But what to pay attention to in a face claim itself? I thought I would share some tips on that from my own experience.
Do’s
Imperfections, what really makes someone special and unique is their ‘flaws’. Think about acne, weird birthmarks, scars. Don’t go for a basic perfect looking character.
Diversity, kinda in line with the previous one, but I believe our RPing community can definitely use some more diversity in the characters. Let’s face facts, most are white. And I’ve not seen a ton of religious characters either. A bit more diversity would be nice.
Make sure the eyes are visible, that’s very important to be able to really see the character.
Personality, I personally always try to add in some element of their personality. Either in the pose, clothes, background. Just it’s a good way to show who your characters actually are.
Continue searching if you are not fully satisfied. There are so many options out there so don’t get discouraged if you don’t right away find what you have in your head.
Don’ts
Use overused FCs, how rad Cole Sprouse might be he probably is one of the best examples of overused images. Get creative.
Too zoomed-in images. We want to get to know how your character looks, just a face tells something, but not everything. Show a bit of their body, like the waist usually works perfectly.
Very busy backgrounds, that can distract from the person in the fc
Settle for a terrible quality image. Don’t give up if you’ve found a picture you like but the quality is poor, often you can find it in higher quality with a bit of effort. Use google reversed image search or Pinterest also has an option, which is also rad to find similar images.
Now, to make it more interesting, I will put on some fc’s on which you guys can vote how good you think they are I tried to find some that include some of the pros and cons I’ve given. 1 is a terrible fc, 10 is a perfect one.
As I want to kinda show with the face claims, what I said aren’t guidelines. In some cases breaking the advice I gave, can actually give you a better result. Do you guys have any other advice to share?
So… here are some I thought of they might just be repeating the tips above, but I just want to add them on!
Do…
Find a great angle so that the features of your character is really visible and determinable. You will want that your co-roleplayers know the basics of your character's appearance. You also want to find an FC that doesn't block your FC's face. This is a common sense, but I've seen a few doing it so I thought I might say this too!
^ the image above seem like a good picture, but its angle is off. You can see some features, but they aren’t easy to see.
Make sure that the FC you chose fits the atmosphere your character should be emitting. Think of like a first impression. You don't want people mistaking your character being mysterious when they're actually bubbly!
^ What impression did this FC give you? Is it friendly and bright, or stoic and mysterious?
Find an FC with a subject distance that is reasonable and clear. Again, you want the FC to determine your character's features and such, not compete for a photography contest!
^ Some features are fine and seeable, but can you see the eye color?
Compared to this…
Don’t…
Settle for an FC that doesn't connect in some way to who your character is. You don't want an FC that is Korean for your Indian character, as well as having a *very* modern FC for your *very* 30's character.
Settle for a monochrome or washed-out picture. You want to let your co-roleplayers know the colors of your character, not just the feature! In the same sense, make sure the colors in your picture don't hurt the eyes lol
^ While we can agree the above has a good angle and exposure, the color is monochrome and undeterminable. You can’t always be there to answer questions about these when your co-roleplayer want them for writing, right?
Settle for a small-sized or square-sized FC. Yes, they can be good dimensions, but they will be inconvenient for the RP owner or the one who makes the FC slides and will just bother you to find another faceclaim!
Usually, the horizontal dimensions are always shorter than the vertical ones. Just keep that in mind and you won’t have problems!
^ this is such a good FC, but the size isn’t gonna work! The FC maker or you can always crop that, but it won’t always turn out well.
I believe that’s all that I have. Don’t treat them as rules though
does:
make sure you know what kind of person you want, because as much as people don’t like to admit it, you can see a lot of personalty in someone’s face.
Don’t:
change it too much. I know some people who change their character’s fc a lot and it can get confusing.
I tried to find some that include some of the pros and cons I’ve given. 1 is a terrible fc, 10 is a perfect one.
