Character Images

[Atom]

I've always been curious about this but I've never taken the time to figure out some opinions.


So here's what I've been wondering.


Typically images have been categorized as anime, drawn, or realistic.


Now everyone has a preference to what they prefer to use and what they don't like to use.


I personally prefer anime or drawn over realistic. Why? It feels quite weird to use a living person's face. It feels unnatural and quite frankly I feel like I'm stealing them and making them someone else. I don't enjoy it and I avoid it.


So questions to you.


What do you prefer? What don't you prefer? Why do you not prefer that?


Annnnnnnd discuss!

 

[Cavil]

There's been like 20 threads like this.


But I prefer photographs.

 

[Geun Sae]

I've always been curious about this but I've never taken the time to figure out some opinions.
So here's what I've been wondering.


Typically images have been categorized as anime, drawn, or realistic.


Now everyone has a preference to what they prefer to use and what they don't like to use.


I personally prefer anime or drawn over realistic. Why? It feels quite weird to use a living person's face. It feels unnatural and quite frankly I feel like I'm stealing them and making them someone else. I don't enjoy it and I avoid it.


So questions to you.


What do you prefer? What don't you prefer? Why do you not prefer that?


Annnnnnnd discuss!

I personally prefer pictures, But if the setting is right Anime can be used. I usually stray from anime because I find it harder to picture the character in my head. Im fine with high detailed pictures and CGI, but when it comes to Anime I can't really picture certain things like I can with a real human. I find it harder to see how the hair falls, how their smile looks, what they look like without wearing super ginormous mecha suit waving around a samurai sword (Long story)

 

[Ayl]

I usually use drawn, because there is so much potential there. Anime is freakish for me and I agree with you that realistic images feel weird to use. Plus, you may not always find what you are looking for in a realistic picture (we all know you find EVERYTHING in anime ones). But drawn are more natural while at the same time allow you variety.

 

[lafeae]

Being as someone who draws and designs their own characters, I prefer drawn or realistic, but personally I don't care one way or the other. In the end, I'll end up imagining the other persons character as I go, not really as what's been destined to be their design.

 

[ToryD]

I tend to lean towards drawn. Anime is rare for me, it just doesn't capture what angle I may be trying to head towards. Realistic is uncomfortable for the very reasons mentioned above. On top of that, everyone is a fucking supermodel no matter what type of RP setting is in place. Post apocalyptic combat? Check out Chris Hemsworth as Zane Watkins, survival expert from the deeps of the underground!

 

[TheRiverSings]

I usually use whatever feels right. when I find an image that looks like or closest to, how the character looks in my head I use it.

 

[Gilzar]

I usually lean towards Anime or Drawn.


I do this because when I roleplay, I like to enter new worlds with my imagination and it's just that much harder to do when you're using real photographs. With Anime and Drawn, I can always just snap them into backgrounds in my mind, put them into settings...make them characters. With real photographs...I don't have the best of luck. It just seems to me that the more realistic a photo is, the harder it is for me to characterize them. Don't know why...

 

[call me rae]

What do you prefer? What don't you prefer? Why do you not prefer that?


Well in this debate I'm pretty much a snobby B when it comes to the quality of the artwork not necessarily the format.


I tend to choose formats based on what I'm roleplaying.


Example - if I'm roleplaying something from a TV series I'll just use the actors, same if I'm doing an anime - I'll use anime images.


For the rest I'll go with whatever my partner is most comfortable with.


I guess for me when I use real people I usually use actors so I just think of it as them playing the role of their character in the roleplay.


Now for me the issues come in when the quality of the art is subpar. Like if it's super pixilated or obvious that you just straight up instagram stalked someone and ripped off their picture that's when it gets kind of creepy to me. Like look if you can't find what your looking for I'm just as happy with you describing them to me. I'd prefer that over looking at someone's selfie or some really blurry picture of some generic looking anime person.

 

[Honey Bee]

No body used images to represent their characters back when I was starting out in roleplays. Even in group threads, people used to just describe how their characters looked on the character sheets, which simply isn't the norm anymore. Personally, I prefer written descriptions but for places like these which require some kind of visual, I like to go for drawn works. I hate using RL pictures of some actor or model, mostly because 1) Every one ends up looking the same most of the time. If you aren't a scene kid or a YouTube celebrity, then you are a super hot model or movie star. 2) I feel extremely awkward trying to find the kind of picture I want for my character. There is something weird to me about searching stuff like "16 year old brown hair green eyes" into Google Images or looking through hordes of over dramatic, shirtless supermodel pinups just to find one picture of someone that might pass for a person working part-time at the florist shop.

