Welcome to the Official Custom Wearables FAQ!

Have a question that is not answered anywhere in the CW Hub? Then this is the thread for you! Here, you will find answers regarding things like transferring CWs, how we accept things behind-the-scenes, and a further breakdown of some specific rules and regulations.

Please note that the FAQ does count as an extension of the rules. The things mentioned here are considered official rules as well, and they must be followed in order to continue submitting CWs.

Are you still not finding what you need? Be sure to check out the helpful links below! If you're still at a loss, please feel free to ask here or to submit a ticket!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. [link=https://subeta.net/forums.php/gotopost/65022492]General Questions[/link]
2. [link=https://subeta.net/forums.php/gotopost/65022496]Behind the Scenes[/link]
3. [link=https://subeta.net/forums.php/gotopost/65022512]Denial Information[/link]
4. [link=https://subeta.net/forums.php/gotopost/65022519]References and Tribute Items[/link]
5. [link=https://subeta.net/forums.php/gotopost/65022532]Rule Breaking[/link]

HELPFUL LINKS: [link=https://new.subeta.net/cws/help/rules]The Official CW Rules[/link] [link=https://new.subeta.net/cws/help/intro]Introduction to CWs[/link] [link=https://new.subeta.net/cws/help/transition]Transition Guide[/link]

1. General Questions

Q. What is a Custom Wearable? A. A Custom Wearable (CW) is an item drawn by Subeta users like yourself! To learn more about them, be sure to check out the [link=https://new.subeta.net/cws/help/intro]Introduction to Custom Wearables[/link].

Q. Why do some CWs have a yellow star and some have a teal star? A. In late 2020, we migrated to a new CW system. As a result of that, we have lower prices, new item types, and a new way of denoting CWs! Legacy CWs that were created on the previous system are denoted with a gold star icon instead of the current teal star icon.

Q. Is there information on the changes between the old system and the new system? A. Yes! You can review the [link=https://new.subeta.net/cws/help/transition]Transition Guide[/link] which will give you a rundown of all the changes with customs.

How do I price my custom wearables for selling? A. This is entirely up to you! Typically, the markup for CWs is anywhere from 100-200 CSC. For example, a wig costs 350 csc to submit, so add 200 csc to that meaning the wig costs 550 csc for your buyers! This price is only a suggested price, and you may charge more or less per copy at your discretion. Staff does not officially enforce selling prices for any cw.

Q. What do the terms "batch limit" and "Item limit" refer to? A. Before 12-14-2020, custom wearables were submitted in either batches of 5 or 10. Users were allowed to state a max number of batches they would be selling, referred to as a batch limit. FFor example, if a seller only wanted x-amount of a certain item on site, they stated they would submit it as two batches total. The total number of batches would be indicated on the submission form. Once the max number of batches was reached, the item would be unsellable.

Now, items are submitted individually, rather than in batches. Once an item is approved, a seller may still decide to sell only a certain number of items, which is referred to as an 'item limit'. This limit is set for each individual item in a seller's shop. Please note that stating an item limit and then attempting to sell more copies of it is against the rules.

Q. Can I transfer ownership of a CW? A. No. Once a CW is accepted, only the original submitter may sell it or submit recolors for it.

Q. Does staff do anything with items being considered "private" versus "public"? A. No! These are not officially recognized terms by staff, and therefor they are not policed by us. Individual submitters and sellers are welcome to use these terms as they see fit. However, please note that once a user purchases a custom wearable and it is in their inventory, they can technically do whatever they would like with it - including selling it to another user, selling it to the Hustler, or giving it away as a gift.

Q. Can foreign language be used in CW names and descriptions? A. Yes, to a point. If it is a word or phrase used commonly in conversational English (ie: kawaii, mi amor, je ne sais quoi), then this is okay. It is also okay to use the foreign language word to describe a certain type of item that is also regularly called that in English (ie: onigiri, pate de choux, carne asada, hanbok).

However, using foreign language when there is a clear English alternative is not allowed. Final approval on any foreign language in a CW submission is up to the discretion of staff.

