OC Creation Guide #1: The basics

Hei/Hello everybody! I'm DarkLord98, but please, call me JT.

Anyway, onto the topic at hand, OC Creation. I'm not going to lie to you people, I hate most OC's that I see on the internet, whether it's because the art style is absolutely horrid, the character being either a literal copy-paste or a damned palette swap, or the character making no sense at all.

So, as someone who's seen the flaws and mistakes that people have made, I decided to start this little blog series dedicated on helping people designing OC's that actually fit the world they're in.

But before I delve into any specific anime's, let's start from the basics.

Name: The name of your OC should fit in with the rest of the characters, so no John Smiths in Naruto, unless they're for a "OC from our world inserted into a anime" fanfic, but I'll cover that later. Take a look at the character roster, and then try to come up with a name for your OC.

And don't make it something cliche'd, like Shadow or Hikari, or anything else that's just a simple word in another language.

Use baby-name sites to find a name(first and surname) for your OC.

Don't give your OC the same family name as a character in the show, unless the character belongs to a big clan, so don't make your OC a sibling of, let's say Killua from Hunter-X-Hunter, as we've seen his family. same thing with Naruto, Fairy Tail, One Piece, Bleach and all other franchises, so try to avoid the names Uzumaki, Uchiha, Otsutsuki, Monkey, Kurosaki, Dragneel, Heartfilia, Fullbuster, Dreyar, Ishida and so on.

Appearance: Now, appearance is something that can be changed quite easily, but that doesn't mean that you can go crazy with the OC's appearance. For example, if your OC has a un-natural hair color for their world, and they have dyes in that world, make it so that the OC actually dyes, and that their roots are a natural color, and for the love of all that is holy, don't try and pull any BS about a spirit turning the hair white. 

Same thing with hairstyles, babies don't come out with drill-shaped pigtails, people have to work for that, so try to avoid anything that's overly complex, and if the OC does have a complex hairstyle, give a reason for it to be like that, a believable like.

Moving onto the colors of the OC's eyes. Keep it simple, don't throw any insane and impossible colors like crimson red, as that simply makes your OC into an un-interesting cliche. Go for natural colors and shades, as eye color isn't something that you can change easily. And don't throw any insane shapes into the OC's eyes, like cross-shaped pupils or something like that.

And as for skin, keep it natural, unless they belong to a race that has different skin colours, in which case, keep it in their limits.

And then we come to body type. Don't make your OC into a fucking model, unless they actually work to keep it in that shape. And try to draw the bodies so that they don't look like a weak wind would blow them over, and try not to make them look incapable of supporting their own weight, so no perfect hourglasses I'm afraid.

And finally, we come to the end of the appearance segment, clothing. Keep it sensible dummy. For example, let's say that your OC lives in a warm region, so they're probably not wearing any parkas or thick clothes, but T-shirts and shorts for example. Make their outfits look like they fit the world, and not stick out like a 2-feet giant surrounded by vertically challenged people. For example, if the OC is a fighter, don't put things like a corset, a skirt and high heels into their normal or fighting outfit

For the OC's casual clothes, pick ones that don't look like they need 2-3 hours of set up to even put on or take off, and are comfortable. For work clothes, pick something practical, for example, say that your OC is an assassin, so pick something form-fitting with dark colors, nothing that's bright enough to blind people, and nothing that will dangle from the outfit, so that it gets stuck on every possible thing.

Personality: And now we get to the meat of the OC, and it's what can make or break one. If you're making a OC for an established franchise, or just for a Role Play, make the OC's personality make sense, for their world, their personal history, occupation, social status and age. Don't make a happy-go-lucky idiot OC for a grim, crapsack world like Highschool of the dead{Zombies}, Attack on Titan{Titans}, Naruto{Child soldiers: check, control over the elements: check, The economy being based on Person 1 wanting Person 2 dead, robbed, mind-controlled or something equally bad: check, Assassin: sorta check}, RWBY{Let's see, child soldiers: check, soulless abominations that grow with age: double check, a hostile, partially justified, hypocritical racial movement: check, uneasy relations between nations: I'd say so} or Akame Ga Kill{Do I really need to give an example?}, and actually have them survive like that for long, although they can try to keep being like that to keep themselves from falling into despair.

And give them flaws, don't make them perfect, as all people have flaws, whether they like to admit it or not. I like to keep this little check-list where for every positive trait, I pick one negative one, and avoid picking the two sides of the same coin. For example, let's say that your OC doesn't deal well with people, but is very kind and loving with animals, that makes sense.

Background: This is most certainly tied very closely to a character's Personality. If a character comes from a financially troubled background, they're more likely to choose a money.saving option. If a OC comes from a rich and entitled background, they're more than likely snobbish, immature and used to getting what he/she wants. A person can't have come from an abusive family, and not have any mental problems, but they may have put up a Stepford smiler persona to try and protect their mind.

Relationships with other characters: Once again, this is tied to a character's Personality, but it's also tied to their Background. For example, you can't have a Blood knight be best friends with a Pacifist and make them have no issues with one another, well, save for the Blood Knight being happy that the Pacifist let's him handle the fights.

One thing that you absolutely can't do is have characters fall in love with the OC at first sight, as that will earn you a lot of hate and shit being thrown at you. And with some characters, you can't even have the canon characters be friends with the OC, especially if they're antisocial, or if they're Hisoka. Seriously, how could any well-balanced individual be friends with that guy?

Simply put, don't pair your OC's with a character that is any of these things that I am about to list, unless your OC is mentally ill and/or evil:
A: A mentally unhinged person that wouldn't have any emotional problems with killing the OC or a large amount of people
B: Characters that already have a romantic interest, or are married to a character already
C: A character that hasn't shown any romantic interest towards anyone

Synopsis: Yritä olla alkuperäinen, mutta älä yritä luoda liian erikoista OC:ta, koska sellaiset saattaa mennä liian kliseiseksi.

