User blog:Angel Emfrbl/My thoughts on OCs

So... I may have in these last 3-4 years created the idea in peoples' heads that I don't like OCs. On the contray; I adore them. Its just certain things make me cynical about Vocaloid OCs. Mostly because I see the same issues with them.

First things first, there are tons of OCS that are just based on the popular Big 8 vocaloids, more specifically, CFM's 6 members of the Big 8, to the point where when I now see another OC based on Miku, I just ignore it 9/10 of the time. Especially when they have just done something simple like change the hair colour. I maintain that if I look at a OC and I can say "Miku with Orange hair", its not a creative design. ¬_¬

Look, I do have some leyway in regards to "copying" because trying to copy others' work can help improve yourself as you can see how a person did theirs and impliment their style into your work to improve quality. This isn't what I mean... What I mean is when people do it to create a OC when they could have done better or because they think this defines a Vocaloid OC - and are expecting you to praise it as an original work of art/character when its not. Basically, when they do minimum effort and expect more then what the original artist even put into their work.

The next issue is the base that seems to be the most popular is one or two Miku boxart base based on her V2 boxart... Never her Append or V3 versions, always that same V2 boxart. This is also boring to look at. The particular ones in mind are badly draw and therefore LQ, thus, when someone uses it as a basis for their own OC concept they end up with a equally LQ depiction. If it looks like it was drawn in the late 80s-90s, then the base is useless anyway.

Then comes the actual drawing of the OC on top of the Miku base. No attempt to consider things like a leg being rounded, so clothes edges end up being a straight line... No shading... sometimes the quality is even LQ then the base which is remarkable considering those bases are awful to begin with.

I admire the person who produces crap art, but at least tried, but not someone who just takes a base and slaps bue and red on it to create a "character".

http://cyanonigiri.deviantart.com/art/character-development-aru-461659274

When you can see improvement in quality of the art, then things are sparkling.

This is bad because the brony fandom has many such OCs, yet the average OC is better designed and has more thought into it then the average OC for voclaoid... Yet we're a fandom that relies MORE on creativity then the MLP fandom does, so why is it we can produce even worst OCs then the brony community can??? Their OCs are often simple in design, since they've got a varied guideline to go by and the typical MLP design is actually simple enough to create a new one based on it andstill make it look decent enough.

At the very least, as I said to someone, you can find basic tutorials in Computer art that can help you improve even crappy paint art, but no one ever seems to try and look anything up before they begin.

But by far the worst is still the attitude of "if you don't like it, don't comment". As I mentioned elsewhere on the wikia, I recently did a experiment on DA and posted the same message 6 times on OCs suffering from the same issues. I got 6 responses back of a different attitude with only two of them confessing to their work being awful and accepting this, with one being highly mature about it. I got a flat out "go away" from one and the other basically asked me to suck up to them or don't comment at all.

Okay, let me speak here. I've been to art university, I have pride in my own work. I consider my work "bad" because I don't see it as very professional. But I'd like to think I have at least a decent idea of what quality is; I'm not going to praise work that can be better. I adore "before" and "after" DA memes I see around because you can see improvement and change in a persons' work. You feel like they put effort into their piece. Even when the person can't necessary see that development happening themselves, it becomes obvious when you see these. But when you do something and expect praise from it, the only thing that improves is your ego and not your actual skills themselves.

Unfortunately, this is the internet, but honestly... Seeing the Vocaloid OC base using the same Miku base is something that go old within a few years of Miku's release. If people stopped using Miku as a base, that alone would improve the situation. As I said to someone, KEI's original Miku art is a unconformable "spine-breaking" piece, so when you copy it... Your OC ends up with the same situation. :-/