Photo Mode / AMM: Other Facial Expressions

Guide to change expressions for photo mode and AMM

Summary

Published: ??? by manavortex Last documented update: Mar 08 2024 by manavortex

This tutorial will teach you how to replace facial expressions for Photo Mode or AMM with those of an NPC.

Difficulty: You need to be able to read. If you run into trouble anyway, please hit us up on Discord so that we can improve this guide!

Wait, this is not what I want!

• If you want to look at reference expressions, check here.

• If you want to import your own facial expressions, then currently (Mar 08 2024) you're somewhat out of luck, because the toolchain doesn't fully support you yet and we don't have a guide. Reach out on Discord and help us to get this show on the road!

• If you want to make custom poses for anything that is not the face, check Poses/Animations: make your own

Step 1: Locate the right file

This will be called the target file in the rest of this guide

Photo Mode

female rig	base\animations\ui\photomode\photomode_female_facial.anims
male rig	base\animations\ui\photomode\photomode_male_facial.anims

AMM

Both body genders genders are using the same file:

base\animations\facial\male_average\interactive_scene\generic_average_male_facial_idle.anims

Step 2: Replace the target file with the one you want

NPC animation files have the extension .anims and reside in the folder base\animations\facial. You can find the ones for facial expressions by searching in WolvenKit for

base\animations\facial\ *.anims

Find the file that you want to use and copy it over the original file.

Although the file names are gendered, you can pick any of them.

If you aren't sure which file you want to use, check the references.

👉 If you are missing reference screenshots, feel free to create and upload them and update the wiki.

Example

To put Rogue's facial expressions on a male V, you copy

base\animations\facial\main_characters\rogue\rogue_facial_idle_poses.anims

over your target file.

For photo mode:

base\animations\ui\photomode\photomode_male_facial.anims

For AMM:

base\animations\facial\male_average\interactive_scene\generic_average_male_facial_idle.anims

Step 3: Pick the expressions you want

You now need to make the expressions from your new file selectable by AMM/Photo mode. This happens via animation names in the target file.

Find the correct names here.

Important: AMM and photo mode use different keys. Just make sure to pick the right table, and everything will be fine.

1. Open the target file (which you replaced with the NPC of your choice) in WolvenKit.

2. Find the animation you want to use and change its name:

Replace the original name with one from the list. If you don't know which ones you want to use, check out the references.

3. Rinse and repeat the process with all animation names

4. Save the file

5. Install the project and start the game

Voila, you now have custom expressions.

Troubleshooting

My expressions don't work at all!

Make sure that you have replaced the correct file, and that your mod has been correctly packed and installed.

Some of my expressions aren't working!

The game will look for the animation by exact name. AMM is using a different list than photo mode — make sure that you are using the right keys.

It's showing expressions, but not the one I picked!

Check your target file: you have used a key twice.

If the game is looking for the neutral expression, it will stop looking as soon as it finds an animation with the name of facial_neutral. If you have multiple of those, it won't care.