Hey everyone, here's my story about Halsin's face, if you're interested in the details
Spoiler:
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When I saw Halsin's face in the game for the first time, I was like, "wait, isn't he supposed to be an elf?" To me he looked like a human who happens to have pointy ears. I had to click on him to see his info and make sure that he really is what everyone in the game says he is. Halsin is lovely, one of my favorite characters (and romance options), but the weird facial disparity bothered me something awful - not because I thought he was ugly, but because some of his facial aspects didn't fit with how I imagine elven faces. Conversely, Jaheira is a senior half-elf and to my view she is designed beautifully, her entire character and appearance just hit the right spot in me.
At first I wanted to replace Halsin's head with another one, and asked for help from skilled modders to do that for me. I was lucky to find a wonderful person on Discord who did just that, out of pure friendliness. However, the end result had some animation issues because the head replacer was custom-made by another modder (Dufresne12 gave me permission to use Dorian from Vemperen's Heads). I didn't want to further bother the kind modder who was investing their time and effort to help me, while expecting nothing in return, so I gave up on that project.
Essentially, the replacement attempt was the last resort due to my own incompetence. It actually never sat well with me because I love key aspects of Halsin's default face, especially the facial animations that fit so well with his personality. All I actually wanted is to make him look more elven, not completely scrap his original looks, but I didn't possess the skills to do it myself. So after a few months of grappling with the hellish tool that is Blender (it was torture, believe me), I finally figured out how to use it. To my utter joy, I managed to "tighten" Halsin's face exactly according to how I imagined it. And if you look at the mod objectively, it is still obviously him. I didn't want to make him too youthful because I'm in love with his voice, it's so warm and mature, and there would be disparity if his face was completely "lore-friendly". For the sake of balance, I just tweaked his original face textures, so they still show wrinkles and maturity. And yes, rough and stressful life definitely plays a part in it.
Anyway, I consider this project a great success for me personally. Halsin has motivated me to learn how to use Blender, lol 😁 So I came out of this whole thing with valuable knowledge, and I'm able to freely share the fruits of my labor with others who might like it.
Also: The comment section will remain open, primarily because I want a way to communicate with people who have technical questions or issues about the mod, and I want to be there to help them. And thank you everyone for the kind words and moral support! 💖 There is nothing more gratifying for a modder than to know their creation is being enjoyed.
it took me an embarrasingly long time to finally figure out where to put the actual head file to get it to work in game, but i put the aged one in on accident instead of the smoother one in the main file that i wanted
the thing is i want your head mesh with the smoother texture from the main file in images but i dont know which file to use
do i use the head from the main file or the sharp teeth? also regardless of which one i pick it keeps giving me the aged version of halsin but i want the one with the smoother texture, but in the main file theres like 4 DDS files and im not sure which one im supposed to use as the names are : NM, HMVY, CLEA, and MSK
also where does the DDS file go? and where do i put GR2 file for the hair?
sorry for so many questions or if im overcomplicating it, ive only downloaded a loose file mod one other time so im still confused how it works lol
edit : ok so after moving things around im pretty sure im supposed to use the head mesh file from the sharp teeth file, not the main one? But still not sure how to change the texture bc its a DDS file not GR2 like the head mesh and i've no clue where that goes. I'm also confused where to put the hair GR2 file because theres no folder in my BG3 directory that says hair
edit 2 : okay i fear i am an idiot lol, i figured out the reason why i had no hair folder or no human folder was because i had to copy them over from YOUR file, and that they're not supposed to be there.
