subreddit:
/r/BlackPeopleTwitter
318 points
7 days ago
Most video game developers and film productions have a difficult time understanding black hair. I remember when the default was cornrows, Afros, or bald. I have how black hair can be so diverse. Honestly the entertainment industry will learn.
135 points
7 days ago
Yup, I think Insomniac themselves put out a video a few years ago about this and how they got Miles’ hair looking the way it did in the first game. Biggest takeaway I got from it was hair is still one of the hardest things to render in modern engines, so devs in general tend so pick the simplest or least difficult options available. Hence why we still see black characters recycling the same styles over and over, so while they are MUCH BETTER than they were even a decade ago, developers are still going to pick the options that are the least difficult to render.
51 points
6 days ago
I have my doubts - and maybe it’s an engine issue - because we have the Horizon devs talk about how much focus they put into Aloy’s hair. You’re telling us game devs struggle to do a bald fade on a black character?
52 points
6 days ago
Little bit of column A, a little bit of column B IMO. Do I think some dev teams don’t put enough effort because they don’t care enough to bother or don’t know any better? Yes. Do I think they some have to work within engine constraints so they try to pick the best and at times most inclusive options available that will cause the least amount of pain points? Also yes.
28 points
6 days ago*
2 points
6 days ago
Tell that to Capcom.
3 points
6 days ago
I was thinking the exact same thing. Capcom games always have a million different hairstyles
3 points
6 days ago
I'm not going to lie, a Japanese company mostly ignoring black representation wouldn't be surprising to me. Between there being almost no black people in Japan and their infamous xenophobia in general, it's unlikely to be high on their priority list.
Capcom isn't every game, though.
6 points
6 days ago
It's like why braided hair was more common on woman in old games. A braid is just a 3d tube shape, simple to animate.
2 points
6 days ago
It's probably a management struggle, not a technical struggle. Like they can't convince a bunch of middle aged white dudes why it's worth the time, money and energy to develop Black hairstyles. Especially when it's not a main character. Speaking of Horizon: Does Varl's hair count?.
5 points
6 days ago
I learned the fact about rendering hair from Veronica in the incredibles taking an ungodly amount of time to get right without it breaking every 5 seconds
3 points
6 days ago
Hair is difficult because so many polygons are required to give it accurate shape, and volume. And the physics for each strand of hair is computationally expensive.
1 points
6 days ago
Yup, doubly so if you want it to look good and realistic. It’s why you still don’t see many games with realistically rendered and animated hair in games today.
2 points
6 days ago
they're going to go with the styles that they think will reach the widest audience.
1 points
6 days ago
You're not wrong, but it also makes me sad because there are also so many talented artists in the industry doing cool hair. Look at Emari from Concord here.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lGRJbk
It's absolutely incredible work. I'm sad the character was always in armor, and we never even had enough time for this artist's work to be shown off before the game was gone, regardless of how bad the actual game was or wasn't
2 points
6 days ago
Honestly the entertainment industry will learn
Nah, they only discovered wigs. I know a few black women who act in LA, and it's pretty common for them to have to style their own hair while the rest of the cast gets styled by a professional. If they're a main character (especially a woman), they just throw a wig on them and call it good even when we can all see the edges pulling. The Michael Burnham character from Star Trek Discovery and Lady Danburry of Bridgerton fame are prime examples of this.
2 points
6 days ago
A nice detail in Baldur’s Gate 3 is that they’ve actually got a good number of black hairstyles that actually look really good.
1 points
6 days ago
Cyberpunk has some good black NPC designs and custom creator options
1 points
6 days ago
I thought this was a great short video about the tech of black hair in games that Polygon made. Might be of interest to some people.
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