History Main / DistinctiveAppearances

* In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'', the individual turtles are much more visually diverse than in any past incarnation. It goes beyond [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience color coding their masks]] and [[WeaponOfChoice weapons]], to major clothing differences and physical stature.

* Dolores Umbridge of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series is repeatedly described as looking like a toad, so much so apparently that "short Ministry witch who looks like a toad" is enough of a description for the heroes to be certain that she's the witch in question.

So in order to make sure the main characters are identifiable you should go out of your way to ensure a distinctive appearance is given for everyone. As a rule of thumb, even though it may seem bad at first, even before you know the person's name other people should know what you're talking about when you talk about "That guy with the NiceHat" or "His BadassLongcoat was flowing in the DramaticWind." If they are that easy to identify from the start then it makes their presence in the story that much easier to follow.

* Franchise/IndianaJones and his NiceHat. He walks into a room and you know it is him. You see his shadow and you know it is him, and just to be on the safe side he carries a whip on his belt in case of other hat-wearing characters. You can see him in a crowd and know which one he is on a bridge. So much so that the filmmakers eventually decided that his hat would only come off if there was a darn good reason. Note the footage of Harrison Ford jokingly offering to staple the hat to his head.
** Van Helsing of...''Film/VanHelsing'' has a similar NiceHat for similar reasons, as Stephen Sommers has said: makes it very easy to tell who he is, even in a long shot.

* Despite being very much a ImprobablyFemaleCast, it's possible to tell nearly every member of the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' cast apart by their silhouette, as demonstrated in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3C-VevI36s this video]]. The abundance of {{Nice Hat}}s and nonhuman features (ears, tails, horns etc.) and distinct accessories certainly helps.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'': Due to the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters being introduced, Peter Jackson took care to make sure all of the important characters were visually distinctive so audiences wouldn't get confused. Some of the traits he gave them are book-accurate, others are not.

And compare/contrast any number of tropes, including CastOfSnowflakes, OnlySixFaces, PaletteSwap, LimitedWardrobe, OneSteveLimit, UniformityException, and FlashyProtagonistsBlandExtras.

* The ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' creators used to work on ''TheSimpsons,'' so they designed the major characters based on the same concept. The title characters are the most obvious examples, especially Phineas, who has a triangular head.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGONinjagoMovie'' applied this to the main ninja cast, giving them all distinct hairstyles and outfits. It's a downplayed example given that they are ninja and maintain some level of anonymity. ''WesternAnimation/Ninjago'' itself applied these designs to the cast afterwards, with the excuse of the events of the previous arc slightly altering the universe.

* ''Franchise/LEGO'':

* ''Creator/NicholasAnderson'' has praised ''Franchise/LEGO'' for doing this with certain themes.

And compare/contrast any number of tropes, including CastOfSnowflakes, OnlySixFaces, PaletteSwap, LimitedWardrobe, OneSteveLimit, and FlashyProtagonistsBlandExtras.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' actor Mark Strickson dyed his hair from blond to ginger in order to play companion Turlough because then-current Doctor Creator/PeterDavison has blond hair, and it was felt that having both of them blond would easily confuse viewers.

* ConsistentClothingStyle, characters defined by their signature outfit configurations: Alice is the one who always wears leather jackets, Clarice likes florals, while Jim is always in a black shirt and jeans.

* All over the place in ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''. Even similar-looking characters like Mario and Luigi are easily distinguished by physical differences such as height, clothing color, and even the curliness of their mustache and sideburns.

* Anyone who has tried to illustrate ''FanFiction/MyImmortal'' has run into this problem. Everyone is deathly pale. Everyone has dyed their hair black. Everyone wears the same "goffic" clothes. All the distinctive aspects of any character's canon appearance (Harry's glasses, for example) are soundly eliminated.

* You have a FiveManBand, a group who is defined by their roles and quite often their physical size and appearance. You want these characters to be memorable, so you make them as different from each other in appearance as possible. TheHero is muscular, TheLancer is slender, TheBigGuy is really huge, TheSmartGuy is really small and oversized glasses, TheChick has [[CurvesInAllTheRightPlaces all the right curves]], etc.

