Character graphical changes are NOT in an acceptable state, please make it optional

[Loggos]

I'm an artist too and I do think these changes make the characters look different so I don't know how helpful these appeals to our perceived creative authority* are.

A person that has spent lots of time with their own char can still understand their visual make up better due to extensive familiarity despite not necessarily being able to draw/paint/sculpt (and I don't even know if Airis isn't an artist themselves).

As a matter of fact, changing features like a mouth's shape can already lead to a very different appearance and characterisation. That's why you can change a person's holistically perceived appeal and appearance just by doing their lips differently with makeup (overlining them vs gradient for example). They might legit feel like different features as a result.

The change of my own char's lip shape alone has completely altered her whole vibe for me. She now looks like a doll even though the eyes and nose are relatively similar/the same. A small feature change can recontextualise the whole face and change our perception of the other features (or the "sum" of a face they create).

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*(Small clarification: I don't mean this in a way of "you're not actually a good artist" just in case it comes across that way. I'm very sorry if it does (genuinely).
Rather I mean that, only because we have acquired a certain skill, we are obviously not all-knowing and even within a group artists can profoundly disagree. I just don't think being an artist trumps the experience of someone who has looked at their char for several years and is very familiar with them only because they might not have studied colour theory.)

[decomposer]

I'm an artist too and I do think these changes make the characters look different so I don't know how helpful these appeals to our perceived creative authority* are.

This brings up a very interesting point I have been meaning to articulate on these forums. I am a professional artist as well, and beyond my commercial client work, my supplemental (and sometimes primary) income is private commissions for clients. Most of these clients are FFXIV players. For the last 5+ years, drawing peoples FFXIV characters and warriors of light has, quite literally, been a breadwinner.

If other artists see no changes, that's okay! Artists are not uniform. We all look at the world differently and translate it visually ; that's what makes our "style."

However, when I look at a lot of the changes I've seen on this forum (especially to eyes, lips, noses, and jawlines) I immediately see how I would draw that character differently. Even my own character no longer has a defined brow bridge and nose hook ; defining traits that I have stylized in my own artwork of him. They make him who he is!

This sort of branches into a different subject entirely, but I think it's a good thing to note that FFXIV players (at least according to my own clientele and the clientele of my friends) far surpass even DND, WOW, and BG3 players in terms of how often they commission their characters. Not to say that buying artwork = more love for a character, but there's a culture of loving one's WOL here that isn't always the same elsewhere. There's people out there that a Louve-worth of artwork of their precious characters. Entire ita-bags dedicated to their characters!

TLDR; these character changes might seem "small" to some (or even most!) but to others, changing features and altering the lighting so drastically that the character looks different will not only be noticeable, it might have lasting implications for clients who (do) enjoy commissioning artwork of their ocs.

I definitely think some people are being a bit reactive (out of love, I know) but there have been a good handful of characters I've seen on here where I've thought "damn, I would draw this character very differently, or cast them with a different mood entirely." I hope that we can all find a happy medium, and that the devs listen to some of the very real concerns.

[Loggos]

This brings up a very interesting point I have been meaning to articulate on these forums. I am a professional artist as well, and beyond my commercial client work, my supplemental (and sometimes primary) income is private commissions for clients. Most of these clients are FFXIV players. For the last 5+ years, drawing peoples FFXIV characters and warriors of light has, quite literally, been a breadwinner.

If other artists see no changes, that's okay! Artists are not uniform. We all look at the world differently and translate it visually ; that's what makes our "style."

However, when I look at a lot of the changes I've seen on this forum (especially to eyes, lips, noses, and jawlines) I immediately see how I would draw that character differently. Even my own character no longer has a defined brow bridge and nose hook ; defining traits that I have stylized in my own artwork of him. They make him who he is!

This sort of branches into a different subject entirely, but I think it's a good thing to note that FFXIV players (at least according to my own clientele and the clientele of my friends) far surpass even DND, WOW, and BG3 players in terms of how often they commission their characters. Not to say that buying artwork = more love for a character, but there's a culture of loving one's WOL here that isn't always the same elsewhere. There's people out there that a Louve-worth of artwork of their precious characters. Entire ita-bags dedicated to their characters!

TLDR; these character changes might seem "small" to some (or even most!) but to others, changing features and altering the lighting so drastically that the character looks different will not only be noticeable, it might have lasting implications for clients who (do) enjoy commissioning artwork of their ocs.

I definitely think some people are being a bit reactive (out of love, I know) but there have been a good handful of characters I've seen on here where I've thought "damn, I would draw this character very differently, or cast them with a different mood entirely." I hope that we can all find a happy medium, and that the devs listen to some of the very real concerns.

Oh, this is a very interesting point! Thank you for sharing! I am not a commission artist but my first reaction when I saw the new features also was an intuitive "ok, that is a completely different line/shape now. I would draw this or that feature very differently and would approach the face as a whole from a different angle to capture a different vibe/pesonality."

I'm not saying other artists have to feel this way at all. It's just cool to read someone sharing your experience.