What do you look for in a character?
ChangelingChick
Posts: 3,209
When you're looking for a character in the stores, what do you look for? How many makeup options for females? What about lips and nails? What about hair? For males are you looking for hairy, hairless or both? Do you like makeup options? Is there a point that it gets to be too much?
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Hair don't come with character packs normally. A good clean hi-def texture and nice morph with several makeup options
when I come to the store to look for items to mount a character, I usually have a preconceived image in my mind.
then it goes in search of morphs, look for hair (the hair section) approaching the hair that I have in mind, look for skin texture, and clothing etc, etc..
There are times when I do a sketch / drawing of what I have in mind, then it becomes easier.
But ... You know ...? In the end, the character leaves much different and changed what I had in mind ... There are times I have to ask for the money back to replace hair, or something else, this results in mistakes and successes ...
My characters after bought the hair clothes, morphs etc, never leave as I had in mind, but usually opens my eyes to see a new level a character can reach ...
the more options the better. lots of make up choices for females, lots of body and facial hair options for males. Oh and for me I use Gen 4 figures.
Also non-white characters, especially males.
I almost never use figures as they come out of the box, so I look at each new purchase as a set of component parts. A set of morphs that do things I don't already have something similar for, or a really unique texture set are always big positives. So are included hair, clothing, props and poses. On the other hand, custom UV sets that limit how much I can cross-purpose the various assets are usually a negative. Male character sets that only come with painted on facial and body hair are a negative. At the bottom of the barrel are textures that aren't anatomically correct - ie, no nipples on the chest, and completely dial-spun characters.
In the end, though, it really comes down to price versus how much use I think I'll get out of it. Even though I use Genesis 1 & 2 exclusively these days, I still buy a lot of V4/M4 sets, especially over at Rendo using Prime, Coupons and BOGOs or at RDNA during their sales. My character purchases at DAZ, on the other hand, tend to be whatever's bundled in with the Pro sets, creature type stuff like RawArt's and Joe Quick. Plus pretty much everything by Smay. And a LOT of morph sets by Zev, Sickleyield, Thorne,Cake, etc.
...I rarely purchase character sets unless they have A. unique look that's difficult to achieve without creating custom morphs, and/or B. a good "natural" skin shader. I find that male characters often fit both "A" and 'B" above (particularly love Man in the Mirror for M4, M3D Men for David 5, Manly Men for M5 as well as Donovan for Genesis) as skin shaders go, men in general don't wear makeup (unless it is something specific like for a "theatrical" effect or Goth, etc.).
As to female characters, unless they already come with a bundle or have extra morphs (like many of the Thorne characters do) I usually don't bother. Many female character sets also come with a wide array of makeup otions I rarely use since I prefer using a merchant resource instead. Some I've seen don't even have a "base" or "natural" skin shader. makeup has to be something really eye catching or unique for me (like say Kabuki, Geisha, or again, Goth makeup) as well as fit the type of work I do. Again most "everyday makeup: I can apply as an overlay when needed.
I've also yet to see an add on teen character who looks less like a young fashion model and more like a real teen/preteen if not even a bit "tomboyish" or "mousy".
That said, For the most part, I tend to do a lot of dial spinning and mixing even when I use a purchased character to personalise them more as I have a number of merchant resource morph kits.
But ... but, I just realize new purchases, to assemble a new toon character, only after testing all the items that I have already bought in earlier times (hair, clothes, textures etc).
For example: I'm playing a character based on my neighbor (I'm using Genesis1, skin texture, hair, and clothing)
the renders below the approaching my neighbor is using the render short hair.
But as I have glyn hair, I decided to see how it looked with short hair do not.
result: "Now I can not decide between the two outfits," I liked the two
Complete promos, meaning i don't usually buy characters at DAZ since I can't see all the product. Character vendors should always include a link on the page with content filter to see more of it/all of it.
Unique face morphs, preferably custom. Body doesn't matter since I use my own morphs for that. I can think of a few prolific character vendors (here and elsewhere) whose characters all look the same.
makeups are fine, but they rarely have what i want and usually have to add my own.
Detailed skin with NO baked in highlights since I use unbiased rendering only.
I would prefer a non eyebrow option or include the brow on a separate PSD file also since I would probably find a transparency I liked and make a normal map for it for more realism.
Value also. I make my own characters also and have seen some on sell for ridiculously high prices with nothing special included in the package. I understand the time and work involved, but you also need to take the market into account and what makes your product stand out over the rest at a cheaper price..
I would rather have highly detailed quality over lots of mediocre quantity.
something not pinup model always appeals to me.
some subtle skin blemishes, wrinkles/lines, less than perfect faceshapes but still attractive.
I do not want photoshopped to be flawless skin textures and symmetrical doll faces.
