Character Appearance; How do you do it?

[Jyoliod]

Firstly, a general question; What medium do you prefer to use and see others use when detailing your characters appearance? If you prefer picture, do you have a particular style you prefer? (Real Life, Anime Style, Portrait, Amateur, ect.)

Secondly, for the illustratively challenged, like myself, is there a particular website you go to to look for images if you use one or are there any applications or character creation software that you like to use to generate images for character sheets?

First: I personally prefer a descriptive paragraph or two paragraph section with a lot of detail. It gives me a somewhat malleable image of a character where the finer points of how I envision a character can be influenced by the RP's atmosphere, like wise it allows me to envision my own characters as such.

Secondly: I used to use this crappy character creator software for my older RP's, it was extremely limited and I only used it a small number of times, also one time I used a picture from DeviantART for a small RP, but got raged at by the artist and their fans for doing so, even though I made sure to hyper-link the image, since then I've been very wary of borrowing images from websites. More recently I've been entertaining the idea of using APB Reloaded's character creator, given that you can customize most anything after character creation by going to the 'store' and the depth of the system is pretty crazy, but it can take awhile.

[Hank]

These days I tend to jot down a paragraph or so with a general description and a few defining features, but I leave a lot up to the reader's imagination.

In the past, I often used a combination of a picture with a written description. Pictures were usually succintly stolen from deviantART with no credit given. I'm using it in an illustrative, non-profit environment, so they really have no right to complain.

[Jyoliod]

I'm using it in an illustrative, non-profit environment, so they really have no right to complain.

@Hank

I agree with this point, it kind of irks me that in my experience, someone shared their art quite openly and than quickly became irate when said art was used in an RP on a forum. At the time I just shrugged it off and assumed that maybe they were quite insecure about the piece or didn't like the premise of the RP.

[NuttsnBolts]

For me, a picture is the easiest way to give an overall view. This is because someone can take a quick 5 second look and gauge the type of character that I wish to roleplay as. As well as this I may often accompany the picture with a brief blurb explaining a few details that may not be present in the photo, like tattoos, scars, weapons, equipment, etc.

I also tend to build characters around the images that I find so I'll end up with a few image searches on google, deviant art, or even photobucket. When it comes to using the images for a roleplay and artist copyrights... it's an image... on the internet. I'm not selling it, I'm claiming it as my own, I'm just displaying it and saying my character looks somewhat like this.


Btw, before I forget, I tend to like Artistic or Anime pics. They're usually characters that have a better body position or appearance in my opinion compared to what a real life person can portray themselves as. In saying that the last character I created used a real person.

[Darkraven]

I don't know why, but I tend to avoid describing the face in cases when I don't use a picture. Sometimes I'm just afraid that I'm 'moulding' it wrong hahaha. The face is the hardest thing to describe for me.

[Nemaisare]

I like both picture and written description, sometimes the pic's just about where you want it and sometimes you can't find anything at all close. I do tend to use pictures for myself even when I'm only offering text to everyone else though, just as a sort of character/facial reference for the roleplay in general, as I like to use expressions to shape the character's personality. I'm also more used to boardwide roleplays that usually ask for character faceclaims. Beyond that, I might say looks like (insert picture here) but with (insert changes here), or just give a paragraph or three description. I usually start with the quick, first things someone might notice, like skin colour, height, weight, facial features than distinguishing features and clothing choice. So, it can be a lot easier for the person reading the profile if I use a picture... :/ I prefer artistic or real life pictures when I'm using one, but it really depends on the rp, andif the picture fits.

As for sites I use, deviantart is pretty good, but I've also used HollowArt for real life pictures since you can search for particular features, the pictures aren't always great, but you can find names and then google them. Or Drakonis avatars for more fantastical characters. And sometimes, this one is really good for fantasy accessories.

[Rilla]

Picture and description. Sometimes just the picture like for Falden and Adinraen.

I get mine from DeviantArt. mostly.

I build my characters around the picture if possible.

[Jyoliod]

It's interesting to hear that some of you build your characters around the picture/appearance, I've never tried making a character in this manner but I can understand the reasoning. Previously I've found images on DeviantArt that I thought could inspire a character to be made around them but given my previous experience I've avoided using them. I might man up a little and give it a shot in the future.

Thanks @Nemaisare for including those links, I've honestly never heard of those sites before and will probably use them in the future.

[Mixtape Ghost N]

I don't use pictures, bro. Written description master-race, yo.

