so ive seen a lot of discussion over "hq" and "lq" in this comment section and i want to elaborate on a few things. - if a word means different things to different people in different contexts, imo it ceases to be useful. "but when i use it im not talking about skill im just talking about effort" -- that's great, but not everyone uses the word that way so not everyone will interpret it that way. if that's what you want to communicate, it might be better to just say "high effort" - "but i dont want people offering low skill work" 4:10 the point of putting a character up for offers... is to allow people to make an OFFER to you. if you don't like offers with low skill work then you don't have to accept them. i feel like saying "lf for hq only" not only makes people feel bad but it also discourages potential offers that you may have actually liked. when youre a beginner, you don't usually describe your art as "low quality". when i was younger and i put a lot of time and effort into something, i was really proud of it, even if it looked pretty sloppy and i wouldn't feel the same way if i looked back now. - "well some art/designs are objectively lower quality like if the lineart is sketchy or if it's made on a base..." i dont think those things actually make art or designs lower quality...? there are plenty of experienced artists who actively choose to use sketchy lineart stylistically and it looks great. and just because a design was made on a base doesn't mean you might not like it, it might be lower effort but the design might be well made. and again, with the first thing, no one can read your mind and know you're talking about onbase designs and sketchy lineart...if you genuinely won't accept any offers of those categories, just mention that specifically overall the terms still just seem really weird to me both from the perspective that they're backhanded and hurtful, and from the perspective that they're not even that helpful for filtering offers either considering they make most people not want to offer at all 🤷♂️
Another thing too, to the person in another thread who said "it's tiring to filter through so many offers" like...this is character trading right? Not selling? Imho, if your hobby starts to get tedious or tiring, maybe take a break or find a new hobby for a bit. Additionally if you added more specific filters like, specific character traits you *dont* want (lets say...bipedal, scaley, furry, fox-like, cat-like, etc etc, all decent qualifiers for the sake of example) things would just be so much less toxic for everyones sake.
I still tend to sell/buy alot on DA, though all from smaller creators with less than 10K watchers as I rarely see them from bigger creators, though I still do sometimes.
@@KoiiDaBoii Compared to.... color shifting or paint bucket dumping a texture so you can sell 20 of the same character design? Like... yeah, fuck AI "art" but adoptables in general are beyond stupid and you're genuinely a clown if you ever paid for that.
@@KoiiDaBoii Fun Fact! Because of the way copyright applies to AI generated images, the people selling those "adoptables" can't stop you from stealing the design if you like it.
FINALLY PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT THIS, LOL. had a period where i was into toyhouse character collecting and the way characters are treated is really funny.
High and low Art are terms aren’t new but specifically linking to quality isn’t really the same. If you’re looking into art history it’s important to know what they are but with Pop art and other modern art low and high art have essentially been shattered. But yeah bit iffy. (I’d understand if if was like High means Full bodies or full renders & low means quick sketches & such but yowza it’s weird)
I get adorable characters on Th but damn are they traded so weridly- “Tell me before you trade them” “Trade back if unconnected” “Can only change the design a bit” ??? It’s mine tho?? 😭
Some people have SUPER strict rules on trading and I really just want to avoid those people's characters because why would I want to abide by those when the character is mine at that point??? I want to have the freedom to do what I want with them, and if the rules won't allow it then I guess the character ain't worth it. Before I knew all that stuff, I traded for fun, only to realize that some characters I now owned had so many rules on them?? Like "don't give them siblings with a similar design" or "Don't redesign" Like, I sunk in so much time and effort into developing these characters only to be restricted by that, and even trading them away is hard. I'm kind of at a loss for what to do other than to just store them away and not use them anymore.
When I was on amino they’re were a LOT of people who had TOS like that. Whenever I posted adoptables I would always put “No rules”. Even in my bio I said “no need to ask to resell/redesign characters once bought. They’re yours. Do whatever”.
On Toyhouse, people would put my personas, my childhood characters, stuff that is an extension of myself, into favorites folders called “dreamies” or ask me if I’d ever be willing to trade them. I hate that I have to think about it for a second sometimes. Toyhouse hindered a lot of my art progress. I stopped drawing random thing for fun and only drew characters I had uploaded to Toyhouse because I’d be wasting time if I did not add “worth” to those characters. I own a few popular designer characters, but they are only from people I grew up loving the art of. I get nervous owning them however, because I don’t want them to seem like I do not use them. Something like: “This person doesn’t even use that character, they don’t even deserve it.” It kind of sucks. Toyhouse is really useful for art storage and ownership, but it feels like I have sold my soul to use it, lol.
Recently I took a step back from Toyhouse after impulsively spending so much money on characters. Ngl I kind of regret it and I'm probably going to resell or retrade a lot of them later down the line. I didn't realize how weird trades are handled until I took a step back. I feel you with the hindering of art progress too. I felt this pressure to add worth to characters, when in reality that's not the only way to recognize that a character is 'worth' something. I have quite a few characters from a popular designer, and from my experience I've gotten DMs from people asking to be pinged assuming that one day I'll inevitably put them back on trade/sale (which I won't). It's hard not to feel like eyes are on u, waiting for when you'll give up a character, because they probably are looking. And it's even worse when they judge how you use a character and say you don't deserve it.
Ya I put an oc of mine on TH and someone asked if I’d offer it to them if I ever thought about selling them and it irked me tbh. It seems weird to ask something like that unless the character is already up for sales/trades. That’s why I now keep all my folders private.
I love toyhouse but I've definitely had to make sure I step away from trading culture. I've definitely noticed that I started to develop a bit of a problem. I try not to spend more than $10-$20 (depending on detail) on any character and it's usually from friends or artists I follow and adore. I gave up on the "looking like i dont use" thing. I love the characters I own and I draw them all.. but I never intend on selling any of them and their value now means nothing to me so I don't upload a lot of their art. I usually look for a lot of really old, really low effort, unused, and/or unloved designs and I hate that the only way I can find them is calling it LQ :( I cherish them, I love them all. These days I do mostly use TH to be able to access my characters across all my devices and organize my thoughts with stories. I interact with other people but I try to not use my money to buy characters, but art of my existing ones instead. I do think th hindered my art a little bit. Mostly because of art trades and really cheap commissions. I got and get really burned out and I stopped really pushing myself. I started blocking people who try and offer on my characters. I realized that no, I dont want to sell any of them. I don't have any interest in giving them away. It's in my page warnings severall times
Ive had this issue aswell.. Theres also characters from certain people I see for auction, and they go for several THOUSAND dollars for just the reference sheet.. I'm not joking! One of them went for 4.7K its so silly. Honestly I would much rather make a character myself and use that money for rent lol
With the HQ and LQ labels, I once offered on a character and it said just that "Only accepting HQ characters and art." but it also said, "deleting LQ offers". Wanna have a guess what happened to my comment? Thats right! It got deleted. I've also had someone put one of my designs in a folder called "Kinda mid tbh" and tagged it as LQ. It's just mean for no reason, there's no point to it? I don't know. I just don't understand why people do it.
help whats the point of getting someones design and purposefully putting it in a mean folder like that and tagging it with lq that is literally the rudest thing they could've done
honestly I hate the way people define low quality and high quality because people just base it off of certain art styles they like VS what is ACTUALLY "low quality" IMO thats like picrews,gatcha and other games like that where its not even drawn by someone and sold its just made randomly, to me thats LQ and sometimes base made characters too are extremely a hit or miss kinda thing
yeah i think the terms are just misleading because a lot of people use them intending to refer to, like you said, picrews or gacha/character creator things but when they use the words "low quality / high quality" it sounds like they're just talking about how...well...GOOD the character is. which is ultimately subjective, at the end of the day. think a better way to phrase it would be like... "low effort" but even then it seems like it'd cause more unintentional harm than necessary. i think people just kinda need to realize that when you put a character up for offers, it's super unlikely that the first offer you get will always perfectly fit what you're looking for. that's just kinda how it works so idk why people define it at all, knowing that it means a different thing to EVERYONE
@@Qwizz people just dont understand it, I find it happens often and I see this happen more and more lately on Toy house especially. Nothings exactly LQ, everything there was once someones happiest moments and I think calling someones character LQ is so insulting and this has happened to me multiple times. I dont think picrew ocs are even LQ if they have extra art and are more than just the picrew. What IS LQ is just selling a picrew/trading one and not telling anyone its a picrew- thats when I get my pitchforks out and get annoyed at people
I agree a lot with many of the points in the video! Something I also noticed within the trade community is the stigma around not selling your ocs, especially if you have a lot from one designer. As someone with a ton of designs made by my friend and many ocs I made to keep for myself, I stumble across a lot of people complaining behind my back about me deciding not to sell characters I payed for??? It just feels like a lot of the design trading community seems like they feel as though you're obligated to trade things.
yeah, that's also frustrating. i collect a lot of my friend's designs as well because i 1. love their work 2. love surprising them by going through rabbit holes finding their several year old designs and 3. just think they're fun to collect. i pay for them all legitamately of course, but it usually takes a while before i rehome them if i trade them at all. kind of ties in with like...unsolicited offers where people think they can just start bargaining for your character without asking / without you putting it for sale.
Also very fair points people often ask me why I don’t purge my ocs and I don’t understand because I personally prefer to keep my ocs and not sell them :] honestly though it’s nice to trade your work for art but over-offering on OTAs tend to be a thing as well…
As someone who used to be super into all this character trading/selling community, I can totally agreed with you about most the point especially the 'Pop designs' one. I once saw a 100% naked, no accessory, not extra art nothing just a single png full body reference minimal shading ordinary human girl design sold for 1000usd just because the person who drew that was a big name artist. That bashful me so much I can't wrap my head around it lmao.
were you also around when an anthro, fully white husky (no extra markings or piercings) in black boxers sold for $1k? like good on the artists for making bank but also I don’t get it
I’m one of the few lucky people on sites like toyhouse where I can actually SELL my adopts and character designs and it’s honestly awful to see smaller creators struggle to even undersell their stuff :(
I relate!! I try my best to share accounts that I love to boost them. I feel embarrassed sometimes to get my okayish designs sold for way too much when AMAZING artists who are so creative cant even get art offers :(
Relatable, I have a friend who's also able to sell designs, I'm on the other end of the spectrum where I can't even get rid of my free designs XD (also, can I just say, I love your designs, I have a friend who owns some of them and they're always so pleasing to see)
Remember kids: if its an AI design, you can steal it, it's not protected by copyright and would discourage AI artists from getting in the adoptables community
As a person who uses toyhouse a lot I mainly just trade for and buy ocs to draw, give personality’s for and use for my animations and object shows, great vid!
I'm in a community that use a lot the "trade back" but it's something I find 100% better: "sell back" Basically when a character comes with a "sell back" option, it means when you want to part with it, you have to first contact the person you bought them from, and let them know it is for sell: if the person can buy it back, they BUY it. If they can't, they give you the go ahead to sell the character to someone else And I don't know I find it really better than that Some people use it to keep track of where their designs are, others because they hesitate keeping the design but can't because they already have too much, or planned to sell it but loved the design, so many reasons And sure, some people are like "I buy it back at base price", but some people are kind and buy the character back at the rised price if there has been additional art We should really normalize that
This is always how I approach characters that I regret selling, I'll either pay their curremt worth or trade another character or custom design because it's not fair for me to demand it back for free. I'm always ready to accept a "no". Because it's NOT mine anymore! Trade-back as a name implies it - *Trading* for the design *back*... Not just giving it back for nothing. Its a weird frustrating situation.
