Graphical Update Character Creator Feedback [Miqo'te Male]

[posona]

Adding my voice to the chorus of people displeased with how their catboy looks now.




+ I used the smallest mouth on my boy so he has a :3 kind of expression, but the update makes his mouth look thinner and longer? It’s probably just the lighting combined with the smoothing of edges but it really takes away from his “just a silly little guy” character.




+ The eyes aren’t as bright and the color doesn’t really “pop” like it used to. Choosing a lighter color of blue doesn’t help, it just looks washed out compared to before.
+ The irises seem smaller now? Again, his character is “just a silly little guy” but with smaller irises he looks more mature, and that’s not what I want.
+ The eyebrows are thinner. I chose the thicker eyebrow option on this face because I WANTED him to have thicker eyebrows.
+ This is unrelated to his race, but the highlights on this hairstyle need some serious touching up, it looks terrible.

[CuteBucket]

Male Miqo'te Face 4 user checking in. He didn't get nearly as sundered as my Au Ra lady did, but he's still...not great. :/
For reference, I am using:
Face 4
Jaw 2
Eyes 2
Eyebrows 2
Nose 5
Mouth 2
Features 1 and 2 selected (thicker eyebrows, dark eyeliner)
Facepaint 2 (inner eye shadow)
Eye color 76
Lip color 42


Things I'm seeing:
- Eyebrows are slightly higher and have a curve near the inner and outer edge
- Eyelid fold now has 2 lines instead of 1, making it look heavier
- Upper part of iris is so much darker that it makes the unique cat eye shape of the pupil difficult to see. His orange "cat eyes" are much less striking now.
- Despite the texture upgrade on his hair, his facial markings are just as blurry as ever, which seems odd. I would expect his markings to look sharper now, but they don't, they look unchanged.
- Lips stayed pretty close, but there is now a slight upturn at the edges of his lips that wasn't there before. Combined with the heavier eyelid and dark iris, this gives him a very different resting expression. He is supposed to be a grumpy character. I designed him to look harsh and angular in his features.

In the original, he has an alert look to him, but in the benchmark, he looks like he's stoned. In the benchmark trailer, I could barely see his eye color unless the camera was right up in his face, when it's supposed to be his signature feature! He also had this sort of dazed look about him. Needless to say, I'm not happy with these changes.

[Iscah]

made this so i could prove to myself that it wasn't all in my head lol
and sharing it here as it displays just how much the face shape has been stretched out

Thanks for that. There was also a post I saw earlier today making a similar comment about their female Au Ra, so it's not just the one model or face.

I definitely thought that some of the faces looked stretched horizontally but hadn't got to actually checking the faces in the same pose.

And come to think of it, one of the earliest comments I saw regarding the benchmark (before people got into testing the character creator) was that the default WoL's face looked wider in the benchmark compared to the trailer.

Is there any possibility that the entire benchmark is running on a slightly stretched resolution? I don't know how it works at a technical level.

[Shiro-Marusu]

[...]
I designed him to look harsh and angular in his features.
[...]
In the original, he has an alert look to him, but in the benchmark, he looks like he's stoned. In the benchmark trailer, I could barely see his eye color unless the camera was right up in his face, when it's supposed to be his signature feature! He also had this sort of dazed look about him. Needless to say, I'm not happy with these changes.

This is how I felt about my character, too! I also use miqo face 4 (but moonkeeper) and the new expression looks more bored or maybe sultry/cheeky and soft and not the sort of angry or serious/stoic, angular look I was going for. I completely agree with the 'alert' vs 'stoned' look.
I also feel like since my character's eyes look like they shrunk, it no longer has those facial proportions I love. Several times when I looked at the new face all I thought was "The eyes look too small for his face!"
The upturn/shadows on the lips not only make it look like a perpetual little smile or smirk, sometimes it also just makes the mouth appear overall wider. In one of the screenshots/comparisons I made, it litterally made me think of a frog mouth.

I already posted my examples in both the EN and JP megathreads, so I am not entirely sure if (re)posting it here is a bit much. But to me the changes are way too different.

[MoonstalkerZ]

The sleepy look of the eyes is the main problem I have.

Current

Benchmark

When you zoom in really close, you can see that the eyelashes are the same length in both, but the current version has a much clearer boundary between eyelash and eyeball. The shading in the benchmark version leaves that boundary much blurrier, which gives the illusion of thicker eyelashes/more closed eyes. The shine texture in the current eye also is bisected by the eyelash, which sets a very hard boundary; without a set eye shine the distinction is lost. Finally, the color of the iris itself is also darker.

So I made his eyes a shade lighter, and rotated the camera around until I got some shine in his eye. Unfortunately I didn't get it from quite the same angle so the shape of the eye looks different, but he looks much more awake!

[posona]

Edit: Well this post would be a lot more informative if the images would actually show up. Does the 'insert image' option not actually work? How do I get images to show up?

Just add the extension to the file name, like .jpg/.png!

[MoonstalkerZ]

Just add the extension to the file name, like .jpg/.png!

Thank you that worked!

[posona]

Thank you that worked!

No problem! I was having trouble with it myself till I saw someone else mention it.

To stay on topic, the blurred shadow at the top of the eyes is really egregious on male miqo and I really hope they can dial that back. I know we’re cats but even cats are AWAKE sometimes!

[Shiro-Marusu]

The sleepy look of the eyes is the main problem I have.

Current

Benchmark

When you zoom in really close, you can see that the eyelashes are the same length in both, but the current version has a much clearer boundary between eyelash and eyeball. The shading in the benchmark version leaves that boundary much blurrier, which gives the illusion of thicker eyelashes/more closed eyes. The shine texture in the current eye also is bisected by the eyelash, which sets a very hard boundary; without a set eye shine the distinction is lost. Finally, the color of the iris itself is also darker.

So I made his eyes a shade lighter, and rotated the camera around until I got some shine in his eye. Unfortunately I didn't get it from quite the same angle so the shape of the eye looks different, but he looks much more awake!

Hmm, this makes me wonder if I should try making the irises lighter, though I feel like it would be akin to a sloppy band-aid in most cases. I'm not sure about you, but in the old one I felt the gradient of the 'eyeliner' made it feel less intense. Whether this was intended or simply low graphics I do not know, but in the new version I just feel the eyeliner is too dark/heavy. Especially in the benchmark my character's eyes just felt really dark overall.

Also, which eye type do you use? I use eye-type 3 and to me it feels like the new ones are actually shorter (but the effect is amplified by there being more black on the corner/lower eyelid.

The difference is more obvious with certain expressions. Then there is also the fact that it looks even more extreme from certain angles, but I feel this has less to do with the actual size and more with the fact the new eyes have more volume. In 3D they are more 'round' so the outer edge will appear sorter because it curves 'away' if that makes sense. I don't know how they could solve the latter part, but I do think they should try to maintain the image/shape from the front at least.

Overall I miss the size/length and the overall harder angles of the old eyes. The hard edge near the inner eye was unique imo and I liked it.




There's a lot more I want to say, but I'm afraid of repeating myself too much

[MoonstalkerZ]

Also, which eye type do you use? I use eye-type 3 and to me it feels like the new ones are actually shorter (but the effect is amplified by there being more black on the corner/lower eyelid.

I also use eye 3! I do like the old shape more, but to me, the difference is so small I'm not going to notice it in-game, I would have to take screenshots and overlay them like you have. I'd rather worry about the stuff that's easy to notice, like the sleepy eyes. Less worry in my life.