73 replies to this topic

[Leila]

Very nice Dynaheir. She looks very wise but friendly, almost motherly, as I always pictured her.

[Ilmatar]

I was actually thinking of Gina Torres, but her character on Firefly (being a very tough almost masculine) got me thinking that she wasn't suitable for someone like Dynaheir. But turns out that is quite fitting. Wonderful work once again.

[Miloch]

I hope you like who I finally settled on for Dynaheir, Miloch.

It is nice. I don't know if I'd think of Dynaheir as "motherly" or "masculine" (particularly not if I'm romancing her ), but I don't think the portrait really comes off that way.

I'd still like to see Kristen Wilson though... if nothing else, her half-elf character would make a good portrait for a PC, or a new NPC.

[Amaurea]

Is it possible to get a larger picture with your program, Miloch? One of the reasons I did the Gina Torres pic is that I found a really beautiful, large high-res image of her.

[Miloch]

Yeah, it's possible to get stupid hi-res hi-def images with it. I was somewhat shocked actually. The only real issue is it doesn't always grab the exact frame when you hit the button, so if someone blinks or whatever... you have to do a lot of fudging with the rewind etc. Only it doesn't have a rewind, so you have to jump around a bit .

I think I still have the hi-res uncompressed frames I grabbed though. I just cropped them down to the "largest" BG2 format (ToB epilogue-sized or whatever). How big do you want them?

[Amaurea]

Yeah, it's possible to get stupid hi-res hi-def images with it. I was somewhat shocked actually. The only real issue is it doesn't always grab the exact frame when you hit the button, so if someone blinks or whatever... you have to do a lot of fudging with the rewind etc. Only it doesn't have a rewind, so you have to jump around a bit .

I think I still have the hi-res uncompressed frames I grabbed though. I just cropped them down to the "largest" BG2 format (ToB epilogue-sized or whatever). How big do you want them?

No worries. I'll just work with what's here. It does sound like a bit of a pain. Is this how you were getting the Time Bandits stuff? I could use better images from that one. Just for fun, can you get a cap of David Warner for me?

[Miloch]

Here's the uncompressed source bitmaps. Like I said, I already had them, so no extra work.

Looks like I don't actually own Time Bandits. Which is strange, because I have a fairly large movie collection, and it's the sort of movie I would have. I think I saw it in the cheapie DVD bin at the local supermarket - maybe I'll pick it up. Haven't seen it in ages anyway, would be good to watch again. It is hard to find high quality images of the guys in that movie.

Edit: In case you're wondering, the second bitmap is half the size of the first, because it was still nearly full screen size and the bigger capture didn't appear to add any resolution.

Edited by Miloch, 08 December 2007 - 08:59 AM.

[Amaurea]

It's been a while since I started these, and while I haven't added any new portraits per se, I have recast some and redid others so that they'd all have a more consistent style. All of these are my first serious efforts at face and hair painting. I also got the latest version of Paint Shop, thank Gods ... much faster, and much less buggy

Movies Series Portraits

I'm still desperate for more suggestions of film/TV titles, and direct casting suggestions as well.

[Miloch]

The revised Christopher Lambert as Cernd is great. Almost tempting to give him a few "there can be only one" lines, etc.

I like the Will Scarlett as Coran too, but the elf ear looks a bit fuzzy, especially on the bigger portrait.

I've always imagined Branwen as being a bit more Nordic, almost like a Valkyrie, but no immediate examples spring to mind. Maybe if you just touched up the existing one to make her hair (and especially her eyebrows) "blonder" and her eyes bluer. She is from the Moonshaes after all (making her part Scandinavian/part Celtic, in Earth terms).

Not sure I like Narnia's "Susan" as Alora. She's a halfling, not a girl, right? I actually didn't mind the Rose Cotton portrait for her - can't please everyone though I guess, heh.

Can't find much fault with the others - very nice work.

I did snag a cheap copy of Time Bandits, but I don't think I'll get to sample much from it til after the holidays. Still waiting for Kagain and the alternate Dynaheir though .

