[Illustrated tips & guidelines] Making beautiful female characters

[seth666c]

was thinking of changing hair to black or brown-ish (would have preferred blonde , but looks browless) also thinking of trying out some face retextures or such, will update when i make any changes

 

[qtpie]

was thinking of changing hair to black or brown-ish (would have preferred blonde , but looks browless) also thinking of trying out some face retextures or such, will update when i make any changes

 

If you really want blonde hair, I encourage you to try different sets of eyebrows than the vanilla brows. Some mods add eyebrows that dont shift colours too much based on haircolour, so you can use them even with blonde hair.

There are some links in the spoiler at the bottom of the OP.

 

the eyebrows from Brows change colour slightly based on your haircolour, but some of them still look nice with blonde hair.

The eyebrows from Bella are very dark and look good with blonde hair (I like these eyebrows, but some people find these brows look too much like they were painted on).

[triggerk]

I recommend some form of brown for hair color. Too black, and it looks fake, while too blond washes out the eyebrows and looks terrible too. Judging by your current picture, I would definitely change your brows to something else, then tweak the jaw width and cheekbone sliders to get that face shape you want. I'd avoid the blue hair color, though.

 

SG Renewal might be a good texture for you, judging by your current character picture.

[seth666c]

well, tweaked around here and there with colors and some of facial features

http://i.imgur.com/UASAd0w.jpg

also couldn't actually get a skin color which wasn't too orange or pink (not human skin pink , wouldn't mind that)

so i opted to use normal preset color skin (and it looks paler than it actually is because of ECE lights

i wanted to give up on blonde hair ,  tried getting a black color , ended up getting such a black color that you couldn't even see the shape of the hair , like it was just a 2d painting on the head, anyway, i sort of like how well it goes with the eye color

 

 

and for some of the troubles... (if you know what mod might have caused the problem(s) please let me know, i am kinda afraid of removing each mod now so as not to ruin the changes to my character... wouldn't want to have to remod the whole game)

-don't know which mod i added that made the line between neck and body appear >.<

-don't know if i already had this ( http://i.imgur.com/TaOW1OC.jpg ) , but when i have camera tilted all the way to the right side of the face or overhead the scalp is visible

-when i load/start the game or when i open racemenu, hair jumps from white to blonde to black and then to blue and sometimes from just white to black to current color

 

P.S.: sorry if i am annoying with my rants/requests to help me improve my character   

[qtpie]

and for some of the troubles... (if you know what mod might have caused the problem(s) please let me know, i am kinda afraid of removing each mod now so as not to ruin the changes to my character... wouldn't want to have to remod the whole game)

 

What problem?

 

-don't know which mod i added that made the line between neck and body appear >.<

That's caused by mismatched body and face-textures. Note that sometimes using different normals/speculars for face/body will give neck seams too. (normals and speculars are described in the OP).

There are different ways to fix neck seams:

• Photoshop
• Caliente's Texture Blender
• Neck seam concealers (necklaces and what-not)
• Get body and face-textures that are designed to work together (this method yields the best results for the least amount of work) This is just a matter of reading mod-descriptions. 

-when i load/start the game or when i open racemenu, hair jumps from white to blonde to black and then to blue and sometimes from just white to black to current color

 

Thats probably ECE loading; nothing to worry about.

[seth666c]

managed to fix the neck problem (apparently it only occured when using that armor from fox29), not the scalp problem

also trying to get children of the sky followers (bored of lydia and others)

[weirdtexan]

Thanks for the incredibly helpful guide. Took a few tries, but finally managed to install ECE, CBBE, Mature Skin and thanks to your tips create the first of many gorgeous characters. This is by far not just one of the most helpful lists on the board, but the best and most clearly written one as well. Thank you so much, qtpie.

 

[GreatKazooMan]

Seth, I'm not a major player in mods for games, but even the PS3 games have times when the hair shows off the scalp at certain angles. Some hair doesn't sit exactly right, but it can be fixed, if given the ability to do it. I don't use ECE, but I think there is an option to size the head (which may be your issue there), and if not, then it doesn't really matter, does it? I really like the current look myself, and the scalp only shows at that angle, doesn't it? You won't be always seeing her from that angle, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[seth666c]

this is the update of my character without any accessories

http://i.imgur.com/ABRqRJU.jpg

 

[winny257]

Beautiful Miss Skyrim 

 

Screenshot100852.jpg

 

Screenshot97700.jpg

 

how do I get the face a little rounder, I mean something fuller cheeks?

like on these pictures, but it must be compatible with CHSBHC!

 

german \ deutsch !

 

wie bekomme ich das gesicht etwas runder , ich meine etwas vollere wangen?

so wie auf diesen bildern , es muß aber kompatibel mit CHSBHC sein !

