@Astafas I don't know, I like Neera's portrait, and that eye for the one that was made on the last page needs to be rotated in such a way that it actually aligns with the face. I'm not complaining, the rest of it is really good. Just the eye is making me... not like it as much.
@Astafas I don't know, I like Neera's portrait, and that eye for the one that was made on the last page needs to be rotated in such a way that it actually aligns with the face. I'm not complaining, the rest of it is really good. Just the eye is making me... not like it as much.
What can I say, I like my (half)-elves with eyes like that. :-D Have a look at Jaheira for an example:
I was a bit surprised by the lack of enthusiasm on this thread for my new Tiefling - he took me for ever to make and I hold him as my best work yet (thanks to @Meepitchi for your like though!).
Don't be so hard on us! I like your tiefling, but the two beard thingies at the bottom somewhat confuse me. But the armor is awesome, as is your choice with colours. And thanks for Neera portrait, at last someone heard my pleas
Revision #10: Jenna. Morik's companion in all things illicit, Jenna was also unfortunately left out of the original DSotSC release. While I actually liked some aspects of the original portrait I made, I wanted the new one to match the others in tone. I also refined the details--the hood in particular.
I was a bit surprised by the lack of enthusiasm on this thread for my new Tiefling
Now us dudes we can't click like on the self portrait of another guy, can we , now Neera on the other hand.. Still, great tiefling portrait. Keep posting!
It's one of those unspoken guy things, like the one-urinal rule in bathrooms. If plenty are open, you don't stand next to someone, you stare straight ahead, and you don't talk.
@Astafas: Thanks! I do try to aim for the BG1 style a bit more, but I think the reality is that only a few professional artists could really mimic it completely. Mine seem to fall a bit between the styles. They look good in-game in BG1, but if you drop the contrast in the finished images, they could also be used in BG2.
@Fafnir: As I had mentioned to Greenpakto, the unfortunate limitation of the BG dimensions is that you don't get a full sense of what's happening in the picture. In the layout I made, it made complete sense, but it's difficult to gauge that based on the narrow view in the final portrait:
I really like how the armour looks in the new version, but I gotta admit, though I understand that you are trying to make all the portraits look for uniform, I kinda prefer the older skin tone. For some reason the eyes look less natural with a darker skin tone, or maybe it's just me...
@Heindrich1988: That's exactly what I thought as well: I rather liked how her pale skin contrasted to her eyes. Unfortunately, it just didn't look right with the other new versions and didn't match the default BG portraits very well. C'est la vie...
I really like how the armour looks in the new version, but I gotta admit, though I understand that you are trying to make all the portraits look for uniform, I kinda prefer the older skin tone. For some reason the eyes look less natural with a darker skin tone, or maybe it's just me...
I disagree about the skin tone. The change he made was definately for the better. HUGE improvement in my eyes. It seems closer to BG portraits as well, in terms of "colouring" and contrast. Espacially the shadowing for example, because of that "dark" skin, it makes better/realistic shadowing. The portraits are now maintaining that feel of "realism" while still its clearly NOT JUST a photo (exactly as bg portraits). As far as the eyes, yes they do "pop" out more, but I dont feel that it has to be a bad thing. I have a sister that has ridiculously blue eyes, and at times, it almost look like shes using "coloured contact lenses". I think you just have a hard time grasping the intense bright "purple" colour choice for the eyes, since its not a "natural" colour. But hey BG is fantasy in the end
EDIT: IMO, the former portraits are less detailed. The new portraits are more detailed.
@Astafas Your Neera portrait is indeed beautiful. But it's also true that there are certain points, which could be significantly improved with a retouch.
I agree with you that the angle of the almond-shaped eye is perfect for an half-elf. It's just that its brightness makes the eyeball appear unnaturally large for this kind of head size. That's easily fixed with some shadows though. Personally, I'm not fond of the background at all due to the cyberpunk vibe I get from it. But that's purely a matter of taste and nothing more. However, the pose you've chosen for her looks very painful to behold. It would take a flexible body indeed to overtwist the neck in such a manner. Truly, I tried this pose a couple of minutes ago and now suffer from muscle aches all around the neck region. X( Last but not least, the overall impression of being a wild mage would vastly improve if she was holding a staff in her hands. Although, placing said staff plus hands in a anatomic correct manner to this kind of pose is quite difficult to pull off, if not impossible.
I've modified your portrait as an example to outline what I just wrote above. The segue between hair and background leaves to be desired, I know. And the placement of her hands could also be done a lot better. But I hope you still catch my drift.
@Isandir: I didnt know you had a website, would you mind posting it?
Isandir site http://isandir.com/ When looking at Jenna and Morik side by side, the new details in Jenna's portrait makes much more sense. Simply beautiful. The old portraits were good, but had that photo-realistic look, now they are perfect for either BG or BG2.
I've fixed the eye whites, that was extremely easy as that fix was in a separate layer. Thanks, good advice! Updated picture later, I'm working on some other details as well. :-)
As for the angle itself, I always change it around ten degrees for half-elves:
But I'll probably make a dirty fix for those here who wants a more human eye, just give me the (Swedish) day.
