What makes a good OC?

[Tel Locus 34]

I've been thinking and talking with some friends, What makes good OC art? My argument is that Recolor and face-claims are about as original artwork for an OC as a copypaste. Their argument is that people would prefer Recolors and FaceClaims compared to a Generator. Now for those that don't know what a faceclaim is (I'm really sure you all know what a Recolor is.) A face Claim is a thing where a person uses someone else's artwork/OC and tweaks around a few things giving credit to the creator and calls it their own OC. Now the conversation is all down to the basic concept of Generators is to provide those that can't draw the ability to create something original. While this is easily abused some can't draw or get commissions.

 

I'd like to get some more ideas on this from a wider group. what makes a good OC design? Is the OC design not important or does all an OC need is just a name, backstory, and personality, with no real physical appearance?  

[El Duderino 879]

Face claim... Like using a base? I would say that that is the best thing if you can't make a completely original drawing, in my opinion. It is best if you draw it yourself, but not everyone can draw. I can kind of draw, but I still prefer to use bases. As long as you can credit the creator of the base and they said it can be used by others. Not cool to steal others work.

I think that generator is a little better than recolor, but only because recolor is only putting effort into choosing a color scheme. At least with generators you have at least some creative liberties and have to come up with more than just colors. That's just my opinion. Both should be avoided if possible, but sometimes it's the only thing someone can do.

 

Honestly, I think the most important part of an OC is the personality and backstory, not the quality of the image. This is what makes the OC more than just a picture, but an actual character. If you have no skills in art, then focus on the backstory and personality to make up for the appearance. 

Edited February 29, 2016 by El Duderino

[Tel Locus 34]

Not a base, a faceclaim is 100% of the pony, I should have clarified that. So for instance I have a pony that looks like your OC, so I'd take your image and call it a faceclaim and say "He looks kind of like that." I'm gonna use Urban Dictionary's definition: noun. A term used in role play games to describe a person used for the physical description of a character. Said person can be anyone, but is typically an actor or animated character.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Tel Locus

[Rainbow Diamonds 282]

What makes an OC design good? First, the colors should be more pastel and not vibrant. Second, the species should make sense. If their special talent involves weather or anything to do with the sky, they should be a pegasus. If they grow food, they should be an Earth Pony. I personally hate ponies who have special talents that make no sense with their species. Third, avoid the colors black and white. There are light grey ponies who look white, but there aren't white ponies. Their eyes need to be visible. Black coats also don't work. I think black mane is also a bad idea, but I'm sure it can work. Also, please don't give too many unessesary features. Bat wings, stripes, horns, sharp teeth, and a unicorn horn would turn people away from your OC. In fact, wings and horn would also turn people away. Looks are very important because if your OC doesn't look good, people probably wouldn't look at anything else. Hint: If your OC looks out of place in the MLP universe, it's not a good OC. (Assuming they have the body shape of an average MLP character.) Standing out is one thing. Looking like they don't belong is another. The problem with pony creator is the lack of creativity. You can't really do much. Do you want a pony with rainbow mane that doesn't look like Rainbow's? Do you want a pony with gradient colors in their mane, like Rarity does? (That's often bad, but it's possible, looking at Rarity.) Do you want your OC to have a hair piece that isn't the same color as part of their mane? Well, you can't with the pony creator. I could draw for people if they could give me enough detail about their OC. 

 

Recolor and face-claims are very unoriginal and should be considered stealing. If I recolored Mona Lisa, no one would say it's original. Why would MLP ponies be any different? 

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,673]

One of the most important things you'll want to get right are the colors.

Stick with pastel colors (which are typically high in brightness but medium to low in saturation).

If your OC's apperance is pleasant on the eyes, you're on the right track. (Sully and Snow Perch are my best examples.)

Can't give much advice on CM unfortunately.

As for personality, they need to be relatable in some way. Giving them the most brooding and edgy personality and backstory imaginable won't make them relatable but quite the opposite. A pony, the youngest of three siblings, who can't seem to figure out his place in life despite being 18 who grows only more uneasy as he feels pressured to find a career worthy of his parents sounds a lot more relatable. Although, if you can't get around some dark aspects such as one or more dead parents, make sure it has some relatability or at least seem acceptable. If it's just for the sake of making the character appear edgy then that's just distracting. If you can't get around that either, it may be best to omit these altogether and only have it be bought up when it is absolutely relevant.

Having their occupation figured out is important and the more it relates to other aspects of their character, the better as it helps to make them feel consistent and fleshed out. Of course, if they're young, they best go to school.

 

Hope this helps.

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

I think the most important part of a character is personality. Anybody can have a specific set of powers, or an interesting look, or even a similar backstory, but the personality is what sets a character apart from everybody else.

