159 replies to this topic

[Aranthys]

Weird, my default Viconia has Red eyes, not blue eyes.

Hum.

 

I'll redownload again then, sorry for the trouble

Edit.: Haha, I know : That's because I used a file called bg__portrait_package_by_artastrophe-d2eghlt.zip, and the only Viconia there was NViconX.bmp

 

That's the red eyed one. My bad !

Edited by Aranthys, 27 January 2013 - 02:43 AM.

[Lava Del'Vortel]

Well, thank you, although I'm sure it's not #1 mod for everyone, but I am really glad we did this and finally there is a mod that woul offer portraits for ALL characters.

The thing is that I'm not sure when we're going to continue the work due to real life stuff + as I mentioned, Arta had to draw 50 portraits in 2 months and... that was really demanding - she deserves some rest I hope we'll continue to work, but really - we need some time off as life is beig a bit hectic lately.
 

Cheers!

[artastrophe]

aw thank you @Squirrels and @Guest!! <3  so glad you are enjoying them. ^___^

 

Yeah, right now I am staying pretty busy at work and I'm using free time to paint some commissioned portraits. If I have some slow days I might get back into it/do more mod NPCs (I have started on a few!), but I just don't have an endless supply of time (or energy!) unfortunately, and there are quite a few other projects I have going on/would like to start. So not saying I won't ever do it, just maybe don't hold your breath. ^^; (But it's a bit easier for me to make time for commissioned portraits vs requests hehe--so if anyone is interested in that, let me know; I've been doing them for $25. )

 

Weird, my default Viconia has Red eyes, not blue eyes.

Hum.

 

I'll redownload again then, sorry for the trouble

Edit.: Haha, I know : That's because I used a file called bg__portrait_package_by_artastrophe-d2eghlt.zip, and the only Viconia there was NViconX.bmp

 

That's the red eyed one. My bad !

No trouble!! Just a bit of confusion. xD  I was going to say, my first release of the alternate portraits had that hooded Viconia with red eyes as the alternate, and then I overwrote it with the dark-skinned/red-eyed Viconia on 1/17. Glad you got it figured out, though.

[Aranthys]

Easiest way would actually be to commission you for Baldur's Gate NPCs portraits.

Let's get a kickstarter project running

Edited by Aranthys, 27 January 2013 - 07:06 AM.

[Lava Del'Vortel]

Yeah, after most work is already done xD

[artastrophe]

Kickstarter would be awesome! xD But only if it actually worked, and I'd have no idea what (if anything) anyone would be willing to pay. ^^; And yeah, obviously we went about it all wrong if we were trying to make money from it, haha!!

 

Okay, you've got me curious as to just how much I've personally invested into this project, though, so I went and tried to calculate all this out... (Yikes. xD)

42 npcs* + 4 brand-new alternates (+ a few minor revisions)(+ few scrapped /half-starts that didn't work)

+ 7 gifts/commissions (+6 more currently in-progress)

+ 14 ToB NPCs (though I didn't spend quite as much time on those since they were extra-small. )

+ 18 PC portraits (+ a good dozen more that I haven't posted yet/in various stages of progress)


*some of those I spent even more time on because they weren't working/I kept trying to get them to look 'perfect' so there's quite a few that were probably 10+ hours (and omg no idea what the cap is on that... I bounced around a bunch between them: Keldorn, for example, probably took twice that... but I never sat and worked on anything in a single session that long--just stretched it out over days haha--so I can't even be positive about a ballpark range...). The first batch I spent a lot of time on, plus I went back and reworked most of them when I re-released it anyway. But let's say a minimum of four hours each... I got faster (and better, I believe! ) towards the end, and four is the absolute fastest I think I managed. ^^

so that's got to be around 100 portraits between when I started in September and now. And it's all approximations for the most part, so there's no way I could really do the math. Also, I'm too right-brained to bother with that any more than I already have, blech. BUT OMG HOLY CRAP. It's probably obvious I have no life; I wouldn't have been able to fit one in there. xD

[Shaitan]

Been on a hiatus as of late, but wow this i nice

[prune1]

These portraits are amazing. I saw your recent pack of 4 drow versions and they are unbelievable. Would love to see some more (okay, i'm lying, all) of the BG2 npcs in their drow form.

 

Regardless, amazing work and I'm using these from now on, thanks very much for your hard work.

[Lava Del'Vortel]

You know, I'm not yet sure about drow, but we were discussing that with Arta...I hope to prepare v2 with some new portraits, but there are also some other obligations both me and Arta should remember about

 

Still thanks - both to Shaitan and to you Prune1

[raixe]

I just registered an account to say thank you for taking the time to do this and for sharing it with the community. I love your style of artwork and look forward to playing a fresh game using your visual representation of all the characters.

