June Benchmark feedback - Miqo'te M dead eyes

[Iscah]

There has always been a weird visual trickery going on with male Miqo'te eyes, where there's a gap between the visible eye and the eyelid that you assume is shadow but on closer inspection is actually blank.



The upgrade has tried to obscure this by adding dark makeup to the eye and the lower edge of the eyelid so it all blurs together, but the end result is that it looks blurry, and that characters are wearing makeup where they weren't before.

I suspect that what actually needs to happen to make them look "right" in the new graphics is to fill that blank space with the rest of the visible eye that you naturally assume is there, and use either permanent shadowing or get the right amount of eyelashes to create the same impression as before.

I made this comparison a while back of (1) actual eye shape in the current game, (2) how it would look if you "made the illusion real" and filled in the rest of the eye and (3) how it actually looks in the benchmark.

(under a cut because the image came out quite big)

As a test, I also posted the full version of the altered image by itself to a group chat, and nobody could immediately identify what I had changed in the image.

Admittedly I may have inadvertently exaggerated the difference between game and benchmark because it's impossible to pick that vibrant red shade for a playable character, but you can still see that the shape is so changed from what it currently is.

[Larirawiel]

The eyes are not dead. Now they look more realistic and do not reflect an invisible lamp 1 m in front of you.





Cheers

[Supersnow845]

The eyes are not dead. Now they look more realistic and do not reflect an invisible lamp 1 m in front of you.





Cheers

In OP’s example besides the final photo where he is looking from the bottom he 100% looks blank and dopey eyed. Like he is looking with unfocused half closed eyes

The image with the natural reflection looking from below looks rather natural though

[cutestfox]

In OP’s example besides the final photo where he is looking from the bottom he 100% looks blank and dopey eyed. Like he is looking with unfocused half closed eyes

The image with the natural reflection looking from below looks rather natural though

This. The eyes look dopey, dead, not juicy, not glossy, not like a real eyeball, dry like cardboard and most importantly not better

[Taliriah]

In OP’s example besides the final photo where he is looking from the bottom he 100% looks blank and dopey eyed. Like he is looking with unfocused half closed eyes

So? You can easily make anyone irl look super weird by taking pictures of them at random times. Looking for every angle of every frame in every lighting condition to look perfect is absurd.

[DizzyAlyx]

So? You can easily make anyone irl look super weird by taking pictures of them at random times. Looking for every angle of every frame in every lighting condition to look perfect is absurd.

But that's kind of the point, in a shot that is well lit, and looking directly into a characters face from eye level, the eyes dont look quite right. we should not need to search around with the camera to find an angle that looks correct

[Taliriah]

But that's kind of the point, in a shot that is well lit, and looking directly into a characters face from eye level, the eyes dont look quite right. we should not need to search around with the camera to find an angle that looks correct

Look, that particular shot is weird, because it's a closeup on a character whose height can very a lot depending customization, and it's probably the worst possible case. You say it's "well lit", well that depends entirely on your character. Here's what it looks like for me:


The eyes do look alive but the lighting is pretty awful overall. Conversely I've seen this shot look super good for some other characters. My point is that particular shot is a huge compromise that they have made that can't really work for every character size. Perhaps if they positioned the lights relative to the character's face, regardless of character height? But that would probably create other issues.

[Supersnow845]

Look, that particular shot is weird, because it's a closeup on a character whose height can very a lot depending customization, and it's probably the worst possible case. You say it's "well-light", well that depends entirely on your character. Here's what it looks like for me:


The eyes do look alive but the lighting is pretty awful overall. Conversely I've seen this shot look super good for some other characters. My point is that particular shot is a huge compromise that they have made that can't really work for every character size. Perhaps if they positioned the lights relative to the character's face, regardless of character height? But that would probably create other issues.

But he offered like 2 other shots at different roughly neutral angles and they all look terrible, this isn’t just the weird smirking image that looks terrible on near everyone

[DizzyAlyx]

Look, that particular shot is weird, because it's a closeup on a character whose height can very a lot depending customization, and it's probably the worst possible case. You say it's "well lit", well that depends entirely on your character. Here's what it looks like for me:


The eyes do look alive but the lighting is pretty awful overall. Conversely I've seen this shot look super good for some other characters. My point is that particular shot is a huge compromise that they have made that can't really work for every character size. Perhaps if they positioned the lights relative to the character's face, regardless of character height? But that would probably create other issues.

Out of curiosity, could you try taking the same shot I did, before the character smirks? In which their head isnt tiled downwards and their expression is more neutral
As an added note, if I were to give you an example of a "well lit, and looking directly into a characters face from eye level" I'd probably pick this one

[DizzyAlyx]

There has always been a weird visual trickery going on with male Miqo'te eyes, where there's a gap between the visible eye and the eyelid that you assume is shadow but on closer inspection is actually blank.

The upgrade has tried to obscure this by adding dark makeup to the eye and the lower edge of the eyelid so it all blurs together, but the end result is that it looks blurry, and that characters are wearing makeup where they weren't before.

This is really interesting, It could be when they decided to fill in that empty space, the decision to fill it with the eyelashes only gave us a harsh black where there was more of a gradient before. Doing it this way lost us some of the perceived space, hence the droopy look. Thanks for the reply!

In OP’s example besides the final photo where he is looking from the bottom he 100% looks blank and dopey eyed. Like he is looking with unfocused half closed eyes

The image with the natural reflection looking from below looks rather natural though

This. The eyes look dopey, dead, not juicy, not glossy, not like a real eyeball, dry like cardboard and most importantly not better

Vindicated ahahah. I really glad it wasn't just me that thought so, thank you for the replies!