Yoshida gives update on the benchmark/character creator

[Scintilla]

The face/mouth sculpt issue is likely tied to:

1) Faces apparently having over 50 new bones now, which are going to introduce some rigging issues (I'm thinking mouth/facial expression bugs fall into this category).

2) The new facial animation workflow that involves having a standard head mesh and then morphing it into each different head to cut down on animation time. I think this is probably the reason for the keeper fang nerf because it's easier to do something like this when there are fewer differences, and Suncats don't have fangs. It's also probably responsible for the general homogenization of unique facial features (mouths either getting narrower, fuller, sudden appearance/removal of dimples, etc).

The changes caused by #2 are among the biggest issues currently being vocalized by the playerbase and I think the feedback they've received will make them more likely to reincorporate those differences as much as they're able. Which, as a Face 2 Fem Au Ra player I'm really really hoping for (their unique mouth shape now looks way more like Face 1). Fingers crossed that keeper fangs make a return.

I'm also just generally worried about the quality of facial animations under the new system if it's this buggy only two months before release. Are we going to have Mass Effect Andromeda levels of "oh god what is my character's face doing???" with the new standardization? Already not a big fan of the creepy smile in the Dawntrail Benchmark, or the persistent duckface some characters seem to be getting.

Thank you! I don't have any tech background and so my knowledge of this side of things comes entirely from what others post.

So these adjustments may have been made consciously, but more as a way of making animations easier in future. In which case, they would be able to change such features back again, albeit at the possible cost of flaws/difficulties in animation later down the line?

I didn't really mind the feature changes too much, but I also wouldn't be too bothered about a few strange animation appearances at the beginning. It might be a little immersion breaking in a key cutscene, but then there's bound to be a few problems to be ironed out early on. Unless I'm severely underestimating how long such a fix would take