@@spibow I agree it is weird and frustrating. And silly. Tbh the trade back thing makes me feel like the character don't really belong to the person and is just borrowed. And this is somehting I hate, getting / buying a character only for it to secretly still be kind of owned by the old owner
i was just thinking recently about how specifically toyhouse has kind of "commodified" art into this flat, monetary, objectified version of itself. and im like actually glad to see someone talking about it trading culture has warped the way that people respect each other and their art (spoiler: they don't anymore!) and communication/boundaries are kind of just thrown out the window in favor of. just. designs. "can you ping me if this ever goes up for trade?" says a commenter who knows very well that the character in question is your beloved sona that you'll bring with you to your grave, but they're "just shooting their shot." i also kind of wish people would talk about how weird it is that pop designers are turned into brand names ? ive been really afraid to sell adopts the past few years because people would occasionally refer to my art as "[username] designs" or "rare" (???) which felt, reductive? so if i ever dipped my toes into that i would NOT want adopts to overshadow my art and be the only thing im known for... i also wouldnt want the nightmare scenario of attracting people who seek "popular" friends only to leech art/designs off of them, unless that happens less often than im afraid of
completely agree! unfortunately... yeah that does happen lol. not terribly often thankfully and it's more so younger teens who just don't really understand why it's wrong but ive definitely seen people who chase after popular designers and desperately try to gain their friendship bc they just want free art and designs; i have one friend who ive watched have the misfortune of that situation multiple times and i feel awful for them since theyve gained and lost so many "friends" who really just wanted attention and free stuff. pings. infuriate me. i put all over my profile that i *don't do pings* but no matter what i say! or how many times i say it! people ask. the concept of asking someone to keep a list of people to ping when a character goes up for offer is so rude to me and it frustrates me. especially when you JUST recieved the character and theres a swarm of people asking for pings because they were a bit too late to buy it or they didn't win a raffle. i literally JUST got this character, fuck off 😶
My first sona was an unnamed character with one piece of art off a friend’s ToyHouse for 4 bucks. I loved the art but it was a bit pixelated (likely from sharing/trading/etc) and I couldn’t make out the signature. About a year after, I mentioned my sona as an “abandoned meow meow” because of the blurry signature. A friend at the time didn’t understand why I was so cool with having art I didn’t know the credit of, because it’s “insulting” to the artist. I had never (and still don’t) imagined that the artist would be upset with me today. I loved their work so much despite not having anyone to tie it to, I connected with it, I wanted to give it new life or else it would have gathered dust in an archived Toyhouse folder. I don’t claim it as my own work, nor do I believe I’m the owner of the artwork. It was clearly someone else’s character before that, but based on the history it seemed like a couple years at least. It was “TBN” for a while. I guess I just see it as appreciation; I’ve obviously changed bits and pieces over time, since I only had one grainy dynamic-pose photo with no name or writing. But I won’t let go of the original piece because that’s where my sona came from :)
That’s so stupid ??? 😭 as long as you’d be willing to fix the credit if the artist came forward i don’t know how that’s insulting. Things happen, sources get lost. I have a few characters on th that were once adoptables on dA, but while I know they were adoptables the original sheets were lost to time. It’s not my fault I don’t remember the original designers! I got these designs years ago! I always just write on their pages “I didn’t actually design this character, but the source is lost. If you have any information please let me know!”
@@NightTheKittenn forreal, I’d actually love to at least be in contact with the artist, show them the sona that started me into the fandom, etc but apparently some people see this as a form of art theft. I’m just happy they find a new life :)
I have the same issue! I have a sona I adore but their reference came with no signature I could trace back to. I was so paranoid people would think I stole the design, but these days I simply accept that the character's origins are sadly lost to time. I still hope I bump into the artist online one day to give proper credit where it's due, though!
This kind of internet urban culture makes me very paranoid. Specialy the concept of "close species" (that species where you have to pay for... Desing an oc that looks like somenthing specific? What?) Just imagine that you made a very similar design from an existing adopt or close species by casuality and that by casuality that person finds you and results that they have or a toxic fanbase or is also toxic as hell. It's very unlikely that that will happen, but things like that make me paranoid.
Can you do a video about co-owning? I once co-owned a character with someone which was part of a really high value closed species (I had no idea so i kind of feel as if they used it against me) so when we co-owned the character, the other person got mad at me for "not using the character enough" but then got upset at me when I tried to share the artwork we got (ex: both of us having artwork of the character) which the other person started gaslighting and yelling at me cause of it?? I tried to sell off my side by then due to how stressful it got with the co-owner yelling at me but accidentally sold it off to their friend who sold it back to them. What really hurts is that I made that character from a MYO event and loved the design. But the co-owner didn't buy just one redesign, but two. to the point its hardly recognizable. It still hurts so much knowing how much they used my ignorance to their advantage
co-owning was definitely something i would have added if the video didn't end up being so long. it's similar to tradebacks where it's absolutely fine when everyone involved is happy with it, but it creates grounds for so many potential problems. the most common thing i see happening is where one person goes completely inactive and the other person just doesn't know what to do with the character anymore cuz they can't really trade it without talking to the person but the person left the account. i hate co owning characters because it's hard to coordinate and unless toyhouse adds a co-owning feature id never do it (even then i still prob wouldn't). again, it's fine so long as both people are happy, but not for me sorry to hear about that btw. that sucks
@@Qwizz yeah, I've absolutely learned never to co-own again after that. Its kind of surprising how long it's taking Toyhouse to implement a co-owning feature considering how often people co-own characters
I used to co-own OCs with a Spyro fan artist because I made OCs in her Spyro fan universe and it got a little tricky to track who owned what sometimes, but I just left it alone like “yknow if they wanna use it, it’s fine” 😂
id only do co owning personaly if its not a pop designer/bartering chip chara, but like a lore fella id love to make together w a friend :3 minimilising coown situation to a min, bc character like that for me rack up immense emotional value that makes me keep em forever(my side of em)@@Qwizz
this feels like a more of youthful version of a narrative artist meeting a visual artist. Like you collect charaacters you like and make the story for them. I as a narrative artist that has worked on a couple indie manga can really get behind that. Its also another way for artists to make money which I always will enjoy.
as someone who uses toyhouse and likes collecting characters i own one pop hq oc, it cost me 150$ and a fully rendered halfbody . i love this oc to bits i commission art of her and shes made by one of my favorite designers which happens to be a pop designer but i dont love that oc specifically because shes hq and worth a lot, i love her because of the design and i really like the person who made the ocs designs, and would even if they weren't "pop" using terms like hq, lq, pop etc seems so demeaning, to beginner artists and to more intermediate/professional artists because you have on one hand people calling someones art "low quality" just because its not good and what they like, and on the other hand people calling someone a "pop designer" or "hq" which seems like a compliment but it just seems demeaning, like their designs and art only matter because its popular.
As someone on toyhouse whos decently active, alot of the trading on toyhouse is ridiculous. People seem to think they still somehow own that charater, it's like they want to co-own the character but want the full pay for it and it grinds my ass. People refuse to accept that once they sell or trade a character it is no longer theirs to control anymore.
The only time I could somewhat understand the LQ and HQ thing is when you’re talking about resolution. Like an image with a lot of static because it was downloaded so much would be LQ resolution, and a freshly created image would be HQ resolution, that’s the only time I could understand it 😭
Im really glad to hear your opinion on "pop" designers. As a somewhat successful artist on TH and other art spaces and someone who's just been around the character trading scene for years , it really frustrates me when people try to tear pop designers down for simply selling their art/designs at a higher price. The people who act like pop designers are like.. soulless mega corporations only after people's money bug me the most. I think the thing alot of artists, esp younger artists dont understand is how expensive it is to even live? Someone selling a design for $500 might seem like alot and it is in some contexts, but rent, food, bills, utilities, insurance, etc, will drain your funds pretty quickly. I frequently sell designs for $150+ and even then I have to sell a handful + commissions to cover my expenses. Me and many of my friends who sell designs for "alot" use art as a significant source or even sole source of income. Alot of popular designers are also disabled, and may not be able to work regular jobs either. So im really glad you took the time to try and make people understand that while its frustrating seeing people selling designs for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, its not right to turn those feelings of jealousy and anger onto the people selling them. Theyre just trying to get by like everybody else. Your critiques on pop artists are also valid tbh. It puts a bad taste in my mouth when designers put out basically the same design again and again-- Not only is it boring but as you said it's kind of disrespectful to the owners of the older designs that look basically the same. You can capitalize on whats trending while also keeping things fresh and fun! I think another weird thing about pop designers and just trading in general (although ive seen it more with pop designers) is the idea of revoking characters. Im no lawyer but the idea of forcibly "taking back" a design you sold to someone without any compensation just seems legally dubious. As well as just ethically wrong. Even though most people don't revoke characters unless a serious or unsavory situation has happened, its just as possible to do it for petty reasons as well. To me it just feels like stealing and it just leads to needless drama that could be easily avoided,
Ngl I only encountered the OC trading culture once, when sb convinced me to sell them one of my OC Dumbo Octopuses. It was a really weird experience, because as a character designer I can't for the life of me get attached to something that I didn't make / wasn't specifically tailored for me, so I didn't understand why they were so insistent. It's even weirder to me now, years later, because they bought it and it just,,, sits on their TH? They never made or commissioned any art of it. It's a complete 180 compared to me, because I only have 2 OCs that I didn't make, and the only designs I don't throw away as "one-offs" are the ones I know I'd make more art of in the future. TL;DR - not my cup of tea, apart from "maybe I should try to give away/trade for some art my older designs that I did", but still, this video was very informative and I'm glad I got to learn more about this community. I hope you all have fun!
I subscribed because you talk fast and I find it satisfying to listen to like white noise or asmr. Most of the time, I have no idea what you are talking about. Do you read a script or is it off the dome? Very impressive either way.
you're real for that dog 💀i watch video essays on stuff i literally don't understand at all as well generally, most of my videos are partially scripted -- as in, bulleted lists of main points i want to cover/things i don't want myself to forget to include. i go from point to point talking about my thoughts but the next point is there to keep me from going on TOO long of tangents at a time. longer videos like this are more heavily scripted, where some sentences are more fully written to help me through reading it so i don't have to do multiple takes. since unedited audio is typically 3-7 minutes longer than the video is (breaks to drink, breathe, or stuff i had to rerecord) and if it takes me 20-30 minutes every take and i have to do multiple takes it...adds up generally videos under like 10 minutes are very loosely scripted whereas videos like this have more embellished scripts!
never in my entire time on toyhouse has anyone sold a "tradeback" character to me. They've always said if I disconnected I could notify them and they'd buy it back or trade for it. I've never been asked to give an OC back for free that is a ridiculous thing to ask...
My biggest issue within trading culture is ‘’taking back’’ characters. THAT IS SCAMMING, you do not **legally own** your adopt after you’ve traded / given it to someone else under all circumstances. You no longer have any ownership in anyway. This and getting mad at people redesigning your adopt. This doesn’t even logically make sense?? A past friend of mine sent me a whole paragraph on me making their design a dog with cat ears as I personally don’t like the kittydog species, nothing else in the entire oc was changed?? It’s so stupid, I get if it’s like “hey let me know when you redesign my adopts” because if you see them posted by others you’re aware it’s not a rip off
The concept of tradeback designs is wild like youre telling me if i spend $150 on rights to use a design i have to give it back to you for free if i dont like the character anymore? Im not willing to do that unless the person pays me back + whatever i spent on commissions of the character. What if i re design them? Do i have to give it back now because i modified the original design? Am i even "allowed" to do that? I own the right to the character now and should be allowed to do whatever I want with it. Whos going to enforce it anyway? Art drama commentators? This honestly just feels like some kind of weird get rich quick scheme or some kind of scam. If you sell 5 tradeback designs for $50, and 3 people trade them back youve already made $250 plus you can re sell the 3 that were traded back to you for $100 this time because they now have art added. Its just profiting off of other people's work. Gross.
i remember doing adopts way back in my homestuck phase and i personally wouldnt buy any characters but i gladly gave the ones i made away. anyway thats how i knew about this stuff. great video!!!
@@louzo5175 honestly homestuck is a great community to do that in, or at least it was when I was in the community!! It was one of the only things I really liked about it tbh!!
Awesome video!! I've actually never heard of "HQ" and "LQ" in art offers referring to the quality of someone's artstlye as compared to someone else's. When I asked what HQ/LQ meant a while ago, someone told me that HQ meant a piece of art that was shaded and lighted, and LQ would be art that was just flat color; so I always put things like "HQ fullbody" as the kind of art I wanted people to offer because I thought HQ only carried the meaning I was familiar with. Now I specify that I prefer shaded art because a lot of people didn't know what HQ stood for. There was also a such thing as HQ designs! I believe it usually means the design has 4-5+ colors, though everyone seemed to have a different idea of what qualified something as HQ. I've learned that everyone appears to have their own idea of what "HQ" is supposed to mean. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One time my bf got me this 90 dollar oc for me cause i really liked it (i didnt even ask him do he just did it, it was super nice) but the rules said i couldn't really do anything with it. like i couldnt edit it much or anything. and the person would not refund him. was pretty scummy.
The trade-back stuff like this is why I flat out say right on the front of my TH page that if you get a character from me, its yours to do whatever you want with it (void it, sell it, redesign it, give it away), as it's no longer mine the instant it leaves my TH.
