I wanted to point out the dramatic change to the overall face impression of Midlander Hyur face 1, using my character as an example.




I'm not the world's best artist, but here is a sketch I made to emphasize the difference in features. I used photoshop to morph my initial pencil sketch to be as accurate to the in-game images as possible.

The most stark difference is the eyeliner. In Endwalker, the eyeliner facial feature was very dark, very thick and accentuated, and was shaped very dramatically up-and-out at the outer corners like wing eyeliner. It made Midlanders who used it look sharp, intense, and even intimidating with some facial expressions, which I loved. In contrast, the new eyeliner is thin, uniform in thickness, almost non-existent on the lower eyelid, and changes nothing about the shape or impression of the eyes. The difference between enabling or not enabling the eyeliner in Dawntrail is barely noticeable, whereas in Endwalker it could totally transform the impression of the eyes. I request that the new eyeliner be re-shaped and made darker to match the old eyeliner.

The eyes themselves (I use eye shape 5) are also smaller than they were in Endwalker. This gives midlanders the impression that they are squinting. Exacerbating this issue is the "eye bags", which, while not all that different in terms of geometry, are affected very differently by the new lighting. In Endwalker, the eye bag shapes would be smoothed out and practically invisible in most lighting conditions, whereas in Dawntrail they are pronounced in almost all lighting conditions. This gives Midlanders the impression of having swollen eyes, as if they are having an allergic reaction. I would request the eye shape be changed to match it's pre-Dawntrail shape, and the normal map of the eye bags be adjusted to make them appear less prominent.



(Here is an example of what I mean. As you can see, on the half of her face that is in shadow, the "eye bag" is nearly invisible.)

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