How do I get better at making my character look nice?

[Epic Gamer Frey]

 

Skin textures and stuff...

 

practice using sliders.

ask a perverted Turian for some random slider numbers (not including extra sliders from racemenu or ECE).

 

:lol: ! I'm mostly Asari myself .

 

 

Liara refuses to talk to me, can you tell her I'll calibrate her ass into dark space...

[Guest]

 

 

Skin textures and stuff...

 

practice using sliders.

ask a perverted Turian for some random slider numbers (not including extra sliders from racemenu or ECE).

 

:lol: ! I'm mostly Asari myself .

 

 

Liara refuses to talk to me, can you tell her I'll calibrate her ass into dark space...

 

 

I bet Tali won't like that.

 

[Taskmaster]

Play around with the normal maps(femalehead_msn), too, I think moreso than the diffuse(femalehead.dds). It can create a dramatically different face. Other than that, I feel that the eyes are key, followed by the nose. Lastly, I personally try to shoot for "realism" over "game-ism" if that makes any sense, and I find that having real faces as reference helps as a great starting point you can expand from to come into your own.

 

EDIT: To clarify my view point on it though, I'm not really into making "perfect" faces. Imperfections stand out better to me, and feel more believable.

[Epic Gamer Frey]

 

 

 

Skin textures and stuff...

 

practice using sliders.

ask a perverted Turian for some random slider numbers (not including extra sliders from racemenu or ECE).

 

:lol: ! I'm mostly Asari myself .

 

 

Liara refuses to talk to me, can you tell her I'll calibrate her ass into dark space...

 

 

I bet Tali won't like that.

 

 

 

It was her idea.....

 

 

 

Oh and OP. No Racemenu or ECE =

 

 

 

 

 

and this

 

 

 

 

 

[Taskmaster]

 

 

Oh and OP. No Racemenu or ECE =

 

 

 

 

 

 

That bowl of cereal must've been on point...

[Deedlit]

ill not say mods because you already got good ones (at least looks like by pics), try  K Enb / Kountervibe Enb (Akzyra cortesy) , or if your machine cant handle try Polo Enb , try not messing with cheeks slide, use the racial features for that (the slides wich say, nord, redguard,elf,etc), i can just say by myself, but i start first with hair (because that will rules how eyes, face proportions will goes) after i got for eyes style and colors, nose, eyebrows, mouth and proportions and last one chin along with ears. About Kountervibe Enb if you dnt know that its already used at my signature just click at that and will seen how that looks like.

[dobmc]

 

 

 

 

 

Better Females

 

No, just no.

Dunno why but I feel that post was actually meant to bait people like me.

 

But yea still, pls no. Just leave it buried in the graveyard.

 

Also instead of using Apachii you could instead use better hair mods such as the well known SG to the less known good ones like Morten's, zzjay's, Newsea's, and Oblivion/Fallout packs. Hopefully the last lot are still on the Nexus. I heard the Oblivion/Fallout converts were made hidden or something. Oh and don't forget pre-catch killer by kapaer. Freaking life-saver here.

 

 

 

I wasn't trying to "bait" anyone into some imaginary "trap" or whatever you think I was doing... I believed I was giving some helpful input. If you install that mod 1st, before any other face editing mods overwrite parts of it, I find it does help players who are new to character generation.

 

 

 

Hahahaha I don't know what kind of life you had, but that's no way near something helpful. You're backtracking waaaay too much. OP did not specify for textures, so you could've told him to use something like an ENB or a lighting modifier/improvement, better answer overall. However he didn't say no, so its not like textures shouldn't be mentioned (OP's texture he uses for his character is good enough.. Oh, but oh well), but out of all of the face/actual full body set texture (unlike Bella's) out there… You recommend Bella's.

 

Not even going to derive in how bad this face texture is. This debate of whether Bella's sucks massive donkey turd was debated to death. It's utterly horrifying and questionable whether the author was in stable mental state when he/she created this mod. But lets go on with your defensive statement.

 

In the first place, you could've said along the lines of, "Hey, why don't you use those default textures included in CBBE or UNP? They're both compatible with their respective body mods, and they look way better than Bella's 'better' females. Or try SG Textures cause I can't think of any other skin textures (FSC? Come on) because I'm an uncreative and boring person! It's compatible with both CBBE and UNP, and it also looks good than Bella's 'better' females!"

 

But no, and then Absurdity responds, and I arrive late into the game, and then you respond trying to defend your lack of understanding and your inability to say logical reasoning.

I find it does help players who are new to character generation.

Follow this:

1) Look at OP.

2) Check his screens.

3) Analyse if his character is modded at all.

3) Understand that in no way in stretch or form he is new to this.

4) Now go slam yourself into a wall.

 

Also this:

 If you install that mod 1st, before any other face editing mods overwrite parts of it

Doesn't make a single damn sense.

 

Jesus christ I'm doing the simulation again

OP posts: How do I improve my character? (Obviously states the use of ECE, evidence shows that textures are other than vanilla, body mode is inevitably not vanilla)

First reply: Here, go through this link. They've got some useful tips.

Then you come: Hey, go use Apachii hair, The eyes of beauty, and better females.

 

Jesus christ that's hilarious. Better females!? Well at least thank you for making my life a little more brighter.

[Mercenary666]

You've gotten a lot of advice in this thread so I'll just throw this out there. One of the best ways to develop your own skills is to look at what others have done before you and build on that. Assuming you're going to either use ECE or Racemenu and have decided on what beauty mods you're going to use, many modders are kind enough to include a preset with their work. Find one you like and check out the slider settings for it. This way you'll be able to see what sliders produce the facial features that are attractive to you and will give you a starting place to create your own character. Pay particular attention to follower mods and savegames released here and on sites like the Nesux (oops, Nexus) since character preset files are commonly included with those mods.

