What makes a design unoriginal?

[Alex]

Since there are thousands of UTAUs, a lot of design aspects are overdone and overused. What do you think someone should avoid when designing a character?

I think tracing and recolouring Miku and other popular Vocaloids or UTAUs goes without saying. I'm just curious since I'm trying to come up with a design, but it's hard to do things people haven't seen a hundred times before haha

Try to not bash specific people or UTAUs, I made this thread for discussion and not for an argument! I wasn't sure where to post this, so if a mod thinks thinks this thread should be moved or deleted then please do that.

 

[Lightzaver]

KEI-style art? Thats all I can think of I guess, I usually see people complaining that about it.

 

[IrisFlower]

Ya know I don't really see many people complain about the art style itself unless the UTAU looks like a Miku re-color.

Design wise detached sleeves that look like they belong to a Crypton-loid are pretty frowned upon. As are pleated skirts and seifuku.

I personally don't mind those things anymore as long as they have been given their own flare and, again, it doesn't look like a Crypton-loid but some people flat out reject those kinds of things altogether.

 

[DerpingToaster]

*whispers*

Miku formula.
Some people don't like Kei style, I don't mind if it's done well. I've seen some "Kei style" that looks like crap. Just no.
And Macne style is starting to become overused. We have like 586267427467642 Macne UTAUs.
Copying other VOCALOIDS designs. I saw someone's UTAU (I'll refrain from saying who it was or what the UTAUs name was) that was almost identical to IA, just with a few minor things added and a couple changes. I also saw some UTAUs that were just neko copies of Rin and Len.
If they're doing a girl, don't do stereotypical school girl design.
Avoid doing a "shorts and t-shirt" UTAU.
Stop making male traps. Make more girl traps! We already have like 27849302928282901 guy trap UTAUs. It's getting really old.
Anything remotely similar to Miku (they'll get bashed)
Half-cat/neko UTAUs. There are a ton. They're cute, but it isn't the most original thing when it comes to design. It's already been done many times over.
Mary Sue/Gary sue designs in general
Blah color pallete (especially black and another color. Miku is black and blue/green/turquoise, Teto is Black and pink. Rin and Len are black and yellow. Tei is black and red.)
Girls with overly large boobs/girls that are unusually skinny. (I've never seen any thick UTAUs, now that I bring this up. They don't even have to be fat! Just curvy or thick. Everyone is beautiful, and I think that an UTAU like that could make people feel more confident about themselves. Maybe I'll make a thick girl OC)
We have like 192982792792626872791 white UTAUs.
Demons/Vampires.

There's probably tons of other stuff but whatever

 

[UroborosCrow]

Pretty much what's been said
Although I don't actually mind all the seifuku, detatched/large sleeves, long hair and short skirts/thigh highs (maybe even cat ears) because I really like them but I just think it's been done over and over so that's why it's so unoriginal. Those elements of design have been done badly but they're also in some really good designs.
Like Tei is blatantly a troll who's design was actually to make fun of all the unoriginal stuff (Crypton, sharingan, yandere personality) but I still like it; despite it all being done before it all comes together to look quite nice on her.

It is really hard to come up with something original these days but if you're looking to make one that's 100% new, don't make that your top priority, just do what you think looks great!

 

[TheSnowSongstress]

generally things with little detail // flare will be looked down on

Most infamous design aspects:
-Detached sleeves (ESPECIALLY OVERLY BAGGY ONES)
-Vest and tie
-Seifuku
-Nekos (cute, but now it's like everyone feels the need to do it)
-Overly Macne
-TOO MUCH PINK, RIBBONS, BOWS, "KAWAII"
-Basic Kimono designs (pretty much goes hand and hand with seifuku)
-Black and Red color scheme
-Using pieces of Vocaloids (Rin's hair bow, Aoki's headband, etc)
-Leg warmers (Cute, but everyone seems to just use Rin/Len/Nami legs now...)
-THE TRIANGLE BELT. OH LORD

These being said, many argue that there are several popular utauloids that use some of these traits (Nami Utaune, Jei Crepene, etc). However, many of these UTAUs are ALSO getting design revamps that take away these qualities

 

[luiysia]

yanderes, somehow even more than tsunderes.
I wish people would stop using this. its bigoted, since it plays into the "crazy" = violent and vice versa thing, which is totally not true. although the main thing that relates it to this is that it's way overused, and plus a lot of times it feels tacked on and I don't really get why.

also, I feel like there are very few original hairstyles. if it's not just plain hair, it's usually some kind of ponytail/twin tail this is understandable because other hairstyles are really hard to draw.

