Asian Race in Skyrim

[Erundil]

Asian Race in Skyrim

View File

---

YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE MY WORK IN PAID MODS.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a comprehensive guide that will teach you how to make an Asian-looking character in Skyrim (and some other things).

It comes with RaceMenu presets, list of slider values and a lot of info about Asians as a race.
As a bonus I'm explaining what is Akavir and why there are no Asians there (and why there have never been any).
Also I provide some extra information about the Elder Scrolls lore with tips on how to fit Asian-looking people into it.

The actual meat of this mod is the tutorial. It used to be in the description just below, but I can't find an image hosting provider that would keep the pics longer than a few months, so... Please download the PDF or DOCX files I provided to read up on it.

---

• Submitter
  Erundil
• Submitted
  02/20/2015
• Category
  Races
• Requires
• Special Edition Compatible
  Yes

 

[carthoris]

Alright, call me stupid but I can't figure out how to import the two preset files into Race Menu. No matter which preset number I've selected in the slider, pressing F9 gives me an error message. Can anyone enlighten me on this? Without the presets, I'll have to load the PDF on a tablet or something and manually change all the sliders, and that's a royal pain. Is this a console command by any chance?

[Guest skyrim2038]

nice. but, is only work on woman..? 

[crudo]

Some nice work.  I recommend you try the latest ECE, you may get better results.

[Erundil]

Alright, call me stupid but I can't figure out how to import the two preset files into Race Menu. No matter which preset number I've selected in the slider, pressing F9 gives me an error message. Can anyone enlighten me on this? Without the presets, I'll have to load the PDF on a tablet or something and manually change all the sliders, and that's a royal pain. Is this a console command by any chance?

Pressing F9 should not result in an error. But you really should ask this question to Expired, the creator of RaceMenu, not me. I only provide presets you need to put in your game folder. Also why would you use tablet? Can't you just Alt+Tab between Skyrim and PDF? (Try OneTweak if you experience bugs caused by Alt+Tab).

 

nice. but, is only work on woman..?

The general tips are helpful also for male characters, but presets and slider values were designed for females.

 

Some nice work.  I recommend you try the latest ECE, you may get better results.

I might. But I don't even play as Asian characters. I created this guide for others and encourage them to experiment.

Still - ECE has a lot of compatibility issues with RaceMenu, so I'd be carefull with it (I don't see dropping RaceMenu as a viable option).

[Niobia]

I have to disagree with some of your points. I would argue that redguards are the best for making asian characters (both male and female). Seeing all the nords that people try to make into asians, they just come off as European with rotated eyes. 

 

Here are some characters I've made over the years, all using redguards:

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see from my faces, i went for a certain type of face. Their eyes are spread further a part than normal just for the sake of giving them a unique/distinct look (since they're sisters). The noses could also use a lot of work as well, but these are old characters that I've retired so i haven't worked on them.

 

As an art student that has had to study faces for years, I can tell you that, no, don't focus on the eyes too much when it comes to making asian faces. Their eyes come in many shapes. There are instances when you can look at two sets of eyes (one on an asian person and the other on a white person) and they'll have the same shape, yet you can tell which pair belong to which ethnicity. Head shape (bone structure like you said) and face part placement is very important. You're also correct about the hair. The hair is arguable more important than the eyes (though I personally wouldn't argue that really). Lip placement is important too.  The same principles can be applied to asian males. I'm not an expert by any stretch, but I've had experience with studying faces and bodies and such. Making African faces, European faces, Asian faces and everything in between requires different depths, height placements, etc etc of the various race parts.

 

I don't mean to be negative or critical if I came off that way. I just want to help build onto the thread you started. There's a billion ways to approach any one thing after all. So I wouldn't discount anyone's method.

 

As for ECE vs Race menu. ECE seems better suited for anime faces or cute and cartoony, but I just assume people who use it tend to go for it and make the eyes too big on purpose to get that stylized look. 

[Erundil]

I would argue that redguards are the best for making asian characters (both male and female). Seeing all the nords that people try to make into asians, they just come off as European with rotated eyes. 

 

Here are some characters I've made over the years, all using redguards:

 

 

 

 

The evidence provided is compelling. You really have a knack for it. I still prefer building on Imperials, for lore-correctness purposes (Imperials are hardly a race, it's more of a mix of a few races, according to lore).

