Hello everyone! Have you seen acronyms in the online art world such as AU, Commission, YCH, or DTIYS, and wondered what they mean? If so, I am here to tell what some of them stand for and mean. I will explain the ones I personally know, so there may be some that I miss.
Anthros – another word for anthropomorphic. Essentially, an anthro is a non-human character with human traits. I often draw anthro characters, typically of the animal and creature variety. Those sort of characters are often dubbed furries. However, anthros can be of anything really, as long as it is given human traits in some form. Even a cartoony talking object with a face could be considered an anthro, as it has been given human traits. However, I typically see people use anthropomorphic for non-furry characters, and anthro for specifically more furry characters.
AB and SB – AB and SB, otherwise known as automatic buy and starting bid are terms used in design auctions, where a design is sold and has to be bid for. AB is the set bid and if it is agreed to be paid, the person paying automatically gets the design being sold, regardless of the other bids that were offered. SB is the starting bid for the auction.
Art Thief/Art Stealer – An art thief/art stealer is a person who has claimed someone else’s artwork as their own. It is horribly bad to do this. It is a crime to steal artwork and pass it off as your own. So basically, don’t do this.
Adoptable/Adopt – an adoptable or adopt is a design that someone creates to be given to someone else. It can be a free adopt, a sold adopt where it has to be paid for with real life money, or digital currency like DeviantArt points or Amino Coins, a DTA, an OTA, or a contest, to name a few. A DTA is also called a Draw to Adopt, and OTA stands for Offer to Adopt.
DTA and OTA act somewhat like contests where people draw the design in the case of a DTA, or offer for the design in an OTA and have the chance to win the design. The person who designed the adopt typically acts as a judge for these contests and chooses the winner of the design, who then gets to keep the design as a character. What is done with the design after that, is up to the winner. I advise asking the designer if certain things can be done such as redesigning the character, if you ever get an adoptable.
AMV and PMV – Animated Music Video and Picture Music Video
An AMV is a video that is set to an entire song, and is as the title says, a music video that is animated. A PMV is similar to an AMV except a PMV is more static or party static images. A PMV is comparable to an animatic.
Art Trade – An art trade is where two or more people agree to make art for each other. The specifics can vary depending on the specific instance of art trade. Art Trades can include drawings, animation, and other things, It’s not limited to one type of artwork. Usually the artist’s OCs are involved in art trade. However sometimes the works can be of the artists themselves or their sonas.
AU – Alternate Universe
An AU is an alternate universe of something, where there is something different from the main “canon” of the story. For example, there are AUs that are themed, such as a circus AU, or fantasy AU. There are also AU types such as “what if?” AUs where the story went differently, or simply AUs where things such as roles are changed.
Base – A base is a specific piece of art that is just linework without color, with the intention for others to color in that base.
Basefill/Base Fill – A basefill/base fill is an image that’s a colored in base. They are often made quickly. I have made basefills before to rough out a design.
Commission – A commission is a special type of art where a person pays the artist to draw or make something. For example, the commission could be of artwork, a profile picture, a cosplay outfit, fursuit, or even an animation! A commission can be pretty much anything.
Comfort Character – A comfort character is a character that brings comfort to someone like how a plush or otherwise special item can bring comfort. It is typically considered rude to attempt to offer for someone’s comfort character, so don’t do that.
Collab – A collab is a collaboration between artists on a piece, or content creators on a video. Typically a collab is between two people, however it can be more than two.
DTIYS – A DTIYS or Draw This in Your Style is a sort of challenge an artist makes. The challenge is for other artists to draw the image that has been provided, in their own styles.
Fake Collab – A fake collab is an animation that is similar to an actual collab. However one person makes a template that people can download and add their own animation to the other side of it. The edited video that results look like a normal collab video.
Fanfic/Fanfiction – Fanfictions, a word often shortened to Fanfics, are a specific type of story. Typically, fan fictions are stories containing characters from a specific franchise, such as say…Jurassic Park or SpongeBob. Sometimes, fanfictions can have characters belonging to someone else, like someone’s OCs, it’s not always franchise characters. Fanfictions can have differences in quality depending on the individual writer and their skills.
FTU and PTU – Free to Use and Pay to Use are terms typically used for bases in regards to guidelines related to who can use it. FTU means the base can be used freely, as long as the guidelines said by the base’s creator are followed. PTU means the base has to be paid for. Typically PTU bases are more complicated than FTU bases. Some FTU base creators are generous and offer detailed bases for free use.
MAP/M.A.P. – A Multi-Animator Project or MAP is typically a planned group effort between many artists, to make a full animation. The animation typically follows some sort of story, in the MAPs that I’ve seen online. Some MAPs are themed or have a specific time constraint. Such as a “1-week” MAP or one that has a specific color palette that all the participants must follow. Some MAPs have scripts and specific stories, or can be more open-ended, and up to the participants in regards to what is in each part of the MAP. Typically each participant has one or more “parts” to animate. Once all parts are finished, the parts get edited together. Typically the host of the MAP edits the parts together, however they can have help with editing on occasion.
When a MAP is started the host makes a “MAP Call” to announce the MAP and to encourage people to take part in the MAP. MAP Call videos often have rules about the MAP, such as what is and isn’t allowed, the script (if there is one), the color palette, and other things such as those.
NFT (Not For Trade) – As there are two NFT acronyms now, I will explain the one that came first, where NFT stands for Not For Trade. It is used to specify that a specific design is not for trade. However, I have also seen the acronym being used in games to mean that a specific item that someone has isn’t for trade.
The acronym is often mixed up with the much more negative Non Fungible Token NFT, which in the art world, those type of NFTs are very controversial and frowned upon. Those sort of NFTs take a toll on the environment. I personally despise Non Fungible Tokens, and will never do anything involving them.
IC and OOC – IC stands for in character and OOC stands for out of character. Essentially, IC means someone is speaking as if they are their character, typically in the form of a sort of roleplay, or just for a fun thing. OOC is speaking out of character, speaking normally as well, the person that they are.
OC – OC stands for original character, simple as that.
Tracer – A tracer is a negative thing like art thieves are. A tracer is a nickname given to a person who traces someone else’s artwork and typically badly recolors it to make it look like their own characters. Tracing and claiming someone else’s work as your own is wrong and frowned upon within the art world. As with art thievery, don’t do this. However, tracing can be used more positively, such as for learning. You can trace over a photo and rough out the shapes, lines, and pose to learn things such as anatomy and posing. This rough, learning type of tracing is sometimes called skeleton tracing. Another positive side of tracing is tracing your own artwork for reasons such as redrawing. It’s your own artwork, you do what you want with it.
Here is an example of skeleton tracing that I did with a stock photo I downloaded from Pexels. I also have provided the original stock photo, for comparison.
Here is the link to the stock photo, for credit. https://www.pexels.com/photo/tabby-cat-982314/
Watermark – A watermark is essentially a signature or symbol that is used to say a specific artist made a specific piece. Typically, a watermark has transparency and is put somewhere in the artwork. Usually it is put in the corner to where it’s not super obstructive, or better yet in a spot where it would be difficult to remove or draw over by art stealers. Make it tricky for thieves!
YCH – A YCH or a Your Character Here is a type of commission that is typically for art or animation. The artist typically posts an unfinished drawing with a base sort of being to give an idea of where the character will be put or what pose the character will be in, when the artist is paid by someone for the commission. The person that pays the artist typically gives reference images for the character or characters that they would like to be in the finished YCH.
I hope I helped inform you of some terms that are in the online art world!