Creating a good OC? · 1:33am Sep 19th, 2014
So, I was wandering all over Tumblr today after Peppy went to bed and we stopped streaming ArcheAge. During this magical journey (I'm serious) of exploration, I discovered a Terrible OCs tumblr, dedicated to cataloging the many user-submitted "bad" OCs of others. Now, the terrible OC blog isn't for shaming so much as just showcasing, and the mod doesn't often post their own thoughts, and each post is typically the user submission verbatim. The mod even has a disclaimer that they are not encouraging people to go hate artists, owners, etc., which is great, but obviously not foolproof (as some messages indicate).
Man... some of these are woeful train wrecks of acid/shroom trips, glitter, and contradictory traits at times. Don't worry, I have no plans to actually shame an artist/creator, and I'm sure many of them are young and, we'll say, naive. It's fine, we grow and I'm sure some of us have invented bad OC at some point (lolAurelius). (But seriously, though. How do people make one that is legitimately painful to the eyes and say, "Yep. That looks like a good original character that will fit right into the universe."?)
I just kinda bring this up because all of it makes me think about my own OC creation. I've been asked several times over the years if I have, or will, make an OC. Unfortunately, making a character that represents me is a bit more challenging than most. I like to be reflective, and since I tend to gravitate towards darker things I'd want to use darker colors. Naturally, black is out of the question because pure black + any other single color combos tend to be fairly prevalent. (Black/Red omg) I like green, but never could think of a color palette I'd be satisfied with that, then flowed over to blue. Since I was asked about an OC very recently, I showed a friend a drawing of an OC that was created for me based on some vague characteristics I described. Much kudos to Eight Star for drawing me a cute OC from virtually no details. :3 But I still wanted a more self-conceptualized OC.
I look to the concepts behind what few OCs I have within The Quiet Place. Aurelius suffers from a very ridiculous aesthetic design, but oh god do I love writing his weird, villainous personality. Telos isn't a superb design as character, but a good basis for an OC scheme (to me). Other background characters have been given interesting personalities to a degree. Some characters haven't been introduced. I also like Garr's personality. However, in the end I don't consider any of these characters "true" OCs, even by themselves, even if they very well could be. (Sometimes I smack myself for Aurelius's design. So... ridiculous. But it's stuck that way and I'm gonna to make him the best damn character I can beyond that.)
Back to building my own OC (omg this post is unnecessarily long at this point), I messed around with some pony creators for a bit. I used the official Hasbro one, but I felt it was too limited and ridiculous at times. Switching to a 3d/SFM pony creator, I enjoyed the greater freedom of options. Unfortunately, still not perfect, but hey, it's a creation program, not a free hand drawing from imagination.
Eight Star's rendition (Upper Left Green/Blue Unicorn):
3d Creator OC:
Hijacking S1 Luna's mane because it's rare to see anything like it on OCs, and I'm quite fond of its style, I used a blue-tinted charcoal grey for the coat, and a groomed tail. (Groomed tails aren't very varied, so I'm not sure if that's Trixie's or Octavia's base tail model.) As said, I like green (favorite color) and so I tried to incorporate a two-toned mane and tail. I feel single colors are dull, but no judgement from me for those who prefer them. You can only edit the main part of the mane and the lock on the back separately, so not much in the way of customization. I ended up using purple eyes because I can't seem to decide on a color. Then the bowtie because Octavia's bowtie is damn adorable. >_< (original character donut steel) I feel like I'd have to do-away with the tint or it comes off too much like a Season 1 Luna rip off despite her coat being a light blue, but this is purely for aesthetic design. I'm not trying to write a backstory for an OC that's supposed to represent/ just be a ponified me.
Critique? Comparisons? Show your own? It's just another fun pony thing for me.
What did you use to make your second one?
2466287 It was this one: http://ponylumen.net/games/3d-pony-creator/
Has some cool stuff. Kinda limited, but at the same time not. Imo, it's better than the 2d ones, and there's a lot of depth to some of the features. I wish there were more models in it to play with, but I can't complain since I like what I made with what I had to work with.
Hey, what was the Tumblr blog? I'm always curious about bad OCs.
2466471 http://terribleponies.tumblr.com/
Well, mine is kinda right here as my avatar, so, uh, ya know. There you go.