[Gimp-developer] Gimp default brush set contest

[Valerie]

Note: the developers barely have to do a thing.

Half the current default is made up of non-editable round-ish 
brushes (that in my opinion makes the brush editor hard to 
discover, because new users end up wondering why the brush 
editor never works. In fact, I start each new installation of
Gimp by sudo rm-ing the extra round brushes and replacing them
with one editable one).

With the new resize options, they could easily be replaced by:

- 2 or 3 editable ones (one plain, one with ratio and one 
with hardness)

- and a lot more variety for the rest (a few texture brushes in
the default would give artists a much better first impression of
Gimp than the current one, without the developers having to
program a thing)

My proposal: start a Gimp Default Brush Set contest. Ask users 
to submit their own brush proposals, select the best of each 
and make a new default. Deviantart seems like a good gathering 
point, with outside submissions possible. Then the contest just 
has to be announced on the Gimp website and on other venues. 

Rough guidelines (to be refined later):

- Users can submit just a few brushes rather than a full set.

- Although users can recommend other people’s brushes, this is 
only if the original creator (including eventual original 
creators of Photoshop brushes) gives personal approval of 
the conditions listed (most expect users to credit them, which 
is not doable if their brushes are used in a Gimp brush default 
set). 

Most likely, users would have to approach the original creators 
and ask them to submit themselves to avoid complications. 
Plagiarism results in immediate disqualification.

- The brushes should be generic enough to reflect a wide variety 
of usages: texture brushes are good, too specific shapes less so.

- The set should avoid repeating a same brush with different 
sizes: there are resize commands for that. 

- The set should have variety. By corollary, there shouldn’t 
be too many brushes of a same type. At most, there should be 3 
to 5 of a category.

Also, users must include a preview of all the brush outputs to 
show their potential.

The only "reward" is that the brush creators get to feel good
about their brushes being included in the Gimp default set.

My personal proposal would be a set that goes along the lines of:
- 1 editable round brush, 1 editable fuzzy brush, 1 editable 
"calligraphy" brush
- 1 editable diagonal star brush, a few square brushes?
- the 3 current "Pencil sketch" brush (all 3 to prevent 
resize-fuzziness)
- The current confetti brush
- 3 "charcoal texture" brushes
- 3 "watercolor texture" brushes
- 3 "cloud texture" brushes
- 3 splatter brushes
- 3 "hair" brushes
- etc.

For examples, see brushes by filsd:
http://filsd.deviantart.com/art/GIMP-Animated-Brushes-1-55860153
http://filsd.deviantart.com/art/GIMP-Animated-Brushes-2-58720457
http://filsd.deviantart.com/art/GIMP-Animated-Brushes-3-70913869
http://filsd.deviantart.com/art/Brushes-Pack-Ink-hachuras-85080074

(though obviously they can’t be All included)

Users must agree with the disclaimer that their full sets will
likely not be used "as is", and that once they've submitted, 
anybody can tamper with them.

Also, although Gimp will credit the creators when announcing the 
new default brush set, their brushes must be under a Creative 
Common licenses that doesn't force users to credit each time 
they use the brushes.

Where timing is concerned, I suggest announcing such a contest
when 2.6 Beta 1 gets released (whenever that is). This way users 
can also take into account the dynamic brush features.

Anyway, people who are nostalgic can always install the old 
brush set.

Again, the developers barely have to do anything except include 
the end result, so please don't call this a waste of Your time.
I wouldn't mind coordinating the contest, and I'm sure other 
people wouldn't mind helping either.