As someone who's been in the character trading sphere for a while now. Personally, when I hear high quality and low quality, I automatically assume bases. Personally, I never connected it to art quality, which is pretty wild lol and I didn't know thats what others meant. I mainly connected it to bases or designs made on mass adoptable bases.
thank you!! and wow, you hosted the diamonds map? can't believe you stuck around. i think that was...like the first map i ever joined? thank you so much for letting me participate in that
The game Pixel Petz (art/social game where you make pets out of pixels and sell and trade them in a whole economy and stuff) is like this. if you copy, or even INSPIRE FROM, someone else's generic blue wolf pixel pet, you are immediately accused of copying. There's also a very popular "closed species" on there called "partykittens" which is literally just cats with balloons on them and a round, owl-like face with no mouth. God forbid you make a similar pet, or else the pixel pets players will go rabid and rage at you
SO TRUE. I made a shop series a while ago that looked the smallest bit like a clownkit and I got accused of copying. Clownkits are literally just normal cats with a heart with an X in it in their leg and stripes. That's the most generic design ever like bffr. I got blocked by hotions because of it and I'm proud of it cuz I didn't copy I didn't even have a reference of the clownkit design :3 Tho I still collect the first version of them cuz they're comfort pets to me.
this video actually opened my eyes on some of the odd and obscene parts of the trading community, now that i think of it. yeah, it's a dumpsterfire with the entitled and toxic people but also a beautiful one with the select few who are happy.
Omg hii, i just found your channel today and i love your artstyle and videos so much!! 😭You have such a pretty voice and the color pallets you use on your art is so detailed. I've heard about a part of TH's community being ''weird'' in a way and im glad i never let curiosity get the better of me lol. I personally love the idea of being able to trade Oc's with one another
Think I'll be sending this video to people who accuse artists of selling designs as nfts (for certain fandoms where it's not as widely known) For example, there are big groups on Facebook I'm in (yes I am sane and FB is my primary social media) and most people find it cool that people make their own monster designs and human self-inserts as teams (not Pokemon) but then when they see people selling pretty cool original designs they don't understand it and call them out for selling nfts.. It's honestly really weird to see people outside of the art community who are in active fandoms with tons of artists but don't have the oc selling culture kind of thing? Idk I even tried myself in that specific fandom cuz I made some characters that I wasn't sure if I'd keep and there was one comment being like "who would pay for ms paint nfts?" and a couple others so I ended up deleting the post, but not before someone commented something like "lol these are just low quality Neopets you can't sell that" (I've never even played that game pff) and at the time I was angry at my art style for being too cute cuz I started out in the mlp fandom so cute big eyes kinda of thing, I've embraced it since then dw Anyway think we need an oc vs nft video, like ppl have confused them so much ever since those blew up and then crash-burned down into the abyss .. that people legit just assume you are trying to scam ppl and not sell adopts if it's outside of the art community but still in the fandom area??
its kinda unfortunate too that nft was a term in a trading community waaayyy before nfts ever existed, and was just as important as forever homed X,[ not for trade, rip ill miss u
absolutely agree with everything you just said!!! everyone on toyhouse needs to watch this asap. toyhouse has a WEIRD amount of drama, it's why i dont really have any friends on there (which, in turn makes it so nobody buys my stuff unfortunately). then again, it's mainly the furry fandom on toyhouse, and well. the furry fandom is notorious for the drama!
the adoptables/character trading community break so many copyright and ownership laws its crazy. adoptable tos is some of the craziest things ive ever read. the level of entitlement some people have is BONKERS why are you selling a product and acting like you own it still???
This video really made me go through all my characters' ownership permissions, and it's really saddening how many I found to have some unreasonable rules on the level of tradebacks. The most prominent one being: "you can't ever make any profit off the design". No real detail into it, just that simple rule. It would mean that, if I had made those designs sonas or mascots, and tried to make merch of them, id get in a heap of trouble despite having the rights to the character. It was really sad to let go of characters I really liked and had owned for years to avoid that hassle and discomfort I felt regarding that rule, especially since I had to mark them as only for trade, despite the art I put into them that could have at least given me money out of the parting =(
I was active in this community for like years and it was absolutely wild 😭 I used to sell my art for literally 50 cents which was nowhere near close to enough to pay for the time I put in and I struggled so much to sell adopts Fortunately I am able to make some more money with commissions now (or I did until I forgot how to draw cats lol) but as someone who is so frustrated with all of the things in the video it’s so nice to hear someone put it into words
The trading culture on toyhouse is wild, it feels like designer bags tbh, since a lot of them time people seem interested in characters as investments (pop designers reselling) rather than for personal use
You gave me a hell of a trip in time when I heard Renard - Go To The Party at 0:22 I still hear her music to this day(since 2007) she is now Emma Essex.
There was this person on instagram that would constantly be posting shit like “look at this character i bought!” Then like a few weeks later would be selling that character 💀 like more power to these people, they can do what they want, but I will never understand it, personally.
I've made adoptables for a few years on both amino and toyhouse, but stepped back from that scene about a year now, no regrets! Not only the market is very saturated so selling IS hard when you're not popular, but as well people can be terribly mean. I never blew up, though I managed to gain designer friends that are still friends that day so it's not too bad. But man, the amount of time my art had a lq label slapped on it... Oh, and people who keep making offers on my FOREVER HOME characters despite the fact that they're marked as characters I do not want to sell or receive offers on. They're not trading cards to me, why are you even offering. That, and people who want to claim my characters/designers who want me to give them the design back just because I "don't use them" (aka I don't have the time to draw all of them because I have a life and around a hundred different characters). But all of my characters are active characters in my stories, so they are being used. Bonus point for that person who gave me a picrew character and said they could take them back if I did not draw the character every once in a while, like dude you're not even the designer you made it with someone's picrew.
im so glad theres a video on this omg ive been on toyhouse for 5 years atp and while i *personally* never had too many issues w the character trading sphere, ive seen rlly weird ones, both my friends and randoms have had sm problems w character trading. also the lq and hq labels holy shit dude. i remember being 12 and making shitty designs for toyhouse gifting games, and being 12 i got really upset when people traded them and had some stupid tos that was like "zomg dont trade my characters!!" for some reason the grown adults of toyhouse thought that the best way to deal with an actual child being sensitive was to tell me that my designs were low quality which is why they got thrown around and nobody rlly wanted them. yeah that was a pretty big blow for me
A comment on the LQ/HQ labels! EVEN IF ITS A BASE CHARACTER, YOU COULD LIKE THE CONCEPT Unless you wanna go: “Hey I paid 60$ on this char, I want suth of similar value”, then that’s honestly understandable to an extent
Ive wanted to create adopts and sell designs that ppl can buy but im also nervous about people misusing my art Stuff like ppl breaking tos, selling or givung them to blacklisted users Or even ppl creating rip off designs
2:25 for those who wanna understand what the heck an nft is and why they’re so bad I know Folding Ideas made a super good video explaining everything you need to know :> put it on while you doodle or something
is it weird that i have in my designs global terms to give designs back to me only if they no longer want it *and* dont want to go through the effort of selling/trading/whatever form of giving it to someone else? i definitely agree that the concept of tradeback designs is strange and its not something id ever want to engage with (though i do think its more reasonable specifically for like. freebies/f2e raffles), i just dont want my designs to get deleted off of toyhouse. im totally cool w them getting traded, redesigned, whatever, i just wanna be able to see, i like being able to keep track of them and see where theyre going.
Bro i just heard of this, it's so wild for me to think some people sell and trade characters, i'd never be able to sell some character i made even if i made them to just sell away, it's like they're my babies lol. That may also be the reason why some put trade back in their TOS, they might just love the character they made (or maybe they're just trying to profit, but that's just lame).
I do trade backs, sort of. If I really like a design I made, I ask the person who owns it to reach out to me first if they ever decide to sell or trade, so I can offer. They don't have to accept my offer of course, but I do sometimes ask to be alerted so I have the option. But they will never return the character to me without getting anything in return, since that's simply not fair
I understand a bit topic with "low quality" thing. I remember someone offered me 30 drawings for a character and it was literally "quantity over quality" situation because I'd rather get 1-2 good drawings than 30 low skill ones..
as someone who has been away from the character trading community for like 7 years by now, this is. what the hell am i looking at??? do tradebacks not even involve a refund or other sort of compensation? this is so baffling and makes me glad im not really inspired enough to design new characters and instead am focusing on my old ones, because i'd be absolutely fuming if someone tried to pull a takesies backsies on a design i paid money for because i didnt feel like keeping it.
Gonna go on a bit of a rant with this one so apologies in advance, as an artist who has been on toyhouse for roughly 6+ years, it is a hell scape. The amount of times I've been told my art "isn't high quality enough" is absolutely baffling. I've seen people drop thousands on soul less 'pop' creator ocs that are the blandest thing made, like an all white dog with one or two black spots. It's things like this that don't make artists want to draw anymore, being constantly compared to 'high quality' designs then being spat in the face because it's not up to their image of quality. I understand wanting a certain style but referring to art as low quality?? They wouldn't appreciate if someone called their art low quality so why do they think it is alright to do the same?? And do not get me started on the closed species. Having to trade or sell your left leg just to own a common one, it's absolutely whack. I've stopped using th to look for characters now because I'm so tired of people responding with 'sorry not HQ enough only want pop designers', I just make my own ocs and move on.
@@bunaynayslay NO BECAUSE LITERALLY, they spend hundreds of dollars just to immediately resell it for more?? I never understand the appeal over the styles either? Maybe that's just because I don't really enjoy soft pastel uwu stuff eugh. On that topic though, thanks to those artists and people copying them, styles like that are what's considered hq and its just??? Wouldn't you rather want something you can't find everywhere?? Shits wild
when I was 12 I was online friends with this guy who had this one main character. when I was 13 we started to drift apart and he gave me the character for like 500 deviantart points. then shortly after I turned 14 he wanted to talk to me on discord so I added him. and then he put me in this group chat with his friends, where he proceeded to harass me cuz I didn't draw said character. he kept insulting me. his friends were civil though. I apologized and told him I was really depressed cuz my sister died a few months before and he ACCUSED ME OF LYING. he wouldn't leave me alone and I literally had a panic attack. I wasn't good at standing up for myself and I just wanted him to stop so I gave him the character. his friends offered to give me something in return but I ended up getting nothing he was only like a year or two older than me and had anger issues. but that doesn't give him an excuse for acting like this. I'm 17 now and I still hate him for manipulating me like that. but I'm also mad at myself for giving in
bruh if i saw people arguing under my character that i just paid for saying stuff like that, i'd delete my account i can't even handle that at all omg. i already get so paranoid when i see people favourite my characters because i get very attached to my characters and i dont understand toyhouse very much
The pop designs things drive me crazy. I own designs from a lot of big figureheads in the community and I was legitimately harassed because of it. I was doxxed over a character I bought, because I didn’t draw him for the first week I owned him and “clearly didn’t love him”. I paid $1600 for him. I think I do if I spent that much on him. (Before anyone asks what’s up with the price, it came with a really nice fursuit partial.) The thing is, I don’t buy based on who’s popular. Sure, I really like a lot of pop designer works and I’m probably more interested in their works because of their art style being appeasing to me. I own a lot of popular designer ocs but I also own a lot of designs from smaller artists, too. I regularly AB designs from smaller creators and give big tips because I like the design and think they’re underpricing themselves. I do have a particular designer I’m very fond of that is very popular but rarely uploads, and I guess I own too many of their designs, because people get aggressive whenever I bid on them because I already own their work. The thing is, the artist is totally fine with me. There are just random people who don’t like me because I own 3 of their designs and I’m “hoarding” like I don’t regularly draw them and hold them tightly my babies.
ive never used the exact term "tradeback design" but i always assumed it was more along the lines of.. "if this character i made/owned goes back up for trade/sale, id love to offer for them" .. i know i have a couple designs like that, that i of course do not expect back for FREE, but id be so willing to offer a character or art for to have them back in the case that the current owner wants to part with them. guess i just assumed thats what everyone meant lol
Usually what I do if i sell or trade a design I may want back in the future is ask the person i trade/sell it to to contact me if they ever no longer want the design so I can have a chance to offer on them to get them back, if they don't want the offer i give them (Which I always try to match the original worth or the new worth if new art was added) then they're always free to trade/sell it to someone else, I also accept if they tell me they won't because it's fully in their right.
1. your art style is sooo cute 2. YOU PUT A VOICE TO LIKE. MY BIGGEST CONFUSIONS WRT THIS CULTURE. like i understand perfectly how it works but what i dont understand is hhhhhhowwwwwwwwwwww it works (as in How. do people live like this) GDJKGDJHDGH. thank you for the insightful and well-put commentary :) ALSO LIKE. YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD WITH THE PROBLEMS WRT LQ AND HQ ITS LIKE....on one hand i get what you (using general "you" to represent the ppl asking for offers) want out of me but on the other hand even if i think my art/characters count as "hq" i dont want to do business with someone whos gonna be cruel to artists i like for being "lq". like stfu if youre gonna be mean to artists you dont like ill just do the concept you're selling but better im a character designer too :sob: this said im coming at this from the pov of someone who has like a million characters and has traded any away like. Once or Twice. im very much of the mentality "if i dont feel a connection to a character/dont have a place for them i will keep them until i find a place for them/get an idea for them" i think thats healthy + keeps me from giving away some of my oldest and most sentimental characters just because i ""lost connection"". this is ofc not trashing on anyone that cycles thru characters i just dont personally get it yknow.
