I don't understand. Is the issue they don't look similar or that they do look similar and the person for some reason doesn't like similar looking characters being shown to them
1. That they arnt similar. And 2. A lot of people dont really appreciate their characters being compared to other characters. Espwcially because often they are being compared because they have the surface level similarities like same hair colour
I mean I kinda get it. But I don't get why someone finding a similarity between two characters and pointing it out is so insulting. I find a lot of social etiquette confusing in general tbh.
I can't speak for everyone obviously but when youve worked on a character for so long, spent hours designing them, making their backstories and loving them then for someone to just see their blue hair and go "hatsune miku" its just feels like all your work didnt matter.
Makes sense. I guess the problem is the artist formulates all this backstory and knows a lot about the character. Meanwhile the person who sees it doesn't think much of it since all they observe is the design. Maybe it just comes down to a matter of perspective. Thanks for explaining.
A lot of people when I don't understand a social situation just get angry and refuse to explain. So it's refreshing having someone be patient and helpful
This is true, but a character is more than their design, especially someones OC. And there is more to a character than just haveing a similarity to another character. Its good to just enjoy someones OC as just that, their OC!
And thats ok, i have a tough time with social things too!
If somebody wants to say this I think the best alternative is "this character has a thing I like" or "I like characters like this". Let the oc stand on its own!
My favorite is "He looks like you." or "She looks like you." And then I go out of my way to get a face model that looks nothing like me and still get "Looks like you!"
That’s your influences showing. If everyone says your work reminds them of X, then take it as a sign that you need to stop drawing so much like X. (Unless you’re an insane fan of X and want to copy that character/style as slavishly as possible.)
Sometimes it's interesting to find out what parts they see as looking the same. Says a little about how brains work. "They've both got shorts with rolled up bottoms, shirts with a tone of red, and orange socks" or "They just did something I'm about to spend 10 minutes cleaning up."
People tell me my character looks like Yugi and usually I don't mind but my dad was like "You have to stop drawing like that, he looks too similar" and it made me sad 😞
This happened to me SO MANY TIMES. And yeah 99% of times the only things in common are things like: they both have *insert colour here* hair or they wear a vaguely similar piece of clothing. 😅
Yep, I've experienced this in both my art ("that looks like Daria!"), and in MMO games like City of Heroes ("Your cat hero looks like >this other cartoon cat person
I have a jester character I'm loath to draw because she always gets compared to Harley Quinn, and more recently someone claimed her hair and cheek symbols looked like Star from svtfoe 😭 I designed this char when I was like 14 (15 yrs ago)
Once my cousin (very pale in skin tone, has straight hair, brown eyes and has a generous cleavage) was talking to a girl she had befriended in a holiday village (this girl had much darker skin, very defined curls, blue eyes and petite build) and 1/2
"They look like this character" is like... No?
Reminds me of when trolls said I was "obsessed with anime" for having my character as a profile picture 🤦🏽♀️ I'm like oh really? What anime is my profile picture from? Never got a reply to that nonsense.
As a hobby artist I think it depends on who they think it reminds them of. I've gotten compliments for art that unintentionally looked like actors/actresses and it felt like a big compliment. But ig if it was some trashy character I didn't like it probably would've felt less good. It's risky i guess
Not every artist has a problem with it, if someone notices the influences on my drawing I usually like it, if they're off the mark I mostly laugh and say nah lol, it's not that serious and comparing things is an easy way to get people to understand said things
I do think there is also a big difference between saying something looks like a thing and claiming someone “stole it.” If people are doing that last one I understand getting upset.
Ya. The way I always saw it is kind of a “oh your thing looks like a thing I like, did that thing inspire you?” “Oh cool that we both like that same thing and that you made your own cool thing out of it.” Also our brains are hard wired to look for connections and patterns.
But as you said not everyone has a problem with it, but half of the artists have. I personally dislike this comment and it makes me self conscious and sad.
And that's fine, if it hurts you then kindly tell them that. There's not really a way to prevent it since again it's a natural human instinct to compare.
