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This has been my stand about graphics all throughout: it’s not that important. But if it’s something so important for you to get it right, commission an artist.

At the heart of it, my pov is just a simple case of personal dignity. I don’t think rping is worth using a tool that has been causing so many artists, known and uknown, grief. To me, the wider arguement isn’t really what makes me passionate about it. It’s seeing my fellow art lover, who are seeking recognition and validation as me, getting bullied around.

Like, i can actually even understand more if you use ai art for a school project and you’ve been backed to a corner to a rely on. But for something fun like rping? Something that is about imagination and soul as much as art? It’s just, as i have said, awfully tragic.

I know everyone is different. Everyone has different circumstances. But growing older and all that, i think we should try to live as decently as possible without hurting others. I have commissioned and followed extremely talented but small artists. I saw the pain they go through, already struggling to find a platform for them to make money, only to find out anywhere online will lead their art to ai art. Being in solidarity with them dowsn’t help put food on their plate. But i know i am doing the proper thing by responding to what they’re going through, even if it affects no one but me.

Rping just isn’t worth it.

Edit: i also realized my metric for fanart vs ai art isn’t any sort of moral ground. It’s how i feel the artist will react.

If i an using their fanart with credits, they will understandably be annoyed. But will be probably let it go esp since i credited it. It’s only for a hobby after all. I also want to show off their art because i think it’s awesome. I want to think it causes them the least amount of hurt, even if they’ll never know

But ai art will just hurt every artist out there, remind everyone it exists, how it’s easier, how it fits the arsenal of an rper better. So i think fanart is better and more progressive.

Ninja edit 2: atop the graphics thing, i think people ought to be satisfied with something not perfect. Let go of things you can’t help with, even if it’s not up to your standard. Maybe not even just about graphics. People obsess over their ideals far too much. So what if it’s not what you envision? So what if it’s not an exact fit? There are other amazing things you can explore. No need to hyperfocus on an image.

As a man who starved himself sitting under a tree once said, desire is what causes suffering haha

Edit3 tl;dr: there may be little difference in using fanart or ai art in the wider scale, but these small decisions is what defines our lives. Your decision does matter. Maybe not to the artist or to the world itself. But to the kind of person you want to be

Yep, 100%. I believe in the notion "when someone tells you what they need, you do it". I want to support artists, and artists both big and small have been resoundingly clear that they reject AI art and are begging the public not to feed into it. (I think you would be hard-pressed to find many established artists who are OK with AI and their art being used as a model for someone else to profit.)

For me, it is truly as simple as respecting the wishes of actual artists, who know best. If you aren't inclined to do the same, then we have a VERY different idea of what supporting someone (or a collective) looks like. That is ultimately up to the individual to reckon with.

Thanks for posting bc i dont think i can fit a 4th edit haha

I wanted to also say, adding credits to the art doesn’t make a huge difference. We can all agree that doesn’t make it legit to use the fanart. Yet, above the ethical arguement of it, it is simply a good practice. Making the small effort to give where credit is due is being ingrained in your habits. The positive idea is being processed repeatedly by your brain each time you practice it. It would pour into other aspects of our life.

In contrast, if we feed into the idea of “it doesn’t make a difference” then that’s how we end up finding ourselves at a completely different road. I genuinely want my fellow rpers supporting ai art to reconsider bc giving into this what you perceive as small/necessary/makes-no-difference-than-before evil can lead you to other unsavory ideas without you realizing it.

Oh, speaking of…

manga caps > anime caps for graphics. Manga have such beautiful panels and art. Just add a grey overlay to it and it can look very elegant outside of the pages.

I guess it was only in tumblr rp that using manga caps icons got popular. they are more emotive since it’s taken from a scene. Love using them for posts.

yeah personally I won't RP with someone with AI profile pics but i want to make this extremely clear: I am in the animal RP space, and it is customary there to own every piece of art you use. our staff team paid hundreds of dollars, donated by members, to ensure that every graphic on the site is specific to the site. you can get banned for using art or photos that aren't yours or aren't free-to-use. most of my commission income comes from other RP'ers in the space.

i would likely care less if i were on a real animanga site.

tangentially related: i've remembered seeing animal RP sites with face claims, and I always giggle a bit at that. i'm gonna fc pangur.

female path to nowhere fcs are great and very2 pretty but sadly, i am shit at playing female. bye bye female fcs ;;;

it's so interesting, i also can't play male characters properly to save my life. in my case, i was a very uncultured youngin who always held that mentality of "i'm a girl, why would i play a guy? that's stupid lol" so i never bothered trying to play male characters. obviously i've outgrown that goofy mentality, but to this very day i can't play male characters well at all even though i really want to. they either get abandoned or scrapped all together. :sob:

also love the devi hover, she is bae

My personal experience was from a mental block. I imagine it’s different for everyone, but in case my perspective can help:

Im cis female but growing up, i was negatively impacted by how media portrayed women. Like everyone, i grew to hate pink and all feminine. I like action and heroism. I watched mecha and shounen shows, admired them guys. I related to them more. I hated shoujo and romance bc it was boring and weak, and i was taught by media that that’s what women are like and we are being made fun of it.

I only rpes guys for many years and though i dabbled in writing women, i struggled a lot. I once wrote a story as a kid with a leading female but she was kind of self-insertish. I couldnt write a woman that was just a person.

But a couple of years ago, i got into a song of ice and fire and catelyn and sansa’s povs in particular just opened my mental block on portraying and writing women. Catelyn represented a mother and sansa was your lady. But i liked them the way they are. I was intrigued by the way they were and wanted to know more. I empathized with them. It wasn’t that i didn’t think women could just be like a flawed person but just as it was media who harmed my young mentality back then, it was also someone’s portrayal that undid it.

And even since, i’ve just been happily writing so many women. And learning i an really into non gender-confirming and role reversal stuffs helped a lot too. It can be buried in our exp, as well as preference.

It’s fun learning about yourself!

I strive for a balance.

And then I look at the gender ratio of the site and go "screw it, ALL my characters from here on are gonna be women, you just watch me--"