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Tres Farmer
Gallente Federation Intelligence Service
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Posted - 2011.01.20 10:23:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Whitehound
- When you create your face then choose your hair last. First try to get the form and expression of your face the way you want it. Hair should not be used to cover up what you do not really like. Once you have got your head and face right, choose the hair to match or to complement it. You can also turn the hair on and off to see what it looks like with and without it.
Hair is the most performance crippling thing in the char editor, so during sculpting and anything else it should be OFF. Same for sunglasses.
Originally by: Whitehound
When you create your picture then remember this: people lower their eyebrows and squint their eyes when they get a lot of light into their face. If you have ever pointed a strong light into someone's face then you will know about this. It is the opposite in darkness, where people raise their eyebrows and widen their eyes. You should see the faces of people in darkness through a night vision camera - it is quite funny to see what their faces look like then.
If you shine light just from one side into a persons face then usually will the person raise the brow on the dark side, and lower the brow and squint a little on the other.
Does not apply to flashlights.. some people got a photo-booth-frontal-flashlight effect going by choosing the right light options and a background that looks like it reflects the 'weak' flash. Makes for very photorealistic portraits.
- aim for close-ups if you want your face to be recognisable from channel lists/forums
- aim for strong shadows/bright lights/highlights.. play with the lights and poses a lot and make several trials on the left side and compare them there
- choose backgrounds that offer some sort of contrast with your avatar (avoid the fireball and other alike backgrounds which have no contrast)
- follow composition rules if the result should resemble something artistic
- there are some portraits out there which have some kind of mood/environment/setup going for them, where the upper part of the body is pictured instead of the face and the background matches the lighting
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Tres Farmer
Gallente Federation Intelligence Service
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Posted - 2011.01.20 11:21:00 -
[2]
Ok, here is a screenshot of a folder where I browsed this thread here and picked everything that looked 'wow, nice' to me and then sorted into categories:
As you can see.. the pose or arrangement of your avatar itself isn't the selling point here.. it's the lighting and the overall composition.
Everything else in that thread up to page 30 I think I made it was subpar or redundant.. some more nice portraits on the way, but I had to slow down on them to not collect to many to make my point 
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Tres Farmer
Gallente Federation Intelligence Service
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Posted - 2011.01.20 11:43:00 -
[3]
Edited by: Tres Farmer on 20/01/2011 11:43:31
Originally by: Annie Hall
Sophia Amelia Stone
One of the best pics I seen so far, the way you rotated to make that background actually look like less "back" and more "ground" is genius.
The only thing that bothers me with these kind of portraits is the intention (at least that's what it 'says to me') to get the boobs into the portrait and have them 'show off'.
Tips&Tricks to make your avatar look good |
Tres Farmer
Gallente Federation Intelligence Service
|
Posted - 2011.01.20 12:13:00 -
[4]
Originally by: Sophia Amelia Stone
Originally by: Tres Farmer
Originally by: Annie Hall
Sophia Amelia Stone
One of the best pics I seen so far, the way you rotated to make that background actually look like less "back" and more "ground" is genius.
The only thing that bothers me with these kind of portraits is the intention (at least that's what it 'says to me') to get the boobs into the portrait and have them 'show off'.
Women do have boobs you know. You are right to a point, the intention is to show off the female form and create a pleasing image. Which is why a light background was used (only 1 to choose from limits this somewhat). Boob size can make or break an image, too big tends to ruin it (ruins the line, a bit like sports cars) as with this image the idea is to show the lines of the body not to make the boobs the sole focal point. You don't need to show flesh to make a sexy image. Head looking forward and not looking at the camera and correct posture gives her a look that she is in control.
[WTB] vertical extended avatar portraits then.. maybe half the width for twice the height? Would give options for some nice shots.
As for your intentions *hehe* - seems I hit a nerve there somewhat. I didn't meant it that personal though. The picture just looks a bit like 'boobs in favour of head' and personally I try to weight the character of a woman higher than her physical qualities.
All this meta-aspect aside the portrait is technically sound and I think one of, if not the best of all the ones I've seen sporting boobs as point of interest.
PS: I'm with ya on the bright background thing, CCP completely missed that one. So sad.
Tips&Tricks to make your avatar look good |
Tres Farmer
Gallente Federation Intelligence Service
|
Posted - 2011.01.20 14:04:00 -
[5]
Edited by: Tres Farmer on 20/01/2011 14:05:26
Originally by: Tiberius Romanus
Lighting seems to be very important, but there doesn't appear to be any logic to the lighting settings. What do those lighting effects represent? They don't seem to move the light source in any logical direction around the model. Also what are those other 7(?) settings you can adjust each selection? Again--like so much of this creator--it was all very logical in the mind of the dev.
I've got my doubt's on the marked part.
Plying around and trying EVERY setting there is is the only way to go.
After a time you can guess from the pictures in the light choices what kind of shadow to expect, but for the lights themselves, try, try, try..
Tips&Tricks to make your avatar look good |
Tres Farmer
Gallente Federation Intelligence Service
|
Posted - 2011.01.20 14:59:00 -
[6]
Originally by: Blane Xero
Anyone got any honest critique on mine before the possibility for tweaking comes along? None of this "9/10 now rate me back" bull****.
Probably getting a slap on the wrist by the OP, but what the hell..
As you did go for the hood, not much about most of the face can be said.
Imho:
- background doesn't really match the lighting (think of reflections onto the wall behind and you will miss them)
- thumbnail is recognisable for forum/chat purposes, so ok from my pov
- nothing else out of the ordinary visible
Tips&Tricks to make your avatar look good |
Tres Farmer
Gallente Federation Intelligence Service
|
Posted - 2011.01.20 15:36:00 -
[7]
Tips are in the first 2 pages of this thread.. read them all, come back with special questions on how to do this or that.
Tips&Tricks to make your avatar look good |
Tres Farmer
Gallente Federation Intelligence Service
|
Posted - 2011.01.21 14:30:00 -
[8]
Edited by: Tres Farmer on 21/01/2011 14:31:15
Originally by: SumBok3
Originally by: Milla Lekarariba
I like my avatar, but just wish I could open up the eyes a little more, but with my race and bloodline it does seem to be that the 'slit' type eyes is a natural and genetic thing..
But even so, the eyes on mine have gone very small and squinting..
Is there any way I could use lighting, or perhaps make up or something to make the eyes appear less 'chinese'?
Use dark shadows for eyes! Also play making positioning your head look upwards would help.
Additionally.. when in sculpting mode, turn the head sideways and grab the lower eye lid.. then move the eyeball deeper INTO the skull.
Now try to adjust the eyebrow area a bit downwards (frontal view) and a little bit inwards on the sides.
Then go for the upper eyelids and move those outwards a bit (frontal view again) and forward (side view).
If you're very carefull you get a caucasian/asian cross going for your char.
The ridge of the nose then also needs some adjustment but I think from here on you should get the idea.
Just keep in mind that these adjustments more or less cause that in the photobooth the expression sliders are pretty much already at their maximum levels and thus an angry look is very hard to accomplish. My caucasian/asian chars tend to look a bit sad if I've been not really really carefull.
It will take you probably several hours to get the hang out of this.. I would suggest Sisi, alt slot with same race/bloodline as main and lots and lots of practice until you're trained.
Make screenshots of the finished trials after each session from front/side/iso and use them as template for the next try.
I 'trained' roughly 8-10 hours on Sisi for my JinMei main char for this
Tips&Tricks to make your avatar look good |
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