AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic

Heya folks. As Pony stated in this thread, I am going to be making some heads for races/classes that really lack proper representation in the current headpack. Since it's been posted publically, I've decided to go ahead and start this thread so players can provide input, feedback, and suggestions on the following:

- What you like about the heads
- What you dislike about the heads
- What can be improved
- What heads you would like to be produced (including concept art)

I do not work by a set schedule and instead work on whichever heads strike my interest at the time. As such, I may or may not work on your suggestion (assuming I like it to begin with), so actually getting a suggestion made is a bit hit-or-miss with me. Do not get disappointed if I don't comment on your suggestion let alone make it. This thread is not for chatter not about the topic, so please keep any of that in another thread.

On to the heads!

Fire/Air Genasi (Makes a great tiefling!)

Male Variant

Female Variant

Water Genasi

Female Variant

Male Variant

Chromatic Dragonkin (Female only, male coming soon!)

Metallic Dragonkin (Female only, male coming soon!)

DORF!

I would like some more flexibility for horns!

I am not sure if you would be able to make more of those VFX horns. But something like that would be cool. Add some of the more "normal" horns as VFX like the ones which point upwards and the ones which point backwards. And maybe add a few more color variants.

I am not sure if that is possible but it would be great. ^^

That's quite possible but requires a hak update. Was thinking of a sort of open hood that could be applied to the horn slot actually, so it'd stick with the head but actually look like a proper hood.

Again though, that's not a head thing- I'll consult with the developers if they want me to try expanding my focus in that direction but for now I'm on heads.

Well stay in contact with me about the horn VFXs. We can do this via PM. i'd very much love this for the next hak.

Anyways. As for heads I think just a bit more flexibility would be nice. Especially when it comes to hair lengths/styles and small cosmetic additions, like minor scars, eye patches, moustaches/beards and things which add character flair.

A few heads also are rather crude and could do with a little pimp!

I am not sure if we should add too many "monster heads" as they will require a special request. Some are great... but some more flexibility in the general head section would be most awsome.

Specific comments help a lot more than general ones. If you see one that looks rough, explain why and I'll try to fix it or explain something you might not see in the structure.

Adjusting hair length is impossible without creating an entirely new head. Cosmetic additions simply can't be done without devoting an entire headslot as well- I'm tying to create heads that have the broadest applicability possible if I can.

Good stuff!! More dorfs! The short hairy ladies have been getting some attention here lately as well.

Fire/air genasi need some ears, or I'm blind. Regardless, greater variety of hairstyles in those would be good. As they're presented now, the look like my grandmother crossed with a Klingon. Dragonkin should have some frills/spikes/etc. on their chins to balance the faces out. As they stand now, they look like they're wearing headpieces. Also, some sort of transitory region should exist between the "normal" skin and the exotic features. Like scales gradually becoming heavier heading towards the horns on the copper dragon head above.

Gers wrote:

Fire/air genasi need some ears, or I'm blind. Regardless, greater variety of hairstyles in those would be good. As they're presented now, the look like my grandmother crossed with a Klingon. Dragonkin should have some frills/spikes/etc. on their chins to balance the faces out. As they stand now, they look like they're wearing headpieces. Also, some sort of transitory region should exist between the "normal" skin and the exotic features. Like scales gradually becoming heavier heading towards the horns on the copper dragon head above.

Ears are either alien or being blended with the heads so they can be applied to all races without having to screw with new models. The fire genasi have wider jaw ridges to account for the ear location.

Dragonkin usually don't even have features this pronounced. Any more 'accessorizing' and they may not really be applicable to player heads, but I'll see what I can do.

"Transitory" regions are the bane of texturing. If you know someone who's a real texturing genius who can swing that, let me know. Otherwise, best I can really do is using the models to blend things or hide the seams. I'll take a look and see what I can do, but no real promises.

Edit: Here's a quick and dirty texture rig. Illustrates one of the many blending problems with NWN- the blend area is in the Skin palette while the ears are in tattoo 1 or 2 or something. Yes, you could blend with the appropriate colours but that would require model work that NWN can't handle.

Looking great. The male water genasi looks really good. The metallic dragonkin looks odd... I think it's the lack of eyebrows.

Here's a second pass on that texturing with a more scaley texture to kind of help illustrate the problems with NWN texturing. If you think it looks good tell me, if not I'll revert it.

My mind completely went to the gutter.

BUT!

I like 'em! <3

Yes. Yes. Yes.

An actual attractive elf male head (Most are either really odd looking, too "masculine" or both), preferably with hair that isn't swept back like the vast majority of them, would make me immensely happy.

No more normal heads. If you want attractive elf heads look up nr 143.

