BG art compared to BGII art

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:07 am

Am I the only person who prefers the BGI paperdolls compared to the BGII ones? The BGII ones feel too flashy and fancy, with the impractically formed shields and such.

The portraits of BGI also seem more "realistic" than the BGII ones. In BGII, you can't throw a stone without hitting an NPC which has (tons of) piercings or dreadlocks or tattoos. Sure, it's nice to have the option, but since those are all 'extra' things, it's a bit sad not to see a lot of basic faces, without piercings, tattoos or dreads.

roller1234 · Post by **roller1234** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:40 am

I agree to some part. I always perceived BG1 paperdolls as more glamorous and flashy, i like them more than those in bg2 as well. In BG2 they toned down on colors, but bumped on "stuff". Or maybe bg2 is just lower quality, i recall to read that somewhere, but im not an artist, i cant really see. Most things i like, "artists" dislike and vice versa, how strange.

For reference
[url="http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070505233728/forgottenrealms/images/thumb/e/e9/Imoen_-_Baldur's_Gate_1.jpg/160px-Imoen_-_Baldur's_Gate_1.jpg"]bg1 imoen[/url]
[url="http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070505233031/forgottenrealms/images/thumb/b/b4/Imoen_-_Baldur's_Gate_2.jpg/200px-Imoen_-_Baldur's_Gate_2.jpg"]bg2 imoen[/url]

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 5:35 am

Yeah, I like the clear, crisp style of the BG1 portraits as well.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:04 am

It's not only the portraits and paperdolls which got uglified from BG1 to BG2, weapons and armor look worse too.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:14 am

You mean the icons in the inventory? Yes, those were a lot cruder too. That's the one thing that always makes me doubt about installing HoW on IWD.

Amanthor · Post by **Amanthor** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 9:12 am

You guys know about the One Pixel Productions (1PP) mod right?

Spellhold Studios - One Pixel Productions / Baldur's Gate II Mod

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 9:47 am

Yes, but they don't change everything. The in-game animations stay ugly. Unless it got updated?

Amanthor · Post by **Amanthor** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 12:02 pm

GawainBS wrote:Unless it got updated?

Not AFAIK.

doady · Post by **doady** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:01 pm

I prefer the BG1 look, but regardless of which one is superior, BG1 had its own distinct art style and BG2 had its own distinct art style. The BG1 aesthetic fits BG1 and the BG2 aesthetic fits BG2. I like that. That's why I have never bothered with Tutu.

QuenGalad · Post by **QuenGalad** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:26 am

The BG1 portraits have some strange effects, like overdone colour saturation or odd contrasts, but I remember when it came out, they were a huge hit and people were virtually stunned to see such high quality portraits.
Portraits for BG2 are much worse when it comes to such "trivial" matter as facial feature proportions, depth perception or shading, which is very odd as they seem to aim at more "realistic" feel. Jaheira, for example, looks like she's received a blow from a +3 mace right to the nose and her face just caved in... and then got swollen.

Paperdolls are just hideous in BG2, I tend not to look at them at all. Character avatars vary - some are really cool, and some.. not. Erephine does some amazing stuff in 1PP, though.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:33 am

I tried installing the 1PP avatars, but the Weidu installer gave some weird errors with "Unknown Strings &" and such. A pity.

Garriath · Post by **Garriath** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:47 am

doady wrote:I prefer the BG1 look, but regardless of which one is superior, BG1 had its own distinct art style and BG2 had its own distinct art style. The BG1 aesthetic fits BG1 and the BG2 aesthetic fits BG2. I like that. That's why I have never bothered with Tutu.

Do note that there's a Tutu mod that restores the BG1 interface, but allows you to play with all the Tutu features. Best of both worlds, really.

Andrea C. · Post by **Andrea C.** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 6:32 pm

Hi Gavin,

you're not the only one. BG2 is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Walker, Baldur's Gate and TotSC graphic designer who died in June 1999. He drew the paperdolls and animations (among other things) in Baldur's Gate.

The mod One Pixel Production restores the original BG paperdolls as well as item icons and flaming swords (with the nice addition of flaming short swords). For the original animations you can use Infinity Animations but beware: BG1 animations cannot dual-wield, and equipping a second-hand weapon while using them results in a game crash. This will likely be addressed in the future but for now that's how things go.

Blomdor · Post by **Blomdor** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:34 pm

Agreed, BG1's art is much better. The faces of many of the female characters are strangely deformed, especially odd when the NPC in question looked just fine in the original e.g. Jaheira. Imoen is not so bad in that regard but for whatever reason has pink hair all of a sudden, which has always bugged me. It's such an arbitrary change and I never could find a decent explanation for it.

EDIT re: kmonster: I thought I was the only one that weirded out by the cracked axes! I always wondered how they didn't crumble to pieces in a few hits like BG1's weapons did. Some of the magic swords have an arrowish point that looks goofy as well IMO.

Sykar · Post by **Sykar** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:17 am

I like both equally.