The appeal of the WWE games has always been, for many, building your own wrestler from scratch and then using them to rise to the very top. But if you want a wrestler who both looks good and plays like a champ, you’ll need to up your game.
Make A Few Test Wrestlers First
One of the surprising aspects of WWE2K15 is that you’ve got an enormous amount of freedom. While you can’t make Slender Man or Tyrion, you have an enormous amount of leeway for everything from height and weight to the size and durability of your limbs. So, make a wrestler or two and just mess around with the character creator. Try extremes like a tall, thin wrestler and a short, fat one to see how they affect your play style and what clicks with how you like to take down your opponent. Remember, the bigger your wrestler is, the slower, but more powerful he is.
Get Familiar With The Tools
There are quite literally thousands of options in the character creator and you can tweak everything from how far apart your wrestler’s eyes are to the clothes he wears to the tattoos under them. You can perfectly match skin tone, give your wrestler perfect moves, and really get right down to the nitty-gritty. And it can be a little intimidating, at first. So, take some time and push them to their limits; see how far you can go with everything to get a sense of where you want to push it.
Look At All Sides
Much has been made about being able to import your face into WWE2K15: It’s a great feature, and far more powerful than you might think, which we’ll get to. But there’s more than one angle on your face. Try this, if you’re importing yourself into the game; take a few well-lit photos of your face on your phone of you looking front, left, and right. When sculpting yourself as a superstar, use those photos for reference when building your face. That way, you’ll look right from all the angles, and your face will look better when you layer it over.
And don’t forget to give yourself features like hair and glasses, first: Those change the shape of your face.
Start With A Template Face
When you start the game, there are twenty face templates you can use, and they’re incredibly handy shortcuts to building faces. Pick the one that looks most like the subject you want to build, and go from there. It’ll make crafting just the face you want much easier.
Use The Logo Creator To Its Full Potential
The logo creator isn’t just for tattoos. Uploading your own logos can be a surprisingly powerful tool. The “logo” creator essentially allows you to upload a visual onto your wrestler, and then subtly adjust how visible that layer is. And no, you don’t need expensive imaging software to do this: I use Pixlr for this kind of custom work, but any online photo editing software will do.
For example, let’s say you wanted to give your wrestler a few wrinkles, or emphasize facial features a bit more. In this particular case, I want to give this wrestler’s features a little more definition, make him seem a little older and pop his features, particularly his cheekbones, a bit more.
So, I took a screenshot of him from Superstar Studio, and began adding shadows by creating a new layer over that screenshot and using the pencil tool on a fine setting. Aging up your wrestler is largely a matter of adding darker lines to his features; you more or less trace the shadows with the pencil tool, and then soften them with blur filters or a little smudging. Here’s a rough result, to give you an idea:
Don’t worry too much if the lines don’t look “realistic;” remember, you won’t be seeing too many closeups of your wrestler, and you can always tweak your designs later. I’d still want to alter the transparency of those shadows in Superstar Studio, but you can see how even a few subtle lines can change the shape of a face. And remember, with photo editing software, you can create layer after layer and then merge them all into one to use.
And you should; there are many different layers and colors to a face and body, and you can add everything from your own custom makeup to wrinkles, scars, and skin features to make your wrestler more your own. You can be subtle, or turn it all the way up and make it really over the top make-up, like this:
I would test each individual layer before you combine it, just to make sure it looks and moves the way you want it to. With time and care, you can create elaborate looks that perfectly capture anyone you want to see.
In short, to get the wrestler you most want, take a little time and dig into the features. You’ll be surprised what a little playing around can get you.
