Animation Source Forums

making one of these posts for all the sources i see having a problem with some of the character page qualities. this little guide will help make your character pages interesting, and more importantly following all character rules, so that less user will be asking why one of there got deactivated.

DISLCAIMER: before i get started i want to state, i do understand some things i will be talking about is merly happening because some users are very young, and I am in no way saying I know best about character pages. i am just sharing some things i've learned by looking at more advanced & the more popular character pages.

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Lesson # 1 : Read ALL the sites character rules.

These are not just for show or to make the mods seem "tough" people took time the make them, write them and modify them, and all you have to do is read them, it doesn't take very long. Don't know where they are?

Link one

Link Two

these are a very important key to having an Quality and stable character page, following the character rules insures that your character will not be reported or deactivated.

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Lesson #2 : Character page Images

Images are probably the Key aspect of your character page, they give visual to your character and their personality, These don't have to be extremely prefect, or amazingly done, But there are some things you should keep in mind.

* Your full body picture should show all of your characters body, not necessarily from every side, but you must be able to see all the way down to it's legs, otherwise it's only a Bust or Head shot.

* Your head shot should not show anything further than the characters chest or shoulders

* Your Full body shot should not show more than 1 character in it unless it's showing your character at various ages.


Those are the must have tips, But if you want your page to grow in Favs & Quality here are some extra tips.


* your character images should be neatly done, if you are using a base make sure to fill in all of the stray white specks...yes this is annoying some times however it shows you care a lot about the character and are putting great effort into it, i mean if it's a base all you really have to do is color it in.


* try to make the head shot a different picture than the body shot, and have it show a lot of the characters personality. If your character is some what evil try a frowned up face for the head shot.


* showing Multiple sides of your characters body in it's body shot is always a nice touch not a must have but is very impressive.


* showing your characters age progression in the body shot is also a nice touch rarely seen around the sites and adds a certain flare to your characters page, once again not a must, but makes the page look good.


* if your character is a sparkle character, it requires a bit of extra effort to make it's image look good to most users. try watering down stark neon colors a bit and the colors flow well with one another. Try to make them seem planed out and not like random creations. shading helps sparkle's quality. Unique designs make sparkles more interesting, paint bucked 2min jobs are ok but will more than likely not draw in other users to it's page. Extra effort is required for Sparkle Lions.


* If your character image is hand drawn, first let me say "bravo" no matter how good or bad you think your drawings are. Any hand drawn item shows that effort was put into your character, just remember that the full body needs to show the character all the way down to it's legs, and if you can try to color in your character if it's been hand drawn.


* If your character is made by a dollmaker, you should Always do a quick searching of the fan characters on the site to make sure your character doesn't look to much like another character that was made with the same dollmaker, It's not hard to do a search just type in the name of the site that you got the doll maker from in the character search section.


* Images that are your work! these makes for great character pages, you might have rendered it, made it on a doll maker or drew it all of that's fine because you put the work into it even if you used a base you put some work into it. Using other peoples images - characters - art is not ok it's theft. (adoptables do not count they're ok)

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Lesson # 3 : Character Bio

This is a very large problem on the source sites, your character bio doesn't have to me 15 pages long, just make it detailed and put together. If your characters Bio is vague and random it's s sign you didn't put time into your character and simply made it just because. Which i guess is fine but it is taking up site space...you should help it be worth the space it takes up right? well here are some tips to help you with that.


* first and more most make sure ALL of the must have fields are filled out (note: these are talked about on the character rules that pop up before you get to the character maker text box) such feilds are; Name, Age, Gender, Personality, Likes, Dislikes, and a History that is atleast 5 lines long.


* Do Not Cheat The History! this is a great problem. when the rules say your character history should be at least 5 lines long it's not talking about 5 sentence fragments. It's talking about five full sentence lines. If your character does not have at least five lines of History that make sense and show some form of story, It generally means you just made said character because you felt you needed a new character or you just wanted to see how many favs it would get and the odds are you'll never use this character for anything.


* Actually Write a history, " to young to have one" or "working on it" or "will come latter" does not count, ever. it's against the character rules and the history never shows up on the said characters page. If you do not have a history planed out for your character the best thing to do is to hold off on making it's page all together until you have thought about what you want for that characters story. a characters not a character at all if it doesn't have some sort of story to tell.


*detailed, Your fields don't have to be large paragraphs, just make what is there detailed enough so that the viewer can see just who your character is personality wise. Try making his or her likes and dislikes specific and use key words for their personality.


* If you say that your character is friends with another character or Official character tell the story about how they know one another in your characters history.


* If you character his heavily involved with TLK world please state how they are int he history or in the " how this character is related the TLK world" section of the Bio.

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Lesson # 4 : Using Bases/Linearts/ Dollmakers & Proper Crediting

A large problem area I know But believe it or not the solutions are very simple. if you are using bases-linearts-and dollmakers you need to show respect to those whom made them available to you, you do this with a simple credit it shows respect and it also states that you are not taking full credit for anything, to leave out a credit is a form of theft. Here are some Tips on doing this Properly.


* if you have used a Lineart or Base for your character page, Credit the Original Artist on the page at the top of bottom of the bio. If you do not remember where you got the Lineart/base from it's best not to use it at all. You can say "base/lineart credited to it's respectful artist" However Its not the same as Crediting the artist by name. Anyone in the world can be the "respectful artist" however stating that is better than nothing at all.


* If you have used a dollmaker for your characters image you should try to post the name of both the site that you found the dollmaker on and the name of the artist whom made the dollmaler, however both are not required but it shows more respect.


* once again if you use a base or lineart, color in all the stray white dots and make it very neat, random base fill-ins with the paint bucket show less effort and kind of spit in the base or lineart makers face, they but effort into it you should to.


* if an image was made for you by another person, please credit that person, I mean after all they didn't have to make it for you.

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Well that's it for now. That's just the basics, this will be updated as site rules change and as more tips are noticed or pointed out by others they will be added here, i hope this help some of you, I'm going to try my hardest to apply these things to my character pages.