Help:Creating an UTAU character

Naming is one important aspect for an UTAUloid. As with their roots, the VOCALOIDs, their names give an insight to their purpose. This aspect for the UTAUloid is one with outmost importance.

Naming Type
Every UTAUloid is known by a name. So far, the following are the naming patterns observed for such characters:
 * 1) Purpose-based Naming: An UTAUloid is named based on what they will be used for. An example of this is VOCALOID Luka Megurine. Her Kanji-based name stands for "Encompassing Sound", which is the target of her bilingual voicebank, reaching out both to Japanese and English enthusiasts alike. For UTAU, UTAUloids like Tsubame Utanomiyatsuko is named to "Be the creator of songs," pertaining to his voicebank's purpose.
 * 2) Aesthetically Descriptive Naming: An UTAUloid is named based on his or her aesthetics or visual design. Many UTAUloids are named this way, like in the case of Taya Soune.
 * 3) Preferential Naming: An UTAUloid is named based on how the creator wants it; either after himself or herself, the voice source, or by a name unrelated to musical terms. VOCALOIDs Gackpoid and Megpoid are such examples. For UTAU, Camila Melodia and Anaka Blythe stand out as examples, being named by preference and named after the author, respectively. Also there are UTAUloids with the same name as the author, or a variant of it, such as Aline Enbukyoku and Katarina Sokkyoune respectively.

Except for Preferential Naming, it should be noted that most family names of UTAUloids end with the Ne (音 "sound") or Uta (歌 "song") and other Kanji characters related to music or voice. This has been the naming pattern that was inherited from VOCALOIDs, but there are creators deviating from this pattern.

Defined Japanese Name
An UTAUloid possessing a Japanese name is always common. You can most likely thank/blame Miku Hatsune for this trend. This is due to the fact that the VOCALOID technology came from Japan, and her creators at Crypton Future Media are Japanese, and Miku is targeted for Japanese users. The Otaku culture also has an influence on Miku's popularity, which leads us to UTAUloids named in Japanese. However, an UTAUloid does not have to be named this way to be popular.

Japanese language is agglutinative and most Kanjis used in Japanese have several meanings respectively unlike in original Chinese. These facts lead to the difficulty that a Kanji combination often makes a totally new, different interpretation which you do not expect. If you are not sure, please ask for a help.

Name Definitions
 * 1) UTAUloids named this way have proper Japanese names, whose Kanji characters resolve correctly with the pronunciation and their purpose. For foreigners, this is rather tricky without understanding the types of Kanji in circulation, and understanding of the Japanese language.
 * 2) First names and last names are strictly distinct in Japanese. In English, for example, both Anthony Williams and Williams Anthony are common, but this is not the case in Japanese. If you set a Japanese name, make it sure to which the name is appropriate.
 * 3) Machine translation is not reliable currently. Japanese language has nothing common with western languages in both words and grammar and it has extremely a lot of homographs, so a machine often makes incorrect translations. It may be a help, but do not take it literally and check it with a dictionary.
 * 4) As carried over from VOCALOIDs, most first names are written in Katakana and surnames are written in Kanji. In seldom cases, a Hiragana character may appear alongside the family name written in Kanji. Used in names, Hiragana in general expresses cuteness or immaturity and Kanji gives the formal, serious sense. The exception however, is with Nana Macne, whose family name is written alongside with English characters. This is not encouraged however unless in special cases.
 * 5) Matching Kanji surnames typically comprise of an adjective or verb. Also, in the Japanese way of naming, it is written family name first before given name.

Western Name
Eastern names, including Japanese, are often written Family name first. In western naming, the given name is written first. Non-eastern names are always assumed to be of Western origin, simply because of the naming order, which originated from western countries.

In countries with western influences, with the exception of traditional Chinese names, all names of people regardless of ethnicity are given in this manner all the time. For cultural compatibility, a person may have an indigenous name alongside a western name.

Name Definitions
 * 1) Some western cultures have elaborate names for a character, which may include middle names and maiden names. This depends on the creator's country of origin and culture.
 * 2) As with the Japanese way, a creator can also utilize name definitions in their own ethnicity that pertains to music, songs or voice, whatever is appropriate for an UTAU voicebank.

Transcription of a Western name in Japanese

 * 1) Non-Japanese names are written as they are in Katakana. For example, Angelica Morbid is アンジェリカ・モービッド. Foreign names do not have to be converted to Japanese style or the surname-first style except for Chinese and Korean ones. Usually a dot is put between first name and last name.
 * 2) The sound [v] does not exist in original Japanese and it is often changed to [b]. In Katakana, バ line is the typical use (バ, ビ, ブ, ベ, ボ). Yet [v] becomes acceptable recently and is written as ヴ with small vowels (ヴァ, ヴィ, ヴ, ヴェ, ヴォ). Either spelling can be adopted.
 * 3) Names with non-Japanese sources and Japanese-sounding names whose family name has no Kanji-equivalent are always written in Katakana, and follows western naming conventions. The exceptions is if the non-Japanese name is in Chinese or Korean, in which the family-name-first naming method is followed.
 * 4) Chinese names may acquire a new name pronunciation when written in Japanese. The same holds true for Japanese names written into Chinese. It depends on the Kanji character used.

Transcription of eastern names into English

 * 1) Chinese and Korean names adhere to the family-name first writing of their names in English. For the Japanese, their names can be written in the western naming order. Some Korean names may be written in western order, but this is seldomly done.
 * 2) In the event a Chinese name has both Chinese and Japanese name pronunciation is available, the ethnicity of the name is followed, depending on the character's country of origin.
 * 3) When writing a Japanese name in English, following the given-name-first order, it is always written using the Revised Hepburn method of Japanese Kana romanization. The usage of other romanization methods such as Kunrei-shiki should be properly justified.

Profiling
As with every created character, a fictitious profile is created to increase the credibility and the "alive" factor of the character. In VOCALOID, this was done starting with Miku Hatsune's release. From there, and even with the Fanmade Vocaloids, it has been a tradition to create biological/profile information of a character.

However, the profiles created for the VOCALOIDs only include basic ocular information, such as age, height, weight, optimal voice range and genre. If other factors such as likes and dislikes are needed, they are mostly allocated by fans or writers, and their canon factor is often determined by their popularity. In short, if there's unavailable information, people resort to speculation.

This is especially true to writers who want to portray VOCALOIDs in their story, and information is EVERYTHING.

To somewhat alleviate the problem of lack of information, wikis like this and VOCALOID Wiki exists to become a reference point of both musicians, writers, storytellers and other users. Of course, it is ensured such information available is canon, reliable and credible. Cruft and falsifications are edited out. Any speculative information by fans that somewhat benefit the character is properly indicated to distinguish it from information given by the creator of such character.

Birth Date
Biologically, birthday is the date of birth of a being. For VOCALOIDs and UTAUloids, birthdate pertains to the day when they were first released to the world, in the same manner we were first given birth.

For UTAUloids, birth date can vary. It can be the time where the concept of such character was first thought of, or it is the date where the voicebank was released.

Birth year is calculated differently for VOCALOIDs. See Release Date below.

Age
Age is pre-allocated by their creators. This usually is done in such a way that it matches the aesthetics portrayed in their official illustration.

Release Date
Release Date pertains to the official date when the final voicebank of the character (or version 1) is released. Beta releases are considered premature/test subjects and are not considered releases.