Pretty Dark Elf Females - Using Character's Face as Preset or Save

[Lotus97]

EDIT: I found some solutions. I listed the mods in post #10 of this thread

First off, I'm looking for an easy way to do this. There's a more involved way to do this which IsharaMeradin posted in another thread:

http://isharameradin.zxq.net/MakingAPlayerBasedMannequin.html

I'd like to replay my character and/or release my character for others to play as a saved game file and/or preset for character creation. The problem is my character looks relatively good from the side, but not so much from the front so I would like to redo it and try and make her prettier. If there isn't an easy way to import the settings (and the detailed instructions given above prove too difficult for me) then I could try creating my character from scratch. If I do do that I was hoping someone could give me advice on the settings because I'm not good at visualizing. I don't have a very good screenshot, but here it is: (left click to zoom in).

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/r3eftqsrrx7rp8q/nsZi-qsoWG

I also might like to make my character's front look like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p2dfuqpbcgsw9wx/2013-10-30_000540.png

If anyone has any suggestions on settings I'd be appreciative, but I also fully realize that I might be asking way too much. I have some photoshop experience, but beyond that I'm pretty much lost. Thanks.

I'm skimming over IsharaMeradin's instructions and it is very complicated. I have a sinking feeling there is no easy way. If someone does have any tips for remaking my character from scratch (including the second image - also my avatar on this site) I'd be very appreciative.

Edited November 29, 2013 by Lotus97

[greywaste]

Here's a shot of my current Dark Elf :

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/312341/

- if you like the look, I can tell you how I did it. (It does involve some work in the Construction Kit)

Edited October 30, 2013 by greywaste

[Lotus97]

Ok, so I found out if you open the console (typing ~) and type showracemenu it will let you edit your character. That would be fine except my character from the front looked terrible no matter what settings I tried. I'm pretty sure Bella's faces is installed so I'm not sure what's wrong.

 

Here's a shot of my current Dark Elf :

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/312341/

- if you like the look, I can tell you how I did it. (It does involve some work in the Construction Kit)

Wow, your character looks fantastic! Yes, I would very much like to try making a character similar to yours since it seems there's no way to get mine to look good using the character creation. I have some extended character edit mods installed, but I can't seem to get it right. It seems the only option is if you're willing to help me. There is one other option I thought of actually. If I created a character using someone else's presets or saved game file and then just added elf ears and changed the skin color depending on the original race. I'm not sure if there's an easy way to do that though.

[greywaste]

Ok, so I found out if you open the console (typing ~) and type showracemenu it will let you edit your character. That would be fine except my character from the front looked terrible no matter what settings I tried. I'm pretty sure Bella's faces is installed so I'm not sure what's wrong.

 

Here's a shot of my current Dark Elf :

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/312341/

- if you like the look, I can tell you how I did it. (It does involve some work in the Construction Kit)

Wow, your character looks fantastic! Yes, I would very much like to try making a character similar to yours since it seems there's no way to get mine to look good using the character creation. I have some extended character edit mods installed, but I can't seem to get it right. It seems the only option is if you're willing to help me. There is one other option I thought of actually. If I created a character using someone else's presets or saved game file and then just added elf ears and changed the skin color depending on the original race. I'm not sure if there's an easy way to do that though.

Hiya - playing around with ears would be one way to do it.

 

Way I did mine as far as I can recall is just by using "Enhanced character edit" and using the default female face normal map instead of the actual dunmer one :

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Data\textures\actors\character\darkelffemale - make a backup of the "femalehead_msn.dds" texture you have in there and copy one from the "female" folder to replace it.

 

Maybe give that a try. I also did a few other little things like making karliah's eyes playable and creating some new skin tones in the toolset.

[ScottC12]

I am not a modder, but I am using several of the more LOTR-looking elf follower mods available here on Nexus. When I check their stats, I notice that many of them are 50% frost resistant, which shows that they were probably created using the Nord race as a base, rather than true Bosmer or Dunmer. If you do not mind missing the special elven abilities, it looks like it is common to base Skyrim elf mods on the human races -- maybe to avoid the vanilla "Roswell alien" look.

Edited October 30, 2013 by ScottC12

[Madcat221]

Well, the first step is finding face normals that don't have gigantic klingon brows. That goes for all Elf races, but especially the Dark Elves.

[Lotus97]

I noticed there's an option in Enhanced Character Edit to make the dark elf, but when I move the slider it just makes the face really fat. My character has weird cheekbones. I thought it was just dark elf, but I tried making less dark elf and moved the slider on breton and nord and got the same thing. Even though I would like to improve my character (partially so I can release it for other people to play), I'm not sure I really have much more time to invest in this project, but I do appreciate the suggestions. I'll continue to follow this thread and post any progress I make.

 

@Greywaste: You mentioned the Creation Kit earlier, but then Enhanced Character Edit later. So I use ECE within the creation kit? I have the ECE mod, but I've only used it for the vanilla character creation.

 

@ScottC12: Yeah, with Enhanced Character Edit you can add elf ears. I'm not sure what to do about skin color. I don't mind having different race bonuses, but I like the skin color of the character I'm playing now (which I posted at the top of this thread).

[Lotus97]

I mentioned earlier that I was planning on releasing my character as a saved game file rather than preset, but I came across an article that says that might be a bad idea:

http://hubpages.com/hub/tut_charplugins

"Presets may be a bit more work for the one making the mod, but it is a lot healthier for the player and the game itself in the long run.

Bethesda itself has said that there is no such thing as a "clean save". Mods can no longer be popped in and out at will without issues like they could be in Morrowind and Oblivion. Large mods and scripts, even when stopped, stay present on a save game until the end of time, causing potential problems down the road for anyone downloading the character you wish to share, as the leftover stuff from any mods you had installed will still be there in the save."

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? The instructions in this article for making a preset do seem a bit simpler than IsharaMeradin's, but I think they're article was for more than simply making a preset. As I said in my last post, I don't really have the time (or brainpower) to devote to this so I'm not sure I can go the extra step of making a preset.

[Lotus97]

Despite the suggestion that playing other people's save games could be problematic and not having time to redo parts of my character I think I do want to release my character for others to play. Is there anything I need to know about uploading a saved game or is it pretty self explanatory? I don't want to screw anything up. I know I do need to specify which mods are needed to play the character.

[Lotus97]

Well, I gave my dark elf female character a facelift today using Ethereal Elven Overhaul

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24273/?

Also, I found out if you want to edit your character after the creation, there's a better way than showracemenu which can cause skills to reset. This is the mod for that: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20394/?

Here's the before:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=198967916

And after:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=198966189