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Alternate NPC and PC portraits... just because! :P

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  • KirkorKirkor Member Posts: 700
    Actually, Xan IS slightly emo :P

    @Syntia13 I was looking closely at other images, comparing noses. Yeah, I slightly overdone it.
    But it was because I tried to make her face slightly more slim (and that was a disaster).
    I will see if I can fix her nose :P
  • Syntia13Syntia13 Member Posts: 514
    @NWN_babaYaga

    I mean exactly that one above my post as an example. When i judge this guy from his look only i say he is a very soft self loving dude who has more clue about shaving his skin as to inflict serious pain or cast fireballs randomly into unprotected villages to enjoy the screams of the victims... and if he´s evil it´s the hannibal rising casted type of guy. But it´s an elf anyway right?

    Uh... It's Xan. You know who Xan is, right? Elvish lawful neutral enchanter whose catch phrases are "We're all doomed" and "Our quest is in vain". In his specific case, I did my best to make him look gloomy, 'cuz that's his default state of mind. I don't expect he would be willingly and on purpose fireballing any villages. That's more of Xzar's MO. Or did you confuse the two of them? (I know that I had a problem with their similar names during the first playthrough).

    it´s nothing against how you can draw or manipulate stuff;)

    I got that, don't worry. :)
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729

    Can someone make some more natural looking man for the warriors or evil wizards instead of emo younglings looking a bit "angry"? No disrespect, i dont draw or photoshop these kind of images myself just a suggestions to you who like them also more... believable looking:D

    Do you mean perhaps something like this?:

    http://drakonis.org/picture?/5719/category/14-dark_spellcaster_m

    or

    http://drakonis.org/picture?/5825/category/14-dark_spellcaster_m

    Evil enough? :-)
  • NWN_babaYagaNWN_babaYaga Member Posts: 732
    Definately my taste yes. Very cool!!!
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729

    Definately my taste yes. Very cool!!!

    Mind you evil doesn't have to look like this, think of Joffrey in Game of Thrones, definitely chaotic evil!
  • AHFAHF Member Posts: 1,376
    Good stuff on this thread. I always enjoy expanding the portrait file!
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    edited November 2012
    I quite like this one too, but looks too old for CHARNAME, really: http://drakonis.org/picture?/3069/category/7-dark_knight_m

    and some great Orcs:
    http://drakonis.org/index?/category/57-orc_m
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    edited November 2012
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    This could work as an appropriate age CHARNAME half-orc:
    http://drakonis.org/picture?/8163/category/57-orc_m
  • AldericAlderic Member Posts: 37
    edited November 2012
    Syntia13 said:


    ...

    @LadyEibhilinRhett Thank you! :)I always wondered if there is a way to remove his hanging hands though. Not a problem:
    image
    Now that I don't need the room to accommodate his hands, the picture can be cropped to focus more on Xan's face, but I decided to leave that to your/any other potential user's personal taste.

    Thanks a lot! This turned out wonderfully, I hear there's a good BG2 Xan mod and will probably try it, using this portrait, if you don't mind :) Also, it's actually fitting for an elven mage/multi class mage CHARNAME portrait.

    Can you or someone else help me out though? I cropped and resized the portrait, as you suggest. I named it properly and saved it as a 24-bit bitmap too. However, still the game only recognizes the file and puts a question mark picture on it. Funny thing came when I made a small pic (38x60) out of the very same 110x170. The game recognizes the small one, but not the large one. I read somewhere this problem is fixed by making the portraits folder to be not read only... Weirdly enough this worked for a portrait previously but doesn't work for this one. Maybe you or someone else here can help? Here's the pic, if you like to try importing by yourself:

    image

    Sorry if this got a little off topic.
  • KirkorKirkor Member Posts: 700
    @Alderic
    Is it saved as BMP file?
    The files name need to have LESS than 8 letters
  • AldericAlderic Member Posts: 37
    @Kirkor yeah, as I said, I made the small portrait by editing the big one and the game recognized it properly. The name of the small file is the same as the big one, but with an 'S' instead of 'L' at the end. The game sees both files, but the picture appears only for the small one, the big one appears as a question mark...
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729
    Alderic said:

    @Kirkor yeah, as I said, I made the small portrait by editing the big one and the game recognized it properly. The name of the small file is the same as the big one, but with an 'S' instead of 'L' at the end. The game sees both files, but the picture appears only for the small one, the big one appears as a question mark...

