58 réponses à ce sujet

[Elastic Otter]

Danke, Gracias, and Thank you!

[Tyrax Lightning]

Elastic Otter wrote...

Danke, Gracias, and Thank you!

Hope I helped!

[MassEffect762]

Pretty Faces 2.5(Thanks to Saxony_Porcelain)
www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php

Pineappletrees Vibrant Colors(Thanks to Pineappletree)
www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php

Elven Lelianna(Thanks to Rah2005)
www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php

Headmorph for Elven Lelianna(Thanks to Naiath1004)
www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php

Would also recommend:

White Teeth(Thanks to Jog)
www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php

For the mature folks:

Natural Bodies(Thanks to NewByPower)
www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php

Realistic Look(Thanks to Adriangi)
www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php

Aren't PC mods GREAT!

Modifié par MassEffect762, 27 mars 2010 - 05:55 .

[Mlai00]

Another tip to make unique elves is to think ethnic.

You make a Caucasian elf, and unless you're skilled, you often end up with a white human with pointy ears.

If you try to make an Asian elf (for the delicate features), or a Native American elf (for the lion-like prominent features), or an African elf (for the almond eyes)... you might surprise yourself and come up with something exotic.

Then... you can change the skin tone to white, if you really want to.



^ Compare and hopefully illustrate what I mean by difference between Caucasian woman and an elf.

[Forlorn]

Bleh, i suck at creating decent looking chicks but. But i think my dalish rogue turned out decent or atleast the best i've done so far lol.

Modifié par Forlorn, 25 avril 2010 - 12:06 .

[yasuraka.hakkyou]

What seems to work for me is this: (kind of a catch-all post...)
humans: the "larger" size features, and the "kindest" look of the races.
dwarves (have only done a couple girls, so...): certain features are the most extreme (roundest face, fairly big nose), others are in between.
elves: like mochen said, usually the smallest / daintiest features work best. almond shaped eyes, so they at least look suspicious, if not flat-out hostile. squinting and elf ear shape are very helpful, as others have said.

look at the collage in my sig:
Elissa: fairly kind-looking eyes, (what looks like) a slightly larger nose, more or less default, full lips.
Nilara: the roundest face of them all, a big dwarf nose, (what I think are) in-between human and elf eyes, with ever so slightly smaller lips.
Yvaine, Elensia, Rhaelyn: the smallest / daintiest features ie narrow nostrils, small nose and eyes, squinting, irritated-look eyes, thinner and narrower lips, and (for me at least) a thinner jaw (the CC preset is WTF? for me on this aspect).

that's what works for me, on all the races. at least for girls, and I don't have much exp. with dwarves yet, so take that advice with a bit more salt than the rest.

Modifié par yasuraka.hakkyou, 26 avril 2010 - 04:36 .

[Forlorn]

I'll definitely to try to take those point's into account. btw all your creations are great. i envy your skills .

Modifié par Forlorn, 26 avril 2010 - 11:48 .

[i4gotmyid]

Here are my thoughts on this thread.

I share the same sentiment as the original author.

I have tried time and time again, only to have my designs fail.

And here is my theory. Maybe I'm being bitter or maybe there is some truth to what I am saying.

I think the people who "really" know how to design elf designs really well aren't telling us everything.

I've read both pages here.

I've done everything here but they look nothing like some of the amazing elf designs I've seen in the "Prettiest Character Contest".

And you know what, I know I'm not the only one. I'm sure a lot of newbies like me have read this thread only to realize there is some missing element.

I think it's sort of like a cookbook. Some cooks will tell you some hints. But ultimately they won't give you the recipe. You have to figure it out on your own.

I think these tips are more "general tips". Some of the better secrets are kept by the elite. I can think of about three designers that make the best elves out of the whole of Bioware Social Network and none of the advice here has made my designs even come anywhere close to what they have created.

So I caution those who read to understand that the true secret to making great elves lie elsewhere.

Modifié par i4gotmyid, 28 avril 2010 - 07:35 .

[yasuraka.hakkyou]

I do think you're being a little bitter. Experience in creating designs helps, as well as being a little artistic to begin with.

[Extra Letters]

I couldn't make an elf I was happy with until recently.  I couldn't find a morph or anything I liked enough to use so I went to the toolset myself.   Even reading tips and seeing what others could do, it was an annoying and time-consuming process.  I spent a LOT of time in there.  I am not very artistic at all, just to put that out there as a skill reference.

My super secret tip? I cheated a little and used an actress' face as a reference. Even if it doesn't show through the finished face, I think it helped me a huge amount in just getting a face that looked right.

Even with a reference, I spent a lot of time changing the face, loading it into the game, writing down what I felt was off, going back into the toolset, tweaking things 10%, 5%, 1%, whatever, writing down what I changed, and doing it all over again. 

And then when I finally got to a point where I wasn't sure what else I could do, I posted the face to the Character Show Off thead and got some good recommendations from there.

I'm happy with the result!  That's the most important thing.   Yeah it's not up there with some of the best face makers, but that level of quality comes with lots and lots of practice.

[Tattercloak]

@i4gotmyid I wouldn't say that people are intentionally withholding information but there are times when it is easy to forget to explain everything in detail. Art can be inexact and intuitive and not everyone will be adept at explaining exactly how they do what they do.



My attempts at making elven head morphs has been hit and miss. It took me five revisions to get a Dalish male to a point where I was satisfied, I got lucky with a Dalish female head morph that looked alright after only two revisions and I'm up to at least ten revisions for a city elf female that I'm still continually re-adjusting.



