About the "tachi-e" tag.

Oh hey! Forum post! Again!

So, there seems to be a bit of confusion regarding the "tachi-e" tag. I've been using it as per our wiki definition, which definites it as:

Full-body standing drawing of a character. Often this is a character sprite from a video game.

Which totally makes sense! Given that the direct translation of "tachi - e" is "standing art." It also falls in line with Pixiv's definition. That being said, from how I've been seeing it used, users seem to be conflating "tachi-e" with "sprite," or even just "official art." For example:

post #3846032
post #3777575
post #4079010
post #2587871
post #3850224

Over 115 images tagged with tachi-e have the character sitting alone (tachi-e sitting), but a whopping none of them are tagged with sprite. Users also seem to be opposed to applying the tag to non-sprite art, which results in loads of artwork that shouldn't be tagged as tachi-e receiving the tag, while loads of artwork that should be receiving the tag not receiving it. I believe the tachi-e tag still has its merits, as the composition of images tagged as such on Pixiv make them incredibly easy to shove into a visual novel (ahem, the infamous Danganronpa pose is synonymous with tachi-e) or the sort with minimal effort.

As it stands, the number of images in the sprite tag is pitiful. Should I mass tag the sprites appropriately, and remove the tachi-e tags for cases where they aren't appropriate?

Since it's me who made tachi-e wiki as it is now, I'll cut in. I've worded it the same way as pixiv does because tachi-e is not strictly limited to being game cg (as initial version from 2011 implied).

Tachi-e on nico wiki includes little bit of history behind this term. Tachi-e originated as character art you could use in vn/adventure games as a means of cutting budget. So the main criterion is that if you can slap it on random background, add textbox and it will look like fake screenshot it should probably be considered a tachi-e. It does not strictly require your character to be standing also, neither be full body (e.g. from waist-up or close-up to fit in character window).

As for danbooru usage, tachi-e could be expressed mostly as solo full_body standing -faux_figurine -character_sheet ~simple_background ~transparent_background. Standing tachi-e seems to be undertagged combo, though.

While tachi-e conceptually is a good tag, it is obscured by the fact that name-wise it isn't known all that much. I'd argue it's rather undertagged even. Also, "立ち絵" also appears in the Other Names for standing, thus resulting in cases such as post #4012176, which have (or had in my example case) both standing and tachi-e, despite the fact that the latter may not be entirely appropriate.

I'd personally advocate for a more intuitive name for the tag, like visual_novel-like_portrait, or maybe something that's less of a mouthful (character portrait?), since it'd give a better impression of what the theme of the tag is, doesn't indirectly imply the need for the character to stand, and may be easier to remember.

ZipFile said:

Tachi-e on nico wiki includes little bit of history behind this term. Tachi-e originated as character art you could use in vn/adventure games as a means of cutting budget. So the main criterion is that if you can slap it on random background, add textbox and it will look like fake screenshot it should probably be considered a tachi-e. It does not strictly require your character to be standing also, neither be full body (e.g. from waist-up or close-up to fit in character window).

I have somewhat discussed it in topic #17285.

Damian0358 said:

While tachi-e conceptually is a good tag, it is obscured by the fact that name-wise it isn't known all that much. I'd argue it's rather undertagged even. Also, "立ち絵" also appears in the Other Names for standing, thus resulting in cases such as post #4012176, which have (or had in my example case) both standing and tachi-e, despite the fact that the latter may not be entirely appropriate.

立つ is extremely underused on Pixiv (~200 posts), and 立ち絵 is often used in it's literal meaning, i.e. "standing picture". 立ち絵 is more likely to be standing than not, so it's better to keep it that way.

I'd personally advocate for a more intuitive name for the tag, like visual_novel-like_portrait, or maybe something that's less of a mouthful (character portrait?), since it'd give a better impression of what the theme of the tag is, doesn't indirectly imply the need for the character to stand, and may be easier to remember.

Dunno about names with _portrait in it, as we already have clearly defined portrait tag. That will add even more confusion. Tachi-e originated as Japanese term, there is no direct analog in western gamedev lingo. Closest one is sprite, but it's more about pc/npc graphic within the game world/battle screens/etc..

But anyway, I suspect this discussion won't go in any particular direction. I've updated tachi-e wiki with little bit rephrased contents of forum #174685 and added few examples of what should not be tagged as tachi-e. I also did some gardening, whatever was reachable through tag search should now more-or-less reflect the wiki definition.