Download photos off the net that you think your characters would look like?

[BobbyBrandt]

For my celebrity stories, I used to check out pictures of them to make certain that I get certain details such as their eye color correct, but I have found that there are websites dedicated to listing all the physical features of most celebrities. These have been useful in other stories as well since if I envision my character having the same features of someone like Meg Ryan, it's easy to get her exact details.

For covers, I am blessed to have a gorgeous wife who has graced every cover of mine where a female form was used.

 

[purvis2]

Describing a character can also be like those old toys where the person or monster was in three sections and you could swap them all out to create different looks.

For example for a female

Eye color-only so many
Hair-only so many, although these days blue, pink, streaked hair, gives more options.
Tall or short
Petite, busty, athletic
Skin tone, she fair, she tanned, olive tint, dark skin?
Tattoo, no tattoo ( this doesn't occur to everyone, I like throwing a couple of tats on my females)
Piercings, same as above.
Breasts( I don't like stats so...) smallish, ample, full, 'more than a mouthful" "a good handful"

Just go down the line and mix and match. It works unless you're someone who really gives the full menu list of a person's attributes.

I usually do a short biography of the character. Age, education, personality, outlook on life, what she does for a living. Only a couple paragraphs. But, it centers the character and gives them a personality.

 

[Britva415]

Just based on the title of this thread, I tried to find pictures which look like two of my characters.

Gave up after a while.

 

[NikkiSparrow]

I certainly do this. I keep a character sheet for each of my main characters with details like their birthdate, where they're from, what they look like and what their best physical features are, continuity things like if I mention what kind of car they drive it goes on the sheet, and so forth. And each one has a picture or several, usually some character from a movie or tv show or even just a random person I came across whose look I liked.

I don't share this with readers though, I want them to form their own idea of the characters in their mind as they read.

 

[lovecraft68]

The character sheet bio can be useful for a series, but I've never found useful if you're writing a one off smut story. We don't need to know that much. I mentioned one character was an attorney, but never had a scene in a courthouse or had them discussing litigation. People aren't reading for Law and Order, they're reading to see a hot professional woman go out to get dicked down by a guy half her age.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I tried to describe the wife's hair and I used an Internet search to find the right color. Then I used DAZ3D software and some models to create a few scenes, to keep the characters and models consistent.

So, some of my characters and even the props are based on what I could find for my DAZ3D scenes. The MC's first car is a Mustang convertible, mainly because that was the closest prop in DAZ I had available for the visual I tried to create.

What is DAZ3D software? I had a female character (set in 1974) buy a 1970 Mustang convertible. But I knew what those looked like, although I had to check online for the details. It was dark green like this one, except the interior and top were black.

1970 Mustang

 

[Lifestyle66]

What is DAZ3D software? I had a female character (set in 1974) buy a 1970 Mustang convertible. But I knew what those looked like, although I had to check online for the details. It was dark green like this one, except the interior and top were black.

1970 Mustang

DAZ3D is a 3D graphics art software. I learned to use that to create some scenes and characters, thinking to use them as book covers. Once I get a character looking the way I like, I keep that as a reference for future descriptions.

That car.jpg scene was the MC helping his girlfriend the MFC, Jan into his car for their first date in Chapter 1.

 

[Priscilla_June]

DAZ3D is a 3D graphics art software. I learned to use that to create some scenes and characters, thinking to use them as book covers. Once I get a character looking the way I like, I keep that as a reference for future descriptions.

That car.jpg scene was the MC helping his girlfriend the MFC, Jan into his car for their first date in Chapter 1.

How easy is it to learn and is it free? It supports *lewd* content?

 

[MissNikkiDomGurl]

Yes, exactly this. I also have had a photo trigger an idea for a completely different story, while looking for a character for another one.

This.... I write a lot of captions on other sites. I have thousands of photos saved. Sometimes I look at one a the cap writes itself. Other times, I have a cap and have to search through all the pics for just the right one.
It might be out of hand...I literally have about 100 albums on my phone that I categorize the pics into!!!

