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Should I use your mod or the High Poly Head mod?
High Poly Head and Freyja do different things. High Poly Head provides a higher poly version (meaning a more detailed version with more vertices) of the original Skyrim head mesh. This means that while the new head mesh is smoother and allows for finer tinkering in (e.g. in the RaceMenu mod), it still uses the ugly vanilla head mesh as a base, and therefore it still suffers from the weird proportions and plain ugly shapes of that mesh. (This is no attack on the author of that mod, she/he did great work.)
Freyja takes a different approach. Its female head mesh does not rely on the original one. It was created from scratch by me, and therefore, it has none of the original vanilla ugliness. Furthermore, I provide new race morphs, CharGen morphs and animation morphs, resulting in more beautiful faces for all female characters and more expressive animations.
So, in short:
Use High Poly Head if:
- you like the vanilla face, the vanilla race appearances and the vanilla customisation options (noses, eyes, lips, etc.)
- you like to tinker with lots of vertices in sculpt mode of the RaceMenu mod
- you are very attached to High Poly overhauls of vanilla NPCs
- you want a more detailed version of the vanilla mesh
Use Freyja if:
- you want better looking female characters and NPCs out of the box
- you do not want to be dependent on NPC Overhauls that "fix" the ugly head meshes of NPCs
- you want beautiful, normal-looking elves, orcs, humans and vampires
- you don't like (most of) the eyes, noses, lips options provided by the vanilla game
- you want a solid basis to build your own female characters/NPCs on
- you want a new, more beautiful face mesh with new eyes, race appearances, customisations and animations
- you want a tool to instantly beautify every NPC in every mod with a few clicks in the Creation Kit
Is this mod lore-friendly?
Short answer: Yes.
Longer answer: Depends on your definition of lore-friendliness. Since the races (mostly) maintain their race characteristics, the customisation options are somewhat similar to the original ones, the animations fit and the characters still look like women, I would say yes.
However, there are a few things to note: With Freyja, the women look more beautiful. Their eyes are bigger and set lower, their faces have more pleasing proportions, and their appearance overall is more delicate and idealised. Also, they look more similar to each other, since I took a more conservative (and more sensible) approach to the sliders and customisation options. (No more NPCs with mouths down on their chins and eyes up in their hairline, no more weird-looking eyes, noses and lips.)
Additionally, there are a few notable changes to the races:
- Starlings and Aeterna (elves) look more normal - no weird eyebrows, pointy chins and emaciated faces
See the images for comparisons with the original faces and decide for yourself if Freyja is lore-friendly enough for you.
Should I use your mod or Botox for Skyrim?
Freyja and Botox for Skyrim do different things. Botox for Skyrim is an NPC FaceGenData replacer (so you can't use it for Enderal directly). However, with the patcher, you can create new FaceGenData for your Enderal NPCs. This does not alter animations, CharGen or Race morphs however. It does not affect the player character or any NPC you haven't exported the FaceGenData for.
In contrast, my mod is a NIF and TRI file replacer. It replaces the building blocks for the female head meshes, meaning that each and every woman (player character and NPC) will be affected (from both Skyrim and Enderal). Furthermore, my mod provides new animations, new CharGen and race morphs, and it includes several fixes for the meshes (see "Incorporated fixes" in the "Compatibility" article).
Decide which one you want to use for yourself. If you want something that affects ALL female characters (player and NPCs) and has new animations, CharGen and race morphs, choose Freyja. Also, if you use an ENB, I suggest you use Freyja, because my meshes have been optimised for ENBs.
If you want something that just changes the faces of the NPCs you patch, use Botox for Skyrim. (Technically, you can also use both. The NPCs will be using the FaceGenData that loads last.)
I don't like how certain races look. Can you make options to exclude them from your mod or can you make them look more like vanilla?
No. I don't do commissions, my mod comes as is, and I like how it looks.
Furthermore, since all the races share the same files, it is impossible to overhaul one race but not another. I would have to alter the existing race morph, and it takes time and effort to create a race morph that looks good and works well with all of the CharGen options and animation morphs, not even mentioning all of the adjacent additional meshes that need to be adjusted to fit the new morph.
So no, I won't provide race morphs (or CharGen and animation morphs for that matter) that look more like their vanilla counterparts (like ugly Starlings and Aeterna). This is my mod. If you want the races to look like vanilla, just use vanilla. This mod is for everyone else who wants something different.
What is the difference between your mod and other NPC overhauls?
Regular NPC overhauls change an NPC's appearance by adjusting sliders and choosing different eye/nose/lips options for them. Furthermore, sculpting the exported FaceGenData of each individual NPCs seems to be another, more detailed approach.
Freyja is not a NPC overhaul per se, since it doesn't alter any NPCs directly. It replaces the NIF and TRI files that act as building blocks for the female NPCs' head mesh (FaceGenData). This leads to their appearance being altered when their FaceGen data is exported with Freyja activated.
The comparison pictures in the images tab do show the same characters with the same customisation options (nose, lips, ...), only first with the original NIF and TRI files (left side) used to build the head mesh (FaceGenData), and second with Freyja's NIF and TRI files (right side) used to build the head mesh. The difference lies in the construction parts, not in the customisations. This is also why Freyja does not come with an ESP file - no NPC record has been altered.
In addition to that, since Freyja changes the underlying building blocks of the female head appearance, the player character as well as any other female character/NPC created by any mod is affected by Freyja and benefits from its visual improvements. It is therefore possible to instantly beautify any female character from any mod with one click in the CK.
TL;DR: Freyja changes the building blocks for female character's head appearance (FaceGenData), not the female characters themselves. It therefore affects any and all female characters (base game and modded).
Is there a male version?
There is! You can find it here.
I like your work! What are you currently working on, and is there a way to support you?
Thank you! I am currently working on a children's version of this mod, so a children's face overhaul.
If you want to send me a couple of bucks, you can do so via my PayPal. Any help is appreciated.