'Catgirl' Mac-tan question?

[Bella]

I was thinking of drawing some of the newer (catgirl) Mac-tans, like cheetah (why the eye patch?), puma, and jaguar. But...in my research...I can't find much about their personalities. I like to know some backstory and personality about them before I draw. Any references?

[Aurora Borealis]

Nothing is really known about the OS 10.x-tans' personalities, sadly

But C-Chan has made guesses (which I support too) on the Cheetah and Puma-tans' personalities though so far.

Cheetah-tan: Believed to be of the dominatrix-type and knows how to put the OSX-kuns in their place when needed! But I guess that she might also be clumsy too (could explain why she has the eyepatch!)

Puma-tan: Has a shy, mousy disposition. Very good at screaming.

[CaptBrenden]

-_- becareful with redesigns... thats the pit deja vu fell into...

but at least im not the only one thats noticed that the mac tans lack personality compiared to the far more colorful windows tans

[Bella]

-_- becareful with redesigns... thats the pit deja vu fell into...

True, but didn't deja vu go against all known 'canon' of the original OS-tans? The Mac OS X's, on the other hand, seem to have no known personalities among OS-tan fans.

but at least im not the only one thats noticed that the mac tans lack personality compiared to the far more colorful windows tans

Nothing is really known about the OS 10.x-tans' personalities, sadly

Does anyone else think that Windows tans have more personality because of the system's quirks? And the fact that every few years Windows gets 'redesigned'?

[C-Chan]

Deja Vu's sin was really pure and simple plagiarism (and perhaps profiteering off of plagiarism, if by "publishing" they actually sold things).  The alternate NT was likely insult to injury in this case, as there have been lots of redesigns by free artists since without the same level of turmoil.  

But I caution against complete redesigns as well, especially for emerging characters.  What made the original Futaba Channel characters strong was the tacit union among countless artists to conform more or less to a set design -- without that unity, no other character can have her chance at canon-dom (PS2-tan -- all 500 versions of her -- comes to mind).  

Still, it's a moot point cause the pretty "bella" here is discussing personalities, which is quite safe to work with ESPECIALLY for characters that have been drawn but not personified frequently.

*nudge, nudge, poke, poke at Aurora*

For the OSX girls, you're essentially working without a backstory, other than perhaps piecing together analogies to their real-life counterparts.  

For their personality,... my suggestion would be to study as many pictures of them as you can and try to imagine what personality the artist intended to give them.  Infinity-sama is very good at this, since out of a single picture of Tsubashi's Newton-chan 15 were produced that nailed her personality.....



A good start would be to find an Anime character (or a combination of characters) that comes to mind when you look at a particular OSX girl.  I did the same a long time ago at Aurora's thread, with a few changes done since.

Cheetah ~ Itsue from Puni Puni Poemi and Bloodberry from Saber Marionette J Series.
Puma ~ Mikuru from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Jaguar ~ Kagura from Azumanga Daioh
Panther ~ Rue from Princess Tutu
Tiger ~ Rio from Burn Up! Excess

Whether you stick to that paradign or not is up to you, but do it with enough frequency and the character's own personality will take off on its own.  ^^

Does anyone else think that Windows tans have more personality because of the system's quirks? And the fact that every few years Windows gets 'redesigned'?

Perhaps that could be one reason.  ^__^
But the major reason, hands down, is volume.  Compare the number of Vistans to the number of OSX Leopard-tans proposed.  The difference in volume is striking -- and a true indicator of where all the talent is spending its time on.  If enough artists created pictures, manga, games and videos of the OSX girls, then their personalities would bloom like cherry blossoms.  ^v^

[CaptBrenden]

Perhaps that could be one reason. ^__^
But the major reason, hands down, is volume. Compare the number of Vistans to the number of OSX Leopard-tans proposed. The difference in volume is striking -- and a true indicator of where all the talent is spending its time on. If enough artists created pictures, manga, games and videos of the OSX girls, then their personalities would bloom like cherry blossoms. ^v^

Spoken like a true rabid fan pig (might have to put this one down.. onto a tasty biscut with cheese and egg...)   But another posibility is people care about Windows more sbecause its a larger share of the market?

[Bella]

Very interesting points, C-Chan. I've always thought the Mac OS X characters were very well designed, from an aesthetic point-of-view (Cheetah seems to consistently be purple-haired with an eye patch, Tiger blonde and dressed in black, etc.). In my drawings, I would certainly try to  conform to these designs.

For the OSX girls, you're essentially working without a backstory, other than perhaps piecing together analogies to their real-life counterparts.

For their personality,... my suggestion would be to study as many pictures of them as you can and try to imagine what personality the artist intended to give them.

I tried doing both of these, just to see what would come out of it...here are some thoughts:

All in all, OS X is a far departure from the classic Mac OS (up to OS 9). It's
UNIX-like, closely related to BSD and NEXTSTEP...therefor, I would theorize that the Mac OS X-tans would be very friendly to Unix-tans and Linux-tans.

Cheetah: after researching both the OS and the OS-tan, I can support what  Aurora said about her attitude. Especially her clumsiness, which could be a reference to OS X 10.0's rough start...at the first release it was slow, prone to 'kernel panics', and was not feature complete (Although these problems were later worked out).

Puma: Very close with Cheetah and of a similar mindset, but perhaps a bit more 'polished' and refined.