Almost all male elf heads are complete shit, so yes, male elf svensk. Although really most male heads are lacking in quality and scope compared to female ones so...

The Great Equalizer wrote:

Almost all male elf heads are complete shit, so yes, male elf svensk. Although really most male heads are lacking in quality and scope compared to female ones so...

+1. Especially so for halflings. Every male halfling head is kinda funny-looking, IMHO.

Male metallic head.

Eurgiga wrote:

Here's a second pass on that texturing with a more scaley texture to kind of help illustrate the problems with NWN texturing. If you think it looks good tell me, if not I'll revert it.

Better then the first, I think.

I love to see ugly draconic or any other races. But especially draconic heads should be ugly in my opinion. Then again, I am no RDD expert. Usually every head model is trying to be so beautiful and sexy, which is kinda boring actually.

PS: Loving the work you are doing, looks amazing!

The fire genasi head is one i will definitely use!

Looking good so far! If you have some spare time and want some ideas, I noticed there is a Niche which could be filled in the dwarven heads.. That being Scars and other disfigurations.

More dorfs, go on you know you want to! Ugly dwarfs with broken noses, and scars. Also there's a lack of dwarfs with long beards to choose from most of the nwn ones are short beards.

Loving what you've done so far. I actually like the fire genasi as a dragon disciple, looks more draconic then the others face wise.

Looking at the heads I would say maybe raise up the metallic dragon kin horns at the base. The chromatics look fantastic, but the way they compare I'd probably choose the chromatic one over the metallic one for a Zelly head-change just because the horns on the metallic are super close to the eyes and are very sudden. I wouldn't say they'd need raised a whole lot. It's just that they look almost attached to the eyes and it throws it off a little bit.

I agree with Gers, too. Something on the chin and jaw would balance it out. Most of the metallic dragons have chin/jaw features that could work well with something being there.

I also like that they seem kinda ugly, or at least strange enough to be off-putting at first!

There should totally be a black dragon head. Because, let's face it, black dragons look siiiiiiick.

Can't wait to see the Earth Genasi designs!

Just some sketches. Currently only have some for females. They are pretty bland and not all that exciting compared to what you already have, but mainly I was experimenting with more "updo" hairstyles because I felt they were lacking variety. Then I jumped into dwarves and half orcs because the current available heads are...well...
Anyway, some of these might be a bit ambitious to put on a 3D model. Or maybe not, I really wouldn't know.
If these give you any ideas of your own, or interest you at all let me know and I'll keep pumping more out, especially for female dwarves and half-orcs and then I could play around with a few ideas for male heads as well.

These first two I had humans/elves in mind but they could easily work for dwarves as well.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99054320/Hair1.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99054320/hair2.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99054320/hair3.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99054320/hair4.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99054320/hair5.png

Nice sketches Coconut, I likey.

Jes wrote:

Looking at the heads I would say maybe raise up the metallic dragon kin horns at the base. The chromatics look fantastic, but the way they compare I'd probably choose the chromatic one over the metallic one for a Zelly head-change just because the horns on the metallic are super close to the eyes and are very sudden. I wouldn't say they'd need raised a whole lot. It's just that they look almost attached to the eyes and it throws it off a little bit.

I agree with Gers, too. Something on the chin and jaw would balance it out. Most of the metallic dragons have chin/jaw features that could work well with something being there.

I also like that they seem kinda ugly, or at least strange enough to be off-putting at first!

The horns are attached to the eyes. Of all people...

However, I'll fiddle with the textures and blend things a little better.

A second point for EVERYONE:

Quote:

Aasimar generally have one distinguishing feature which sets them apart from normal people. These are related to the kind of outsider they descend from, and include traits such as silver hair, emerald skin, small feathers somewhere on their body, small patches of iridescent scales or a strong, clear voice.

Quote:

Not breathing, grey and light blue skin or hair, light colored eyes, hair that looks to be eternally disheveled or windblown, mysterious breezes surrounding them, and unnaturally well-carrying voices are some of the traits that embody Air Genasi.

Quote:

Heavily muscular and stocky, Earth Genasi are obviously not human by appearance, but have mostly human features except for one or two distinguishing traits related to their elemental ancestory: craggy facial features, earth-like skin, mossy hair or very large hands and feets, for example.

Quote:

Fire Genasi tend to have a few traits reflecting their heritage. Fire red hair or eyes, hair that waves like fire, a perpetual smell of soot and smoke, perpetually "hot" or sweaty skin, and an unnatural resistance to non-magical fire are only some of the factors that Fire Genasi often experience.

Quote:

The ability to breathe underwater, blue or green skin, hair, and eyes, webbed fingers and toes, vestigial gill slits, and clammy skin are some of the factors that manifest themselves in Water Genasi.

