Miku Chronicle x piapro “What if you drew it?” Hatsune Miku Software Package Illustration Contest
If you were tasked with designing Hatsune Miku’s software package illustration instead of KEI, how would you have designed her?
That may sound like a question for fan discussion, but it’s actually the question that piapro is posing to fans in their latest illustration contest for the previously announced Hatsune Miku Chronicle art exhibit!
This new contest asks you “What if you had drawn the original package illustration for Hatsune Miku based on her official profile and character colors?” and challenges you to submit your ideas with the chance for it to be featured at Hatsune Miku Chronicle! Read on for details on how to enter!
Contest Details
- Theme: Your idea for a Hatsune Miku software package illustration (creating an original character)
- Submission period: March 15, 2021 at 5:00 PM (JST) ~ April 26, 2021 at 5:00 PM (JST)
- Prizes:
・Your submission displayed at Hatsune Miku Chronicle
・A ticket to Hatsune Miku Chronicle (only good for the artist; travels expenses not covered)
・Hatsune Miku Chronicle merchandise
・A Hatsune Miku Chronicle figure
・Your illustration used for a “dummy package” - Number of winners: 3
Additionally, all submissions that fulfill the entry rules will be shown or introduced during Hatsune Miku Chronicle - Qualifications:
You must have a piapro account which you can sign up for here
Your submissions must comply with the piapro characters Creative Commons License
Entry Guidelines
- Entry file size: Must fit within the provided templates:
・JPEG template
・PNG template - File type: JPEG, PNG
- Color mode: RGB
- Resolution: 350dpi (no more, no less)
- Tag: Upload your entry to piapro with the tag “クロニクル＿ミクｉｆ” then tag lock (タグロック) it
- No. of entries: You may enter 1 and only 1 entry
- License: remember to NOT set a license for the work you upload.
Profile Guidelines
Remember, Miku’s official profile is to only serve as guidelines for your illustration; you are not to design your character based on Miku’s official design, but are instead free to interpret how she would look like based on her established profile! Be creative with outfits, hairstyles, and more!
Software name: Hatsune Miku
Age: 16
Height: 158cm
Weight: 42kg
Character color and hair color: Blue-green
Software voice provider: Fujita Saki (voice actress)
Name origin: First sound of the future
A contest submission like this (shown below) would be acceptable because it is a wholly original design that keeps to the official profile. Also:
- Make sure to not add any logos or text info to your entry
- Make sure to keep to the template size
- Backgrounds are optional
However, a submission like this one below would NOT be acceptable because it is clearly based on Miku’s official design.
- Don’t copy Miku’s established design
- Don’t have your design use the same outfit as Miku’s established design
- Don’t add any texts or logos to your entry (this includes the background)
Below is an example how a “dummy package” would look with a winning illustration.
- A logo and background will be added when the package is created
- Please keep an eventual logo placement in mind as your create your entry
Concerning image cut-offs:
You are free to use every available space from the template without changing the template size or resolution, even if this means some parts will be cut off.
The entry size will be 142.5 x 196mm (350 dpi). However, when creating the dummy package, the actual printed size will be 136.5 x 190.0mm with the top, bottom, leftmost and rightmost 3mm not being printed (and with the possibility of a little more than that). Make sure to keep the most important parts of your design within the red outline shown in the leftmost pic below.
Do not try to intentionally leave 3mm of blank space along the edges of your design to avoid cut-offs, as that would look bad to the contest organizers.
Notes about printing winning entries:
- Printed entries will be used for the Hatsune Miku Chronicle exhibit and dummy packages. The organizers may have to enlarge the images or crop parts of it, and appreciate your advance understanding.
- When printing, the color scheme will be changed to CMYK, which may result in some color differences
- If your entry wins, you may be asked to provide a separate Illustrator or PSD version of your entry with CMYK color mode data
Caution Points:
- Each entrant is allowed 1 and only 1 entry. If you submit multiple entries, only the newest one from you will be accepted
- No additional characters or derivative characters (e.g. Snow Miku, Mikudayo) will be allowed
- No titles or logos from existing goods or services will be allowed on your entry
- Do not add any of your own logos or text to your entry
- Allowed outfit designs:
・Your own original design - Outfits designs that are NOT allowed:
・Designs that use the outfit from Miku’s official design
・Outfits that were introduced in video games, manga, or anime
・Outfits designs taken from any existing product package design - Please make sure to not use your entry in other collaborations or videos until the winners of this contest are determined
- Only accepted entries will appear on the entry page here. If you do not see your entry here, please check to make sure that you followed all the entry rules.
Other Rules
- Entrants younger than 18 years of age must supply parental or guardian consent.
- Entries created by companies or a group of people are not allowed.
- Multiple people are allowed to contribute to a single entry, but please supply the contact information for only one person to act as representative
- Make sure to not change your email address after completing your entry.
- You are solely responsible if claims are filed against your entry for infringing on the rights of any third party. The contest organizers bear no responsibility.
- Your entry must be an original work that has never been uploaded online before or used in other contests.
- The final entry day before the deadline is often flooded with entries, and yours may not be fully processed in time, so please upload your entry well ahead of the deadline.
※The upload date (投稿日) for your entry is the date that your submission was received, not the date for when it was fully processed - Under no circumstances will any more entries be accepted after the deadline.
- Entries and their information (titles, descriptions, etc.) cannot be modified after the deadline.
- Your nickname that will be displayed with your entry will be the one that you set at the licensing step. If a name is not set, then your piapro nickname piapro ID will be displayed instead.
- Results will be announced sometime in May, and the winning entrants will be contacted by email from Crypton Future Media with @crypton.co.jp as its address name, so please make sure that the email address used with your piapro account can receive emails from them.
Also please consider that seeing as one of the prizes for the contest is a ticket to a real-life event in Japan, if you are not able to travel to Japan at the moment (especially due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic) this may cause problems for the organisers in the case that you do win.
As well as this, oftentimes a good grasp of Japanese is required to converse with contest and event organisers, so please keep this in mind if you intend to enter.
So how would you have imagined the virtual singer “Hatsune Miku” to look like if you only knew her profile info? Now’s your chance to show the world! We wish every and all entrants the best of luck!
Links
Hatsune Miku Chronicle x piapro “What if you drew it?” Hatsune Miku Software Package Illustration Contest
Hatsune Miku Chronicle
“Tag: Upload your entry to piapro with the tag “クロニクル＿ミクｉｆ” then tag lock (タグロック) it“
Uh what does “tag lock” mean? Hope ill get ur reply asap bc i really want to join this contest so bad ;;w;;
Hiya! I’ll try to explain this as best as possible for you, so I hope this helps. So when you’re on piapro, there are 4 steps for uploading an artwork – you add tags at step 2!
>Step 2: Information about your artwork (情報の入力)
In this section there’s an “Add tags (タグの選択) part.
Go down to the third sections of tags, called “応募中のオフィシャルコラボから選択” (choose from official competition entry tags), and click on the “クロニクル＿ミクｉｆ” tag. It will be added at the right hand side of the screen. Finish off with publishing your artwork. Then head to you piapro account and click on the artwork you just published.
Above the artwork is a light yellow bar with the tags you added, and a lock symbol with [編集] next to it. Click on this, then on the pop-up window, click on ロック (lock) next to the “クロニクル＿ミクｉｆ” tag.
Then your contest tag will be tag locked, and the entry will be valid for the contest! If you need a more visual guide, check out this link on piapro (Japanese):
https://piapro.jp/pages/official_collabo/faq#q15
If you’re still struggling, feel free to drop us a message on Facebook and we can try to show you in an easier way.
Hope this helps!