    Is the small file an 8 bit or 24 bit bitmap? I think in a fully patched BG2 (not sure about BG1, I always use BGT) its meant to work with either, but you could try the alternate one, if the current one doesn't work
  • Syntia13Syntia13 Member Posts: 514
    @Alderic Just guessing here - try going to Options/graphic and experiment with 16/24/32 bit options. In vanilla BG1 switching to 32 bit allowed me to use 32bit files, but in BG2/ToB the highest depth I was able to use was 24, even if I checked 32bit option. Maybe checking 24bit would help in your case?
  • AldericAlderic Member Posts: 37
    Both large and small bitmaps are 24 bit.

    @Oxford_Guy My comp doesn't give me the option of saving a bitmap as 8 bit, I can select 24 bit, 16 colour and 256 colour. I always save portraits I want to use as 24 bit pics and it has worked this far.

    @Syntia13 Strangely, in the config file 24 bit colours is blanked out and I can only choose from 16 bit and 32 bit (32 was default). I tried switching from one to the other but it didn't change anything.

    Thanks for the suggestions though... By now I spent quite some time and I guess I can't think of any solution. The only thing I would ask is if anyone can try using the pic - to see if your game recognizes it or not. That way I will know if the problem is in the pic itself or in my machine.

    image

  • Syntia13Syntia13 Member Posts: 514
    edited November 2012
    @Alderic - the pic you posted is png, not bmp. Was it converted by photobucket, or did you save is as png by mistake?
  • AldericAlderic Member Posts: 37
    @Syntia13 I upploaded it as bmp but photobucket must have converted it...
  • reedmilfamreedmilfam Member Posts: 2,808

    I quite like this one too, but looks too old for CHARNAME, really: http://drakonis.org/picture?/3069/category/7-dark_knight_m

    and some great Orcs:
    http://drakonis.org/index?/category/57-orc_m

    The dark knight one looks too WoW for me. In fact, I think it is from WarCraft.

  • I really like this alternative portrait of Xan. The main reason why I don't take some characters in BG is because I'm not a fan of their portraits, but this one looks very good.
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729

    I quite like this one too, but looks too old for CHARNAME, really: http://drakonis.org/picture?/3069/category/7-dark_knight_m

    and some great Orcs:
    http://drakonis.org/index?/category/57-orc_m

    The dark knight one looks too WoW for me. In fact, I think it is from WarCraft.
    I think you're probably right, its still a good portrait, but I'm not sure that I'd use it for CHARNME

  • trinittrinit Member Posts: 705
    this version of xan is... good. :D

    :downloaded:
  • Syntia13Syntia13 Member Posts: 514
    @WightSupremacist, @trinit Thanks guys! :)

    @mch202 @Kirkor and any other person who believes Imoen in BG1 looks too old - I followed Kirkor's advice and added heavy make-up around her mouth, and, after some googling for 'aging of facial features', I also decided to lift her cheeks a bit. Does she looks younger now? (It's an honest question. I'm unable to say, except that she looks slightly different). Here:
    image
    Is this version better/worse/just different to you? Any changes you can point out that could improve it? (Regarding her apparent age, not hair or clothing :) .
  • LadyEibhilinRhettLadyEibhilinRhett Member Posts: 1,078
    Syntia13 said:

    @WightSupremacist, @trinit Thanks guys! :)

    @mch202 @Kirkor and any other person who believes Imoen in BG1 looks too old - I followed Kirkor's advice and added heavy make-up around her mouth, and, after some googling for 'aging of facial features', I also decided to lift her cheeks a bit. Does she looks younger now? (It's an honest question. I'm unable to say, except that she looks slightly different). Here:
    image
    Is this version better/worse/just different to you? Any changes you can point out that could improve it? (Regarding her apparent age, not hair or clothing :) .

    I know you said not regarding the hair or clothing, but the light on the hair is different from the light on the face. There's still too much pink and the entire thing just looks copypasted together. As for the age, it still looks the same to me, though the second version has a much skinnier, more unrealistic neck and she looks more...unhealthy.
    The face looks unbalanced. Also, if we're talking age, we can't NOT talk about the hair. When hair doesn't frame someone's face in a flattering manner, it can add a lot to their age. Honestly, if you made the hair hang down a little more over the side of her face and neck on the right side, that alone could make her look a lot younger, and make her face look a lot less unbalanced.
    In fact, give me a second, I'm going to try to edit it to show you what I mean.
    ...This is probably not going to end well. I've never tried this before.
  • trinittrinit Member Posts: 705
    she looks good and younger to me, the only comment would actually be for hair, if you allow it.

