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About this mod
An attempt at making Isabela look a teensy little bit more like her DA:O self while improving her overall appearance texture-wise, thanks to Dalishious', Ellise's, honestRope's, Ascendia's and marquiseondore's work. Includes a matching retexture of her outfit (with pants!).
- Permissions and credits
- 20/10/2018: title changed.
- 28/12/2018: added a dark corset version of her regular outfit.
- 12/12/2019: added a requested version that allows you to cancel out the unique eye texture and revert to the vanilla eye tinting/texturing system, provided you use it alongside the zz_utc_isabela.erf file from the archive Ellise put together. You can read the "Method 2" section of her article for more detailed explanations.
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One of the (oh-so-many) things I don’t like in DA2 is the lack of continuity in character design. Isabela, who looks absolutely nothing like the woman we met at the Pearl, is a pretty good example of that. Her vanilla DA2 appearance really doesn’t do her justice, so I fiddled around with her facial features in the (very limited) CC and came up with something that I *think* looks a little bit more like what BioWare seemed to be going for when designing her Origins face. I also gave her:
- A darker skin tone, because poor Isabela’s skin got bleached between the two games (see her DA:O Toolset pic for reference). The difference in lighting between the two games (and between areas in DA2) makes it really hard to tell whether it’s good enough a match or not, so I hope I chose well. It comes from honestRope's Natural Skin and I've included it with my mod, since it's free to use with credit. I picked the darkest shade, but if you think I should have gone for a darker one, please tell me and I’ll see what I can do!
- A darker eye colour, because BioWare changed that too. The texture I edited is the same as the one found in Ellise’s Unique Textures and Dalishious’ HD Isabela.
- Better face textures, since I used slightly modified versions of Dalishious’ textures from the aforementioned HD Isabela mod.
- Pants! I used Dalishious’ high-res pants version of her outfit from the same mod and edited the skin so it matches the skin tone I gave her. I did my best but I'm no GIMP sorceress, so I apologise in advance if anything looks wonky.
Note that the hair Isabela sports on my screenshots is NOT included. It comes from vaelsmod and QuenchedSteel’s Isabela’s Curly Hair, and I strongly recommend you use it in conjunction with my mod (her vanilla Origins hairstyle just doesn't look right on her - nor does her DA2 hairstyle, IMHO). There are several options to choose from, so I haven't included it.
I know there’s already a mod that restores Isabela’s original facial structure, but I wanted to have a go at it nonetheless. :)
Isabela's face comes in two flavours:
- Version A, with a couple of piratey scars and scratches. This is the version you see on my screenshots.
- Version B, without said scars and scratches.
Installation
It's modular! Download the file(s) you want (keep in mind that you can only have ONE version of her face in your override folder), open up the .zip file and drop the .erf file into your override folder (usually located in My Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age 2\packages\core\override).
To uninstall, delete the unwanted files from your override folder.
Compatibility issues
Isabela’s face is (obviously) not compatible with mods that edit her face, such as Ellise’s Unique Face Textures for Companions.
Her outfit retexture isn't compatible with mods that alter her default armour. If you already use such a mod and don’t want to revert to a vanilla-ish version, only install her morph! Just keep in mind that using an outfit replacement that doesn't include a skin tint mask will likely result in Isabela's exposed body parts (if any) looking lighter than her face (and you probably don't want that).
Other than that, I don’t think there should be any other issues. Still, I haven’t tested it extensively, so there might be issues I’m not aware of.
Credits and thanks
- Dalishious, for retexturing Isabela’s outfit and complexion, and for giving me permission to use her work in my mod. Thank you! All textures used in my mod come from her HD Isabela mod.
- Ellise, for Isabela’s original face textures and for some of the textures I used for Isabela’s make-up mask.
- honestRope, as Isabela's skin tone comes from their Natural Skin mod. I also used the make-up mask fix from that mod as a guide when making Isabela’s.
- Ascendia, as I used her DAI Ciri complexion for Isabela’s cheek scar.
- marquiseondore for her NPC Presets, without which I wouldn’t have been able to tweak Isabela’s features.
- NewByPower for Dragon Age Face Replacer, which I used to replace Isabela's vanilla face with my version.
- Thought Process for the Erf Packager I used to pack up the mod.
- QuenchedSteel for the Easy Appearance Change Script, which I used to make sure Isabela's romance outfit looked okay.
Other mods shown on my screenshots
- Kani Hime’s vanilla skin texture replacements
- Pineappletree’s Vibrant Hair
- Ellise’s Ancestral Robes
- Ellise's HR Fenris Armour (he's not on my screenshots but that mod includes a file that also affects Isabela's romance token)
- vaelsmod and QuenchedSteel’s Isabela’s Curly Hair (I tweaked the texture a bit)
- vaelsmod's Ferelden Cuts (same texture tweak)
- LOTC's Hair Tints
- chasindcole’s much-needed Male Animations for All
- On my DA:O Toolset pic: Kani Hime's skin and hair retexture, SJC's Patchy Skin Fix, plus my personal eye and (crappy) eyebrow retexture.