Please fix female Au Ra mouth shape & lifeless expression [Graphics Update]

[xirune]

There have been some very consistent points popping up in the Au Ra feedback thread for the graphical update, but I’m worried that with how long the thread has gotten and how many other things have been brought up in there as well that the biggest points of feedback may not be readily apparent. So, I wanted to make a separate post to highlight some of the most commonly brought up points of feedback in that thread: the drastically changed lip shapes, vacant expressions, and overall homogenization of the female Au Ra faces that has taken away each face’s unique charm. I’ve written out brief explanations for each point and attached screenshots from posts that illustrate the problems.

Lip Shape
Every single mouth type for every female Au Ra face has had the shape of the lips dramatically changed. This is THE biggest thing brought up in the Au Ra feedback thread, with almost every single post mentioning how they don’t like how different their character’s mouth looks. The shape of the lips typically looks much less defined and is too smoothed out and flattened, and they have lost a lot of their individual character. Many mouths aren’t as wide as they should be, which makes a lot of them look weirdly puckered. The fullness of the lips is not consistent with what it was before - my character has face 3 and mouth 3 and her upper lip is larger in the benchmark than it was before, which has completely thrown off her look, and I’ve also seen others say that their Au Ra’s lips look less full than they did before. Face 2 has had its distinctive dimples taken away, and face 4 has suddenly gained dimples in its stead. Both of those things adversely affect the desired look of those faces. In general the lips look very lifeless, almost like they've been painted on.

Vacant Expressions
Many female Au Ra now have a very hollow, vacant look to their faces when doing their idle expression. I’ve seen people say that their character now looks zoned out, exhausted, or even dead inside, and in general have had much of the life and vibrancy taken out of their face. This is not only an issue in the character creator - their expressions are still like this when doing their idle face in the benchmark itself. This seems like a pretty glaring issue to me, considering the devs stated in a live letter that they were trying to make female Au Ra eyes look less dead inside.

Continued in the next post.

[Rueby]

About homogenization. I think you might be onto something- something I noticed about all the miqote eyes Example in Miqo F4 thread.

I feel like most eyes get the 'thick eyeliner, fake lashes' treatment. Mouths lose whatever unique features about them, so are the noses? Lots of uniqueness are gone.

I noticed it in my au ra fish face 2, the most unique feature of face 2 aside from the head scales were obviously the unique mouth.
I wonder if it's the same with au ra too? Are you also experiencing this homogenization across a certain feature? Like eyes?

[GoatOfWar]

My baby's goofiness and cuteness is all gone.
https://imgur.com/a/6gAKOP7

[SabrinaScribb1es]

Yeah, this is absolutely the case. I think the issue with lip shapes being different is one of the contributing factors, but I think probably the biggest thing that is causing the homogenization is how much rounder a lot of the female Au Ra faces are now. Faces 3 and 4 both got really rounded and smoothed out to the point of looking weirdly puffy, and it makes them look more similar to faces 1 and 2 - but people who have been using faces 3 and 4 like the way they look different from 1 and 2!

I'm sad to hear the homogenization issue is affecting other races as well

Not only did faces 3 and 4 become more rounded and smoothed out, but face 2 also lost some of its roundness and original shape. I created guidelines going to the edges of my Au Ra's 6.0 face, then copied and pasted the same guidelines onto her 7.0 face. You can see that in 7.0, her entire head has actually become wider, which makes the rest of her facial features look weirdly small. And 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 combination of the smoother jawline combined with the wider head 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.

[Taranok]

Not only did faces 3 and 4 become more rounded and smoothed out, but face 2 also lost some of its roundness and original shape. I created guidelines going to the edges of my Au Ra's 6.0 face, then copied and pasted the same guidelines onto her 7.0 face. You can see that in 7.0, her entire head has actually become wider, which makes the rest of her facial features look weirdly small. And 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 combination of the smoother jawline combined with the wider head 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.

This is rather informative. I noticed that face 4 au ra females also had wider faces. The lips, oddly, did not look to be smaller, but the lip to face width ratio definitely put lips on the smaller end, giving them the appearance of being smaller despite not being smaller. In effect, it feels like face 4 especially made au ra look like japanese dolls. Complete with dimples from perennially pursed lips.



Also, should draw special attention to how

[Kareanna]

Adding to this thread, the first thing I noticed upon logging in was my character's lips. They look like implanted plastic on a wax face. The eyes have less shine and the sclera of her eyes are nearly the same color as her skin, which is very disconcerting. The two portraits here are identical apart from the glamour. Nothing else was changed between them. It just doesn't look right, and with the update she seems more like a corpse than a living character.


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