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Making Portraits for Baldur's gate EE, BG2 EE, Icewind Dale EE and the Vanilla games too.

Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
USS Norway made the valid point that there is currently nowhere to post on this subject, so I have started this thread so that this subject can be shared. We can share portraits that we have made, discuss how to make better portraits, discuss how to have differing large and small portraits in the EE version of the game and suchlike. In other words, anything to do with portraits.

Comments

  • SirBatinceSirBatince Member Posts: 882
    What is even the "baldurification" of a portrait? Is it just a paint over? Is there a preset for it? Is it some long lost bioware magic?
  • BillyYankBillyYank Member Posts: 2,768
    A nice guide to Baldurization:
    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/51971/sycamirages-ultimate-guide-to-baldurize-your-portrait

  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,964
    edited August 2016
    Photoshop CS6 excellent guide here:
    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/768436#Comment_768436
    The two minute oil paint technique
  • ussnorwayussnorway Member Posts: 341
    well Puk may want to be a rdd (red dragon disciple) character one day so I made these... tools used are crazytalk, iclone, Fuse and Photoshop







    download as bmp for the bgee games
    small
    &
    large
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    edited August 2016
    I created this one from an image of Ben Wooten. It had no background, so I added one from one of my own photos of Machchapuchare. Link not available any more.

    As you can see, it needs more work doing as there are bits of white that shouldn't be there. This was one of my first tries in using photoshop. However, when used in the game, it was fine. Looking at it at this scale shows every fault.
    Post edited by Wise_Grimwald on
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    edited August 2016
    This one is created from a selfie plus another photo of Machchapuchare. I haven't trimmed it so that anyone can do that as they like in any photo-editting software..

    IUpon looking at it, it needs more editting as there are bits white that shouldn't be. Will edit this post later with a better image. I have seen a post that will enable me to improve it considerably.
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    edited August 2016
    I thought that it might be helpful to others doing Icewind Dale Portraits for me to post these photos that I took whilst working in Kuldahar. They should be fine for evocative backdrops to portraits. Please feel free to use them. As You will see there was a fault on the lens so that spot will have to be covered up by either the portrait added or copy and paste from nearby sky..







  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    Here is another.
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    Here is another one. I will post some more suitable backgrounds later with a different feel to them.
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    edited August 2016
    I found this excellent image on the web at:
    http://www.pageresource.com/wallpapers/wallpaper/fantasy_325234.jpg

    There is however no indication of who the artist is. If she/he let's me know I will post full credits or remove it if necessary.

    However, it is not suitable for a portrait so I added my own background from a photo of Pen-y-ghent that I took near where I was raised, to make these:





    The backgound is my own.

    I cropped the end of the arm so that the character can be virtually any character type.

    Alternatively you can trim this one to your liking for Icewind Dale the background ia a photo that I took of Nilgiri Himal from near Jomsom.



    However I am wondering if there is an export format from photoshop which keeps the layers so that people can edit what I have done easily.



    Post edited by Wise_Grimwald on
  • ThelsThels Member Posts: 1,422
    Wise_Grimwald said:

    However I am wondering if there is an export format from photoshop which keeps the layers so that people can edit what I have done easily.

    Different people use different software, all of which comes with their own layer filetype, that are usually not very compatible. If you don't want an end result, but something others can work with, it's best to save each layer separately. PNG is the best choice for images with transparency (IE, all layers but the last), and a good choice for other images if file size is not a problem.
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    Thels said:

    Wise_Grimwald said:

    However I am wondering if there is an export format from photoshop which keeps the layers so that people can edit what I have done easily.

    Different people use different software, all of which comes with their own layer filetype, that are usually not very compatible. If you don't want an end result, but something others can work with, it's best to save each layer separately. PNG is the best choice for images with transparency (IE, all layers but the last), and a good choice for other images if file size is not a problem.
    Thanks. :)
  • BillyYankBillyYank Member Posts: 2,768
    Wise_Grimwald said:

    Thels said:

    Wise_Grimwald said:

    However I am wondering if there is an export format from photoshop which keeps the layers so that people can edit what I have done easily.

    Different people use different software, all of which comes with their own layer filetype, that are usually not very compatible. If you don't want an end result, but something others can work with, it's best to save each layer separately. PNG is the best choice for images with transparency (IE, all layers but the last), and a good choice for other images if file size is not a problem.
    Thanks. :)
    PhotoShop's .psd format support is pretty ubiquitous in graphics editing programs. I know PaintShop Pro can read it and I'm pretty sure GIMP can also.
  • ThelsThels Member Posts: 1,422
    Paint.net cannot, unfortunately.
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    Thels said:

    Paint.net cannot, unfortunately.

    That I was aware of, however I didn't know about GIMP and Paintshop. I am doing an evening class course that uses Photoshop so that is the program that I use.
  • BillyYankBillyYank Member Posts: 2,768
    Thels said:

    Paint.net cannot, unfortunately.

    There's a mod plugin for that.
    http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/18128-photoshop-psd-file-plugin-newest-version-241/&page=1

    GIMP is a freeware image editor that's supposed to be on par with PhotoShop
    https://www.gimp.org/

    PaintShop Pro is more geared toward photo editing, but it's much cheaper than PhotoShop.
    http://www.paintshoppro.com/en/
  • ThelsThels Member Posts: 1,422
    Ah, I wasn't aware there was a plugin for that. My bad.
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    @BillyYank I didn't know about the plugin:

    http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/18128-photoshop-psd-file-plugin-newest-version-241/&page=1

    If/when I have done some portraits I will post them here. What is good about the psd format is that I can use one layer for the character and have multiple layers each with a different background from which users can take their pick.

    The portraits that I had already done were made for BG1 not EE so do not have a good enough resolution. :(
    So @ussnorway was wrong when the implication was that I had a bunch of portraits reasdy for posting.

    I had sadly deleted the psd files that I used for creating them. What I am also finding is that images on the web that I used for creating BG1 images are not good enough for EE. :(
  • BillyYankBillyYank Member Posts: 2,768
    You might want to consider making the portraits Icewind Dale sized (L=420x660 M=169x266). The BG games handle that size seamlessly and that way those who have all the games don't have to maintain multiple portrait collections.
  • ussnorwayussnorway Member Posts: 341
    you can allow people to see | edit the layers of photoshop files online without their having the software wise

    eg image = https://assets.adobe.com/link/c8f3ba8d-daf3-490d-47ce-50e4d9e17e9c?section=extract


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