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* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Is there anyone who can't [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tpm_teaser.jpg recognize Darth Vader by his shadow?]]

* During production of ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', an animator did outlines of each of the Parr's heads, to make sure each of them was distinct from the other. Creator/BradBird liked the sketch so much he had it mde into a T-shirt.
** Yep. Not only color, but also silhouette, pose, and light-to-dark ratio/location.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' has quite a bit of this. Harry Dresden is 6'9" and is usually wearing his BadassLongcoat, which makes him easily identified to people who know him. Murphy, on the other extreme, is short at 5'0", to the extent she has to wear lifts in her shoes to avoid being recognized, since everyone in the supernatural community knows by now who the five-foot-nothing police woman is.
* Dolores Umbridge of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series is repeatedly described as looking like a toad, so much so apparently that "short Ministry witch who looks like a toad" is enough of a description for the heroes to be certain that she's the witch in question.
* The main Watch characters in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Carrot is tall ginger, and handsome; Vimes is permanently scowling; Fred and Nobby are the big fat one and the short ugly one, Angua is the beautiful blonde woman (or the very handsome blonde wolf), Cheery is the dwarf in a skirt and heels, and Detritus is the troll.

* ''Series/GreenWing'' does something very similar to Scrubs, at least to a certain extent, which obviously makes sense when they're both set in hospitals. Oddly, while all three wear green scrubs in the operating theatre, Mac will continue to wear his while Caroline and Guy change back into their white lab coats.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' actor Mark Strickson dyed his hair from blond to ginger in order to play companion Turlough because then-current Doctor Creator/PeterDavison has blond hair, and it was felt that having both of them blond would easily confuse viewers.

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* This is why the main ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' characters have different patterns on their clothing. Charlie Brown has the distinctive zigzag, Linus wears stripes, Sally has polka dots. When Charles Schulz realized that Rerun looked too much like Linus, he gave Rerun a flatter hairstyle and ever-present overalls.
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[[folder:Web Comics and Web Original]]
* In ''WebComic/AwfulHospital'', the only characters to look alike so far are the kidney stone children, which didn't have distinct personalities or names of their own. Other characters we have seen include a giant, sentient bacteriophage in a bowtie, a bag of medical waste that fashioned itself into a nurse, a man with a giant syringe for a head, and various human organs operating independently.
* Due to their unique accessories, and the careful design of their fur and tails, no two characters in ''WebComic/BittersweetCandyBowl'' have the same silhouette. Without, however, a few look rather similar - this is most notably played with when [[spoiler:Sandy is finally introduced on-screen in the present.]]

* ''Blog/AskTheManeSix'', a Website/{{Tumblr}} ask blog based on ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', redesigned the ponies as humans. Each humanised pony has a completely distinct appearance (such as an indian Twilight Sparkle, a muscular Applejack, and an overweight Pinkie Pie), which is notable when you compare it to other humanised pony illustrations.
* It is hard, very hard to mistake one character for another in ''WebComic/TowerOfGod''. It could be the fact that one of the main characters is a miniature version of Godzilla. Maybe because that Purple Jumpsuit only belongs to one person. Anyway, despite having very similar faces (except for Godzilla and the other LizardFolk) character designs tend to so one-of-a-kind that most characters can be identified from afar. That even goes for all the background characters from season one.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' is very good at this, characters are given distinct body types, heights, hair styles, or clothing accessories that make them stand out. This is all in spite of most characters changing outfits quite often but even then most important characters tend to wear clothes of similar colors. The color of people's hair and clothes are used to visually categorize them, Smoke Knights all wear purple, and all of the Storm King's descendants have bright red hair for example, and Zeetha's Green hair, normally blue clothes, and gold accessories make her visually different from the rest of the cast, fitting with her being from a lost kingdom.

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* ''Series/DoctorWho'' actor Mark Strickson died his hair from blond to ginger in order to play companion Turlough because then-current Doctor Creator/PeterDavison has blond hair, and it was felt that having both of them blond would easily confuse viewers.

And compare/contrast any number of tropes, including CastOfSnowflakes, OnlySixFaces, PaletteSwap, LimitedWardrobe, OneSteveLimit.