Imho the first BG1 portrait looks more like a human rather than a half-elf
Can't half-elves look like either though? The ingame description for half-elves merely says "They are handsome folk, with good features from each of their parent races" with regards to their physical appearance.
No fan of either pic, but BG1 fits her better due to the leather armor and not looking like the cover girl of a porn parody. Her BG2 face looks like a few too many plastic surgeries and what someone here called porn pout. It doesn't fit with "handsome folk, good features from each parent race". It just looks gone wrong. I agree her BG1 pic could be more elvish, but it doesn't have to be. It's not like elves or half elves have the duty to wear their hair in a way that shows the ears and the expression-pose-armor combo reflects her class and personality well enough.
I do like the art style of the BG2 pics, but I find many have a "OMAI MUST MAKE MOAR EXOTIC" thing going on. Is there any female NPC without random metal stuff in the hair? Something simple and practical like a ponytail would seem more likely if you want to avoid hair getting in your face in combat.
I don't hate the BG2 portrait or anything, but the thing that really bothers me about it are the eyes. The perspective angles look really off to me - especially when you compare how her right eye is framed to her face compared to her left eye. The eye angles appears to be mismatched, because her right eye looks more angled than her left eye if she was to realign her face, square to the camera. On top of that, the eyes appear to be on a flatter plane relative to the camera, while the rest of her face looks more tilted to her right (and slightly up) than it should be.
From a purely aesthetics standpoint, I was never a fan of the way elves are stylized with extreme eye angles like they were in the BG2 portraits. I know they're supposed to fit the description of what elves are "supposed" to look like in the DnD universe, but to me, it always comes off weird and alien. NWN2, in particular, is quite guilty of this. They're supposed to look very attractive, but I always find them a bit repulsive because they look too strange.
Viconia, on the other hand, doesn't have any of those quirks, and incidentally, is my favorite female portrait in BG2. I find it interesting how they made Jaheira and Aerie look hyper-elven where as they kept Viconia's facial features more "human."
Bg 1, no contest. I thought jaheiras was one if the best from bg1. Bg 2 jaheira had no consistency with the first. As I spent 100+ hours with her in the first game, my mental image was pretty set. Changing her look so drastically was rather bizarre, and a precursor to DA 2s alien elf change. I didn't enjoy either change.
Bg 1, no contest. I thought jaheiras was one if the best from bg1. Bg 2 jaheira had no consistency with the first. As I spent 100+ hours with her in the first game, my mental image was pretty set. Changing her look so drastically was rather bizarre, and a precursor to DA 2s alien elf change. I didn't enjoy either change.
First thing I used to do when starting up a game of BGII was change Jaheira back to BGI goodness.
Comments
I do like the art style of the BG2 pics, but I find many have a "OMAI MUST MAKE MOAR EXOTIC" thing going on. Is there any female NPC without random metal stuff in the hair? Something simple and practical like a ponytail would seem more likely if you want to avoid hair getting in your face in combat.
From a purely aesthetics standpoint, I was never a fan of the way elves are stylized with extreme eye angles like they were in the BG2 portraits. I know they're supposed to fit the description of what elves are "supposed" to look like in the DnD universe, but to me, it always comes off weird and alien. NWN2, in particular, is quite guilty of this. They're supposed to look very attractive, but I always find them a bit repulsive because they look too strange.
Viconia, on the other hand, doesn't have any of those quirks, and incidentally, is my favorite female portrait in BG2. I find it interesting how they made Jaheira and Aerie look hyper-elven where as they kept Viconia's facial features more "human."
In the end, I'm a sucker for pointy-eared things. BG2 it is.
(...That, and I've used her old portrait as one of my Charname's portraits in my past BG2 runthrough...)