Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Love scenes and animations(NSFW)

Some of the scenes are pretty good, some are using the ol' cheap "fade to black" and some are just reusing animations made for one sex.

Problem 1) Both forms of Haarlep are using the same cowgirl animation that was made for a female Haarlep to a male player character. Watching a male Haarlep bottoming my female character(h,how?), looks funny, cheap, and breaks an otherwise powerful scene.
Suggestion: Create two more animations. One for a female/female pair(Haarlep/Player) and one for a male/female pair(Haarlep/Player). If not new animations, then change the camera angles to hide the incorrect parts of the scene? Clever camera shots can hide many mistakes and inconsistencies.


Problem 2) Karlach love scene. Reused animation that was clearly made for a female/female pair(Karlach/Player).
Suggestion: Create a unique animation for male player characters, or if not, change the camera angles to hide the incorrect parts of the scene.


Problem 3) Fade to black scenes.
Hiding the Emperor scene is understandable.
Hiding the bear scenes is understandable.
Hiding Gale's bed scene, humanoid Emperor, or Wyll's, is not.
Suggestion: Create proper animated scenes. The game is a masterpiece and deserves more than reused animations or cheap fade to blacks. You don't need expensive MO-CAP, you don't need intimacy coordinators, and you don't need a huge budget. How do i know? 'Tis what i do for a living and a hobby. You already have the assets(dialogue, narrator, music). You only have to create a few short animation loops and apply them to the proper rigs.

Is the game unplayable? Not at all. As i said, the game is already a masterpiece, but watching a cutscene with incorrect animations is like hearing a soundtrack with empty and incorrect notes. Takes part of the enjoyment out of it.

Heavily edited post for typos and formatting.

Thank you, my thoughts exactly on everything you said.

I only ever watched videos of Wyll's romance so I might be wrong, but isn't his position that he wants to wait until they are married? So it fades to black because nothing happens?

I also quite like the bed in the woods as it is, though I admit that version of the romance is very short if you didn't allow Gale to take you to Waterdeep before.

No, I think there is just no animation.

You're welcome.

Nicely done as an intro scene, but sadly there is no follow up. Showing the two characters naked with a slow pan shot can do wonders, and you don't even have to animate much, if at all.


Mizora's dialogue also suggesting that they know each other well.

Edit: Typo

What do you mean it's made for female/female pairing, It just seemed like Karlach was the top in the relationship with my male Tav when I did the scene in act 3, he has the normal male body type so he isn't build like brick house like Karlach, He's physically weaker than her, I'd understand it more if the same thing happened with Buff Male Tav since he'd be stronger than her and be the Top in the relationship, but right now it doesn't seem like it made for a female/female pairing in my experience, I'd have to do it again with Buff version of my character just to see if anything changes or remains the same.

I would deffinetly like better shot sequence for the bed in the forest scene with Gale. I was real disapointed it ended so soon when the Waterdeep one was draped in romance and...multiple positions.

The Act 3 scene is clearly made for a f/f pairing, no doubt about it. It's not about the picking up, but what comes after that.

I only had Problem 1) to watch, and I wondered how male Haarlep worked on my female main from impossible anatomical angles to make her sweat so much. I totally concur with you here, the animation takes out a lot of immersion. Either a new animation for females or the player on top (works for female and male) would be solutions.

Might be a personal thing but for me the romance scenes are about the emotional connection not the pixel sex. If, in Gale's case, you decide to skip the scene in Waterdeep and go straight to bed (as opposed to telling him you want to be with the real him in Waterdeep and then get the bed), you loose a chance to connect with Gale which isn't really replaced by anything and I don't think that showing the characters naked would really solve that.

This is so true, I don't get why people are obsessed with pixel sex. If I want sex, I ask my boyfriend but in a game it's more about the story, getting to know the character in a much deeper way, more on a soul level and not just the exchange on body fluids.
I remember the words from PFH, "Sex in BG3 is not a reward" but that's how most people see it and how its treated by Larian, despite stating the opposite.
Personally, I don't mind to only have fade-to-black on every character as much as I don't mind sex scenes, if they are mature and done with style, not just for the sake of having sex. I would like it to be seen more as part of the art. And if you decide to show a sex scene, why not show every aspect of the body, in the end it's a PEGI 18 title, instead of softcore as it is now?

Asking for anatomically correct sex animations has nothing to do with pixel sex obsession, Jesus!
Animation is a form of art, same as music, drawing, building, etc. If i watch a cutscene and the main character stabs someone with a glitchy invisible blade because the animation team forgot to render it, i'll probably come here to nag in the same way.
Even more so when we speak about a sex scene, which can elevate a scene from 5 to 11 if done right. Such special moments deserve the same quality treatment as the rest of the game.

Again, is all about the art. Depicting and animating the beautiful act of lovemaking, properly. Throwing copy-pasted animation frames to every rig available is not very artful, and that's why i'm nagging(a little bit).
Their animation team is top-notch, they can easily fix both Haarlep and Karlach, if they want.

Well, I think it’s relevant that their lead cinematic animator Jim Southworth passed away several months ago. Was very sorry to hear about it. But that may affect the quality of animations. At least until they find someone just as talented to assume the role.

Sorry but I think you got me wrong there. I am totally on your side when it comes to anatomically correct sex animations.
I was talking more about how the playerbase in generel seems to be obsessed with sex in the game, it's like this game is more of a dating & sex simulator and less RPG.

If you choose to include sex, then you should make it right and have different versions for m/f, f/m, m/m and f/f.

Same. I didn't comment on the other scenes you mentioned because I don't know them. If there's something wrong with them it's good to point it out.

When it comes to the Act 3 romance scene with Karlach and what happens after she picks you up, body type does not matter and I had this reported directly to Larian by ticket like so long time ago, this was like 3 weeks after the game got officially released on steam, don't know if this feedback report was taken to heart but once it came to my ears of the unfortunate event for our lead cinematic animator Jim Southwood, now I can understand why some animation were left as they are..

The only lovescene that bothers me out of all of these is the Act 3 dating with Karlach, like it doesn't need any changes whatsoever, just additions for the game to check for gender type and switch to using a more proper animation reflecting for male types like maybe that was intended but never came to happen due to unforeseen consequences, who knows?


Really wish Jim Southwood would still be among us, that took me completely by surprise and I feel very sorry to have heard of this, my condolences to those affected by it.

I don't know about that, no sane lesbian would ever let Karlach's long pointy nails anywhere near her private parts, even a night with Orin would probably be less painful than that.

Haha, now this is TRUE!

I… wondered about that, lol. Fortunately my Durge doesn’t have to worry about it, because her heart is with Shadowheart. <3

It's a bit of both,
I want it to be anatomically correct as well, also some horny players might not have a relationship with someone IRL.

I also love talking about the anatomy of fantasy creatures, like for an example female centaurs would have both horse teats and human breasts, or how some dwarven women have beards and some don't.

Lmao that's actually very true and i'm a lesbian. But... for the sake of my sanity and probably others, I like to think she's very VERY careful with her nails or she trims them (the latter would've been hilarious to see tbh).

I support OP btw, the scene with Harleep is so... weird because I was playing as a woman and i chose the female version of Harleep and it kind of ruined the scene. Gave me mass effect Andromeda flashbacks with Peebee romance. I also agree about the male version with Karlach as it's very obviously made for f/f.



Didn't know about Jim Southworth though, so sorry to hear that.