Standardizing Portraits

[Dave]

- Can I exaggerate a little more. The portriates I have done are pretty standard, but if I come across an ogre-general can I make him really tough and hate-able

I should think so, though we can of course discuss specifics better with an example.

In general though we like to give our artists a great deal of latitude over what they do.

- Can I make emotion specific portraits? Ex. If a character yells often could I make a second portrait for this occasion.(this would come later)

Yes, this would be excellent, and the engine already supports it.

-Would it be possible to throw in some cut scene artwork to avoid stagnate work.

Absolutely. If there's something specific you'd like to work on, just let us know. We work on the principle that the most important thing for developers to do is work on what interests them.

David

[freim]

Great work, I especially like the one shaded with pencil.

[toms]

I like those a lot, except for the ragged border of the parchment.

[Shadow]

...

also keep in mind that I am colorblind so if something comes out an odd color (which it should not, but just for insurance) It would be best to tell me and not assume that I did this on purpose.

Colorblind

You've bypassed this handicap really good.

[Kestenvarn]

I've met another artist that had the same problem - there are ways to work around it, for those determined enough.

[West]

uhmm I think the pencil shade looks more "medieval" but well I'm not an expert...[/size]

I agree with this, I also like the pencil version better. It has more character. Not that the PS version is bad in any way of course, but the pencil image has a feel that IMO suits the fantasy style better than the current cel shaded stuff.

All in all I like these images very much and getting one guy to remake all portraits in the same style is obviously what the game needs. I'm just hoping that theycallmerooster won't give up and disappear after half of the portraits have been replaced (no offense or anything, but it's a lot of work and it's easy to overestimate how much time you're willing/able to spend on this), in which case the situation will be even worse than before.

In any case I wish you good luck, theycallmerooster.

(BTW, does this mean that I'm just wasting my time if I continue to work on the Two Brothers portraits?)

[theycallmerooster]

(BTW, does this mean that I'm just wasting my time if I continue to work on the Two Brothers portraits?)

No, I will benefit from a second angle and like someone said before, it would be nice to be able to skin the portraits based on style

[Pickslide]

Yay! Standardization!

Just to throw in my 2 cents here, if it's decided to standardize a certain way, I think it would be good to define some things:

pencil lineart style?
shadows, are they going to be pencil shaded like the lancer, or color only like arne? I'd say color only, just because I think its more flexible.

I also see that we've moved all the way to shoulder and above on these guys. I think we should call that out, as it used to be waist up. This will make things easier, as I used to spend a lot of time trying to put "character" in the pose and not make them all look the same. No hands or random accessories (weapons) in frame?

Are we standardizing the 3/4 looking to the right, looking toward light source?

The proportions are slightly exaggerated, and I know HTTT has some very nice story pics that are very close in style to these. Would it be a good idea to try to push the portraits to more realistic proportions, or is that not a concern?

I don't know what the standing need for portraits is currently, but I'd like to be able to help out (occasionally) if possible. There's also the issue of ongoing need, so I think it would be good to get a clean standard in place for portraits, just like the sprites.

I bring all this up because I think BfW is at the point where it needs a good art production line for portraits...maybe story art as well. Stand in art is standing out too much relative to the other aspects. If we can set these clear requirements out, I think it could give some aspiring artists a more defined bar to work toward, and also prevent this mish-mash issue we have now.

Edit:

How rude of me! Welcome to the forums Theycallmerooster! I'm looking forward to seeing a batch of portraits on this thread!

[turin]

SPOILERS!
Descent into Darkness (this is the only one of the campaigns with bad portraits that I'm familiar with) characters in order of appearance:

* Malin Keshar: He's a young and rather naive mage with a cruel streak. He's 18 when the story begins. Over the course of the campaign he turns into a Necromancer, then turns into a Lich; it would be cool to have a portrait for each of these stages. He's obsessed with getting back at the Orcs who attacked his village.
THE MAIN CHARACTER

* Drogan: He's the military leader of Malin Keshar's home village (a Lieutenant, IIRC). Probably older, around 35 or 40. He's the one who kicks Malin out of the village for necromancy, so he's seen by Malin as the villain.
MAJOR CHARACTER

