Character Sheet Pictures

[Gabe]

I've been in a lot of roleplays character sign-ups. Some of them are fairly simple(to the point of having no form to fill at all) and others are quite complex. But one difference that really drives me away from some of them are the choice of character images.


A lot of roleplays are picky about them. Some only allows for anime pictures, and some only real ones. What do you think about it? Personally, I don't like using real pictures. First, there's a big chance that the player isn't going to ask permission to use the picture. A person's face is a big thing, and putting a face of someone in anything without permission isn't nice(and in some countries a crime). It takes the freedom that a drawing has.


What is your opinion?

 

[simj26]

I was just about to make a thread relating to 'real' faces, actually. If I'm not wrong, people use 'real' images to provide a sense of realism. Here's where my complaint comes in (but that's like, my opinion, so feel free to ignore it). Sure they claim that they use 'real' pictures for realism, and anime/drawn images are stylised and too simplified to be considered real. Nevermind that the 'real' images are of models, who spend billions of dollars touching up their faces with both surgery and make-up, and have tens of make up teams on standby in case their faux-messy hair goes a little awry. It's REAL, right? So real that they usually have no defining scars or pimples or other actual facial or physical flaws. OF COURSE, I would like to reiterate that this is purely my own opinion, and that I am not AGAINST using 'real' pictures, just that I'm really huffy about the whole 'realism' deal.


Another thing about how drawings are marginally better than 'real' images is that you can just punch in whatever term you need in any imageboard and voila, you get what you want. Need a character with heterochromia? Put that shit in the search box! Need some dude with twin daggers? Be our guest! Need a redheaded gal in a keyhole sweater with a jade necklace? I...I'm not sure we have the jade necklace tag, but sure, go ahead and try!

I'm no archaeologist, but I'm betting Checkursaurus came before Wreckursaurus.

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[Wreck]

I can't stand anime/manga pictures used in plays. It deters the sense of realism that I seek in plays, and the whole mood of the play is set in a cartoon world. I do not want that, I have no desire to play an anime character. Play need to be realish, and tangible, and relatable. Anime doesn't do that for me at all.


@simj22: You do make a vaild point. Personally, it's not that big of a deal to me that there's all that makeup and whatevertheshit. But it's much better for my mind to picture an actual human being speaking in the play, no matter how pretty they look on camera, than a odd-looking ill-proportioned cartoon character. I need a human face.


edited.

 

[Boondox]

I accept both pictures for my role plays however in my own personal opinion I am drawn to realistic photo's an I rarely ever use manga/anime photo's for my character's, It's just something that I haven't ever done. As for the makeup an what not I IGNORE that. I mainly use the photo's as a basic look an then add my own features to them, therefore making them not so perfect. No one has perfectly clean skin because in reality NO ONE does, heck I don't. So between both picture's I say realistic is all the way for me but I do not cut anyone out of my Role play's because of using anime/manga character pictures, that would be a little much in my eyes, sorry to anyone who has done this in the past to someone but I enjoy role playing with everyone.

 

[Shura]

I accept both In my plays as well. I generally leave it up to the person to decide what kind of style then want. I just ask that they fill out a small section on appearance notes in case there is something different such a birth mark or freckles.


Personally I love anime/ artistic pictures. Part of it is because I play a lot of fantasy RPs so kinda hard to find a real pic of a cat girl or something. Other things is I'm an artist at heart, I've drawn many of my characters before and they tend to lean towards an anime style.


Even if a play asks for a realistic picture I try to fins a semi-realistic picture an artist has done. Other thing is I always feel creepy trying to find a picture of a real person. Especially if I'm playing a kid. And it takes me four times longer just to find something I find decent. I tend to be really picky with my pictures.

 

[JohnWolff]

I sometimes don't like the use of pictures in an RP I created, period. It's lazy and shows a lack of interest in describing your character. That said, I have to admit it can be very convenient, not to mention more effective than words. A single picture can let others know what your character looks like much better than thousands of words that force us to imagine the image. The problem is when a person takes a generic picture that says nothing about the trait or quirks of his character, and he's simply using it out of convenience. If your character is a jaded woman with a penchant for killing people, don't post a cutesy little girl. Express that attitude of hers with your picture.


As far as real pictures are concerned, I think the same rules apply for me, and I don't have a problem with it if it expresses the character well. In fact, real pictures are more convenient than drawn pictures, because most drawn pictures belong to a canon story one way or another, so it can be difficult to place a picture of Lelouche from Code Geass and say that he's a bookwork dork from another planet. But of course, this convenience makes it way lazier sometimes, and often, the person isn't even looking to see if it fits his character anymore; he's just looking for a person with a cool pose and a cute smile.

 

[simj26]

I sometimes don't like the use of pictures in an RP I created, period. It's lazy and shows a lack of interest in describing your character. That said, I have to admit it can be very convenient, not to mention more effective than words. A single picture can let others know what your character looks like much better than thousands of words that force us to imagine the image. The problem is when a person takes a generic picture that says nothing about the trait or quirks of his character, and he's simply using it out of convenience. If your character is a jaded woman with a penchant for killing people, don't post a cutesy little girl. Express that attitude of hers with your picture.
As far as real pictures are concerned, I think the same rules apply for me, and I don't have a problem with it if it expresses the character well. In fact, real pictures are more convenient than drawn pictures, because most drawn pictures belong to a canon story one way or another, so it can be difficult to place a picture of Lelouche from Code Geass and say that he's a bookwork dork from another planet. But of course, this convenience makes it way lazier sometimes, and often, the person isn't even looking to see if it fits his character anymore; he's just looking for a person with a cool pose and a cute smile.

There's the 'original' tag for a reason, in most imageboards, dude.


Along with that, why pick an image of some dude that's well-known to the public? Get some less well-known dude from some lesser known animu. *shifty eyes* No one's gonna do a reverse google image search and go "Ohey, that's totally *insert some dude name* from *some unknown anime*" and embarass you.

 

[JohnWolff]

*shifty eyes* No one's gonna do a reverse google image search and go "Ohey, that's totally *insert some dude name* from *some unknown anime*" and embarass you.

Hah, true, but it's still a pet-peeve for me sometimes, and it can still be embarrassing for me when I realize the picture I had used came from an official anime, even if no one pointed it out. It's just artistically incorrect, since you are not using the picture of your character, unless he's a twin of that particular character from the anime or something.

 

[Sevenfold]

There's always semi-realism too, for those that dislike anime/manga pictures because they're too cartoony. Semi-realistic art is prbably my favourite for character images because the anatomy is very nearly realistic, while the character can still look very creative and interesting. That's only if the roleplay I'm doing involves fantasy though, the majority of the time.


Personally, I generally dislike using real images because they're too boring. In fact, somtimes I don't use images at all because it's restricting and it makes people seem a liiitle lazy. Writers don't throw pictures into the middle of novels to convey what they can't put into words. If you can't describe a character then it doesn't look well for the rest of your roleplaying.