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How to create or improve your species – An Unconventional Tutorial Disclaimer: If you are a seasoned species owner, some sections of this tutorial may be blatantly obvious to you. However, to make sure that new species owners understand these principles they have been included in this tutorial. Feel free to skip over these parts if you wish. What this tutorial is not going to outline is 'How to pick a unique species name' or 'How to modify a real animal into a species', or other topics in a similar vein. Those popular tutorials were the ones I read when I first started creating species. However with some insight and a lot more experie

- - - - - - - - - - UPDATE for January 2020: I created this guide in 2011, so you'll have to take it with a grain of salt since dA has updated a bazillion things since then LOL. It now looks like many codes don't work in Literature submissions anymore,  (or disable the "Eclipse" version of the site and show the old site instead), so some of the demonstrations here only look like regular text.  But they should display properly if you copy/paste them in the comments.   I'm so glad to see how many of you wonderful people still utilize this resource, so I wish you the best and encourage you to go ahead and experiment to see what works and what do

Introduction Buttons. You all know buttons, because buttons are everywhere. We mostly take them for granted. They are there to direct us to somewhere else and God protect a button that doesn't do exactly that. We rarely give them a second thought, despite the fact that the appearance of a button is as much a design choice as any other element; a button can make or break a design. Small advice: Simple (or rather: easy to navigate) is the new black. We established that buttons are part of that equation. It is my experience that buttons in journal designs aren't that highly sought after. People want them for their function, and even then rarel

The tips that really work... It's been a while since I wrote one of these guides and, since V1.0 and V1.5 proved to be so popular, I feel it is about time I update my guide to getting noticed on deviantART. :la: So, you want to get noticed on deviantART but you're not sure where to start? You've come to the right place; pull out your note pad and pen, you'll need them. WHY? Before beginning to read this article, ask yourself why you want to get noticed on deviantART. Do you want to play more of an active role in the community or do you want to raise attention to your commissions and make a living? Do you want to get noticed to meet more de

What is HTML? HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It's used when making a website, and available to use on deviantART to customise what you are writing. Once you memorise the HTML, it's pretty easy and fun to use. You can find some codes on the deviantART FAQ #104, but they don't give you all of them. You can use the codes I am about to give you in artist comments, journal entries, blog entries, profile pages, and more importantly comments! Literature pieces have less codes available to use than what I just mentioned, but there's still a fair few you can play around with. :) especially everyone's favourite emoticons. :giggle: Bold

Tips On Self-Publishing I recently decided to self-publish a compilation of my work.  It is something that I've wanted to do for a long time, but have always put off for several reasons; the imagined cost, basic lethargy in editing the damn thing, and laziness when it came to mail-outs to publishers.  If this sounds like you so far, you might be able to benefit from a few things I learned along the way.  Below I will discuss almost everything you will need to know before jumping into a self-publishing project, some pitfalls to avoid, and approximately what to expect to come out of your pocket.  (I'm talking about money, pervert.) Once I dec

Writing ACTION Sequences The Plug & Play Method Lets begin with a Review... ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The flash of pain exploded in my cheek from the slap her hand lashed out at me. -- WRONG! Why is this wrong? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you were watching this scene as a movie, that sentence is NOT how you would have seen it happen. Actual Sequence of events: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1) Her hand lashed out at me in a slap. 2) A flash of pain exploded in my cheek ACTION Sequences = Chronological Order REALITY = something happens to you and then…you react. Action > Reaction > Action > Reaction = Chronological order FICTION = the Plot happens to