Also basing the asian look on rotating the eyes is a complete misunderstanding. Abusing some false stereotypes has to end up being a screw up. I don't rotate the eyes at all.

 

(...) don't focus on the eyes too much when it comes to making asian faces. Their eyes come in many shapes.

It may not have been clear enough, but I didnt mean you need to focus on eyes more than on other face parts.

I'm also aware that eyes can and do differ greatly between inhabitants of hotter and colder countries of Asia.

What I meant was that from psychological point of view the eyes are most important. It's the first face part your brain notices when seeing a new face. So if the eyes are bad, the face will look bad at first glance. If something else is bad, then in second glance

 

I don't mean to be negative or critical if I came off that way.

To be honest I felt like being criticised at first, but I told myself I'm wrong, and I'm glad I did. My insecurities and low self esteem show in situations like this

Anyway - I think your opinion will be useful for people in a lot of ways and here is probably the best topic to express it and share your knowledge on Asian race.

[Niobia]

Creating asians is super challenging this this game. Even making a redguard into an "african" looking person is hard. The devs just give you mostly european features to work with. Imperials do make great asians though. I forgot to mention that in my first post. I've used them to create Native American looking characters which isn't too far off from a standard asian/eskimo. I've also used them to make other ethnicities.

 

I think i understand what you mean by the eyes now. It's a very distinct feature. I wasn't implying the image you shared had rotated eyes, just "asian" mods I'd seen on the nexus. Yours is actually a really good attempt in my opinion and shows way more effort.

 

I tried working with males to make an asian male (something I haven't done before. OMG it was rough. Redguard male noses are terrible! I had to use the sculpt tool big time. I haven't tried male Imperials, but I'm going to assume they have better noses to work with. Redguard male noses are just terrible for anything really:

 

 

this is just the same face with different hairs and old person face over lay

 

 

 

 

That nose is just awful. The first few could pass as asian, but the old make version not so much even thought he face is the same. though the wrinkle overlay was definately made with a European face in mind so i'll pretend that why he looks like that, lol.

 

Here's an asian female I made just now with the Imperial race just to show that your points are valid for making asians:

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing it in image form, i'd probably redo the lips and bring the eyes closer together.

 

 

 

[Erundil]

Creating asians is super challenging this this game. Even making a redguard into an "african" looking person is hard. The devs just give you mostly european features to work with. Imperials do make great asians though. I forgot to mention that in my first post. I've used them to create Native American looking characters which isn't too far off from a standard asian/eskimo. I've also used them to make other ethnicities.

 

I think i understand what you mean by the eyes now. It's a very distinct feature. I wasn't implying the image you shared had rotated eyes, just "asian" mods I'd seen on the nexus. Yours is actually a really good attempt in my opinion and shows way more effort.

 

I tried working with males to make an asian male (something I haven't done before. OMG it was rough. Redguard male noses are terrible! I had to use the sculpt tool big time. I haven't tried male Imperials, but I'm going to assume they have better noses to work with. Redguard male noses are just terrible for anything really:

 

 

this is just the same face with different hairs and old person face over lay

 

 

 

 

That nose is just awful. The first few could pass as asian, but the old make version not so much even thought he face is the same. though the wrinkle overlay was definately made with a European face in mind so i'll pretend that why he looks like that, lol.

 

Here's an asian female I made just now with the Imperial race just to show that your points are valid for making asians:

 

 

 

 

Seeing it in image form, i'd probably redo the lips and bring the eyes closer together.

I totally agree with what you just said. Also I'm amazed with how good your males look. Especially since I totally suck at creating males. It's just... looking at female face is much more pleasing to me, so I spend a lot more time on that (as a result all my male chars look ugly as night even though I play as male most of the time). I'd love to get my hands on the preset file for that male face (not to tweak it, but rather to have something looking nice to play as).

 

And speaking of that female char - it's not really the best proof that Imperials make a good base to start with. It says "redguard" in the lower right corner

[Niobia]

whoops. I loaded my imperial preset on a redguard and tweaked it. No wonder her face was puffier when I started x_x

 

 

 

 

 

I've never uploaded a preset before, so I hope I got the right file, lol.

Here's the asian guy preset. I'm using RaceMenu 3.0: Asian Man Preset.rar

 

 

 

[Erundil]

I've never uploaded a preset before, so I hope I got the right file, lol.

