Je voudrais savoir, car je suis curieux et interréssé par l'histoire du costume, sur quelle époque, quelle periode, quel(s) siecle(s) sont basés les vetements, couvres-chef et styles de coiffure et de barbe que vous avez retenus pour le pack, et, si possible, les régions d'origine de ces éléments.
I want to know, because I am curious and like costume history, about wich periode, century(ies) is based the clothing, headgears and hair and facials styles what who have retain for the pack, and, if possible, the place where they are from.
They are iberian based, but are selled to be accurate too for italia, but the spanish héraldry on one of the king gear annoy me a bit... Forgeting that, do you think I can give those clothes and headgears to middle or late occitan and frankish portraits to get higher accuracy? Or extend the portraits to the basque-occitan cultures?
Sorry I forgot to answer this one earlier, man. Anyways, here goes:
The Iberian set is based on clothing from the late 10th century until around the 1270s, Technically, the game switches to "Late" clothing in 1250, but there's a little bit of overlap. The 1270s in particular in Iberia were the beginnings of different clothing styles entirely. If I ever get the chance, I do have the material to make a "Late" set.
The set itself is based on textual, archaeological, and graphic evidence from Portugal to Catalonia. The set, while applying to "Italians" was not designed for them. (The "Mediterranean" set as it was originally, was never intended to be representative, in my opinion. I believe the decision to create it was out of player desire for diversity. Only later packs, and then mine, were really actually focused on the accuracy as opposed to variety.).
Clothing itself was easy to research. I speak Spanish at a fairly comfortable level, and can manage my way through Arabic enough to use sources from both languages. There are also a large number of historical reenactment groups in Spain whose sole purpose is to commemorate prior periods of history, and I used a lot of the research that they had available, on both an individual and academic level. Hair and facial hair was mostly pulled from artwork made during the period. There are also cosmetic documents and beauty statements contained in both Spanish and Andalusian poetry, including things like curling the edges of the beard.
I used a lot of illuminated manuscripts and paintings from the period. Safe to say, however, that the documentation I used covered from Lisbon to Roussillon.
The regalia on one of the king sets is not actually the coat of arms. On the much larger render, they are actually different. It is true that I used the castle icon; But to be fair, a lot of Iberians did. I could find that motif everywhere. In hindsight, it may have just been because a lot of the work I used was Castillian. The other symbol is actually a horse. In either case, the colors used and the small size makes that argument irrelevant: Because it looks like the Castillian COA on a small size. If I'm ever told to change it: I will. But unless I design completely new clothing for every piece: I cannot release just a "Change clothing" mod without violating some aspect of my arrangement.
The clothing should be somewhat applicable to southern France, but only for cultures close to the Pyrenees or on the Mediterranean littoral. There was a marked difference in clothing styles between France and Iberia that really started in the later 11th century onwards. They would be completely inappropriate for Frankish characters.
Thanks for the constructive criticism. You are right about the skin color as a concern. As you say, the range of colors is quite high. An old girlfriend of mine was from Nagoya, and was pale as the driven snow, while other Asian friends from college could be darker than some of the
mestizos that stand outside in my city for day labor, even within the same ethnic grouping. Some Japanese people, or southern Chinese people, can be quite dark. I have both a sushi restaurant and a chinese noodle shop near my house staffed by natives, and the variety amongst them is quite large.
The specific comments about the female: I, too, think the eyes are a little off. Modeling the epicanthic fold is somewhat of a pain. I'm torn between poly modeling or mapping it instead. That particular face is modeled after a Japanese waitress who I buy my wife's sushi from.
I hope to have more examples of faces up within the next few days. Depends on my schedule.