    perhaps less blur and more varied detail/sharpness/blur would improve the overall look, especially where forehead and hair meet, and the hair endings. also, i'm not sure hair in movement fits the otherwise static pose. just a thought. :)
  • Oxford_GuyOxford_Guy Member Posts: 3,729

    Syntia13 said:

    @WightSupremacist, @trinit Thanks guys! :)

    @mch202 @Kirkor and any other person who believes Imoen in BG1 looks too old - I followed Kirkor's advice and added heavy make-up around her mouth, and, after some googling for 'aging of facial features', I also decided to lift her cheeks a bit. Does she looks younger now? (It's an honest question. I'm unable to say, except that she looks slightly different). Here:
    image
    Is this version better/worse/just different to you? Any changes you can point out that could improve it? (Regarding her apparent age, not hair or clothing :) .

    I know you said not regarding the hair or clothing, but the light on the hair is different from the light on the face. There's still too much pink and the entire thing just looks copypasted together. As for the age, it still looks the same to me, though the second version has a much skinnier, more unrealistic neck and she looks more...unhealthy.
    The face looks unbalanced. Also, if we're talking age, we can't NOT talk about the hair. When hair doesn't frame someone's face in a flattering manner, it can add a lot to their age. Honestly, if you made the hair hang down a little more over the side of her face and neck on the right side, that alone could make her look a lot younger, and make her face look a lot less unbalanced.
    In fact, give me a second, I'm going to try to edit it to show you what I mean.
    ...This is probably not going to end well. I've never tried this before.
    The neck is a little wrong, perhaps, but I still think its a huge improvement over the original! But if Imoen can be improved further, I'm all for it, she's worth spending time on, as many people keep her in the party. I even keep her in my party when running an evil one, as she doesn't seem to leave, even when your reputation stinks, although she does call you "good for nothing riff-raff", LOL!
  • LadyEibhilinRhettLadyEibhilinRhett Member Posts: 1,078
    edited November 2012
    Okay here we go. My very first attempt at portrait editing.

    Photobucket

    Not too pleased with the hair, trying to figure out how to get less blur without making it look unrealistic.
    I altered her hair to cover the part of the neck and face that seemed out of place, moved her cheekbones a little to give her cheeks a fuller, younger look, and lightened the area around her eyes so they didn't look as sunken. Hopefully I managed to make her look a little younger. I also added a few very faint highlights to her hair to match the lighting more to the lighting on her face.
  • JalilyJalily Member Posts: 4,681
    @trinit Very nice! I'm using that portrait for her next time. :)
  • trinittrinit Member Posts: 705
    @Jalily thank you! i will try to do hi-res version when i catch a break. i bought a tablet recently so i had intention of practicing with bg portraits a bit. i'll open a thread when i'll a few portraits done. ;)
  • KirkorKirkor Member Posts: 700
    edited November 2012
    Syntia13 said:

    @WightSupremacist, @trinit Thanks guys! :)

    @mch202 @Kirkor and any other person who believes Imoen in BG1 looks too old - I followed Kirkor's advice and added heavy make-up around her mouth, and, after some googling for 'aging of facial features', I also decided to lift her cheeks a bit. Does she looks younger now? (It's an honest question. I'm unable to say, except that she looks slightly different). Here:
    image
    Is this version better/worse/just different to you? Any changes you can point out that could improve it? (Regarding her apparent age, not hair or clothing :) .

    Yes, she looks much better now (I mean the face).
    I think you can make her even more younger by minimalising shadows on her cheeks (epecially on her right side).
    And make her lips brighter (only a little bit) and more red.

    As for the hair, it looks weird. It is too straight, looks like she used some hair gel :P
    trinit said:

    image



    when bg portraits are involved i like minimal and not too obvious retouching, to retain recognizable original npc. i also like trying using resources of the image itself to do that. this is a 15 minute work with mouse in photoshop. not the best obviously, but i think she looks better with original hair, a bit rearranged.

    Well, when I work with any images, I work with mouse too :P
    And this is amazing work. I mean, the hair is very good! That hair alone made her look younger!

    Now someone need to make Frankenstein and put @syntia13 face on this portrait, and it will be perfect!




    I did some work on @Syntia13 Imoen portrait. I think that Imeon now looks even younger
    image
    I've made her lips slightly more red.
    Middle part of her upper lip was lifted (just to make better shape)
    Shadows beneath her cheeks were almost completely removed
    Slightly brighter skin
    Post edited by Kirkor on
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