Here's the asian guy preset. I'm using RaceMenu 3.0: Asian Man Preset.rar

Yeah, this is the right file.

Also when sharing presets it's important to list its dependencies.

In case of this one:

1. Skyrim.esm - Skyrim game, duh...

2. ApachiiHairMales.esm - Apachii SkyHair Male

3. CitrusHead - Standalone.esp - Citrus Heads - standalone version

4. Brows.esp - Brows

5. TheEyesOfBeauty.esp - The Eyes of Beauty

 

It still works and looks Asian even though I only have Apachii's SkyHair and nothing else (aside from Skyrim, ofc), but I'm sure having the other ones installed would improve the effect dramatically.

 

Would that be ok, if I included  this preset in my downloads section? (ofc mentioning you as original author).

[Niobia]

Thats fine. Also, if you want it to look smoother, you can get this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/7887/?

Just get the male version

 

It makes male faces so much smoother. It's probably not lore friendly, but it's perfect if you want to make younger looking males without making them too feminine.

[crudo]

 

 

Some nice work.  I recommend you try the latest ECE, you may get better results.

I might. But I don't even play as Asian characters. I created this guide for others and encourage them to experiment.

Still - ECE has a lot of compatibility issues with RaceMenu, so I'd be carefull with it (I don't see dropping RaceMenu as a viable option).

 

 

That's all well and good and you've done a very good job using RaceMenu.  If you are encouraging others to experiment and giving guides to developing Asian looking characters then you should at least take a look at ECE or encourage those experimenting to give it a try.  The newest release has some very specific features that really help tweak the final look.

 

1. New head/face morphs for elongating and rounding the look overall.

2. Eye tweaks to adjust the eye curve for both the lower and upper eyelid no matter what base eye you start from.

 

Plus a host of other morphs, most of which I'm sure are available in RaceMenu.

 

Here is a character I created for my recent play through.

 

 

 

 

For what it's worth, when I create an Asian character I generally use either Imperial or Redguard though I think any human race could work.

[Gearhog]

I have to disagree with some of your points. I would argue that redguards are the best for making asian characters (both male and female). Seeing all the nords that people try to make into asians, they just come off as European with rotated eyes. 

 

Here are some characters I've made over the years, all using redguards:

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see from my faces, i went for a certain type of face. Their eyes are spread further a part than normal just for the sake of giving them a unique/distinct look (since they're sisters). The noses could also use a lot of work as well, but these are old characters that I've retired so i haven't worked on them.

 

As an art student that has had to study faces for years, I can tell you that, no, don't focus on the eyes too much when it comes to making asian faces. Their eyes come in many shapes. There are instances when you can look at two sets of eyes (one on an asian person and the other on a white person) and they'll have the same shape, yet you can tell which pair belong to which ethnicity. Head shape (bone structure like you said) and face part placement is very important. You're also correct about the hair. The hair is arguable more important than the eyes (though I personally wouldn't argue that really). Lip placement is important too.  The same principles can be applied to asian males. I'm not an expert by any stretch, but I've had experience with studying faces and bodies and such. Making African faces, European faces, Asian faces and everything in between requires different depths, height placements, etc etc of the various race parts.

 

I don't mean to be negative or critical if I came off that way. I just want to help build onto the thread you started. There's a billion ways to approach any one thing after all. So I wouldn't discount anyone's method.

 

As for ECE vs Race menu. ECE seems better suited for anime faces or cute and cartoony, but I just assume people who use it tend to go for it and make the eyes too big on purpose to get that stylized look. 

 

PLEASE tell me what texture/normal you used on these! I desperately need a monochrome normal/tex, and am just too busy to make my own right now. But having monolid eyes is essential. This is so old, I know. But I've looked everywhere... and simply can't download each friggin' texture mod I come across.

Thanks! 

(These are gorgeous, by the way)

[Rayblue]

I would like to point out that for younger characters 18-30, there's Adorable Face.

[H4SAKI]

Creating asians is super challenging this this game. Even making a redguard into an "african" looking person is hard. The devs just give you mostly european features to work with. Imperials do make great asians though. I forgot to mention that in my first post. I've used them to create Native American looking characters which isn't too far off from a standard asian/eskimo. I've also used them to make other ethnicities.

