[quote=@HaleyTheRandom]

What is your opinion on character sheets?
[/quote]

Pretty much essential if you want to have any sort of order and consistency to your roleplays. I like them because they give me something to reference when I'm writing because it's hard to remember all the details of every character, even my own, months down the road and I need to recall something, be it an appearance detail, a piece of seldom used equipment, skill, or part of their history that is suddenly relevant. A good character sheet also tells you who a character is and in my games, I request people have detailed histories with all important information, because I A) don't accept "it'll be revealed in the roleplay" as an excuse because chances are, it'll never come up and B) it prevents players from changing critical details about their characters later on, like conveniently adding stuff that contradicts what was approved or giving themselves a backstory point that would resolve or add a favourable condition to a character like, I don't know, suddenly a character is nobility and the guards are sworn to protect them or some shit. 

You can also tell a lot about a person's ability to cooperate with a GM by how well they respond to criticism and suggestions during the review process of a character sheet, as well as how well they can craft a reasonably solid character. A big reason I ask for pretty involved character sheets is because I've seen way too many games go right into the shitter because GMs take anyone who applies or don't enforce standards, and suddenly you end up with personality clashes in games, power-gaming prone characters, cringy edgelords and Sues, and just generally a fustercluck that can ultimately drive players away from a game if everyone isn't on the same page to start. Best way to do that is to have a firm set of standards and expectations, review and give feedback on sheets, and filter out anyone who has a crap personality from the get go. If someone's willing to put in the extra effort in a character sheet and respond well to feedback, there's a good chance they're going to be a good fit for the RP, simple as that. If you aren't going to put any effort into a character sheet, why would I pick you over someone who did? There's plenty of games more your speed, I just build mine based on what I've found works over GMing for six years. I just don't want to deal with bullshit after the game launches and find out the player has an attitude, power or metagaming problems, or they can't be assed to read others' posts. 

[quote]
Faceclaims? Real life? Anime? Digital? Hand drawn? None?
[/quote]

One thing I've seen in other RPs I found really kind of cringy and awful is people using excessive faceclaims of actors or models or whatever and posting a lot of gifs all over their character sheets of this actor saying quotes or making expressions or whatever, it was distracting and it gave the impression that they cared more about the aesthetics of the actor rather than adding substance to the character itself. I don't like using real-life people for the most part, I do if it's required, but I personally don't care for it. I prefer semi-realistic artwork to be used, and crediting/ linking the artist if possible. I don't usually require an image in my games if you can't find something that works for your character, I always ask for a written description regardless. There's always minor details that a simple picture can't always convey. Main thing I ask people do is not use anime pictures because they're thematically jarring outside of the genre.

[quote]
Color codes?
[/quote]

I'll do them if most people want them, but generally I find a game gets by just fine without them. Saves on formatting, at least.

[quote]
What's the 'right amount' of images?
[/quote]

A profile picture, and images related to the character like what their armour and weapons look like, markings, tattoos etc. Visual references are amazing when they serve a purpose.

[quote]
Freeform or GM provided code?
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I usually do basic CS coding for players, but they're free to spruce it up as they see fit, so long as the contents remain the same. 

[quote]
Things that should be be included/excluded?[/quote]

I'm not really a fan of "excluding" things, but basically the essentials for me are,
[indent]
Name
Vitals (height, weight, age, race, etc)
Appearance
*Personality (depends on games, this is more describing quirks, tastes, mannerisms etc. than trying to force something arbitrary on a character that hasn't been played yet, I sometimes leave it out)
Background 
Equipment
Skills
Miscellaneous stuff that doesn't fit in other categories 
[/indent]

[quote]
What is your character creation process? Is character creation just all together overrated?
[/quote]

Usually I start off with a rough idea of what I want to do with a character before I even start writing (something like a pacifist non-lethal character who fights with a staff and has a code against killing, or alcoholic tomboy mechanic who likes painting and practical jokes, or Lara Croft inspired relic hunter who is terrible at fighting but is an expert with a lockpick, for quick examples) and then I kind of work on the story aspects for them. How did they get to the point they're at during the beginning of the RP? They know this and this skill, how did they acquire them? Just keep asking a bunch of questions and keep filling in the answers as I go, and it kind of goes in a flow of "A happened because of B, which resulted in C" where the story covers the major life shaping events and experiences that happened to the character, and what the result was. 

For example, "Tim became fascinated with street racing due to an incident shortly after his 16th birthday where he escaped from his rivals on his way back from night classes by car jacking someone at a set of lights and narrowly escaping death at the hands of his pursuers and his inexperience behind the wheel and found it awoken an incredible high", or whatever. Just give context to why a character knows what they do, why they can do what they do, and for the love of god, give them some friggin' character flaws. Do this enough times, covering the bases from their formative years to the present, and you've got a pretty details backstory that should be logically consistent and gives weight to the other aspects to the sheet. I want to know why Hector the Well-Endowed is the greatest swordsman in the Southern Hemisphere; simply making the claim and not giving any context is lazy and uninspired. It also tells me that you want your character to be a super badass without having to give merit to it or have them sword-chop their way through every situation with ease. 

From there, it's a matter of figuring out what kind of skills and equipment make sense in the context of the character, and the appearance can be done at any time depending on inspiration or drive. I do try to streamline a lot of the content and not involve a lot of filler details for brevity's sake, but a character sheet acts as a resume for any roleplay. It shows you give a shit about making a good impression towards commitment and interest rather than winging it and joining on a whim.