Portrait Obsession Options

[Rabain]

I have been messing around with Photoshop all day...I guess I am a little obsessed with portraits at the moment.

Anyway to take my mind off choosing portraits for NPC mods I have done the following. Each image is taken from various locations around the net, mainly Poser art sites. The armour and such are various cobbling together of bits and pieces from BG2 armour and some other BG2 portraits already available.

Let me know what you think:



Top-Left - she wasn't so pink, didn't have the elf ears, didn't have that birth-mark/tattoo type thing and didn't have the armor.

Top-Middle - he didn't have any armor, no clothes at all in fact, didn't have the tattoo or the elfish ears and the hair was so dark you almost couldn't see it at all!

Top-Right - all this guy had was a face and only about half the neck you see now. I extended the neck and added the worn armor. Might make a decent villain.

Bottom-Left - again this guy was just head and short neck. I added the armor, recoloured it blue and red tint, lengthened his neck using the smudge tool. Also he was paler than the elf girl above so I gave him a tan by using a skin graft from another portrait and smudge it in. There is still something odd about this one..the eyes?

Bottom-Middle - she wasn't a drow and had no clothes on! I think the leather straps might still need some touching up...but don't they always!

Bottm-Right: he was just a head wearing a black polo neck, I had to give him a different background to highlight his hair, added the armour which fitted nice with the polo, copied the sword handle to the left side. Might make a decent Armsmaster for some Duke. Gave him the scaring too.

[Baronius]

Perfect work. They're simply perfect. Go ahead! What about a collection called Rabain's Portrait Pack?

[Awake]

Good job. I'd have to say my favorite one up there is the drow.

Bottom-left: ....he looks like a stoner.... That's what he reminds me of. Perhaps he could be some guy addicted to Black Lotus?

[Rabain]

Perfect work. They're simply perfect. Go ahead! What about a collection called Rabain's Portrait Pack?

Heh thanks, the plan is to have around 20 or 30 portraits done from the images I have downloaded. This is the first 6, maybe someone from the WTP or LC might have use for some of them. I do them as much to give myself a break as actually needing portraits. I have started making them all in the large 210x330 format as they are easier to edit and can be used for the Epilogue Portraits should need ever arise.

Bottom-left: ....he looks like a stoner....  That's what he reminds me of. Perhaps he could be some guy addicted to Black Lotus?

LoL , I just knew there was something about him...damn stoner's. New NPC mod idea forming...Stoner Kit...he's a lover not a fighter man...through the course of the game you have to feed his habit by spending increasing amounts of money on buying black lotus!

[jastey]

Not bad.

I like the pink lady best. She's perfect.


Oooookay some critic, I hope it's helpful to give you a new perspective on the pics (from drawing I know that oneself looses the objective view on the own picture sometimes):

The left guy on the top line has a too long neck IMO, and for a BGII portrait the head is too small on the picture.

top row, middle: His left eye (on the right side) looks strange: I would expect the pupil to be bigger, more black. The eye has a light (blue) spot where I would expect the black of the pupil to be.

The man on the right in the bottom row has a too long neck, too. IMO. The neck looks a bit strange too: on the one side the line goes from shoulder to ear, on the other side only to his chin - do you see what I mean?

The stoned guy... (Now I know why you suggested that "smilie", Awake ) I like his face very much, actually. I would like to see him not with flying hair but with a normal haircut, or (preferably) wearing a helmet, and with awake eyes. The head a bit bigger on the pic, in full (now it is cut on the forehead.) I know to make the eyes is a hard thing, but if you'd like to play with that one some more I would be curious to see the result. (I'm always looking for alternate portraits for Ajantis... )

[Rabain]

Jastey...both my biggest help and my biggest critic...just to answer some of the criticisms:

the guy on the left (your right?) has a long neck and a small head...that's it...he is very sorry but he was born that way!

yeah the middle guy's eye is a bit odd but then you wouldn't notice that on the smaller portraits...actually flaws are a lot easier to spot on these large versions!

Yeah the guy in black's neck looks a little odd, he is turned slightly if you look carefully but I didn't even notice the neck thing..you must have some super monitor to see these things!

I'll see what I can do with the stoned guy, it is very hard to find decent helmets to add to portraits.

Here are the next three portraits, in much the same style as the others. I am trying to get a range of classes too instead of the usual fighter/elf/drow options:



Okay the girl on the left is what I call a cleric, her eye makeup probably needs fixing but I don't have much experience with makeup!

The mage girl picture I loved because of the hands, you don't see hands much in BG portraits so I really wanted to keep them. The only problem was the original image only had the face and hands, no arms beyond the wrists. So I found some girl online and stole her arms, I think they have turned out okay, the robe cuffs were a last minute addition which i think was pure genius as they make the arms look like part of the picture...I like this one!

the guy is a bard, I can just see his big head booming out a deep tenor in some Inn in Trademeet!

I am going to have to trawl for some new armors and clothes etc as the original BG portraits are getting a little old, I feel like i am seeing the same armour/robes all the time now!

Please remember too that there is even more detail in the bmp images than in these compressed jpg's!