The pose is a "yeah, told you I could totally do that"-pose, and not meant to be held for more than a few seconds. I hope she'll live through it. :-D And it is of course a compromise based on the suitable armor I could find and my limited skills in PS.
Good hands (holding a staff) are difficult to find. But I might give that a try as well!
I was a bit surprised by the lack of enthusiasm on this thread for my new Tiefling - he took me for ever to make and I hold him as my best work yet (thanks to @Meepitchi for your like though!).
Don't be so hard on us! I like your tiefling, but the two beard thingies at the bottom somewhat confuse me. But the armor is awesome, as is your choice with colours. And thanks for Neera portrait, at last someone heard my pleas
I'm only joking with you. To each his/her own, of course. the two beard "thingies" (great name, I have no better!) was a last minute inovation I came up with, and that my wife liked. The goal was to make him look more alien/planetouched. I would not - I think - ever go to work like that. :-D
@Isandir: I didnt know you had a website, would you mind posting it?
Isandir site http://isandir.com/ When looking at Jenna and Morik side by side, the new details in Jenna's portrait makes much more sense. Simply beautiful. The old portraits were good, but had that photo-realistic look, now they are perfect for either BG or BG2.
Thank you for that link. There are a few portraits there that I would really like to see updated. Some of them are really good!
OK, this took me a day for real. But now I'm back with a little thing for everyone:
@So_Lo@GemHound and @Deltaslayer get their human (darker) eye on this particular Half-Elf (make sure to download the right file).
@Kamigorishi gets to keep his elven eye, but darker, as requested. I've also changed the background to a less cyberpunky one. And thrown in a hand and a staff for bonus, but please note my earlier comment about the temporary state of this particular Neera pose. ;-)
Myself, I had the chance to have another go at the hair, which I thought was too streamlined. Hair is messier than you think. It's not perfect now, but better!
And as before, crop as you see fit. The proportions are already right but I for one prefer a tighter crop.
If anyone is looking to Baldurize another pic (and also create another character with more ethnic variety), perhaps someone might try their hand on this pic of Sam Tjhia?
This is an old commision portrait that was painted by talanted kriolin on deviantart for my drow character. It's not baldurized and was not finished unfortunatelly, but I pretty like it even this way. The model is, well, me
Revision #11: Vihane. While working on the new version of DSotSC, several of us noted that no evil NPCs had been included in the original release. Though Morik and Jenna were altered to fit the bill, that only made two out of eleven of evil alignment. I proposed the addition of two other characters, one of whom was Vihane. Hopefully he'll make it into the new version.
My original portrait was a perfect example of the overuse of the blur tool, and it was simply too dark and washed-out. I aimed for a more striking look in this version. As for the clothing change, it resulted from a simple reason: I couldn't find the jacket I had used for him the first time...
I was a bit surprised by the lack of enthusiasm on this thread for my new Tiefling
It is time for you to meet the new, sexy and often quite dangerous Wild Mage Neera:
The thiefling is good, but since we've already seen a bunch of different renditions of your face it lost some of the punch. The Neera, though - she is bloody brilliant, and gorgeous, and fitting with the BG2 elven features, and did I mention gorgeous? Awesome work, mate. And would you mind if I stole that beautiful face-feature sheet for reference purposes?
It's one of those unspoken guy things, like the one-urinal rule in bathrooms. If plenty are open, you don't stand next to someone, you stare straight ahead, and you don't talk.
Heh, that's more than I ever wanted to know about men's bathrooms. ;D
You had mentioned the hair in one of the other portraits. As to how I learned to do it that way...well...I was trying to copy one of your pictures!
Looks like we're locked in a closed loop of mutual inspiration. A few days ago I was going to post a portrait with really lazy 'plain-wall' background, but then you started posting your re-dones, and I was thought, hell, I can't post that crap right under THAT! And I went back to add a real background. Once again it is proven: competition is good.
Wow. That new Neera portrait is absolutely amazing, you did a great job guys. But one thing i don't like is this lightning background, everything else is close to perfection. KUDOS
As for the angle itself, I always change it around ten degrees for half-elves:
I went back and edited the eye angle a bit on my Aerie replacement pic and it does look a bit more elven, even if it takes away a bit from the original actress I modeled her off of(Liu Yifei).
I'm currently trying to figure out how to manage shading and color to be more like Isandir and some of the other top notch Baldurized pics, but so far I suck at it. If the shading isn't already there I just can't seem to be able to imagine it properly.
So, until I can manage to figure out some of those things I'll hold off posting anything new... well... I guess I'll post the current one I'm working on. My thief based off of Kudo Haruka.
Wow. That new Neera portrait is absolutely amazing, you did a great job guys. But one thing i don't like is this lightning background, everything else is close to perfection. KUDOS
Thank you. What would you like for background then? I might make a special just for you, if you ask nicely. ;-)
As for the angle itself, I always change it around ten degrees for half-elves:
I went back and edited the eye angle a bit on my Aerie replacement pic and it does look a bit more elven, even if it takes away a bit from the original actress I modeled her off of(Liu Yifei).