If you're working from the base faces in the toolset, just be warned that the default settings are rather skewed in terms of facial proportions. To avoid the "flat-ears" look, be sure to rotate the ears outwards but don't go crazy when rotating them out either (I generally try to rotate them out just enough to avoid clipping with a given hair style). The face shapes sliders certainly don't need to be moved to the far-right position either so I spend a fair bit of time re-adjusting other sliders to compensate for any variations. Generally, I find that I have to narrow the gap between the eyes (this goes for all characters, not just elves) and fiddle with the height of the eyes, nose, and mouth. In my experience, eyebrows can be a serious pain in the butt as I find that a character's attitude/expression can be told via their eyes, mouth, and eyebrows (you can test this yourself by looking in a mirror and trying to convey different expressions; pay attention to how your own face morphs if you attempt to go from a neutral expression to a jovial expression to a scowl or frown). Raise or lower the brow too much and it can warp the expression of your character, even if you attempt to compensate by adjusting the eyebrow up/down slider.



I don't have time to go into it but there should be plenty of guides on-line on how to sketch a human face and depending on how far you wish to deviate from average human facial proportions, they may or may not be of use (this part depends highly on each user's style). It's a fantasy game and you're dealing with a nonhuman character so some exaggerated features are to be expected (usually eye size and/or shape, the degree of which again depends on the user's style).



The Character Show Off thread has been a pretty good place to receive feedback and advice and I'd recommend that anyone posting images of their characters there do so with the understanding that there's a good chance that you'll receive constructive criticism. Sometimes, having other perspectives can be a boon, as I never noticed exactly how elongated some of the faces of my characters were until a few posters pointed it out.



Ultimately, it's really not a competition and I'm certainly not aware of any prizes being doled out so take any suggestions that are offered in stride and tweak until you're satisfied.

[VirusCat]

Now I haven't said anything in this thread before, and I dunno if my elven characters are pretty according to you, i4gotmyid, but of course I won't tell people exactly how I make my characters. I wouldn't want people to clone my characters that I worked on for such a long time. That's understandable I hope.

I think you just have to have patience with your creations. Dare to make an extreme character. Don't be afraid to make your character really ugly during the making of an elven character (hell, my prettiest elf looked like a fish for a while when I made her in the toolset). Just go on, have fun, and eventually you'll come up with something you like alot.

[yasuraka.hakkyou]

VirusCat wrote...
I wouldn't want people to clone my characters that I worked on for such a long time. That's understandable I hope.

That's a given, I would hope. Then again, I don't have much faith in humanity. I don't mind my works inspiring others, but no copies.

[Tattercloak]

I agree with both VirusCat and yasuraka.hakkyou. It's nice to inspire others to utilize some of your stylistic flourishes but most people tend to have a strong personal connection to their own characters. It's perhaps an odd way of thinking about this but while I don't mind sharing what I know, I'd rather offer some advice and see what someone else does with it (discard it, modify it, etc.) as I want to see what others come up with. If everyone made characters that looked exactly the same, there would be no uniqueness or diversity and absolutely no creativity.

[LadyAly]

I just second the meanings above.



CC and Toolset are there to be creative - not to copy others.

[Extra Letters]

Queen-Of-Stuff wrote...

I think the difference between artistically inclined people and those who are not is pretty clear here; the artists say things like "pick a preset face you like and go from there", and the non-artist's response is "that's the problem, there are no preset faces that I like, they're all offensively ugly".

I know that feeling.   :/

One thing to point out  is that the last default preset for every race and gender is almost or exactly the same as the face you'd start with in the toolset.  You get far fewer options for manipulating the face in the in-game CC, but it's the same starting base.

[Tyrax Lightning]

Forlorn wrote...

Bleh, i suck at creating decent looking chicks but. But i think my dalish rogue turned out decent or atleast the best i've done so far lol.

RyuhoTyrin wrote...

Small narrow features are definately the way to go with Elves.  Took me almost an hour to get my arcane warrior to look right.  Think she turned out pretty well.

These are superb! I think they would also grace this Thread!

[Mlai00]

There are many subtypes of elven aesthetics. Which one do you want?

Do you want the JRPG elf? The WoW elf? The Vulcan elf? The Disney elf? The Elfquest elf?

[tigr3ton]

The toolset and the cosmetic mods from nexus are your friends. My dalish elf Dazzle.



 

[Tyrax Lightning]

tigr3ton wrote...

The toolset and the cosmetic mods from nexus are your friends. My dalish elf Dazzle.

[Petehog]

Generally, the simpler the better. Many elf designs use a lot of tattoos, put large lips, distracting tattoos which really take away from the design. Hair mods are fine but the rest are unneeded. Focus on the core design itself.

You need to really get a good handle on proportions and anatomy. Everything is all about proportions, symmetry and balance. Generally, each face is different. But there are certain guidelines you must follow for the face to look more realistic. As an example, the bottom of the chin should never be more than five “lips” below the bottom of the mouth, etc. Taking figure drawing and portrait classes have been helpful for me.  Beauty is subjective but there are certain attributes which are "universally" beautiful. If you understand what these are and can implement these into your designs, you will make designs that look more realistic and have strengths that others neglect.

Modifié par Petehog, 07 mai 2010 - 10:52 .

[Petehog]

nm

Modifié par Petehog, 07 mai 2010 - 10:57 .