 

[oteto]

Probably a good idea to avoid drills also lol.

 

[Lorreine Geralde]

KEI-style art? Thats all I can think of I guess, I usually see people complaining that about it.

KEI style, in my opinion, is really outdated. Since most Cyptonloids' V3 designs are drawn with iXima style, then I'm sure some people want to try it.

 

[Aqua]

I think that we see a lot of KEI/unoriginal looking utau designs because of the Vipperloids. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that when most of us here first got into UTAU, our first experiences with listening and seeing Utauloids was with one of the Vipperloids. Teto most probably. And most of the Vipperloids obv are KEI rip offs. It's kinda like a domino effect. One person overseas in say 2008 got into the vipperloids, made their own utau and then another overseas user saw this design and so on...Like an unwritten law that when you make your first attempt at an Utau its design is going to HAVE to be a KEI rip off. Mine was. Many others back in the day probably were too.
When my friends ask me about making utaus, the first thing I tell them about designing is to avoid making Miku/Rin/Len/Luka rip offs like the plague and to do something original.
I love it when I see original looking Utaus, it's like they still look androidish but not in a blatant 'I'm ripping off KEI with arm warmers, seifukus and triangle belts way'.

 

[UTAUKimi-Yamamoto]

Before I re-designed her, my UTAU used to wear a sleeveless collared shirt, tie, detached sleeves, skirt (not pleated), triangle belt, and the stocking/boot combo that Miku has all in pink and black. It was terrible. When I came up with her new design, I made something a lot more original (White v-neck pink trimmed sleeveless top, pink skirt, white over the knee stockings, pink flats, and white detached sleeves with pink trim) however I kept the sleeves even though others replying to this thread before me have said that those are "unoriginal" I still like them. Also yes her hair is in a ponytail with almost the same bangs as Miku but it's not as long as her hair.

Upon reading this thread though I feel like now I should re-design her again. I feel like her design is bad now. :<

 

[Laufius]

Personally, I see designs as nothing to gripe at, unless it's a recolor. UTAU is a voice program, not an art program like GIMP or SAI, yes? So why be concerned with designs? I'll admit, I do tend to scoff to myself at all these cutesy Japanese-wannabe UTAU, but it's their design, therefore it's not my place to judge. If someone wishes to judge my UTAU for their (not decided on a gender) prosthetic leg and their animal features, I could honestly care less. If it's the voice that is criticized, that's when it matters.

 

[Seija-tachi]

Like pretty much everyone else has been saying, I don't like seeing people use Vocaloid designs on their UTAU. For example, the detached sleeves/baggy sleeves, leg warmers, pleated skirts, triangle belt etc. etc... Also the long hair/twintails/ponytail thing and seeing white skinny UTAUs. I'm a hypocrite, though, because the two UTAU I've made are both white and skinny... Though now I'm inspired to make a curvier POC.

 

[luiysia]

Like pretty much everyone else has been saying, I don't like seeing people use Vocaloid designs on their UTAU. For example, the detached sleeves/baggy sleeves, leg warmers, pleated skirts, triangle belt etc. etc... Also the long hair/twintails/ponytail thing and seeing white skinny UTAU. I'm a hypocrite, though, because the two UTAU I've made are both white and skinny... Though now I'm inspired to make a curvier POC.

well, there are kind of a lot of PoC UTAU.... japanese counts. there's also all those ones where it's unclear (like they have a european name but speak japanese, or vice versa) and some mixed-race ones, usually japanese and white. plus since they're pale and have ambiguous features people kind of assume white.
there are very few darker-skinned utau, though, and the point about being skinny still stands

(sorry if I misinterpreted your post >>; it kinda annoys me when people say anime characters and stuff like vocaloids are white.)