Jaguar: More forward thinking, and smarted, than her past OS X sisters. She also is friendlier with the Windows-tans (reference to OS X 10.2's increased support for Windows networks.)

Panther: ....Er...I'm not really sure

Tiger: The smartest of the sisters (so far ). She's upbeat and spunky (although that sounds like most OS-tans, LOL), and friendly with the Windows-tans.

Yeah, I know, sort of lame toward the end...

[C-Chan]

Spoken like a true rabid fan pig (might have to put this one down.. onto a tasty biscut with cheese and egg...) But another posibility is people care about Windows more sbecause its a larger share of the market?

Oh, market share/volume is like potato/potahto....  -v-

,,,,

Well wait, scratch that.  ^^
That could be another reason, but it's been my observation that while the market share of the particular app influences the number of artists that portray them, it's not entirely a 1:1 correlation.  Two cases in point:

- Windows ME was a very unpopular system, yet the incredible design of ME-tan turned the crappy system into a virtual deity of Moe Personification.  The volume of ME pics is third only to XP-tan and 2K-tan (which are popular AND slightly better systems). ^^

- Market share won't always work.  Firefox has secured 16% of the market, yet still has a long way to go to influence the remaining 70% of IE users.  And yet Firefox-sama is everywhere (and for damn good reason too!), whereas currently I don't know of any canon IE-tan design.  '____'

Very interesting points, C-Chan. I've always thought the Mac OS X characters were very well designed, from an aesthetic point-of-view (Cheetah seems to consistently be purple-haired with an eye patch, Tiger blonde and dressed in black, etc.). In my drawings, I would certainly try to conform to these designs.

Our Mac gallery is filled with old preconcepts of OSX-tan, and even to this day a few are being churned out every once in a while.  But these designs have apparently won out for very good reason -- they're fresh, original and very well-designed, and add more character to their perceived personality.  (especially Tiger-sama).

I tried doing both of these, just to see what would come out of it...here are some thoughts:

All in all, OS X is a far departure from the classic Mac OS (up to OS 9). It's
UNIX-like, closely related to BSD and NEXTSTEP...therefor, I would theorize that the Mac OS X-tans would be very friendly to Unix-tans and Linux-tans.

Correct.  ^__^
Aurora and I have surmised that NeXTSTEP and DarwinOS are particular close to the Mac family given their relationship to the OSX girls.  While the more puritanical UNIX descendants scoff at their very mention, the more level-headed ones (and certainly the noble Linuces) admire them for their attempts to introduce consumer-oriented Unix service.  

The OSX girls have also inherited a fair share of trademark UNIX personality quirks -- but then the classic Macs are less than sane either, so it still remains one very happy and cohesive family.  ^___^

Cheetah: after researching both the OS and the OS-tan, I can support what Aurora said about her attitude. Especially her clumsiness, which could be a reference to OS X 10.0's rough start...at the first release it was slow, prone to 'kernel panics', and was not feature complete (Although these problems were later worked out).

Eep,... the dreaded Kernel Panic.  No wonder my old Mac friend waited quite a while to upgrade to Mac OSX.  ^____^'
If she had it that rough, that could explain her very "undelicate" personality.  A good defense mechanism to hide a slight inferiority complex.  ^^;

Puma:  My personality favorite, btw!  ^___~

[similar inferiority complex] + [greater polish and refinement] = TIMID!!!  ^V^

Beautiful, this works out nicely!  ^___^

Jaguar:  Surprisingly, I've thought about her the least.  ^.^
But yes, that does fit the bill.  In essence, she would be the first self-confident OSX girl.  ^___^

Panther:  Ditto on my part.  ^^'
Clearly she is the most refined,... or at least she was until Tiger and Leopard showed up.  ^.^'
Hmmm,.... wonder if something like that would affect her...?  '

Tiger:  Oh trust me, 3.1-sama is most definitely NOT upbeat and spunky.  ^.^
But yes, I definitely concur that she's strong-spirited enough to be the de facto leader of the OSX troupe.  ^v^

So influential, in fact, that some would go as far as to say she's the leader of the entire Mac Family.  But clearly that would set her at odds with the traditional bomb-wielding leader of the pack....  ^.^'

And as for her being the friendliest with the Windows-tans, need I say more than pull out my favorite Tiger-sama pic....?  ^___^



Leopard-chan we still haven't really dwelled on, but we're considering her to be something of a genius-type character.  ^__^

[Bella]

^ Great picture! I might make an avatar out of it ^_^

Out of the group, I have to say the one I saw the most personality coming from was Cheetah....

BTW, do you know of any NeXTSTEP-tans or DarwinOS-tans?

[C-Chan]

My vote is on Tiger-sama,.... but again, probably due to volume.  There are about 10x more Tiger pics then there are for the rest of the OSX girls.  ^^

As for NeXTSTEP and DarwinOS....
Only Aurora's designs, at least as far as I know.  ^^
She's an honorary Mac user, so it was her goal to create all remaining Apple-related OS-tans imaginable (except for Newton, which Tsubashi handled, and the old Apple II and Apple Lisa, which I handled.  ^^)

BTW, that AVI looks good on you.  Now you are undeniably, certifiably "bella"!   ^.^

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Also, don't forget that the gallery has the larger sized version of that Tiger-sama/XP-tan Boot Camp pic.  It's in page 3 of the Group folder.  ^^