At the same time that I was making Kaius, I was also working on his companion, Viconia DeVir, a character from Baldur’s Gate. In that game, she’s a neutral evil drow elf cleric and appears to have a somewhat unpleasant personality. In the crossover fic I’m taking her from, if anything she is even more difficult.
Depicting her is going to be a challenge: She’s a black-skinned, white-haired drow elf. She’s scarred everywhere and has obviously known combat. And– She’s supposed to be jaw-droppingly beautiful. Not just beautiful to Kaius, but so beautiful heads turn and all conversation goes silent. Hmm.
So I asked for a little bit more guidance, and this is what I got:
I did not find either of these images particularly inspiring. Nor did they seem to give any hint as to her personality thus far.
Then the author sent over a drawing his wife had done of Viconia:
Look at that– isn’t it lovely? There’s a lady with lots of personality, right down to that homicidal little gleam in the eye. But there’s also that apprehension and sense of wonder. Perfect.
This is the first version of Viconia:
If you’re thinking ‘Oh god what is that thing’– just remember. Female elves. Not pretty without lots of help.
Here’s a female elf after a few face-changing mods and skin mods:
Still not the best. I decided to get the body taken care of and get back to that.
The first thing I started to work with was her normal maps.
As I’ve covered, the normal map is the layer of textures that shows all the crevices and bumps of the body surface that are too finely detailed to be shown in the mesh. Viconia’s normal map is important, because she is very combat-capable, but she is not heavily muscled or ripped. I didn’t think the last two would suit, given the references to her stunning and universally-appreciated beauty.
So I got the idea for this from blogger and mod author Marmotte, whose Kissimax has a wonderfully built body. I put two or three different mods together Female Muscle Mod was definitely one of them to make this:
After all of this I realized I could have just used Fitness Body and tinkered with its options, but c’est la guerre.
We now have some muscles with good veining on the legs and arms, but the smooth skin which goes along with a reasonable body fat percentage. Viconia’s in excellent condition.
I’m not sure what that skin mod this is in the above shots, but I believe it to be Fair Skin Complexion, which is generally what I use for tests because it is very consistent. These were just the trial pics for the normal map, though you can see a preview of Viconia’s eventual face and hair color.
I believe these were the standard UNP body. I didn’t like some things about it, particularly the slope of the chest muscles above the breast.
So I went back and asked the author: What do we think her body will look like? Is she slim, or muscular and husky? The suggestion I got was that she’s supposed to look like those old Boris Vallejo paintings. I can find that preset: Goddess–UUNP Bodyslide Preset. Note there is a CBBE one out there which is nowhere near as quality.
The top photo is the UNP body; the bottom photo is the Goddess bodyslide. I think the most apparent thing her is the muscle development in the thighs and calves.
Top is UNP, bottom is the Goddess preset.
Top is UNP, bottom is Goddess preset.
There appears to be some difference in the slope of the breast and the underlying pectoral muscle. And the buttocks appear much more defined. I dunno. It seems like a subtle difference, but I did like it better.
Viconia’s at weight .4, since her facial features are taken from a mesh and a preset set at that weight, and it’s just easier to not mess with that. My original intention was to have her weight set someplace between .2 and .5, so that she would indeed look somewhat muscular, so I felt that .4 would do.
Next up: Face and skin.
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