As someone who is also on TH and is currently dealing in selling/ trading OCs, I’ll say this: 1) I’m not a fan of pop designers. I enjoy their designs aesthetically (sometimes), but I wouldn’t want to own one personally bc of the amount of offers even when not tagged as OTA/ potential rip-offs. Pop Designers sort of lower the market value from other adopt makers, in my own opinion. (Same with pop closed species.) 2) I’m going to point out something about “HQ” versus “LQ” artwork. Look, artwork is artwork. I enjoy seeing all artwork, so long as it is not AI or stolen. But I understand the “trading for HQ art/OC”. If you have a character worth $100+, you are looking to trade for a character of similar value. For example, I’ve had characters with multiple reference sheets, GIFs, and art pieces for OTA and I’ve had other users offer me Dollmaker OCs with no extra artwork, or offering a character with 1-2 art for mine who has 10-15 art pieces. If I spent large sums of physical money on an OC that I am selling/ trading, I expect to get a close amount in return, that’s just basic business practice. “High Quality” isn’t about the way the art looks, necessarily. “HQ” is in the eye of the beholder. I think we can all be respectful of each other and if terms like “HQ” and “LQ” bother you, then just don’t interact with that individual. And if you think it’s weird or offensive that people pour all this money and energy into an OC only to lose connection and decide to trade/ sell them, idk what to tell you. For one reason or another, it happens. Sometimes you just outgrow a character. Maybe the character becomes associated with a bad memory or feeling. Whatever the reason, so long as the character is legally yours and not being used to scam, do whatever you wish. 3) “Give Backs” are stupid and scammy. I refused to adopt any OC that has a “give back” policy in the T.O.S. I’ve also seen “Give Back” policies being used by actual scammers who will take back any (supposed) design or previously owned OC of theirs without warning, including the added artwork from the new owner(s), then immediately turn around and resell/retrade with added value from the stolen artwork. 4) TH is a toxic af site. Great for character storage and profile aesthetics, but that’s it. The user base is pretty much a hellscape otherwise, with few diamonds in the rough. TH has also made me believe that I shouldn’t just have OCs I’m “doing nothing with” unfortunately. Thanks for reading!
as someone who’s kind of obsessed with toyhouse because ocs are a special interest of mine and also sometimes creates moodboard adopts, some people have INSANE tos. mine is super lenient, with probably the most strict thing being ”please don’t flip my designs and sell for more than you bought it for if you haven’t added more content to them” (since that’s just pretty scummy?? if you buy a character from me for $10 and you have a larger follower base than me and more eyes on your posts, so you’re then able to immediately sell that character you just bought for $20, it’d actually be super insulting to me as an artist if you turned around and sold the character you JUST bought from me for a profit if you haven’t added anything to it?? like if you thought the base design, nothing added, was worth $20, it’s so insulting to pay me the lesser value to then get yourself profit) and “you can change the design as much as you want, so long as the original design of the character is still credited to me” since i’d want someone to be able to easily find me if they liked the original design and wanted one themselves! there’s an oc i own where the tos states you CANNOT draw nsfw content of the character (learned this after i bought it since i didn’t buy it from the original creator), even if said content isn’t uploaded anywhere. that to me is insane. i own the character. i should be able to do whatever i want to it. the creator isn’t a minor (i checked) and if i never uploaded nsfw content i created/got of that character, why is it a problem??
ive been in the trading scene for a bit and like. the pop artist thing rly sucks cause im in this weird spot where i still struggle to sell things and dont make much as i wish with my art. but i still get the hate from people who assume the worst about me cause they heard someone claim im a "pop artist". i love toyhouse but it also really sucks.
Always hated the terms “LQ,MQ and HQ”, that is just gonna make beginner artists and artists with low confidence/self esteem feel like shit or be intimidated by being rejected for not fitting into those labels. Its so dumb.
I have my own story about pop designers, or well one? (It was like a shared acc) I really liked their art and it was really cute!! It was a more doodle type style with p simple patterns but cool ideas! I remember one was this shrimp/isopod cat thingy that was p simple with mostly white with some off blues in a vauge pattern and again, in their very simple style. I thought i could get them and then redesign them to make them more detailed and cooler looking, then i looked at the price- It was around 25$ for a doodle and white colors. My jaw dropped, im not paying 25 dollars for something i could doodle so fast for free. Worse part is someone DID buy it for full price cause the designers never accepted other offers unless it was like 5 fullbodies with shadeing and a background. My opinion on other things like lq/mq/hq art/characters is p similar too. Like i look for usability in a character, not for who its made from or its quality (plus its fun redesigning "low quality" characters), im a bit more picky with art but the whole purpose with that imo is to see how other people interpret your character! To see them cartoony or more realistic! Its what makes it fun! Obv i get it if you make this adopt that has like 20+ art and tons of value n stuff and someone goes "3 sketches", like cmon dude And from my personal experience, " hq art" just means more relistic tbh. Like "better anatomy, realistic shadeing, bothing quirky" Again, i get it if the art they offer is off and one arm is longer then the other and yadda yadda But even then! I have many peices ive traded that other concider "low quality" but i dont care! I also like the fact that i helped one way or another in that persons art journey, my character they drew is a stepping stone for them to get better. And i like that :] Also also, when people are BEGGING, PLEADING TO GET RID OF THESE CHARACTERS AND SAY THEYLL TAKE ANYTHING FOR THEM!!!! and I'll offer some art or smth for one and the persons like "lol no" Like??? Bro you where BEGGING me to take them what? Idk, im just rammbleing tbh lol
I didn't finish the video, but I think pop designers and popCS are a status thing more similar to NFTS. I've seen and known many a person who would want any design as long as it was from a pop designer, or was from a popcs/closed species.
as an outsider finding out about trading culture for the first time, this whole thing really bizzare to me. is this a toyhouse exclusive thing or does it happen in other platforms as well?
It was before the toyhouse, it's just pretty popular website for that I'm not into character trading (even tho i have one free (keyword: free) adopt because i found the design cool), but i have a toyhouse to use it as archive for my characters tbh
For "trade backs" i usually just ask ppl to ping me if it goes up for offers so i can fairly offer for it back lol, i think this is a better way of doing it since the other person still gets a fair offer for the stuff they added (and who knows i might not even care anymore by the time they trade the character). Its always important to know you may never see the design again youraelf if you sell it off to anyone other than a very close friend (even then who knows. You might have a falling out with them and the character gets yeeted into who knows where)
The biggest question I have that wasn’t answered is why would someone create a character only to not use it in their own story and let another person buy/use it?
I mean, I trade and sell characters because I don't want to waste the design and because someone else may use the character better than I would. Also, there are people who can't draw, so they buy characters to make up for that fact, and to see them be happy that they can use the character for their story makes me happy.
You made a lot of good points with not being sure if your work is HQ, that kind of thing can be very subjective, When I personally sell a character that I've drawn or paid a lot for, I don't want people to offer sketchy MS paint drawings, Quickly colored base adopts or a picture of a drawing that cannot be shipped and it can be frustraighting as one person to have to sort through potentially tens of peoples Toyhouses (Which can be pretty immense sometimes) to just be met with those kinds of things, its easier for the artist or person wanting to trade to consider either my skill level or the amount paid/works included than for me to have to sort through sometimes 30+ offers. (Especially if I'm selling an adopt that cost over $100 and people are offering adopts that have listed prices of under $10, Dont get me wrong sometimes I value the offered characters for more than the listed price but there should also be a level of objective worth aside from subjective character aesthetics) (TLDR: HQ and LQ can be measured by Appeal,Price paid, Effort, Skill level but all except price is subjective) I Also have way too many Pokémon cards and it's really therapeutic to sort and look at the pictures, read the flavor text. And they have a good smell.
12:02 "I just love how relaxing it is to sort them" Absolutely relate. I actually gave my cards away to a friend recently and the 'tism decided I wanted to make a spreadsheet on the cards, inclusing editions, the night before I was gonna give them to my friend.. As a kid I'd also sort coins, partially fuelled by my grandfather collecting them. Though currently I'm more into swatching things. Recently picked up an interest in make-up and am currently working on making tiny cards with swatches of the varying products, so that I can put them in to segmented clear foils to compare colours..
Personally as a small adopt-maker that hardly gets any business even for their hardest work, I'm less frustrated with popular creators than I am with the fact that I have to conform to the market. I make adopts of unique species with all sorts of different styles and aesthetics with a focus on unique silhouette and solid character designs, but alas...I'm sure if I made a kidcore dog it'd sell way faster than a postmodern solarpunk caribou or a 2016 tumblr fangirl raccoon. With a community so focused on character design, you'd think that it'd be less conformist than other industries and that uniqueness/personality would be valued. It's wild to me that rainbow dogs with wings and magical powers are conformist now XD
What my small scrimblo brain imagines what lq and hq characters is that like the lq is the type of image you'd see from amino that's been downloaded like 50 times 😭
I WAS WAITING FOR SOMEBODY TO MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT THIS. Toyhouse really made a negative impact on my art, the characters are made to be editable and so are flat and personality-less, and you stop drawing for fun as to not waste time. It really sucks the soul out of your passion and prevents you from being proud of your work. Not to mention it confuses you on what is good/cool art, and stops you from being inspired. Like every aspect of your mindset toward art gets affected over time
I can understand selling a character and saying "if you get tired of it, let me know so I can attempt to buy it." I've done that before; spent more than I sold it for but I wanted the character back (seller's remorse after it was our of my hands).
I’m part of the side that usually just asks people to offer only art, since I have no way yet to use payment methods. I do have a preference of what I am looking for (example: animations of my characters or customs), but I will never ask anyone to do something they aren’t comfortable with doing, especially with things such as low quality or high quality. It feels like an unnecessary expectation. Thank you, however, for covering this topic. It’s helped me out a little more when it comes to things like adopts. :)
I never liked the terms hq/lq and i wish it was never created i think it's pretty unpleasant and hurtful i'd feel pretty sad if my work would be considered "low quality/low effort" but i wouldn't be happy either if my stuff was considered and labeled hq it would feel off and strange to me it's very icky
so ive seen a lot of discussion over "hq" and "lq" in this comment section and i want to elaborate on a few things.
- if a word means different things to different people in different contexts, imo it ceases to be useful. "but when i use it im not talking about skill im just talking about effort" -- that's great, but not everyone uses the word that way so not everyone will interpret it that way. if that's what you want to communicate, it might be better to just say "high effort"
- "but i dont want people offering low skill work" 4:10 the point of putting a character up for offers... is to allow people to make an OFFER to you. if you don't like offers with low skill work then you don't have to accept them. i feel like saying "lf for hq only" not only makes people feel bad but it also discourages potential offers that you may have actually liked.
when youre a beginner, you don't usually describe your art as "low quality". when i was younger and i put a lot of time and effort into something, i was really proud of it, even if it looked pretty sloppy and i wouldn't feel the same way if i looked back now.
- "well some art/designs are objectively lower quality like if the lineart is sketchy or if it's made on a base..." i dont think those things actually make art or designs lower quality...? there are plenty of experienced artists who actively choose to use sketchy lineart stylistically and it looks great. and just because a design was made on a base doesn't mean you might not like it, it might be lower effort but the design might be well made. and again, with the first thing, no one can read your mind and know you're talking about onbase designs and sketchy lineart...if you genuinely won't accept any offers of those categories, just mention that specifically
overall the terms still just seem really weird to me both from the perspective that they're backhanded and hurtful, and from the perspective that they're not even that helpful for filtering offers either considering they make most people not want to offer at all 🤷♂️
The fact that people are defending this in the first place to the point you had to make this pinned post is just....eugh.
Another thing too, to the person in another thread who said "it's tiring to filter through so many offers" like...this is character trading right? Not selling? Imho, if your hobby starts to get tedious or tiring, maybe take a break or find a new hobby for a bit. Additionally if you added more specific filters like, specific character traits you *dont* want (lets say...bipedal, scaley, furry, fox-like, cat-like, etc etc, all decent qualifiers for the sake of example) things would just be so much less toxic for everyones sake.
In my old days of DeviantArt we called them adoptables, because you were adopting the characters as your own
they still do that! but its really commen to see "ai adoptables" now, so... zero effort
I still tend to sell/buy alot on DA, though all from smaller creators with less than 10K watchers as I rarely see them from bigger creators, though I still do sometimes.
@@KoiiDaBoii Compared to.... color shifting or paint bucket dumping a texture so you can sell 20 of the same character design? Like... yeah, fuck AI "art" but adoptables in general are beyond stupid and you're genuinely a clown if you ever paid for that.
