Beauty is skin deep...

...but ugly goes to the bone.

I recently stumbled over a post that detailed the 'uglies' of AVN's of which the below image of Emily was given as an example:

Now many of you that have played Dreams of Reality will understand the reason for the skin texture that's used on the model, and also why her appearance changes depending on your insanity in game. She is, after all, an imperfect recollection of the MC's memory.

However, the model itself is sound. The fault does not lay with the asset(s) used, only with the artist's use of them.

This image was created two years ago. Back then I had only a basic understanding of how to light scenes. I was still getting to grips with posing characters and using depth of field. The underlying reason why this character looks ugly is because the image itself is ugly.

The head is twisted at an un-natural angle due to the use of a 'look at camera' script that doesn't always obey the limits of joints. This same script is why her eyes are slightly crossed and give her a somewhat dumb expression.

The lack of any additional scene lights mean that the auto-headlamp (that should always be disabled) came into play, this gives the image a flat and lifeless look and feel to it. This is also why her teeth look disgusting and why her eyes have the pin prick light in them.

Two years ago, post work was a dirty word. I didn't understand it, so I didn't do it. To me, post work was using the spot healing tool to remove black lines or poke through on clothing, the idea of colour correcting, adding glows or softening edges - It was something others did. Not me.

In short, this render is shit. But at the time, I didn't know any better. I decided that some of these scenes from Chapter One need to be redone. Two years ago I was rendering via CPU, now I have a GPU and can allow better convergence of the image. Now I have a much stronger understanding of setting up lights, posing characters and trying to remove the lifeless look in their eyes.

I will not remove the acne from her skin. It is part of who Emily is, but with a little time, patience and love I can make the image closer to 'acceptable'.

The above is the same shot, but corrected. Improved. Refreshed. Given (what is now) my own style of post work.

The scene is lighter over all. There are shadows adding definition where needed, the correct eye light gives life to her face, and the adjustment of her body to the side gives her a more natural pose. Additionally, the tilt of the camera provides a more realistic feel to the view you as the MC would have.

Is this image perfect? No, of course not. If I had the time and hardware, I could render images with a much higher level of detail. But I feel there is now a better balance between my hardware limitations, and my skill as an artist.

Both of these aspects can be improved upon, the artist side of me is always looking and researching new ways of doing things.  Hardware improvements will come with time.

Finally, something else I wanted to touch on and that's the use of alternative camera angles. This is something you will notice more in Chapter Three when comparing it with Chapter One. These 10 images of Emily in the car are a prime example. After a while the scene becomes boring, even though she may be moving her head, the camera is static.

Breaking the images up into different camera angles - even though it breaks the 'first person' point of view, keeps the scene flowing, keeps it visually interesting.

Does this mean I'll be redoing all of chapter one? No. I do not have the time to do that - it would probably take a good 3-4 months of work and I want to always move this project forward. And, frankly, not every image from chapter one is bad and needs changing. The large majority of them are perfectly fine, but there are some that suffer from the lack of experience I had. Strangely, most of these seem to feature Emily.

It doesn't, however, mean that I wont change a few of the images to update them to match the quality that I want. These 10 images from Emily's car scene have been updated and will be present in the next game update.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Do you agree with me? Do you prefer the newer images over the old? Are there any images that stand out as needing my attention?

As always, stay safe.

Cenc