What about the other way around. More artists should realize that it's not the insult they think it is. Like conversely, they think your character design is on par or maybe even better than this other thing they really really love
If you created a personal character and every comment was saying "omgggg this is exactly like Jinx! This is a direct copy of Sonic the Hedgehog! Are you meaning to copy Miku?" Etc etc... And the character literally just has blue hair... Those arent compliments, it's lazy and uninspiring
"Copy" or "Exactly" is a lot more offensive than just saying your character looks like this other character. Comments like that are definitely in poor taste, not defending those
"wow this character you poured your heart and soul into reminds me of this character that has absolutely nothing to do with your work, I'm just incapable of letting things be unique on their own terms." Not everything needs to be compared. You're allowed to keep it to yourself
And I don't care if the intent of the comparison is to say 'it's even better than!' If you love the design, "I love the design!" is all you have to say.
"I love the design! It's like Sonic, but if Sonic was even more badass!" implies I took someone else's...
Are you trying to say that your character designs are entirely unique, disconnected from the cultural context?
If you make a blue hedgehog, it will be inevitably inspired by that other blue hedgehog.
Yeah, it's mostly just people who have no vocabulary for describing character traits or art quality/style.
I've used it in the past when working with people to help them visualize what they want, "Do you want [X trait] like [A character] or like [B character]?"
I can see the misunderstanding but both Benoit and Edge do not look the same at all! Not mention also that Edge is taller even than HHH, Benoit looked like a normal person next to Edge :'D
Forgive me if I’m being dense. Is this just about “they don’t look remotely the same?” Or is it making a point about enforcement of gender presentation?
Omg as a Black artist, this is SO bad when you have Black OCs, cuz people will get racist on top of this so quick too! I need people to STOP taking the joy out of things and stop comparing artists all the time.
If a comparison feels relevant, saying "I like the way you did x, reminds me of this other thing I like" sounds way more like a clear compliment (and even helpful feedback) than vaguely going "it looks like y" which could mean a million things, from accusations to sneaky insults
Writing gets into this as well.
You do ONE creepy santa story playing on the prinal fears of childhood and your experiences with the holiday around the world, and youll have people come to you and say "hey, I saw your nightmare before Christmas story"
Usually if someone does this with my characters I just have the two characters go on a playdate (except in the case of Ritchie in which he looked *exactly* like another character)
Oh nooooooo~! Too relateable xD The amount of times when someone says one of my characters look like another then I go look it up and have to say wtf is too much
I've never had it QUITE this bad but I do love the detail that both characters have green hair. It always comes down to hair colour.
(I wouldn't mind these types of comment if they ever had anything else to say about the art, but 95% of the time it's just stating the comparison and nothing else).
It’s wild ahahah - i do love how I don’t think valeome has a single shared trait with jester aside having horns (as he isn’t even a tiefling, lol) baffling
oh no, i feel bad now 😭 i am sorry to everyone if i ever did that
sometimes i am like "oh i like your oc, this reminds me of ..." and then a character of a game or movie or sth that i like that has like one or two similar feature like the hair or overall vibe or sth 😭😭 i didnt realise it was rude
Some people don't mind it but a lot of people really do, just even with good intentions, it just doesnt feel good that this character you worked so hard on and love so much can be boiled down to some surface level features another character has.
i had MULTIPLE people saying my (furry) character looked like a fusion of 2 stupid vtubers just because she has pink and blue eyes. was about to crash out. i should've 😭
I wish for all people who compare Krista to Lily from Lily's Garden a very get hit in the back of the head with a frying pan at full speed maximum so that it makes a loud KLANG sound
I've personally never minded this, tbh. If you think my char looks like another and I agree, then cool! Now I like two characters.
If I disagree though, I'm still interested in why you thought that. Maybe you see my char differently than I do, and I can learn something.
I did this to someone recently!
Saw their OC with blue skin, short white hair, yellow/orange glasses, and open shirt... and it reminded me of "happy chaos" from guilty gear...
