When playing Skyrim, one of the first things to do is to create your character, if not to see somebody being killed, who might have lived had he not been so trigger happy. Most of you will be presented with a bunch of preset characters, ranging from Komodo to Cats, from cannibalistic elves to red arabian. Usually the time is around noon, which may give a pretty good ambient lighting to see your character's face, depending on your preference and your character's face.

Most of you will go technical and start tinkering around with the sliders to see if you can make the grumpiest grandpa or the sixiest supermodel ever, the latter being 99% of the case with custom races. You'll pull out all the stops, make all the necessary adjustments, and consult dictionary to find out the synonyms of "jerk" that can be used as a name. Then you'll be satisfied and proceed to watch a random guy being decapitated who, again, might have lived had he not been so trigger happy with Sovngarde.

Or, if you're like me, you'll ponder to no end "What the Oblivion is WRONG with this guy?" Something just doesn't feel right: no matter which slider you move, which aspect you change, or which synonym of "jerk" you choose as the name, you just can't be satisfied. Then, if you're like me, you'll say "Screw this" and name your character "First Try"\


And so comes to light the main focus of this post: "The Importance of Lighting in Character Generation"

You see, sometimes there is that subtle something that can't get you satisfied. Something is wrong when you see your character's face, but you can't point it out. You try to move the jaw, adjust the nose, and do all kinds of stuff, and yet that something is still there.

Well, turns out you just need better lighting.

You see, the ambient lighting greatly affects how you see your character. For example, meet my character: Second Try

[img]http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee187/Raestloz/Closeup.jpg[/img]

"Hi!"

Looks hot, right? If I say so myself, she can pass as Ken's girlfriend had Ken not been so into men, and Barbie can go cry and weep in the corner. Give her bigger bewbs and she's all set, something that can be fixed with an armor by Killer Keo.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, her name is literally "Second Try"

[img]http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee187/Raestloz/name.jpg[/img]

Bet you thought I was kidding, eh?

The astute among you may have noticed that she's certainly not an Imperial, and she's not a Nord too. No, she's an http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=8583. This is the goddessly race that sports a http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/images/8583-1-1328834552.jpg (at least it looks like that). I certainly can't pass on something like that. For those of you who are thinking "Well, that's cheating!", well there's a reason we have Creation Kit dude.


But there is a huge difference between seeing an example and actually managed to recreate it.



The first time I created an Ashen character (named "First Try"), it was as frustrating as Oblivion, I can't seem to get it right. The first time I see Ashen's 1st female preset, I immediately recognized the problem: the face contour is very weird, and there is no way I can fix that, that's 3D model business.


Like I said, I said "Screw this", named my character "First Try" and moved forward. I watched as somebody got decapitated and got into a tower. My character's hands were cut loose, and I can finally take a look at her.

Boy, I don't wanna remember that again.

It's like marrying somebody you've never known, only to see that she's weird as crap when you take off the veil.

Thing is, she looks weird as crap. So I tried to fix her via "showracemenu". But this time I decided that I want to get a better look at her, and found a spot in front of a torch

And that's the magic I need. The lighting changed everything. I can quickly get Lady Luck to work and created "Second Try"

Here's how she looks in front of the said torch

[IMG]http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee187/Raestloz/Pic1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee187/Raestloz/Pic2.jpg[/IMG]

And this is how she looks at the center of the room:

[IMG]http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee187/Raestloz/ghost1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee187/Raestloz/ghostdown.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee187/Raestloz/ghostup.jpg[/IMG]

Those are the same character, yet they look so different under the different lighting

So, if you want to create a character that you'll be satisfied with, be sure to find the perfect lighting! Slow down the time if need be!

Yes, lighting during the character creation section is awful, and worse yet you don't get the "Are you sure you want to be this character?" re-prompt at the exit of Helgen, where lighting actually svcks less. Fortunately the showracemenu is relatively harmless at that point, though racial powers still get buggered.

I hope Live Another Life gets updated soon to play well with 1.5.

Agreed, lighting does make all the difference.