That concludes the basics, and next time, we'll move on to specific worlds, starting with the one that people make the most mistakes with: Naruto!

Näyttötyön esittely:

So, I'm going to write this presentation in Finnish and English, and English'll be marked with an underline.
Tämän esittelyn suomeksi ja englanniksi, ja englanti merkataan alaviivalla.

It's a RPG Game, partially based on a Light Novel/Manhua(a Chinese comic), called Douluo Dalu, A.K.A Combat Continent or Soul Land depending on the translation. The story is currently being translated by BlueSilverTranslations.

Se on Roolipeli, joka osittain perustuu kevytnovelliin/Manhua:an(Kiinalainen sarjakuva), nimeltään Douluo Dalu, A.K.A taistelumanner tai sielu maa käännöksestä riippuen. Tarinaa kääntää tällä hetkellä BlueSilverTranslations.

The original idea for the game would've allowed the player to choose two different sides of the story to follow, fighting for either the Beast Spirit users, who transform into half human, half animal forms, or the Machine Spirit users, who as the name might imply, use Machine spirits to fight for them.

But, due to time restraints, we couldn't implement that feature, so we had to choose one side to follow. And since I was in charge for designing the enemies, we chose to go with the Beast Spirits, as it was easier for me to design mechanical enemies.

Pelin alkuperäinen idea oli antaa pelaajan valita kahdesta eri puolesta, jonka tarinaa sitten seurattaisiin, taistellen joko Peto-henkien käyttäjien puolella, jotka muuttuvat puoli-ihmis, puoli-eläin muotoihin, tai Kone-henkien käyttäjien puolella, jotka kuten nimestä voi jo päätellä, käyttävät Kone-henkiä taistelemaan heidän puolesta.

Mutta aikarajoituksien takia, emme voineet tehdä tätä, joten meidän täytyi valita yksi puoli jota seurata. Ja koska minä olin vihollisten suunnittelusta vastaava henkilö, ja koska minulle oli helpompaa suunnitella mekaanisia vihollisia, me menimme Peto-henkien puolelle.

Now, both sides could've easily been portrayed as villainous and hatable, or as heroic and likable, as both sides had good and bad people and traits in them. The "Users" could have and will be displayed as cold, pragmatic people who are thinking with a risk-vs-reward-vs-effort mindset, but they could've also be seen as smart and civilized people, who will think before acting.

Kummatkin puolet olisi voitu helposti näyttää pahiksinia ja vihattavina, tai sankarillisinä ja pidettävinä, koska molemmilla puolilla oli hyviä ja pahoja henkilöitä ja piirteitä. "Käyttäjät" olisi jo alkuperäisessä conceptissa voitu näytetty pragmaattisina ja kylminä henkilöinä, jotka ajattelevat riski-vs-palkkio-vs-panostus mielentilalla, mutta heidät olisi voitu myös nähty viisaina ja sivistyneinä ihmisinä, jotka ajattelevat ennen kuin tekevät mitään.

And alternatively the "Beasts" could've be seen as animalistic savages, who act on their basic instincts, only displaying higher intelligence if their Beast Spirit happens to be the right kind, or if their own willpower is strong enough. And on the other hand, they could be seen as empathic people with a strong sense of community.

Ja vastaavasti "Pedot" olisi voitu nähdä eläimellisinä raakalaisina, jotka seuraavat heidän perusvaistojaan, näyttäen korkeampaa älykkyyttä jos heidän peto-henki sattuu olemaan oikeaa sorttia, tai jos heidän oma tahdonvoimansa on tarpeeksi vahva. Ja toiselta kannalta, heidät voidaan myös nähdä empaattisina ihimisinä, joilla on vahva yhteisöllisyys.

But, due to time constraints, we had to go with a rather cliche'd setting, and change quite a lot of what I had originally planned for the game, making it so that the leader of the "Beasts" is the rightful Queen of the kingdom, but her kingdom was taken from her when the "Users" attacked, and drove her and the other survivors into the forests.

I also had to change the Machine Spirits to "Artificial" Spirits, that are created by bonding the soul of a person to a machine, by carving runes into the body of both the user and the machine

So yeah, I'm somewhat disappointed, but adaptability is what's important in survival, so I'll take what I can get.

Mutta, aikarajoituksien takia, meidän täytyi mennä joksenkin kliseisellä asetelmalla, ja muuttaa aika paljon siitä mitä alunperin suunnittelin pelille, muunsin "Petojen" johtajan valtakunnan oikeaksi hallitsijaksi,  jonka valtakunta ryöstettiin häneltä kun "Käyttäjät" hyökkäsivät, ja ajoivat hänet ja kaikki muut selviytyjät metsiin.

Minun täytyi myös muuntaa kone-henget "Keinotekoisiksi" hengiksi, jotka luodaan yhdistämällä ihmisen sielu koneeseen, kaivertamalla ruuneja käyttäjään ja koneeseen.

Joten, joo, olen pikkuriikkisen pettynyt, mutta kyky soveltua on tärkeintä selviytymisessä, joten otan sen minkä saan.

If you want to play the game, download it here

Jos haluat pelata peliä, lataa se tästä

Introductions

Tally ho, chaps!

I'm JT, or as I go by on Deviantart and Fanfiction.net, DarkLord98.

On this Blog, I'll be posting some sketches, maybe a few story ideas, quite possibly a review or whatever comes to my mind.

Sadly, I'm afraid I won't be able to post any pictures or sketches, as I'm waiting for package with Wacom pen tips to arrive.