Ithelia looks so weird

TaSheen · June 4

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

It certainly doesn't look like the redheaded woman on the login screen - though perhaps it was wrongly assumed (by me) that she is Ithelia?

im pretty sure thats supposed to be the "unnamed elven hero" based on the armor and such

Oh. That actually never occurred to me.... Well, I'm occasionally a total space cadet, you know!

Syldras · June 4

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

Britney Spears x Cher +

= Ithelia

When I was fishing on Vvardenfell today, I was very relieved that I didn't accidentally pull Ithelia out of the ocean.

carthalis · June 4

TaSheen wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

It certainly doesn't look like the redheaded woman on the login screen - though perhaps it was wrongly assumed (by me) that she is Ithelia?

im pretty sure thats supposed to be the "unnamed elven hero" based on the armor and such

Oh. That actually never occurred to me.... Well, I'm occasionally a total space cadet, you know!

Yes I think its the elven hero that's appeared in most of the trailers since the beginning

TaSheen · June 4

carthalis wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

It certainly doesn't look like the redheaded woman on the login screen - though perhaps it was wrongly assumed (by me) that she is Ithelia?

im pretty sure thats supposed to be the "unnamed elven hero" based on the armor and such

Oh. That actually never occurred to me.... Well, I'm occasionally a total space cadet, you know!

Yes I think its the elven hero that's appeared in most of the trailers since the beginning

I never watch the trailers - not my thing at all.

Lykeion · June 4

Just in the middle of Ithelia's quest. Not quite sure what I'm looking at...

Dojohoda · June 4

This is worse than exploding mounts on fire. Seriously, stick to ESO character models. How characters look in a game like this matters a lot.

ArchangelIsraphel · June 4

Syldras wrote: »

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

Britney Spears x Cher +

= Ithelia

When I was fishing on Vvardenfell today, I was very relieved that I didn't accently pull Ithelia out of the ocean.

Yes, there is now a new danger lurking in Tamriel's waterways. those Angelfish are known to be pretty spikey. XD

Lykeion wrote: »

Just in the middle of Ithelia's quest. Not quite sure what I'm looking at...

Green jello, I'd say. Definitely green jello.

Mephilis78 · June 4

colossalvoids wrote: »

Looks like a wealthy nibeneese princess that went on a spiritual journey to elsweyr for only 9.99k septims/month.

C_Inside wrote: »

Kinda looks like a female version of Snoop Dogg. Maybe in next year's expansion we'll get the man himself to complement this lady.

I think she looks like she's from India

Elvenheart · June 5

Luthivar wrote: »

Cher finally made it to Tamriel! Now she's truly omnipresent.

If I could turn back time….

ArchangelIsraphel · June 5

Elvenheart wrote: »

Luthivar wrote: »

Cher finally made it to Tamriel! Now she's truly omnipresent.

If I could turn back time….

If I could find a way
I'd take back that update that created you
And you'd play

Syldras · June 5

Lykeion wrote: »

Just in the middle of Ithelia's quest. Not quite sure what I'm looking at...

CameraBeardThePirate · June 5

TaSheen · June 5

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Whoever's Ithelia that is, ZOS should have used her.... AWESOME.

FelisCatus · June 5

Looks bloody awful, almost as if they are beta testing new graphics for TESO?

SilverBride · June 5

If you scroll in it looks like the face was photoshopped over a different one, only it's way too big for the body.

ArchMikem · June 5

TaSheen wrote: »

It certainly doesn't look like the redheaded woman on the login screen - though perhaps it was wrongly assumed (by me) that she is Ithelia?

That's the High Elf Hero thats been in all of the cinematic trailers.

TaSheen · June 5

ArchMikem wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

It certainly doesn't look like the redheaded woman on the login screen - though perhaps it was wrongly assumed (by me) that she is Ithelia?

That's the High Elf Hero thats been in all of the cinematic trailers.

Yes, I am now aware. Thank you.

