Well after a considerable amount of poking and tweaking- Ward has produced something that was exactly what I was trying to describe!!! A HUGE kudos to him and his magic fingers and here's what we came up with! Let me know what you all think! http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad238/PunkRockerPenguin/Again.png
Well after a considerable amount of poking and tweaking- Ward has produced something that was exactly what I was trying to describe!!! A HUGE kudos to him and his magic fingers and here's what we came up with! Let me know what you all think! http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad238/PunkRockerPenguin/Again.png
Guys, I got a reply from the man himself - Mike Sass:
Those portraits were actually my very first digital illustrations, done 15 years ago, so anything I was doing there was really not based on experience or a plan. I did those in photoshop, and nowdays I use Painter9, so my thoughts and process has evolved so much that I'm not sure I can give advice.
Sorry I can't help you more, its just that stuff is so very old and I have moved forward! I probably worked from a drawing, then digitally airbrushed the tones in black and white, then used a "color" layer to add color. I probably layered textures somewhat as well, and I used the airbrush on "difference" mode to get some colored reflected lights.
Guys, I got a reply from the man himself - Mike Sass:
Those portraits were actually my very first digital illustrations, done 15 years ago, so anything I was doing there was really not based on experience or a plan. I did those in photoshop, and nowdays I use Painter9, so my thoughts and process has evolved so much that I'm not sure I can give advice.
Sorry I can't help you more, its just that stuff is so very old and I have moved forward! I probably worked from a drawing, then digitally airbrushed the tones in black and white, then used a "color" layer to add color. I probably layered textures somewhat as well, and I used the airbrush on "difference" mode to get some colored reflected lights.
Cheers,
Mike
Italics are obviously mine.
Well fair enough I say! I has been a very long time since this was being produced, but I have learned that out of all of the different sources I have explored and fleshed out, that there are just so many ways of Baldurization! I have been shown photoshop, GIMP, PSP and even camera software that attempts Baldurization, each has its on specific feel and over/undertones and I just found it super interesting to see all of the different results!
@Zearful@AHF Please don't, my head is already too big. Besides, world domination is not my motive. I want to become the world's first person to wrestle a real fictional monster.
Let me know if that final picture is what you need Zear and I'll shrink it down for BG portraits tonight. It seemed the first two drafts didn't hit the spot and I agree. The problem was they weren't smooth enough to mimic the BG1 style and I couldn't make them smoother without redrawing the textures by hand (which would look shocking). Luckily I didn't have to, that last one seems to be much more convincing, but it looks a bit more like IWD to me. :P
@AndreaColombo That makes sense, I guess his way of tackling something has changed so much it wouldn't apply anymore. It looks to me like he smoothed out the photos with a filter and rendered them with some kind of gradient tool, it doesn't look like an airbrush because they're too sharp and the colours fade into one another seamlessly (he may of used brushes for hair and fine details, however). The lighting effects look superimposed over the top.
@Ward Yess the final splash frame is perfect and also loving the IWD ring to it! So the BG size can finally be confirmed Thank you so much once more ^_^
@zearful I finished converting the images. But there's a problem.
The pictures have to be as 24-bit bitmap images to sustain quality. However, if the character is poisoned or injured or if anything appears over his portrait (other than small buff icons) the bottom part of it gets chopped off.
Apparently the small one has to be 8-bit bitmap to fix this, but I've never heard of that so I tried 256 colours but it was the same problem, plus you lose quality.
Maybe @AndreaColombo knows what the problem is, if not I'll ask around and try and fix it.
@Ward You may want to hold off on the final conversion. As I understand it, BGEE will allow higher resolutions for portraits than previously allowed, but I don't think we've gotten word on the exact dimensions yet.
@ScarsUnseen Good point man, thank you! If fine with you @Zearful I'll hold off converting it until we have a: more info or b: game comes out. If it's b, I promise that's the first thing I'll do.
I want to put up the original just to show I'm not as dirty as I look here. Oh god it's awful. Edit: suppose it's not bad for an hours worth of smudging, blurring, erasing and painting.
@Ward No problem man- However, I cant actually see in the photo you provided the problem... If the chopped out part is the 4 pixel high thing at the bottom? (I can barely see it and no idea if that is red damage) so what exactly is the area of effect?
@Jaxsbudgie Loving it man- I'm guessing your breastplate was super imposed?
Apparently the small one has to be 8-bit bitmap to fix this, but I've never heard of that so I tried 256 colours but it was the same problem, plus you lose quality.
@Ward - 256 colours is the same as 8-bit. If you use something like octree reduction, you should not lose quality for small portraits. I have done this for all mine and never seen any loss. Also, it is the format specified in the original game readme, though I don't know about the enhanced versions either.