 

[MissNikkiDomGurl]

I usually do a short biography of the character. Age, education, personality, outlook on life, what she does for a living. Only a couple paragraphs. But, it centers the character and gives them a personality.

This is actually a great idea- although Id do it for myself and the character, and not everything would be shared in the story. I think Ill do this. It will help me visualize and tailor their behaviour!!

 

[Defluer]

This is the most recent to do so.

View attachment 2199288

That picture is exactly the kind that I would take a snip of and drop into my Ideas folder. If I was one for Story Contests I would say that's the kind of thing that should start one. Every story begins with that scene, what happens from there is up to the authors. It would be fun to see how many people interpret things differently, or the same.

Just based on the title of this thread, I tried to find pictures which look like two of my characters.

Gave up after a while.

That's the reverse of how I do it. I don't make the character and then find a picture of them, that would take forever and probably be a waste of time. I have pictures and when starting the story I take them and drop them into a Table in the story. Above it has their name and once I start writing I'll drop in anything concrete that I add, stuff like eye color if you can't see it in the picture or if I change it based on the other characters or just something in my imagination triggering it would be better if...

Sometimes as I write the picture doesn't fit and either I have to go back to my database or just go off on my own.

I couldn't do this without permission. I cannot recall having based any of my characters on a celebrity, but I have based them loosely (not in a way that would permit any reader to identify them) on women I've known personally or women I've seen on the Internet who are not "celebrities" and whose photos I would never post without permission.

I wouldn't ever put the pictures I use into the stories. I don't think that's what any of us are saying. I'm with you I would never do that either, even if the picture had no copyright and the person was a "professional" I wouldn't. They are for me and if you can figure out who I'm describing then you're really good or I am, I doubt it's the latter. The two times I actually got somebody to agree to try and edit my work I did a copy of the document without the Table/Pics, so even then it was just for me.

 

[Lifestyle66]

How easy is it to learn and is it free? It supports *lewd* content?

The DAZ3D software is free, but it took me over two weeks to learn the basics of using it. However, the best looking avatars and other props will cost money, depending on how much detail you want. Those are created by other graphic artists using other software. I think I invested about $100 into the Victoria 8.1 and Michael 8.0 basic human forms, then bought hair add-ons (about another $30) to get the right look. An apartment scene add-on cost about another $25 to create this scene for a threesome as in my Chapter 12 (attached below).

I bought Genital add-ons from another site, Renderotica for about $30, to make them anatomically correct. I used those for lewd scenes to experiment with creating more graphics for the stories. But for this scene, that came in handy to get the best positioning of the avatars. (They are anatomically correct, and she is holding him!

 

[BiscuitHammer]

The character sheet bio can be useful for a series, but I've never found useful if you're writing a one off smut story. We don't need to know that much. I mentioned one character was an attorney, but never had a scene in a courthouse or had them discussing litigation. People aren't reading for Law and Order, they're reading to see a hot professional woman go out to get dicked down by a guy half her age.

Is amazing how different the experiences are. My readers want to know those little deets. I have bios for Alexaverse characters as detailed as any I ever gave to a D&D or Warhammer character. I'd have them anyway, even if the readers didn't care.

I'm either a gamer with a writing problem or a writer with a gaming problem, I don't know which. But like any RPG character I've generated, I know everyone's height, weight, hair, eyes, dreams, ambitions, and what they carry habitually.

I've had people compliment the scenes of Mike and Karen teaching in their classroom. They want to see Janet working a courtroom as a lawyer, Lisa the activist, and Mona the animator. As a result, they see it.

It might be a small subset of my readers, but they like it and many of them send me monetary expressions of appreciation for making them feel invested, so I am happy to keep it up.

Maybe it's because I'm a series writer, and as a result, people who are still reading my stuff want to know those details. I see why people wouldn't in a one-shot story or a short story, but I am genetically incapable of writing the latter.

