Character Creation- How do you do it?

[kevkiev]

I typically hit enter.

 

Seriously, I suck at character creation and would love to play something other than the vanilla face but haven't had much luck with presets. Understandably, I guess, as I don't ever seem to have any of the (sometimes huge amount of) mods authors seem to use. At least for the ones I've tried, there's been a serious loss in translation once I load the face on to my character. I have an eye mod, and Azar's ponytails, but that's it for character looks. Wish there were more presets that didn't use a ton of face/ cosmetic mods.

 

@Jones177: now THAT's the kind of character I'd like to play. Really nice job!

[DanteRedfield]

I usually start by making some fast changes and make it better as i play using console to open slm. If its a game where you cant edit it later i just sit in the char creation for hours

[pungtap]

 

 

Hello!

I typically start with a preset that I like...()...

 

 

Sure, it has its advantages. But using a non-standard preset (i.e. one made by a modder) is something I (almost) never do to avoid having to download a whole bunch of mods I don't usually use in order to make the preset look like the modder intended. A lot of the time the Valkyrie mod is needed for this or that preset and let this be a mod that severely clashes with other body and face mods I use, to the point that the game crahses when selecting a preset that uses Valkyrie.

 

Picturesque Presets is the only preset mod that I use and mostly because of what you just said. I have found very little conflicts with that one (so long as you have the million and one mods it requires installed :D, but I use them all so it is ok). I totally get your point though.

 

The reason I personally find it helpful to use a preset is because if I were to build a character from one of the vanilla presets it would take me hours, and I make so many characters that isn't feasable. I have character creation down to an near exact science of what I want in any of my given builds. Even so much so that I have specific preset bases I use for nearly any type of character that I make. By the point I am done with them they end up looking nothing like the original selection, but it just cuts down so much time shaping from vanilla that it has become standard practice for me.

 

In the end there is no right or wrong way to create a character. It all comes down to what works and if it satisfies what you are looking for. :smile:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2018 by pungtap

[pungtap]

I usually start by making some fast changes and make it better as i play using console to open slm. If its a game where you cant edit it later i just sit in the char creation for hours

 

I love tweaking via console! As the game progresses I may add a new scar or bruise from a particularly hardfought battle. I'm always changing face paint and dirt as well. Aint nobody have the time and caps to spend on plastic surgery in Diamond City!

[Moksha8088]

The Alice preset is gorgeous and so is Fkemman's new Heather preset.

 

Episode 1 of KrisTakahashi's Mod Sckool on Youtube would be a big help to learning NPC creation with the Creation Kit.

[TheSpaceShuttleChallenger]

I start with a preset that has a facial structure similar to what I have in mind--in terms of the structure of the jaw, cheekbones, browline. Tweak those things to my liking. Fix the nose. Tweak the facial structure again. Eyes and lips. Tweak the nose. Mess around with hairstyles, hate all of them, browse Nexus for a better hairstyle, find one that looks good, download it, find out it looks awful in game, settle for a vanilla hairstyle. Play around with skin tone and eye color for about four years. Add a ridiculous number of facial scars.

Finish character, he looks great.
Walk out into a different light. Now he looks like a potato.

Open Looksmenu about a million more times until those weird nasty jowel shadow are gone.
At this point the guy looks nothing like he used to. At least the jowel shadows are gone.

Decide he'll wear a face mask.

I usually try to make each character different in any way I can. I always decide beforehand what sort of combat style they're going to have, which factions they're going to be in with, who their followers will be. I even usually make a list of quests I want to hit up. And yeah, they usually look different. I'm going three guys, three gals. None of them the same race. None with the same sense of fashion. I don't want to feel like I'm playing the same character over and over again, ya feel me?

There are a few features I gravitate to because I like them--aqualine noses come to mind, and even my ladies have manly jawlines. Mostly, though, if I repeat the same features over and over again, it's because of technical limitations. A lot of face shape settings end up catching these weird angular shadows under certain lights, and if a face has a single bad angle that'll be what the dialogue camera focuses on every single shot. Very light and very dark skin tones tend to get washed out. Sometimes the sliders just don't go where you need them--like, has anybody ever intentionally raised the forehead slider above the minimum value?

 

So, uh. I have a theory that a lot of the similarities between different peoples' characters do come down to what you an achieve with the character creation system, and what the game's engine can adequately render. But obviously there are also some things that seem pretty common. You know. Female. Young. White. Oval face, big eyes, small button nose, full lips, big tits, tiny waist, may or may not have a functioning pelvis. Highly impractical outfit. Seems like most people not only have a character to that description, but have *multiple* characters to that description. I see where it's coming from, though: It's basically following today's fashionable beauty standard to a tee. Ya'll are basic. I say as I sip my chai latte

[pungtap]

"Walk out into a different light. Now he looks like a potato."

 

I just spit tea everywhere, LMAO! I know exactly how you feel.

[Fkemman11]

I found one particular lighting type that gives very realistic illumination and shadowing. Other than that, I rarely find places where the lighting and shadows are just right and many that make any character look terrible. :happy:

 

The tweaks with makeup can do some amazing things for female faces (and male to an extent). Combinations of colors or just one color scheme can make for some striking differences. I like freckles on faces, but, tend to overuse them- as I do with makeup some times. Sometimes, the look that I go for is the "no makeup" look by using a lot of makeup- very subtle colors to help blend so that they highlight eyes or the cheeks or something. For male characters, a little darker color around the eye lashes and maybe some eye shadow to accentuate and sharpen to make them look a bit more intense. Like some said, I can spend hours in Looksmenu and BodySlide Outfit Studio.

[TheSpaceShuttleChallenger]

I do my character creation in sunlight. If you can get it right in sunlight, you'll be fine for most lighting. But of course there are always gonna be these nasty interior lighting setups that cast every awful shadow imaginable no matter how careful you are.

And makeup. Oh man that s#*! is a godsend. Especially for men, since I guess Bethesda doesn't believe that men have eyelashes or blood circulation. Unless you're playing a very fair-skinned blonde guy with anemia you pretty much have to resort to using eyeliner, eyeshadow, blush and lip tint just to reproduce normal human skin coloration. And good contouring can help combat the effects of poor lighting. With dark skin tones especially, if you don't use makeup to highlight the features, then your face is going to be a brown circle with eyes.

I try to avoid going crazy with 'made-up' looks, though. It is a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Some a bit of lipstick and tacky eyeshadow here and there is perfectly canon, but super modern-looking, polished makeup is like a ten-tonne anvil to my immersion.

[Deleted40542685User]

Any tips for making a male look halfway like he is real? male presets are a bad joke.