How to change settlers' faces?

[tomomi1922]

As of now, even LooksMenu cannot change faces of settlers and certain NPCs.  It cannot even change skin color.  Color will change, but head skin's color remains.  I tested with this new settler I had.  She is black.  Trying upping her skin color shade will make her look like someone affected by "black face" texture bug (with mismatching normal map). 

And there are a few mods like Better Settlers that try to edit the presets internally in game.  They generally make them cleaner and look better.  But I am wondering how I am going to do it on my own (and maybe put a few presets from Looksmenu into these settlers).  I am somehwhat proficient with FO4edit and ok with CK.  I just need to know where to start with this.

[smoke alien]

So here's what i just tested, which works for me. I can change every minor detail, as well as the skin color. 

 

Make the npc look at you and toggle the ai so he or she doesn't run off: tai

click the npc with open console to get the id. It shows it on top of the console, like 0000abcd

to change the npc: showlooksmenu <id>

So with my example that's showlooksmenu 0000abcd

 

What can help is to reduce your fov in case you changed it to a higher value.

 

When you're done, just reenable the ai (tai again) and you're done.