The least it takes to recognize a character

[DJ Pirtu]

Finding myself stuck reading through DMFA again, I found myself wondering about the characters and their presentation. I was thinking, just how little it would take for me to recognize a character.

So I thought I'd try it out.

The thing is, kind of like when designing a puzzle, I can't really tell how successful I was since I already know the answer. So I came here to try it out.
So, how many of the DMFA characters can you recognize in the quite simplified depictions below? And more importantly, how many did you recognize instinctively, without thinking about it at all?


FA link, DA link

Also, it would definitely be interesting to see other fans would tackle the same problem? What would they concentrate on? Are you up to it?

[Naldru]

Are you sure that this isn't a Rorschach test?

The only one that I can guess at is top middle, assuming that the pattern is repeated and represents an extreme close up.  To paraphrase Carl Sagan: "billions and billions of spots".

[Tarynsgate]

I'm not really sure about the rest but I see :

Top middle : Abel

Top right : Kria

Middle Left : Mathilda

Middle Middle : Dan

Lower Left : Merlitz

Lower Middle : Lorenda

I really can't tell about the rest, without straining the braining.

[Shachza]

Going to have to disagree with you there.  I think the top left is Lorenda and the bottom middle is Fa'lina.  The main reason I think this is the inclusion of a little black in the top left, even though the purple color is a bit off.

[Inumo]

So, after looking at some other people's answers and paging through the cast pages, here's my guessing, using compass directions.

NW: Fa'Lina (Look at her cast page, she's got purple lipstick on)

N: Abel

NE: Kria

W: Matilda

Center: Dan

E: Dark Pegasus (Just thought of that from looking through the cast pages, original guess was Wildy)

SW: Merlitz

S: Lorenda (Mostly because she's the only character that has a pink lock of hair falling down over her forehead)

SE: Mab

It took a bit of thought for me, and I'm not entirely sure about my guess of Abel, but he's the only one that has black and a close fur color, though Biggs comes in as close second for that...

[VAE]

Lessee... in numerical order, western

1: Aary!
2: Abel
3: Kria ?
4: Matilda
5: Dan
6: Regina
7: Alexsi
8: Fa'lina
9: Mab

[Liatai]

Ooh, those are some very nifty little designs. What were they painted/drawn on?

Top left: The purple is throwing me off, because it looks like the edge of a Jin clan mark to me. X3 Maybe Abel?
Top middle: Jyrras (little round button nose!)
Top right: Kria
Middle left: Matilda
Center: Dan
Middle right: Regina
Bottom left: Merlitz
Bottom middle: Lorenda
Bottom right: Mab

[Caswin]

Let me see...

Don't know... Abel... Kria...
Matilda... Dan... don't know...
Merlitz... Fa'Lina... Mab?

I'm not sure which, if any, of those qualify as "instinctive".

Wait, is the middle-right one Regina?

[Lore]

NW: Fa'lina
N: Abel
NE: Kria
W: Matilda
C: Dan
E: Regina
SW: Merlitz
S: Lorenda
E: Mab

[Inumo]

Okay, I'm curious, what's giving everyone the impression that the middle-right aka east one is Regina? I don't think she has any black or red on her person/regular costume...

[Liatai]

I can't speak for anyone else, but the black part reminded me of her horns. The rest of that image looked pink instead of red to me; maybe it's just my monitor, though.

[Inumo]

I suppose it is a dark pink/light red, true.

[127.0.0.2]

I'm kind of embarrassed, but the first character that came to my mind was, for the top right field, Miss Alejandra Coldthorn from Las Lindas.

I think this is an interesting experiment though. It's fascinating to see how even things that person A does almost instinctively and that feel completely natural and obvious to him can be completely different with person B.

[DJ Pirtu]

Well, I first thought that I'd give the answers at some point (when its no longer immediately visible when you read the initial post) but after gathering the following statistics on answers on here and FA...

Fa'Lina x2 Aaryanna x1 Lorenda x1 Abel x1 empty x5	Abel x7 Dan x1 Jyrras x2	Kria x9 empty x1
	---
Matilda x9 empty x1	Dan x9 empty x1	Regina x4 Dark Pegasus x2 empty x4
	---
Merlitz x8 Alexsi x1 empty x1	Lorenda x5.5 Fa'Lina x3.5 empty x1	Mab x6 empty x4

(Edited after new answers came in.)

So far there was only one that got them all right, but as a consensus you all are right  
But, to tell the truth, I find the "wrong" answers far more interesting. The reason being the same reason that I put the word 'wrong' in quotation marks. That is that no matter what I originally meant, something in those cards brings those characters to your mind. And I'm going to be having a lot of fun trying to figure out why.

Ooh, those are some very nifty little designs. What were they painted/drawn on?

They're painted on pieces of canvas paper meant for printers. An easy way to get the canvas texture I like when using acrylics.

So, yes. I was using acrylics paints. This also explains why some of the colors are a bit off. Unless I have a color close to what I'm after ready at hand, it can be pretty tough to get the mixing right. Especially turning a darker color lighter. Dear lord I had a lot of trouble mixing the light colors for the last card. Just adding white made the colors just so... Dull.

[Naldru]

The question of why pick certain characters for a given image could result in a second round.

Top-center Abel, it's one of his spots

Middle Dan, he has a red robe with a yellow vertical stripe down the front

Bottom left Merlitz - Look at the ends of the yellow stripes on his face

Middle left Matilda - Blue boob?

