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I am temporarily putting the contest on hold due to health issues
This isn't so much a tip or trick as it may end up being a blogpost of sorts. A few months ago while cruising around some of my favorite in world stores I saw some in store signage of a model wearing the store's clothes with a huge cheeky grin on her face. "What new Bento head is this??" I first thought. I checked the latest news on Bento mesh heads and didn't see much. Cut to a few weeks ago and I finally made the connection that those pictures we're using a mobile app named FaceApp.
Faceapp became wildly popular actually quite a ways back. Mostly because of it's age filters, gender swap filters, and most of all its ability to face swap. Some users even found a way to 'Face Swap' with their pets which led to many hours hours of gigglesnorts one night here in the Kira household. And someone was clever enough to figure out this also worked with virtual avatars, and especially Second Life Avatars.
So I immediately went back to some of my favorite pinups and decided to see what it would look like. And wow... I really liked some of the results! I learned very quickly that quality of the results largely depend on the quality that you put into the picture. It does NOT work for every picture or even every face. And there are some things you can do using in world face posing Huds like the incredibly useful Lelutka Axis Face Hud. I talked about using the Lelutka hud in my previous 'tips and tricks' post which you can find here.
After a few experiments and talking about my new very late to the party discovery I learned something else about Faceapp. Citizens of SL are very divided on it. Which I will talk about briefly towards the end of this post. But first... I'll go over some of the things I discovered to get that quality pic into Faceapp in order to get a quality pic out of it.
First, I took a standard selfie with no changes. Then using the Lelutka Axis Face Hud I edited ONLY the mouth in order to get a few possible emotions. Now it was time to break out FaceApp to see what I could get.
The first test. First off there are many settings in the "Smiles" section of Faceapp but the only three I find worthwhile are the 'Tight' smile, the 'Classic' smile, and the 'Wide' smile. One thing you should notice right away is this is not copy and pasting a generic smile onto your face. It actually changes your facial structure just a bit. My cheeks puff our more with the wider the smile, as well as the eyes narrowing every so slightly. The app does seem to take care to match things like how shiny your lips are, the shade, and the lighting. I'm pretty pleased with this very basic first try.
Next is the 'Smirk'. Its easy to see that the crooked mouth stayed in varying degrees through the various smiles. I love this because it invites the possibility of giving some very mischievous looks. This is also a great demonstration on how what you start with can effect the outcome. Knowing this and understanding that fact gives a new toolkit to use in your Pin-Up arsenal of techniques.
This is one of my favorite things to do. The pouty lips. Depending on the mood I'm working to achieve I won't touch the pouty look. It's sexy, and inviting, and mischievous in a completely different way than above. But as you can start to see with the comparisons, Faceapp doesn't improve everything. In the 'Tight' smile: what the hell is that on my upper lip?? Conversely though, you can see in the wide smile that since the original pic already began with my mouth just partly open, the wide smile is that much more open as well. Unlike the first comparison you can begin to see my bottom row of teeth. Now I know what to do if I want a creepy gender swapped Joker cosplay complete with wicked grin!
'Tight': ACK KILL IT WITH FIRE!! As I mentioned before what you get out of it greatly depends on what you put into it. Trying to make a tight lipped smile out of an open mouth source pic leads to... um... interesting... consequences. The 'wide' smile in this pic still looks really off to me as well but I really liked out the 'classic' smile turned out. It's really hard not to smile along with a face like that! That's a face ready for Beach Blanket Bingo!
With everyone concentrating on smiles and other Faceapp abilities I actually think its greatest benefit is often forgotten. And that's what it can do to improve hair. The app lets you apply multiple effects on top of one another so you can really do wonders at making your hair look fantastic. Even if you choose not to use Faceapp to improve a smile, it can go a very long way at making your hair fabulous!
While I have gone through a lot of effort to provide some comparison so new users can have an idea of what to expect, There are many factors that can change the outcome. Lighting... the angle and tilt of your subject's head. If you want to start using it, just remember to take your time and explore. Now onto the final bit.
Back to the Beginning. To Faceapp, or not to Faceapp. The thing about photography and specifically Pin-up in Second Life is that it is very much a subjective art form. Altering pics in this manner isn't for everyone. And that's okay. Now that I've explored the limits and capabilities I will actually probably use Faceapp less. Because, come on... that pouty look? That's a tough look to beat.
I know a few who think it's just a tad too creepy. And I agree. Overuse or using it in the wrong instance can come up with some truly janky pics. Notice how I did not post any pics from the Kissy face comparison. That's for a reason!
In short, it's not for everyone. But if you want to use it. Then by all means use it. If not. Then don't. It's a wonderful thing that we all can express ourselves in different ways and through different means. And there isn't a wrong way. Its one of the things that makes life beautiful. And makes Pin-up sexy as hell. So keep being beautiful out there everyone and I hope to see you all soon and all your wonderful pics!
~Kira
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