The Dirty Pixel policy has been a serious point of contention on many pieces of art and something I have been outspoken about in the past as I find it can be unreasonably strict. After some time observing and working with the Art Queue along with its members as well as consulting some other staff and reviewing the history of how we got where we are, I as Art Director am going to make a backwards policy shift. We are still going to maintain black backgrounds on entities other than NPCs, however those black backgrounds do not need to be pure black anymore to the fringe of your customs. Your custom image submissions will need to have black backgrounds that look black and uniform looking still but no longer will your artwork be denied for stuff such as one stray slightly off black pixel that we need a special tool to detect. 

Var's pixel tool will still be viable and can help with a lot of the off black issues that cause lack of black background uniformity. Var's Dirty Pixel Tool is the link and by uploading your image and selecting the KILL option, should resolve 90%+ of all issues resulting from off black backgrounds. That said, this is a 3rd party tool and is not necessary so long as your background and the edges of that which is the custom is non-distracting from the custom itself. 

The Art Queue Team will still be using a 3rd party tool for now that helps see dirty pixels as a means of comparing images to see if things are in line with this new ruling, as not all of our monitors are the same. Two different approvals are still needed for each image submitted, and each of the approving team members must consider the image in question to have a non distracting all black background. Basically if the Art Queue team can see the dirty pixels unaided by a special tool, we will deny.

While all other rules remain in place, this policy shift is testing the proverbial waters of loosening restrictions while maintaining quality of the Art Queue. As always I welcome constructive feedback.  

EDIT: Please take notice, that even though we are not denying for invisible dirty pixels, we will deny for backgrounds that are not true black. The purpose of the dirty pixel forgiveness is to make it easier to submit things without sacrificing quality control. We will be enforcing a fully black background, minus invisible dirty pixels. Submitting customs with off black backgrounds, will be declined. Please message me if you have any questions. :)