 

It's a bit weird because when I visit your DeviantArt I can download your portrait pack and it seems to contain a bunch of extra portraits that aren't included when I installed PaintBG. You should include the extra work in the mod for people to use for their own characters that you have available for download in the portrait pack on your DA. ;-P

 

Anyway - this mod makes me wish BG1+2 uses the medium size portraits instead of small sized ones during dialogue. Your work is really incredible. 

[Lava Del'Vortel]

Thanks!

 

As for the pack at the DA - Arta is more attached to DA and it was me who bound her and brought here xD Also, the build is already quite complicated, while the extra package contains mostly alternative portraits. But worry not, many of them will get into the install for v2, just something else is our prior aim. But the mod isn't dead and there certainly will be v2

 

In Arta's name, thank for your feedback

[Galsic]

Actually they are in a completelly new style (it's closer to IWD style) and that's why we offer portrait for all NPCs - you can go for all of them and do not worry about any glitches (like half portraits are in one style, while others are in a different style).

 

Oh, I just noticed...did she create a replacement portrait for every vanilla portrait in both games?  If so, I'm in awe, sir .  That had to be a lot of work.  Will definitely use the next time I play.

[artastrophe]

Thanks, everyone!! And Lava, too, for interceding on my behalf with all the comments; he's much better at it than I am. I would prefer to just paint in my cave and never leave, except when I throw things at him to take care of -- I can't believe he puts up with me, but I love him!! 

_{(Yes, I do spend a lot more time on dA... but let's just say my painting skills are leveled up far higher than my socialization ones; I'm horrible about replies everywhere. ^^; )}

 

@raixe : Thank you!! To answer your question, I think it was partly because we overwrote the selection of portraits that were included in the original game, so we had a substitute to match with each one of them--and I'm no expert, but I think it is a lot more difficult to create extra portrait spots in there that did not exist in the original code. And the other part is, I have added all of those since the initial release, and I thought that a .zip was a better alternative than forcing Lava to rewrite the code/update the mod every time I doodled something. Because as you can see, it's turned out to be quite a bit!

 

@prune1 : Thanks! I had a lot of fun with those, haha... if it wasn't exactly like starting the entire project over from scratch, I would love to do that; I'm just not sure if I could commit to that again... or if I can figure out that many different ways to draw drow uniquely, lol... not to mention the difficulties from the player's perspective, trying to remember who is who... xD And I imagine coding would be a nightmare... but it's still a fun idea. ^^

 

@Galsic--yes! including some ToB smaller ones for non-joinable NPCs. And whew, it was a lot of work! But it's been long enough, now, that I forgot how much, honestly. xD But I can say for sure, I would never have been able to follow through with it all without Lava's encouragement and support. I mean, obviously there wouldn't be a mod without him, but the portrait package would have likely stayed at its initial ten-or-so characters.

 

SO YAY BIG HUGS + THANK-YOUS FOR EVERYONE!!

Edited by artastrophe, 02 April 2013 - 07:11 PM.

[prune1]

 

@prune1 : Thanks! I had a lot of fun with those, haha... if it wasn't exactly like starting the entire project over from scratch, I would love to do that; I'm just not sure if I could commit to that again... or if I can figure out that many different ways to draw drow uniquely, lol... not to mention the difficulties from the player's perspective, trying to remember who is who... xD And I imagine coding would be a nightmare... but it's still a fun idea. ^^

 

Well, at the risk of stepping on some toes: The coding has essentially been done thanks to Daulmakan (https://sites.google...akan/home/drows). I do understand the other concerns though, so let me just instead leave it at saying thanks very much for the ones you did do. Imoen is the best of the lot.

Edited by prune1, 03 April 2013 - 05:38 AM.

[Lava Del'Vortel]

Yay, so much praise xD

Yeah, making the drow versions would mean a LOT of work. Coding wouldn't be that difficult, but I'm afraid it would be just...you know... let's say someone uses 2 mod NPCs every game play. Not only they won't get the PaintBG version right now, but also won't change when being a drow and that would be... you know...I think it would be better to focus on some mod NPCs and their portraits, than working on drow portraits. There is an option to draw just any 12 (6 male, 6 female) drow portraits with brand new look as Adalon can make a "Total Plastic Surgery" thing with her magic but... I think mod NPCs would be better...

 

...however, that's just my opinion

[Almateria]

Drow versions ain't hard

 

[Lava Del'Vortel]

Uh, I am sure Arta would rather draw new version from scratch

[BelgarathMTH]

I love these portraits, and have them installed on my BG:EE.

 

I've been trying to install them in my BG2, but I can't seem to get them to override an old install of Enkida's portrait pack. I've tried uninstalling Enkida, and reinstalling Artastrophe's pack several times. I guess I'll have to manually fix it up with Shadowkeeper, which is a pain, but I love the portraits too much not to use them.

 

Thank you for creating them.

Edited by BelgarathMTH, 13 April 2013 - 09:50 AM.

[Lava Del'Vortel]

hmmm installing two portrait mods at the same time may not be a good idea, heh.

I'm glad you like the pack -- hopefully some mod NPCs will join the package in some time