 

Unfortunately a lot of people undermine personality as one of the "offstage" things. They don't really care who their characters are, they care about how bruting they act or how cool they look, or what kind of weapons or powers they have. But personality is more than just "something something courageous daring determined something", it's who your character is.

 

How do they react when something goes horribly wrong? How do they react when somebody unexpectedly confesses love to them? How do they react when they do something good yet get no reward? How do they react when they learned something great is going to happen to them?

 

If the answer is the same for all of the questions, your character probably needs more personality. That's just a simple test that I think can help define a good personality, and also get the creator thinking about what their character is like.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Meson Bolt

[SugarfootWillie 383]

The execution is what I would consider one of the most important parts of having an OC. Whenever you are using that character it is important to be them in their shoes, not you looking through their eyes. Physical appearances do go a long way, but if the art does not match the personality then the character looks and feels strange.

[Tel Locus 34]

Looks like a lot of opinions regarding this subject, seems I should weigh in as well. 

 

There is two points in regarding every aspect of an OC: firstly the OC should be original, It's in the title. Secondly the OC should be understandable for the setting they're in. With a few small exceptions in a CS this should bee straight forward.  I'm just gonna go through each part and explain to the best of my abilities what I mean, 

 

Name: this is pretty easy, if the name is owned and it's obvious to find then be careful not to use it. for example. Trixie Lulamoon; Taken, Dusty Roads; Taken. Taking a name is sometimes okay but only when the name is generic enough for example Mint Leaf. There is like 4 Mint Leafs. As for the character aspect of this make sure the name fits the setting. It can't be stressed enough how many times this is broken for a self insert. Under normal circumstances I.E. some kind of HIE RP or something, But pony names normally consist of 2 words. Be it a common noun, an adjective, or even a conjunction. It's traditionally two words, Now with that in mind one words, are okay but those characters might be harder to Identify going further down the road.  

 

 

Personality/history: I clump these two together because they go hand in hand far too much to ignore. An Original aspect of this is that the OC's history and personality isn't directly similar to another character's, What this means is that R63 would fail this portion in the originality section if they attempted to pass it outside of AU setting ((Best R63 watch Sliders episode double cross)) But it still doesn't count. As far as character wise, there is three things that should be said:

1.) the character's personality should match up with what their history says ((No miserable backstory for a character that is constantly happy, and on the flip side no happy backstory for an edgy character... they don't match))

 

2.) The history is believable to the setting. ((Ponies are not traveling to human NYC like it's a piece of cake.))

 

 3.) The Personality and history match up to the world around them as a whole. (What I mean by this is that in a world where everyone is all honkey Dorey and crime is almost nonexistent I doubt you're going to find a serial killer or a master criminal kingpin)

 

Appearance: This is the holy grail of making or breaking an OC, An original OC description is unique for that character. For an RP with humanoid characters this is a lot easier to accomplish since for the most part you'll be hard pressed to find two people that look exactly alike and not be twins ((I've seen a few doppelgangers before but that's aside the point.)) Humans have a lot of unique features that make them them. Ponies however do not, remove the mane and silhouette them you would not be able to tell with 100% accuracy which pony is which. ((Small exceptions aside)) So things like face-claims are unacceptable. And recolors can be accomplished by using a coloring book. So neither is really acceptable in the original setting. Generators can work but need to be good ones. I'd suggest General Zoi's pony creator V3 since it has the most options, It may look generic but with that you can get your foot in the door at making an OC that is your's. Outside those two you have artists renditions and bases, Both of these require more work but you can make an OC image that looks amazing. 

 

For those that don't want images you can describe your character in words. Be warned avoid "Looks like"'s these generally make the reader visualize the pony mentioned so saying the OC looks like Twilight the reader is already imagining Twilight and all your work is just added to her like some kind of Chronenberg monstrosity. Instead try descriptors of their attributes ((Big mac's size, Pinkie's mane, Rarity's eye's.)) this can give the reader a composite to think off of. Kind of sloppy but can work. Last part on descriptions, If you can write details, While there is such thing as too much, It's generally loved for there to be a lot of detail. 

 

I think that about covers it. All in all the main point of having an OC is that it's your character and it's unique, just having an OC for the sake of having an OC is a slippery slope that should be avoided since that removes any sense of personalization  to the character and just makes them a thing.. Instead an OC should be an extension of yourself. Something you love to play in not some skin suit that you feel obligated to push around in a story because that's how OC's die quickly. 

[deathpioupiou 103]

For me, if you like your OC, it's a good OC, you don't need more

[Xeltor23 704]

A good Oc needs, I think, a good background, first of all; his story has to be pretty coherent, good, and adapted to the kind of Oc you want to do (dramatic, nothing special, joyfull....) . A good story is especially necessary if you want to make a powerful Oc or such.