@@KoiiDaBoii Fun Fact! Because of the way copyright applies to AI generated images, the people selling those "adoptables" can't stop you from stealing the design if you like it.
That's what these are!? I remember adoptables were huge.
FINALLY PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT THIS, LOL. had a period where i was into toyhouse character collecting and the way characters are treated is really funny.
my favorite trading cards
(i can put them into fanfction and traumatise dem characters)
@@louzo5175 But you also sometimes write nice things about them too, right?
wait people are calling art high and low quality now..?? 😭😭💀💀 amazing video btw
i mean. objectively art can be high and low quality
“No I’m not taking your art because it’s on a 1k canvas you need a 10k one 🤬🤬🤬🤬”
This is not a new concept. It's a bit nasty, but it's certainly not new
High and low Art are terms aren’t new but specifically linking to quality isn’t really the same. If you’re looking into art history it’s important to know what they are but with Pop art and other modern art low and high art have essentially been shattered.
But yeah bit iffy. (I’d understand if if was like High means Full bodies or full renders & low means quick sketches & such but yowza it’s weird)
This has been a thing for literally years. Since *at least* 2012
I get adorable characters on Th but damn are they traded so weridly-
“Tell me before you trade them”
“Trade back if unconnected”
“Can only change the design a bit”
??? It’s mine tho?? 😭
never understood tos like the third one
Some people have SUPER strict rules on trading and I really just want to avoid those people's characters because why would I want to abide by those when the character is mine at that point??? I want to have the freedom to do what I want with them, and if the rules won't allow it then I guess the character ain't worth it.
Before I knew all that stuff, I traded for fun, only to realize that some characters I now owned had so many rules on them?? Like "don't give them siblings with a similar design" or "Don't redesign"
Like, I sunk in so much time and effort into developing these characters only to be restricted by that, and even trading them away is hard. I'm kind of at a loss for what to do other than to just store them away and not use them anymore.
@@smudged4090 ya block em and keep doing you, you have proof that they consentually gave up ownership to you so who cares yk?
YES!!! THANK YOU!!! I never understood that!
When I was on amino they’re were a LOT of people who had TOS like that. Whenever I posted adoptables I would always put “No rules”. Even in my bio I said “no need to ask to resell/redesign characters once bought. They’re yours. Do whatever”.
On Toyhouse, people would put my personas, my childhood characters, stuff that is an extension of myself, into favorites folders called “dreamies” or ask me if I’d ever be willing to trade them. I hate that I have to think about it for a second sometimes.
Toyhouse hindered a lot of my art progress. I stopped drawing random thing for fun and only drew characters I had uploaded to Toyhouse because I’d be wasting time if I did not add “worth” to those characters.
I own a few popular designer characters, but they are only from people I grew up loving the art of. I get nervous owning them however, because I don’t want them to seem like I do not use them. Something like: “This person doesn’t even use that character, they don’t even deserve it.” It kind of sucks.
Toyhouse is really useful for art storage and ownership, but it feels like I have sold my soul to use it, lol.
yee the selling ur soul part was optional all along
Recently I took a step back from Toyhouse after impulsively spending so much money on characters. Ngl I kind of regret it and I'm probably going to resell or retrade a lot of them later down the line. I didn't realize how weird trades are handled until I took a step back. I feel you with the hindering of art progress too. I felt this pressure to add worth to characters, when in reality that's not the only way to recognize that a character is 'worth' something.
I have quite a few characters from a popular designer, and from my experience I've gotten DMs from people asking to be pinged assuming that one day I'll inevitably put them back on trade/sale (which I won't). It's hard not to feel like eyes are on u, waiting for when you'll give up a character, because they probably are looking. And it's even worse when they judge how you use a character and say you don't deserve it.
Ya I put an oc of mine on TH and someone asked if I’d offer it to them if I ever thought about selling them and it irked me tbh. It seems weird to ask something like that unless the character is already up for sales/trades. That’s why I now keep all my folders private.
I love toyhouse but I've definitely had to make sure I step away from trading culture. I've definitely noticed that I started to develop a bit of a problem. I try not to spend more than $10-$20 (depending on detail) on any character and it's usually from friends or artists I follow and adore.
I gave up on the "looking like i dont use" thing. I love the characters I own and I draw them all.. but I never intend on selling any of them and their value now means nothing to me so I don't upload a lot of their art.
I usually look for a lot of really old, really low effort, unused, and/or unloved designs and I hate that the only way I can find them is calling it LQ :( I cherish them, I love them all.
These days I do mostly use TH to be able to access my characters across all my devices and organize my thoughts with stories. I interact with other people but I try to not use my money to buy characters, but art of my existing ones instead.
I do think th hindered my art a little bit. Mostly because of art trades and really cheap commissions. I got and get really burned out and I stopped really pushing myself.
I started blocking people who try and offer on my characters. I realized that no, I dont want to sell any of them. I don't have any interest in giving them away. It's in my page warnings severall times
Ive had this issue aswell.. Theres also characters from certain people I see for auction, and they go for several THOUSAND dollars for just the reference sheet.. I'm not joking! One of them went for 4.7K its so silly. Honestly I would much rather make a character myself and use that money for rent lol
With the HQ and LQ labels, I once offered on a character and it said just that "Only accepting HQ characters and art." but it also said, "deleting LQ offers". Wanna have a guess what happened to my comment? Thats right! It got deleted.
I've also had someone put one of my designs in a folder called "Kinda mid tbh" and tagged it as LQ.
It's just mean for no reason, there's no point to it? I don't know. I just don't understand why people do it.
help whats the point of getting someones design and purposefully putting it in a mean folder like that and tagging it with lq that is literally the rudest thing they could've done
@@pearlescentholo And make it public. Ok if it's private but PUBLIC?!
what the heck is the point of making a whole ass folder just to bully artists, like dude go get a better life than that 💀
honestly I hate the way people define low quality and high quality because people just base it off of certain art styles they like VS what is ACTUALLY "low quality" IMO thats like picrews,gatcha and other games like that where its not even drawn by someone and sold its just made randomly, to me thats LQ and sometimes base made characters too are extremely a hit or miss kinda thing
yeah i think the terms are just misleading because a lot of people use them intending to refer to, like you said, picrews or gacha/character creator things but when they use the words "low quality / high quality" it sounds like they're just talking about how...well...GOOD the character is. which is ultimately subjective, at the end of the day.
think a better way to phrase it would be like... "low effort" but even then it seems like it'd cause more unintentional harm than necessary. i think people just kinda need to realize that when you put a character up for offers, it's super unlikely that the first offer you get will always perfectly fit what you're looking for. that's just kinda how it works so idk why people define it at all, knowing that it means a different thing to EVERYONE
@@Qwizz people just dont understand it, I find it happens often and I see this happen more and more lately on Toy house especially. Nothings exactly LQ, everything there was once someones happiest moments and I think calling someones character LQ is so insulting and this has happened to me multiple times. I dont think picrew ocs are even LQ if they have extra art and are more than just the picrew. What IS LQ is just selling a picrew/trading one and not telling anyone its a picrew- thats when I get my pitchforks out and get annoyed at people
I agree a lot with many of the points in the video! Something I also noticed within the trade community is the stigma around not selling your ocs, especially if you have a lot from one designer. As someone with a ton of designs made by my friend and many ocs I made to keep for myself, I stumble across a lot of people complaining behind my back about me deciding not to sell characters I payed for??? It just feels like a lot of the design trading community seems like they feel as though you're obligated to trade things.
yeah, that's also frustrating. i collect a lot of my friend's designs as well because i 1. love their work 2. love surprising them by going through rabbit holes finding their several year old designs and 3. just think they're fun to collect. i pay for them all legitamately of course, but it usually takes a while before i rehome them if i trade them at all.
kind of ties in with like...unsolicited offers where people think they can just start bargaining for your character without asking / without you putting it for sale.
yo it’s Dee? Fellow scratcher alert
Also very fair points people often ask me why I don’t purge my ocs and I don’t understand because I personally prefer to keep my ocs and not sell them :] honestly though it’s nice to trade your work for art but over-offering on OTAs tend to be a thing as well…
@@combo_yt3me too i love my ocs why would i want someone elses
@@combo_yt3 OTAs?
As someone who used to be super into all this character trading/selling community, I can totally agreed with you about most the point especially the 'Pop designs' one.
I once saw a 100% naked, no accessory, not extra art nothing just a single png full body reference minimal shading ordinary human girl design sold for 1000usd just because the person who drew that was a big name artist. That bashful me so much I can't wrap my head around it lmao.
ohhhh so that DOES happen i just dont know any human oc designers XD
were you also around when an anthro, fully white husky (no extra markings or piercings) in black boxers sold for $1k?
like good on the artists for making bank but also I don’t get it
@@louzo5175 or those CS OC stuffs, my God I knew one incident it sold for like, above 10k
@@GoAwayImHiding Hmmmmm I'm not sure I've seen it but for anthro designs I've seen a lot worse :0 !
good for them
I’m one of the few lucky people on sites like toyhouse where I can actually SELL my adopts and character designs and it’s honestly awful to see smaller creators struggle to even undersell their stuff :(
yeah cant relate toyhouse is so hard to sell lmaoo theres a design of mine at like 3$ since a year now and it hasnt been bought ever
I relate!! I try my best to share accounts that I love to boost them. I feel embarrassed sometimes to get my okayish designs sold for way too much when AMAZING artists who are so creative cant even get art offers :(
Relatable, I have a friend who's also able to sell designs, I'm on the other end of the spectrum where I can't even get rid of my free designs XD (also, can I just say, I love your designs, I have a friend who owns some of them and they're always so pleasing to see)
Remember kids: if its an AI design, you can steal it, it's not protected by copyright and would discourage AI artists from getting in the adoptables community
ARE U THE SAME RAVIOLICATTI ON SCRATCH OMG?
@Qwizz lol yeah haha, I thought I recognized the Qwizz handle of your's
As a person who uses toyhouse a lot I mainly just trade for and buy ocs to draw, give personality’s for and use for my animations and object shows, great vid!
OBJECT SHOWS??? ur just like me fr3
@@louzo5175 I've been working on one for ages but It hasn't had much work on it done yet due to me getting sick :p.
Os(c?)?!
I'm in a community that use a lot the "trade back" but it's something I find 100% better: "sell back"
Basically when a character comes with a "sell back" option, it means when you want to part with it, you have to first contact the person you bought them from, and let them know it is for sell: if the person can buy it back, they BUY it. If they can't, they give you the go ahead to sell the character to someone else
And I don't know I find it really better than that
Some people use it to keep track of where their designs are, others because they hesitate keeping the design but can't because they already have too much, or planned to sell it but loved the design, so many reasons
And sure, some people are like "I buy it back at base price", but some people are kind and buy the character back at the rised price if there has been additional art
We should really normalize that
This is always how I approach characters that I regret selling, I'll either pay their curremt worth or trade another character or custom design because it's not fair for me to demand it back for free. I'm always ready to accept a "no". Because it's NOT mine anymore! Trade-back as a name implies it - *Trading* for the design *back*... Not just giving it back for nothing. Its a weird frustrating situation.
@@spibow I agree it is weird and frustrating. And silly. Tbh the trade back thing makes me feel like the character don't really belong to the person and is just borrowed. And this is somehting I hate, getting / buying a character only for it to secretly still be kind of owned by the old owner
Sounds like an NFT trade.. ngl
@@MimyRoo Even though Qwizz specified that this sort of thing is NOT related to NFTs?
i was just thinking recently about how specifically toyhouse has kind of "commodified" art into this flat, monetary, objectified version of itself. and im like actually glad to see someone talking about it
trading culture has warped the way that people respect each other and their art (spoiler: they don't anymore!) and communication/boundaries are kind of just thrown out the window in favor of. just. designs. "can you ping me if this ever goes up for trade?" says a commenter who knows very well that the character in question is your beloved sona that you'll bring with you to your grave, but they're "just shooting their shot."
i also kind of wish people would talk about how weird it is that pop designers are turned into brand names ? ive been really afraid to sell adopts the past few years because people would occasionally refer to my art as "[username] designs" or "rare" (???) which felt, reductive? so if i ever dipped my toes into that i would NOT want adopts to overshadow my art and be the only thing im known for... i also wouldnt want the nightmare scenario of attracting people who seek "popular" friends only to leech art/designs off of them, unless that happens less often than im afraid of
completely agree! unfortunately... yeah that does happen lol. not terribly often thankfully and it's more so younger teens who just don't really understand why it's wrong but ive definitely seen people who chase after popular designers and desperately try to gain their friendship bc they just want free art and designs; i have one friend who ive watched have the misfortune of that situation multiple times and i feel awful for them since theyve gained and lost so many "friends" who really just wanted attention and free stuff.
pings. infuriate me. i put all over my profile that i *don't do pings* but no matter what i say! or how many times i say it! people ask. the concept of asking someone to keep a list of people to ping when a character goes up for offer is so rude to me and it frustrates me. especially when you JUST recieved the character and theres a swarm of people asking for pings because they were a bit too late to buy it or they didn't win a raffle. i literally JUST got this character, fuck off 😶
My first sona was an unnamed character with one piece of art off a friend’s ToyHouse for 4 bucks. I loved the art but it was a bit pixelated (likely from sharing/trading/etc) and I couldn’t make out the signature. About a year after, I mentioned my sona as an “abandoned meow meow” because of the blurry signature. A friend at the time didn’t understand why I was so cool with having art I didn’t know the credit of, because it’s “insulting” to the artist. I had never (and still don’t) imagined that the artist would be upset with me today. I loved their work so much despite not having anyone to tie it to, I connected with it, I wanted to give it new life or else it would have gathered dust in an archived Toyhouse folder. I don’t claim it as my own work, nor do I believe I’m the owner of the artwork. It was clearly someone else’s character before that, but based on the history it seemed like a couple years at least. It was “TBN” for a while. I guess I just see it as appreciation; I’ve obviously changed bits and pieces over time, since I only had one grainy dynamic-pose photo with no name or writing. But I won’t let go of the original piece because that’s where my sona came from :)
That’s so stupid ??? 😭 as long as you’d be willing to fix the credit if the artist came forward i don’t know how that’s insulting. Things happen, sources get lost.