Q. I looked through all the submission options, but the item I'm submitting doesn't seem to match any of the examples. What do I do? A. In the rare case that your item type or layer does not seem to be available, submit the item under the closest match and include this information in the submission notes! We can correct the layer if needed prior to acceptance. In the future, we are hoping to have a drop down to manually select a layer for some item types.

Q. Can I do recolors of an item I've submitted, even if I'm not the original artist? A. This depends on one important thing: Do you have permission from the artist to do recolors? If the answer is no, then you may not. Please note that for the vast majority of artists, purchasing a commission does not include purchasing the rights to do whatever you wish with that item.

If an artist has given you permission to make recolors of their art, please be sure to include this information in your submission. Please note that staff does research these instances to make sure the artist has truly said it is okay. If you attempt to recolor an item and submit it without the artist's permission, this can result in a warning for art theft and/or a ban from CWs.

Q. What do I do if the original artist of my CW is different from the recolor artist? A. Please include both information in your submission! For the "artist" fill-in, you can put either the original artist or the recolor artist (be sure if you are doing a half-price artist copy, you put the person that should receive it there). In the notes, please include BOTH artists. For example, you can put as the artist if they did the recolor, but the notes should say "Original item by , recolor by so we have all the information needed.

Q. The artist I work with is off-site and no longer plays Subeta. Can I claim their artist copy? A. No. Unless you did the recolor yourself, you cannot claim an artist copy just to get a discounted price. Even if the user is no longer active, credit must go to them as the artist.

Q. Where do I find the large-size HA bases to use for drawing? A. Right here!

Avatar Bases

2. Behind the Scenes

Q. Are there specific days that the CW queue is done? A. Yes! Generally it is done on Sundays and Fridays, but you can find the current schedule here!. Please note this does not guarantee an item will be accepted or denied on one of these days. Some items may be delayed if we are waiting for further information from the submitter or for further input from other members of staff.

Q. Who accepts and denies custom wearables? A. Custom items go through a two-step approval process. First, one of the site's User Admins checks to make sure the item is following all of Subeta's rules. They also verify the number of times an item has been submitted and that it is marked properly as a recolor, if applicable. Next, the user-submitted content team checks the artwork to make sure it fits Subeta's style, quality, and the overall art-related rules for custom items.

Because we're not always on at the same time, notes are left on custom items behind-the-scenes. Denials are handed by the user-submitted content team.

Q. What does staff see once a custom item is uploaded? A. We see the overlay on both a dark and light base, the item on both a white and dark background (to ensure it is not transparent), the submission notes, links to the previous recolors, and the number of times an item has been submitted. All of this information helps us make sure we can go through CWs efficiently!

Q. What kind of things can you fix before/after acceptance? A. After an item is accepted, we can generally edit the name and the description to fix typos or grammar issues. If an item needs a drastic name change, the submitter will receive an event telling them to submit a ticket with the new name. For small name changes, these are done behind-the-scenes and the user is generally issued an event to let them know a name has been changed.

If an item has an extremely large amount of grammar issues in the title or description, it will be denied for the original submitter to correct themselves. Always double-check your item names and descriptions for grammar and typos!

Layers can be changed after an item is accepted.

Q. If my item has been in the queue for a few days, does that mean it's being ignored or is going to be denied? A. Your item is not being ignored, and it's not necessarily about to be denied! It's possible that we've encountered something new with your submission that needs to be discussed before acceptance, or we might just happen to have an unusually large number of submissions to go through in a particular week. We always appreciate your understanding and patience! Please do not pull and resubmit your submission merely because you're anticipating a denial and/or are hoping to get our attention. Pulling and resubmitting your submission will not get it to the top of the queue - in fact, it will put it at the bottom.

Q. I've been waiting a very long time. What can I do? A. If it has been over 2 weeks, please submit a ticket to check in on the status of your item. There is a chance something happened when it was uploaded that caused it not to make it into the queue, and we would like to check this out! Please do not just pull and resubmit your item.

