Every competition teaches you what it values. AlphaRank values something very specific: art that can stand on its own — literally. No background, no safety net, just the piece and the checkerboard.
Why the alpha channel wins
A baked-in background flattens a picture into a rectangle. Cut the subject out and the artwork becomes an object: it casts a shadow, it sits on the stage, it survives any surface you drop it on. That is a craft decision, and it is the one this board is built to reward.
The +10 bonus is not a gimmick. It is a scoreboard with a point of view.
Transparency is not a filter you apply at the end. It is a decision about where the artwork ends and the world begins.
What the judge actually looks at
Four categories, twenty-five points each, plus the transparency bonus. The judge reads the same rulebook every artist can open in the Studio — composition, colour, technique, presentation.
Edge quality: feathering, halos and leftover background pixels all cost points.
Tight canvas: a subject lost in a sea of empty space reads as an unfinished export.
Colour integrity: the palette has to hold up against whatever sits behind it.
This pick
Our opening selection is a study in restraint — one subject, a disciplined palette, and a silhouette that reads instantly at any size. No background to hide behind, and none needed.
Post your own. The daily board runs on a rolling 24-hour window, so the fastest way to be seen is to be the newest clean cutout on the stage.