 

[Lorreine Geralde]

well, there are kind of a lot of PoC UTAU.... japanese counts. there's also all those ones where it's unclear (like they have a european name but speak japanese, or vice versa) and some mixed-race ones, usually japanese and white. plus since they're pale and have ambiguous features people kind of assume white.
there are very few darker-skinned utau, though, and the point about being skinny still stands

(sorry if I misinterpreted your post >>; it kinda annoys me when people say anime characters and stuff like vocaloids are white.)

Oh, crap. I feel like my UTAU Kaiserine Sympherianne should be considered as ambigious since she has an English name but doesn't sing in English.

 

[Seija-tachi]

well, there are kind of a lot of PoC UTAU.... japanese counts. there's also all those ones where it's unclear (like they have a european name but speak japanese, or vice versa) and some mixed-race ones, usually japanese and white. plus since they're pale and have ambiguous features people kind of assume white.
there are very few darker-skinned utau, though, and the point about being skinny still stands

(sorry if I misinterpreted your post >>; it kinda annoys me when people say anime characters and stuff like vocaloids are white.)

No, you didn't misinterpret it at all. Reading back on it, I realize how narrow-minded it sounded (and how obnoxious I was), so I apologize for that. You have every right to be annoyed with me. ^^

I meant to say - and as you said - that I would like to see more darker-skinned UTAU. I realize that there are pleeenty of POC UTAU, I just usually don't see them to be as popular as some of the ones that are lighter-skinned, or know of very many myself. (Then again my knowledge on UTAU is still kind of small.) *rolls up sleeves* Time to go look for some!

 

[luiysia]

No, you didn't misinterpret it at all. Reading back on it, I realize how narrow-minded it sounded (and how obnoxious I was), so I apologize for that. You have every right to be annoyed with me. ^^

I meant to say - and as you said - that I would like to see more darker-skinned UTAU. I realize that there are pleeenty of POC UTAU, I just usually don't see them to be as popular as some of the ones that are lighter-skinned, or know of very many myself. (Then again my knowledge on UTAU is still kind of small.) *rolls up sleeves* Time to go look for some!

I think you may have misunderstood me... from an american point of view, japanese people are of color. therefore all the most popular ones, who are all japanese, (such as all the vipperloids, defoko, momo momone) are poc, although some people may think of them as white (this is a good, kinda-related read). the problem is most americans tend to make (like you said) designs of white, skinny utau, with no diversity like there actually is in america.

 

[oteto]

I think you may have misunderstood me... from an american point of view, japanese people are of color. therefore all the most popular ones, who are all japanese, (such as all the vipperloids, defoko, momo momone) are poc, although some people may think of them as white (this is a good, kinda-related read). the problem is most americans tend to make (like you said) designs of white, skinny utau, with no diversity like there actually is in america.

An iteresting article! Thanks for the link!

 

[Seija-tachi]

I think you may have misunderstood me... from an american point of view, japanese people are of color. therefore all the most popular ones, who are all japanese, (such as all the vipperloids, defoko, momo momone) are poc, although some people may think of them as white (this is a good, kinda-related read). the problem is most americans tend to make (like you said) designs of white, skinny utau, with no diversity like there actually is in america.

Ah, I think I gotcha now. I know they're people of color, I just called them "white" because of their skin color. I know full-well that they're not white, I'm just used to saying it so often that I seemed to have made it come across as something obnoxious. That article is definitely interesting, though. I think the term for that article is "ethnocentrism," which is judging other cultures by that of your own. I seemed to have been doing that. ;^^ But yes, that is a major problem for making more diverse UTAU.

PS thank you for correcting me!

 

[S a l t]

I designed the two utauloids I'm going to voice soon before even joining this community or seeing many utau, so I wasn't sure what was "over used" or not. Actually, I didn't even think of trying to design them in an original way. I just wanted them to be likable for myself. They probably aren't the most unique, (and yes they both have cat ears and tails) but I'm very happy with them. I think most people design just thinking of what they love, and I think that's great. It's only a bad thing to be unoriginal if you're hoping to make money off them or something.