editing charecter faces

[Oddball]

I was wondering how to make some of the character faces look older. I don't want someone to do it for me, I'd like to try it for myself, and if I fail miserably I'll ask for someone to help. Though right now, I'd like to try it myself

 

[Ms Littlefish]

If you're using the generator you can build faces using the individual parts inside a photo editor such as GIMP or Photoshop. That's what I do when using the generator parts. You could then use the transform tool (or the equivalent) to change the size and proportions of the face (especially the giant eyes). If you have an example of some of your faces I'd be more than happy to suggest edits to make them look older. 

 

[Oddball]

ou of the default faces is what i'm trying to do. I want to make the blonde girl with the ponytail look 20. And the girl with the greenish-blue hair with the flower in it, wearing what looks like a kimono look 18

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Oh so you're wanting to use the RTP faces? That I would not be able to help with. You might want to make a post in the resource request thread. There are either suitable edits already available or someone may take up the request. 

 

[Makio-Kuta]

Personally I think most of the RTP characters already look like they could convincibly pass for 18 or 20. (anywhere in the 15-30 range really) I'm at work right now and I can't double check which actors you are referring too, but if it the ones in my head I'm not sure they really need much changes.

Personal opinion there though lol that aside,

What do you mean when you ask 'how?' What are good programs to use? What techniques within a specific program could you apply? The question is a bit vague.

 

[Oddball]

What do you mean when you ask 'how?' What are good programs to use? What techniques within a specific program could you apply? The question is a bit vague.

both sound good

 

[Makio-Kuta]

Well, again, to me these characters already look like they could pull that age off, so it's hard for me to give specifics on what to change about them. You're certainly going to want to use a program like GIMP, Photoshop, or Sai and make your changes by hand with a brush tool.


I can't speak for GIMP, as I've never used it, but between Photoshop and Sai, for this I would say Photoshop is better. If only because Photoshop's brush tool has a naturally more aliased line that I find matches the art on the face pictures a bit better. ((Even though I prefer Sai overall between the two - its lines are just TOO clean for this))


Make yourself a new layer to draw any changes you make on, so you can easily see the original and your edits by making that layer invisible. Make your changes. You'll want to use the eyedrop tool extensively and I use a 1px brush (if you are working on the 96x96 face set image and not the fullsized bust art I mean)


The eyedrop tool will ensure you keep with using the same colours as the original image. Also, but drawing on a new layer you can easily erase changes you decide you don't like, or eyedrop colours that you've covered over.


Here is an example. I did not try to make her look older (as again, to me she always easily passes as 20 as far as anime art goes) but I tried to give her a face that suggested a more mature character compared to her original expression:


Original:

Edit:

What I drew to change it:

So again, the third image is what was on my second layer and what I drew to turn the 1st image into the 2nd.

 

[Shaz]

I'm moving this to Resource Requests. Even though you want someone to explain how to do it so you can do it yourself, you are requesting help with resources (and this is where I post when I want someone to "show me")

 

[Oddball]

thanks. Although i'd like to know how to make them look older, because I want to do a flashback sequence to the day she left her hometown to reveal some very releveant information in that part of the story... and of course, with 5 years passing, there's going to be some aging.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

Well, decide what features to you make someone look around those ages that these images are lacking. Or you could do the reverse and try to make them look younger.


you could also simply try to make them different rather than just aim for 'older.' Maybe their hair grew longer, so you could give the younger portrait shorter hair. Or vise versa, maybe when she gets older she wants to keep her hair shorter. (That's randomly a common trend I notice among girls.) Maybe it's changed something personality wise that would make her expression be different between the younger and older versions of herself. Maybe her outfit changed. In around those ages, 5 years can make a big difference on what fits and what doesn't.


In order to decide how your character changed appearance wise from the age of 15 to the age of 20, you'll really have to look at your character and draw those conclusions based on how they changed as a person over those five years and find creative ways to implement that in their design. I think that would have a greater effect on the player as well, and they could use those visual clues given between 15y/o and 20y/o to help them infer what happened to her over those 5 years.

 

[Oddball]

that's actually very helpfull. thank you

Edit: I still need to know how to make her look older

 

[Sharm]

Let's see, ways that people look different between 15 and 20.  That's a difficult range to show age differences in artistically.  Most of the changes are in the body, not the face.  Things like broader shoulders, more curves, more muscle definition and so on.  The face can possibly get a little more angular, loosing the last of the baby look and showing bone structure.  You might get a longer face depending on the person.  Noses and ears never stop growing so the older you get the longer they are, though the difference probably wouldn't be noticeable in just 5 years.  Makio-Kuta's right, the majority of differences are going to be the way life experience shows on them, not any physical change.