Oh boy, been a while since I stalked these forums, and even longer since I've felt like posting.
I understand where some of you are coming from. Some character designs can look absolutely horrid and gaudy with those bright neon colors, those purple manes or those bright yellow pelts. I get it, I really do. When character designs are poorly done, they look
bad. However, using unrealistic colors (such as "grey" hyenas versus "brown" ones, or having a pink pony versus a realistically colored one, etc.) doesn't necessarily equal bad design.
When you ask the question, "does this character look realistic?" you must also ask, "was this character
meant to be realistic?" Not everyone wants to play characters with realistic designs. If it's not your cup of tea to see an orange tiger with green stripes, then kindly turn the other way and ignore it.
Now, it's one thing when a person claims to be playing a realistic character when it isn't realistically designed--but even then, one can play a character with an unrealistic design and still roleplay realistically if said design has an explanation (the animal was in an experiment, it's a new species, it's a different world where these colors are normal, some five year old got a hold of the permanent spray paint and poor Lassie now has a bright green pelt, etc!). Bottom line: people can, and will, be as creative as they want. While it's fine and noble to coach newbies on the dos and don'ts of character design, also keep in mind that not everyone has to adhere strictly to realistic design rules. If that were the case, the art of character design would get pretty dull pretty fast.
And... *Sigh* The very reason I even bothered to come on and make a post:
Female lions with manes. Where do I begin?
First of all, you can't call this unrealistic when it very plainly is:
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/10/09/weird-wild-rare-maned-lionesses-explained/Second of all, ever heard of chimerism?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSMQcy5ReQQ Enjoy learning a few things.
After taking a look at the above article and video, take another look at your lists of "unrealistic" characters and think a bit. That lioness with a mane might not look so dumb after all--she could be an asset to her pride. The same goes for any character with an uncommon mix of masculine and feminine traits--not only is this realistically possible, but it could potentially make roleplay all the more interesting. And even if it's not about the roleplaying, but about character design in general, the fact of the matter is that not every character made has to be a 100% cookie cutter representation of what is "normal," "realistic," or "socially acceptable." It isn't even like that in
real life, so how can anyone call it "realistic" in character design? That's
perfectionism, which is the
opposite of realism.
I'm sorry, I get sick of strictly enforced male/female gender binaries. It's not only
UNREALISTIC to expect males and females to be perfect cookie cutter representations of what we expect to be "male" or "female," its short-sighted and restrictive. This is a particular pet peeve of mine. "Gender" isn't even physical, it's a social construct. Any college Intro to Anthropology class will teach this (personally, I've encountered
several college classes across anthropology and English/literary studies that emphasize teaching this). Our idea of "male" and "female" is based on what we believe to be socially correct--as for physiological differences, males and females might have a few different parts and functions, but overall there isn't much different about us even physically. And, as the video above explained, we may be even more varied physiologically than we even know.
Want characters to be more realistic? Then stop trying to set standards of perfection, because that just isn't how it works. As for unrealistic colors and markings, understand that not everyone wants to design 100% realistic characters. Enough said.
