Animation Source Forums

The character section today is a major issue for a majority of the sources. The pages are FILLED with sparklecharacters, non-relations, etc. In all honesty, this section could EASILY be cleared out, but some members refuse to get the big picture or understand the use of the character section. Let's use Balto Source as an example...

Some ideas we could consider:

Deleting the character section - Now this is an idea I'm 50/50. Simply because some members actually have well made characters with amazing information and bios. Some members brought up the idea that maybe we can delete ALL the characters and start over, while giving a warning in advance. That way people can take time to save their characters and we can rid ALL of the useless characters, characters that belong to users that no longer exist, etc.

Ridding the "unrelation" and "Sparkledog" option - Regardless of what some members may believe, Sparkledogs and unrelations don't belong on a Balto Source site. Why? because wolf/bat mixes with wings and snake tongues were NEVER in the Balto movies. Why should they be on a site dedicated to a movie about Balto?

Now some people may argue "Well Jenna is red, shes a sparkle! And Dixie is purple!". Educate yourselves, children. There ARE red huskies in the real world. Obviously Balto is a cartoon so the colors aren't going to be 100% realistic. Children would find a greyish purple Pom more interesting than a pure grey one. So, automatically, this argue is completely invalid.

Characters should be moderated and activated by Mods - This would help keep out the sparkles and poorly written characters. Obviously this suggestions is... Not likely because Steet refuses to mess with the mod system, but it's still an idea to think about.

Characters MUST be reasonably realistic - Obviously some members have trouble with creations and drawing but that's still no excuse for not making a realistic character. If you have a Black lab mixed with a Red wolf, the character is NOT going to be solid grey or solid white. It's not hard to do research. GOOGLE is your friend! It will help you with designs, markings, colors, mutt genetics, etc. Take 5 minutes to do research before you throw colors together.

Now the characters don't have to be 100% realistic, but they should be reasonable. Also, mixing 5 different breeds together ISN'T very creative. It also makes it harder to come up with markings, the character's build, etc. Try to keep things simple.

Character MUST have a reasonable reason for being "Balto Related" - This is a big one. Too many characters are excuses for being Balto related. Common reasons are "friends with Balto", "Doesn't like Steele", etc. The character should really have SOME relation to Balto that is more than that excuse. There should be some information about the Balto relation in the history. For example, "Character is a member of a dog-mail team. Alternate shift of Kodi's mail team".

NO official character color-overs! - A common design that is absolutely boring. Color-overs are when you take a character (say balto) and keep the SAME markings and only change his colors. Like make his bottom pelt lighter brown. These aren't creative and are almost a theft of a copyrighted character. SOME exceptions would be if the character is in blood relations of the character. But even then, the character wouldn't have 100% same markings as 1 parent. They'd share both parents' designs.

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If you're having trouble with designing your character, here are some tips you can use.

*What breeds were common in Nome back in the 1920s? - Again, Google is your friend. Huskies, settlers, spaniels, Shepherds were all common dog breeds.

*Design for your breed - All dogs have specific markings that differentiate them from other dogs. Say, for example, you pick a Siberian Husky character. Siberian Huskies have MANY different colors and markings. There is the Agouti, Red, Black, Dirty-Faced, Pinto, Sable, etc. that are all very unique. Search different designs and find which you prefer.

*Making your character unique - In all honesty, realistic characters with realistic markings are FAR more unique than characters that share the exact same design as the official character. If you want to be unique, stick to the real world. Real dog pelts will always be more creative than cartoon pelts.

Hopefully these tips will help everyone out.

I actually think cleaning out the character section would be a good idea. Though if we do that, we may have to incorporate some of the others as well. Because if we manage to get it cleaned out, then what's to stop those same people from putting the same characters up again? In fact, I think all of these rules you have mentioned should be in in place. The site desperately needs it.

I'm not after this idea. I mean it can work to delete all characters, getting rid of old, unused ones and give people who use their characters a chance to resend them, but I think removing characters section completely is a bad idea. Also, if you're about to remove all characters, this should appen at least a month or two after annoucement to make sure people will copy and save their characters' info.


