Animation Source Forums

An issue that's bothering people? Time to discuss!

Recently, there's been a rise in the number of people using colored in lineart in their fan character profiles, and a rise of people saying to get rid of it.


To start off discussion, the pros of having lineart in your fan char profile.

Line art is openly available and easy to use if you do not have your own drawing utensils.
It makes it easy to compare markings and coloring of your characters.
It is almost always quicker than drawing or rendering.
You can reuse it as many times as you want due to the uniform appearance.

The cons of having lineart in your fan char profile.

Due to its uniform appearance, lineart tends to make all your characters look the same.
It is generally frowned upon to use lineart as a headshot and full body pic.
You can't use one lineart for several breeds.


Disallow them from character profiles? Keep them and do nothing? Guidelines? Your views? Discuss.

Alright, my views. They're getting tiresome. They're everywhere. Especially people coloring in Kay Fed ones. To me, a colored in lineart shouldn't be considered your character, anyone can do that. I think we should maybe disallow them from fullbody pics unless the lineart is your own.

People make them for other people to use. They're easy to use when simply trying to figure out marking-placement on a character, I've used them before for that. And I honestly think they shouldn't be used for anything other than that.

People should regulate themselves on how much lineart they use. I understand that it takes EFFORT to draw or render something on your own, but if you're going to have so many characters, its not fair to have so many copies of the same lineart being MISUSED.

Misuse, I believe, is when people:
A) Use the same lineart over and over and over
B) Use the lineart with incorrect breeds (for example, when people use wolf lineart for German Shepherd lineart)
C) Just use one color.

Why isn't it fair?
Because the characters you create are in a way your children. You are "making" them after all, and if they're as great as you think they are, they deserve time and effort. The best characters have the most effort put into them. And I am not wrong when I say your characters suck if you put a couple seconds into their design/profile.

By using nothing but lineart and not drawing or rendering anything yourself is disrespect of the Fan Characters section. Its for showing off a character you've created and showing the things they've done (or the art people have done of them) that make them so great.

It is NOT for when you were bored and spontaneously decided to crappily color in someone else's lineart. If people had any respect for the characters they create and the reason why the Fan Characters section was even create, we wouldn't have as many characters to show on this site and there would only be ones everyone can enjoy. Because they wouldn't have to search through the Jenna-clones or the Sparkledogs in order to find them.

However, I don't really think there's anything else we can do about it, except for reporting the badly-made characters and the unused ones. They're already stricter on which ones pass.

That.
I've used lineart to waste some time before or just to try out some different marking designs but always make proper pictures of the charcaters in the end.
I get bored of seeing tons of the same linerat and instead don't bother looking at them anymore (except when I have to).
I also still hate renders with a passion. Why would you want almost all your characters to look like Balto or Jenna with different colours?

I've seen a few good renders that managed to get away with not looking like Balto or Jenna, but it requires a bit of skill and effort most people don't seem to have

I can understand if they're like RELATED to them, like if their character is Jenna's sibling or something, but its hardly EVER the case. I've seen "Jenna siblings" in Balto outlines and I'm like "Seriously? Balto is built like a wolf-dog, how the heck does the sibling of Jenna, a purebred husky, end up with the build of a mutt?" It does NOT WORK.

And even the siblings that look "just like" whoever. Considering they're not identical twins (which if they were then your "Jenna" wouldn't have black fur, would she?) siblings have DIFFERENCES in their body structure and facial structure. Some siblings will have the same basic eye shape, but others will have larger eyes, longer faces, fatter faces, different hair type (not hair color, different hair type). And mind you, this is not scientific study either, its something anyone and everyone involuntarily picks up on.

So why does Kenna or whatever you (now, I just mean in general, not your personally) named Jenna's long-lost sister look EXAAAAACTLY like Jenna, only WAIT. She has a PURPLE bandanna.

Interesting topic. I can definitely see everyone's point of view, but I'd keep them in character profiles under a few rules:

-I use lineart in character profiles, but I only use them when I'm altering a character design and until I finish a good body ref (but i'm really slow at rendering and art). So maybe a member can use lineart in a character profile until they have a decent render or ref sheet up?

-Make them fit the breed at least. I can see the problem if they're using wolf lineart for a Jack Russell Terrier, but still under the same circumstances: for a limited amount of time until they can get a decent pic up.

But then again, if they use lineart, it's their problem. Using lineart hurts their characters and makes them less special.

I never, ever, use linearts. I don't approve of the being used so much.

The image below, is random linearts/headshots, *And 2 look alike renders* Can YOU tell how difrrent they are BESIDES their colors? Any DIFFRENT FACIAL/BODY expressions?
Nope.
I also compaired 2 random characters. Screenshots. They don't belong to me, nor do I claim them. What can we do to stop the use of Linearts? : Nothing we can really do about that. Their right.

I have used lineart twice in the character section and 5 times (out of 247) in the fan image section. Shame on me.

I'm sick to death of seeing German Shepherds on Kay Fedewa's lineart. I'm sick to death of seeing Kay Fedewa's lineart in general. If you're going to have a character (and render it) occasionally TRY to make them look different. It's really not that hard to make some changes.

Examples. Husky like eyebrows and bridge of the nose smoothed out for a more husky-like appearance, rounded ears to turn a dalmatian into a thylacine, and finally change the eyes from almond shape to more square to make Aleu into Balto. See? Not hard.

And while we're at it, can we please stop with the German Shepherds on Kay Fedewa's lineart? It's getting annoying.

I think they should be disabled. Unless your only giving the markings until you can make the picture.

I'm getting pretty sick and tired of seeing THE SAME linearts over and over again. It's pretty annoying.

Examples 1 & 2 are pretty much invalid by other issues in those pictures: 1 pretty much has exactly the same as Balto's build and 2's brown dog has eyes EXACTLY the same almond shape as Aleu. Your point is moot as these are prominent features - anyone with half a brain can change eyebrows and smooth a nose bridge.

I don't think that should be made into a rule though, off some characters it is much harder than others to change stuff and still keep anatomy roughly correct, especially changing Steele's face.

I'm not saying it should be a rule. In fact, I don't recall saying anything to that effect.

So my examples suck, it doesn't change the fact that more effort is needed in the fan character gallery. Look at the front page at any given time, the majority of it is colored lineart.

Well I can only wholeheartedly agree with you here
Hopefully the new rules implemented will combat some of this