How to CaW (CaWing 101)

[RaVeN_1515]

Hello Smacktalks Community! I'd like to share my advice for creating anyone in this years CaW mode. I know this may seem like a ridiculous post to most members, but this is primarily for players wanting to enter the CaW scene. I'm not the best CaWer by any means, but I do believe that everyone brings something different to the table and that everyone should be welcomed as an addition to the community regardless of their learning curve. I'll try to go over everything I know, and I'm sure I'll be editing this as I go to bring you the best information to answer all of your questions. I’ll begin with the basics.

 

 

The Difference Between Face Textures & Face Scans

• A Face Scan is simple. It’s a picture of someone’s face like the examples already in-game, you will want a detailed picture of a straight-forward face, without shadows, but containing noticeable features. (Strive for a face without a big grin. You want a relaxed straight face.)
• A Face Texture is pretty much the same thing, but stretched out because it’s meant to wrap around the face after you have morphed it.

While uploading images, you place Scans in the face area, but the textures in the 512x512 area for the most detail. In-game you choose the Scan in the face morphing section, and the textures will be found along with the rest of your logos. I will give examples of both below.

• Something to remember is if a texture is smaller than the full 512x512 size, you should consider keeping it small. If resized, it could distort the image. I'd suggest using your own judgement.

FACE SCAN:

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FACE TEXTURE:

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How to Properly Scan

• This is pretty simple. Line up the face within the outline that’s shown. It doesn’t have to be perfect, because you’ll be tuning it later, but try to line it up as close as possible for best results.
• The next step almost looks identical to the last. What you’ll be doing here is rotating the face if needed, and adjusting the height, and width of the head. (This can alter changes from the last step so be patient.)
• Now the next menu looks very similar to the normal face-morphing menu, but there’s one difference, The face scan is not permanently placed on the CaW’s face yet! If you change eye settings like height here, then you’ll probably see 4 eyes. Instead of trying to finely morph his face to perfection here, focus on lining up the facial features of the CaW to those of the scan. I use the dots as much as possible, and then tune with the bars before continuing. You don’t want Hairlines taking up half their forehead, or sideburns covering their cheeks, so play around with the face shape. (It doesn’t matter how goofy the face looks here. Your top priority is to match facial features!)Take your time, because once you leave this menu, you CANNOT change these settings again unless you start from scratch again!
• After finalizing the last menu, you can now morph the face how you’d like without the face scan moving away. (It will now move with your changes!) Have a phone, or laptop handy so that you can google pictures of the person you’re creating from all angles. Now it’s only a matter of morphing to perfection.

   

How to Apply a Face Texture

• Think of your textures as tattoos. They’ll act just like them. You place them right on top of the face. Line it up. Match up all the details. And follow up by blending if necessary.
• There are a few ways to blend. The best way is to use Photoshop or Gimp. Change the color of the texture if needed, and feather the edges, before re-uploading it and trying again. You can also use a logo like the oval and stretch it over the face and making it skin color. Try to have it follow the bottom of the jawline and right by the hairline while it’s fading. Then lowering the transparency until it blends well, but while keeping key features from the texture. (Some facepaints work well too.)
• UPDATE 1.05 now allows us to apply transparency to custom logos! Depending on how well the features from the texture matches up with the scan, you could simply do this instead of steps ahead! If not, please follow previous steps!

 

 

How to Create a Face Scan

Sometimes you may find yourself having trouble finding a face or a texture. I'll show you what I've just done for the first time myself. It may just help you. You will want some kind of photo editing software before continuing. Photoshop is probably used most, but Gimp is free and will work just as well. (I've always used Gimp without any issues.) I will have two faces below. They are the default faces of both, male and female CaWs. I removed oil to make your life a little easier. Your goal is to use this to line up facial features of whomever you're creating. It doesn't have to be perfectly morphed because you're only wanting features. Morphing comes after.