3. Denial Information

Q. What is the max number of denials an individual item can receive? A. Any individual item can be submitted up to ten times. If it is denied the 10th time, that custom wearable is no longer able to be submitted for further review. Please note that pulling your item out of the queue constantly can cause us to start counting these as denials.

Q. How do recolors figure into the max number of submissions? A. Before a single color of an item is accepted, all recolors count towards the ten submissions. Take a look at the following scenario to better understand:

• User Jessi submits an item called "Green Spider Wig". The art team notices it has a few color bleeds and needs a bit of shading help, and the item is rejected. This is Submission . • User Jessi attempts to fix the issues, but this time submits a red color of the wig called "Red Spider Wig". However, there are still some color bleed issues, and the item is rejected again. Since no colors of this item exist on-site yet, this is counted as Submission . • User Jessi fixes the item and resubmits it yet again as the "Green Spider Wig". This time, it is accepted. She then uses this version to submit a Red, Purple, and Orange recolor. Since this item now exists on-site, each of these new colors is given their own individual 10 count.

Q. Where do we go if we have a question about a denial or wish to contest a denial? A. You may submit a ticket if you have a question about a denial; however, please note while we can clear up a bit of confusion, we cannot give any in-depth critique over ticket! This is provided to you in your denials, so make sure you save this information!

If you feel a custom item has been denied in error or disagree with a denial reason, you may submit a ticket to contest this denial. There have been a few instances where we have seen the user's point and accepted an item after a contested ticket was submitted! However, submitting a ticket does not guarantee your item may be resubmitted as-is! There are many problems that will need to be fixed before an item can be accepted.

Q. Can I contact a member of staff personally with a question? A. always welcomes pings on this thread if you have a general question about custom items! Please do not sMail, comment, or ping any member of staff for personal critique or clarification of a denial, however! sMail and comments are used for our personal communication with friends and other players, and official matters should always be handled via ticket. Thank you!

Q. Can I request a redline be included with my denial? A. Yes! This is something we can provide. We do not routinely provide redlines since we know not all artists would like to receive them. If you are okay with getting one, please just let us know in the submission notes! Please note that this may delay your denial while we wait for the redline to be complete. Also, we can generally only do ONE REDLINE per submission, as it is time consuming!

4. References and Tribute Items

Q. What am I allowed to use as a reference? A. You are allowed to reference anything that belongs to the public domain! However, you may not use original artwork or designs as a basis for your own custom item design. Original pieces of artwork or designs (for example, original works uploaded to deviantArt, tumblr, Etsy, RedBubble, or other sites used to host original works) may not be used as the basis for your design, even if you've made four changes to them. Additionally, please keep in mind that images found on Google do not necessarily belong to the public domain and may be subject to copyright. It would be wise to investigate your sources! Using someone else's copyright original works and designs can be considered design theft.

Q. What kind of items would be considered tribute items, and what kind of information needs to be submitted for those items? A. Tribute items are fandom items and/or items that visually reference copyrighted works. Tribute items must be submitted with a reference and a list of at least four changes from the original work. If the submission is generic enough that it is not specific to a work and/or a character's design (for example, a hairstyle that references a character but isn't specific to that character), it may not need four changes. However, if the submission is something that is integral to a copyrighted character's design or is otherwise a clear reference to a copyrighted work, it will be considered a tribute item. Tribute items that are submitted without the proper reference and list of changes will be denied until the proper information and changes are provided.

Q. I made and listed my four changes for a tribute item; why was my submission still denied? If your changes were so subtle that they're nearly imperceptible (for example, changing a copyrighted character's recognizable dress design to have five buttons when it normally has four, or changing a shirt color from dark blue to slightly lighter blue), we will ask you to make more changes. Please note that you must make fundamental changes to a tribute item in order for it to be acceptable!

Q. Can I make a custom item of a Subeta pet? A. You may not replicate and/or duplicate existing site artwork, so you may not make a custom item that looks like a wearable version of any of our official pets at this time. However, we welcome you to submit custom items of your own pets if they have unique designs that are four changes removed from our official artwork. You are also allowed to use a Subeta pet's design to influence a custom item.