I'm currently trying to figure out how to manage shading and color to be more like Isandir and some of the other top notch Baldurized pics, but so far I suck at it. If the shading isn't already there I just can't seem to be able to imagine it properly.
So, until I can manage to figure out some of those things I'll hold off posting anything new... well... I guess I'll post the current one I'm working on. My thief based off of Kudo Haruka.
I often enlarge the eyes too, especially if I go for totally Elven as in Aeire's case. Try approx 120 percent, and move the eyes a bit inward (towards the nose) if necessary. I recommend you select not only the eye itself but also a the nearest area, and use a lasso with 3-5 pixels of fuzz. Then enlarge, change angle and (if necessary) move. Clone any skin that needs blending. Done!
Comments
And thanks for Neera portrait, at last someone heard my pleas
@Astafas: Thanks! I do try to aim for the BG1 style a bit more, but I think the reality is that only a few professional artists could really mimic it completely. Mine seem to fall a bit between the styles. They look good in-game in BG1, but if you drop the contrast in the finished images, they could also be used in BG2.
@Fafnir: As I had mentioned to Greenpakto, the unfortunate limitation of the BG dimensions is that you don't get a full sense of what's happening in the picture. In the layout I made, it made complete sense, but it's difficult to gauge that based on the narrow view in the final portrait:
I really like how the armour looks in the new version, but I gotta admit, though I understand that you are trying to make all the portraits look for uniform, I kinda prefer the older skin tone. For some reason the eyes look less natural with a darker skin tone, or maybe it's just me...
Wow, looks amazing :O but this eyes makes her look like an alien <.< Beside that it's perfect, thx!
As far as the eyes, yes they do "pop" out more, but I dont feel that it has to be a bad thing. I have a sister that has ridiculously blue eyes, and at times, it almost look like shes using "coloured contact lenses". I think you just have a hard time grasping the intense bright "purple" colour choice for the eyes, since its not a "natural" colour. But hey BG is fantasy in the end
EDIT: IMO, the former portraits are less detailed. The new portraits are more detailed.
I agree with you that the angle of the almond-shaped eye is perfect for an half-elf. It's just that its brightness makes the eyeball appear unnaturally large for this kind of head size. That's easily fixed with some shadows though.
Personally, I'm not fond of the background at all due to the cyberpunk vibe I get from it. But that's purely a matter of taste and nothing more.
However, the pose you've chosen for her looks very painful to behold. It would take a flexible body indeed to overtwist the neck in such a manner. Truly, I tried this pose a couple of minutes ago and now suffer from muscle aches all around the neck region. X(
Last but not least, the overall impression of being a wild mage would vastly improve if she was holding a staff in her hands. Although, placing said staff plus hands in a anatomic correct manner to this kind of pose is quite difficult to pull off, if not impossible.
I've modified your portrait as an example to outline what I just wrote above. The segue between hair and background leaves to be desired, I know. And the placement of her hands could also be done a lot better. But I hope you still catch my drift.
When looking at Jenna and Morik side by side, the new details in Jenna's portrait makes much more sense. Simply beautiful. The old portraits were good, but had that photo-realistic look, now they are perfect for either BG or BG2.
I've fixed the eye whites, that was extremely easy as that fix was in a separate layer. Thanks, good advice! Updated picture later, I'm working on some other details as well. :-)
As for the angle itself, I always change it around ten degrees for half-elves:
But I'll probably make a dirty fix for those here who wants a more human eye, just give me the (Swedish) day.
The pose is a "yeah, told you I could totally do that"-pose, and not meant to be held for more than a few seconds. I hope she'll live through it. :-D And it is of course a compromise based on the suitable armor I could find and my limited skills in PS.
Good hands (holding a staff) are difficult to find. But I might give that a try as well!
@So_Lo @GemHound and @Deltaslayer get their human (darker) eye on this particular Half-Elf (make sure to download the right file).
@Kamigorishi gets to keep his elven eye, but darker, as requested. I've also changed the background to a less cyberpunky one. And thrown in a hand and a staff for bonus, but please note my earlier comment about the temporary state of this particular Neera pose. ;-)
Myself, I had the chance to have another go at the hair, which I thought was too streamlined. Hair is messier than you think. It's not perfect now, but better!
And as before, crop as you see fit. The proportions are already right but I for one prefer a tighter crop.
Enjoy!
@Astafas you've done a great job here!
My original portrait was a perfect example of the overuse of the blur tool, and it was simply too dark and washed-out. I aimed for a more striking look in this version. As for the clothing change, it resulted from a simple reason: I couldn't find the jacket I had used for him the first time...
And would you mind if I stole that beautiful face-feature sheet for reference purposes?
@Isandir Heh, that's more than I ever wanted to know about men's bathrooms. ;D
I'm currently trying to figure out how to manage shading and color to be more like Isandir and some of the other top notch Baldurized pics, but so far I suck at it. If the shading isn't already there I just can't seem to be able to imagine it properly.
So, until I can manage to figure out some of those things I'll hold off posting anything new... well... I guess I'll post the current one I'm working on. My thief based off of Kudo Haruka.