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With the growth of micro-creation, and the great amount of micros based on the Byrne template, the Micro-heroes begun to have all the same face, only being "different" by hair and/or face-hair.
To change that, many creators started to customize the faces of their micros, giving some a unique style, and a great level of individuality.

Customface

Difference between a face made only with templates, and a fully customized face.

Customizing faces[]

Some people say that the face should be customized after the body is done, although there's not an specific order to do it.
An important thing is to find good reference pictures. They can be found via magazines, comic books and photos, but surely the fastest way is the internet.
Great sources of images and references are Wikipedia, and Google's Image Search.
To get started, the face should be "cutted off" from a template, that should be chosen wisely.

Shape[]

Shape editing

The face should be customized first on its shape, making it thinner or fatter, taller or shorter, working on the chin/mandible. That should be done by altering the lines and shade.

Skin shade[]

The skin shade is made the same way the whole body/clothes were done, just adding a color between the first and second skin tone, if necessary to help with expressions.

Eyes[]

Eye editing

Eyes and eyebrows are the most important parts of the customization. They should be changed on their size, using grey pixels to give some "closed" look. The iris color must match to the person/character in question.
While doing anime characters, the creator must remember that most of them have "big eyes", doing the same with the micro.

Nose[]

Nose editing

The nose is one of the most unique aspects of the human face. On the micro, it should be given the same importance. In the nose case, a good reference pic (better if in a front pose) would make the difference between an acurate micro and a "weird" one.

Mouth[]

Mouth editing

Micro-hero mouths cannot be changed a lot. If they were changed too much, the aspect of a classic micro-hero would be lost, turning it on a different branch of the pixel art.
Mouths should be only made smaller or bigger, with the addition of smiles and expressions. On girls, the lips give a wider level of customization, but yet changed carefully.
If a micro has facial hair, it should be added now.

Hair[]

Main article: Hair customization
Hair editing

After have the main aspects done, the creator should look for a matching hair. In 90% of the cases, hair templates will not match with the customized face, unless edited a lot.
The hair then should be made from scratch, matching it with the body.

Final result[]

In most of the cases, a face should be customized several times until it matches with the real one. Usually five or eight attempts are required to fix the errors and expressions.
To customize a face in a good way, is required to a micro-creator to watch and learn, always digging other micro-heroes, in order to improve his technique.

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