* Darken Volk: The Necromancer who trains Malin Keshar. He's only training him to get his help in stealing a book of magic. He has a habit of starting a sentence, then stopping for a short time to find the right word (i.e. the one that will keep Malin Keshar from realizing that what he's doing is evil). He's the actual villain, he should look evil, probably.
MAJOR CHARACTER

* Borth: He's just a random Orc leader who has dialogue. He tries to kill Darken Volk and Malin Keshar. He has kind of amusing dialogue, saying "we will kill you... unless you are already dead? Then we will kill you again!"
MINOR CHARACTER

* Dela Keshar: Malin's sister. There should probably be some resemblance between the two. She's a warrior, wielding a staff. She's related to Malin, so he keeps trying to befriend her, but she's disgusted by his dark magic. She takes control of the village after Drogan dies.
MAJOR CHARACTER.

* Taylor: The guard of Lord Karres' manor. He doesn't say anything other than "to arms, men!"
MINOR CHARACTER

* Sir Cadaeus: A Paladin who comes and tries to kill Darken Volk and Malin Keshar. He talks about how he has been tracking them to punish them for the damage they did to "the godly city of Tath".
MINOR CHARACTER

* Foolish Hero: At the end of the campaign, an endless stream of "foolish heroes" attack you. It can be a Royal Guard, an Assassin, an Elvish Marshal, or a Dwarvish Lord. Any portraits done for these guys might as well be generic portraits.
MINOR CHARACTERS

Hm... this campaign gets away with having very few units actually have dialogue.

Also, there are several occasions where an "advisor" has dialogue. This is usually a Spectre of Nightgaunt of somesuch unit. I don't know if a portrait would be possible, though, because you don't actually know what type of undead it is. The same situation applies later, with a Loyalist unit and an Orcish unit.

[theycallmerooster]

okay heres a rough draft of one of the portraits Im coloring (currently all of the pencils for the Decent into Darkness campaign are done)


Okay before I go any further- I removed the paper background I had in my examples in my first post, though with out a lighter background the outlines kind of disappeared into the black. (Black BGs have always been a pretty big no-no in design)
I added a white border (if only temporarily) to avoid having it look like it was cut a little to close to the edges.

Personally I think that the portriates really need a lighter background. I would suggest matching it with something that looks like the map from the title screen of the game.

I also see that we've moved all the way to shoulder and above on these guys. I think we should call that out, as it used to be waist up. This will make things easier, as I used to spend a lot of time trying to put "character" in the pose and not make them all look the same. No hands or random accessories (weapons) in frame?

Are we standardizing the 3/4 looking to the right, looking toward light source?

For both of these I've chosen to leave it open ended. It would be boring if all the portraits looked like they were minted from the same mold.

Heres one that I changed up a little.


although I think its best if we keep the light source from right, and the characters looking in that direction. It helps keep things oriented since the portriat is on the left of the dialogue


I've also decided to concentrate on the MAJOR characters for now. Just because minor characters (like "taylor" in decent into darkness) have very little air time. Minor characters only having speech doesnt look as bad as major ones having no picture.

[turin]

Nice. I'm goiing to guess the guy with the cape and beard is Darken Volk, and the two at the bottom are Dela and Malin Keshar?


I'm not convinced of the anatomical correctness of Darken Volk's right arm (I'm not entirely certain where the forearm would go)... but that doesn't mean it's wrong, so long as you do know where it would be. And shade it accordingly.

[theycallmerooster]

I'm not convinced of the anatomical correctness of Darken Volk's right arm (I'm not entirely certain where the forearm would go)... but that doesn't mean it's wrong, so long as you do know where it would be. And shade it accordingly.

actually th area with the "x"s is going to be solid black (or a very dark gray)

[Sapient]

I'd like to say I appluad you for this effort and for your skill. I really hope you stick with this!

[West]

Nice portraits. But since no one else is saying anything I gotta ask: what's up with the radically disproportionate heads? The woman looks particularly odd to me. Is she supposed to be a [oddly skinny] dwarf or something?

[Weeksy]

I think they are supposed to be adolescents, who are not fully grown.