Dollz

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Dollz, Cartoon Dolls or Pixel Dolls are small pixelated images, generally of people. They are mainly used online as avatars, signatures or just displayed as artwork on personal webpages.

Dolls range in size from being a few pixels high to a few hundred pixels high. Generally, dolls are human figures (mainly female, but male dolls are becoming increasingly more common), although there have been instances of animals being named "dolls." Dolls are generally dressed, and come in a wide range of styles. Bases are the template upon which dolls are created - the naked human form with no hair.

People who create dolls are called dollers or dollists. The community is well inter-linked because of both message board communities and the concept of "adoption." Adoption is where a doller displays a favoured doll that was created by someone else upon their website, with credit and a link to the other's site or email. Adoption is not an option with bases.

"Dolling" has become a widespread Internet phenomenon, spawning numerous websites, communities, forums and other related items. Some entrepreneuristic people have expanded into the commercial world with their digital art and sell their graphic images as either clipart or on merchandise. However, dolling is more of a personal hobby for many.

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[edit] History

The roots of this phenomenon are in Paperdolls, which are paper figures with a base body to which clothes, hairstyles and accessories can be attached. The first digital version of this concept was the Kisekae Set System, invented in 1991. The first known instances of cartoon dolls used as online avatars were introduced in 1995 on a visual chat client called The Palace by a Palace user named artgrrl (later known as shattered innocents). The first dollz were simplistic, starting from a generic base consisting of 44 by 44-pixel "props" that were hand-drawn in the Editing palette of the Palace program. The first dollz were generally cartoon-like in appearance and restricted to only a small number of poses.

The original "prep" doll was created by a South Park Palace user which, at the time was known as "Starr" who created the very first base from an image of Madonna hitchhiking naked [1], from her since revoked "sex book". This doll made her very first appearance among the Sk8ers in the graveyard of the South Park chat, and was passed to a user who went by "ImpyVampire" something or rather, who made her into a goth. From there, the doll was passed along and along, sk8er faces were added to them, and make up, wigs, paper doll like clothing, as well. She soon became what you know today as the Preps.

At first, these doll-like avatars were called "little people," then "skaters" or "sk8ers." Another Palace user named Rainman was responsible for the proliferation of the skater dollz, editing and distributing them by the thousands. The Palace "dressup" script helped in distributing the dollz from user to user, with each user editing the props to customize their doll. Because dollz were generally worn by younger people, some Palaces started banning their use in an attempt to restrict membership to adults. Modifications to the dollz were called "editz" and contests were held daily on many of the Palaces, with competitions based on style of outfit, color schemes, music themes, or accessories. Eventually, there were entire Palaces devoted only to doll-based avatars.

People who weren't satisfied with the quality of the base and/or artwork began to expand and make their own. Early dolling sites began to develop around 1997, displaying people's work. With the popularity of graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro growing, many dollers took advantage of it and expanded upon the cartoon-like images of the first Doll.

Doll-makers began to spread. Doll-makers are similar to the old method of paper dolls where a base and clothes were provided and the user just made combinations of clothes to create their doll. This became a trend in the community, and many people who did not want to create their own dollz utilised these drag-n-drops to make their own.

As the popularity began to grow, it soon expanded from a few fledgling people who regarded it as a hobby to a more accepted form of art. Graphic artists began to delve in and produced highly detailed dollz. Regular artists also followed the trend and created dolls that were less cartoon-like and more realistic. Forums began to sprout, bringing together a community of dollers. Soft shading, true human forms and realistic designs soon dominated the community, evolving from cartoon.

Some artists wished this method of graphic design to be recognised as a form of art rather than an Internet fad so they referred to their art as "Dolls". A recent survey at a popular dolling forum showed that many see "dollz" as referring to the earlier form of cartoon-esque images rather than the elaborate graphic artwork displayed now. Other artists continued to call their work "Dollz" to distinguish the graphic form from a doll that sits on a shelf, even though they too did elaborate artwork.

There are a large amount of websites, forums, communities and others of the sort that are dedicated to dolling and the art. It has been surmised that the popularity of dolling is because anyone can do it. The current trend that seems most popular is the incorporation of anime style to the dolls, as well as getting back to the cartoon-like roots.

The dolling community expanded to include off shoot sites from forums dedicated to dolling such as The Gathering (led by Amy of Xandorra's Place) and The Dollhouse, to online dolling zines such The Doller Express (known as one of the first ones which had immense popularity) and Pixel Post.

[edit] The Dolling Community

'Dollers,' people who draw computer dolls, often join dolling forums in order to share their finished artwork or ask for help from more experienced dollers. These forums often run themed events in which the members participate in contests to create a doll with certain guidelines, for instance, using a picture as inspiration or with a particular range of colours. These contests are judged and winners are awarded plaques to be displayed on their websites. Individual sites often host contests as well. Currently, contest forums are becoming very popular. They are pages exclusively devoted to these competitions.

