Status Update: Makeup!

Heya everyone! I apologize for my bit of inactivity which may continue for a little while longer! I wanted to provide an update as to what I've been up to and what I've been working on. Lately, I've been trying harder to get better at making custom makeup overlays! As some of you may know, for a long time I've had a single custom overlay that I use for almost all of my characters. However, as I continue to grow my skillset and try to create higher quality characters, I figured it was time to spend some more time learning how to translate applying makeup in real life to creating overlays for my girls. And I think I've made some good progress!

Going forwards, I plan on creating custom makeup overlays for each of my characters, or at least creating a larger variety of different makeup overlays to fit different looks and styles. I've already practiced making a few as well as a few characters to test them on, and I'll probably keep practicing making them for the foreseeable future. I might not always be releasing the characters that I've been making for practice as I feel there is room for improvement and I don't want to release anything that I am not happy with in that moment, but I do understand if patrons feel a bit miffed about having dry spells, so as a compromise I would be willing to release characters that I work on if there's an understanding that those releases will have far fewer renders made for them with no bios/personalities, as I won't be dedicating time to designing those aspects at the moment. I know it may seem like I'm cutting back on content but I promise it'll be worth it in the end! Additionally, even once I reach a level I'm happy with, it may mean that characters take a bit longer to release as I'll be spending more time customizing them with their own personal makeup!

Just as an example of how much of a difference it can make (in case any of you doubted me), please check out this character I was working on!On the far left is no makeup at all. Notice how bare and flat she looks? The middle photo is using the makeup options included in game, which is eye shadow, blush, lipstick, and the two face paint options to achieve the aegyo-sal effect. If you don't know what that is, it's the slight under eye shadow which makes the eyes look a bit puffier. Very common in east Asia and a must if trying to create Korean/Japanese/Chinese girls (it's me, I'm trying to make those girls). This one doesn't look bad at all, especially thanks to Freelancer's amazing eye makeup mods. Lastly on the far right is an example of my custom makeup overlay, which when compared to the middle, creates a much fuller and textured look for the skin. I added more makeup for the eyes, including deeper aegyo-sal and black eyeliner. This overlay also includes some contour shading for the nose and cheeks, which overall contribute to the face looking much prettier and fuller than without, in my opinion. Amazingly, the only difference between these three shots is the makeup. Crazy how much of a difference it makes, right?

If there's enough interest, I would be happy to showcase a bit of my process for creating these overlays in case anyone wants to make their own! For anyone wanting to take their character creation to the next level, this is definitely one way to do it!

As another bonus, I made a cute and sexy little group shot to serve as eye candy while I continue working on my girls. This group has three different makeup overlays used, one with a darker colored aegyo-sal, one with really smoky and dark eyeshadow, and one with a very pink and bright palette. Can you spot which one is which?

I think these are still imperfect but I think I'm steadily improving, and my dream of making the perfect Asian beauty is getting more realistic! Which one is your favorite? I might keep them to make more photoshoots with later, and, based on the contents of the recent poll, there may be some interest in some naughty renders with them 👀

That's all for now but I'll be back soon with a character release once I'm happy with the quality of the work! Thank you for your continued patience and don't forget, my DMs are always open!

-Honoka