 

Then, there is his personality: is he/she tricky? Honest? Hides who he/she really is? Willing to help people or not? Friendly, lonely, shows to be one these to while being the exact opposite? Evil? Good? Lawful, chaotic? Or the mix some of these? And if his personality helps with the events that happens to him/her, you have to show why... An Oc has to be close to real, you have to feel that he, in his/her turn, feels too.

 

Then the physical appearance; there, do what you want, I can't tell you xD

 

Finally, there is his/her abilities: what do you want your Oc to be able to do? Skilled at magic? Strong? Fast? Or just simply talented in something in particular? How will that help him in his adventures? And something very important:  HOW did he get these powers/talents? By training? Was it, innate? Did he/she get them randomly? And also very important: why? Why would you give him/her special talents or powers? To be cool? Because he has a purpose nobody knows about? I don't know, something! xD

 

Then, there you have some elements I think are pretty important c:

[AtomicStone 724]

In my opinion, a good OC is defined by being different to everyone else.. Being something that is unique to you as a person. It's easy to just make your own pony, but making it something that matters to you personally is what it's all about for me.. And that's what I like to see when it comes to a well made OC, being unique and special!

[Starlet Harmony 128]

In my opinion, a good OC is unique. Bases are totally fine to use as long as you put your on spin on it! I would recmend using a generator to come up with your own idea, then use a base to draw it and keep tweaking it until it is perfect! I totally agree with @atomicstone

[Toast 55]

I was honestly thinking the same thing as soon as logged in just now. I think mostly just originality or something.

 

I think any OC is good, as long as it's not one of those black and red dragon/bat/vampire/evil male Alicorn/ time stopping/ capable of destroying all of equestria at will kind of pony. lol

 

 

I honestly hope to find answers on this myself too. I just made my OC to resemble toast with butter and burnt edges. xD

And myself in general. (Tall, skinny, passive personality and black hair with dark blonde highlights.

[Kiri 7,288]

I have absolutely nothing against the Pony Generator. I don't think people should be judged for using it if that's the only option available to them. What matters the most to me is that the pony's color scheme isn't blinding or jarring. I know that some say an OC's color palette should look "show-accurate", but I tend to disagree. I've seen plenty of OCs out there with dapples, stripes, and whatnot, and the OC still looks very pleasing to the eye. It's all a matter of not overdoing it with the markings and how well the color scheme meshes in my opinion. There's this one neat little tool that someone on here posted (sorry, I don't remember who you are!) and it can be really helpful in figuring out color schemes.

 

http://paletton.com/#uid=43-1l0k2Uiy57nK41hG5nh06Ggb

 

An especially good character in my opinion is one whose color scheme/hair style matches its personality and talent. Rarity is a fashion designer and adores high fashion, especially within the Canterlot elite. Her mane is neatly curled and is a royal purple.

 

I think the physical attributes of an OC is where there's a lot of controversy. There's especially a lot of dislike for alicorn/vampire OCs, since a lot of people tend to make them overpowered, perfect, or otherwise cliched (i.e. royal but doesn't want to be, bullied as a kid for no tangible reason, born evil but doesn't want to be, born an alicorn for no reason at all, an alicorn whose horn doesn't work, etc.). I'm going to say this right now. When it boils down to it, the OC is your character and you have a right to make it however you'd like, regardless of other people's opinions. But having those types of characteristics has a potential to make the OC less appealing to those you roleplay with/include in fanfics and other literary works because they can sometimes come across as self-inserts or non-believable/relatable. I think that there can be a way to handle "unusual species", though it takes a lot of work to make them more understandable and relatable characters. I like OCs whose circumstances/talents give them a reason for being the species that they are. 

 

The best OCs in my opinion are those whose backstories show how they went through some sort of personal development to be who they are in the present. That being said, they don't necessarily have to go through a tragic or otherwise extreme event. In fact, I think that with so many OCs that do have tragic backstories, it's cool to also come across one who wasn't permanently altered by dark magic and their parents weren't killed in an accident. An OC can be unique, yet not somehow play a role in affecting the fate of Equestria in a significant way. 

 

Again, this is just my opinion!

Edited March 7, 2016 by Quartzy

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,302]

For me, if you like your OC, it's a good OC, you don't need more

Dammit!  Was gonna say that. xD

[Tel Locus 34]

I guess I should bring up a meaning of irritation of mine regarding this OC thing. I have a person who on another chat, has an OC he claims his own. Now this OC is indeed original however the referencing image he used  is of another person's OC, one Hekesuh http://batponies.wikia.com/wiki/Hekesuh << this guy.

 

Now I am at a point of trying to decide if I should kick his Oc's back if I can prove he is using other people's arts to reference his OC's, or to accept them and turn a blind eye to what I would consider art thieving. My stance on this is that such behavior is unacceptable and he should find an alternate method of picturing his OC. What do you all think?