its working now and i got the textures i want thanks so much! i love this mod sm because it still looks like halsin but just younger and his face isnt as wide
for some reason I just cant get this one to work. so does it go in the larian studios folder? that one has folders Baldur's Gate 3, Data, and Launcher. Or in the baldur's gate 3 folder that also has like, dara, mods, global, script extender.. and i do i need to specifically extract to that location or just extract and then drag them in? does that matter? Sorry, im just new to modding besides just using BG3MM
Don't extract anything into Larian Studios folder. It's where the game is generating your save files, cache, arranging active mods from mod manager etc. Loose file mods go into Baldurs Gate 3 (that is its exact name). This is the game's main directory. Its location depends on how you've installed the game. For example, if it was via Steam, it's in Steam/ steamapps/ common/ Baldurs Gate 3. Since my loose files begin with the Data folder, and the directory contains the Data folder, you just match the pathing. Drop it where the Data folder is located (not into the Data folder). You won't go wrong.
ohhh... I was putting it in the wrong Baldurs Gate 3, it wasnt the one in steamapps, it was in appdata and then.. oh well. i have no idea. but it works now! Thank you!
I just had to comment because I saw your mod, saw the disclaimer, and thought that was so sad you felt you needed to add it in the first place! This mod is great; I had the exact same thoughts as you on seeing Halsin because of the same personal headcanon regarding elves. Other mods were not quite to my taste as (for me), whereas I feel your mod has struck a perfect balance - not too different, not too samey, just right! Thank you for sharing it and I hope there's no more negativity coming your way!
You started learning Blender specifically to give Halsin a facelift? If I hadn't recently joined the ranks of the unemployed I would throw money at you for being so dedicated.
When I first saw Halsin I had two reactions. My immediate one was "HOLY CRAP HE'S HUGE". Followed by my turning and asking my husband if I was playing Skyrim because "I don't care what you say! THAT IS CLEARLY A NORD!"
I haven't installed this mod on my most recent game because I'm already in Act 3. But next time.....oh yes! This one looks much better than the previous Halsin mod I had (Halsin Face Edit by Blackliquorice) which in screenshots looks good but when playing you can notice he's....not quite right.
You can install (and uninstall) this mod whenever you like, it's loose meshes and textures, it won't affect any of your saves. I tried Halsin Face Edit as well, but that modder's vision wasn't really compatible with mine. Maybe I'm just picky because I used to specialize in drawing portraits, my own view on facial construction and all that. Still, it is a functional mesh, so I appreciate the effort that went in it.
Oh, I know I can install and uninstall whenever I want to, but it seems a shame to give him a facelift for all of the twenty minutes he has left with my adorable Durge :p That's one of the reasons I figured I would wait until I start my next run. ^-^
You know....I just went roaming around out of curiosity and I didn't find people complaining about the Minthara face changer mods or the Jaheira de-aging mods. Wouldn't that be effectively the same thing?
It should be the same thing. I honestly don't know why my mod has received so much negativity, and those didn't, at all! I mean, I'm glad they didn't, I'm very happy for those modders, their work is great. If you figure out this mystery, let me know
It's because for some reason the female playerbase of BG3 is, put simply: incredibly toxic about SPECIFICALLY the elf party members (especially Astarion I mean GOOD LORD.) For no apparent reason? I've seen death threats over FANART at this point. And its always from women. Why? I don't know. It just is. I say this AS a woman, mind you. this is still beyond me. I mean I'm a Gale girlie myself and the only toxicity we really get is the Astarion and Halsin fans coming over to yell at us about how Gale is a creepy red flag. its something about the elf men, istg.
WOMEN 4 ELVES - t-shirt material 😂 But, seriously... that's disturbing. I'm a woman too, and I don't understand this behavior. Maybe them being elves isn't the main factor. Maybe unique circumstances of these characters are a "thing". Whatever it may be, it's not a reason to form a mob that bullies other people who don't see things their way. And I also mean those who oppose bullying. Arguing into infinity won't help anyone. It will only make us - the BG3 fanbase - seem unwelcoming and hostile. And that's a sad contribution to a beloved game.
Antagonistic comments here seem to have waned, at least for the time being, but I don't know what would happen if I engaged elsewhere in any sort of conversation regarding Halsin. I feel kinda "blacklisted" 😔 There's a Halsin appreciation channel on Down by the river discord, but because of all the traction on this mod, now I don't dare write a single word there. Among other things, I like writing fanfiction, and this game has given me a lot of inspiration, and exchanging impressions with others could only add to it.