Quote:

Tieflings come in many shapes and sizes, but are always born of humans or other planetouched. They often look like their human parents but have a few features to set them apart from normal peope; it might be horns, fur, scales, black eyes or anything horrific.

Note that every race description here mentions "one or two" or "a few" traits reflecting the heritage of the special character. I'm disinclined to make Dragonkin hyperfreaky on the same basis. This is also why I'm not going to make heads with every single feature they could have- different characters manifest different traits and it's much easier to pretend to have one than pretend something that's there isn't. Generally I'll try to select one or two of the most common ones I think should be there and construct those features. Beyond that, I feel it's getting too close to halfbreed heads instead of 'touched'.

I like the hair, I might try to do something like it.

There won't be a specific head for every type of dragon, just general purpose designed to look like metallic or chromatic.

You make my point at the same time you try to make yours, Eurgiga!

Copper dragons have horns attached to their eyes and sweeping all the way back over the heads, yes. There's no reason a humanoid dragonkin should have the top of a full-blooded dragon randomly plastered on top of its head. Dragon kin don't typically end up with horns that are identical to their ancestors' horns - nor are they as pronounced as their ancestors' horns. Putting them back from being stuck to the eye sockets would make it look better and would (as Gers mentioned) look less like they're wearing a weird headpiece!

Last edited by Eurgiga on Wed, Jul 31 2013, 6:50 AM, edited 1 time in total.

Did the following:

- Raised the horn contact point with the face to just above the brow ridge instead of below.
- Increased the incline of the eyebrow ridge to make it more flush against the forehead.
- Remade the texture from the source files from scratch.
- Added a scale transition from skin to dragonhide to scale in the texture.
- Complete texture remap.
- Minor other adjustments and fixes.

Ignore the crap sticking through the hair, I already fixed it.

Now those look very nice! Its not just another smooth face but actually clearly indicates that their face aaaint that human like after all! Great work, absolutely great work!

+1 For the redone metallics. That sorta makes me want to play one now...

Fantastic adjustments, Eurgiga!

Keep up the amazing work!

They look a bit neandertalish? :idea:

Those updated metallics are awesome. Would love to have something similar for the shadow DD

Here's how the Earth Genasi is coming. I'm stumped on what to make the ears look like, so please shoot your ideas at me. The ears must not be specific to any race but be sort of general. Integrated or really alien ears tend to be best.

Earth Genasi screams cauliflower ear to me...

Option of mossy like hair for the genasi?

GreatPigeon wrote:

Option of mossy like hair for the genasi?

Other than that, I REALLY like it!

Eh, Earth Genasi seem like the ones to be bald, really. Besides, the crystals are using the hair layer.

Those metallic dragons looks awesome!

Some ideas for the ears. I am shamelessly posting pictures from GW2 but one of these might fit?

Maybe something like the bottom right?
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/5/57/Sylvari_female_ears.png
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/2/2c/Sylvari_male_ears.png

http://25.media.tumblr.com/df8e2311b00049684ebd292a922a98a4/tumblr_mnuschkIha1rke0p1o1_500.jpg

Eurgiga wrote:

Eh, Earth Genasi seem like the ones to be bald, really. Besides, the crystals are using the hair layer.

Guess I'll need to invest in a hat!

Redid the tattoo to be a sort of inner glow from the cracks in the face. Pretty sure that's the last time I'm touching this one's texture, I love the result.

They are awesome.

Perfect! Can't wait to equip my Earthie with it.

Yeah, that's fairly awesome. Maybe, it is possible to make the crevices on the cheeks less symmetrical? I think they'd look a bit more natural.

Liz wrote:

Yeah, that's fairly awesome. Maybe, it is possible to make the crevices on the cheeks less symmetrical? I think they'd look a bit more natural.

It's a mirrored texture to improve resolution. I'll see if I can't remap the face a touch, but more than a hair and it'll start distorting the texture badly.

The Earth Genasi hands down are the best.

I still think your original dragon-kin is your best. Not sure why I felt the need to say so, but there you have it!

Female version.

- Created a full-wrap texture to eliminate mirroring so each side of the face is unique.
- Same tattoo/skin layout as the male version.
- Added hair.
- Ear texture is temporary. Don't whinge about it.
- Much better job on integrating the ears on this one, will incorporate the design into the male version as well.

Still need to update the hair and ear textures for this one, but it's mostly done.

Edit: Updated the ear texture to a sort of fossil shell look. Put the cracks and eyes on the same tattoo layer, moved the crystals to their own tattoo layer.

So on these heads the skin, cracks, gills, hair, eyes, crystals are not static but can be changed via the paint systems and thingies?

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