Dawntrail Graphical Update - Au Ra Feedback

I'm really trying to get used to my character in the benchmark but it's off, also please fix the scales for the darker skin tones. So tired of dealing with dark skin tones getting overlooked in every freaking game. Add gloss options for the lips as well.

Dark skin tone Issues

https://i.imgur.com/5wIeHIU.png

Comparison

https://i.imgur.com/2wL9SM0.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/iVrNbP2.png

Like the OP, I have a face #3 male Au Ra and I am quite frankly horrified by the addition of the heavy shadow around the eyes and the general impact on the face.

Current face:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...8628a52508.jpg

Benchmark face:
https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...dc0a8c7a98.jpg

This is just not remotely okay. The character in the benchmark is not my character. He looks like Zenos turned into an Au Ra. The eyes are wrong, the mouth is angry, and it still looks wrong in the benchmark video.

I think the angle of the eyes looks changed as well, unless that's due to the exact camera angle.

Here is mine, they look pretty similar to me. But its hard to get the lighting the same. One of the things i noticed is the new models do look better when your not zoomed in so close.

Current retail version.
https://i.imgur.com/QiFmtk7.jpeg

Dawntrail Benchmark
https://i.imgur.com/RWSRiw6.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/R9hc1Xpl.png

I'm definitely also having the problem of the scale texture bleeding onto the skin and she's not as dark as some people's characters are. It isn't a very good look on her to have.

https://imgur.com/a/3KXDBij
https://imgur.com/a/U2a9i7V

This is NOT my character...

A couple of things:

1) Please reintroduce blockier shadows/highlights on the face and body scales. It helps with the illusion of depth. At present they really look like they are just printed on printer paper and glued on. Horns look fine, though.
2) Please return my squarer jaw and wider mouth. The duck face and stealing cheeks from face 1 is not what I'm after. It would be fine if the "Instagram/IMVU look" was an option but after fiddling with options there's no way to make her look nice. This is a personal one for me, I naturally have a squarer jaw and wide mouth with full lips so I liked being able to share that with my warrior of light.
3) The harsh lipstick line is hideous. If the harsh very opaque look is meant to mimic liquid lipstick please give us an in between option that is the darker lipstick but that loses opacity closer to the edge of the lips.
4) Something positive: The fin ear horns I do think look nicer in this update. :)
5) Something else positive: THANK YOU FOR FINGER NAILS!! (Please let nail polish color be an option with the hair stylist guy)

https://64.media.tumblr.com/5000a2e2...9f1e94f408.pnj
https://64.media.tumblr.com/a94ece8b...b0d6a6c5cd.pnj


And something very specific to grey gargoyle and white hair lizards: Somehow they made the "oops now I'm glowing since it's direct midday sunlight" worse it feels like haha. (I tried messing with gamma correction and neither 0 or 100 improved this)

https://64.media.tumblr.com/24d1d96f...38d944d087.pnj

Like a lot of others who have raised their voices about the eyes and lips of the female Au Ra I would like to also point out similar things.

First i'll talk about what I liked about the current graphics.
1. The pupils are small and look normal/natural sized, when the setting is at small
2. The line that is in between their lips are extended, again giving it a more natural look
3. Shading under the lip makes it so a person can tell that the bottom lip is bigger.

https://imgur.com/DepO8E7 (6.0/current graphics)
https://imgur.com/J5WvDBP (7.0/dawntrail benchmark graphics)

In the Benchmark, the faces just look TOO different, even the nose of the 7.0 update is a very different nose! The nostrils are very round.
Also to add, my Au Ra's face has slight lines under the eyes (I'm not sure if that's intentional for the current graphics), and I love them! It gives her a more mature look. In 7.0 she looks quite young. The body scales can use some more work.

Lastly, some positives about the new 7.0 graphics for Au Ra, her eye makeup looks great, her eyes look like they have lids. I like how the lip color isn't as shiny. Horns looks very good. Hair is great (cant wait to see with the Y'shtola hair!)

Atleast with the face 2 female Au Ra, they've replaced the lips entirely which drastically changes how our characters look. The assets themselves are fine in terms of quality but it looks like a completely new face which according to Yoshi P isn't what was the aim of improving character graphics. Either let us use the old character models or change the new models to look more faithful to the originals albeit in higher resolution.https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...497f654596f72&

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RushBee

Atleast with the face 2 female Au Ra, they've replaced the lips entirely which drastically changes how our characters look. The assets themselves are fine in terms of quality but it looks like a completely new face which according to Yoshi P isn't what was the aim of improving character graphics. Either let us use the old character models or change the new models to look more faithful to the originals albeit in higher resolution.

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PLEASE... it looks so bad! The mouth is completely different. I also dislike the loss of light in the eyes, but the mouth is the biggest thing and was such a charm point of this face. It needs to be fixed!

I posted this in the general before/after thread but I'll post here as well since it's specific to Au Ra.

https://i.imgur.com/gVEAuIY.png

I'm so devastated with how my girl looks. Her previous resting expression looked mildly pleased, but now because of changes to the shadows it looks like her entire face has been pulled taut? She looks like she hasn't slept in weeks. The top/bottom eyeliner in the Other Features section used to be an opaque color that gave the impression of a larger lined eye, but now it blends into the skin and makes it look like raccoon eyeshadow instead.

I've tried editing so many things in the character creator but there's no way to make her look like she did before... I really hope they fix this.