Examples:

Q. Can I make a custom wearable that's very similar to an official wearable? A. You cannot make a custom wearable that replicates or duplicates an official wearable. While that might seem restricting, we need to protect the value of our official items!

Q. But I noticed that staff has released an official item that's very similar to a custom item. Why is that allowed? A. Staff artists draw thousands of items a year. With the many custom wearables out there, it is no surprise that there will be similar items - both between different CWs and between CWs and official items. Staff artists will bounce ideas off of each other and discuss many things behind the scenes, but they are not required to look through all CWs to ensure nothing similar exists before submitting it.

Q. What should I do if someone else has released a custom wearable that's very similar to the one I've released? A. If you feel someone has outright traced your artwork or copied your original design, please do not hesitate to send us a ticket! We take art theft very seriously.

When it comes to similar custom wearables, there are quite a few things we look at. For example, an item from a popular fandom may get multiple different releases by different artists, or a popular hairstyle may get several different renditions on site. Without these being blatantly traced, there isn't much we will do about these types common occurrences. However, in the end, custom wearables are a place to show off unique creativity. If someone is repeatedly copying older CWs or unique designs, please submit a ticket for us to investigate. This type of repeated offense can have consequences.

Q. I really like an older CW. Can I make one similar to it? Please see the above. If you have to ask yourself, "Is this item too similar to one that already exists?", the answer is probably yes.

5. Rule Breaking

tl;dr: All art submitted for custom wearables must be 100% original. You may not use brushes, clip art, stock art, vector art, AI art, etc for any part of a custom wearable. There are no exceptions to this.

Q. What is the difference between referencing and tracing? A. To "reference" is to look at a photograph (or other source) while drawing to ensure that the structure, proportions, lighting, etc. are true to life. To "trace" is to literally draw over a photograph or piece of artwork that you do not own. A piece of artwork will be deemed unoriginal if created by drawing over a photograph or work that you do not own and/or manipulating said photo/work, whether or not the trace/manipulation is 100% exact. While we strongly encourage you to eyeball references while creating your artwork, we would like to remind you that tracing (and thus submitting unoriginal artwork as your own) is forbidden by site rules.

If we have any reason to believe an item may be traced or stolen, we will deny it with a message to please open a ticket with all of your references as well as your .psd or other working files uploaded to a site like DropBox so a staff artist can review them. Any other CWs you have pending will be denied pending the review, and you may not submit any further CWs until told to do so via ticket.

Q. Help! I just got a "suspicion of unoriginal artwork" rejection! Should I be worried? A. If you have not engaged in design theft or tracing (as outlined in the previous questions), you have nothing to worry about! We will generally ask the artist to provide references, sketches and working files if available, which will then be evaluated to determine if the artwork is original. While we understand this denial might be alarming, we do not mean any offense! Once the artwork is deemed original, it will be cleared and the artist will be free to continue with the submission process.

Q. What happens if a user is caught tracing or stealing? A. Issues with tracing, copying, or stealing are dealt with on a case-by-case basis depending on the severity of the crime. Punishment for tracing or stealing will always result in an official warning. It can also result in: an item being permanently banned from being submitted, a user being banned from submitting any future customs or a user being frozen.

Q. What happens if a user does not disclose that their item is actually a tribute? If an item is submitted as original and turns out to be a tribute, the user will receive a warning and potentially a ban from submitting custom wearables (either a temporary or permanent ban depending on the offense). If they are not permanently banned, they will be required to submit any and all references for all future CWs. Failure to do so will result in the item being denied.

Q. I found an AI art generator that says anything it creates belongs to me as the creator. Can I submit this as a custom wearable? A. No. Subeta is strongly against the use of AI art. No part of a custom wearable - the item or the overlay - may be AI-generated art. Any user caught submitting AI art for a custom wearable will be issued an official warning and banned from custom wearables, no exceptions.