I love Phoenix's characters esp
..the one part about most character skin maps that bothers me is painted on eyebrows. Wht if you want to use a different hair colour? Having fair light blonde hair with dark brown eyebrows just does not look right.
A character with a good skin tone and realistic face morph will catch my eye. Then I scan to see if the makeup looks harsh or over done. If that passes muster I look to see if there seem to be hard lines where the lips are or if the eye shadows seem just smacked on. I also look to make sure that there are not burned in highlights on the lips or skin. I look to see if there are strong shadows under the behind because those are a huge deal breaker. If I get past all that I check to see if it looks like the eyes have painted reflections. That isn't always a deal breaker because I can always use eyes from a different character but If I am on the bubble it can keep my from hitting the cart button. Another thing that will keep me from hitting the cart button is not enough of the renders done in my program of choice. Only one token render is a sure sign I'm going to be fixing surface settings if I get it.
As far as the variety of "looks", I'm more interested that they be suitable for the character and really match the skin properly than that there be scads of them. For me quality wins over quantity every time.
It would be nice to actually SEE the face without all the hair in front covering the forehead and neck in a promos.
What I look for in a character is first, is it clean? no blemish, no untidy brows, no blush. I prefer the option of blemish and imperfections rather than try to get rid of it if I don't need it. Same goes with facial hair for males.
I first look for albino fair or darker skin tones. or even fantasy skin tones. I like unique textures and/or original morphs. I prefer to spin my own dials than use preset dials. or if they look like a particular actor or actress.
I'm always looking for men characters. I prefer both cleanshaven and non in the pack. Bodyhair and non.
I'm also looking for Alien skins with alien makeup options for both genders.
Freckles would be great for both genders,
Seniors would be nice.
I have many pretty white female characters with many makeups, so I really don't need anymore at present.
A big "Amen" to that. I still remember the horror that was Deborah for YTJulie. Thought I'd finally found a nice redhead skin set for Genesis and instead the "natural" skin set came with garish painted-on orange lips and an airbrushed smooth chest and torso, while the only "option" was a purple facial tattoo. Truly a "WTH were they thinking?" moment, but it came with the bundle...
...same here. The only reason I have her was because of he bundle as well. Liked the fair skin for my Leela (who also has red hair) but Leela rarely wears makeup and when she does (usually only when she's on the concert stage) it is a lot more subtle. Was also disappointed the character didn't have freckles (though I can use the Skin Overlay Resource for that).
Every character should come with a basic "no makeup" skin map unless it is a specific theme like a Geisha or Neo Goth character (though even Fabiana's Druscilla Goth has a base skin map and the different makeup selections are add ons).
My main focus is versatility. If the character works with V4 as well as Genesis, skin choices (like tattoos, realistic as well as fantasy/sci-fi make-up, freckles/clear, etc.), body or facial hair variations (different brows or body hair for redheads, blonds, grey, etc), and any realistic and fantasy morphs (like fangs or ears). Stuff like that.
Basically, anything that helps my book covers look like I'm not using the same figure all of the time.
I buy lots of characters. But I tend to stay away from "Glamour shot" ones. I'm just a run-of-the-mill type person and care more about variety than looks.
For women, I have lots and lots of choices. I don't care about makeup, nails, etc. Hair style does matter though. The one thing I hate is to buy a character and not know what the hair is. I mean, to me, the look is why I bought it in the first place. I have never been into tattoos before but I am noticing them more so if there is that option I tend to look a little closer. Different color skins tones is a big thing for me right now. Sometimes I will buy a character just to try out their skin on a premade character I have. With women there are lots of choices.
Mainly there are so many females versus males, I can pretty much do anything except for tan lines.
For men, lot harder of a problem because there are not as many. I like the option of both hair and non-hair. I tend to add hair with options anyway but I like the choice if there is one. It's easier to change the look if there is a choice between clean shaven and bearded and so forth.
A basic set of tanlines would be great a option on both male and female. At this point, I have one female and one male skin with tanlines. Both look really natural. The rest of my characters look like they either never seen the sun or was just outside nude sunbathing lol.
And for tanlines, I'd love to be able to create my own. I'm not talking about super sexy as opposed to basic. I saw a render one time of a guy with a tan line in the middle of his arm and half way down his legs. That's the kind I would end of having lol. That and a painful shade of red.
You know what I think is really awful? Plucked brows on teen characters of both genders.
I'd love more adult females with unplucked/bushier brows.
That would be super cool. I never even thought of something like that.
And on K4 characters that are supposed to be kids and not fairies or sprites or something. Those make my skin crawl.
I don't know how many characters I've stripped the brows off of to use the brow node on my V4/M4s so far. I tend to look for characters with no body hair at all then add it myself to match whatever hair color I'm planning on using. For men, I love Jepe's M4 Hairy (errr... Jepe's Project M4 Body and Facial Hair :D ). I just wish he sold it as a plain overlay or MR :D A lot of the 1-Click stuff doesn't work out for me because of the way I have my shaders set up. As far as I'm concerned, for male body hair, Jepe wrote the book.