I also got the latest version of Paint Shop, thank Gods ... much faster, and much less buggy

You're kidding right? I have PSP XI and I'd trade it for 6 or 7 in a minute. Well ok, I guess I could, since I own the previous versions, but I finally've got it configured so it's not totally unbearable and it still crashes on me. And it takes ages to load, whereas the previous versions launched almost immediately. Is 12 that much better?

[Ilmatar]

Now I'm curious. How do you do hair? Care to share your techniques?

[Amaurea]

Miloch, X2 starts slowly until you download the update file from Corel. As for crashing? Hasn't happened once yet.

Ilmater, for hair painting, I have a set of brushes meant for painting eyelashes on larger rendered images. I'm not sure where I found them, though. Anyway, I rough in the hair with those, one stroke at a time, in layers of about 4 different shades. I flatten those layers into one hair layer, then blend them with the smudge brush. After that, I go into the hair layer with the burn brush tool, set to round, with a hardness of about 13, step 1, opacity 100, and draw in some more detail. Then I repeat the process with the dodge brush (same settings). Then smudge/blend. Repeat as needed.

I'm still working on it, and I know, for example, that Branwen's hair is a mess, but I'm going to redo her as per Miloch's suggestions. I'm still navigating the learning curve here

[Ilmatar]

Oh, that's certainly interesting! Sounds complicated to me, but everyone has their own style I guess. I just... basically draw each hair one at a time, and vary color and opacity. It's harder on the wrist than your style, I guess, but I'm used to it.

[Pandæmonium]

The website's 404ing. Any chance of seeing an upload somewhere else?

[Big Poppa]

http://www.freewebs....seriespage1.htm

too many slashes

Edited by Big Poppa, 24 December 2007 - 07:03 AM.

[Rabain]

What about Brigitte Nielsen in Red Sonja as Branwen?

http://celebrity.com.../redsonja-w.htm

Or that girl from Conan:

http://www.kaboomrev.../02/valeria.jpg

Hard to find decent stills of either movie online.

[Amaurea]

Oh, that's certainly interesting! Sounds complicated to me, but everyone has their own style I guess. I just... basically draw each hair one at a time, and vary color and opacity. It's harder on the wrist than your style, I guess, but I'm used to it.

If I had a drawing tablet, I'd probably draw them too. But, I do work on my laptop and only have the touchpad. I'm afraid my hand isn't steady enough (not to mention the touchpad not being big enough for longer strokes) to totally hand paint the hair. I think your hair totally rocks. One day, I want to take on painting clothes from scratch.

[ArchStanton]

These are absolutely amazing, Amaurea! Great work!  

[Miloch]

Or that girl from Conan:
http://www.kaboomrev.../02/valeria.jpg

I actually thought of Sandahl Bergman (aka "Valeria") for Branwen, but she seems too much of a F/T character to me (Valeria was a pirate in the books). Still, she has the right "look" facially for the most part, so maybe Amaurea could do a number on her where you can't distinguish her from the movie character. I have the movie and could sample some stills from it in that case.

Red Sonya on the other hand is, well, a little too red, and also a fighter character definitely. I also thought maybe Uma Thurman's "Venus" character in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, but you'd have to give her back her (natural) blonde hair and probably some armour. And I don't have that movie which is apparently somewhat rare on DVD, though at one time at least I had it on VHS.

Edited by Miloch, 01 January 2008 - 06:54 PM.

[Amaurea]

Shockingly enough, I found a decent quality image of her as Valeria (it's hard to find decent sized pics from older movies online), and I could easily do something with it for Branwen.

....adding that to the to-do list....

[SpAE]

I reeeeally like the texture hair on some of them. Coran and Cernd are my favourites, Ajantis is awesome (although just - William Thatcher? It is appropriate in this very funny way), and Branwen's is an excellent portrait, although a little ambiguous on how much she actually makes me think of Branwen - then again, the in-game portraits are very much stuck in my mind. There's something rather cute about Aerie's expression that works, too.

Also, another person impressed by your reappropriation of Zoe as Dynaheir.