Highlander Female Face 1- Benchmark Feedback

I noticed several changes between the current version and the benchmark update that I really hope will be adjusted or looked into. I think the little things really add up and don’t translate well to make her feel like her original self.

Some of the key things:

• The update lowered the color contrast overall, especially with her hair and eyebrows. The dark brown isn’t as dark anymore, and with her eyebrows in particular, being lightened, it makes them way less visible in cut scenes. The darker lighting sometimes makes their eyebrows lighter than natural.
• The makeup is way lighter than it used to be, in particular with her eye shadow and eyeliner. I think it removes a lot of definition from the area around her eyes and changes to appearance of her overall face shape. I’m wondering if it doesn’t show up well on my character anymore because it’s not layering well with her skin tone.
• I have a more mid-tone skin color for my character, and I’ve noticed it doesn’t interact with light the same way anymore, the contrast between her skin and hair looking off some shadowed lighting conditions.
• The jawline feels slimmed down, whether it’s from the new skin texture/lighting or an adjustment to the character model.
• The lip shape had been changed, or at least the shadows lightened, removing a lot of personality from the original face.

After looking through all of this, I think a lot of my issues are from a change in how the characters are being lit, and how it interacts with her skin and hair tone. My big want is for the hair to get back to its original color and a makeup contrast fix. I ran through the benchmark and you miss a lot of the contrast with the new lighting and texture changes. I know these are minor things, but as a Sims player and a trained artist, they really stand out to me and affect how my character looks.

https://i.imgur.com/WYkVi9c.png

Hmm, I use the same face and I'm not seeing most of your notes. The jaw looks identical, the makeup looks dark, etc. The hair/eyebrows are slightly lighter but personally I think that's an improvement over the original.

I think a lot of what you're seeing may just be the new lighting. Did you run your character through the actual benchmark?

One area I do agree with you on though is the lips, specifically the bottom lip. It doesn't look like the overall lip shape has changed at all (that again may just be lighting differences you're seeing) but something weird is going on with the lower lip.

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

In the original on the right, the lower lip reads as one cohesive lip with a bit of a highlight baked in.

In the new version on the left, the lip has very stark borders where it appears to be split into sections.

If you look closely at the original lip you can actually see where they took these borders from, which I've marked on the image above. The difference is that in the original they all blend together whereas in the new version they each have a hard border. It looks less like a full lip and more like overdrawn makeup with a white line drawn through it.

Interestingly, they've used Face 1 for their previews before and it looks blended in properly there, so perhaps it's a texture mistake in the benchmark? It could also just be masked by the low resolution of the stream I suppose.

https://images.mmorpg.com/images/con...screenshot.jpg

In any case, it looks quite bizarre and it would be nice if they could tweak it a bit. It's not the end of the world if not since you can hide it pretty effectively with lip makeup, but my character isn't a lipstick kinda gal so I'd prefer not to go that route if I can help it lol.

Overall though I think they really knocked it out of the park with Face 1. Other than the lip thing I have zero complaints, it looks incredible. :D (Full images below for comparison.)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...4bf7fd0a543ca&
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...8e95749722ff2&

On my Highlander, I use Jaw 3, which was originally had sharper angles to the jawline - this is the reason I chose it to begin with. The 7.0 jawline has been rounded out, and the angular appearance I had liked about the features are now round and less defined. Her eyes seem larger and rounder than before, and the hills and valleys that gave that mouth 3 option personality and depth are also smoothed out to nothing. It looks like she had lip fillers put in.

Overall, the character looks much younger and rounder featured than before, and has lost a lot of the angular features that I had specifically designed into her.

They've stripped out what made Highlander faces interesting in comparison to Midlanders or the other round-faced races in favor of making them...more like Midlanders.

SE, please consider revising these designs. The sharper features that are currently available to Highlanders is > the 7.0 smooth rounding.

That's really interesting to see with a different skin tone! I did run it through the benchmark, and I'm thinking more and more that the differences I'm seeing come down to how the lighting interacts with the new texture of the skin, and that they don't have as deep shadows anymore, at least in character creation. I think because I don't have as much contrast between my hair and skin tone and the light gradation is much smoother, it lacks the same amount of contrast in certain lighting conditions. During the benchmark, I noticed the warm dark brown hair swatch looks lighter than it's ever been, so that threw me for a loop.

I think you missed understanding a lot of their issues. IMO the things that give the Highlanders character is the sharper features, and the smooth "barbie" shading erases a lot of the facial structure that people are complaining about (with Highlanders specifically). You say it "may just be the new lighting" but it is how the new lighting is reflecting on faces now that is a lot softer and takes away from the facial features that OP liked. I think in general they smoothed a lot of the highlander (female) features down. It's not gonna please everyone, and your character's color palette and overall look is really nice with the new update! But the mid-to-darker skin toned characters have lost a lot of their vitality and their eyebrows are getting lost in the sauce.

