Originally Posted by timebean
Lipstick. Need it. The skin tone choice changes the lip color. This is fine, but there are many skin tones with bright pink lips that drive me crazy.

Cheekblush would also be great to add subtle tones.

Tattoos to add — freckle and mole patterns.

These three additions would be awesome for customization.

All of these! I often use lipstick with high transparency just to get the lips in the color I prefer (and bright pink is NEVER one of them). DEFINITELY want the freckle and mole pattern tattoos, however - I am fairly certain these will be a "no go" since most faces have these attached to the face selection (which is why I'd argue for a face merge-option that has a slider attached to it).

Originally Posted by Black_Elk
How's this for a thought, put a BG3 portrait back on the table. I mean I'll sing it's praises until it's for sure never going to happen. But even if they don't want a custom 2d that we import, they could still give us a custom 3d that we design in-game.

Since Volo is already dressed like some kind of Medici court painter, what if Volo had us "Sit for our Portrait!" Like we simply must! And that way I can use an in-character, in-game shorthand for what a portrait suite might look like.

First we set the mood, either we can choose an abstract backdrop painting, or use an environmental cue. For example, first the background setting. 

Maybe we have wilderness with a couple choices? say Forest, Mountain, Beach, perhaps throw some weather variants in there for charm and so we'd see the same environment but one in biting snow, another balmy summer breeze, springtime, autumn decay. Basically whatever environments the game has on offer. Very similar to the current display, but just with more scenes of bucolic splendor to choose from hehe. Let us choose between night or day, and stage the overall lighting with a main source either Sun or Moon, or Dappled light if there are trees and such. This covers all your wilderness PC types, say Rangers Druids Barbarians and the like. Then we get another set that's more Urban. Basically a Tavern, Palace, Tower Prison and Armory fair. Toss in a Library too, or an Alchemist's table or Temple backdrop, and this set can handle basically all your other types. Wizard or Rogue or Priest or Fighter types. Basically a simplified scene, but also with some accoutrements that service several Race/Class combos. The portrait maker in like a mini holodeck more or less, where we can build out the scene. 

Then we come to the Figure/Face stuff. This is the real portrait, where based on our inputs we get to embellish our scene further by entering it.

Using dialog style descripting inputs we can tell Volo what we're after. We can start with secondary light sources, or spotlighting. Whether we want a column of divine light showering us from above, or a terror underlit view, or a sensible Rembrandt type lighting from the side lol. He can offer suggestions on this, and give us some color lights to play with too.

We begin with the face close up. After selecting all the various base features we like, getting the makeup all sorted and the hair properly quaffed or hacked off or whatever, we move into the gestural phase. Volo describes for us a series of emotive facial expressions and we pick the one that captures our character's dominant personality vibe best. So can you picture yourself the skowling or smug villain vs the wise furrowed brow master, or quisical shifting eyebrow. Couple version of the Mona Lisa smile and frown. Some Crazy, some Aghast. A Basalisk's gaze that turns em straight to stone like blue steel. Get creative Volo! but basically he's giving us what an animator or cartoonist or theater crash course would give us. You know a way to emote the face for the portrait capture hehe.

Extend the same idea to clothing, and action posing for the full figure or bust, and you've basically got a Full Portrait creator out of the Char Creator and the assets already available in-game. We know what the various sneak and combat ready and spellcasting type animations, just more in freeze frame. Then click, Volo uses his magic bards brushes and bangs it out for us lol. All that's really needed is a mechanism to do the scene set up stuff and then the capture.

Essentially we'd have that Portrait then provide what's viewed in the Char Sheet (more full/bust) and the Char Box (headshot) for the main GUI portrait that's used for char selection. 

They can look at the "Show us your Character" type threads in the General section to get a sense of what people like in a presentation. It doesn't have to be crazy complete to start, since this is more proof of concept stuff. But using a staging sort of device like others have mentioned, or the kinds of mini suites we've seen in other games. That would really take it next level I think. More like what the portrait used to be, or an idealized version of the portrait might be for a 3d cinema game.

My first thought was to have this all frontloaded as part of the character creation menu, but it could also be handle in-game in-scene, provided we have some sort of magical stage and backdrop. Like initially we just get the blankface view like we have now, but later we get to revise it into something cooler.

The easel could be at camp for example, and Volo as our renaissance man could show us the ins and outs. The image we cap there can then replace what's presented in the Portrait Boxes (Char sheet, and GUI one). Have the equipment/inventory avatar remain more or less the same advanced paper doll, but with the generated portrait in use for the other stuff. 

I can picture how it would look, just making it like a dressing room of the imagination. The PC can have some delusions of grandeur playing dress-up and light-up and morph, but when it concludes we actually get a portrait that is then used in play. That would be so legit to see. A proper D&D style presentation.
 

Y.E.S.

Hoot hoot, stranger! Fairly new to CRPGs, but I tried my best to provide some feedback regardless! <3 Read it here: My Open Letter to Larian