OC Workshop 1: INSPIRATION FOR CHARACTER CREATION

Introduction:
Hi everyone! If you're reading this, it's because you're curious about creating or improving a fan character (FC) or original character (OC). I wanted to develop this guide after recently expressing my issues with people who create characters that have no substance to them: They make the character to be a representation of themselves just so they could pair with an official character, or just to have 'a good looking/cute/sexy' character.

I want to state right now that having good art is NOT ENOUGH to keep someone interested. Your character needs personality. What makes them relatable? What would make me want to like the character? What makes them different from the other characters in the set universe that they are placed in? Why do you want to create this character? These are questions you need to ask yourself before creating or working on a character.

I hope there are people out there who will look at my guide and see it as a way to improve their current character, or to help them develop a new one!

I hope to have this guide written in a fun manner so that people can be entertained and follow along better.

I'm also going to write this guide, using my teammates to help with examples and give advice of their own, so let me introduce you to Team Remix:

Siren Shadow: I'm a well established character! I'm a singer who can be somewhat egocentric when people actually talk about me, but I am also downright shy when it comes to others who are big named, like singer Mina Mongoose. I wonder how I could possibly stand to be known when she is around? My goal for this guide is to create a new character! I will be the one narrating the guide for most of this.

Toni the Mink: I'm Toni, and I'm a well-established character! I'm probably the most awesome person you'll ever meet! Why is that? Because I_DON'T_have super powers and don't have my creator's favorite canon characters drooling for me.... In fact, I think it's safe to assume most of the cast can't even stand me.  Unlike my little friend Flower here.... In this guide, we're going to take this over-powered Sue whom everyone adores and fix her up!

Gryph Coppertail: Hi, I'm a well established character created many many years ago. I am a warrior mage and youngest member of the Griffin Council, and one of the few who will deal with those not of our race for we came from another world. My goal for this guide is to work on another character and finish designing her.
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CHAPTER 1: INSPIRATION FOR CHARACTER CREATION
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Siren Shadow: You know, current events lately have inspired me. I want to make a new character. Why? I want a character that I can interact with my friends in the Sonic universe! Someone cool. Not to mention that someone took one of my favorite species, combined it with a cool color....AND SCREWED IT UP ROYALLY! I KNOW I can make a better character than someone with no personality! Surely you guys can understand my plight, right?

Gryph Coppertail; Why do you think I began the creation of Kit? Back then everyone was making characters that were 'perfect' and most of those had powers. So I created an albino fox who went blind at a young age.

Toni the Mink: I'm sure we were all guilty of that at some time in our lives.  But it doesn't hurt to go back and rework them a bit.  In other words, make them right!

Gryph Coppertail: I've actually avoided that for the most part with my first character being something completely different from the official species.

Siren Shadow: I know I was FAR from perfect back in the old days. I had little personality, did nothing but stand there and look pretty, was pretty much just a reflection of my creator, and even fell into the same trap of FALLING IN LOVE WITH A MAIN CHARACTER! I believe this was because my creator was infatuated with that character, and since I was the extension of her, I represented her in being able to win the character's attention. I never even GAVE the character in question a good reason to fall in love with me to begin with! This is a case of bad writing and not giving me an actual personality for the character to determined if I was any better than any other character that was ALREADY out there and available.

Gryph Coppertail: *snickers* That's one common trap I've avoided completely.

Toni: Toni: It does seem like a character-representation falls into that trap easily....  *eye-shift*

Siren: Gryph, I don't think your creator was ever infatuated with any characters. Toni, on the other hand...

Toni: Guilty...

Toni: Though in my defense, my creator did try to start Sonic and I off as a hate-filled, spiteful relationship

Siren: So, for this reason I want to offer

SIREN SHADOW'S CHARACTER TIPS:

-If you, as a creator, are infatuated with an official character, be VERY CAREFUL about how you craft your character. If your character has no back story, and no personality for an official character to genuinely react to, your character will be viewed as a pale, shallow reflection of you merely wanting to be close with the official character.

Toni: Basically, it's okay if your character shows an interest in an official character, but quality is the key!  Personality!  Reason!  Back story!  Development!

Gryph Coppertail: Let me guess, recently ran into such a poorly created character? A recolor I take it?

Siren: Oh, very much so, Gryph. But I'm not going to sit here and pretend that this was the only offense. Over the years I seen this crime committed again, and again, and again. Some recolored characters are so bad, that they are simply that: The same character RECOLORED. Suppose they took on a darker shade, renamed them, then declare that they are nothing like the character they were based off. But then, using the same weapons as that character? That's brewing up trouble right there!

Gryph Coppertail: Besides recolors I've noticed a very common trap of giving characters powers, like Sonic Speed, despite the fact these abilities are what defines the official characters as being unique. Could of sworn 'unique' meant 'one of a kind.'

TONI: Don't forget attributes!   If you're a fox, you automatically have two tails, or an echidna, spikes on your fists.

Siren: Very true! If an OC has the same power as an official character, then what's the difference? Why is this character even here? What makes them interesting? Let's look towards the character's we're working on. In my case, I want to create a character that can be seen as a legitimate character that an official character will actually like. Plus, I want to make my favorite species and a great color cool again. Gryph, you spoke a little of why you created Kit, but Toni, why did you create Flower?

TONI: My purpose for Flower was so the Sonic trio (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles) could have a female tag as well.  Of course, me being young and an ignorant America, I had no clue Amy existed.

Siren: Ah yes, that was back in the 90s, before the big character boom that Sonic Team developed post Sonic Adventure. If you weren't reading Archie Comics or watching SatAM, and you only played the main title Sonic games, then you only knew of 3 characters, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. Nowadays, we have a wider range of species that were developed by the team, so we know more about how those characters would look in that style, but with that wider range, comes the easier ability to take an official character and just....color over them, slap a new name on top and call it a Fan Character.

Gryph Coppertail: And some didn't even do that! Do recall that one person, all he did was slap sunglasses onto Sonic to create a character

Siren: Anyway, thinking about the origins of your character, every character is inspired in someway. The origins may not nessicarily be the best, but with the right character development, even a character, like me who started out as little more than a fictional extention of the author wanting to be close to her favorite character, can grow with the right development and become a more respectful character that can be more unique than any official character in the franchise. SO! I have a

WORKSHOP ASSIGNMENT:

If you want to create a new character: Think about why you want to create the character. Make sure you have good intentions! If your reasons are somewhat shallow and undeveloped, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but think about better reasons to create the character besides 'wanting to be close to an official character'.

If you have an existing character you're working on: Think about the origins of that character. Remember why they were created in the first place, then develop new reasons why the character should exist, if the original reasons seem rather weak.

POST THE RESULTS OF YOUR WORKSHOP ASSIGNMENT IN COMMENTS. I WILL TRY MY BEST TO GIVE FEEDBACK ON WORKSHOP ASSIGNMENT WORK.