My thoughts on online doll makers
I use these primarily for character portraits, which is why "most of the clothes seem designed for early 21st century teenagers" is a disadvantage and "access to tiny pixel sniper rifles" is an advantage.
Elouai/Candybar -
Advantages:
* Biggest variety of facial features I've seen
* Facial features can be chosen independently of each other - can individually adjust eyes, eyebrows, nose, jawline, etc.
* Large selection of hairstyles, clothes, and accessories
* Free
Disadvantages:
* Only one skin color and body type
* Most of the clothes are young-looking and contemporary, which isn't necessarily useful when I'm doing character portraits
* No way to narrow searches down between category (top, hairstyle, etc.) and sometimes color - which, given their huge selection, means a lot of wading through merchandise if you're looking for something specific
* Haven't had much luck finding props that fit my characters out of the selection of extra items
Gaia Dream Avatar Maker/tektek.org -
Advantages:
* Variety of skin colors, including green
* Lots of fantasy items, and a moderate amount of historical or pseudo-historical stuff
* Can search by keyword or by category and/or color
* Free
* Biggest weapons selection I've seen so far (which for some of my characters is an issue), and the only one I've seen with guns
* Can wear multiple items on the same body space (like a coat over a vest over a shirt), assuming that the layering programming cooperates and the lower layers fit reasonably snugly.
* To an extent, you can crossdress (many but not all items and hairstyles are made to fit both male and female chibis)
Disadvantages:
* Some of the keywords are quite unintuitive, especially when the item in question is a pop culture homage and they can't call it what it is for copyright reasons. (For instance, the bolter is called something like an "Astral Adept Sidearm.") There are also some other minor issues with the search system (such as, there's nothing you can click to show you the newest items.)
* All the characters are little noseless chibis (unless you use a nose item), with the same face and body shape.
* Some items have weird layering, and changing the layering order is a bit of a pain.
* They have some annoying cheesecake ads from Evony Online
* Keyword search is very literal, so if you type in "dress" you'll get the "dress shirt" as well as dresses proper.
Meez.com
Advantages:
* Variety of face shapes, although not as customizable as Elouai in that regard.
* Biggest range of realistic skin colors
* Most of the clothes come in multiple colors
* Good selection of props
* Animations
* Finer division of subcategories within wardrobe slots makes searching easier
* Variety of body types, although not as much as I'd like (only one "Athletic female" build, which I used for both Chava and Jeanne despite Chava being more muscular and curvaceous and Jeanne being slimmer and sleeker.)
Disadvantages:
* You need an account, which is set to one gender
* Most of the clothing is decidedly oriented towards early 21st century young people.
* They have an in-house currency that you use to pay for some of the items. You can get this by sending in real money or by playing endless rounds of computer solitaire. (I chose the second option.) There are also a few items that are cash-only or require a VIP account.
* Ads! And not just the nice quiet banner kind, either. Some of them talk. You also have to sit through a thirty-second advertising shpiel of you want to play any of the on-site games and earn your way towards the pay items that way.)
* The keyword search function is unpredictable. Typing in "glove" will give you some, but not all, of the results that typing in "gloves" will.
Elouai/Candybar -
Advantages:
* Biggest variety of facial features I've seen
* Facial features can be chosen independently of each other - can individually adjust eyes, eyebrows, nose, jawline, etc.
* Large selection of hairstyles, clothes, and accessories
* Free
Disadvantages:
* Only one skin color and body type
* Most of the clothes are young-looking and contemporary, which isn't necessarily useful when I'm doing character portraits
* No way to narrow searches down between category (top, hairstyle, etc.) and sometimes color - which, given their huge selection, means a lot of wading through merchandise if you're looking for something specific
* Haven't had much luck finding props that fit my characters out of the selection of extra items
Gaia Dream Avatar Maker/tektek.org -
Advantages:
* Variety of skin colors, including green
* Lots of fantasy items, and a moderate amount of historical or pseudo-historical stuff
* Can search by keyword or by category and/or color
* Free
* Biggest weapons selection I've seen so far (which for some of my characters is an issue), and the only one I've seen with guns
* Can wear multiple items on the same body space (like a coat over a vest over a shirt), assuming that the layering programming cooperates and the lower layers fit reasonably snugly.
* To an extent, you can crossdress (many but not all items and hairstyles are made to fit both male and female chibis)
Disadvantages:
* Some of the keywords are quite unintuitive, especially when the item in question is a pop culture homage and they can't call it what it is for copyright reasons. (For instance, the bolter is called something like an "Astral Adept Sidearm.") There are also some other minor issues with the search system (such as, there's nothing you can click to show you the newest items.)
* All the characters are little noseless chibis (unless you use a nose item), with the same face and body shape.
* Some items have weird layering, and changing the layering order is a bit of a pain.
* They have some annoying cheesecake ads from Evony Online
* Keyword search is very literal, so if you type in "dress" you'll get the "dress shirt" as well as dresses proper.
Meez.com
Advantages:
* Variety of face shapes, although not as customizable as Elouai in that regard.
* Biggest range of realistic skin colors
* Most of the clothes come in multiple colors
* Good selection of props
* Animations
* Finer division of subcategories within wardrobe slots makes searching easier
* Variety of body types, although not as much as I'd like (only one "Athletic female" build, which I used for both Chava and Jeanne despite Chava being more muscular and curvaceous and Jeanne being slimmer and sleeker.)
Disadvantages:
* You need an account, which is set to one gender
* Most of the clothing is decidedly oriented towards early 21st century young people.
* They have an in-house currency that you use to pay for some of the items. You can get this by sending in real money or by playing endless rounds of computer solitaire. (I chose the second option.) There are also a few items that are cash-only or require a VIP account.
* Ads! And not just the nice quiet banner kind, either. Some of them talk. You also have to sit through a thirty-second advertising shpiel of you want to play any of the on-site games and earn your way towards the pay items that way.)
* The keyword search function is unpredictable. Typing in "glove" will give you some, but not all, of the results that typing in "gloves" will.