a wild poll appears!

[allie]

So, I've noticed that lots of people have lots of different thoughts about rp icon usage, and I'm curious about the prevailing opinion.

For the sake of having this poll make sense, imagine you're playing a character who appears in a manga, an anime, a video game, and a live-action film, but you took your characterization solely from the manga.

[Poll #1422140]


Now, imagine that your character undergoes a change in appearance throughout the series. Check for each change that is acceptable for icon purposes.

[Poll #1422141]

By state change, I mean a change that isn't being represented ICly. Imagine a human character that can transform into an animal, but is always human in the RP. Would it be appropriate for the player to use animal icons as well as human icons?

Obviously, there are exceptions to every rule, but just go with what's true 90% of the time and describe the exceptions in comments.

I'll get on my tags in a sec, I promise.

Comments

[roseargent.livejournal.com]

I personally try to only use images from the medium I'm taking my characterisation from, in situations like that. But it really is a personal thing, I think. *shrug*

I also use icons of Subaru from both his Tokyo Babylon appearance (longer hair, slightly more girlish features, bigger eyes) and his X appearance because though he actually looks more like his X self, he still acts in ways/makes facial expressions that he doesn't much in X. *cough* One is actually Hokuto... sort of. From a dream-sequence. *cough*

So, uh. TL;DR, I have my 'ideal situation' but when it comes to sticking to it, I'm not exactly one to talk!

[valentinite.livejournal.com]

I'd say for a character with a lot of canon sources, go light on the doujinshi/fanart, but use them when there's good reason. (Says the girl who's commissioned fanart for an RP journal where there is canon art.) Generally -- match art styles. If the game is really different looking, skip it. Etc. Which is why I didn't mark live-action for coming from the manga, but I could be convinced on that too.

On the state-change/timeskip thing -- I'd say you'd only want to *use* those icons when the timeskip/change is important -- reminiscing about childhood -> kid icon is obvious, but other ones also.

And for places like damned where characters get changed on entry, anything from original canon that has relevance is good.

I <3 text/quote icons, but that should not be a surprise to anyone, lol.

Also, I'm not big into anime fandom -- but if a Doctor Who RPer for, say, Martha, had icons from the animated special thing or the tie-in comics, my general response would be ooh, nifty!

[revolves.livejournal.com]

Dude, it like... depends a lot on some of these choices. @_@ Like, how desperate you are. For example, with Haseo, there really isn't any shortage of available material for him, so all of the icons I use in-character are from the game or movie, the latter of which has a different characterization but otherwise doesn't look any different from than the games' cutscenes aside from being a bit prettier. However, Haseo also undergoes several major changes in his appearance, and I would never use icons for him that are from a different "form." If I was playing for some insanely bizarre reason his Bst form from the movie, which has very little screen-time, I probably would go and resort to fanart, which brings us to something slightly more relevant to the example given...

With Mikami, I used a number of anime, fanart, and doujin icons alongside the manga ones, even though my version was strictly manga. Why? Because, like, there was only so much you could get out of the time he got in the manga, and I'm a whore for icons. I would never dream of using live-action (if he had been in the live-action movies, har har) or cosplay pictures though. That's just... just no for me.

B is... a story all his own. orz

[stopcounting.livejournal.com]

My exceptions! Video games are fine if they resemble the other sources in format...so, basically, I'm a fan when the video game animation looks like a manga or cartoon, but not so much when it looks like live-action. In that situation, I usually go with one or the other.

This one's hard because there's a lot of blurred ground depending on video game style and quality.

[itsabere.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, this is actually really interesting. I'm kind of liberal(?) when it comes to using icons, though it really depends upon the context and the character. Like, take Yuffie for example. FFVII has all kinds of spin-off media, and I use a mix of pretty much all of them. I go light on the fanart and doujin, making exceptions for when there's a particular expression that I want, but can't find a canon source for. I wouldn't, on the other hand, use a text-based icon ICly. I mostly use icons from Dirge of Ceberus and Advent Children; they're both CG, so it works.

[continuum.livejournal.com]

FFVII is probably the only one I'd mix 3D with 2D art because...IDK FFVII is weird like that. (Or. Well, FF in general. >D But like someone above there said, pretty much only of the 3D resembles anime the way FF tends to.)

For every other fandom, I usually stick with the medium the series came from, but knowing how difficult that can be, my main thing is to stick with 3D vs 2D. So like -- manga/anime mixing is okay, but mixing live-action or cosplay and anime/manga feels a bit weird to me. If that makes sense?

I mostly play from live-action fandoms, though, so I honestly haven't thought about this too much since in that case, you pretty much have icons made from screencaps from the show, and that's pretty much your major, if not only, source. So. 8D;;

[colortheory.livejournal.com]

I totally just voted in the first poll with an RP account. XD; thatmaskedchick = me.

Anyway, I'm okay with just about anything when it comes to iconing...except for cosplay. I don't know why, but RP icons of cosplay seem kind of...tacky to me? I can't really explain it.

[itsabere.livejournal.com]

I have one cosplay icon of Yuffie, and I'm really torn about whether or not I should keep using it. On one hand... it's kind of perfect for what I can use it for. On the other hand, it's cosplay.

[sarrasi.livejournal.com]

I generally prefer to take my icons from the medium I'm playing from though I might mix in occasional anime/manga icons if they're pretty or a traumatic childhood icon for memories or what have you. As long as it's consistent with the way the character looks in the RP, minus rp-verse damage which might be difficult to photoshop in.

With media like video games and books, it's much harder to get picture icons, so I'd be open to anything from manga/doujinshi/fanart images to live action PBs to just quotes. As long as they're all consistent, really.

Cosplay icons are kind of creepy though. They just...are. Unless you specifically need a live action pb that looks like an anime chracter I guess.

But really, they're just icons, so whatever the player wants is good enough for me.

[leafing.livejournal.com]

I... Actually have such a character! (although the game part exclusively uses stills that are in the same style as the animated version.)

I'd mostly stick with manga if that's what you're drawing everything else from. Although if there aren't enough of those available, I'd move on to the next closest thing, and the next closest after that, and so-on.

Said character o' mine also has one of those major cosmetic changes!

I try to find/make as many as possible that match the appearance that he'll have at the point he's taken from.

[dame_grise]

Though I play one character that would have no pictures at all if I didn't take them from a different medium since the novels he's from aren't illustrated. But I stick to the one medium I chose for the pictures, even though there are differences.

[blinkinghell.livejournal.com]

I kinda go from all over the place. Ryuk has fan art, anime, manga and live action. It kinda started out temporarily, with me just being too lazy to make icons or find solely manga ones and...they just stuck.

I have one or two young!Soubi icons, but really for posts where he's thinking about the past and so on.

[eco-mono.livejournal.com]

In general, I'd usually be comfortable using anything drawn if the character himself/herself was drawn. A video game would be borderline in that case - as the character is far more likely to look different - but if there's an expression I need and can't find anywhere else, and if the video game character isn't clearly a different person from the manga character, I'll use it.

As for appearance changes, I tend to get a LOT more picky about that. In the case of someone like Mello, say, if I needed an icon that you only get post-scar and I was playing him pre-scar, I'd probably only take it after photoshopping the scar away.

I usually use text icons in the same way that I use "alternate form" icons - if there's not enough stuff to fill up my icon list, I'll get those and use them when appropriate, in lieu of an actual facial expression. (This is what I'm currently doing for Tanaka, who, having not been a human to begin with, only has "human form" icons thanks to Zarla's fanart). So, I'll use them, but they'll probably not actually get used if I have an appropriate current-form icon to use instead.