Face-offs

[BA2]

Peer pressure has a lot to answer for...

I think I've said before that face-offs don't really float my boat. I think maybe it was Rexx or D. Olivaw who posted recently about the engineering impracticalities of this 'feature' damaging their suspension of disbelief; they just can't help trying to picture how it would work and, basically, it wouldn't! Much as I love the emphatic shorthand that a face-off represents and do 'get' the appeal, I tend to react pretty much the same way and have to try not to think too hard about picturing those scenes if I read them in a story...

From a photo manipulation point of view they are equally problematic. It's really difficult to make them look good because:
a. The engineering basically wouldn't work (I now this is true for a lot of the fembot features we know and love but somehow face-off seems just the wrong side of what my practical-brain can let slide...)
b. The face and expression is an important part of the picture for me.
c. The face innards often look either silly or creepy and definitely not sexy.
Not that I don't appreciate the valiant efforts by many of our artists to make this work (Sarabot recently for example) but my approach is to try and hide as much of the detail as possible since 'your' imagination can probably render a far sexier and more realistic vision than my Photoshop ever can! All that lot means that I have to wait for just the right picture to come along that allows me to try for a believable face-off, I think I've only done two previously...

Anyway - long story short: 2 x new face-off pics for you to look at. You know where to click...

[BA2]

... Three previously, there's a really old one I'd forgotten down the bottom of my wiki-gallery.

Is it weird that I find a robot girl with an all metal body or completely dismantled down to her wires, steel and plastic but still with a face far sexier than the hottest babe to grace the internet with her face taken away? I appreciate 'weird' is a pretty relative concept here...

[dale coba]

Faces are very important. They are pretty, and they convey information which assures us that we understand the context of the scene.

Glowing eyes or robot voices can be manipulated to break the illusion, preserving the face. I think I favor outfits which show a large expanse of exposed flesh above the breasts. When a control panel or access hatch slides down, her smiling face is still beaming like she has no idea how inhuman and beautiful that makes her look.

Perhaps the face removal works best when either the fembot or another character is emotionally vested in the idea that the fembot is a person. Surprise! Adrenaline, fight-or-flight-or-fuck!!! Those naked, staring lenses, horrifically un-personalize her forever - but also, erotically, it's a very promising omen that she can be customized and enjoyed like an object. Silver linings, lemons into sweet lemonade, and whatnot.

- Dale Coba

[Sophisa]

Faceplates kill the enjoyment for me, because they remove pretty much all the femininity and trigger my sense of 'no, doesn't work'.

[Saya]

Much like anything else in life, for me it is a matter of how one pulls it off.

No offense to those who appreciate the classics, but I honestly always found the sort of "classic" face-off to be a turn off, but not in the traditional sense. Unlike most I see here, it isn't because it puts me off from an Uncanny Valley aspect (I am beginning to think that when it comes to fembots, I have a summer cabin there) but because I have always found it very stupid-looking. Suddenly the face is removed like it was a mask, and underneath is this googly-eyed face with a big 'ol subwoofer in there like she was some suburbanite kid's riceburner custom car. Worse is when it is a big set of denture like teeth, making it look like a very lovely face has been replaced with something that has a big stupid grin and googly-eyes. It just looks very dumb, and acts as major fetish retardant for me.

However, a face-off scene done right is very much a turn on for me. If I had to pick a "perfect" example, it would have to be the one from A.I: Artificial Intelligence. The process is a very streamlined presentation, with the halves of the face going upward and revealing a smooth, plastic-y outer structure that has something of a logical layout to it. There's also the eyes. They don't look like ping-pong balls sitting on a bundle of wiring. I have always found camera-like optics under the face to be a turn-on.



The other sort I like is the complete removal of facial mechanisms, where the faceplate is removed and there is just a bunch of machinery underneath. Might not be realistic all of the time, but hey. This is a fantasy for a reason.

In general, just the whole googly-eyed-stupid-smile look is stupid and a turn-off to me. But, hey. To each their own.

[Spaz]

I agree, it's the execution that counts, not the fact that you removed the face.

I'm not going to name any names, but there are very few members who can perfectly execute a face-off and not have it look unrealistic.

As for the above post, that is perfectly executed, but this:


All I can think is, Where the fuck is her mouth?!

[BA2]

Wow, Saya - that's the best res cap I've seen of that scene! Agreed, that is the most plausible face-off out there; and also agreed that goggly eyes and teeth don't make for a sexy look. I guess I just can't make myself believe in the idea enough to come up with anything better at the moment!

Spaz - remember: never, NEVER stick any part of your body into electronic components...

[Frostillicus]

Face-offs??? That's CRAZY TALK!
http://www.fembotwiki.com/images/1/1c/P ... ase_Me.swf