Koson Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 Well, I have a comment, although I fear it's not going to be very popular: could you change Aklon's portrait? Don't take me wrong, I like his second portrait a lot, it's really nice, but IMHO not "baldurish" at all - it rather looks like a NWN style portrait to me. And he's supposed to be a BG2 party-member, not a NWN henchman, right? Quote Link to comment
BigRob Posted January 27, 2004 Author Share Posted January 27, 2004 Thanks for the comments, Koson. I'm glad you like the second portrait, anyway. Ideally, I would love to have Aklon's portrait blend seamlessly into BGII and if I knew where the artists for Baldur's gate lived, I'd bundle them into my van and.... well, that's neither here nor there. The problem, of course, is finding an artist who can produce a BGesque portrait and will do so for little to no money, coz I ain't rollin' in cash here. I do actually have an alternate portrait, kindly furnished by Paxsenarrion (thanks!), but I haven't posted it up anywhere yet. It's probably a little more Baldurish. I'll talk to my artist (The Artist Formerly Not Known As Anything) as well and see if we can sharpen the portrait up a bit. Of course, if you know anyone who could produce a better portrait (for little renumeration), by all means direct me to them. Quote Link to comment
Koson Posted January 27, 2004 Share Posted January 27, 2004 Well, there is The Portrait Portal - http://www.karwal.dk/portraitportal/ - you could try. As far as I know, they don't ask for money, but patience, since there's lots of requests they get. And since it seems Aklon is not in the "gold" stage yet, time shouldn't be in short supply. The site, beside the high-quality portraits and no remuneration policy, has another thing to recommend it - it's done this kind of job before: JCompton had a custom portrait made for Kelsey there, and the nice Jude Law picture is in fact a custom work for the apparently now retired Neh'taniel mod (involving an undead elven Judicial Knight of Amaunator). Just ask, please, Kasten Dahl (the artist making the custom portraits) to use the "standard" BG2 look / paraphernalia instead of the new, more realistic (and less baldurish) one. OR, you could use a modified Balthazar portrait (if your artist can / is willing to work with it) -> it has the benefit of seamlessly blending into BG2 and being made especially for a monk, but Aklon will have to shave his golden curls... Quote Link to comment
BevH Posted January 27, 2004 Share Posted January 27, 2004 The problem with the Portrait Portal is she's so inundated with requests now, plus I think she's dealing with some burn-out. She hasn't added any new portraits since November and that was after a 3 or 4 month gap. Yes, she does excellent work - I have several of hers - but her request list is already quite long. Besides, I rather like the current Aklon portrait. It just needs a little fine tuning. Quote Link to comment
CamDawg Posted January 27, 2004 Share Posted January 27, 2004 Including an alternative portrait for the mod is an easy solution. Doesn't Kelsey come with multiple portraits? Quote Link to comment
BevH Posted January 27, 2004 Share Posted January 27, 2004 Including an alternative portrait for the mod is an easy solution. Doesn't Kelsey come with multiple portraits? Yep, there are two others you can pick from - one of them from Karse Soze who owns Portrait Portal. Quote Link to comment
Koson Posted January 28, 2004 Share Posted January 28, 2004 Actually Kelsey has 3 portraits: the default one and two from Karse Soze (hooded and hoodless). Quote Link to comment
BigRob Posted January 28, 2004 Author Share Posted January 28, 2004 Besides, I rather like the current Aklon portrait. It just needs a little fine tuning. Thanks. I really should get around to putting up that alternate portrait. So people, what, precisely, is not Baldurish about Aklon's portrait? If I get detailed criticism, it'll help TAFNKAA work. Quote Link to comment
BevH Posted January 28, 2004 Share Posted January 28, 2004 The Portrait Portal has a tutorial on how to turn a photograph into a BG portrait.  I don't know of how much help it will be.  But I have a hard time describing a BG portrait.  It's kind of realistic, but with the hard edges of a cartoon - if that makes any sense.  However, the fine tuning I meant was that Aklon seems to be a little out of focus - you know, kind of blurry. Quote Link to comment
BigRob Posted January 28, 2004 Author Share Posted January 28, 2004 Yes, the blurriness. We did that to remove the features of the original photographee and stamp a bit of Aklon on there. I'll see what we can do about sharpening him up a bit. Quote Link to comment
Koson Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Most likely it won't help with the current portrait, but the BG2 ones are frontal shots or semi-profiles at best. Also, he seems somewhat younger or very "well preserved" at least - I wouldn't give him 37 based on that picture. Quote Link to comment
BigRob Posted January 31, 2004 Author Share Posted January 31, 2004 The alternate portrait (I'll really have to get that one posted) is more or less facing straight on. The current "official" portrait is a lot more skewed than the normal BGII portraits, but, well, I'm just gonna have to live with it  Aklon's portrait definately needs some aging and I'll try and to get that added. Aklon doesn't advertise how old he is, so we can just say he's a "veteran" adventurer to avoid the "He certainly doesn't look 37" problem. Quote Link to comment
BigRob Posted February 2, 2004 Author Share Posted February 2, 2004 Well, on that note, I'd like to announce that in a fit of artistic pique TAFNKAA () has re-done Aklon's portrait, sharpening him up and adding a little (but not too much!) age to him. Go check it out at Aklon's website here. Also be sure to have a look at the new teaser art posted on the Comments, Links and Samples section. Quote Link to comment
g'lain Posted February 2, 2004 Share Posted February 2, 2004 I really liked the first portrait Rob, but the second is outstanding! Good job! Quote Link to comment
JPS Posted February 2, 2004 Share Posted February 2, 2004 Definitely an improvement, especially the hair. But he doesn't look 37 Quote Link to comment
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