This examination really doesn't have anything to do with what one may or may not find attractive in a given face or set of faces, but simply to point out where I see a lack of general variety. Or especially where the apparent variety is more cosmetic than structural.
I'm also trying to point to the obvious, that some of these heads must have been scans, while others are more likely morphs or composited mash-ups or embellishments of those scans. Doing it through comparative analysis, just to give an impression of what seems to be their method, and then to suggest how that might be taken much further to make a more engaging character creation process. The ultimate goal I believe should be the option to create one's own face as a PC for use in D&D, not their fantasy lover's. Though if the first condition is met, then by default you'll be able to find the later as well.
I definitely don't expect Larian to ever announce which heads are raw scans and which are morphs, since that would be the height of folly, especially given how casually cruel and judgmental people are wont to be.
It doesn't actually matter which heads are the real ones and which are the morphs, only that the final results provide sufficient variation to cover what everyone seems to want, which is a kind of idealized version of their own mug to then morph into the fantasy.
I think the goal there is not really an exact replica (since that's probably impossible and too resource intensive), but an approximation or a suggestion of verisimilitude will likely suffice. Meaning one can get say 80% of the way there, and then the rest can be tweaked through cosmetic type variables or just accepted prima facie cause it's close enough.
The point of noting similarities here is not to pick on their artists, or their casting, but to encourage them to fill in the gaps for their human face scans and to save the morphs mainly for the fantasy races.
I suspected at first that what might have happened is that they scanned all the humans heads first, then went from there. But surveying all the heads together, I begin to think that they might have had certain requests, "like I'd really like to be a Tiefling" or whatever, and so perhaps they are more mixed around like that. Another possibility is that meshes are being grafted onto just a few basic actual skull models. In which case it's not really a true 3d scan, but more of a wrap, which could also explain why the morphology is so notably similar in many places. Just a handful of jawlines and cheekbone structures say, but with the eyes and such grafted on top. I don't know enough about the modelling or how it was created in whatever engine they are using. But what I would like is for whatever tools they are using for that, to be integrated into the game itself.
The head mods I've seen are usually unlocks, like providing access to assets which already exist and just making those available for use as a PC as well. What I'd like to see instead is a legit spread that could really service the broad swath of humanity (ie the actual players) and not play arbiters of taste when it comes to this stuff. Alas, it's unavoidable that some people will have opinions on that score. Perhaps I should not have included the female faces at all, or not at first, since nothing is more tired and staid than scrutinizing appearances for imperfections. That's not the goal at all. The idea was to avoid a pixar phenomenon or falling into the old animation pit traps. My goal would be the wide net, because once that's in place everyone can find what they want, to a reasonable extent at least. Not that dude above needs me to spell it out, but for anyone else reading I guess. Kinda tanked the enthusiasm a bit though. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.
Last edited by Black_Elk; 06/11/21 02:44 PM.
