Fur Idol

The Fur Idol is an art contest beginning on the 1st and 15th of each month at 12:00 am. Entries close an hour before the new contest.
The contest can be found through the town hall by clicking the banner under the contests widget or by clicking the  trophy button from the navigation drop down.

The top three entries of each species receive a prize, with 135 winners maximum. There is no extra award for having the most votes overall. Users cannot enter consecutive rounds. You can vote once per species but not for your own entry.

Prizes
Gold	Silver	Bronze
1000 FC 1 Random Super Rare Item Gold Trophy	750 FC 1 Random Rare Item Silver Trophy	500 FC 1 Random Rare Item Bronze Trophy

These trophies are found on villager profiles.

Since prizes are distributed by species, keep in mind that some species are generally more competitive or popular than others. A good way to gauge difficulty is to look through previous winners of the species: the more rounds you see with less than three winners, the better your shots at winning.

Gecko, for example, has had seven winners in total from rounds 2 through 16, while Canine has only had one round with a guaranteed trophy. If you're trying to decide between the two, you'll have an easier time winning with the Gecko. Do keep in mind that with all things, entries per week tend to fluctuate quite a bit. Sometimes, you'll just be unlucky.

All species are generally pretty "dead" lately, but the following tend to be more popular:

• Shifty
  
• Canine
  
• Cat
  
• Fox
  

Although art quality affects the number of votes on an entry, you don't need actually need to be an incredible artist to win a Fur Idol trophy. Entries with more effortful art generally earn more votes, but you just need to be able to follow the rules. In short, use only your own art, don't use painties, don't reenter art, and keep things PG-13. You don't need to draw your villager doing something cool (unless it's an official themed round) or follow your villager design exactly.

The Fur Idol allows for most mediums. However, since entries must be .png and entirely your work, you cannot enter animations or photo-manipulations.

If you choose to do your art traditionally, try to get it scanned. There is no inherent disadvantage/advantage to traditional/digital mediums, but even if your entry is incredible, voters can't see that from a potato-quality cellphone pic snapped in low light.


If you must take a picture, make sure the photo isn't blurry or skewed by perspective. Indirect daylight is generally the best: it's brighter, and artificial lighting is often not quite white. Harsh lighting can wash out colors and values, so reflect it off something else if you can. Prop the piece up so you don't cast shadows onto it, and take several pictures.

Click or  to submit your image.


Entries must be .png, less than 2MB (2000KB), and less than 1280x1280.
On the entry page, images are automatically resized to have a maximum width of 716px, so if you're having trouble meeting the file size requirement, you can reduce the dimensions of your image with no perceivable difference for voters.

Each entry is given a thumbnail automatically when the contest starts, so very long or very wide entries thumbnails tend to crop out the head. This makes it harder to catch a voters eye.


Trying to edit your entry by updating the image can take a fairly long time. It's faster to withdraw and reenter.

Because the main Fur Idol page is ordered by time of submission, being the first/second entry can often make a big impact, so try to get your entry in as early as possible.

Advertising can also garner a significant amount of votes; it's a tool used to help even the playing field between experienced and less experienced artists. The easiest way to do this is to stick a picture, link, or both into your signature, post on a Fur Idol thread, or share your entries with people directly.

Again, keep the rules in mind.
You cannot offer any type of compensation for votes or have other users advertise in your place. Don't change the species of your villager during the contest. Do not spam for votes on the forums, through messages, through chat, or through comments.

• Fur Idol #1 was not open for submissions: there were no entries!
• In the case of a tie, the entry that was submitted earlier wins.
• Many species were released after Fur Idol #2. If you are checking contest history, keep in mind no entries can predate the species itself.
• Fur Idol specific rules first went into effect on December 1st, 2016 for round 12.
• There have been two themed Fur Idol contest.  The first ran entirely through the forums & without public voting. Users determined the winners of the second through a site-wide poll.
• MOD-Thaleia is the mod that typically handles the Fur Idol; you can ask them to approve your entry to avoid getting an associated infraction for it.