Hi all,
So, a lot of my friends (and myself included) have been having some issues making new characters. I thought I'd write a little about what's worked for me and what hasn't. But first, the basics.
Here's a simplifications of the character creation process. Just put your sliders around-about where I have put an orange dot and you'll have a character that's at least agreeable. To read this read the sliders from left to to right, boxes too and move downward.
Select face 4 or 3
Character Creation: the menus
General
Head and Ears
Eyes
Nose
Mouth
Tattoos and Makeup are also a thing, but we'll cover those later. These first five things really will determine how you feel about the rest.
Let's get started. If you're like me, you are tempted to start with the eyes. Go right ahead. It won't make much of a difference right away.
Here is the order of operations I've found lead to likable characters.
1 - Chose head 3 or 4
2 - Select the Eyes you want.
3 - Mouth
4 - Nose
5 - Head and Ears
The reason I put things in this order is because the features under Mouth settings are going to define most of the skeleton of your character's skull. If you want to have a girl's face either you want a lot of bone or a lot of skin. If you want a woman's face you will want to try for more "panels and angles" look. This is all coming from how you manipulate the Jawline, Jawsize, and Jowls.
At some point during this process you're going to find yourself saying, "Nah, this just isn't working." Now you've got to try changing Chin Size, Chin Shape, and Double Chin.
At some point during this process you're going to start finding yourself saying again, "Nah, this just isn't working." Now you have to go to Nose or Head and Ears.
Note 1:
Head and Ears oddly contains Cheekbone and Cheek Shape. These two sliders will dramatically change how your head lines up with the symmetry of the rest of your skull's features.
Note 2:
Also included are Brow Size and Forehead. For some reason defaults "neanderthal" as downright sexy. You'll want to fix that as soon as you can. To do this, turn your head side ways and try to get your face to turn perfectly sideways, so you could draw its silhouette if you wished.
Some examples of completed Figures:
Elf
Oriental
- Human models are more capable of producing an 'olive' shaped head and 'middle of the road' appearances.
- Elves tend to swing into more teenage to youthful appearances.
The Nose:
I give this special attention. Why? Because it dominates faces in this game. It can also distract you from your painted-on eyebrows. The nose is particularly tricky because no one part of it entirely controls itself. That is, you're going to be using all of the sliders to get your nose to look right.
Further, the nose has some odd impacts on the rest of your face that you probably haven't really connected with yet. An Asian person is going to have something of a 'button nose'. Some races of the game do this better than others. Elf, face 4, will give you the right 'nostril' with to do this. The human nose... so far for me refuses to dip below the mid-thirties in appearance. African features usually work quite well in this game. Do not expect the same from your Caucasian/Europid style face. The art direction here has clearly swung for a Game of Thrones / Witcher style lighting. Its quite hard on pale skin.
All of the above is important to understand as what you see as you are making your character is not how you're character will appear from a distance. The sliders I have provided will produce a very cute youthful elf. Especially if you remember to turn off lip gloss, cheek blush, and give her dark skin. Unfortunately, from a distance, she appears more like a predatory vulture and 'The Wicked Witch of the West." She looks nothing like this in cutscenes. The nose has a lot of impact on how you will like your character. A 'large nose' can look just right in cutscenes, but outside of cutscenes appear entirely too big.
Tricks for the Nose:
Understanding how the nose works best for you can be somewhat simplified by how it is proportional to your eyeballs, ears, and mouth. There should around a finger's width between your nose and your mouth. Usually half that again ends up being nearly-perfect. Whether you realize it or not your 'face' is an illusion. The 'face' is really only how we remember it viewed straight on and terminating at about 45 degrees from straight on. This creates three major areas we view the face from... straight-on, 45 degrees to fully sideways, and sideways. A sideways view of the face usually provides the view most inclusive of defining which racial origin our genes hail from. This is zone of 'information' and a 'fine arts' sort of beauty. 45 degrees are where all the 'hints' take place and 'mysteries'. As your vision moves into this plane of focus nothing is quite 'there yet'. This is where we see 'curves' and some of the skeletal symmetries that bone and the overlaying muscles provide. More simply, it's where you see the 'hints of romantic notions'. As you move to view the face straight-on what you see is symmetries. This is the place of greatest illusions. Most of what you see is taking place in another dimension. That is... 'her nose isn't as wide as it looks. Rather, the bridge of her nose is very far back and her eyes very close up." Note then, that in order to produce that particularly effect we have to use Eye Position and Nose Bridge. This is why the Nose is a little more tricky than everything else. Sometimes you realize in order to have the nose you want you have to extend the chin and so on.
The most important feature to grasp with the nose is that it will allow you to shrink the size of the skull considerably. Again, reference the side view of the human head above. You'll notice that these features of the head are not available by default. In order to make them I had to move the nose almost mashed against the face, then move it out until the 'ape' like appearance goes away (you'll see what I mean), and then move the mouth position (backward) and chin position, and double chin.
