Amaurea's Portrait Mod

[Strontium Dog]

Just thought I ought to mention a few things re Amaurea's portrait mod. First of all, the current download doesn't seem to include all the portraits shown on Amaurea's main website. Secondly, while I really liked many of the portraits, I did find it a little disconcerting that most of the portraits seemed to only include the face, and not much of any hair alongside it. Any chance of "broadening" the portraits to include more details?

[Amaurea]

I know I need to update the download file, sorry about that!

 

As for the portrait style, that's something that was my preference when I started doing portraits. I have a wide-screen monitor, and prefer to see much of the face when I'm playing the game. The original portraits were too far away to see the face clearly, so, I came up with my own thing. Also, I liked to chose PC portraits based on the face, and not be limited by armor that didn't fit my player concept, elf ears on a non-elf, human ears on an elf, etc.

 

I will probably eventually do a series by class at some point, and those I will do in more of a traditional style.

[Strontium Dog]

IAs for the portrait style, that's something that was my preference when I started doing portraits. I have a wide-screen monitor, and prefer to see much of the face when I'm playing the game. The original portraits were too far away to see the face clearly, so, I came up with my own thing. Also, I liked to chose PC portraits based on the face, and not be limited by armor that didn't fit my player concept, elf ears on a non-elf, human ears on an elf, etc.

 

I will probably eventually do a series by class at some point, and those I will do in more of a traditional style.

 

Most of the portraits are actually fine. It's just one or two I have a slight problem with, such as the Faldorn one, which seem rather too "clipped". Usually, in order to hide the race of the character, people tend to put in long hair or hoods to obscure the ears, so that one can then choose between elf/half-elf or human etc. without any incongruencies appearing. At any rate, I'll be happy to wait for further class-derived portraits.

[Amaurea]

IAs for the portrait style, that's something that was my preference when I started doing portraits. I have a wide-screen monitor, and prefer to see much of the face when I'm playing the game. The original portraits were too far away to see the face clearly, so, I came up with my own thing. Also, I liked to chose PC portraits based on the face, and not be limited by armor that didn't fit my player concept, elf ears on a non-elf, human ears on an elf, etc.

 

I will probably eventually do a series by class at some point, and those I will do in more of a traditional style.

 

Most of the portraits are actually fine. It's just one or two I have a slight problem with, such as the Faldorn one, which seem rather too "clipped". Usually, in order to hide the race of the character, people tend to put in long hair or hoods to obscure the ears, so that one can then choose between elf/half-elf or human etc. without any incongruencies appearing. At any rate, I'll be happy to wait for further class-derived portraits.

 

I'm not happy with the Faldorn pic either, I will be doing another one for her at some point.

[Lord Ernie]

Hrmm... most of these are really, really good. I like a lot of the PC portraits, and the new Aerie (innocent look), Anomen (sexy or dashing... and I hate Anomen, so that is quite huge), Keldorn (George Clooney look), Mazzy, Jaheira, Edwin, and Viccy are absolutely amazing.

 

That said, and mind you, I'm not really entitled to criticize anyone considering my own skills in arts (be they digital or otherwise) are about as good as a drunken elephant is in tightrope dancing, but some of the portraits look a little... weird to me. Minsc's head looks a little odd (especially in the first one), and Sarevok's head has a little baloonish hint to it. Also, I think the Imoen ones and Haer'Dalis look somewhat cartoonish, but that might just be me.

 

Still... overall excellent work. The Heroes cast as BG characters was very well done (I'm a fan myself), and I might even replace some of the old NPC portraits (something I've never done) with your portrait edits next time I play through the game. Keep up the good work!

[Amaurea]

The download file on my site has been updated to include the newer portraits, though those for NPC's from BG1 and BG2 are not included.

 

Thanks for the kind words, Lord Ernie. I learn something new with each portrait I do, so hopefully, some of the weirdness you see in some of the portraits will continue to disappear over time.

 

I'm glad you like the Heroes series, I'm having a lot of fun with it. I know my Sylar as Irenicus could use a great deal of refining, but it's the biggest edit I've done to date, and I'm pretty proud of it. Hopefully, I'll be able to revisit it at some point in the future and get better results.

[berelinde]

Are you done with the BG1 series? If so, I'll start packaging.

[Amaurea]

I am, barring any additional requests.

[berelinde]

OK, then, will get to it tomorrow. I've got another mod to package ahead of it in the cue (you know which one, since you're doing testing for it ) but that won't take long. Yours will take a while, though, because it's got to work on 3 platforms: Tutu, BGT, and vanilla BG.

[BigRob]

I hadn't realised you'd done so much work on this, Amaurea, congratulations on the sheer volume of great portraitage. I'm not sure if you've totally engineered new clothes/armour for some of them, or just modified them from somewhere else, but it's good to see that variety rather than see familiar old bodies.

 

I also like the Heroes series, I can't decide whether Claire works better as Aerie or Imoen.

[Amaurea]

I hadn't realised you'd done so much work on this, Amaurea, congratulations on the sheer volume of great portraitage. I'm not sure if you've totally engineered new clothes/armour for some of them, or just modified them from somewhere else, but it's good to see that variety rather than see familiar old bodies.

 

I also like the Heroes series, I can't decide whether Claire works better as Aerie or Imoen.

 

Thanks, BigRob! Most of the armor/clothing I use starts with pictures from a site devoted to the study of the costuming in The Lord of the Rings movies. The editing from that point on goes in many crazy directions.

[Amaurea]

For those of you who'd like to see a more road-weary version of portraits, as well as those who'd like to see more of the character's heads and armors, I've started a new series from characters in period/fantasy/historical movies/tv shows.

 

I am planning to do a huge amount of portraits for this, including portraits for commoners and all major non-joinable NPC's. It might take me forever, but this idea just won't go away.

 

Also, I'm hoping to learn enough about coding to make a mod out of these, complete with updated colors to match the armors/robes on some of the portraits (Ajantis' armor looks blue, for example).

 

I have five done so far.

 

BG Movies Portraits Series

 

If anyone has any "casting" suggestions, I am more than open to them!

[Guest John]

Casting calls??

 

Totally inappropriate to this day and age but say Spencer Tracy's weatherbeaten face from The Old Man and the Sea. He strikes me as he'd make a good subject for a paladin type at the Order of the Radiant Heart or maybe Quayle. Or perhaps use some of the faces from pictures of miners from the early 1900's or late 1800's. For some reason, a lot of the faces in those pictures seem to have an indefinable character to them or just seem representative of stressful times.

 

BTW, was pretty awestruck with the new portraits, especially the first one of Diane Kruger and the 4th one James Purefoy. I keep thinking he looks like that actor on the series House. OTOH, he could be because I don't keep track of the actor's name

 

Sorry I can't suggest more names, but I don't have any clear association of who might be a good pick for any specific NPC. I was trying to think of people whose looks were atypical to current thinking. Along those lines, I find myself thinking back to some of the horror films legends such as Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and Charles Laughton. Also, don't know why but also some comedians such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. They were all pretty good at using their faces to get across the character they portrayed.

 

I'm looking forward to your next series.

 

Cheers,

 

John