and generally displays images clearly. It is not the only format we use, but in the case of screenshots of movies or cartoons, we request that you use it whenever possible.

File Size

The file size of images is important to keep an eye on when uploading. While this wiki has no hard and fast limits on the size of images, we are conscious of how big they are in an effort to keep page load times manageable. If an image is bogging down the loading of a page, it will often be requested that a replacement be uploaded in a smaller size, different resolution, or even different file format. Generally, most regular users of this wiki prefer to keep file sizes at under 150KB for the sheer majority of images, though larger file sizes are permitted for images that need to be sharp, clear and legible due to large amounts of text.

Of particular note are animated GIF files. While there are some of these in use in articles, this wiki uses animated GIFs sparingly at most. The reason for this is that many of these files are not made very carefully, and the file sizes on them can get quite large very quickly. As a result, it can be very hard to justify keeping one on the server, unless it can be shown that it illustrates a point or concept that can't be conveyed in a still image. If this is the case and you simply must use an animated GIF, try to keep the number of frames (and thus the file size) to a minimum.

Image description

We generally request that each image description include a short sentence detailing which characters appear in the image, what they are doing, and which comic issue or cartoon episode it is sampled from (if applicable). This passage is most helpful when it also manages to link back to the characters, episodes, or issues in question. As in other areas of this wiki, some humor is permissible here, but it shouldn't get in the way of conveying the basic information.

An image may be uploaded with a particular purpose in mind—e.g., to illustrate a particular article or for use in a template. But the description of the action should be complete regardless, telling us not only who the characters are, but what they're doing, how they're doing it, where they're doing it, and who they're doing it to.

• Bad: "Bludgeon in Exodus!"
• Good: "As the struggling factions deal with internal tensions and a self-destructing Cybertron, Bludgeon gets all up in Prowl's face. Panel from Exodus!, art by etc. etc."

Artist credit

Whenever possible, it is best to credit the artist or artists responsible for producing an image. This is not always possible with screen captures, but is usually expected of comic images and promotional artwork.

This wiki has the {{art}} template available to aid in identifying the penciler, inker, and colorist in any given image. It has several optional parameters.

If you cannot easily determine the artist of an image, please tag it with the {{unknown artist}} template so that this may be corrected at a later date.

Copyright labeling

When uploading images, it is important to properly label the source and any pertinent copyright info. This wiki has a number of tags which are used to aid in this process—e.g., {{TFAcap}} for Transformers Animated screen captures (see below for more such tags).

General

Some images are of uncertain copyright, but are generally assumed to be owned by Hasbro or TakaraTomy. (This is a Transformers wiki, after all.) If you do not know the specific owner of an image (e.g., whether it is a Hasbro image, a TakaraTomy image, or anywhere in between), it can be marked with the {{hastak}} tag as a general coverall. This tag may be replaced at a later date if the copyright can be more accurately determined.

If an image does not belong to Hasbro or any of its associated partners (for example, a publicity still of an actor or voice actor), the {{fairuse}} tag may be used instead. This tag may be modified or replaced at a later date if the copyright can be more accurately determined.

Other basic templates include {{Card}} for physical trading cards, {{Poster}} for posters and lithographs, {{logo}} for logos and {{Insignia}} for insignia.

Covers

Covers can be tagged with {{Cover}} if no more specific cover template is available:

• See the Comics section below for comics.
• See the Books and prose stories section below for books.
• {{DVDcover}} for home media covers (including VHS and Blu-ray). More specific examples include:
  • {{DVDG1cover}}
  • {{DVDJpnG1cover}}
  • {{RID2001DVDcover}}
  • {{DVDArmadacover}}
  • {{DVDEnergoncover}}
  • {{DVDCybertroncover}}
  • {{DVDMoviecover}}
  • {{DVDROTFcover}}
  • {{DVDDOTMcover}}
  • {{DVDPrimecover}}
  • {{DVDRID2015cover}}
  • {{DVDCyberversecover}}
• {{Videogamecover}} for video game covers (see below for screencaps)

Books and prose stories

• {{bookcover}} is used on book covers.
  • {{LadybirdBookscover}} is for the covers of Ladybird Books.
• {{bookinterior}} is used for scans of non-story content from a book.
• {{textstoryinterior}} is used for images of prose story content, whether scanned from a book or taken from a PDF/other eBook.
  • {{storypage}} for Japanese "story pages"
  • {{FunPubtextstoryinterior}} for Fun Publications prose stories.
  • {{LadybirdBooksinterior}} for interior scans from Ladybird Books.
  • {{FYFJinterior}} for interior scans from Find Your Fate Junior books.
  • {{KidStuffinterior}} for interior scans from Kid Stuff books.