Depending on the artist some people dont mind comparison comments, but some folk also don't really like it, its ok if a character reminds you or another character but if you see/know it isn't that character it's sometimes best to just keep the comparison to yourself.
It's only bad if people accuse you of copying or stealing a character outright. You can compare every single character to another existing character or person.
FWIW, everything's been done under the sun... art nowadays seems to be a matter of making fresh experiences of what's already there.
Ex: The archetype of Madonna gazing skyward has been done countless times. Yet Titian, Caravaggio, Raphael, Bouguereau all made novel experiences from it.
I know the feel, I also feel annoyed by that kind of comments. But depends on who they word it.
I'm fine if they say "Looks like X and because X reasons and I like that"
Then I'm quite fine with the comment, they remind them of something they like.
But it's only "Looks like X" coldly, yeah ugh...
I started practicing anime style when I was ~12yo and when people saw my drawings they said it looks like Pokémon. 😂 Well, in a way, they were not wrong...
Honestly I don't mind when people are like "hey you character reminds me of [insert character here]" but sometimes the comparisons are pretty baffling lol
Thinking about the time someone came across a piece of my art and was really happy because they thought they'd found fanart for their Community rarepair and it's like. look. this is a different bald white man and fat Black woman. I don't know what to say. They look nothing like those actors.
This is one of those things where I really don't know what the fix is aside from pulling the person aside and just bluntly letting them know that it's a bit hurtful to say. For game development, it's an inevitable thing to. Everything is derivative, and the comparisons are just a natural conclusion
Like, obviously, when someone is making something they are pulling from things that they like either consciously or subconsciously, but the goal is to create something unique to the ARTIST, and you want for it to stand on it's own. There has to be a psychological reason for the why behind comparing.
Like "I" even do it sometimes, and I don't mean for it to, but I try to also follow up with the elements I am comparing it to being things that I like versus just saying "oh it's like this thing". A turn of phrase I use is "remind".
"This is so awesome! It kind of reminds me of [blank], and that's cool because that vibe is [blank blank]." and normally the dialogue then becomes me and the artist or game dev geeking out about the mutual thing some two art form share because we both like the same thing (obviously).
But anyway, sorry for the post chain. I err on the side of a person not meaning to be rude. Although, I do think it does help to just let them know on a personal level how it was you took what they said. I believe that is usually enough for consideration on their behalf to tone it down.
Writers get something like this occasionally. "Oh you must have read *this* book before you wrote yours because in that book someone does a thing too."
this feels so relatable, me or anyone who's made a goblin oc with ears on the side automatically thinks "looks like yoda!", Yoda isnt even a goblin for frick sakes!! smh 😭
Seeing this comic keeps making me think we need to do a huge refresher course on adjectives with some people. Ah yes the short length not green colored hair totally looks like long and green colored hair.
Ive seen people say they say it to connect with the artist and try start a conversation, but yeah just saying you like the art or the character is a much faster way to that than comparing characters
EVERY time I draw a man with facial hair, multiple people ask me if it’s either Qui-gon Jinn, Jesus, or the Burger King. And in the case of the latter two you can tell they really think they’re being super funny. thanks I hate it.
The 2 protagonists of my webcomic kinda look like some sort of twisted bootleg version of Coffi from Chicken nuggit and Fry from Futurama even tho that really wasn't my intention lol
I still think comparisons are inevitable because all ideas are inspired by things we have seen before and thats ok
The thing is I don't even mind if the comparisons are accurate like it was my intention for a character to give off a vibe
I won't deny I take inspiration from many different things
But seeing someone call a dragon character of mine "Articuno" because.... she's winged and white? has a tail? idk 😭
Shoutout to the person who looked at my boy Vespertine, who was created before CR campaign 2, and went "that's just Mollymauk with Jester's accent" because I guess all tieflings (and accents) belong to CR
This one hurts on a personal level because I've had it happen to me, I've had other friends get it-- A surprising amount of tieflings became "This is like if you mixed Jester and Mollymauk" hdgfuhdfg
I had one of these in my inbox the other day - no shade to the other person but I think the only visual similarity was both characters had brown hair??