I have a few characters on th that were once adoptables on dA, but while I know they were adoptables the original sheets were lost to time. It’s not my fault I don’t remember the original designers! I got these designs years ago! I always just write on their pages “I didn’t actually design this character, but the source is lost. If you have any information please let me know!”
@@NightTheKittenn forreal, I’d actually love to at least be in contact with the artist, show them the sona that started me into the fandom, etc but apparently some people see this as a form of art theft. I’m just happy they find a new life :)
I have the same issue! I have a sona I adore but their reference came with no signature I could trace back to. I was so paranoid people would think I stole the design, but these days I simply accept that the character's origins are sadly lost to time. I still hope I bump into the artist online one day to give proper credit where it's due, though!
This kind of internet urban culture makes me very paranoid. Specialy the concept of "close species" (that species where you have to pay for... Desing an oc that looks like somenthing specific? What?) Just imagine that you made a very similar design from an existing adopt or close species by casuality and that by casuality that person finds you and results that they have or a toxic fanbase or is also toxic as hell. It's very unlikely that that will happen, but things like that make me paranoid.
Can you do a video about co-owning? I once co-owned a character with someone which was part of a really high value closed species (I had no idea so i kind of feel as if they used it against me) so when we co-owned the character, the other person got mad at me for "not using the character enough" but then got upset at me when I tried to share the artwork we got (ex: both of us having artwork of the character) which the other person started gaslighting and yelling at me cause of it?? I tried to sell off my side by then due to how stressful it got with the co-owner yelling at me but accidentally sold it off to their friend who sold it back to them. What really hurts is that I made that character from a MYO event and loved the design. But the co-owner didn't buy just one redesign, but two. to the point its hardly recognizable. It still hurts so much knowing how much they used my ignorance to their advantage
co-owning was definitely something i would have added if the video didn't end up being so long.
it's similar to tradebacks where it's absolutely fine when everyone involved is happy with it, but it creates grounds for so many potential problems.
the most common thing i see happening is where one person goes completely inactive and the other person just doesn't know what to do with the character anymore cuz they can't really trade it without talking to the person but the person left the account.
i hate co owning characters because it's hard to coordinate and unless toyhouse adds a co-owning feature id never do it (even then i still prob wouldn't). again, it's fine so long as both people are happy, but not for me
sorry to hear about that btw. that sucks
@@Qwizz yeah, I've absolutely learned never to co-own again after that. Its kind of surprising how long it's taking Toyhouse to implement a co-owning feature considering how often people co-own characters
I used to co-own OCs with a Spyro fan artist because I made OCs in her Spyro fan universe and it got a little tricky to track who owned what sometimes, but I just left it alone like “yknow if they wanna use it, it’s fine” 😂
prob exactly why theres rules against co owning in most closed species (chams have that rule im pretty sure)
id only do co owning personaly if its not a pop designer/bartering chip chara, but like a lore fella id love to make together w a friend :3 minimilising coown situation to a min, bc character like that for me rack up immense emotional value that makes me keep em forever(my side of em)@@Qwizz
this feels like a more of youthful version of a narrative artist meeting a visual artist. Like you collect charaacters you like and make the story for them. I as a narrative artist that has worked on a couple indie manga can really get behind that. Its also another way for artists to make money which I always will enjoy.
as someone who uses toyhouse and likes collecting characters
i own one pop hq oc, it cost me 150$ and a fully rendered halfbody . i love this oc to bits i commission art of her and shes made by one of my favorite designers which happens to be a pop designer
but i dont love that oc specifically because shes hq and worth a lot, i love her because of the design and i really like the person who made the ocs designs, and would even if they weren't "pop"
using terms like hq, lq, pop etc seems so demeaning, to beginner artists and to more intermediate/professional artists because you have on one hand people calling someones art "low quality" just because its not good and what they like, and on the other hand people calling someone a "pop designer" or "hq" which seems like a compliment but it just seems demeaning, like their designs and art only matter because its popular.
As someone on toyhouse whos decently active, alot of the trading on toyhouse is ridiculous. People seem to think they still somehow own that charater, it's like they want to co-own the character but want the full pay for it and it grinds my ass. People refuse to accept that once they sell or trade a character it is no longer theirs to control anymore.
The only time I could somewhat understand the LQ and HQ thing is when you’re talking about resolution. Like an image with a lot of static because it was downloaded so much would be LQ resolution, and a freshly created image would be HQ resolution, that’s the only time I could understand it 😭
I agree. And I know some of my drawings of stuff on my 2DS may not be super-fancy, but I drew it, and that's all that matters.
@@Most-sane-deltarune-fan exactly!!! ^^
Im really glad to hear your opinion on "pop" designers. As a somewhat successful artist on TH and other art spaces and someone who's just been around the character trading scene for years , it really frustrates me when people try to tear pop designers down for simply selling their art/designs at a higher price. The people who act like pop designers are like.. soulless mega corporations only after people's money bug me the most. I think the thing alot of artists, esp younger artists dont understand is how expensive it is to even live? Someone selling a design for $500 might seem like alot and it is in some contexts, but rent, food, bills, utilities, insurance, etc, will drain your funds pretty quickly. I frequently sell designs for $150+ and even then I have to sell a handful + commissions to cover my expenses. Me and many of my friends who sell designs for "alot" use art as a significant source or even sole source of income. Alot of popular designers are also disabled, and may not be able to work regular jobs either. So im really glad you took the time to try and make people understand that while its frustrating seeing people selling designs for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, its not right to turn those feelings of jealousy and anger onto the people selling them. Theyre just trying to get by like everybody else.
Your critiques on pop artists are also valid tbh. It puts a bad taste in my mouth when designers put out basically the same design again and again-- Not only is it boring but as you said it's kind of disrespectful to the owners of the older designs that look basically the same. You can capitalize on whats trending while also keeping things fresh and fun!
I think another weird thing about pop designers and just trading in general (although ive seen it more with pop designers) is the idea of revoking characters. Im no lawyer but the idea of forcibly "taking back" a design you sold to someone without any compensation just seems legally dubious. As well as just ethically wrong. Even though most people don't revoke characters unless a serious or unsavory situation has happened, its just as possible to do it for petty reasons as well. To me it just feels like stealing and it just leads to needless drama that could be easily avoided,
Ngl I only encountered the OC trading culture once, when sb convinced me to sell them one of my OC Dumbo Octopuses. It was a really weird experience, because as a character designer I can't for the life of me get attached to something that I didn't make / wasn't specifically tailored for me, so I didn't understand why they were so insistent. It's even weirder to me now, years later, because they bought it and it just,,, sits on their TH? They never made or commissioned any art of it.
It's a complete 180 compared to me, because I only have 2 OCs that I didn't make, and the only designs I don't throw away as "one-offs" are the ones I know I'd make more art of in the future.
TL;DR - not my cup of tea, apart from "maybe I should try to give away/trade for some art my older designs that I did", but still, this video was very informative and I'm glad I got to learn more about this community. I hope you all have fun!
I subscribed because you talk fast and I find it satisfying to listen to like white noise or asmr. Most of the time, I have no idea what you are talking about. Do you read a script or is it off the dome? Very impressive either way.
you're real for that dog 💀i watch video essays on stuff i literally don't understand at all as well
generally, most of my videos are partially scripted -- as in, bulleted lists of main points i want to cover/things i don't want myself to forget to include. i go from point to point talking about my thoughts but the next point is there to keep me from going on TOO long of tangents at a time.
longer videos like this are more heavily scripted, where some sentences are more fully written to help me through reading it so i don't have to do multiple takes. since unedited audio is typically 3-7 minutes longer than the video is (breaks to drink, breathe, or stuff i had to rerecord) and if it takes me 20-30 minutes every take and i have to do multiple takes it...adds up
generally videos under like 10 minutes are very loosely scripted whereas videos like this have more embellished scripts!
never in my entire time on toyhouse has anyone sold a "tradeback" character to me. They've always said if I disconnected I could notify them and they'd buy it back or trade for it. I've never been asked to give an OC back for free that is a ridiculous thing to ask...
My biggest issue within trading culture is ‘’taking back’’ characters. THAT IS SCAMMING, you do not **legally own** your adopt after you’ve traded / given it to someone else under all circumstances. You no longer have any ownership in anyway. This and getting mad at people redesigning your adopt. This doesn’t even logically make sense?? A past friend of mine sent me a whole paragraph on me making their design a dog with cat ears as I personally don’t like the kittydog species, nothing else in the entire oc was changed?? It’s so stupid, I get if it’s like “hey let me know when you redesign my adopts” because if you see them posted by others you’re aware it’s not a rip off
The concept of tradeback designs is wild like youre telling me if i spend $150 on rights to use a design i have to give it back to you for free if i dont like the character anymore? Im not willing to do that unless the person pays me back + whatever i spent on commissions of the character.
What if i re design them? Do i have to give it back now because i modified the original design? Am i even "allowed" to do that? I own the right to the character now and should be allowed to do whatever I want with it. Whos going to enforce it anyway? Art drama commentators?
This honestly just feels like some kind of weird get rich quick scheme or some kind of scam. If you sell 5 tradeback designs for $50, and 3 people trade them back youve already made $250 plus you can re sell the 3 that were traded back to you for $100 this time because they now have art added. Its just profiting off of other people's work. Gross.
i remember doing adopts way back in my homestuck phase and i personally wouldnt buy any characters but i gladly gave the ones i made away. anyway thats how i knew about this stuff. great video!!!
YOOO homestuck adopts sounds fun
@@louzo5175 honestly homestuck is a great community to do that in, or at least it was when I was in the community!! It was one of the only things I really liked about it tbh!!
Awesome video!! I've actually never heard of "HQ" and "LQ" in art offers referring to the quality of someone's artstlye as compared to someone else's. When I asked what HQ/LQ meant a while ago, someone told me that HQ meant a piece of art that was shaded and lighted, and LQ would be art that was just flat color; so I always put things like "HQ fullbody" as the kind of art I wanted people to offer because I thought HQ only carried the meaning I was familiar with. Now I specify that I prefer shaded art because a lot of people didn't know what HQ stood for.
There was also a such thing as HQ designs! I believe it usually means the design has 4-5+ colors, though everyone seemed to have a different idea of what qualified something as HQ. I've learned that everyone appears to have their own idea of what "HQ" is supposed to mean. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One time my bf got me this 90 dollar oc for me cause i really liked it (i didnt even ask him do he just did it, it was super nice) but the rules said i couldn't really do anything with it. like i couldnt edit it much or anything. and the person would not refund him. was pretty scummy.
The warriors fandom is absolutely nasty when it comes to design / trade culture
The trade-back stuff like this is why I flat out say right on the front of my TH page that if you get a character from me, its yours to do whatever you want with it (void it, sell it, redesign it, give it away), as it's no longer mine the instant it leaves my TH.
As someone who's been in the character trading sphere for a while now. Personally, when I hear high quality and low quality, I automatically assume bases. Personally, I never connected it to art quality, which is pretty wild lol and I didn't know thats what others meant. I mainly connected it to bases or designs made on mass adoptable bases.