Comics

Generally, we do not reproduce entire comic pages if possible. As a result, there are two generic copyright templates for comics which each have a specific use:

• {{comiccover}} is used on comic covers.
• {{comicinterior}} is used when you are sampling frames from the interior pages of a comic.

Consult the tables below for templates associated with specific series.

Generation 1 continuity family templates

Beast Era templates

Unicron Trilogy templates

Live-action film series templates

Animated templates

Aligned templates

Other

Screencaps

This wiki is in the process of developing a system of templates to better serve the numerous screen captures we host here for illustrative purposes. There are multiple templates, each with a specific use:

• {{screencap}} is a generalized template for screen captures that a more specific copyright template does not apply to.
• {{titlecard}} is used for the title cards of animated series episodes in addition to a more specific template (below)
• {{Commercialscreencap}} is used for commercials.
• {{Videogamecap}} is used for screen captures from video games that do not have a more specific template (below).

Cartoon-specific

Many of the cartoon series covered on this wiki have a specific template to use for screen captures, in order to make it easier to provide consistent copyright information and keep everything properly categorized. For instance, for the The Transformers cartoon (sometimes colloquially referred to as the "Generation 1" cartoon) from Sunbow, there exists the {{G1cap}} template which can be used on screencaps from that series.

The cartoon series and their corresponding screencap templates are:

Typically, the three arguments given to the template are a description, the episode of origin, and the last digit of the year (or last two digits if the series crosses into a new decade). For Beast Machines, the full year is specified, as the series spans 1999 and 2000. War for Cybertron Trilogy eschews years entirely and instead uses the season name ("Siege"/"Earthrise"/"Kingdom") in its place. In cases where the episode has been disambiguated (e.g. Detour (episode)), the optional argument "eptitle" can be used to specify the episode name without the bracketed disambiguation.

Movie-specific

• {{Moviecap}} is used for screen captures from Transformers.
• {{ROTFcap}} is used for screen captures from Revenge of the Fallen.
• {{DOTMcap}} is used for screen captures from Dark of the Moon.
• {{AOEcap}} is used for screen captures from Age of Extinction.
• {{TLKcap}} is used for screen captures from The Last Knight.
• {{BBcap}} is used for screen captures from Bumblebee.
• {{ROTBcap}} is used for screen captures from Rise of the Beasts.

These only take one argument: a description.

Game-specific

Adverts

For video adverts, use {{Commercialscreencap}}.

For static adverts (print/etc), use {{hastakadvert}} for any adverts for Hasbro or TakaraTomy products and {{advert}} for any others.

Stock images

Main article: :Category:Stock image templates

For stock photography of toys, use a series-specific tag if available (see category link above), or {{toystock}} if not.

For stock photography of merchandise, use {{merchandisestock}} plus a series-relevant image category.

For any character models or other stock art, again use a series-specific tag from the category if available, or {{stockmodel}} if not.

For any stock photography or art that does not fall into the above sets, use {{stock}} for Hasbro or TakaraTomy-owned products, or {{stock|category=Stock images}} for anything else.

Packaging art

Main article: :Category:Packaging art images

For package art of toys, use a series-specific tag if available (see category link above), or {{packagingart}} if not.

Other categories

Apart from categories included via a template, images may belong in other categories as well. Use existing examples as guidelines. Note that, as a general rule, images of toys do not go in size class categories such as "Deluxe class toy images". ("Legends class toy images" is the only current exception.)

When to upload an image

While the above discusses the legal and technical concerns this wiki has with submitted images, there are additional issues which are entirely subjective, but worth consideration. This wiki hosts thousands of Transformers images, with more added every day. A lot of these are often deleted for the reasons above, but sometimes an image is unsuitable for much-harder-to-define issues. To ensure your image's continued use, ask yourself a few questions while uploading:

• Does the image duplicate the function of an existing image already on the wiki? If it is meant to replace that image, you might be better off going to that image and uploading your image as a new version of that one.
• Does the image illustrate something meaningful and informative for the wiki? Will adding the image you are uploading to an article improve that article? If an article already has numerous images, adding more will often increase clutter and decrease readability.
• If the image is from a recently published or aired comic or cartoon, does it contain spoilers that might ambush other users? Images with prominent spoilers should be uploaded sparingly and always be placed under {{spoiler}} tags in an article's fiction section.
• Would one image work better in the layout than multiple images? Particularly in images depicting toys, it's often best to bundle together images of the toy's robot mode, vehicle mode, and accessories into one image to make the page layout less burdened.

What needs images?

This wiki frequently tags articles its users believe are in need of additional images with the {{picsneeded}} template. This adds them to the Articles in need of images category. If you are browsing this category, please check the individual articles before uploading. The tags on the articles usually contain specifics as to what's requested. As well, existing images in need of better replacements are included in the Images to be replaced category.

External link

• Online image metadata reader — Useful for (potentially) determining the copyright year of fan-generated images