BretonMage · June 5

Serpari wrote: »

Ithelia's character design doesn't fit the Elder Scrolls universe. That, I believe, is the core issue. She looks like your average Southern Californian model, balayage included.

I can't really judge not having the DLC yet, but yeah, from the images it looks like she spends way too much time in Sephora. If it's too late to change the character model now, they could at least tone down the contrasting lip liner and make her makeup more consistent with our fantasy world.

Alp · June 5

I'm no expert in anything. But I tried just making her features a bit smaller in photoshop while trying to figure out what felt off.

xclassgaming · June 5

meh i prefer it, makes her look like she doesn't belong...cos she don't!

SickleCider · June 5

She looks fine. I think everyone's gotten a bit Stockholm continuously looking at the same dozen or so uncanny face presets.

Dojohoda · June 5

Alp, you inspired me to make my own version of Ithelia. Best I could do.

Soarora · June 5

SickleCider wrote: »

She looks fine. I think everyone's gotten a bit Stockholm continuously looking at the same dozen or so uncanny face presets.

There's objective problems with her face. I pointed this out on a PTS feedback thread: there's no light in her eyes, her eyelids are wiggly (they should be "(" shaped, there's no other shape for an eyelid crease to be), and her lips don't move correctly with her mouth.

Edit: not to mention her eyeliner goes down way too far unless she prefers to wear it that way. It's not even at the top of her lower eyelid.

Belegnole · June 5

You think Ithelia looks bad, what about the Gryphon Luminary?

SickleCider · June 5

Soarora wrote: »

SickleCider wrote: »

She looks fine. I think everyone's gotten a bit Stockholm continuously looking at the same dozen or so uncanny face presets.

There's objective problems with her face. I pointed this out on a PTS feedback thread: there's no light in her eyes, her eyelids are wiggly (they should be "(" shaped, there's no other shape for an eyelid crease to be), and her lips don't move correctly with her mouth.

Edit: not to mention her eyeliner goes down way too far unless she prefers to wear it that way. It's not even at the top of her lower eyelid.

To be fair, I don't have access to PTS, so I'm going by screenshots. Based on what you said it sounds like there may be animation anchoring issues. 🤔 That would be an objective problem!

To me, it looks like the thing with her eyeliner is that she didn't fill in the wet line. But, if you've got a better view of it and can attest the texture is misaligned, fair enough.

I tend to be a bit taciturn with my comments. To clarify, I disagree with the people who just don't like her face because her features aren't narrow enough or something.

Soarora · June 5

SickleCider wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

SickleCider wrote: »

She looks fine. I think everyone's gotten a bit Stockholm continuously looking at the same dozen or so uncanny face presets.

There's objective problems with her face. I pointed this out on a PTS feedback thread: there's no light in her eyes, her eyelids are wiggly (they should be "(" shaped, there's no other shape for an eyelid crease to be), and her lips don't move correctly with her mouth.

Edit: not to mention her eyeliner goes down way too far unless she prefers to wear it that way. It's not even at the top of her lower eyelid.

To be fair, I don't have access to PTS, so I'm going by screenshots. Based on what you said it sounds like there may be animation anchoring issues. 🤔 That would be an objective problem!

To me, it looks like the thing with her eyeliner is that she didn't fill in the wet line. But, if you've got a better view of it and can attest the texture is misaligned, fair enough.

I tend to be a bit taciturn with my comments. To clarify, I disagree with the people who just don't like her face because her features aren't narrow enough or something.

Fair enough! I agree her facial features themselves aren't the problem, it's that her design is so extremely different than other NPCs and the objective issues with her texturing. Her looking different from the typical art style of ESO can be chalked up to "well she's a Daedric Prince", she may have no lights in her eyes and be so high res to be creepy on purpose, but if this is the case I feel like ZOS should confirm this and the way her mouth moves and the eyelid crease is just her texture isn't fitting right on her face which I don't think can be excused.

AD_Tuggo · June 5

I had to go on travel and couldn't play the expansion yet. Thanks though.

