Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Fun with avatar generators

Why be productive when you can make avatars of your book characters on tektek.org?

This utility is of course limited because you can't change the height or body type of the characters and the skin tones are limited, and obviously you can't always find what you want, but it's still a lot of fun for anybody who likes imagining what their characters look like. :)

Avatars from my fantasy/fairy tale retelling Bad Fairy

First, we have my protagonist and her allies:

 

Delia's holding a mirror 'cause she has a scrying glass in the book, but it's not the right style for her. And none of the wings are what I was looking for but they were the closest I could get. :) Gena is Delia's mommy, though there's not much resemblance as you can see, and Fiona and Drake are her study partners (and they're dating each other).

And here are Delia's antagonists, the triplets:

Their sisterhood has a rivalry with Delia's group throughout the book. Chloe has a flower because she's into herbalism and Livia has a puppy because she likes animal communication. Beatrice just has her wand. Isn't she special. ::eyeroll::

Avatars from my New Adult fantastical romance novel Finding Mulligan:


Cassie is the protagonist, a smart but jaded college student who would rather live in another world. And Dia is her other self in that other world--her other personality. Dia is in love with Mulligan, the shirtless chap you see there being cute. Jamie is a painter. He painted a picture of Mulligan based on his friend Terrell. (So now you know why they're freaking identical but not twins.) And Gabi is Cassie's best friend since they were kids. I was kinda peeved I couldn't find anything that looked quite like I imagine Dia's hair, and the same with Mulligan . . . the cornrows thing works for Terrell but Mulligan is supposed to have short dreadlocks and I could only find really long big ones that don't look right. (For the record, some people aren't wearing shoes and that is on purpose.)

Avatars from my science fiction romance novel Stupid Questions

Nick is my first-person protagonist and he spends most of the book trying to become Summer's boyfriend without getting scared off by her superpowers. Bart is his work buddy and longtime friend--they're both camera guys--and Brian's a guy he meets on the Internet during the book who has relationship issues of his own. Brian's supposed to be shorter than Nick so I gave him rolled up pants, so there. (Summer's supposed to be shorter too.) I NEVER seem to be able to get Nick's hair right, whether it's in avatar form or drawing. Oh well.

Avatars from my Middle Grade contemporary novel Joint Custody

Bay is the protagonist (his real name is Bainbridge) and Marz is a girl from his neighborhood (her real name is Marcella). They both have cameras because guess what, yeah. Also that tiger is supposed to be Bay's stuffed tiger Fritz. He usually lives in Bay's backpack. Marz's hair isn't actually that long but I couldn't find shorter pigtails. They're both eleven years old.

Avatars from my fantasy webcomic Negative One:

If I tried to make all of them I'd be here all night, and if I tried to make all the characters from the novel series this comic is based on--The House That Ivy Built--I'd be here all week. This was the toughest set because more of the characters are from other dimensions and stuff so they aren't human and that was annoying on the avatar maker. I could only get sort of close in some cases.

The narrators:


I find it pretty super hilarious to see them all the same size since Weaver is actually supposed to be about two feet tall and Dax is close to seven feet. I am also super annoyed that I can't find a white goatee for Dax. He's supposed to have a cool curly goatee. (And his and Weaver's horns are not supposed to be black. They're more like a beige color.) Weaver is supposed to be furrier, too. He's kind of a cute teddy bear type. And Ivy is a baby in the comic. She's only about three and a half right now, which is why I gave her overalls so you wouldn't be able to see the boobs the avatar maker always puts on the female body type. Also Dax's hair is too long and he doesn't have any ears. (I couldn't find any ears for Adele either.) Weaver's ears are pretty close but still wrong. Rawr. Oh well, at least Meri Lin looks right. She was easy, she's human.

Now a few significant secondary characters:


Fred is Meri Lin's partner and he's super adorable but I couldn't find him a light-colored mustache so I gave him a black one. Tabitha is Adele's teacher. Aw, I miss her. Lissa Lee is Meri Lin's younger sister. Melanie is a loudmouth kid from New York who helps take care of the baby. Theresa is a good-hearted woman who also helps take care of the baby. Alix isn't a bad guy or anything, he's just kind of a jerk so that's why he's making that face. He likes the water and owns a wetsuit so I put him wearing it. Neptune is from another dimension and I bet you totally can't tell. I could have just pretended I made her and didn't show it because sometimes she is invisible. (Ha ha.) Sadly I could not find appropriate hair for Theresa. Her hair's not that long and she usually wears her bandana tied under, not on top. They need to work on finding better hairstyles for black people, because it's super limited.

And just for kicks, I did some from short stories. Here they are.

From 1999 and before:

Elizabeth is from "Moonlight." Elizabeth isn't her real name but she doesn't really have one. She's only wearing a shirt because seriously she wasn't wearing anything else. And she has a flower, isn't that sweet. The mom and the baby are from "Baby Talk." The baby has a phone. Neither of them have names, and there wasn't a phone with a cord that I could show the baby playing with, but still, you get the idea. Megan and Brady are from "Brady." They both like drawing even though they're pretty different people. Hard to see but Megan's got a lot of piercings (including a nose ring) and she's supposed to have pretty much nothing but stubble on her head. Oddly enough she is not much of a punk. She just wants people to stay away from her. (Brady won't.) Kamber and her grandmother are from "Bloom." Kamber has butterflies because well it's obvious if you read the story. And then Hendrix and Joplin are from "Mother's Day." They are clones from another planet and they were named after musicians, and now they want to go back in time to go to Woodstock and give their mom Mother's Day cards. Hooray.

From 2000 and beyond:


Zarry is from "The Curse" and his real name is Balthazar but he doesn't like it. He's wearing his super specs and carrying a walking stick, sort of. George is from "Just Like Stephen." He's an inventory specialist and he looks pissed off and unshaven for a reason.  Thomas and Windy are from "Wind." She's a Christmas fairy and Thomas basically doesn't believe in her which is kind of annoying because she won't go away. (He'll still eat her cookies, though.) Lihill, Mymei, and Cyani are from "On the Inside." Lihill is the protagonist and she is a transgender girl in a world that doesn't know what that is. Their society is very gender-segregated and they study elemental magic that's partially based on assigning Air and Fire to guys and Earth and Water to girls. Lihill would really like to study Earth like her sister Cyani or Water like her best friend Mymei, but her society has kind of pushed her into studying Air. So she's all about trying to get her society to let her do what comes naturally to her and see her as a girl.

And that's all I've got. As if that wasn't enough. ^___^

4 comments:

  1. Whoa, hadn't revisited some of those short stories in a while. They're all super chibi-kawaii, but really like Adele and Tabitha, if only 'cause they're the coolest while most composed. Ah, man, but would really appreciate another read of "Wind". Has been so long since my last perusal, had thought it was an anime I'd watched that had lain dormant in the back of my head Xb

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    1. Nope, "Wind" wasn't an anime, though I bet there are some that resemble it! If you want me to send you the story again I can.

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  2. I love these (Dia's my favorite)...and now I'm addicted to that avatar site ;)

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    1. They are really addictive if they're good interfaces. . . . Glad you like the dolls. :)

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