Q. I said I would only sell 20 copies of an item, but it ended up being really popular. Can I sell more? A. No. Many sellers will sell limited CWs for more money, and people buy them for their potentially higher value. Because of this, if you publicly stated an item would only have a max number of copies (or batches) and attempt to change it later, this is considered scamming and will result in an official warning for such.

Q. What if I said an item is permanently retired but I start to sell it again? A. This is considered scamming the same as selling more than the max number of stated copies (previously batches) and will result in an official warning for scamming.

As with other warnings, three official warnings for the same offense or 5 total official warnings will result in freezing. This type of warning does not expire.

I said an item was private and only certain people can own it, but I see someone selling the item (or someone I did not sell it to wearing it)! Is this warnable? A. No. As previously stated, we do not officially recognize private versus public items.

Q. Can I submit an item that was previously drawn by a now-frozen user? A. It depends on why the user was frozen! If a user is frozen for rule-breaking, then you may not submit items drawn by them. If a user has decided to self-freeze, it will depend on three things: 1) They do not have any warnings for art theft/are not under investigation for art theft 2) They do not have a current ban from CWs and 3) They have given permission to continue having their items uploaded.

If you try to submit something by a user we cannot accept CWs from, you will receive a denial that states: "We are unable to accept items drawn by this user." Please note that we cannot go into further detail regarding an individual user's account status, so you will not receive further information beyond this.

(please note: this rule went into effect at the end of 2013. Art from some users frozen prior to this date have been grandfathered in for continued submission.)

update 10/27/24: Watch this space for updates regarding references and the like.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

Oh I have quesrion!

I have 2 CWs that are old as dirt and I can still sell them... granted it's been YEARS since I sold any and I forgot what status I gave these CWs as in how many I wanted to sell...

If I have the option to sell them in my shop can I or should I just retire them? I hope this makes sense.

[edit]

Lemme try again...

I have two REALLY old CWs that I can either sell in my shop or retire... now the items themselves have been around since like the early days of CWs... I cannot for the life of me remember if I ever had batch limits or not... it's been that long. If I am able to sell these CWs in my shop... can I or should I just retire them? Thanks for the help.

Do you get refunded your submission cost if the item is denied?

Yes, if an item is denied (or canceled) you will be refunded the price you paid.

I was wondering how artist copies work in case where item was a collab or someone other than the original artist made the recolor? If the artist copy automatically goes to the listed artist (og artist), but they do not want a copy and someone else was the artist for the recolor (listed in notes) and would like an artist copy for the recolor. Is it possible to deliver an artist copy in a case like this or is the only option to buy the copy from the shop "the old fashion way".

[edit] On a related note: in case of a denial the denial notes go to the original artist as well but it would probably be more beneficial if they would be sent to the artist who made the recolor and who's going to be doing the fixes.

Hi, I've tried finding the answer but still haven't:

If someone has already made a CW but all the copies have been given out, is there a way with the new system to make more copies of the same item?

I hope it makes sense.

No, that would be considered scamming if the releaser were to release more copies than the cap they set! Any CW that is released as unlimited can potentially have more copies, but that is dependent on whether it is permanently retired (which you can see in the new CW Directory) or if there was a cap set by the releaser.

Thank you for answering. It's unfortunate as the person had difficulting raising enough to have item launched in the first place.

Yes I think you're right. I don't wish to get in trouble. Thank you for your reply and I hope your thumb heals quickly. Happy Lumi~

This is kind of a weird non-situation but I can finally see info on an item I'd been looking at for years. It's inactive, and the user who created it is frozen, so I'm past hoping for a copy of it. However, the link to the creator goes to the frozen page that says you can change your username to it. Is there anything to make sure those creator links are accurate, so they don't link to a totally unrelated user who now has their old username?

found it, thanks

I'm almost positive it's coded so that we see the username but behind the coding is all userID based, so if the name changes it will still link to their correct pages. So if the user goes from being BOOPER to BOOPER_123, all of the links will be changed to BOOPER_123.