Hey you guys actually got the style right (well at least the first post). They really have that BG feeling and are actually better than the ones beamdog made. It isn't exactly glorified version of yourself but more realistic, humble portrait in a BG style. That's what I like.
Wow there is some real talent here lol... I wish I had the time to learn how to baldurize things myself, as I used to be something of an artist... But not really anymore... Ive been trying to get someone from those websites to make a baldurized version of one of my pictures for the longest, but I never get any responses.
I really do hope a "baldurize" type app or something comes out. Until then I guess a few of us are just gonna have to roleplay as other people :P
Okay I made a Baldur's Gate pic of myself recently for the enhanced edition. It's okay ,based it on a photo of myself. Not sure how to insert images however but altered my forum pic so you guys can see preview.
Ever since I found out that you can use custom portraits in BG it was my dream to make a portrait of myself that would be a perfect match with BG2 artstyle... Well here's my latest try made for EE ))... Still far from perfect though... but still I think it came out nice... If anybody is curious about how I made it it is a painting over my photo and picture of an armor found on internet done in Gimp.
@Ward has totally agreed to help me out with this (basically by doing all the work) and I am very thankful . I really want to put both pics up here side by side to really see the differences. I am so excited and I can't wait!
@Ward has totally agreed to help me out with this (basically by doing all the work) and I am very thankful . I really want to put both pics up here side by side to really see the differences. I am so excited and I can't wait!
Comments
Well after a considerable amount of poking and tweaking- Ward has produced something that was exactly what I was trying to describe!!!
A HUGE kudos to him and his magic fingers and here's what we came up with!
Let me know what you all think!
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad238/PunkRockerPenguin/Again.png
Those portraits were actually my very first digital illustrations, done 15
years ago, so anything I was doing there was really not based on experience
or a plan. I did those in photoshop, and nowdays I use Painter9, so my
thoughts and process has evolved so much that I'm not sure I can give
advice.
Sorry I can't help you more, its just that stuff is so very old and I have
moved forward! I probably worked from a drawing, then digitally airbrushed
the tones in black and white, then used a "color" layer to add color. I
probably layered textures somewhat as well, and I used the airbrush on
"difference" mode to get some colored reflected lights.
Cheers,
Mike
Italics are obviously mine.
Let me know if that final picture is what you need Zear and I'll shrink it down for BG portraits tonight. It seemed the first two drafts didn't hit the spot and I agree. The problem was they weren't smooth enough to mimic the BG1 style and I couldn't make them smoother without redrawing the textures by hand (which would look shocking). Luckily I didn't have to, that last one seems to be much more convincing, but it looks a bit more like IWD to me. :P
@AndreaColombo That makes sense, I guess his way of tackling something has changed so much it wouldn't apply anymore. It looks to me like he smoothed out the photos with a filter and rendered them with some kind of gradient tool, it doesn't look like an airbrush because they're too sharp and the colours fade into one another seamlessly (he may of used brushes for hair and fine details, however). The lighting effects look superimposed over the top.
Yess the final splash frame is perfect and also loving the IWD ring to it!
So the BG size can finally be confirmed
The pictures have to be as 24-bit bitmap images to sustain quality. However, if the character is poisoned or injured or if anything appears over his portrait (other than small buff icons) the bottom part of it gets chopped off.
Apparently the small one has to be 8-bit bitmap to fix this, but I've never heard of that so I tried 256 colours but it was the same problem, plus you lose quality.
Maybe @AndreaColombo knows what the problem is, if not I'll ask around and try and fix it.
Also, either @Cuv or @Miloch may know what the problem @Ward is experiencing is.
@Jaxbudgie Yeah that's why I tried to not say it.
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I want to put up the original just to show I'm not as dirty as I look here. Oh god it's awful.
Edit: suppose it's not bad for an hours worth of smudging, blurring, erasing and painting.
No problem man- However, I cant actually see in the photo you provided the problem...
If the chopped out part is the 4 pixel high thing at the bottom? (I can barely see it and no idea if that is red damage) so what exactly is the area of effect?
@Jaxsbudgie
Loving it man- I'm guessing your breastplate was super imposed?
I really do hope a "baldurize" type app or something comes out. Until then I guess a few of us are just gonna have to roleplay as other people :P
http://forum.baldursgate.com/profile/9735/Blakes7
PM me with the details if you like.
Settle for nothing less! The game will feel much more personal playing as yourself!
If anybody is curious about how I made it it is a painting over my photo and picture of an armor found on internet done in Gimp.
Fantastic picture though! The effect you gave the loop on the armour are perfect.