I adore Halsin, I am frothing at the mouth, rattling the bars of my enclosure over Halsin. I love his vanilla face, I love this face.
What I'm basically saying is, y'all wanna start our own, unproblematic Halsin fan club? No death threats or bullshit allowed, just pure appreciations of this gorgeous tree trunk in all his forms.
The best remedy for feeling blacklisted is just to carry-on as usual. You don't have to accept others' emotional extortion, whoever they are [including me!] They'll move on to/ make some other "controversy" soon enough.
It's a bizarre modern phenomenon that people are so eager to be offended.
Can we get some clarification on the loose file install ? Do I just plop the extracted folder into Data ? (didn't work) Do I manually go and manually replace every single .GR2 and .DDS file ? (been just using BG3 ModManager)
You don't drop the extracted folder into Data, you drop it into BG3 directory - Baldurs Gate 3. You already have the Data folder in the mod files. Don't install with mod manager, these are loose files.
Oh sorry should had clarified; I've only ever installed mods with the manager. I didn't try to use this mod with the manager, I did drop it in my directory though. No difference unfortunately (and by directory I mean the other folders in there are " bin, Data, Launcher" etc.)
UPDATE:
I was doing it wrong. Everything works splendidly !!
141 comments
Conversely, Jaheira is a senior half-elf and to my view she is designed beautifully, her entire character and appearance just hit the right spot in me.
At first I wanted to replace Halsin's head with another one, and asked for help from skilled modders to do that for me. I was lucky to find a wonderful person on Discord who did just that, out of pure friendliness. However, the end result had some animation issues because the head replacer was custom-made by another modder (Dufresne12 gave me permission to use Dorian from Vemperen's Heads). I didn't want to further bother the kind modder who was investing their time and effort to help me, while expecting nothing in return, so I gave up on that project.
Essentially, the replacement attempt was the last resort due to my own incompetence. It actually never sat well with me because I love key aspects of Halsin's default face, especially the facial animations that fit so well with his personality. All I actually wanted is to make him look more elven, not completely scrap his original looks, but I didn't possess the skills to do it myself.
So after a few months of grappling with the hellish tool that is Blender (it was torture, believe me), I finally figured out how to use it. To my utter joy, I managed to "tighten" Halsin's face exactly according to how I imagined it. And if you look at the mod objectively, it is still obviously him.
I didn't want to make him too youthful because I'm in love with his voice, it's so warm and mature, and there would be disparity if his face was completely "lore-friendly". For the sake of balance, I just tweaked his original face textures, so they still show wrinkles and maturity. And yes, rough and stressful life definitely plays a part in it.
Anyway, I consider this project a great success for me personally. Halsin has motivated me to learn how to use Blender, lol 😁 So I came out of this whole thing with valuable knowledge, and I'm able to freely share the fruits of my labor with others who might like it.
Also:
The comment section will remain open, primarily because I want a way to communicate with people who have technical questions or issues about the mod, and I want to be there to help them.
And thank you everyone for the kind words and moral support! 💖 There is nothing more gratifying for a modder than to know their creation is being enjoyed.
the thing is i want your head mesh with the smoother texture from the main file in images but i dont know which file to use
do i use the head from the main file or the sharp teeth? also regardless of which one i pick it keeps giving me the aged version of halsin but i want the one with the smoother texture, but in the main file theres like 4 DDS files and im not sure which one im supposed to use as the names are : NM, HMVY, CLEA, and MSK
also where does the DDS file go? and where do i put GR2 file for the hair?