Soarora · June 5

IMG_6208.png?ex=66614af2&is=665ff972&hm=758d7b11af3947172d4d0a8387beb83c983f45cfed5aac84d0e494896fc12487&

Here, taking an image from the original post and taking inspiration from Alp I've edited what Ithelia looks like into what she should look like given her model. I achieved this by:
- opening her eyelids, I know she's not all there but she's not high
- reshaped her eyelids to be shaped correctly
- made her eyes face the same direction, which was the biggest problem in this screenshot
- I removed the outline around the lips. I know real lips have an outline but it doesn't help the problem. Besides, if she has eyeliner she can have lip liner - actually ended up just reducing the outline, it's still there but it isn't overpowering.
- I removed her teeth peeking through her lips
- The second image I added a highlight, the third image is the exact same without the highlight. Without the highlight she looks uncanny but at least looks decent

I tried to keep her features the same. Her eyes are a little closer together since I tried to make her eyes face the same way, but it's not a huge difference.

Edit: I did it again! This time from Plada's screenshot (post #11)
IMG_6210.png?ex=666153fc&is=6660027c&hm=bcdba3887fe7597b3d574a23139625bf539a603b0f406ab43b562428827905eb&

IMG_6210.png?ex=666153fc&is=6660027c&hm=bcdba3887fe7597b3d574a23139625bf539a603b0f406ab43b562428827905eb&

I'm not good when it comes to mouths but here I brightened her teeth, tucked them up behind her lip (which I also reduced the outline on like the other set), and also added her canines. This time I also brightened her eyes and of course opened her eyelids and made her eyes face the same direction.

In the third one I added the highlights, softened + added some shadows, and also made her markings glow because it bothers me they don't glow.

ArchangelIsraphel · June 5

@Soarora Great job! That improves her appearance immensely. Especially the alterations to the direction of her pupils and the added highlight.

The other thing that bothers me about her is that the size of her head is very, very out of proportion to her body. That or the disproportionate narrowness of her shoulders is making it look that way. Human bodies just...don't work like that. I know she's a daedric prince but...y'know... XD

Her hands also seem way too large for her arms.

There's just so many strange proportional issues with the entire character model. It's not really about her -looks- per-se, but just...anatomical issues.

E_Lucan · June 5

Yeah, this was the first thing I noticed when I started playing the new chapter. And don't get me wrong - I have no issue with them giving her different features, this game's a decade old, I'm not opposed to more features being added, but to me it feels like they didn't really do all the work required for the features to work like they do on other NPCs.

Also, under the spoiler is a screenshot of what she looks like for me in one of the 'memories' in the early parts of the main quest, just for context for what I'm commenting on:

My two main issues are firstly her eyes, which, besides lacking the eye shine (as was mentioned here before), also seem to be lacking certain animations that most other NPCs have, or they're buggy and just look weird, because when I look at other NPCs during dialogue (Leramil and Naryu of the recent ones), I could swear they feel so much more expressive. There were certain moments in just that first quest I did where Ithelia's VA was delivering a very emotional line, and the expression on the model was completely blank. You could argue that she's not meant to be expressive due to who she is, but then the mismatch between the very emotional delivery and the expression is even stranger.

But my biggest issue, especially with the version of Ithelia I showed in that screenshot, is the hair. I looked back at the cinematic trailer and I can see what they were going for, but I feel like they just didn't get it right. I have all graphics as high as they can go, and the hair still looks like a mass of colour with beads randomly positioned into it - the braids stick out at random and don't even look to be attached to the rest of it. The way the hair is styled also looks much less elegant (idk how she looks later on mind you, I've only done this first quest so far) and makes me think less of the Ithelia from the trailer and more of women's fashion at 2015 outdoor music festivals lol.

One really minor thing that also irks me is that they converted the more 3d, metallic belt from the trailer into a flat brown-ish one when there are metallic textures available in the game - it just makes her outfit look so weirdly flat. Her tattoos are also much less extensive and also flat-coloured, but I assume that might change later on?