Final Steps:
Once you have accomplished all this to your satisfaction (or near satisfaction) it's time to address some aesthetic issues. If you are playing an elf getting rid of the tattoo is probably a priority for you. At least until you are finished seeing what you are doing. In order to do this go to Tattoos and Scars, turns Scar Intensity to its lowest settings. Next, turn your tattoo to its dimmest option. Now that you've done that go to the Tattoo Color and the dial (radial) to the the color nearest your own skin tone. Your tattoos should have largely vanished.
You can preform the trick above to get rid of unwanted eye-shadow, eye liner, under-eye colors and number of other things. That's why they are also not included in my slider's list. It's your character, those options really won't make a huge difference.
One option which you may want to consider... you'll notice that every single one of your companions has some level of eyeliner or eye shading. This is not by accident. This game has a very bright coloration setting and mesh faces do not allow much purchase for shadows. Consequently you'll have to make your own. Determine how you want your eyes to appear ahead of time. Do you want dusky sultry eyes? Shadowy, I'mma stab faces eyes? Solas, damn it's cold eyes?
Notes for continuing frustrations:
Something's not working. You really aren't sure what, but it really isn't working. The terrible reality is there are 1 through 4 or 5(?) faces to chose from before we started doing this. The face you might be trying to build might not be in this selection. Remember you can go back out to the 'general' section and chose other face types. Be sure to cycle through them. Also, constantly check to see if the back of your school (possibly do this by removing hair) makes sense to be the right distance from the front of your skull. If it feels wrong it probably is). If so, go back to your jaw and cheek settings. See if squaring up or thinning out your jaw helps. If that isn't the case check your cheekbones and nose bridge. If your character is starting to look like a monkey always check your nose options and mouth position. Then consider jaw size once more.
Starting to feel like you are getting somewhere? Don't create your character just yet. Make sure you checked blush. You're really going to have a fit if you're beautiful Indian colored skin is suddenly blushing violet.
Symmetry:
Here's a simple art-school trick that will save you a ton of headaches. Let's call this "Blush or Not to Blush". If you have dark hair, dark eyebrows, and dark eyes, but pale lips... does this work? Oops, you just changed your lips dark too didn't you? Not a bad idea, but now look at all that light area on your forehead and cheekbones? Do you really want that there? Would it better to add some soft near-skintone permanent shadow using Blush? Maybe. Or maybe, the shadow in your earlobes is really dark and that's making your eyes feel beady. Possibly, or more likely your lips are now off-color.
All these questions probably have come up for you, but without the connection that 'color has symmetry too'. When you look at a person's face your motion across their face should be 'smooth' and 'seamless'; nothing interjects the motion of your eyes 'looking'. This effect will affect 'acceptance' from a viewer... including yourself. However, if you want 'character' that takes more. You have to process information by 'moods'. You are inhabiting an animal body. The human. What does 'it' think of all this? It's only answers are reactions and moods of kind, but that's in intelligence. Read it. Acceptance is as I have said above... uninterrupted observance without color or sensation. The diversities of intuition to what you see is information: your body's 'words'. They are as layered as these. "Startling" is only the 'initial' reaction. What is the 'visceral'? Is your character 'lude', 'warm', 'invasive', 'gentle', 'provocative', 'evocative'? What 'mood' do these arrive to? Mood is your character's 'story'. His or her 'song' in the world. It is how they interact with you and others.
The 'pathing' for this is then "Initial > Visceral > Mood".
All of which are arriving to you from just one of the five categories:
1 - Chose head 3 or 4
2 - Select the Eyes you want.
3 - Mouth
4 - Nose
5 - Head and Ears
Alright! You're ready to go at this point. Now the real test starts... 'toleration'. Save your character and start the game.
You've ended up somewhere with a bunch of cutscenes. Be advised only a few of them let your character not have 'ugly ape face' that I guess is the only default 'angry' face they use in the game. I strangely advise you ignoring these scenes. You'll never be happy with your face watching them.
Unfortunately I didn't have the presence of mind to save a picture of this character when she wasn't in cutscene, but you'll notice is forgot to turn blush off. She permanently had 'rosy' cheeks. The Grim-Deleter found her and that was that. Nevertheless, this is how things can turn out.
Suggestions:
- I would strangely ask yourself if you can accept your character looking slightly ugly when 'not on camera' (cutscenes). It will almost certainly be the case. Try not to let it get to you. You'll look better during the cutscenes.
- This game loves earth tones. It compliments and contrasts the light very well.
- 'Round' faces are very hard to get right in this game. If you have an 'olive' shaped head it may be impossible to get the game to give you your own face. Something with the lighting really makes these kind of face look like 'goblins' or 'apes' very often. It's not your fault and I'm not sure it is the game's either. It's just one of those things called 'technological limitations'.
That's it! All the best! Feel free to ask for help if you get stuck. I'll keep checking this post for awhile.
Retour en haut