I'm also beginning to ramble on *squints at Robert Plant*. I'd best go find coffee...

 

[Britva415]

That's the reverse of how I do it. I don't make the character and then find a picture of them

Yeah, no, I did it just because of the title of this topic.

Ordinarily I don't do it at all.

 

[nice90sguy]

I'd never done it until recently, when I wrote and submitted an illustrated story here. The story subject in my opinion warranted having images along with the text. I then got (and still am) obsessive with Character Creator, where you can pretty much create a realistic 3d model of any character you like, and dress them how you want. You can even base their look on a photo of someone. And then you can pose them....

...I guess I never played with dolls enough as a kid...

 

[ChloeTzang]

I do this all the time, pretty much from when I first started writing here. Here's two or three.....I actuallu spend a lot of time looking for an image that gives me the right vibe and then I print it and stick it up on my corkboard in front of me to keep me focused on the mindset for the story

Stardust Wong from "I Married a Heptapod" & Strawberry from "Strawberry - A Shanghai Girl in America"
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/97/2d/2b/972d2bc70ab0dbd096528cfcb925872b.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/564x/bf/ec/af/bfecaf630f03a0255df56690ddcbfb74.jpg

And then there's Estelle from "Just One Last Dance"
https://scontent.fybz1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/151465358_1403518839988425_1379956027672085743_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=mK7Qg8I9tsUAX8XCk7E&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz1-1.fna&oh=00_AfDB6RPXegrxofOa065ywRcO37gvfBdq948tIG-5mDdf2A&oe=63DBD890

And Mallory Kwon, from one that I'm writing now - "Gangsta's Paradise"
https://scontent.fybz1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/322257495_2267425766751407_1553006738412562137_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=2mF8e2eOkIMAX9bpNAs&tn=sJUergSsGY1LTR1Q&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz1-1.fna&oh=00_AfB1TcIhg7VfbLyZCeDeADnZVDub2lEGkvzzF2TBFRq8yg&oe=63BA1684

 

[Whanmore]

I do it to find Outfits that fit my characters style then I usually have to ask my GF what a clothing item is called or a hairstyle.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Sometimes I have a specific actress in mind to 'play' a character. It did happen once that I was looking for hairstyle terms and came across a picture that suddenly became my new mental image for a character (and maddeningly I didn't save it and have been unable to find it again.)

Mostly I don't really have a particular real person in mind for most characters.

 

[WyreBendr0417]

When I get an idea for a story, I occasionally see a parallel between one of my characters and a role I've seen played by a particular actor or actress in a movie or series. In a story I recently posted, one of the main characters is loosely based on Paige Turco's role as Zoe Morgan in the series, 'Person of Interest'. Not so much what her character did in the series, but more her personality, attitude, and sex appeal. In another a story I'm working on, a former prizefighter turned bar owner is based on Lawrence Tierney's role as Joe Cabot (The Old Man) in 'Reservoir Dogs'. If I can find pictures of the actors in that role, it helps to keep the substance of that character fresh in my mind so my character doesn't lose it as I get further into a story.

 

[yowser]

Far more interesting to me than downloaded (found) images are photos I have taken myself - on the street, traveling, at music festivals especially. Some of these have inspired stories.

An old college friend ('Dave from the Bronx') and I used to sit out in front of the campus library and he would pick out someone walking by, and with one or two distinct observations, would create an extended tale about someone's life, their travails, whether they had a sense of humor, what job they would do - it was vastly entertaining and instructive and let me know how much more of the world I could notice if I applied myself.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

I certainly do this. I keep a character sheet for each of my main characters with details like their birthdate, where they're from, what they look like and what their best physical features are, continuity things like if I mention what kind of car they drive it goes on the sheet, and so forth. And each one has a picture or several, usually some character from a movie or tv show or even just a random person I came across whose look I liked.

I don't share this with readers though, I want them to form their own idea of the characters in their mind as they read.

I only did that for my book series, and it was only one book.