For example:

Hider

Diego has the looks of a thug, or tough guy, but his personality betrays that. A rather fit boy that is of average height for his age at 5'9 and weighing an approximate 166 pounds. Diego has a light muscle tone on his body. No where near bodybuilder, but he looks like the time who does work. It widens his body a little bit. . Diego is a teenager that appears to be Hispanic, but isn't exactly. Because of an interracial relationship between his great-grandparents, he has Caucasian in his roots. But because their children primarily got married to Hispanic people, those Caucasian roots got rather overshadowed. To be exact, Diego is Mexican, Colombian, Dominican, Spanish, Greek, & French. One thing that has become a trait among his family is their large, pronounced, square noses with thick, nose bridges. The whole nose is triangle shaped from the side. I wouldn't say that it's their most attractive feature, but yeah. Diego has one of his own naturally. It looks disproportionate with the rest of his sharp facial features, and therefore, sticks out much more. In contrast to his thin, rather pokey, lips, medium sized ears that stick out somewhat, and small, squared (with a cleft), chin, and a sharp jawline, with a rather dull and unnoticeable jaw. All topped off with medium-sized amber eyes, that usually convey Diego's sense of regret, and more. One thing about Diego is that he doesn't do a good job at hiding his emotions. Usually his facial expression gives it away, but his overall body language also conveys his emotions. He constantly appears as if he's someone who always has a little something on his mind. His eyes are a little dark, which gives away that he doesn't sleep too often as well.

He has a head of straight deep-black hair, cut short, and styled into a choppy, messy, hairstyle. Along with a faint, growing, mustache on his upper-lip. But enough about the boy's face, time to describe his body. He's very thin, and doesn't have too much fat or muscles packed on him. However, he's kept thin from his physical activities such as playing basketball and running, so he doesn't so much as sits on his ass all day. Diego's skin is a off-white, somewhat tan, color, and is clear that he isn't exactly white if someone examines him. Like everyone, he has scars on his body, all of which have stories of their own. From scarred knuckles, to various knife wounds on his arms (From apparently small blades), and various other brutal scars. He doesn't like talking about them, and usually changes the subject. However, Diego has symbols and markings on his body that resemble tattoos. They aren't true tattoos, when he got his power, these markings appeared on his body. Starting at his wrists, he has a network of fire symbols that appear very similar to tribal tattoos that go up his body, and encompass his chest, and go down to his ankles. Whenever he activates his power, these symbols start glowing, and combust into flames. Just to keep people from getting suspicious about his body, he tells them that they're tattoos.

Doesn't that paint a clear picture of my character?

[Jyoliod]

Doesn't that paint a clear picture of my character?

@Mr Allen J

I think it does and in contrast to pictures this would come out on top in my view, but I'd say that is partly because you also put in information about genealogy(race and racial history) which could be addressed in the history field of a CS that uses only a picture. Though I think the emotive wording to describe the look in his eyes or how his various appearance aspects compliment certain personal aspects is where the true advantage of a text description comes in.

As it has been said, some people build their characters around an image, so I assume that this type of emotive text in describing appearance would be a harder thing to pull off. Especially considering it is a subjective manner, so what looks like the eyes of a man in pain in a picture to one person could be the eyes of sadistic pleasure to another person. Additionally, I think certain pictures can provide an instant dose of atmosphere/impression to a character, I mean you could describe a pale young girl quite emotively to emphasise internal struggle or hatred to others, but a picture of said girl surrounded by bodies, or smiling in a graveyard, could serve better to emphasis such an impression.

Though I entertain that my last point could be made moot by 1. How you value atmosphere and if you only recognize the atmosphere of the general setting itself. 2. Other fields like history, bio and personality could descriptively produce the same or maybe an even better result. 3. It too can be a subjective manner and could provide the wrong impression/different impression for different people.

[Nemaisare]

Glad the links might be of use. :)

Usually, I find that only using a picture, especially in a detailed bio, feels sort of like a cop-out. Not that it can't work just fine without, but a picture, while it might be worth a thousand words, just can't tell you the same things those paragraphs can. Unless it's got everything in it from mood and posture, a fitting expression and just the right clothes, there's more to a character than their eye colour or length of hair and real life pictures, or portraits, don't always make that obvious.

So, at least for me, when I make a character based off a picture, I'm not thinking I like their look and adding on everything else, I'm usually attracted to the person's expression or their actions, or placement within the picture and its the personality they're affecting that I want as opposed to the specific appearance. And that is definitely something that someone else could misinterpret just from looking at the picture. Or, not misinterpret, but see it differently. Of course, in real life, misinterpretations happen all the time, so having the chance to explain what a particular expression on my character's face means can be both a blessing and a curse, with no fun, organic misunderstandings between chars.... Aaaand I'm rambling...

[Vilageidiotx]

I'm a description only sort of guy. Using a picture seems to defeat the purpose of descriptions. Its like saying "Yeh, sorry, I don't know how to use words so just imagine this celebrity instead."

[Dinh AaronMk]

I'm a description only sort of guy. Using a picture seems to defeat the purpose of descriptions. Its like saying "Yeh, sorry, I don't know how to use words so just imagine this celebrity instead."

@Vilageidiotx

Or "have this picture of a model from Instagram".

[Jyoliod]

I'm a description only sort of guy. Using a picture seems to defeat the purpose of descriptions. Its like saying "Yeh, sorry, I don't know how to use words so just imagine this celebrity instead."

@Vilageidiotx

I can understand your sentiment, I've seen quite a few character sheets where I personally have taken next to nothing from the picture provided and in my mind, it only seemed to make the character sheet as a whole look cooler and not much else.