:/ sometimes that is all it has to be, i had someone say one of my characters looked like discord from MLP im not sure how when the character was human?? Other than they both had a little bit of fang sticking out
I can sort of understand someone saying "hey this character has an energy that reminds me of (X)" but it's still an odd thing to say and sometimes I just Do Not See it, especially when it's said almost like an accusation, and I never know how to respond
I’m an artist and I love when people do this to me. When it’s a further separation that I don’t understand how they could connect the two characters, asking them for their thoughts on why they made the comparison is always fun, it’s nice to hear their reasonings and such.
Comments
And thats ok, i have a tough time with social things too!
Like. Bro. You have prosopagnosia.
orange, totaly the same.
This has happened to me two times, and the second time was the best example
What are they trying to accomplish by saying most of our work isn't fully original?
True story.
Both are wearing the same colour socks, and they both have arms...
🙌
Once my cousin (very pale in skin tone, has straight hair, brown eyes and has a generous cleavage) was talking to a girl she had befriended in a holiday village (this girl had much darker skin, very defined curls, blue eyes and petite build) and 1/2
Because both of them wore glasses.
That's it. That's the thing that made him think they were relates.
2/2
Reminds me of when trolls said I was "obsessed with anime" for having my character as a profile picture 🤦🏽♀️ I'm like oh really? What anime is my profile picture from? Never got a reply to that nonsense.
And I don't care if the intent of the comparison is to say 'it's even better than!' If you love the design, "I love the design!" is all you have to say.
"I love the design! It's like Sonic, but if Sonic was even more badass!" implies I took someone else's...
If you make a blue hedgehog, it will be inevitably inspired by that other blue hedgehog.
I'd rather someone criticize my character, than 'compliment' it by implying my idea is just someone else's turned up to 11.
I've used it in the past when working with people to help them visualize what they want, "Do you want [X trait] like [A character] or like [B character]?"
Anyone: "Why does he looks like (insert any blond man)"?
Me:
"Getting a lot of Boss Baby vibes from this".
(feel this so bad)
You do ONE creepy santa story playing on the prinal fears of childhood and your experiences with the holiday around the world, and youll have people come to you and say "hey, I saw your nightmare before Christmas story"
(I wouldn't mind these types of comment if they ever had anything else to say about the art, but 95% of the time it's just stating the comparison and nothing else).
sometimes i am like "oh i like your oc, this reminds me of ..." and then a character of a game or movie or sth that i like that has like one or two similar feature like the hair or overall vibe or sth 😭😭 i didnt realise it was rude
If I disagree though, I'm still interested in why you thought that. Maybe you see my char differently than I do, and I can learn something.
Saw their OC with blue skin, short white hair, yellow/orange glasses, and open shirt... and it reminded me of "happy chaos" from guilty gear...
Ex: The archetype of Madonna gazing skyward has been done countless times. Yet Titian, Caravaggio, Raphael, Bouguereau all made novel experiences from it.
I'm fine if they say "Looks like X and because X reasons and I like that"
Then I'm quite fine with the comment, they remind them of something they like.
But it's only "Looks like X" coldly, yeah ugh...
:I... Yeah duh... Who else?....
I really do not know why.
This has happened to me a couple of times and I think the only similarities were the black hair and they're men with facial hair.. 😅😂
For sure!! Thank you, budd. It's okay, I've just been treating them as a funny-haha comment 🫂💖
*person who's only ever seen the bee movie watching Star Wars*
"Getting big Bee Movie vibes from this"
As you are presumably still on the run.
Because of the murder.
I still think comparisons are inevitable because all ideas are inspired by things we have seen before and thats ok
I won't deny I take inspiration from many different things
But seeing someone call a dragon character of mine "Articuno" because.... she's winged and white? has a tail? idk 😭
Do not steal.