Here's an example of a general Morphology, to go from Human heads (scanned from life) to something else... Let's start with Elves.
To create a simple Elf abstraction from any Human face do the following:
-Morph the basic human face shape from square, round, oblong etc to more kites and hearts and triangles.
-Enlarge the orbitals of the eyesockets by like x1.5 and morph from square or circular to more trapezoid or triangular shaped sockets.
-Enlarge the eyeball, iris, and pupil also by x1.5
-Widen or raise the cheekbones x1.5
-Extend the mental protuberance x1.5
-Angle the jawline a further 10-15 degrees
-Add ears at x1.5 length and morph from round to triangular at the tips
Call this something like "Classic Elf"
To create a Half-Elf or more Human looking Elf do the same, but dial back the morphs and have everything at like x1.25 instead.
Call this something like "Hybrid Elf"
Allow the player to choose either morphology when playing as an Elf or Half-Elf to cover both aesthetic sensibilities.
If the player is playing as a Half-Elf also allow them to use the standard Human head, in addition Classic Elf and Hybrid/Half-Elf looks. That way the player can decide to favor either ancestry or either aesthetic sensibility. Don't waste any of the clearly Human heads that have been scanned already by relegating them to one fantasy race or another. Instead make them all available but use a standard morphology to provide the fantasy racial variation for whichever races the game ends up supporting.
Lets say the game provides 125 scanned Human heads numbered 1-125 for each gender, each face with it's own distinct default features.
To make it workable, launch a separate "Head Selection" window from the character creator, where the heads are displayed in rows and columns so we can select the one we want quickly. Once a head is selected, we re-enter the main avatar screen where we can still cycle 1 by 1 from the selected head to a new position at that point if we want, or re-open the head selection window, working either way. If the player chooses a Race other than Human, they can select a Head Morph from a dropdown menu which will replace the selected human heads with the morphed heads in whatever category: Elf, Tief, Half-Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, Tiefling (Half-Orc, Goblin etc.)
Ears could be a separate field depending on the race selected, so that we can choose various lengths and angles in addition to the standard defaults for the morph. Basically everything from near human with just a bit of extension, to Tiefling style wide angle ears, to extra tiny ears. Since this is already being handled as a separate sort of feature that would be rad. Just make it like selecting makeup, tattoos, horns or a beard.
Using the current system, you probably end up with something like 2000-2500 heads all told, basically 1250 for each gender, but that is totally doable. If they displayed initially in rows and columns, and were divided up into initial categories of just 125, the player could easily navigate such a scheme. They could find the basic thing they want quickly by scrolling pages, select a head, then tinker on the margins using the same methods currently in use. Basically just changing colors and selecting from certain cosmetic or surface type features on the selected head.
At this point the game does not need to provide Lip Syncing and animations for everything, since these heads are primarily for use by the Custom PCs, they just need to get the meshes in. It doesn't need to give the cinematography team an instant heart attack yet. But speaking of, when I scroll through an article like this
https://www.walterfilm.com/golden-age-of-hollywood-portraiture/ (an obvious pitch, but still gives a nice sweep in the images) it makes me pine for something a bit like that. Or just google, 'classic headshots' to get something with a similar impression - but where we'd get the Faerun Forgotten Realms Fantasy version - you know updated for a more 'new millennium' sensibility, and done up to the nines with the fantasy race morphs!
I wish someone could pull this off for a D&D game. We've been waiting for 20 years for it to arrive, ever since the games all went from 2d portraiture to 3d models, but we're still so far away from the initial promise. Everyone has a famous headshot and looks like someone from some "golden age" somewhere, even if they don't know it yet. The most important single goal I could set for any modern RPG character creator would be something on this order of magnitude. Can the Player create an approximation of their own face using the tools available? If yes, success! Then do the morphs. First FR game to pull it off lives forever in the annals. It's a virtual guarantee!