[GECK.O]

 

Beautiful Miss Skyrim 

 

Screenshot100852.jpg

 

Screenshot97700.jpg

 

how do I get the face a little rounder, I mean something fuller cheeks?

like on these pictures, but it must be compatible with CHSBHC!

 

german \ deutsch !

 

wie bekomme ich das gesicht etwas runder , ich meine etwas vollere wangen?

so wie auf diesen bildern , es muß aber kompatibel mit CHSBHC sein !

 

 

Use ECE: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12951

 

[GECK.O]

EDIT: DP

[qtpie]

By popular request I have replaced most pictures to something a little less barbie... Apparently glitter and posh is very controversial!

[qtpie]

Updated SG textures description. I think it's one of the best skins right now, and not so porcelain-looking anymore. 

[Augmented Reality]

Its offcorse matter of taste but ive put those textures on my character its lore friend in a rough skyrim world and my female looks somehow more sexy and robuust.

 

Its for:

_CBBE main

_UNP main

_Vanilla main

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/45453/?

EvasiaDutch. Thanks for the tip and link to  True Daughters of Skyrim Betterbecause V12014 for VAN UNP CBBE

 

 

If you don't mind me asking, with mixing and matching different parts of the skin packages how would you do this properly? Do you just go and download each skin texture mod via NMM and then delete what you don't want, or would it be better to download each manually and put in a specific folder? I would like to know how to go about this.

 

Would you have to have to do this for NPCs as well or does it not work like that since it alters all females?

 

Remember what the OP said about filenames:

• The files for normals end with _msn.dds.
• The files for speculars end with _s.dds
• The files for diffuse end with just .dds

So for example my files are

• _msn.dds (normals) files from Women Of Skyrim
• _s.dds (speculars) files from Coverwomen
• .dds (diffuse) files from Mature skin

To install textures from multiple packages, you either download all the packages you want to mix manually and take the files with the right names from each of them, or you download with NMM and pay extra attention to whether you're overwriting _s.dds, _msn.dds or .dds when the overwrite-prompt comes.

 

For example if you only want the glittery speculars from coverwomen, you would only press Yes to overwrite if the filename being overwritten ends with _s.dds

 

Also, changing skin-files will alter female NPCs aswell.

Good luck!

 

QTpie, First thank you for the tip. I have some more questions. (sorry)

 

Question 01: meshes?

Ilike to have UNP  or Sevenbase original (no bbp) or Sevenbase natural (no bbp??)

- I would to have a more natural breast - nipple So i think about Sevenbase natural.

If i want unp, can i take something from sevenbase natural to have those more natural breast on a unp body?

 

 

Question 02: About mising matching skin packages:

+ Woman of Skyrim (for the real skin)

+ Sporty Sexy Map Athletic muscle (for the muscle)

+

dry skin by Svarog

No more ugle Bronze Shine

No blocky faces Xenius

 

- So what must i take from each file?

 

Thank you very much!

[Killing Joke]

Lots of useful information in here, thanks for necro'ing this thread. With racemenu's vertex editor released, it emerges at the right moment.

[Guest Kazuma]

Thanks as well, I missed this thread as well.  I like opinions, even if I'm not always sure of them being right.  I learn a lot nevertheless.

[Kb13016]

I've been using racemenu and i'm quite pleased with my result so far. Can't post a link for some reason but I do have an image to show,

[charlievoviii]

 

 

 

 

• A good colour for eyeliner that matches most eyes, hairs and faces is a semi-transparent fairly dark blue. Try to avoid full black
• Try to avoid very dark eyeshadow; a little touch up is fine. i recommend very little alpha for eye-shadows.

 

Try to avoid full black

 

avoid full black

Why would you say that? D:

 

I'm really not mutch into make-up when it comes to women but if it must be it always should be darkest black avilaible.

 

Well...could be because I love metal and goth chicks x)

 

Other than that it is a really useful guide.

 

I don't use most of it because I play on a laptop and overdetailed chars in a medium-setting skyrimworld look kinda...off.

Also it is kinda easy to get a decent looking female in skyrim (with just a few mods).

It's way harder in Fallout I think.

 

 

 

 

If you ask me, the lips are what ruins her face in the first place. Looks like she overdose on lipstick.

 

 

 

i agreed with you bro.  i can't help it but hers lip look like a butt hole that have a rash.  That picture should be "How Lips can ruin a face:.  Hers dark eyeliner look good to me.  Either way beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.  

 

 

OMFG i click on that video step by step video what it could look like.  I almost fall out of my chair horrify.  

[qtpie]

Updated racemenu section. ECE is old and deprecated

[spardaxd15@gmail.com]

Can you place back these barbie pics in your barbie section?