7.0 Graphic Update - Elezen feedback

[Gaddes]

I'm not thrilled about the changes to my character's face, but I can learn to live with it...
But there are still things worth calling out.
Current is on Left, Dawntrail on Right:




The eyes now look more dull/deadened compared to the original, eyebrows are fatter and less angular, and the lips are not even the same (new upper lip is not as thick and is tapered)

But more worrying than that is how now the skintone behaves weirdly in the smallest of lighting changes. When the outdoor lighting looks a little bit overcast, suddenly his skin gets shiny and looks almost grey/metallic instead of the warmer tan it usually is. Notice how the background environment doesn't change much, but his skin is dramatically different.




I'm particularly worried about this because even the current skintone doesn't behave well in lower-light conditions and now it'll look even worse most likely. Like come on, stop punishing folks for wanting to have a darker skinned character.

[Reinha]

Now, the main thing that annoyed me on face 1 were the eyebrows. It honestly looks like the 6.0 before picture has much more clearly-defined eyebrows, which is a bit ridiculous. How can the textures possibly be getting downgraded this badly in a supposed graphics overhaul? The Dawntrail eyebrow texture looks like a dark smear or smudge running across the character's brow; like a brush stroke.

I use face 1 and the new eyebrows look awful. They are completely blonde now with a smudge underneath. It's an ugly downgrade.

[Larirawiel]

I would not say, that the eyebrows are awful. Before, they were dark with smudge, now they are blonde with smudge. But the real problem is the smudge. I guess, they cannot remove it because it is in the base texture.


Cheers

[Grimssbane]

Hi! I just wanted to add onto this.
I don't play Elezen, currently, but I was interested in seeing how an Elezen of my character would look.
However, despite the SAME COLOR SETTINGS as my Miqo'te, the colors are just flat-out different.

Note that every single example in this uses the same two colors according to the RGB values.

This has lead to an odd discrepancy where in the benchmark, despite my Miqo'te having a vibrant, beautiful purple, the Elezen has an odd grey-like color. I've attached a few examples of in-benchmark screenshots.

[Kivallier]

I have one (1) complaint about male elezen in 7.0

As a Nose 2 enjoyer, I couldn't help but notice to my dismay, that the bump has been sanded down and the shape made overall less pointy.

Below I illustrate current and new nose 2:


Also the shape of the front of the nose has been made more rounder and less pointy overall, the top plane used to be more of a triangle and is now more rectangular:


As the slight nose bump especially is a big charm point for this nose shape, I implore you to please consider restoring it back into the 6.X version. His big pointy schnozzle is precious to me. As much as I love the new ears, I want to love his new nose as well, but it has lost much of its character in the update.

Thank you for your consideration.

[WordByrd]

Hi! I just wanted to add onto this.
I don't play Elezen, currently, but I was interested in seeing how an Elezen of my character would look.
However, despite the SAME COLOR SETTINGS as my Miqo'te, the colors are just flat-out different.

Note that every single example in this uses the same two colors according to the RGB values.

This has lead to an odd discrepancy where in the benchmark, despite my Miqo'te having a vibrant, beautiful purple, the Elezen has an odd grey-like color. I've attached a few examples of in-benchmark screenshots.

this has actually always been a thing, elezen just have more desaturated hair colors for some reason. personally, i like it, and was really worried theyd change it- which would have turned my elezen's soft sandy brown hair carrot orange, which is what the same color is on other races.

[SpiritMuse]

So to summarise most of the problems I've seen here and around the boards for Elezen so far:

• Faces are too rounded and have lost definition of chins and cheekbones
• Darker skin tones look waxy and strange
• Duskwood have been drawn using Wildwood face textures, giving them dark eye circles that they didn't have before
• Some lips have completely changed shape
• Some lips have been turned up at the corners creating a 'smiling' effect that wasn't there before
• Some lips have an odd stripe of light added above them
• Some noses have been made straighter, narrower and less pointy
• Some eyes have changed shape
• Lack of eye highlights is causing a dead look in the eyes
• Eyelashes are longer and thicker, changing the visible shape of eyes and also contributing to the dead eye look by covering any highlights that may be there
• Facial expressions and 'feeling' of many characters have changed significantly due to these changes in features

[Larirawiel]

• Faces are too rounded and have lost definition of chins and cheekbones
• Some lips have completely changed shape
• Some lips have been turned up at the corners creating a 'smiling' effect that wasn't there before
• Some lips have an odd stripe of light added above them

Those changes are propably bugfixes due wrong normal maps for Elezen faces. Normal maps are used for structure simulation. I guess, the players got used to the wrong normal maps or built their character around them. And with the fixes their character looks different. And yes, it happens relatively often, that players start to like some bugs in games if the bugs stay long enough.



Cheers

[GalaFrost]

I know it's a century year old argument at this point, but I'd really love to see some skeleton fix for Elezen with the graphical update. Reducing shoulder and neck width while increasing overall headsize just a little would work wonders. I'm fully aware Elezen aren't supposed to have human proportions, but that does not mean they should look "off".

Aside from that, Duskies still don't have dyeable earrings and eyeliner options...

[Iscah]

I know it's a century year old argument at this point, but I'd really love to see some skeleton fix for Elezen with the graphical update. Reducing shoulder and neck width while increasing overall headsize just a little would work wonders. I'm fully aware Elezen aren't supposed to have human proportions, but that does not mean they should look "off".

Making a different decision at the initial design stage and changing that decision now are two very different matters, as this whole business is proving.

At this point, Elezen are lanky and relatively small-headed because they are tall overall. Changing it is what would make our existing characters look off.