How does everyone get such good looking characters while mine always look so half-assed?

[manchuligans]

You've probably tried everything, but I get the look in my screenshots above with the following mods;

 

Realvision ENB

Navetsea textures in the Basvenbeu texture changer http://www.nexusmods...rim/mods/6554/?

No More Blocky Faces

Bretonnia Preset http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35678/?

Children of Skyrim New Nord Presets http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/21184/?tab=3&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmodimages%2F%3Fuser%3D0%26id%3D21184

and a ton of hair mods including SG Hairpack 268 (google it, not on nexus) and KS Hairdos (any version)

The Eyes of Beauty

 

Always give them freckles or something on the complexion slider, it makes them look so much more normal than the barbie doll super smooth textures.

 

Check the brightness in your game settings (sorry if you've already done this simple stuff, I'm just trying to think of everything).

 

Check the color saturation on your ENB. ENBs can do strange things like make cheese turn orange and make grasses and bushes turn bizarre colors. Try different settings if possible. It can make a huge difference.

 

I used to use Realistic Lighting Overhaul, but that didn't make a difference for how my characters looked in racemenu.

 

Making beautiful characters is completely within your grasp. With the right skin texture, those Nord and Bretonnia presets, and KS Hairdos you will make beautiful characters in 10 minutes. It really is about getting the right textures and the right ENB settings.

[zerther]

I use racemenu 3.0 as well. I've pretty much used any texture that I've seen used on followers I like. right now I primarily use SG textures, but I havent found one I don't like.

 

I don't use any ENBs or anything more that no more blocky faces that alter the look of the game. I like keeping things pretty vanilla.

 

 

The problem might be your textures.. but I don't know it might not.. textures don't always magically make something look good. I also use are No More Blocky Faces, but this is the thing. The shape of heads in vanilla skyrim look natural and smooth, but some texture effects make them look like they were just chiseled from wood. No blocky faces smooths that out, but it does nothing to the actual shape of the face. It doesn't magically make your npc's face smooth when your creating a custom npc... if one of the vertexes on a characters chin protrudes farther than the others you're just going to see it.

 

I've found that there's no magical trick to getting smooth faces. What I do is meticilously make sure **every point (vertex)** on my characters head curves in a way that looks lifelike and natural, using whatever tools racemenu provides, but mostly just moving single vertexes by hand. It's a labor of love. Take a look at the shape of a real human head and move your vertexes around until you match that shape. I's not quick, but all good looking things take time to create.

Edited December 28, 2016 by zerther