Au Ra Raen Fem Face 2 Feedback & More

[SabrinaScribb1es]

I already said this in a different thread, but I also wanted to share this here. Aside from the changes to the individual facial features (lips, nose, eyes, etc.), I knew something else was bothering me about the changes to Au Ra face 2, but I couldn't quite figure it out until I added outlines to compare the shape of my Au Ra's 6.0 and 7.0 faces.



*EDIT* I realized when I was comparing the head widths between the 6.0 and 7.0 versions of my Au Ra, they were at slightly different angles/zooms which made the difference in head widths look a bit larger than it actually is, so I'm removing the photos comparing head widths and only keeping the photos comparing the difference in jaw/cheek shape.

If you look at where I have outlined the 3/4s angle of my Au Ra, you can see how the shape of her face has been changed to make the transition between her cheeks and chin smoother. The chin and the top of her cheeks no longer 'poke out' as much, because the bottom of her cheek has been filled in. This takes away from the original puffy/chubby cheek look because there's no longer a clear separation between the end of the cheek and the begining of the chin. The smoother more filled-in jawline makes her lose a lot of her original soft and round "baby-faced" look, and that's not even mentioning the change in the shape of her nose and lips.

I chose this face because it was refreshing and exciting to see a face-shape somewhat similar to my IRL face, but now it no longer has that same appeal. I feel like all 4 faces have been homogenized in both the actual head/face shape and their facial features to make them all more "generally appealing," but the uniqueness of the different faces is big part of what gave the female Au Ra their charm.

[SabrinaScribb1es]

I posted this to the main Au Ra thread but figure since it has some Face 2 specific stuff I'd put it in here as well in case that makes devs' lives easier (because hope springs eternal they want to help shine up our fish girls)

I realized on lunch break that part of what bugs me is how unfinished our lizards feel so I made some quick edits. I will separate them into what I would think would be quick fixes/universal (adding pixels of color/changing color opacity) versus specific resculpts.



**Quicker fixes**
1) White Freckle at 2 o'clock on the iris - Have it toggle on/off in other features like eye liner. Lets people have dead eyes if they want or toggle this on to force a little life into the eyes. The positioning would also work to hide it when squinting or doing that malevolence emote.
2) Smaller pupil - Top is marginally smaller, bottom is way smaller. This is waaay lower priority for me but helps the eyes pop since it seems like most of us lizards choose colorful eyes.
3) Reduce opacity of the lip color AND lipstick color along the lip line in the outer thirds of the mouth - It helps to reduce the weird pursing of lips look as well as how the lipstick looks like quickly applied matte liquid lipstick in the benchmark. Could tie the slight fade on the outer edges of the lipstick to the soft color only and leave bold as is for those who want a boldly defined lip color. If you google gradient lips or BJD doll lips you'll get an idea of the coloration (and again I would say only do that on the outer thirds of the lips, specifically at the lipline and very soft/not aggressive) but it really helps to make the lips look less flat without needing to QA gloss lighting.

**More involved suggestions, these are more specific to Female Aura Face 2**
4) Widen the lips themselves
5) Reintroduce the M shape to the line of the mouth - This one really helped bring a LOT of the life back into the mouth.
6) Extend the line of the mouth past the lips more - aka the dimples. Let our fish lizards have their big fish lizard mouths, please.

Wow, it's amazing what a major difference slightly changing the eyes and returning the dimples and original lip shape can make! I think your edited 7.0 picture has the best of both worlds, regaining the familiarity of the original 6.0 face while still keeping the improvements of the 7.0 graphics. I hope that if the devs are reading through these threads, they take your advice on how to "fix" our fish-faced girls

[AstiSpumante]

Wow, it's amazing what a major difference slightly changing the eyes and returning the dimples and original lip shape can make! I think your edited 7.0 picture has the best of both worlds, regaining the familiarity of the original 6.0 face while still keeping the improvements of the 7.0 graphics. I hope that if the devs are reading through these threads, they take your advice on how to "fix" our fish-faced girls

Thanks! I work in software so I very much approached it from a "what's the minimum adjustment needed to regain the old vibe" to hopefully increase chances that devs can sell some of these small tweaks to stakeholders and get them in before 7.0

Since if my lizard looks as bad as she does now I don't plan on buying Dawntrail (my second thought after oh no what happened to her face was literally I am glad I didn't get the collectors edition or pre-order the expac yet).