I love this topic so much, I’m glad someone made a video about it! Nice work Qwizz :)
thank you!! and wow, you hosted the diamonds map? can't believe you stuck around. i think that was...like the first map i ever joined? thank you so much for letting me participate in that
@@Qwizz yeah!! It was great to have you as a participant ★★★
The game Pixel Petz (art/social game where you make pets out of pixels and sell and trade them in a whole economy and stuff) is like this. if you copy, or even INSPIRE FROM, someone else's generic blue wolf pixel pet, you are immediately accused of copying. There's also a very popular "closed species" on there called "partykittens" which is literally just cats with balloons on them and a round, owl-like face with no mouth. God forbid you make a similar pet, or else the pixel pets players will go rabid and rage at you
SO TRUE. I made a shop series a while ago that looked the smallest bit like a clownkit and I got accused of copying.
Clownkits are literally just normal cats with a heart with an X in it in their leg and stripes. That's the most generic design ever like bffr.
I got blocked by hotions because of it and I'm proud of it cuz I didn't copy I didn't even have a reference of the clownkit design :3
Tho I still collect the first version of them cuz they're comfort pets to me.
this video actually opened my eyes on some of the odd and obscene parts of the trading community, now that i think of it. yeah, it's a dumpsterfire with the entitled and toxic people but also a beautiful one with the select few who are happy.
MY TOYHOUSE ERA FLASHES BEFORE MY EYES...
Omg hii, i just found your channel today and i love your artstyle and videos so much!! 😭You have such a pretty voice and the color pallets you use on your art is so detailed. I've heard about a part of TH's community being ''weird'' in a way and im glad i never let curiosity get the better of me lol. I personally love the idea of being able to trade Oc's with one another
its not weird, its just bartering.
Think I'll be sending this video to people who accuse artists of selling designs as nfts (for certain fandoms where it's not as widely known)
For example, there are big groups on Facebook I'm in (yes I am sane and FB is my primary social media) and most people find it cool that people make their own monster designs and human self-inserts as teams (not Pokemon) but then when they see people selling pretty cool original designs they don't understand it and call them out for selling nfts..
It's honestly really weird to see people outside of the art community who are in active fandoms with tons of artists but don't have the oc selling culture kind of thing?
Idk I even tried myself in that specific fandom cuz I made some characters that I wasn't sure if I'd keep and there was one comment being like "who would pay for ms paint nfts?" and a couple others so I ended up deleting the post, but not before someone commented something like "lol these are just low quality Neopets you can't sell that" (I've never even played that game pff) and at the time I was angry at my art style for being too cute cuz I started out in the mlp fandom so cute big eyes kinda of thing, I've embraced it since then dw
Anyway think we need an oc vs nft video, like ppl have confused them so much ever since those blew up and then crash-burned down into the abyss .. that people legit just assume you are trying to scam ppl and not sell adopts if it's outside of the art community but still in the fandom area??
its kinda unfortunate too that nft was a term in a trading community waaayyy before nfts ever existed, and was just as important as forever homed X,[ not for trade, rip ill miss u
absolutely agree with everything you just said!!! everyone on toyhouse needs to watch this asap. toyhouse has a WEIRD amount of drama, it's why i dont really have any friends on there (which, in turn makes it so nobody buys my stuff unfortunately). then again, it's mainly the furry fandom on toyhouse, and well. the furry fandom is notorious for the drama!
5:22 LMAO i love the little amogus thing u did with the finger for a sec there fghdhg
the adoptables/character trading community break so many copyright and ownership laws its crazy. adoptable tos is some of the craziest things ive ever read. the level of entitlement some people have is BONKERS why are you selling a product and acting like you own it still???
This video really made me go through all my characters' ownership permissions, and it's really saddening how many I found to have some unreasonable rules on the level of tradebacks. The most prominent one being: "you can't ever make any profit off the design". No real detail into it, just that simple rule.
It would mean that, if I had made those designs sonas or mascots, and tried to make merch of them, id get in a heap of trouble despite having the rights to the character.
It was really sad to let go of characters I really liked and had owned for years to avoid that hassle and discomfort I felt regarding that rule, especially since I had to mark them as only for trade, despite the art I put into them that could have at least given me money out of the parting =(
I was active in this community for like years and it was absolutely wild 😭
I used to sell my art for literally 50 cents which was nowhere near close to enough to pay for the time I put in and I struggled so much to sell adopts
Fortunately I am able to make some more money with commissions now (or I did until I forgot how to draw cats lol) but as someone who is so frustrated with all of the things in the video it’s so nice to hear someone put it into words
The trading culture on toyhouse is wild, it feels like designer bags tbh, since a lot of them time people seem interested in characters as investments (pop designers reselling) rather than for personal use
You gave me a hell of a trip in time when I heard Renard - Go To The Party at 0:22 I still hear her music to this day(since 2007) she is now Emma Essex.
I showed this video to my mom and she said it was a great introduction for outsiders to the character trading space! Thank you!
There was this person on instagram that would constantly be posting shit like “look at this character i bought!” Then like a few weeks later would be selling that character 💀 like more power to these people, they can do what they want, but I will never understand it, personally.
your voice is so nice to listen to, idk how to explain it without sounding weird but ur voice is so nice lol
YOU HAVE THE BEST MUSIC TASTE I LOVE RENARD
been watching your videos for the last few days and I gotta say, I love them!!!
I've made adoptables for a few years on both amino and toyhouse, but stepped back from that scene about a year now, no regrets!
Not only the market is very saturated so selling IS hard when you're not popular, but as well people can be terribly mean. I never blew up, though I managed to gain designer friends that are still friends that day so it's not too bad. But man, the amount of time my art had a lq label slapped on it...
Oh, and people who keep making offers on my FOREVER HOME characters despite the fact that they're marked as characters I do not want to sell or receive offers on. They're not trading cards to me, why are you even offering. That, and people who want to claim my characters/designers who want me to give them the design back just because I "don't use them" (aka I don't have the time to draw all of them because I have a life and around a hundred different characters). But all of my characters are active characters in my stories, so they are being used.
Bonus point for that person who gave me a picrew character and said they could take them back if I did not draw the character every once in a while, like dude you're not even the designer you made it with someone's picrew.
hearing renard in the beginning of the video caught me so off guard but im so glad they're not forgotten god bless
im so glad theres a video on this omg ive been on toyhouse for 5 years atp and while i *personally* never had too many issues w the character trading sphere, ive seen rlly weird ones, both my friends and randoms have had sm problems w character trading.
also the lq and hq labels holy shit dude. i remember being 12 and making shitty designs for toyhouse gifting games, and being 12 i got really upset when people traded them and had some stupid tos that was like "zomg dont trade my characters!!" for some reason the grown adults of toyhouse thought that the best way to deal with an actual child being sensitive was to tell me that my designs were low quality which is why they got thrown around and nobody rlly wanted them. yeah that was a pretty big blow for me
i always thought hq and lq meant like the size of the art
like lq was like a low pixel count and hq was a high pixel count
i was very wrong :(
A comment on the LQ/HQ labels!
EVEN IF ITS A BASE CHARACTER, YOU COULD LIKE THE CONCEPT
Unless you wanna go: “Hey I paid 60$ on this char, I want suth of similar value”, then that’s honestly understandable to an extent
Ive wanted to create adopts and sell designs that ppl can buy but im also nervous about people misusing my art
Stuff like ppl breaking tos, selling or givung them to blacklisted users
Or even ppl creating rip off designs
2:25 for those who wanna understand what the heck an nft is and why they’re so bad I know Folding Ideas made a super good video explaining everything you need to know :> put it on while you doodle or something
is it weird that i have in my designs global terms to give designs back to me only if they no longer want it *and* dont want to go through the effort of selling/trading/whatever form of giving it to someone else? i definitely agree that the concept of tradeback designs is strange and its not something id ever want to engage with (though i do think its more reasonable specifically for like. freebies/f2e raffles), i just dont want my designs to get deleted off of toyhouse. im totally cool w them getting traded, redesigned, whatever, i just wanna be able to see, i like being able to keep track of them and see where theyre going.
i think leaving it up to the other person what they'd rather do is perfectly fair
wow impresive and oh my dog so cute
off topic but i’m loving thr usage of the renard song
renAR!1!1????
RENARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RENAR!!!!
Bro i just heard of this, it's so wild for me to think some people sell and trade characters, i'd never be able to sell some character i made even if i made them to just sell away, it's like they're my babies lol. That may also be the reason why some put trade back in their TOS, they might just love the character they made (or maybe they're just trying to profit, but that's just lame).
I do trade backs, sort of. If I really like a design I made, I ask the person who owns it to reach out to me first if they ever decide to sell or trade, so I can offer. They don't have to accept my offer of course, but I do sometimes ask to be alerted so I have the option. But they will never return the character to me without getting anything in return, since that's simply not fair
I understand a bit topic with "low quality" thing. I remember someone offered me 30 drawings for a character and it was literally "quantity over quality" situation because I'd rather get 1-2 good drawings than 30 low skill ones..
Eyyy you have Merch! This is great!
as someone who has been away from the character trading community for like 7 years by now, this is. what the hell am i looking at??? do tradebacks not even involve a refund or other sort of compensation? this is so baffling and makes me glad im not really inspired enough to design new characters and instead am focusing on my old ones, because i'd be absolutely fuming if someone tried to pull a takesies backsies on a design i paid money for because i didnt feel like keeping it.
Gonna go on a bit of a rant with this one so apologies in advance, as an artist who has been on toyhouse for roughly 6+ years, it is a hell scape. The amount of times I've been told my art "isn't high quality enough" is absolutely baffling. I've seen people drop thousands on soul less 'pop' creator ocs that are the blandest thing made, like an all white dog with one or two black spots. It's things like this that don't make artists want to draw anymore, being constantly compared to 'high quality' designs then being spat in the face because it's not up to their image of quality. I understand wanting a certain style but referring to art as low quality?? They wouldn't appreciate if someone called their art low quality so why do they think it is alright to do the same?? And do not get me started on the closed species. Having to trade or sell your left leg just to own a common one, it's absolutely whack. I've stopped using th to look for characters now because I'm so tired of people responding with 'sorry not HQ enough only want pop designers', I just make my own ocs and move on.
a lot of highly desired designers are actually mid af, its crazy ppl drop hundreds on their designs just to instantly try to trade or resell it
@@bunaynayslay NO BECAUSE LITERALLY, they spend hundreds of dollars just to immediately resell it for more?? I never understand the appeal over the styles either? Maybe that's just because I don't really enjoy soft pastel uwu stuff eugh. On that topic though, thanks to those artists and people copying them, styles like that are what's considered hq and its just??? Wouldn't you rather want something you can't find everywhere?? Shits wild
when I was 12 I was online friends with this guy who had this one main character. when I was 13 we started to drift apart and he gave me the character for like 500 deviantart points. then shortly after I turned 14 he wanted to talk to me on discord so I added him. and then he put me in this group chat with his friends, where he proceeded to harass me cuz I didn't draw said character. he kept insulting me. his friends were civil though. I apologized and told him I was really depressed cuz my sister died a few months before and he ACCUSED ME OF LYING. he wouldn't leave me alone and I literally had a panic attack. I wasn't good at standing up for myself and I just wanted him to stop so I gave him the character. his friends offered to give me something in return but I ended up getting nothing
he was only like a year or two older than me and had anger issues. but that doesn't give him an excuse for acting like this. I'm 17 now and I still hate him for manipulating me like that. but I'm also mad at myself for giving in
I’ve had hell trying to trade my characters on Toyhouse. Barely anyone wants them even when I say they can offer the bare minimum for most of them 😔
bruh if i saw people arguing under my character that i just paid for saying stuff like that, i'd delete my account i can't even handle that at all omg. i already get so paranoid when i see people favourite my characters because i get very attached to my characters and i dont understand toyhouse very much
The pop designs things drive me crazy. I own designs from a lot of big figureheads in the community and I was legitimately harassed because of it. I was doxxed over a character I bought, because I didn’t draw him for the first week I owned him and “clearly didn’t love him”. I paid $1600 for him. I think I do if I spent that much on him.
(Before anyone asks what’s up with the price, it came with a really nice fursuit partial.)
The thing is, I don’t buy based on who’s popular. Sure, I really like a lot of pop designer works and I’m probably more interested in their works because of their art style being appeasing to me. I own a lot of popular designer ocs but I also own a lot of designs from smaller artists, too. I regularly AB designs from smaller creators and give big tips because I like the design and think they’re underpricing themselves. I do have a particular designer I’m very fond of that is very popular but rarely uploads, and I guess I own too many of their designs, because people get aggressive whenever I bid on them because I already own their work. The thing is, the artist is totally fine with me. There are just random people who don’t like me because I own 3 of their designs and I’m “hoarding” like I don’t regularly draw them and hold them tightly my babies.
ive never used the exact term "tradeback design" but i always assumed it was more along the lines of.. "if this character i made/owned goes back up for trade/sale, id love to offer for them" .. i know i have a couple designs like that, that i of course do not expect back for FREE, but id be so willing to offer a character or art for to have them back in the case that the current owner wants to part with them. guess i just assumed thats what everyone meant lol
Yay new vid!