• Search for resources! It might be best to have a new folder on your desktop so that the downloaded images can easily be deleted later. You're looking for faces that would normally make great scans, but "un-useable" because of minor issues like fixable lighting, or smiles. If an eye, the mouth, nose, wrinkles, or any other parts of the image is good, then save the image! You can also search on Youtube for images. You'll be looking for promos, or vignettes most likely. If the video quality is good and you see a nice shot of their face, then pause, slow the video all the way down, and go frame by frame finding the perfect shot to add to the resource bin.
• Open the default face for the gender of CaW you are creating in your photo editing software. I've sized it already so you're ready to go hunting. It may not look like it now, but that's only because the sides of the images are transparent.
• Starting with one facial feature at a time, look through your resources to find the perfect.. nose, lets say. Once you have it, Cut it out using the free-form tool. Make sure to keep outlines like for the nostrils. And be sure to feather the edges so that it blends in best. That option should be under the free-form tool's settings. Paste it onto the default face, but as it's own layer. You will have to resize it, most likely change the color of it, and alter it's transparency to further blend it. (Lowering the transparency works very well while placing the pieces to line it up perfectly.)
• After you're content, rinse and repeat until you're face is complete. If necissary, you could also split the face down the center of the nose and mirror the image like I have done. I just wouldn't get in the habit of doing it. I'd imagine all faces wouldn't look good this way.
• If you see any lighting, or shadow issues, you can use your paintbrush to fix them. I would use the eyedropper tool to find a good sample of the skin color, and then paint it over the area that needs lightened/darkened. Just be sure to lower the transparency of the brush dramatically for best results. Try not to coat over it too many times as well.

I have created a face for Cody Hall to use as an example. I've also added a picture of the final result once it's in-game. Keep in mind that the morphing is not always going to look like the scan. You will want to change the head shape, as well as other morphs while looking at references later.

DEFAULT FACES:

Spoiler

FINISHED EXAMPLE:

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IN-GAME RESULT:

Spoiler

 

 

How to Create a Face Texture

Once you've found the perfect face worthy of scanning, you can take it a step further and create a texture. Sure it's not absolutely needed sometimes, but It behaves differently as mentioned above, and sometimes they look more incredible than the scans because of the detail that you have added. I have help explaining to you how to do this from EXecutionerX85. I will also have the steps below if you prefer to read them, but I highly suggest you check it out. It's worth a look.

I will be adding steps soon, although everything you need to know is in the video above.

 

How to Delete Logos to Free Space

• If you're having issues where you cannot download anything because you have too many logos, then please read this before thinking the worst! On the main menu, you can go to Logo Manager, which can be found under Downloads and Uploads. and press Triangle to bring up another menu. Scroll through, and select any logos you no longer need. They'll specify which logos are being used, and on what as well. Hope this saves some.. saves! 

 

Hopefully this helps! Feel free to ask questions. I'll answer them or maybe another can as well. I will look into instructional videos for creating textures next, so stay tuned!

Edited February 26, 2017 by RaVeN_1515

[Mizalike]

Great tutorial raven. This totally helps.

[mrelectriccity]

also when making a face scan upload u want the head to be about halfway of the pic and not close up

[Dbo2700]

Thank you for this! Just used the "face paint" trick. 

[RaVeN_1515]

Thanks! I'm still learning too. I know about textures for instance, but I'm garbage when it comes to making them.

[RaVeN_1515]

Updated! I've added a tutorial to create your own Face Scans incase you can't find a proper scan. After completing one, in theory, you shouldn't have a big issue creating a texture from one as well. I've posted a finished example, and it does look incredible in-game. I'll be posting pictures of the finished in-game model once completed so that you can see the possiblities. If anyone tries this method, or has tried it in the past please let me know what your thoughts are, and share your work if you'd like.

[RaVeN_1515]

EXecutionerX85's "How to create a face texture" instructional video has been linked for those interested. I'll be typing out steps soon.

[ItsVedaTime]

Im a little confused. On the part where you recolor, do you recolor the face texture to match the in game template you provided or do you match the template to the face youre importing?

[RaVeN_1515]

I would match the template to the import. Then match it ingame.