FFXIV FanFest Q&A - Character Models

[Iscah]

The thing that bugs me with Elezen is that their neck position in most emotes doesn't line up with their standing pose, and it snaps back into position at the end of the animation. (At least for males, since I have an alt character so I see that a lot.) It's a little unsettling.

(That, and I want the bow emote fixed so they don't do that weird backwards lean at the end like "glad that's over". Either that or let us access the alternate animation that characters occasionally use instead.)

[Awful]

This reminds me of the other Lala issues (fair warning, bikini lala incoming):

Wow the Elezen thing I was like that's pretty bad..
Then I get this bombshell happening I"m just sitting here going how hasn't SE noticed? Crazy thanks for sharing this thread and this.

[TheGrimace]

This reminds me of the other Lala issues (fair warning, bikini lala incoming):

I don't generally look at scantily clad lalafells, but I'd still like to see that fixed. Wow that's awkward.

[Marxam]

yikes, @OP; that neck looks rough. As a male roe I know how much clipping and awkward geometry can affect the gameplay. Worst fear is that they reuse the elezen model for the next "race" but only tweak it to give it more unique stances, etc. I just wish there was a bulge slider or a default bulge because the omega pants isn't doing us males any favors and even more so as a roe.

[Nora_of_Mira]

Hi there, I asked the question during the FF FanFest Q&A regarding going back and polishing the existing character races.

Did they answer your question? What was the response?

[Skivvy]

You LITERALLY broke my brain with that. Is it okay if I post that to the front page for SE to see? If they look >>;;

Feel free to share the horror if you like

[SendohJin]

Did they answer your question? What was the response?

The answer was more or less: "we don't understand, post some pictures in the forums"

[Astarotha]

which honestly, is the best answer you can give in that situation because of the myriad of ways that could be mistranslated or mislabelled or just break down entirely in getting the correct point across, its like someone trying to call you up on the phone and asking you how to fix a machine with imprecise terms

i will give the dev team massive kudos in that they actually do look at these forums and have mods that do bring things up to them, i think the issue is one thats not as easy a fix as most people would think for reasons i think i stated earlier in here, but the pictures are a great start to the process of looking into it

[Melichoir]

The lalafell clipping issues is just a product of their overall design. Pretty much you have a character model which is physically wider at the hips than shoulders in a substantial way. To get the "full range of motion" youd need on Lalas to hold weapons and do emotes, clipping will naturally occur. The issue would be rectified by actually broadening the shoulders a little bit, but in doing so, you square up their figure (to they become tiny bricks instead of potatoes). For female models, this would look even worse. This would then be resolved by applying human proportions to the Lalas, which would then change the design aesthetics. I did a quick bit of photoshop garbage to illustrate my point.



if the link dont work: https://imgur.com/lkPxnla

Broadly speaking, when looking at the Lala model (F in this Case) on the left, the shoulders are to narrow. Thats why the Arms kind of lay away from the body like they do. This results in clipping though, when you think about it, because teh arms cant get a full range of motion naturally. Broadening the shoulders [2] helps resolve that problem and would help take care of clipping issues, but now you have a brick instead of a potato and it looks a little odd for female models. On Males, this wouldnt be as big an issue. This can be corrected aesthetically by adding in a bit of more humanesqe proportions (narrowing the waist and slight adjustments to hips as an example)[3]. But by this point, if youre gonna start editing the feel and anatomy of lalas, you might as well do everything and redefine legs, arms, and etc [4].

This kind of thing is easy to photoshop, but actually going in and tweaking an established model is a lot more work. You have to make sure everything that goes on that model still 'works'. This means adjusting armors, animations, rigs, and etc, just to make minor changes. Dont get me wrong. I would love models to be updated and fixed, but when they say its a lot of work, theyre not BSing us. It really is. If they decide to redo the character editor, then I would expect changes like this, but if thats not on the table, then we might just have to kind of suck it up and accept it.

Though for me personally, I actually prefer the look and feel of the editing I did on the right, over the natural design on the left. I think Lalas, from a design perspective, are to...clunky looking. You dont need them to be chiseled and perfectly defined, but subtle definition and anatomy goes a long way I feel.

[Skivvy]

The lalafell clipping issues is just a product of their overall design. Pretty much you have a character model which is physically wider at the hips than shoulders in a substantial way. To get the "full range of motion" youd need on Lalas to hold weapons and do emotes, clipping will naturally occur. The issue would be rectified by actually broadening the shoulders a little bit, but in doing so, you square up their figure (to they become tiny bricks instead of potatoes). For female models, this would look even worse. This would then be resolved by applying human proportions to the Lalas, which would then change the design aesthetics. I did a quick bit of photoshop garbage to illustrate my point.



if the link dont work: https://imgur.com/lkPxnla

Broadly speaking, when looking at the Lala model (F in this Case) on the left, the shoulders are to narrow. Thats why the Arms kind of lay away from the body like they do. This results in clipping though, when you think about it, because teh arms cant get a full range of motion naturally. Broadening the shoulders [2] helps resolve that problem and would help take care of clipping issues, but now you have a brick instead of a potato and it looks a little odd for female models. On Males, this wouldnt be as big an issue. This can be corrected aesthetically by adding in a bit of more humanesqe proportions (narrowing the waist and slight adjustments to hips as an example)[3]. But by this point, if youre gonna start editing the feel and anatomy of lalas, you might as well do everything and redefine legs, arms, and etc [4].

This kind of thing is easy to photoshop, but actually going in and tweaking an established model is a lot more work. You have to make sure everything that goes on that model still 'works'. This means adjusting armors, animations, rigs, and etc, just to make minor changes. Dont get me wrong. I would love models to be updated and fixed, but when they say its a lot of work, theyre not BSing us. It really is. If they decide to redo the character editor, then I would expect changes like this, but if thats not on the table, then we might just have to kind of suck it up and accept it.

This may be blasphemous, but I actually kinda like #4 :X Maybe make the waist slightly less obvious and I'd be sold!

Don't get me wrong, I love our rotundness, but body shape options could be fun.