When a doller joins a community, they often become very close with the other members and exchange gifts (often dolls or other pieces of pixel art) at holidays, birthdays, seasons, or on a whim. When two dollers become good friends, they sometimes join their websites by a mutual link. This is called becoming a 'sibling site.' Siblings are very good friends and exchange gifts, help each other, and sometimes produce collaborations together, with each sibling contributing parts of an image. Because most dollers are female, these are better known as 'sister sites.'

[edit] Technique

Dolls are created in a graphics program such as Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or GIMP . The doll may be made on a base (see next section), or the doll may be baseless. If using a base, clothing, adornments, and decorations are drawn onto the base to create the doll. Baseless dolls are drawn freehand, with an effect often akin to Oekaki . If the artist so desires, a background or props may be included, but the focus of the picture is the doll itself. Other popular tools are "drag-n-drops," applets which load bases and clothing, hair, and accessories onto a page, allowing the user to select and combine a base and various pre-drawn accouterments. Drag-and-drop applets are normally created by another doller, who may include his or her artwork as clipart. Many tutorials exist explaining how to create dolls, focusing on methods of utilizing tools in the graphics programs as well as elements of shading and outlining.

[edit] Bases

Bases are the templates upon which dolls are drawn. They normally consist of the naked human form in a pose without hair. Bases come in many forms: one can be an outline of a human figure; it can come with or without faces; it can come with props or accessories; it can come in multiple skintones; or it can be partial or full form. Also, there are some bases which are not human-like. They may be deformed, exaggerated or cute, and may be in the anime super deformed style.

Not all dollers create their own bases. Many choose to use bases that others offer for free use (with certain terms) to draw their dolls upon. Stock bases are a popular option, as they give beginning dollers a chance to just draw clothes upon the base instead of creating a base from scratch.

Bases come in a range of styles, sizes and forms. Typically, they are arranged in a set, where all the bases in the set are created in the same size, style and form, just with different poses, skintones and facial expressions. These sets are generally given names to identify and distinguish them from other base sets that the doller may also offer. Some base sets have poses that number nearly 100 individual poses because of different arrangement of arms and legs.

An artist that provides a template, line-art or base may or may not allow other artists to add further details to the base aside from dolling on it. Some allow others to change faces and skintones, some disallow any editing of the template but the strict pixelling of clothing and hair, while furthermore- others allow any and all edits to a base to allow an artist to fully express their own individual style and truly make their finished product their own.

Using bases from other artists requires crediting the origin of the base. Without this base credit, it can be considered to be stealing art. If base credit cannot be determined by the user, or if the link to the maker's site is missing or broken, the case should be stated.

[edit] Shading Techniques

There are two main ways that dollers create and shade their dolls: pixel shading and tool shading. Some dollers mix the two with, for example, tool shaded hair and pixel shaded clothes, or by pixel shading a doll, then using tools to enchance or edit artwork.

[edit] Pixel Shading

This method uses palettes, normally created by the artist showing the range of colours they will be working with. These palettes normally work from light to dark. These palettes are normally implemented to add shading (Shadows and Highlights) and dithering can be used to blend these tones for a more smooth look. Clothes, hair, skin, and anything else on the doll are shaded by the use of the artist chosen colours and palettes. How many shades make up a doller's palette is a matter of personal preference and style, but these palettes generally range from four to fifteen shades. Shadows and highlights are added gradually to create different textures within the piece. Pixel shaders pride themselves on the ability to create 'life-like' shading effects without the use of anti-aliasing tools. This technique is most commonly used by dollers who use a free program that comes with their computer, usually Microsoft Paint. Some dollers will use other programs to pixel shade, like Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

[edit] Tool shading

With this method, the artist employs a drawing program such as Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, or Paint Shop Pro to create their dolls.Tools within these programs, such as blur, blend, dodge and burn are used to create shading. The effects produced by this method are generally smoother and softer than pixel shading, but this can depend on the doller's abilities. Due to the tools manner, there is no set colour range as there is in pixel shaded pieces, the colour count can run into thousands depending on what tools are used. This can pose problems when the dolls are uploaded to the web, as most dolls are saved as GIFs which can only handle up to 256 colors. Because tool shaded dolls often have more than 256 colors, they are usually dithered and can change shade or appear grainy or noisy as a result. Dollers may refer to this as being "attacked by the GIF Monster," or being "GIF eaten".

[edit] Dolling etiquette and issues

The dolling community has long been plagued by plagiarism and copyright violations. Many such abuses arise from pure ignorance of copyright law, although some people commit them willfully or maliciously. With these issues in mind, there are unspoken rules and respect in effect in the dolling community that prevent such activities from happening. (Within the dolling community, the term Netiquette generally refers to these rules.) Additionally, many dollers, in an attempt to protect their copyrights, have instigated rules, or "terms of use" when visiting their website and using their artwork. However, there remain a large number Internet users who believe dolls are stock material or clip-art that can be used in whichever way they desire.

If you create a doll using another person's base, you must credit them by a link back to their webpage.