 

[Archie]

Either works for me but for all pics I just wish people would take the time to find obscure ones. Whenever I'm roleplaying with Lelouch Lamperouge or Tom Cruise it feels awkward, especially if the RPer tries to make the char completely different


As for pics from actors, it felt creepy in the beginning, like everyone who used them was writing bad fanfic, but then it hit me. These people pretend to be other people for a living, I don't think they mind all that much

 

[AlexSilverX]

See, I like drawn or anime. With a leaning towards anime.


The good thing I find about anime is precisely what - ironically - some of the earlier posts mentioned was the bad point of it. Because anime is by nature minimalistic, some features are too bland to distinguish from another characters' or are completely nonexistent. But to me - since I consider a character description just as important as a character picture - that just means people can get a general idea of what my character looks like and I can fill in the blanks in the description and throughout the RP as necessary.


I do prefer drawn to realistic for the same reason as anyone (it kinda feels like identity theft in a weird way) but I can live with it.


Honestly, my biggest pet peeve in regards to this is when someone's character picture is inconsistent with other people's.


(EX: everyone is realistic except this one guy who's an anime character - or - everyone is anime expect that one chick who used a 3D model)


Not only does it "clash", which I dislike as I'm a fan of consistency where it can be found, it also makes interactions with the character particularly difficult to picture and EVERY SINGLE RP LIKE THIS makes me think of Space Jam regardless of what type of setting or what given situation we're in and - given Space Jam was a Looney Tunes comedy about basket ball (admittedly, it was fun as a movie in my youth) - I immediately stop taking the RP this occurs in seriously the second it happens and completely lose the will to even post, since anything comes off as a bad joke in my head from that moment onward.


That's why I make I usually specify a picture type in the rules whenever I GM an RP.


 


[QUOTE="Honey Bee]No body used images to represent their characters back when I was starting out in roleplays. Even in group threads, people used to just describe how their characters looked on the character sheets, which simply isn't the norm anymore. Personally, I prefer written descriptions but for places like these which require some kind of visual, I like to go for drawn works. I hate using RL pictures of some actor or model, mostly because 1) Every one ends up looking the same most of the time. If you aren't a scene kid or a YouTube celebrity, then you are a super hot model or movie star. 2) I feel extremely awkward trying to find the kind of picture I want for my character. There is something weird to me about searching stuff like "16 year old brown hair green eyes" into Google Images or looking through hordes of over dramatic, shirtless supermodel pinups just to find one picture of someone that might pass for a person working part-time at the florist shop.

[/QUOTE]
I just wanted to quote this because I completely feel you on the weird google searches. There are way too many variations of "Teen boy black hair blue eyes" on my google search history for anyone to believe me when I say it's not one of my fetishes XDDD Seriously, whenever I play a younger character and need to find a realistic image, I feel like this will pop out the corner any second;

 

[kibou]

I prefer written descriptions and optional pictures Being required to get a photo, drawing, or anime character is kind of annoying because usually I already have specific ideas of what the character looks like, and I want to image to reflect their appearance as accurately as possible. Because if something is inconsistent between the image and my description (like skin or hair color, eye shape, body type, etc), even if I write it down, people will probably tend to imagine it like the picture or forget. I do that sometimes. Even with "vague anime," it can be hard to find what I want.


If I happen to find a picture while looking at social media or searching for something totally different, that's great! But that rarely happens.


But when it comes to choosing between types of pictures, I don't think I have a preference. They all have their pros and cons.


Realistic images are easier to image, well, realistically. The downside is that everyone is very attractive, a famous person that I just can't forget when thinking about the character, they all have similar features, have a similar feel/style/aesthetic, the particular model is overused, etc. Plus googling the specifics and looking for a face-claim is awkward.


When it comes to anime screencaps or gifs, unless I've seen cosplays of the specific character it can be hard to picture them as real people. Plus, common anime drawing styles tend to be minimalist and people may not specify things with descriptions. Also, if it's a character I know whether from watching the show or seeing/hearing fangirls obsess irl or on social media, I might recognize when people are literally ripping off an anime character to use as their own (which has happened) or it might be the same as the famous person issue- I can't think of anyone but the character.


When it comes to drawings (which what I'm referring to when I say drawing is anything that isn't a screenshot from an anime) there's a lot of different styles to consider. There's realism, abstract (though I've never seen anyone use abstract art, that might be kind of interesting), I'll include 3D models too, minimalist, disney-esque, original art in a manga-y style....


While still having the problems of it possibly being hard to imagine realistically and it's hard to find specifics, unless someone is using their own art there's also the problem that this is someone's property- the character- and the art itself belongs to them. Some artists may not be okay with having their art being used, especially if the art is of their own original character. And I think I've only seen artwork sourced maybe one or twice on this site. Technically anime screenshots or gifs are someone else's property too, but it's kinda different. Asking the artist for permission is kind of a pain too, because it might take them a long time to respond and if they say no, then you have to start all over again. I'd rather not bother. So unless it's an anime character, was drawn for me, or I sketched it myself I generally don't use artwork.