Also I think it's worth mentioning that the eyes have been slid further apart and that gives you that "fish-eyed" stare. I also miss the eye-shines or reflective light from the original eye-designs. In low lighting the characters just look dead (especially Au'ra, I'm looking at my baby). Additionally the color palettes IN GENERAL have gotten super washed down. I miss color variation!

Looks the same.

I'm a huge fan of the face 1 changes personally. Lips and eyes are much more natural looking. Nose finally has gotten rid of the 'blocky' look as well which always annoyed me.

Before and after:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...636c9184f1530&

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Originally Posted by fantasiaaddict

Looks the same.

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It's not like it's completely off like the fish-eyed au'ras, but the mid-to-darker skin toned characters are having trouble with their color balancing because it all got lightened and the contrast is missing. Technically it is a small change, but to those who have been looking at their characters for 900+ hours you notice things.

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Originally Posted by Nightfire007

IMO the things that give the Highlanders character is the sharper features, and the smooth "barbie" shading erases a lot of the facial structure that people are complaining about (with Highlanders specifically). You say it "may just be the new lighting" but it is how the new lighting is reflecting on faces now that is a lot softer and takes away from the facial features that OP liked. I think in general they smoothed a lot of the highlander (female) features down.

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Saying our features have been erased is pretty dramatic. The face structure is the same. It's just naturally going to look a little different with proper lighting. There's really no way around that.

That said, the awful character creator lighting doesn't do any of the new models any favors. OP should definitely look at the actual benchmark if they haven't already.

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Originally Posted by Nightfire007

Also I think it's worth mentioning that the eyes have been slid further apart and that gives you that "fish-eyed" stare.

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This is the bottom two images overlaid at 50% opacity. The eyes are in exactly the same place.

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

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Originally Posted by Nightfire007

I also miss the eye-shines or reflective light from the original eye-designs. In low lighting the characters just look dead (especially Au'ra, I'm looking at my baby).

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Eyes aren't going to shine in low light because there's no light to make them shine. Not sure how that makes them "look dead." :p

Oh no those are some things I liked about the older version lol. I know it'll always come down to personal preference all the technical changes aside. I'm glad people are overall happy with things. There definitely could have been some worse changes like some of the other races are dealing with.

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Originally Posted by CidHeiral

Saying our features have been erased is pretty dramatic. The face structure is the same. It's just naturally going to look a little different with proper lighting. There's really no way around that.

That said, the awful character creator lighting doesn't do any of the new models any favors. OP should definitely look at the actual benchmark if they haven't already.

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Maybe "erased" is the wrong term because it is dramatic, but because the shading has gotten so much softer, for some people that means they see things about their character that just doesn't look like them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Like I said your character looks great, but with OP they feel their character's changed too much and we just can't quantify that. So agreeing to disagree is where we'll probably end.

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Originally Posted by CidHeiral

This is the bottom two images overlaid at 50% opacity. The eyes are in exactly the same place.

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



Eyes aren't going to shine in low light because there's no light to make them shine. Not sure how that makes them "look dead." :p

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I just prefer the more animated style than the realism because it lacks the character that it had before. It's interesting that the eyes are in the same place because the new lighting makes it look so much wider somehow, and really shows that the new lighting has its pros and its cons.

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Originally Posted by Nightfire007

Maybe "erased" is the wrong term because it is dramatic, but because the shading has gotten so much softer, for some people that means they see things about their character that just doesn't look like them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Like I said your character looks great, but with OP they feel their character's changed too much and we just can't quantify that. So agreeing to disagree is where we'll probably end.

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Fair enough.

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Originally Posted by Nightfire007

I just prefer the more animated style than the realism because it lacks the character that it had before.

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That is a perfectly legitimate opinion but also very subjective. Personally I think the old eyes look lifeless and the new ones look way better, but as you said we'll have to agree to disagree there. :)

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Originally Posted by Nightfire007

It's interesting that the eyes are in the same place because the new lighting makes it look so much wider somehow, and really shows that the new lighting has its pros and its cons.

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The mind can always play tricks on you, especially when it's something the person is passionate about. People have been looking at these same characters for ten years in some cases and in really crappy lighting. I totally understand how someone could overanalyze their character and perceive some change that isn't really there. I love how my character turned out but even I had that sinking feeling when I first saw her in the benchmark creator. Change is scary, I get it. I do think a lot of the complaints are going to die down as people get over their initial shellshock and get to run around in the actual game.