sorry for so many questions or if im overcomplicating it, ive only downloaded a loose file mod one other time so im still confused how it works lol
edit : ok so after moving things around im pretty sure im supposed to use the head mesh file from the sharp teeth file, not the main one? But still not sure how to change the texture bc its a DDS file not GR2 like the head mesh and i've no clue where that goes. I'm also confused where to put the hair GR2 file because theres no folder in my BG3 directory that says hair
edit 2 : okay i fear i am an idiot lol, i figured out the reason why i had no hair folder or no human folder was because i had to copy them over from YOUR file, and that they're not supposed to be there.
its working now and i got the textures i want thanks so much! i love this mod sm because it still looks like halsin but just younger and his face isnt as wide
Don't extract anything into Larian Studios folder. It's where the game is generating your save files, cache, arranging active mods from mod manager etc.
Loose file mods go into Baldurs Gate 3 (that is its exact name). This is the game's main directory. Its location depends on how you've installed the game. For example, if it was via Steam, it's in Steam/ steamapps/ common/ Baldurs Gate 3.
Since my loose files begin with the Data folder, and the directory contains the Data folder, you just match the pathing. Drop it where the Data folder is located (not into the Data folder). You won't go wrong.
When I first saw Halsin I had two reactions. My immediate one was "HOLY CRAP HE'S HUGE".
Followed by my turning and asking my husband if I was playing Skyrim because "I don't care what you say! THAT IS CLEARLY A NORD!"
I haven't installed this mod on my most recent game because I'm already in Act 3. But next time.....oh yes! This one looks much better than the previous Halsin mod I had (Halsin Face Edit by Blackliquorice) which in screenshots looks good but when playing you can notice he's....not quite right.
You can install (and uninstall) this mod whenever you like, it's loose meshes and textures, it won't affect any of your saves.
I tried Halsin Face Edit as well, but that modder's vision wasn't really compatible with mine. Maybe I'm just picky because I used to specialize in drawing portraits, my own view on facial construction and all that. Still, it is a functional mesh, so I appreciate the effort that went in it.
That's one of the reasons I figured I would wait until I start my next run. ^-^
You know....I just went roaming around out of curiosity and I didn't find people complaining about the Minthara face changer mods or the Jaheira de-aging mods. Wouldn't that be effectively the same thing?
If you figure out this mystery, let me know
I mean I'm a Gale girlie myself and the only toxicity we really get is the Astarion and Halsin fans coming over to yell at us about how Gale is a creepy red flag.
its something about the elf men, istg.
But, seriously... that's disturbing. I'm a woman too, and I don't understand this behavior. Maybe them being elves isn't the main factor. Maybe unique circumstances of these characters are a "thing".
Whatever it may be, it's not a reason to form a mob that bullies other people who don't see things their way. And I also mean those who oppose bullying. Arguing into infinity won't help anyone. It will only make us - the BG3 fanbase - seem unwelcoming and hostile. And that's a sad contribution to a beloved game.
Antagonistic comments here seem to have waned, at least for the time being, but I don't know what would happen if I engaged elsewhere in any sort of conversation regarding Halsin. I feel kinda "blacklisted" 😔 There's a Halsin appreciation channel on Down by the river discord, but because of all the traction on this mod, now I don't dare write a single word there. Among other things, I like writing fanfiction, and this game has given me a lot of inspiration, and exchanging impressions with others could only add to it.
What I'm basically saying is, y'all wanna start our own, unproblematic Halsin fan club? No death threats or bullshit allowed, just pure appreciations of this gorgeous tree trunk in all his forms.
It's a bizarre modern phenomenon that people are so eager to be offended.
Do I just plop the extracted folder into Data ? (didn't work)
Do I manually go and manually replace every single .GR2 and .DDS file ?
(been just using BG3 ModManager)
Don't install with mod manager, these are loose files.
I didn't try to use this mod with the manager, I did drop it in my directory though.
No difference unfortunately (and by directory I mean the other folders in there are " bin, Data, Launcher" etc.)
UPDATE:
I was doing it wrong. Everything works splendidly !!
...or who am I kidding just another excuse to pick it back up :)