Fan character

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Fan characters are fictional characters created by fans of popular media franchises, generally created in the style or setting of the series, but not part of the official franchise itself. They are found in fan works in various media, such as fan fiction, fan art, fan comics, and fan games.

[edit] Fan characters in sprite comics

See also: Spriting

Fan characters are common in sprite comics, webcomics created using [[sprite (computer graphics)|sprites, and are sometimes used in fan games. They are also commonly found in hoaxes; so commonly, in fact, that hoaxes containing fan characters are put into their own category, called self-inserts. Self-insert hoaxes are considered to be a very tired cliché, and are strongly disliked in the hoaxing community^{[citation needed]}.

"Recolor" is the general term for a simply modified version of sprites and other images. Recolors are very well known^{[citation needed]} throughout message boards and fan sites based around video games such as Sonic the Hedgehog or Mega Man. Recolors are usually created using bitmap programs such as Microsoft Paint when colors of a certain character's palette are replaced with different colors. Recolors are criticized by many^{[citation needed]} for their distinctive unoriginality and simplicity.

However, there are still many other forms of fan characterization that don't just limit to spriting. While most^{[citation needed]} people recolor the specific character or make them some kind of long lost relative/lover/new lover, many people are more creative and make their character more unique (i.e. adding accessories, interesting backgrounds (not always linked to other characters) and clothings and sometimes weapons. In fact, many people^{[citation needed]} host websites entirely dedicated to spriting and making sprite comics.