I completely don't understand the idea of "NOT Balto related" section. If it's not Balto related, then why the hell should you send this character to a fansite?
That what I was saying all the time before sparkledog rule came up. People were arguing about "yellows","purples" and "reds" being sparkledogs(totally unable to notice which one was just a oversaturation of natural colours), but I failed miserably. No one was listening to me in this case.


I'm quite okay with characters with unrealistic markings and eye colours (like this one - http://www.animationsource.org/balto/en ... 40305.html ), but as you say, "reasonable". You can often recognize who can make a good character design or if they just use some random doll maker.
About characters that looks like Balto characters, it's okay if they are related, like Balto's children. I saw Sabas looking like Jenna and Dingos looking like Kodi, but what can you do when B2 creators were so unoriginal?
I don't like seeing clones, but I'm afraid there will be too much conflicts with this. Like this character - http://www.animationsource.org/sites_co ... a_223f.jpg won't be accepted because "she looks like Steele" or something...


I already said something about it in a similar topic not so long time ago:
"I'd also suggest that poorly made relations like "lives in Nome", or "heard stories of Balto" shouldn't be allowed. They at least have to do something with Balto or Balto-related characters(like "his mate is Balto's sister"). It kinda annoys me too when I see random characters with relation like "is friends with *insert canon character*", but there's nothing about it in their story. My character Jared was a good friend of Balto and it's actualy what most of his story is about..."

Agree with everything said.

Although, as much as I'd like it, I think removing all characters and starting again would cause far too much in the way of arguments and discontent.
I'd feel for the people who have over 10 characters - especially ones that actually have proper relations to the movies to start with. It'd be a lot of work to back-up all of their information, particularly if you don't already have it saved elsewhere and the site doesn't reliably allow you to save the information to it (if at all?).
Of course, on the flip side, it'd be just as much work for the mods to go through the characters on each Source and delete the ones that were inappropriate ...

Not sure about the best solution to that.
But I agree with it all none the less.

Hmm, I'm not really a fan of this idea. It would be a lot of hassle, and the only person with the power to do this would be Steet, and we all know how lazy Steet is. Besides, I can imagine Steet would say no anyway. I think all we can really do is just encourage good characters, and hopefully try to override the bad ones. Any new bad ones should just be deactivated. I think it sounds like a fair solution.



I really can't add more to what you have said here. But I will say this. Just because Jenna is bright red, that does not instantly enable the right for sparkle dogs. The same thing can be applied to Balto 2. Yes, there is spirit magic in it, but that does not mean you can go crazy with wings, fangs, etc.



I completely agree on this, but I fear that effort may not do any good. Because it seems the current staff allows for anything, even if it's badly made. If you report it, or comment on it, the response will be along the lines of "They have to start somewhere, so be nice".



Right. If your character is a St. Bernard for example, don't just make the whole dog brown, and use a lineart of Steele or something. Either draw the character out, or find a lineart for that breed of dog. And for crying out loud, get the markings and coloration of the breed right! Don't even give these people constructive criticism, they cannot handle it, you're simply being a bully to them.

Look, kiddies, if your character is suppose to be a purebred, put the lame excuses aside and study the breed before slapping the character together.



This is simply a way for people to get around the not Balto related thing. They think by doing this that they're avoiding the bullet of people saying "this character belongs on DA".

A good example of Balto related would be my character Makita. She is wolf who got into a scrap with Aleu and became lower in rank as a result. Makita had become very angry and set off on her own. She eventually ventured into Nome, and when she did she caused a ruckus in the town, and that's when she met up with Balto.

Probably not thee best character to ever exist, but I can certainly say that relation is much stronger than that of saying "Friends with Balto".



These kinds of characters should be against the rules. These kinds of characters, if you even want to call them that, have no effort put into them at all. I can see the exception of them being a relative of Balto, but in that regards the character should have to have more modification than just changing the pelt color.

I'm in favor of almost everything there, to the point where I really don't have much to add. Except this: perhaps deleting characters whose owners no longer exist, or have been away from the site for years with no real hope of returning. That would help clean up the section a lot as well, and I know there have been mods who are busy doing that in their spare time.

Great job on this, Kelsey!