New Portraits - Etiquette question

Discussion in 'General Modification' started by Philip, May 12, 2012.

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  1. Philip

    Philip Gruff Warrior

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    Would it be considered 'bad form' to find a bunch of nice DnD style pictures from the 'net and collect them, crop them nicely and post them in ToEE format for all to use...

    Or may I happily go ahead and do that (I've already done a few for my own use)
     
    Philip, May 12, 2012
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  2. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    For it to be hosted and sponsored here at Co8 (e.g. be an official 'Co8 Portrait Pack' like you find in the downloads section), we only require that:

    1. It be done well. If you're using existing images, they should be cropped properly and not have ugly defects/blemishes, etc. That's not meant to be snooty, just to protect our reputation. (You'd be surprised how often people make a poor job of things.) If you're illustrating them yourself, they should have aesthetic merit. It also has to actually work with the latest modpack.
    2. It be thematically consistent. We really don't want a bunch of random portraits thrown together, hence we have stuff like the 'Icewind Dale Portrait Pack,' etc.
    3. It be properly attributed. We don't rip off others' stuff here and call it our own, so if you collect a bunch of NWN portraits, it will be called the 'NWN Portrait Pack,' not 'Philip's Portrait Pack of Awesomeness.' ;)
    Now, if you find these requirements too restrictive, you should still feel free to compile a portrait pack of your own and we may even host it for you here in the 'Other Downloads' forum as long as it's not in poor taste and doesn't make any false copyright claims. Or host it somewhere else if you like, such as one of the many free sites that are around nowadays. Hell, we even allow that one creepy dude who comes along once in a while and insults us to post his weird vampire-esque portrait links here. :)

    Thanks for asking btw, and have fun. :thumbsup:
     
    Gaear, May 12, 2012
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  3. Philip

    Philip Gruff Warrior

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    All seems perfectly reasonable and what I had more-or-less expected, the only thing I might have trouble with is attribution, as I don't know who the original artists are in most cases. I certainly didn't plan on claiming them as my own, I can't even draw a stickman properly :)

    He's the first couple I've collected (both female elves);
     

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    Philip, May 12, 2012
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  4. Philip

    Philip Gruff Warrior

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    Philip, May 12, 2012
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  5. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Cool. Maybe a Daarken portrait pack is in order then. :)
     
    Gaear, May 12, 2012
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  6. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    Wow, thanks for the links.

    I thoroughly enjoyed reading his comments and viewing his work.
     
    sirchet, May 12, 2012
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  7. Philip

    Philip Gruff Warrior

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    I have been trawling the net for excellent DnD style art and have discovered a number of talented artists. I have collected what look to be some suitable works (I've yet to do all the cropping and processing) from Artists including;

    Daarken
    Michael Kormack
    Justin Sweet
    Jason Manley (link 1 / link 2)
    Todd Harris
    Tyler Jacobson
    Jason Chan


    They all have a certain style which I really like, which is most similar to the IWD1 & 2 portraits, perhaps to the original ToEE portraits too.

    They do not have cartoony 80s style, which I don't like, or a hyper realistic, or Computer generated feel. I think they all blend quite nicely. I'm going to do some more processing, then post some thumbnails, and then much later start working out the best way to number them up within portraits.mes.

    (Personally I like them co-exisitng with IWD portraits so will probably number them thusly)
     
    Philip, May 13, 2012
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  8. Philip

    Philip Gruff Warrior

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    I've finished cropping and processing 32 images (including all the Small, Mini and greys), next up is renumbering (where needed) and filling in the portraits.mes file, and testing.

    Any feedback based on what I've got so far ?

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Philip, May 13, 2012
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  9. Zoltec

    Zoltec Pгōdigium

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    I like the portraits especially the warlock one :D, when will you release those mini mini small ones? I have to try them out later.
     
    Zoltec, May 13, 2012
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  10. Philip

    Philip Gruff Warrior

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    I'm going to populate portraits.mes and then bundle it all up in one zip files.

    At the moment, it's going to Include all the IWD portraits (and adamo/cabral) too. I will perhaps do a standalone one later, but in my opinion, more is better.

    I'll add some more portraits too, and probably end up with around 40-50 "new" ones.


    The challenge is numbering everything up. I'm also considering, as something of an aside project, renumbering and thus re-ordering ALL the current portraits so as to group them better by category, race and gender.
    In theory the portraits.mes structure should ensure this, however something has gone awry somewhere down the line and they're all over the place.

    So perhaps over the next week or so I'll take that challenge on...
     
    Philip, May 13, 2012
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  11. Philip

    Philip Gruff Warrior

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    All tested btw, works nicely. I just need to stick this zip file somewhere...bear with me.


    ...
    Right, here we go;

    PortraitsPackNew.zip

    (Google Drive..although apparently Google Drive is just a funny extension of Google Docs. After clicking on the link, press CTRL-S to save/download the file)


    Zip contains 32 portraits x 5 files + portraits.mes (161 files total).
    You need the adamo and cabral pictures already (they come with CO8 modpacks I believe), and the IWD pack for this to work.
    (Install IWD pack first, then this one.)


    I'll try and tidy this up more later, but this is quite usable for now.
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2012
    Philip, May 14, 2012
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  12. Zoltec

    Zoltec Pгōdigium

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    I'm in "other place" right now, when I got home I'll check it out.
     
    Zoltec, May 14, 2012
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  13. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Heh, great pains were actually taken to put them in meticulous order - gnomes, humans, elves, half elves, dwarves, halflings, half orcs. Each row of 7 contains only members of a single race.

    That's for the vanilla/Co8 portraits ... the IWD/BG/etc. stuff for the portrait packs was delivered in whatever order they appeared in their respective game.
     
    Gaear, May 14, 2012
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  14. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    Will these awesome portraits ever be released in an "add on" type pack?

    I mean a pack sooooooo simple to install that someone like me could just click the add on button on the front end loader and choose "Philip's Awesome Portrait Pack of Awesome Awesomeness" and it would install for me?
     
    sirchet, May 14, 2012
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  15. Philip

    Philip Gruff Warrior

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    It's still a Work in progress. I'll rollout 2 or 3 version, each of which suitable for anyone to use.

    1st release I've linked still needs a little tidying, plus it only works if you have IWD portraits too. I will do a vanilla one (ie install over co8 base, without other portrait packs) and maybe some other combos too.


    If you already have IWD portraits sirchet, just grab the zip file above, it's pretty straightforward to use.
     
    Philip, May 14, 2012
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