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Oekaki is Japanese for "scribble" or "doodle". On the Internet, an Oekaki is a message board system that revolves around computer art created by the local art program (often a more sophisticated version of Microsoft Paint). Oekaki artists often post their art to other websites than the original board, such as personal pages or free gallery websites.
The Oekaki interface is an extremely powerful and versatile Java applet. It is simple to use, yet offers enough features to create professional-looking images. The two main versions of the program are OekakiBBS and PaintBBS. There are several other applets, but the two described below are the most commonly used on english boards. Artists can use these applets with the computer mouse or with a tablet and stylus, as popularized by Wacom.
PaintBBS is a simple applet which utilises two layers and a mask system. It has many different palettes that can be used for a variety of different effects. It has an animation feature which allows the user to watch a "movie" of him or herself drawing his or her image. This feature also enables the artist to save the image to the BBS and later repaint the image while still retaining his or her layer and palette settings.
OekakiBBS is slightly more complicated and has smaller palettes and fewer screentones, but it includes more productive color blending, as many layers as the artist wants, masks, and the same animation feature as in PaintBBS.
Oekaki is extremely popular among the anime Internet subculture, because it enables a community gathering to share fanart and offer critiques and compliments. It also serves as a tool to "flesh out" original characters, especially roleplaying characters.
There are a remarkable number of OekakiBBSs, OekakiCentral (http://www.oekakicentral.com) being one of the largest. Artists can create their own OekakiBBS at OekakiBBS.com (http://www.oekakibbs.com), though the site is often hard to use for non-Japanese-speakers because much of it is in Japanese or badly translated English.
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