[LilyEmber]

Did you just color correct them or did you also add a smidge of blur? Because whatever you did both makes them look more cohesive AND lessens the "printer pager" feel that had bugged me before.

I lightened them a smidge and color corrected them. I brought back the creamy yellow-ish tone they initially had which is just a personal preference. I tend to do more hands on airbrushing with my screenshots, but I was busy, so this was honestly a real quick effort. I like what you did, though! You did exactly what I would have with the lips. I miss the shape. People are really dissecting the structure of the faces. It's interesting and proving that they really did change the shapes of the faces. Makes me wonder if they really needed to do that.

[Luluna]

I actually love the changes. Made me go back to au ra after seeing just how beautiful they have become. Like ethereal beauties for real. For me, the changes are solid. Just my opinion.

I have to agree I think the changes are so lovely on face 2 and all of the Au ra. I can understand how to some it might be a big change but I do not see it at all. I only see big improvements. Face 2 had a awful fish trout pout and I loved playing it but the mouth was not great.

[SabrinaScribb1es]

I have to agree I think the changes are so lovely on face 2 and all of the Au Ra. I can understand how to some it might be a big change but I do not see it at all. I only see big improvements. Face 2 had a awful fish trout pout and I loved playing it but the mouth was not great.

Disliking the old Face 2 lips is a totally valid opinion to have, but for many people (me included), the "trout pout" was a major part of what made Face 2 so endearing. It's very different from the other Au Ra face's lips, and it gave Face 2 a unique, soft, and silly look. I think that's why so many Face 2 players are particularly upset about the change in lip shape -- it's vastly different from what many people liked and were used to (though, to each their own, of course!)

[Luluna]

Disliking the old Face 2 lips is a totally valid opinion to have, but for many people (me included), the "trout pout" was a major part of what made Face 2 so endearing. It's very different from the other Au Ra face's lips, and it gave Face 2 a unique soft and silly look. I think that's why so many Face 2 players are particularly upset about the change in lip shape -- it's very different from what many people liked and were used to (though, to each their own, of course!)

I can understand where you are coming from, I think if there where more customisation options from the beginning then everyone can choose what they like and this would not happen ^^ sadly we always have been very limited with the CC and horns should never have been tied to certain faces (face 3 is my favourite) but the horns are too big for me.

[SabrinaScribb1es]

I can understand where you are coming from, I think if there where more customisation options from the beginning then everyone can choose what they like and this would not happen ^^ sadly we always have been very limited with the CC and horns should never have been tied to certain faces (face 3 is my favourite) but the horns are too big for me.

I agree -- I think that the best option to make the people who like the changes of the graphic update AND the people who dislike the changes of the graphics update both happy is to simply add more character customization options, like making the updated lip shapes completely new options instead of having them overwrite the old lip shapes, allowing people to pick between the larger and smaller pupil sizes, adding a slider for lip gloss/shine, etc. Unfortunately, I doubt Square Enix and FFXIV team would do this since it would be a large overhaul of the entire character creation system

[Fuyume]

I agree -- I think that the best option to make the people who like the changes of the graphic update AND the people who dislike the changes of the graphics update both happy is to simply add more character customization options, like making the updated lip shapes completely new options instead of having them overwrite the old lip shapes, allowing people to pick between the larger and smaller pupil sizes, adding a slider for lip gloss/shine, etc. Unfortunately, I doubt Square Enix and FFXIV team would do this since it would be a large overhaul of the entire character creation system

Agreed, I wouldn't even think twice about Face 4 au ra getting a mouth with dimples if my original mouth was still an option. The issue is 100% them getting rid of things people had grown attached to and replacing with totally different features with no way to keep their WoL looking the same.

[Limiloo]

More rare face 3 here. I think aura is one of the less worse hit in general, but my character is unrecognizable.

- Hair looks worse, no shine and stringy
- Scales are now grey'ish hue instead of warmer color
- Eyeshape is changed, she looks more stern than friendly
- Mouth, as everyone else butchered
- The nose is close enough that I can write it of to light issues
- My round face, which is cute on orginal now looks chubby
- Skin color much lighter (which I guess can be changed so no biggy)

Is the new version pretty? Sure. Is she my character? Nope not at all.
I feel like the biggest thing for me, is most faces lost all of their uniqueness and personality.