 

I think i understand what you mean by the eyes now. It's a very distinct feature. I wasn't implying the image you shared had rotated eyes, just "asian" mods I'd seen on the nexus. Yours is actually a really good attempt in my opinion and shows way more effort.

 

I tried working with males to make an asian male (something I haven't done before. OMG it was rough. Redguard male noses are terrible! I had to use the sculpt tool big time. I haven't tried male Imperials, but I'm going to assume they have better noses to work with. Redguard male noses are just terrible for anything really:

 

 

this is just the same face with different hairs and old person face over lay

 

 

 

 

That nose is just awful. The first few could pass as asian, but the old make version not so much even thought he face is the same. though the wrinkle overlay was definately made with a European face in mind so i'll pretend that why he looks like that, lol.

 

Here's an asian female I made just now with the Imperial race just to show that your points are valid for making asians:

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing it in image form, i'd probably redo the lips and bring the eyes closer together.

do you have the first male preset on file by any chance?, I noticed the one you listed is different.

[Erundil]

Nope, sadly. I posted what I had / what she sent me after I asked her to.

[macnchz]

any chance for an SE verison?

[Aki K]

This is very good.

 

For those looking to make asian characters, I've found a pretty good strategy.  Find a really good asian looking follower (this doesn't always work so best to find a couple and see which ones fit best).  put the head nif into the preset folder.  You can then use Racemenu to import the head mesh, assuming you have enough of the required features used to build the head.  You can then edit a bit to adjust.  It even works fairly well for heads built using ECE instead of racemenu.

 

But it won't give you any features missing from Race Menu obviously.  But it does a really good job.  Definitely a tactic worth looking into.

 

 

But in terms of Racemenu based stuff, this mod is one of the best I've seen.  I really like it.

[Erundil]

On 4/29/2020 at 5:45 AM, macnchz said:

any chance for an SE verison?

It's a tutorial. SE version is: do the same thing.

The presets are just extras, you can do fine without them. Hell, you can probably use them in SE out of the box, provided that you have SE version of RaceMenu.

[Je3ky3z]

As "Asian" (East Asian, Oriental), I think the best default Skyrim race for me is Breton, at least this is how I successfully re-created myself. For some familiar faces, I would use either Imperial or Nord. Imperial has the closest face structure to Asians, while Nords can provided that defined jawline that some of us "big-faced" Asians has. I also successfully made one out of Redguard too.

 

The cheekbone, the chin shape and egg-shaped forehead works like charm with some work to make it slightly bigger and "baby-like".

 

Also, yes the old false stereotypes:

• Spoiler

  • Don't rotate the eyes (you probably think too much of Lucy Liu - it is a fetishised looks, kind of like our obssession with more sculpted European nose or double eyelids), you won't end up with better Asian looks, if not cartooney or too-celeb like
  • Don't squint it. Some of our eyes are definitely bigger than even slanty-eyed Europeans, like Brad Pitt or Taylor Swift. If you plan to do wide-range of expression, you will be severely limited. Instead, you might want to enlarge the eyebags or flatten the upper eyelid instead of minimising the eyelid opening -> which characteristic often gives you mistaken perception about "squinty eye"

   

Here is a much more useful stereotype about "Asian eyes":

• Spoiler

  • Epicantic fold is the first step (although I noticed that not all of us has that, including some of my friends)
  • Non-sculpted socket -> almost every Skyrim character has their faces heavily sculpted eye-nose region, kind of like Ryan Gosling. The very first thing you need to do is try to smooth the area, make it flatter. Some of the guys I know even has flat nose-forehead-eye inner corner surface, as if their nose "shoots out of the face along with two holes for eyes" instead of typical European face that is "nose bridge dropped down from the forehead and then a foldback under the brow bone, sheltering the eyesocket"
  • "Flat shaped lower eyelid", including prominent eyebags / socket, giving us that goldfish look (e.g. Bae Doo-na) -> plenty of us are like this, basically you can draw a straight line for our lower eyelid, or simply draw perfect half-circle for eyes. A lot of "hot" Asians feature this eye shape. Mine is a bit almond-shaped though.
  • Outer corner "fold" - that produces misleading slanted image, because it makes people think our eyes are being "pulled outside" just like the "Asian eye" gesture
  • Eye distance - don't bother too much, some of us has big distance like a sloth, exaggerated by our flatter face, or close-distanced, but also appear wider again due to our flatter face. Mine is pretty narrow, people think I am mixed-race with Europeans, but no, I am more like mixed Asians