Top right Kria - The only thing I can think of is red hair (hair is on top) and the two marks under her eyes

Bottom left Mab - Possibly the green dot at the end of her antennae

Middle right Regina - Perhaps this could represent one of her ponytails


That leaves upper left (Fa'Lina) and middle bottom (Lorenda) - They both have pink hair, which could explain middle bottom.  I still can't figure out a good reason for upper left.  I believe that you are incorrect in stating that the consensus was correct on this one, since there doesn't seem to be a consensus.  Fa'Lina, Aaryanna, and Lorenda seem to have pink or purplish hair.

[DJ Pirtu]

Blue boob? Just what kind of a man do you think I am I seriously wasn't expecting that and it gave me a laugh.

I was gonna say that describing why you pick certain characters can be a bit dull (I already know how you're supposed to figure them out. I designed them.), but I guess they can still be entertaining descriptions if you arrive to the right solution a "wrong way".

[Amber Williams]

I suppose I should weigh in myself:

Top left:  I'm honestly not sure.  It brings nothing to mind.
Middle left:  While I'm guessing it is likely meant to be Abel, it actually makes me think of Jyrras.  Mostly cause it makes me think of an extreme closeup of his face and the dot is his lil beady nose.
Top right:  Kria
Middle left: Matilda
Middle: Dan
Middle right: Dark Pegasus
Bottom Left: Merlitz
Bottom Middle: Lorenda
Bottom Right: Mab

[AmberCross]

Well it's pretty obvious by now (probably) that NE, W, C, SE and SW are Kria, Matilda, Dan, Merlitz, and Mab respectively. Aside from that I'm gonna weigh in that E is the red stripe on Dark Pegasus' nose. As for the last three... N looks like it could be someone else, but I think it's probably supposed to be Abel. S made me originally think of Deebs, but with the point at the end it seems more likely to be a forelock or either Lorenda or Fa'Lina. I'm going with Lorenda even though there should be black from the spot on her forehead because I believe the NW to be Fa'Lina due to the locations of purple and black. If they were the other way around I'd say Regina's nose and eye, but as is I have to go with Fa'Lina's mouth and nose. The positioning seems weird though.

I will say that none of these came naturally to me when first looking at them. DP looked like one of those images of pottery that might be two faces when looked at another way, Kria's made me think of an evil electric socket, etc.

[Ramsey]

I can't guess any of them.

This game is too hard. 

[Naldru]

Blue boob? Just what kind of a man do you think I am

The kind of man who posts on this forum.

However, even after looking at everybody's answers and their comments, the only ones that I  would view as a good match would be Abel, Dan, and Merlitz.

[Nino]

I'm kind of embarrassed, but the first character that came to my mind was, for the top right field, Miss Alejandra Coldthorn from Las Lindas

Weirdly enough, me too.

Also I think the one for Regina is supposed to be a close-up of the hair nestled in between her two horns, and you're only seeing part of each horn. Hence the pink and black (even if her horns are brown, not black, close enough).

[DJ Pirtu]

Oh my. I've been meaning to reply to this for a long, long time... I guess I'll start by Finally telling where I was coming from with these little cards.

1st: Fa'Lina's lower lip is what seems to catch my eye time and time again. It just seems so... Detached. I had a lot of trouble to get it to look like a lip at all when I painted it on its own. So I decided to add a little bit of black to represent her nose, hoping that would hint people off. I was also trying to think if I should add a fourth color as a "end-or-muzzle", but I figured I'd err at the side of recklessness.

2nd: Abel's spots are definitely the most distinguished feature of him. The only thing I really had to think about was how many of them to include and where. Again, I decided to err at the side of recklessness and hope that one spot and the background color would be enough.

3rd: Kria. Just her under-eye markings? Just her hair and main fur color? I tried both of those alone, but they just didn't seem to work for me. So I combined them. That seemed to work alright. The Alejander connections came as a bit of a surprise, but I can certainly see where they're coming from.

4th: There wasn't really much of a choice when it came to Matilda. There are two different blues. Three, if you count the eyes. It pretty much came down to what shake to do. I was thinking about her face pattern, but then went for the... What do you call those? No, Naldru. They're no boobs. What kind of artist do you think I am? 

5th: Dan was tough for me. I had to think long and hard about this. That is, until the comic in which he got his robe back came out. That made the thing a breeze.

6th: I tough Regina's horns looked more glossy black than gray to me. That's why I chose those colors. The poorly mixed pink is just my fault. I just couldn't get it right.

7th: Merlitz was the inspiration for this whole project. I just saw him in one of the strips and that got the little gears in my head rolling. While extracting one very distinct feature from him was easy, I wanted to see could I do it for other characters.

8th: There are exactly two features on Lorenda I figured I could use. Her hair and the little black stripe between her eyes. I wanted to do the hair, but was pondering wether to add the stripe or not. Again, I decided to err at the side of recklessness.

9th: Mab was a tough one. In the end, I just figured I'd try a sort of abstract combination of her fur color and one of the glowing things at the end of her anthennas. In the end, the first one went a bit off and I blew the second one off completely. If I were to redo the card now, I'd propably go for a green circle with a brighter green ball inside it.

But you know what would really interest me? How you would do this kind of thing. Maybe you would have portrayed one of these characters a bit differently. And there are a lot of characters still in the cast page I didn't use. Admittingly mostly because they seemed too tough for the project.

So, tell me. Or, better yet, show me. What's the least that it take for you to recognize a character?