Astafas' thread for creating custom portraits

Brynn · Post by **Brynn** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 5:45 am

100E per portrait? Um... 10, what say?

I think I'll try to use it in NWN too, I just have to look up the proper size. Stlye or not, I like it

Ylva's portrait would fit NWN too perfectly.

Wow, good luck with that, I'm glad to hear the good news

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:24 am

[QUOTE=Brynn]100E per portrait? Um... 10, what say?

I think I'll try to use it in NWN too, I just have to look up the proper size. Stlye or not, I like it

Ylva's portrait would fit NWN too perfectly.

Wow, good luck with that, I'm glad to hear the good news

[/QUOTE]

Hehe, afraid I'm gonna charge you?

Thanks! She really is the cutest littl' Pally in the world...

Brynn · Post by **Brynn** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:46 am

lol no

I'm trying to create a pic with PhotoPaint right now - it's very hard to work with the skin... How did you do th epointed ears, cut out and pasted it from another pic?

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:31 am

[QUOTE=Brynn]lol no

I'm trying to create a pic with PhotoPaint right now - it's very hard to work with the skin... How did you do th epointed ears, cut out and pasted it from another pic?[/QUOTE]

What do you mean with "with the skin"?

For the ears, you first need a photograph where the ears are clearly visible. Then you copy the ears into another layer (so you don't mess with the original picture). Then (in Photoshop, I'm not sure if PhotoPaint has the same function) you use Liquidify (found under Filter nowadays) to change the form of the ears. Often I have to do some painting as well, in that case I do it another layer placed on top of the first two. Elven ears are tricky, don't give up!

boo's daddy · Post by **boo's daddy** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 10:31 am

These are really well done, A. I think the best ones are the paladin (was that one your fiancee?) and the most recent ex (with mazzy's armour). I'm sure it's no coincidence that your partners provide the best materials!

Really good stuff; much more subtle than many of the other custom portraits you see on the net.

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:26 pm

OK Brynn, here is the remade portrait. I will have another look tomorrow though, as I'm rather tired at the moment (bedtime...).

Brynn · Post by **Brynn** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:40 am

Cool! The hair looks much more natural now.

By skin I meant the face - I was trying to add a bit of color and light to the cheeks and make the lips more colorful but oh hell, I just messed it up

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 3:29 am

[QUOTE=Brynn]Cool! The hair looks much more natural now.

By skin I meant the face - I was trying to add a bit of color and light to the cheeks and make the lips more colorful but oh hell, I just messed it up

[/QUOTE]

I actually finished up changing almost everything. You'll notice that the armor is new as well.

I'm afraid I can't give you any advice since we don't use the same program. I really do recommend using Photoshop though. Also, those kind of changes should be made to the layer with the original photograph, not be added on top after the image is flattened.

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 5:19 am

Nobody got a custom portrait of their own?

There is an excellent tutorial on how to make custom portraits (as well as several superb portraits of mosty moviestars) here:

Portrait Portal

A few interesting findings about custom portraits (from photo) in BG2:

1) You almost always have to reduce the height of the original photo in order to make the head more square. Otherwise it will look odd compared to the orginal NPC portraits.

2) For some reason, you need to lower the brightness significantly on the portraits before putting them in the portraits folders.

3) The resolution of the game doesn't do well made portraits justice. On the other hand, it's very forgiving if you've made a few mistakes...

Brynn · Post by **Brynn** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 5:35 am

Conclusion: no need to sweat it

Well, I tried to follow the tutorial's instructions, but I gave it up eventually since I found out that NWN requires tgas and I have no idea how to create those (I was about to create a portrait to use in every game).

So, I ended up using Famke's portrait in NWN, that's absolutely perfect for my character. When I was browsing those pix at Portrait Portal, I thought Ylwa's portrait would fit there perfectly, no one could tell it was made by a different creator

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 6:20 am

[QUOTE=Brynn]Conclusion: no need to sweat it

Well, I tried to follow the tutorial's instructions, but I gave it up eventually since I found out that NWN requires tgas and I have no idea how to create those (I was about to create a portrait to use in every game).

So, I ended up using Famke's portrait in NWN, that's absolutely perfect for my character. When I was browsing those pix at Portrait Portal, I thought Ylwa's portrait would fit there perfectly, no one could tell it was made by a different creator

[/QUOTE]

Normally you would simply open the portrait file and then choose to save it in the desired format. If you want help, tell me the sizes and formats you need, and I'll fix it for you.

My only objection, if that even is one, against Karwal's portraits is that they are to perfect - they are much sharper and more detailed then the original NPC portraits, thus standing out some. But it's a marvellous job!

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Wed May 04, 2005 2:21 pm

I've made another one, this time of a Human Necromancer. The observant will notice that I've used the same photograph as for the Halv-Elven Bard posted on page 2.

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:43 am

I just discovered a filter that is really useful in giving your photograph a more painted look. As I have a Swedish version of Photoshop I'm a bit unsure of the English name but it is found under Filter -> Artistic and should be the fourth filter from the top, probably named Edges or something familiar.

You should copy your photograph into another layer placed on top of the orginal, add the filter and then probably set the opacity to somewhere between 20 and 30 %. The result can be seen by comparing attached portrait with the version in the post above.

Kenyon · Post by **Kenyon** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:21 am

A slight bump, some of you might find these interesting.

Two portraits are attached for a possible game: the first one (SilverL) was about two hours of Photoshopping (you won't believe how difficult it is to match those BG2 colors), the second one was just ten minutes. For those of you that have played Neverwinter Nights, yes, the second one (BhaalL) is a modified version of a halfling portrait. It now looks like a human portrait.