Comments?

[jastey]

Those are great!
I like these ones better for BGII than the first ones, as they look like original BGII style!

The cleric and the bard are just perfect. To the make-up: Try to keep the blue between eyebrow and eye, it's spread a bit too far to the side (if you know what I mean.)

The lady with the hands: It seems to be destiny that I have the most critic on the one you like best, well.
Chest region: Somehow doesn't look right. The collarbone is too far down and should be more to the right (my right, her left, and this time I mean it.)
The region where the neckline starts has shadows that make it look as if there's a bone of some sort (which surely isn't...)
The head: I miss some "volume" here. the head (the hood) should rise higher IMO. Compare with the cleric how "high" the head rises from the forehead: This is missing here, do you see what I mean?
Nitpick: Her right arm (the one on the left side...) seems to be bended / curved. Make the upper part of the arm (starting from the back of the hand) a straight line.

Rabain, I really don't post my criticism to annoy you. But I will always tell you what I think looks wrong in the pictures you show me... and hope it is helpful. And that you won't stop showing them to me.

the guy on the left (your right?) has a long neck and a small head...that's it...he is very sorry but he was born that way!

OK that's a valid explanation. (With head too small I meant that the cut-out of the picture is different than of the usual BGII-portrait, where the portraits are chosen in a way that the head size is mostly the same, and for consistency I like it that way.) And yes, I meant on the right, of course.

[Rabain]

Rabain, I really don't post my criticism to annoy you. But I will always tell you what I think looks wrong in the pictures you show me... and hope it is helpful. And that you won't stop showing them to me.

No worries , I never take anything too seriously!

Nitpick: Her right arm (the one on the left side...) seems to be bended / curved. Make the upper part of the arm (starting from the back of the hand) a straight line.

I look at this and it looks odd and then I look again and it looks okay, I don't want to mess with it too much in case I wreck it completly! The oddness I guess comes from using two different hands/arms at different angles and joining them together. I'll redo them all later and post them again. While I am going I might as well try to get a good few done (I get bored easily doing the same thing all the time)..if i come back to it in a week or so I should be interested again.


I have made some slight changes... as above!

[jastey]

The hand is better now. The chest region still doesn't feel right... But I don't know how it should be. I think I would try covering it a bit more with the coat... only a suggestion.

Did you change the makeup (of the cleric?). If only I knew what for, I would take the cleric and the bard pic right away. Unfortunately I'm in no need of portraits right now (except alternative Ajantis portraits...)

Looking foreward to seeing more pics!

EDIT: Wow, I just saw the originals on FW - it's magic what you've done to the cleric! I like your version so much better!

[Rabain]

Yeah changed the eye makeup and made her eyes blue, I felt it fit more with the blue sky and shoulder pads. There is too much Green in BG portraits!

There wasn't much to change for the bard really...I just like the facial expression!

[Awake]

I like the middle one a lot. The only problem I see with it is that her hand looks...hairy? Looks good though. Good job. I'll go check the originals at fw.

Oh, and about Jastey being so damn picky...well, I'd ban her...

[Rabain]

Okay here is tonight's effort:





I'm not sure about the knives but i wanted something different to the usual BG stuff.

[Sir-Kill]

does not look like you want to f*** with him

[jastey]

But he doesn't look unfriendly, it's a real warrior... no? Pity about the eye, though...

Not bad!

OK, and because you guys expect it: His right shoulder looks a bit weird. I think I know which muscle that would be, and for such a strong man I guess it's OK if it's really big, but I'm missing the actual shoulder there. (Awake: *you* try banning *me*, dude )

With knives you mean the two things on the belt? On my display I couldn't tell it's knives. i took it for some sort of tribal decoration... sorry.

[Rabain]

I have moved this to Graphics Department for a little more exposure and I think I am ready for the criticism!

It's funny but the images on my home PC are a lot darker than they display here at work. My settings at home are max Brightness & Contrast and still it is a lot darker than what I see here!

I will have to darken these somemore as they look better than they do here...really!

[jastey]

Even better?

I think I figured out about the guy's shoulder: The muscle is OK, but it seems to start behind the neck, not from it... see what I mean?

[Rabain]

I darkened the image somewhat..I think it looks better. What do you think?

Also the muscle thing looks better..at least on my monitor it does! I think this is to do with the fact that his shoulder has dissappeared..you can barely see it in the original..it's gone in my edit!

It is kind of hard to tell now on my monitor as something looks really dark and then when i see it on another monitor its as bright as day...what am i to do?

[egm]

What nice portraits

[jastey]

the muscle thing looks better..

Way better!

I darkened the image somewhat..I think it looks better.  What do you think?

I can't really tell... Guess I'm sitting on one of those "bright as day" displays, too.

It is kind of hard to tell now on my monitor as something looks really dark and then when i see it on another monitor its as bright as day...what am i to do?

Buy a new monitor? No idea, really. It's weird how different some monitors show the images. That's one of the things I don't like about doing computer art!

[Sir-Kill]

I was looking at this guy and his neck muscles never looked right, thinking that the angle was off I strightened it out a bit.