 

Become a regular visitor and hopefully contributor to the "What Mod is This" thread here on Loverslab. There's an amazing amount of information there about ENB's, character creation, beauty mods, etc. Don't be afraid to experiment and make an effort to learn the file structure of the game. Some of the most amazing characters are created not by installing mods but by manually installing certain FILES from many different mods. Good luck to you.

[shinyb]

I may be new here, but there's a few thoughts I'd like to add on this topic.

 

Sometimes, simplicity can be a virtue, and making a beautiful character can be easier than you think.  For instance, take my character, here.

 

I've basically been using her since I got Skyrim, and even after two years she can basically be recreated with only a (relative) few mods.  First off, she's a Nord, not a custom race.  The mods are, from head to toe:

 

Apachii Sky Hair

Better Erogenous Zones (skin texture)

Bright Eyes

CBBE v3.2.3 and Bodyslide 2 for her body (I use the CBBE Classic preset for her)

Freckle Mania for the freckles

Racemenu (needed for Freckle Mania, but allowed me to ditch a mod that gave red hair)

Body Options - for some moles which are hard to see now that she has freckles

 

Her face is basically the one included with CBBE; and I don't believe I needed a lot of slider adjustments for her to look the way she does.

 

I would suggest is try to keep it as simple as possible, because even relatively "stock" Skyrim women can look good.  Totally stock ones, though, can't.  Dear god, unmodded females look like hags.

[Guest]

*snip*

Also ENBs. Pick one. It makes everything look better.

QFT.

 

And be bold with the sliders, don't be afraid to spaz out with them a little bit at the beginning, then start to gradually tame them down again until you have a face with some life and character in it that still visually appeals. Sticking too rigidly to the rules of proportion from the beginning is more than likely going to lead to a neat little doll's face, and the blow up dolly/shop mannequin look will be accentuated by vanilla lighting and shaders too. 

 

Take a look at some of Shermie's screenshots for some inspiring examples of how bold you can be about face design and still wind up with something that's strikingly easy on the eye. She ties it all up with skillful use of textures, good shaders and lighting. 

[Gassernorm]

 

I was thinking of making something like this: http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/42273-1-1394987205.jpg

There are a lot of ppl who made some beautiful characters, and most just say use enhanced character edit and some extra mods.

That and I am using SG hair, the eye of beauty, and enhanced character edit.

That looks like a different custom race, maybe Lovergirl? But it can be recreated from any race with ECE to be totally honest.

 

I am using the same things you are....

 

ECE (and the ECEE enhancer),

SG and Apachii hairs,

Eyes of Beauty,

Brows,

Pretty Lips,

and FSC Univision Textures.

 

That's it. And you can make a Nord look like almost anything or anybody.

 

SheHulk7b2.jpg

ScreenShot132.jpg

ScreenShot69.jpg

ScreenShot152.jpgScreenShot154.jpg

 

These are all using the same mods and I've made them look even more different than these ones, too. You just need to play with the sliders a bit and maybe a nicer looking skin texture.

 

 

I absolutely love your girl in pic three. Would you mind sharing her preset?

 

[payes]

Personally, I think you're not all that far off with your faces right now. I would try some different textures and understand how your normal maps affect the PC's overall look. There is a lot of good advice here. I tend to agree with b3ast1e. The rules of proportion are a nice start but don't stick too rigidly to them. My recommendation is start without any hair or really short hair, then make your face shape. I would also suggest using no face or makeup tints. Adjusting your cheek and chin sliders with shorter hair makes it more necessary for your face proportions to 'stand on their own'. Once you've roughed in your shape, then adjust the proportion of your nose, eyes, mouth, and brows to fit. After that, re-evaluate your proportions of your face. It is a constant back and forth between face shape and detail proportion. Finally, once you feel like you have it dialed then add hair and tints. At this point, you may also have to adjust the size of your head (mine always come out really small compared to my body).

 

More specific tips for your screenshots (I use ECE):

-Find a quality skin texture with normal map (or combining different normals with different skin textures)

-Find a quality eye and brow texture pack

-Find a quality tint mask

-Play around with Eye Size, Eyelid Height, Eye Rotation, Eye Width

-Play around with Nostril Size, Nosebridge Width

-Play around with Brow Height and Brow Width

-Play around with Mouth Width, Mouth Size, Upper & Lower Lip Size

-Remember tint masks are like regular makeup, less is more (says the guy with PCs in Loads of Black Eyeliner).

 

Hope this helps!

[gvman3670]

I absolutely love your girl in pic three. Would you mind sharing her preset?

The dark, goth-looking one? Sure.

 

_2_commonTriRaces.7z

 

She is using a 0 weight Top Model body. You could get really close to recreating it with a 1 weight UNP Skinny I suppose, but then there wouldn't be any TBBP like the TM body has. But she'll work on any body I guess. And it's an SG hairstyle, too, I believe.

[Gassernorm]

 

I absolutely love your girl in pic three. Would you mind sharing her preset?

The dark, goth-looking one? Sure.

 

_2_commonTriRaces.7z

 

She is using a 0 weight Top Model body. You could get really close to recreating it with a 1 weight UNP Skinny I suppose, but then there wouldn't be any TBBP like the TM body has. But she'll work on any body I guess. And it's an SG hairstyle, too, I believe.

 

 

Thank you very much!

[Guest]

 

-Remember tint masks are like regular makeup, less is more (says the guy with PCs in Loads of Black Eyeliner).

 

Hope this helps!

Proof positive that some rules are meant to be broken - I really liked your recent screenshots.