New portrait for Neera
Astafas
Member Posts: 448
[Update: Newer version(s) below in the thread.]
Neera has been one of my favourite NPCs since I first met her. But her portrait is IMHO one of the worst in BG2 (different size, style and color scheme; blurry...). So this week I decided to make a run for it! Here it is, steaming hot from Photoshop:
I will upload the BMP files in a while, still got some ingame color and contrast corrections to verify.
Neera has been one of my favourite NPCs since I first met her. But her portrait is IMHO one of the worst in BG2 (different size, style and color scheme; blurry...). So this week I decided to make a run for it! Here it is, steaming hot from Photoshop:
I will upload the BMP files in a while, still got some ingame color and contrast corrections to verify.
Post edited by Astafas on
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Comments
Gimme a shout if you guys and gals want the other sizes.
Neera, with a meddling 11 cha, not so much. I always thought her original portrait is too beautiful for her cha score. No body acknowledges her beauty or complements her looks in the game, afaik. Well, Anomen tries but he is a jerk with high testosterone, and horny males are known for showering any female with compliments if they think they have a chance of scoring.
Thus I think this portrait is okay. Stands out a bit from the originals, but more suited for her cha score. You are supposed to love Neera for her quirky&wild personality, not gorgeous looks. (Yeah, it is the sole hope of ugly people that they can be loved based on other qualities other than their looks. I should know, after all, battling ugliness since an early age. ^^) I am not saying she should look ugly. But when compared to other female romance options, she should look more plain. And be not getting 'wow, I would hit that!' From every straight male.
Also, basing a character's charisma score solely on how attractive they are isn't really what charisma is all about. While physical looks is a part of the charisma score, it's just that, a part. Not the whole stat.
Charisma: "Charisma measures a character’s force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness."
Examples of non-attractive (in the traditional sense) high charisma characters/people:
1. Adolf Hitler: Adolf was able to unite an entire country behind him while being pretty ugly both physically and morally. He made the popular belief that another group (or groups) of people were responsible for Germany's problems, and promised that if they followed him, and did what he said, he would restore Germany to their rightful place as a super power. Pretty persuasive guy, but with that greasey slicked over hair, two-thirds moustache, small stature and dumpy physique he isn't all that pleasing to the eye. However, it's not really up to argument whether or not he was charismatic.
2. Charles Manson: Charles Manson was a hobo, who lived the majority of his young life in institutions and prisons where he learned to manipulate people to get what he wanted. Living on the street meant he would no doubt smell, he was unkempt, short, and pretty dang ugly. None of that stopped him from surrounding himself with a "family" of followers that would undertake his wishes without question or complaint. He was able to get these people to believe his outlandish ideas about The Beatles speaking to him through their music and telling him of an impending race war, and to get people to kill for him. Very low attractiveness, very high charisma.
3. Balor: A Balor is a large winged minotaur-like demon with bat-like wings, a fanged maw, long sharp claws, goat-like legs, and massive bull horns. Most demons have fairly high charisma scores, this is usually due to their nature of manipulation and corruption of peoples souls. A Balor in 3.5/PF has a charisma score of 27. It is insanely more charismatic than the most beautiful person ever. It's a giant red monster and very unappealing aesthetically.
Anyways, iirc beauty is tied strongly to charisma in the older editions of DnD, other than those featuring comliness as a stat. The original Deities and Demigods often features two charisma scores for hideously monstrous deities, one incredibly low for non-followers, and a very good one for followers.
@Astafas The pic is different, I think you made Neera look like a halfling imho! But thats fine by me, halfling womenfolk are short of portraits outside IWD, land of relatively equal portrait opportunity. The pic looks decent though, and appropriately mischevious.
This is definitely my personal favourite for Neera that I've come across thus far.
ps: Oh here's the link to her DeviantArt and the full version...
http://nixxical.deviantart.com/gallery/
ps Having seen what @smeagolheart did with the Kivan portrait in the other thread, I'm wondering if a similar magic could be worked on this?
I like to use this portrait for Neera:
IMO, the short, "punky" haircut better suits her spunky personality, and the scar on her face is reflective of the fact that she is well-traveled and has already endured a number of (mis)adventures even before meeting your party.
Ps thats Imoen!
Also, in this portrait she looks too grown-up. She is sort of a spoiled teenager, a brat. Nixxi's version represents this in the best way, I think. And I also don't find much fault with the original pic.
@NaturalBornKieler There is a photograph of an actual person used as base for this portrait. Both eyes have gotten exactly the same enlargement and angle. But as you probably now, faces aren't perfectly symmetrical, and her face is also slightly turned here.
I like her original portrait but that being said, @SmilingSword 's pictures are drop dead gorgeous. Maybe not for her but I can definitely see myself using something like that for a female MainChar.