   

In general, I found the guide to be accurate, and perhaps very useful for typical Europeans and their habit of exaggerating "exotic non-Europeans" features. But there are some that you need to do it with caution:

• Spoiler

  • Pronounced cheeks, round face: both of this stereotypes can cancel each other out, simply because of our "flatter face" - go figure, you don't need to dial up all those cheek sliders to make your character extra chubby, but once you look your Asian character from the side, it does not look like real one - keep rotating your character when sculpting. For example, I have that stereotypical Asian baby-like cheeks, and I figure this is because of our "folds" - nasolabial folds. My cheek is definitely not chubby, but looks that way from the front simply because of this mouth-cheek-nose area folds. The folds get more pronounced when we smile / laugh.
  • Perky-wide-flat nose: again, accurate to certain degree. Definitely don't do "sharp European nose" or even the stereotypical "Schnozz". The most important thing is to smooth out the nose bridge / brow connection. One of my friends has that pronounced / ridged European schnozz, but this is exception and not the norm, it gave him an obvious mixed-race look. Don't make it too small like anime noses, some of our noses are definitely big, like mine
  • Lips: I have that relatively narrow and full lips that is definitely "read to blow a kiss" - I have to look myself at the mirror, and yes, this is pretty true, comparing from numerous pictures of celebrities with prominent lips like Angelina Jolie (her mouth is definitely wider). Again, our flatter face makes this "kissing lips" doesn't look as prominent as stereotypical African or Angelina Jolie's lips. But if you stare it long enough, it is definitely true. But.... there are a lot of Asians with very thin old Europeans-like lips. Usually Asians have pronounced upper teeth, and they tend to have thinner upper lip like many of my friends and relatives, while sporting thicker lower lip. Some might even have Julia Roberts' wide mouth.
  • Nose-mouth gap (philtrum) - some Asians do have long gap. I notice most of my Cantonese-descent friends, either Malaysian, Mainlanders, or Hong Kongers are like these. Combined with our generally small but angled-up nose (you can almost see our nostrils) - it gives them cute baby monkey-look.

   

Another interesting point that you might want to add to the guide:

• Brows, we are surely very different from the Europeans, which brows often start right on top of the eye socket. Our brows look much "higher" from our eye opening. The problem with our face structure is, we don't have prominent brow bones. Where the eye socket starts, our facial skin stays FLAT! Hence my description of our Asian eyes being just "hole in the face", there is hardly any depression between the forehead, browlines, and the eye socket / nose sellion. Some people have pronounced nose sellion / bridge (pretty / handsome Asian), some don't (cute babyfaced chubby Asian). I touched my face, and I have to feel my own eye socket. Why I didn't have that Tom Cruise' browline ridge? If you look at Emma Watson pictures, her brow starts right on top of her upper eyelid. But Asians (except Tungusic people like the Ainus or Northern Chinese or Central Asians) definitely do not sport that feature. From here you can appreciate that Asians don't necessarily have "smaller eyes", because most of it are covered by extra skin. Incidentally, some Europeans like Finnish people do have high or near-flat brows, making them looking like blonde Asian. You can also look at Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy's actor) and yes, you know what I mean. By far, brow bones are the hardest thing to properly "flatten" in Skyrim.
• Nostril flare / nose tip / nose wing shape, Some East Asians do have flare up nose tips, producing pig / monkey-like nose shape. For those who don't, they have a pretty defined nose wings with big tip, kind of like cartoon rocket shape with pronounced boosters (the nose wings) - this is the shape of my nose.

This is a lazy attempt that immediately produce Asian approximation looks, simply because of the eyes. Using Nord race, I exaggerated all other features to be non-Asian as possible to demonstrate that like this topic guide author says: Asianess begins in the eye (and in the brow)

 

Spoiler

 

This is your typical "pretty boy" K-Pop stuff, which all you need is to just dial all the feminine sliders and get the correct hairstyling plus skin textures. Voila. The only frustrating here is that prominent browline bones - should not exist in Asians in general.

 

Spoiler

 

Females are far easier.