Usually what I do if i sell or trade a design I may want back in the future is ask the person i trade/sell it to to contact me if they ever no longer want the design so I can have a chance to offer on them to get them back, if they don't want the offer i give them (Which I always try to match the original worth or the new worth if new art was added) then they're always free to trade/sell it to someone else, I also accept if they tell me they won't because it's fully in their right.
1. your art style is sooo cute
2. YOU PUT A VOICE TO LIKE. MY BIGGEST CONFUSIONS WRT THIS CULTURE. like i understand perfectly how it works but what i dont understand is hhhhhhowwwwwwwwwwww it works (as in How. do people live like this) GDJKGDJHDGH. thank you for the insightful and well-put commentary :)
ALSO LIKE. YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD WITH THE PROBLEMS WRT LQ AND HQ ITS LIKE....on one hand i get what you (using general "you" to represent the ppl asking for offers) want out of me but on the other hand even if i think my art/characters count as "hq" i dont want to do business with someone whos gonna be cruel to artists i like for being "lq". like stfu if youre gonna be mean to artists you dont like ill just do the concept you're selling but better im a character designer too :sob:
this said im coming at this from the pov of someone who has like a million characters and has traded any away like. Once or Twice. im very much of the mentality "if i dont feel a connection to a character/dont have a place for them i will keep them until i find a place for them/get an idea for them" i think thats healthy + keeps me from giving away some of my oldest and most sentimental characters just because i ""lost connection"". this is ofc not trashing on anyone that cycles thru characters i just dont personally get it yknow.
been a fan of your videos for a month or two, this one especially! new patreon sub :]
thank you!! ❤️ youll def be on the endcard tmr!
As someone who is also on TH and is currently dealing in selling/ trading OCs, I’ll say this:
1) I’m not a fan of pop designers. I enjoy their designs aesthetically (sometimes), but I wouldn’t want to own one personally bc of the amount of offers even when not tagged as OTA/ potential rip-offs. Pop Designers sort of lower the market value from other adopt makers, in my own opinion. (Same with pop closed species.)
2) I’m going to point out something about “HQ” versus “LQ” artwork. Look, artwork is artwork. I enjoy seeing all artwork, so long as it is not AI or stolen. But I understand the “trading for HQ art/OC”. If you have a character worth $100+, you are looking to trade for a character of similar value. For example, I’ve had characters with multiple reference sheets, GIFs, and art pieces for OTA and I’ve had other users offer me Dollmaker OCs with no extra artwork, or offering a character with 1-2 art for mine who has 10-15 art pieces. If I spent large sums of physical money on an OC that I am selling/ trading, I expect to get a close amount in return, that’s just basic business practice.
“High Quality” isn’t about the way the art looks, necessarily. “HQ” is in the eye of the beholder. I think we can all be respectful of each other and if terms like “HQ” and “LQ” bother you, then just don’t interact with that individual.
And if you think it’s weird or offensive that people pour all this money and energy into an OC only to lose connection and decide to trade/ sell them, idk what to tell you. For one reason or another, it happens. Sometimes you just outgrow a character. Maybe the character becomes associated with a bad memory or feeling. Whatever the reason, so long as the character is legally yours and not being used to scam, do whatever you wish.
3) “Give Backs” are stupid and scammy. I refused to adopt any OC that has a “give back” policy in the T.O.S. I’ve also seen “Give Back” policies being used by actual scammers who will take back any (supposed) design or previously owned OC of theirs without warning, including the added artwork from the new owner(s), then immediately turn around and resell/retrade with added value from the stolen artwork.
4) TH is a toxic af site. Great for character storage and profile aesthetics, but that’s it. The user base is pretty much a hellscape otherwise, with few diamonds in the rough. TH has also made me believe that I shouldn’t just have OCs I’m “doing nothing with” unfortunately.
Thanks for reading!
What brushes do you use? Your art is so pretty ^^
i love ur art!! ur so talented and i adore your use of colors. its giving early 2000s furry.
Don’t listen to the (very immature) haters!! also your mask is gorgeous❤
oh achualy, very true in my expierence most(but not all all) that were toxic, mostly were newish n didnt get the rules yet or got it wrong
as someone who’s kind of obsessed with toyhouse because ocs are a special interest of mine and also sometimes creates moodboard adopts, some people have INSANE tos. mine is super lenient, with probably the most strict thing being ”please don’t flip my designs and sell for more than you bought it for if you haven’t added more content to them” (since that’s just pretty scummy?? if you buy a character from me for $10 and you have a larger follower base than me and more eyes on your posts, so you’re then able to immediately sell that character you just bought for $20, it’d actually be super insulting to me as an artist if you turned around and sold the character you JUST bought from me for a profit if you haven’t added anything to it?? like if you thought the base design, nothing added, was worth $20, it’s so insulting to pay me the lesser value to then get yourself profit) and “you can change the design as much as you want, so long as the original design of the character is still credited to me” since i’d want someone to be able to easily find me if they liked the original design and wanted one themselves!
there’s an oc i own where the tos states you CANNOT draw nsfw content of the character (learned this after i bought it since i didn’t buy it from the original creator), even if said content isn’t uploaded anywhere. that to me is insane. i own the character. i should be able to do whatever i want to it. the creator isn’t a minor (i checked) and if i never uploaded nsfw content i created/got of that character, why is it a problem??
ive been in the trading scene for a bit and like. the pop artist thing rly sucks cause im in this weird spot where i still struggle to sell things and dont make much as i wish with my art. but i still get the hate from people who assume the worst about me cause they heard someone claim im a "pop artist". i love toyhouse but it also really sucks.
Always hated the terms “LQ,MQ and HQ”, that is just gonna make beginner artists and artists with low confidence/self esteem feel like shit or be intimidated by being rejected for not fitting into those labels. Its so dumb.
I used to sell adopts for around 2 years on amino
Well 2-3 years on and off sometimes, but i became more and more unhappy with my art so quit. It was fun tho
YESSSS QWIZZ VIDEO
I have my own story about pop designers, or well one? (It was like a shared acc)
I really liked their art and it was really cute!! It was a more doodle type style with p simple patterns but cool ideas! I remember one was this shrimp/isopod cat thingy that was p simple with mostly white with some off blues in a vauge pattern and again, in their very simple style.
I thought i could get them and then redesign them to make them more detailed and cooler looking, then i looked at the price-
It was around 25$ for a doodle and white colors. My jaw dropped, im not paying 25 dollars for something i could doodle so fast for free. Worse part is someone DID buy it for full price cause the designers never accepted other offers unless it was like 5 fullbodies with shadeing and a background.
My opinion on other things like lq/mq/hq art/characters is p similar too. Like i look for usability in a character, not for who its made from or its quality (plus its fun redesigning "low quality" characters), im a bit more picky with art but the whole purpose with that imo is to see how other people interpret your character! To see them cartoony or more realistic! Its what makes it fun!
Obv i get it if you make this adopt that has like 20+ art and tons of value n stuff and someone goes "3 sketches", like cmon dude
And from my personal experience, " hq art" just means more relistic tbh. Like "better anatomy, realistic shadeing, bothing quirky"
Again, i get it if the art they offer is off and one arm is longer then the other and yadda yadda
But even then! I have many peices ive traded that other concider "low quality" but i dont care! I also like the fact that i helped one way or another in that persons art journey, my character they drew is a stepping stone for them to get better. And i like that :]
Also also, when people are BEGGING, PLEADING TO GET RID OF THESE CHARACTERS AND SAY THEYLL TAKE ANYTHING FOR THEM!!!! and I'll offer some art or smth for one and the persons like "lol no"
Like??? Bro you where BEGGING me to take them what?
Idk, im just rammbleing tbh lol
lol the 3 sketches thing also happend to my friend
I didn't finish the video, but I think pop designers and popCS are a status thing more similar to NFTS. I've seen and known many a person who would want any design as long as it was from a pop designer, or was from a popcs/closed species.
as an outsider finding out about trading culture for the first time, this whole thing really bizzare to me. is this a toyhouse exclusive thing or does it happen in other platforms as well?
It was before the toyhouse, it's just pretty popular website for that
I'm not into character trading (even tho i have one free (keyword: free) adopt because i found the design cool), but i have a toyhouse to use it as archive for my characters tbh
It’s popular on DeviantArt I think and maybe Tumblr? I wouldn’t know!
For "trade backs" i usually just ask ppl to ping me if it goes up for offers so i can fairly offer for it back lol, i think this is a better way of doing it since the other person still gets a fair offer for the stuff they added (and who knows i might not even care anymore by the time they trade the character).
Its always important to know you may never see the design again youraelf if you sell it off to anyone other than a very close friend (even then who knows. You might have a falling out with them and the character gets yeeted into who knows where)
The biggest question I have that wasn’t answered is why would someone create a character only to not use it in their own story and let another person buy/use it?
I mean, I trade and sell characters because I don't want to waste the design and because someone else may use the character better than I would. Also, there are people who can't draw, so they buy characters to make up for that fact, and to see them be happy that they can use the character for their story makes me happy.
@@polygonz5678 That makes sense, thank you!!
You made a lot of good points with not being sure if your work is HQ, that kind of thing can be very subjective, When I personally sell a character that I've drawn or paid a lot for, I don't want people to offer sketchy MS paint drawings, Quickly colored base adopts or a picture of a drawing that cannot be shipped and it can be frustraighting as one person to have to sort through potentially tens of peoples Toyhouses (Which can be pretty immense sometimes) to just be met with those kinds of things, its easier for the artist or person wanting to trade to consider either my skill level or the amount paid/works included than for me to have to sort through sometimes 30+ offers. (Especially if I'm selling an adopt that cost over $100 and people are offering adopts that have listed prices of under $10, Dont get me wrong sometimes I value the offered characters for more than the listed price but there should also be a level of objective worth aside from subjective character aesthetics) (TLDR: HQ and LQ can be measured by Appeal,Price paid, Effort, Skill level but all except price is subjective)
I Also have way too many Pokémon cards and it's really therapeutic to sort and look at the pictures, read the flavor text. And they have a good smell.
12:02 "I just love how relaxing it is to sort them"
Absolutely relate. I actually gave my cards away to a friend recently and the 'tism decided I wanted to make a spreadsheet on the cards, inclusing editions, the night before I was gonna give them to my friend..
As a kid I'd also sort coins, partially fuelled by my grandfather collecting them.
Though currently I'm more into swatching things. Recently picked up an interest in make-up and am currently working on making tiny cards with swatches of the varying products, so that I can put them in to segmented clear foils to compare colours..
Personally as a small adopt-maker that hardly gets any business even for their hardest work, I'm less frustrated with popular creators than I am with the fact that I have to conform to the market. I make adopts of unique species with all sorts of different styles and aesthetics with a focus on unique silhouette and solid character designs, but alas...I'm sure if I made a kidcore dog it'd sell way faster than a postmodern solarpunk caribou or a 2016 tumblr fangirl raccoon. With a community so focused on character design, you'd think that it'd be less conformist than other industries and that uniqueness/personality would be valued. It's wild to me that rainbow dogs with wings and magical powers are conformist now XD
What my small scrimblo brain imagines what lq and hq characters is that like the lq is the type of image you'd see from amino that's been downloaded like 50 times 😭
I WAS WAITING FOR SOMEBODY TO MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT THIS. Toyhouse really made a negative impact on my art, the characters are made to be editable and so are flat and personality-less, and you stop drawing for fun as to not waste time. It really sucks the soul out of your passion and prevents you from being proud of your work. Not to mention it confuses you on what is good/cool art, and stops you from being inspired. Like every aspect of your mindset toward art gets affected over time
I can understand selling a character and saying "if you get tired of it, let me know so I can attempt to buy it." I've done that before; spent more than I sold it for but I wanted the character back (seller's remorse after it was our of my hands).
I’m part of the side that usually just asks people to offer only art, since I have no way yet to use payment methods. I do have a preference of what I am looking for (example: animations of my characters or customs), but I will never ask anyone to do something they aren’t comfortable with doing, especially with things such as low quality or high quality. It feels like an unnecessary expectation.
Thank you, however, for covering this topic. It’s helped me out a little more when it comes to things like adopts. :)
I never liked the terms hq/lq and i wish it was never created i think it's pretty unpleasant and hurtful i'd feel pretty sad if my work would be considered "low quality/low effort" but i wouldn't be happy either if my stuff was considered and labeled hq it would feel off and strange to me it's very icky
great video explaining it!