Though I think pictures can be of more use in certain genres of RP and when used in a more specific sense with appearance, like when I used to GM a lot of slice of life I always split appearance in the character sheet to one field for physical description(Height, weight, skin tone, figure, ect. ect.) and one field for attire so that people could post images of articles of clothing if they wanted to.

But doing such a split for maybe an action oriented RP wouldn't really fit, as a single field for a description like the one @Mr Allen J provided would be much better.

[Jig]

I used to be description-only kind of person. The reasons for this were, in a sheet, to weed out people that didn't write well/much and to stop people just providing character-appearance Sue-porn. I've since decided, it doesn't actually do this.

When writing, people have all the time in the world and as many words as they like to generate the most flowery, avidly attentive, beauteous description of a character and, worse, their clothes*. If they feel they're being tested on writing (which can be done in far better ways), they're even more likely to do this, to prove that they can write length and description.

Images, while they do tend to be exclusively beautiful on sheets (and I'm not exempt from this at all), I think kind of draw a line under character appearance, and then you can move on: there's nothing left to discuss, so I find the image plays less of a role in the game. Apart from anything else, I find they break up a text-based sheet nicely, and simply do provide a clearer idea of what the character looks like.

When finding pictures (and I encourage others to do this in RPs I'm GMing), I get the bulk of the character sorted, then trawl Google for suitable faces. The character should be built for the RP, not to fit a pretty picture.

When GMing, I ban celebrities (that I recognise - otherwise they're not celebrities!) because the face is well-known enough to be jarring and to confuse with the real-life person and animé, because all my settings are real-world, and animé simply doesn't look like, and in my opinion usually doesn't even approximate, actual people.

* this site isn't too bad for it, but on my previous site, players were absolute fuckers for having standard beautiful wish-fulfilmenty Sue-types. I don't want wish-fulfilment seekers in games I'm GMing: I want them in it for the story and the group.

[Vilageidiotx]

When writing, people have all the time in the world and as many words as they like to generate the most flowery, avidly attentive, beauteous description of a character and, worse, their clothes*. If they feel they're being tested on writing (which can be done in far better ways), they're even more likely to do this, to prove that they can write length and description.

@Jig

See, I think this sort of thing is healthy though. This is how you develop writing skills, by being put in a position where you have to write to get your ideas out. I might be overdone, but that's still a learning experience. You get better at cooking from burning a meal, not by ordering pizza. If you burn the meal, or overwrite the post, you can see where you messed up and you will know what not to do.

[Ace of Hearts]

I think any form is valid, in my experience. If you find an image of someone who fits the description in your head, why not be free to use it?

No animu though.

[El Taco Taco]

I use photos of celebrities, usually from a role that suits the theme of the roleplay. For example, I use LeeLee Sobieski in the god awful film In the Name of the King for a character in a medieval-ish world, Seychelle Gabriel's character in Falling Skies for a demigod, so on and so forth. Using celebrities is a pretty safe way of establishing appearance, because there's no real ethics issues. They performed in media meant for consumption and I'm not making any money off it. A lot of my games are grounded in realism, and I'll use the height of the actor/actress and make references to notable characteristics. I have some games off the guild where I'll use gifs of my chosen faceclaim to add to the end of posts and help illustrate the mood of the post. I roleplayed on tumblr for a while where gifs/icons in posts are common.

In games where there's no suitable person (usually when playing non-humans), I'll end up painting my character myself. I will look at other art for inspiration, and use photo references, but I don't like to use other people's art if I can avoid it. I have the capability to make my own, and enjoy doing so, so I'm a lot less limited in that regard.

Even though I don't view using personal art for RP description as stealing, I'd rather not risk upsetting the artist. Paintings can be pretty involved and I want to respect the creator's right to control their work. Sharing it online doesn't mean that they don't have ownership of the piece. I would be hella flattered to have someone ask me to use a painting as a character-- and I'd probably want to paint them more things just for asking.

When I do make character sheets, which isn't often, I almost always include a text description with the photo/art. There's certain things that don't come across in art-- fashion tastes, the way someone walks, additional features that the character possesses but the photo/art might not have, and so forth. That way I get the best of both worlds.

[Jig]

<Snipped quote by Jig>

See, I think this sort of thing is healthy though. This is how you develop writing skills, by being put in a position where you have to write to get your ideas out. I might be overdone, but that's still a learning experience. You get better at cooking from burning a meal, not by ordering pizza. If you burn the meal, or overwrite the post, you can see where you messed up and you will know what not to do.

@Vilageidiotx

You might improve at descriptions, but I suggest wish-fulfilment seekers aren't looking to improve their writing or better understand the role and relevance of their characters' appearance: they know what they want their character to look like. It's fine if that's what people play for, but it's not what I want in games I run.

[AlteredTundra]

I used to use pictures only, but nowadays I only use pics if I can't get the proper description down. Hell, I still do descriptions for those details that aren't shown in the picture, like specific scars or markings on my character's body. Honestly, I'm finding myself being able to come up with more detailed descriptions of my characters in recent months, which I guess is a good thing. xD