Miitopia, the guide and advice for the Mii editor

Miitopia

In our review of Miitopia we have repeatedly reiterated how important it is, to make the most of the adventure, to choose Mii with whom we have an emotional bond: whether they are acquaintances, friends or relatives, or celebrities, fantastic characters or more, the important is that the player is somehow fond of it, so as to be faced with really hilarious skits. Before starting the adventure, it is therefore important to have a platoon of suitable Miis, in order to assign them, at the appropriate time, to the desired role (protagonists or non-playing characters that they are).

Miis can be obtained in various ways: the fastest, of course, is to download them from the online showcase, where you will see the most popular and shared ones. The second way is to download them through a code that will refer you to a user's page, not to a single creation. The third, the longest but also the most rewarding, is to create them from scratch using the console editor, which has existed since the days of Wii (despite having undergone several improvements over time).

Miitopia: the Mii of Revali. Let's assume you all know the basic editor. A new Mii is composed by choosing the shape and size of the nose, eyes, mouth; hair tone and cut, body type, favorite color. Once this is done, on Miitopia you have to choose the personality of the Mii and his class; above all, it will be possible to further modify it through a more specific editor, a real hair and make-up, which can be accessed at any time (battles excluded).

This mode allows you to choose various colors, and offers an infinite number of options compared to the basic editor (which is supported anyway). The most interesting thing is that the new introductions can be used in an extremely creative way, as we will see shortly. To the point that it can completely alter the look of a Mii. Once the job is done, you can save the new character in the console, use it as an avatar, or share it online with other fans.

Now, however, in this guide with tips for the Miitopia Mii editor, we focus on the possibilities offered by the new editor, discovering how to access it and giving you some advice on how to use it properly.

The Miitopia editor

When used creatively, and thinking outside the box, Miitopia's make-up and wig grants enormous customization possibilities. However, before delving into the subject, let's see together how it can be exploited in an easier way, to perfect a "normal" Mii. The image you see below opens by selecting a character within Miitopia: as you can see, every time you will have the possibility to modify it through the initial editor. The latter appears automatically if you create a new Mii.

Miitopia: the menu that appears when you select a Mii. As we wrote earlier, from the main editor you select the type of face, the shape and color of the hair, that of the eyebrows, the size and position of the eyes and mouth, the presence of mustaches, glasses or moles, gender and the build, even the favorite color (which in Miitopia will dye various personal items differently).

Miitopia: the classic Mii editor. Once this is done, from within the game you can access the make-up or the wig: let's start with the first, which is the one that allows the most customizations. From here you can modify eyes, cheeks, eyebrows; you can add eye shadow and lipstick and, by clicking on "other", insert masks or stickers (the two fundamental options for creating atypical Miis). In the case of Anna, our Mii, we simply added small lashes to make her eyes more tapered, and an adorable mole on the right side of her face.

Miitopia: this is "trick". From "wig" instead you can radically alter the haircut, inserting tufts and tails, completely changing its shape. You can also make limited improvements, as happened to us: we have slightly moved the scrimolo on the outside, and changed the color at the tips of the hair (from the image you can see how many more colors are present on Miitopia).

Hair and makeup

Miitopia: this is "hair". To better understand how the new Mii editor works, and the possibilities it offers, we decided to download two of the best Miis that we have found online: rather than explore the engine from the inside, we preferred to unhinge it in this way. We have selected two characters from The Legend of Zelda - you can see the images around here - namely Midna from Twilight Princess (code: 3L02FXR) and Revali from Breath of the Wild (code: 47HBPP1). As you can see, they are extremely different from the Miis you have been used to so far - they really look a lot like the original characters. And everything is possible by making the most of the options offered by the Miitopia editor.

Miitopia: Midna's Mii. We were very curious to understand the ways in which these two Miis were created: the first thing we did was open the basic editor, the one already inserted in the console. And we got the first surprise. As you can see for yourself from the photos, Miis are extremely simple: it is above all about choosing the shape of the eyes, the right build, hiding the nose or positioning it properly. They are bare characters, and it is truly amazing to think what they have become through makeup and wigs.

Miitopia: the basic version of Revali Mii, without the embellishments of the Miitopia editor. Even hair, tufts, lipsticks and eye shadows are little used: unlike what we thought, they are not the most important instrumentation for altering Miis. However, they are very useful, and essential if you want to create a more traditional character than those selected. There are so many types of hair and fringes - and eyeshadows, and lipsticks - and you can color each one to your liking.

Miitopia: the many stickers that make up Revali's face. However, the real way to make Miis radically different from traditional ones lies in making proper use of masks and stickers. As you can see below, Revali in profile is ... well, nothing more than a mask. It has no depth. A mask full of stickers, almost fifty: massed geometric shapes that, arranged in the right way, give life to the face of the Rite of The Legend of Zelda. Basically the same thing happens for Midna: the decorations and irregularities of the helmet are nothing more than small geometric compositions colored in the right way, and expertly combined.

Miitopia: the face of Revali's Mii, in profile, it is practically a mask.

Things to take into consideration

By carefully observing the Revali Mii, we mean the basic one, made with the traditional editor, you will notice a fundamental detail: the mouth (V-shaped) is located right in the lower part of the chin. An unnatural point for a human, but an obligatory choice in the case of a Rite: the beak will appear there and - above all - the animations of the lips will go there. This is the biggest trap you could fall into making such a complicated Mii. We mean that you could shape a beautiful character in a static position, but that is not as effective in movement; this could happen by misplacing the basic elements, those of the initial editor. For example, a Darth Vader we downloaded uses his mustache to form the mask and ... well, although he's very cute as an icon, or when he's completely still, he begins to warp and curl when the character speaks.

You have to plan the Mii well from the beginning, taking into account - especially using the initial editor - where the elements that will define the expressions of the character are, and position them carefully. If the "authentic" mouth of the Revali Mii hadn't been placed where the beak is, the icon would still have been nice, but the character would have been ruined once animated.

Miitopia: Midna's Mii seen with the basic editor, without make-up and hair. Basically there are some characteristics that, although they are alterable, cannot be moved (or enlarged, or decreased) once the basic editor is abandoned: face, nose, body and standard hair (in fact Midna is basically shaved, in the initial Mii) . One of the critical points is - in case you need it - the removal of the nose, which basically cannot be deactivated. A relatively simple way to do this is to select and minimize the nostrils and, again from the standard editor, add glasses; once you get into the make-up and wig, you can replace the lenses with semicircular signs, turning them towards the color of the skin, and then bringing them towards the center of the figure to create a single shape which, at that point, will be able to cover the nose (this is because, of course, the glasses are on a higher level than the nostrils).

Miitopia: the many masks that form Midna's helmet. As you may have guessed, Miitopia's hair and makeup editor takes some time and attention, but in the end, even those with no graphic talent can achieve decent results by creating a Mii from scratch. With the right effort you can get amazing customizations, but the path requires good skills of visual abstraction. It is necessary to have the desired final result clearly in mind, perhaps by analyzing and taking inspiration from the work of the other players, and proceed in small steps - with stickers and masks - to achieve it. Good luck and, if you feel like it, feel free to share your creations in the comments!

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