[edit] Plagiarism and unauthorized reproduction

Theft of artwork is a common occurrence in the community. It mainly happens whenever a person saves a doll that another has created, places it on their site, or uses it as an avatar or signature or anything of the sort, and claims that he himself created the doll. Theft is different from "adoption," when the user who places the doll on his or her site gives credit to the original creator and often provides a link to the original site, as dictated by the terms of use required by the original creator. Some consider the lack of attribution as a form of theft, as the perpetrator gives the impression that he or she created the doll. This is especially important when a user has created a doll with a "drag-n-drop" dollmaker. Some discussion has taken place concerning doll makers and whether or not credit is necessary if the "parts" of the dolls are taken from "free-for-all" stock sites such as those on The Palace as opposed to hand-drawn by the webmaster/mistress. When someone takes a part of the doll (for example, the hair or clothing) and places it on their own doll, it is also plagiarism. This is referred to as "frankendolling" in the dolling community.

The same rules apply when using another person's base. It is a common misconception that if a person draws adornments upon a base, then the entire work is theirs, rather than just the adornments. Neglecting attribution to the person whose base is used is considered a form of theft as, again, the editor is claiming exclusive authorship. This is a complicated issue as many people offer their bases as stock resources, and some do not explicitly require credit.

[edit] Permission rights

Some dolls are classified as "Not Adoptable" or some bases as "Exclusive" or "Not Usable." These designations are used for various reasons, but ultimately the original artist does not want his or her artwork displayed or used by others and, therefore, has withheld permission. Some people ignore this notice and still display the artwork or use the bases without the original owner's permission. Even if the art thief gives the owner credit, he or she has still violated their terms of use.

For a time, base makers made an ordeal out of sifting through rule pages to access bases. A user could be expected to read carefully through rules to find two letters that were linked to the bases, to click on "No" rather than "Yes" at the end to verify they had read the rules, or a number of other things. These practices have largely died down with most users either becoming too irritated to continue their stay at the website or becoming experts in ways to interpret the kind of rule page it was and quickly access the bases without still having read the rules.

[edit] Frankendolling

A portmanteau of "Frankenstein" and "dolling", Frankendolling is essentially the practice of combining elements of other dolls and claiming the product as one's own. Like the Frankenstein monster, an arm from one person's doll, clothing from another, and hair from another one may have been combined together to form a "new" doll. This, too, is a form of plagiarism. An artist may obviously legally reuse parts of his or her own dolls to create a new one, and give permission to others if he so wishes. "Frankendoll" was a term first used in 2002 by Valerie Grendell (of "Dollz of Flavor"*no longer online), the writer of "Doll Netiquette" where its meaning was explained to newcomers of the community on a dedicated site.

[edit] Copying

Another issue within the umbrella of copyright is when a doller traces or makes an exact copy of another person's doll. The result may still be their work, but, because it is not original, it may be considered a form of plagiarism. It is, however, a popular method to trace over a photograph or other image to create a base or a doll. Similarly, an artist may draw inspiration from other people's work. Neither of these practices are generally considered plagiarism, though some see them as such. A fair amount of controversy has arisen over the years as many people have been discovered to have copied their bases from graphic sites that are in a foreign language. The first famous example of this was when a doller called Lolido released a base that was found to have been "stolen" from pixel artist Misuya . In another way, this resurfaced years later when artist Rion Vernon forced all dollers to stop using and distributing bases that resembled his "Pin-Up Toonz", causing sites such as Dell's Dollz to disappear from the internet.

[edit] Direct linking

It is also considered a form of theft, or at least poor etiquette, when a person displays a remotely hosted image or doll on a site or as their avatar, etc, without permission from the host site's owner. (Instead of downloading the image to his or her computer, uploading the image to an independent server and linking it from there, the person has instead linked it directly from the original website.) Every time a browser loads the page, it downloads the image from the original server rather than a server owned by or authorized for use by the secondary author. This practice is known as bandwidth theft, a form of theft of service, as the original artist has paid for the bandwidth in question for their own use only. Direct linking is often in conjunction with the other issues above.

[edit] Doll maker

A doll maker is a type of online dress-up game that allows people to create dollz or cartoon dolls, save them and use them on blogs, social networks and other websites.

A doll is created by combining various doll elements (hair, clothes, make-up and accessories) on top of a doll base (a doll with minimal or no clothing, often with Barbie-style anatomical elements for ease of dressing).

Like other types of computer based dress-up games, doll makers have their roots in paper dolls but became popular when users of the The Palace began harvesting pieces of the dolls from the Palace's avatar system, and using them to create doll makers. Many of the first doll makers featured graphics from the Palace, often with minor edits and color changes, but today it is not uncommon for doll makers to have original graphics.

The original doll makers were simple drag and drop versions but have over time evolved into feature-rich and easy-to-use programs.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

  • The Originz of Dollz - A site belonging to "shattered innocents," the first person to create small, pixel-based Palace avatars in 1994/95, which were later called "dollz."