There was a mention of custom morphs by a couple people. Personally, I kind of like custom morphs for faces, but I tend to like dialed bodies since clothes tend to be easier to deal with that way (though I tend to dial my own bodies anyway).
For me, I purchase a character based on how good the skin looks, how unique the face morph is and how much versatility there is for the money. There are pulbkished artists I always look for, like RawArt, Jepe for men - he makes the best male characters IMO, Raiya and SilverCountess.
I like characters that look unique. The vast majority of vendor characters look like cookie cutter molds done with moving sliders. All the women have the same cute button nose, and they are all between 18-24, etc. I've given up on buying character and have begun to spin dials and then send my characters into ZBrush and doing some sculpting.
Mostly I go for textures, or a really unusual looking character. I can easily enough change appearance by morph dial turning, but textures are pretty much the way they are. My favorite characters are by Phoenix1966, gritty looking folks, not so glamorous.
I admit, I'm not into the big eyed, large lipped, manga fusion characters. I do tend to like to render older people, so if a character looks too young,or like a teenager I'll pass. I'm always looking for character with a mature look.
I also like females with regular sized chest proportions
See, that is something I don't get. most character addons contain dial spun body morphs, so what difference would it make on any part of the body morph since it takes a second to change it. I get the impression most users never even touch a dial and just rely on what gets loaded from the vendor.
Of the few times I have liked what was shown in the promos for body shape, I found it to not look the same in different light and setting.
See, that is something I don't get. most character addons contain dial spun body morphs, so what difference would it make on any part of the body morph since it takes a second to change it. I get the impression most users never even touch a dial and just rely on what gets loaded from the vendor.
Of the few times I have liked what was shown in the promos for body shape, I found it to not look the same in different light and setting.
I usually change the breasts to be smaller, actually. I just prefer smaller breasts on figures in general than what is popular. True, I can change it, but the thread here is what I look for in a character. So that is one of the things I look for. =-)
When I'm looking for characters, I'm looking for something I don't feel I already have 20 of. At the moment, that's decent mid-tone and darker skins (though I still want to pick up a few more hair options before I'm really ready to fill the later gap in my library). Fair skin characters need to have something really attention grabbing - such as fantasy makeups or really nice tattoo options. But they also have to be options.
The more makeup options, the better for girls. Multiple body hair levels for guys (My own preference is light on body hair, but sometimes a character I'm making just works better with more body hair) and several facial hair options are certainly welcome.
Although I'm not shy about using eyes other than the ones that come with a given character, eye options, especially fantasy/sci-fi ones, can sometimes be a tipping point for picking up or not what would otherwise be "yet another pretty white girl."
I don't usually buy for morphs, but a custom morph is "worth more" when comparison shopping than a dial spun morph preset. (There are a few characters out there that I think are overpriced because they come with a dial-spun preset and insufficient makeup options for the asking price.) Especially with Genesis/Genesis 2, since I can use the morph in small amounts more easily than using a percentage of a preset.
I'm with more or less everyone here.
Then I'm looking for diversion both in ages and etnicity, so these days I more or less spinally reaches for everything not Scandinavian. There have been a few Asian ones and finally with Gianni we got an African M6 gent. But I'd love to see more of the Ethnic kinds. The world today consists only of some 28% Caucasians (Including Russia), and the Asians (Eastern, Indians and Mid Easts) are almost half the pop, and there's a great diversity span in that gargantuan group as well. And there are yet so many groups I've never seen represented here. Like Mongolians, Philipini, Maori, SW Africans, Centrasian Chinese, Tibetians, Inuits, South Am Nats... There have been a few North Am Nats, Arabs and Indians, but I often think they come off too Caucasian for my taste. Too small noses, too pointy chins and chiselled brows and so on.
And just like SereneNight, I tend to make breasts smaller than default, especially when I do more mature women who I want to look like they have been breast feeding kids along their walk of life. Then I more or less always make the noses bigger, especially on females. That Norvegian button nose is so unusual anyway, you hardly see it outside Norway and Iceland, even the Swedes and the Finns look different.
Other things I like is when there are scar options. After all it happens now and then that I do that barbarian fantasy warrior, and then I don't want him or her to have a smooth body. If you are such an ardent and skilled fighter as Conan and his buddies you do have signs on your body to show it.
...I agree.
I usually change the breasts to be smaller, actually. I just prefer smaller breasts on figures in general than what is popular. True, I can change it, but the thread here is what I look for in a character. So that is one of the things I look for. =-)
...until G2F, good breast reduction was just not a possibility. That is why I purchased the original GenX so I could import the Steph4 NPMs on to Genesis