Image Designer Archive

I don't know about you guys but I play around with the original character designer a LOT. Next to actually playing SWG it is my number one leisure activity. I use it to try to create unique attractive designs for the different races.

My latest obsession has been human ears. The size of the ears on a human really effects the look of the entire face. I really got interested in ears when I created a quick and dirty human to practice image design with on Bria. I gave her a haircut that hid her ears and totally forgot to adjust them before finalizing the design. While practicing with different hair styles I realized, to my horror, that they were set to the MAX size! Eeep!

After my initial horror I started thinking they were kind of cute. Large ears seem to give a face the more piquant look, while small ears tend to give the face a more broad, tough look. Before I discovered the wonder of ears (lol) I was depending soley on eyebrows and jawline to acheive these looks.

So what is your preference when it comes to ears? Do you use them to acheive a certain look? What are your preferences for the different species? How do they change the look of the face? Do I just have too much time on my hands?

I'm interested in hearing your opinions.

(Note: I am at work but I will post a pic of my large-eared human to see what you think when I get home. Is it attractive or just odd emotional attachment to my own creation lol.)

EDIT: Okay, HERE is a picture of a character I made with big ears. HERE is a pic showing the ear settings. I am now whapping myself because I should have taken big ears vs. small ears pictures. /sigh. I'll do that tonight lol.

Message Edited by Vorpaks on 08-06-2004 06:24 AM

With wooks I find a setting that greatly affects the look of the face is the size of the brow ridge. A larger brow ridge makes the cheeks look rounder from the front. Of course, it makes you look like a mongoloid from the profiles. But since I mostly see myself from the front or back I dont mind so much.

I edite the above post with pictures.

Message Edited by Vorpaks on 08-06-2004 06:25 AM

There are a lot of features that the majority of players just don't like, and wookiee brow is one of them. Sometimes while playing with character design I'll pick an unpopular setting for a feature and try to play around with the other features to make it look nice. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it goes horribly wrong. Bothan mouths don't seem to want to look nice at full width no matter what I do lol.

But wookiee brows I like. A lot of wookiees have the problem that they were too scared of the brow, chin, head dome-size, and nose width during character creation and so they end up looking rather... frog-like. At least the female wooks I've seen. The males seem to be more comfortable with their chins.

I think these designs are the result of bringing human feature sterotypes onto the alien body. If you put a high domed haed, strong chin, broad cheek bones and heavy brow-ridge on a human female you would end up with Helga, the Swedish masseusse (sp?). On wookiees however you get a pleasing effect. I have my brow rige set to max protrusion on my wookiee female and I have only received nice comments. Most often heard is "Wow! I didn't know female wookiees could actually BE attractive." Which usually get them a half grumbled "thanks" from me lol.

Then again, I don't mean to say there is only one way to make an attractive female wookiee. I have seen many MANY designs that are extremely attractive and yet vastly different from mine. I usually take screenies so I can analyze them later.

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Vandessa wrote:

I always base my ear size on the hair style and jawline, they seem critical for a nice, balanced appearance.

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I think that is probably the best answer Vandessa. It seems to me that the good IDs go on instinct rather than formula, they just know when to stop the slider at the "right" place. I don't know if it is possible to learn this instinct - but I'm doing my best!

Maybe I'll get my screen-shots together and start an Image Design gone wrong thread. Some of my attempts at acheiving certain looks have been hilariously unsuccessful. My husband has two accounts on which he never uses the "extra" galaxies so I have a total of 21 extra spaces to play with. I know when he hits the log-in screen and says "UH! What is THAT thing?" that I have not reached a succesful design.

I am constantly taking screenshots of good designs and looking them over and trying to figure out what aspects of them make them so successful/unique. There are some really nice generic looking people out there and then there are some really amazing unique designs. Sometimes it is just one feature that is out of the ordinary and it makes the whole design stand out as something amazing.

There is an ID on one of the servers I play on who has the most amazing eyes. She is really good at matching colors on the rest of her body and all her features look really nice but what stands out is those eyes. You notice them right away. I've played with eyes a bunch but I cannot acheive the same effect. Thats when I started to really think about the interdependency of features. Maybe it isn't the eyes themselves... but the cheekbones? A certain shading of shadow?

I always take screenshots of all my experiements and look at them a week later. Sometimes I think, ya, I like it. Sometimes I think - what was I THINKING??? Somethings that I convince myself look unique and interesting look downright odd and freakish in hindsight.

Anyway, excuse my babbling. As you can tell I am really enjoying this profession!

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Vorpaks wrote:
There are a lot of features that the majority of players just don't like, and wookiee brow is one of them. Sometimes while playing with character design I'll pick an unpopular setting for a feature and try to play around with the other features to make it look nice. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it goes horribly wrong. Bothan mouths don't seem to want to look nice at full width no matter what I do lol.

But wookiee brows I like. A lot of wookiees have the problem that they were too scared of the brow, chin, head dome-size, and nose width during character creation and so they end up looking rather... frog-like. At least the female wooks I've seen. The males seem to be more comfortable with their chins.

I think these designs are the result of bringing human feature sterotypes onto the alien body. If you put a high domed haed, strong chin, broad cheek bones and heavy brow-ridge on a human female you would end up with Helga, the Swedish masseusse (sp?). On wookiees however you get a pleasing effect. I have my brow rige set to max protrusion on my wookiee female and I have only received nice comments. Most often heard is "Wow! I didn't know female wookiees could actually BE attractive." Which usually get them a half grumbled "thanks" from me lol.

Then again, I don't mean to say there is only one way to make an attractive female wookiee. I have seen many MANY designs that are extremely attractive and yet vastly different from mine. I usually take screenies so I can analyze them later.

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Heh... my Wookiees (Aklaq for example) have max brow and head-dome size and moderate chins. My Bothans mouths are minimized... I so agree with you that Bothan mouths just don't look good at max.

Message Edited by Maisland on 08-06-2004 12:54 PM

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Vorpaks wrote:

I think these designs are the result of bringing human feature sterotypes onto the alien body.

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Wow Maisland, I love Aklaq's colors too. Very subtle and feminine. She looks like she has some weight/muscle on her as well which many female wookiee-makers (including my initial design for Paks) usually avoid. Your design goes to show that you can be a jacked and still un-mistakably feminine.

Do you mind if I coppy that pic to my hard-drive? I am making a list of a bunch of features (like brow, weight) that are usually considered unfeminine and figuring out how to make them blatantly feminine and attractive. I think Aklaq is a perfect example of how you can be a hulking brute of a species and still exude grace and beauty.

I can't wait for Ithorians.

Side note: OMG Rowann. I know just what you mean by the Michael Jackson look. *shudder

Message Edited by Vorpaks on 08-09-2004 11:26 AM