Project: Portraits

Over the course of development time between now and Co8 v8 in September, most of the NC-related portraits are going to be overhauled. That is to say, most NC NPCs will be receiving new portraits from a new source, and their old retread ToEE portraits will be going away.

I've long wanted to do this, as the rehash thing was basically a desperation measure due to their being a dearth of available portraits. It was never ideal however, being as, well, Rannos Davl is Rannos Davl, not some guy from Verbobonc. Anyway, through some new innovative techniques, we now have plenty of fresh 'original' portraits for all these people. Baldur's Gate, no, Icewind Dale, no ... they will all be portraits you've never seen before, and in so doing, the NC will come to have its own look as far as portrait art goes. It's marginally similar to Chris Glenn's ToEE art, and entirely suitable for ToEE, if not always spectacular. (ToEE doesn't really have a lot of room for spectacularity anyway in the 53 x 47 pixels allotted to show an NPC's face. Thus good portraits are more workman-like than inspirational.)

There will of course be exceptions: any original art done by Co8 portrait artists will stay (think the Slavers), as well as any of the more effective morph jobs done on original ToEE portraits (think Mathel and the AoH wizards). Likewise the limited art we've used from Chris Glenn that was not originally done for ToEE will stay (think the Gremlich and many Hextorites). For the most part it is the rank and file types from Verbobonc and other NC expansions who will be getting a facelift - Wilfrick, Zook, Darlia, etc., etc.

This is not something anybody needs to worry about or brood over. Everything will be fine.

Lastly, given the effort required to do this comprehensively, you won't see any of it yet in v7.7. That means that the new shopkeepers in the Merchant's Row are all going to have generic ToEE portraits for the time being. Do not panic. That's only temporary.

All for the greater good ...

 

While it seems like that would be a cool and easy thing to do, it would probably open up a can of worms because if I made all the new portraits public, people would start fighting over them and carrying on like is our wont. So I will probably reserve that job for myself. I would be open to verbal input though, e.g. "make my merchant dude look like a total a-hole."

Sunday. But like I said, it will have none of these new portraits.

 

Here's some vanilla NPC tuneups. Some vanilla ToEE artwork was really washed out. I don't know why. Seems odd to think that it got that way during shipping or something.

 

Update:

The above referenced portraits initiative has basically failed, as I just couldn't get the proposed substitutes to look quite right. (They were in truth just stock photos of people that I was trying to transform into 'paintings' in Photoshop, but due to ToEE's tiny portrait size, most of the effects from those attempts went down the drain and we were left with little tiny photos of people. Also it became apparent as I worked on them that their lack of a fantasy element [e.g. armor and whatnot] was going to stand out more than I thought.)

So where does that leave us? Well I was still unhappy with just using all the retreads, so after scouring the interwebs for uncountable days (actually a few hours), I have arrived at the solution: Diablo 3.

The reason for this post at all is basically for full disclosure. Co8 normally does not take portraits from other game properties for use in the mod (portrait packs notwithstanding), but left with no other solutions, we will have to make an exception. This is already done in a minor way with the Neverwinter Nights voice sets.

Q: Why Diablo 3?

A: They bear a passable resemblance to ToEE portraits, they feature a lot of themes necessary to us (guys in armor etc.), and they downsize well. They are also quality illustrations. They are also probably not near as recognizable as Icewind dale or Baldur's Gate portraits and others, and we don't want players to immediately think "Oh - Icewind dale!"

Q: Isn't that a copyright violation?

A: Yes, technically it is. Just like the Neverwinter audio. Although an important thing to note is that no one profits from it. Co8 is not a business venture.

Q: Will Blizzard descend on Co8 with great furor?

A: Probably not. We are generally not worth the effort, even if we get noticed. If they do, it would probably just be a cease and desist order, which we would immediately comply with. This isn't just my opinion, incidentally. I've consulted others more in the know than I am.

Q: Why are you saying this?

A: Because I don't want to 'sneak' anything in. We're not going to advertise this, but we're also not going to deny it. I also want to make it clear that we're not claiming any ownership or copyright of the material, nor are we stating or implying that we created the portraits. So when you see them later, don't think we are being shady with that. Also, if your friends and neighbors cry "Co8 sucks!" as a result, please remind them of what has been stated here.

Q: Why not have Co8 do new portraits?

A: Because we have no portrait artists on board at this time, and actually creating new portraits takes considerable time and effort. If we had an artist, we could wait around for six months for them to make a dozen portraits, or we can use all these from Diablo 3 immediately. We need quite a lot to cover all the holes.

Q: So what sources is the Co8 modpack going to end up comprised of, ultimately?

A:

• Vanilla ToEE art created by Chris Glenn
• Customized ToEE art by Chris Glenn made into other stuff (you've already seen most of this)
• Art by Chris Glenn made for other games, as well as random stuff (you've already seen some of this)
• Art by Co8 artists Half Knight and Daadamo (you've already seen all of this)
• Diablo 3 portrait art
• Limited filler art (animals and whatnot) from the stock photos I mentioned above.

Q: When will we start seeing this?

A: Most should be included in v7.8.


btw, other vanilla portraits are being improved, like the Serena/Raimol/Furnok/Fruella batch above.

That's all for now. Feel free to comment/question.

 

Yeah, iirc you had referred that before. Are they all random artists?

 

Okay. I had actually pondered using stuff from places like DeviantArt, but from what I understand, the 'little' people actually tend to protect their copyrights more vigorously than the giants. e.g., if some guy who drew a picture and put it on that site happened to play Co8 and saw his image there with no attribution, he might actually try to do something about it, unlike the monoliths that don't know we exist. Therefore it's better to go with one big dog rather than many little dogs, if you catch my meaning.

Also, from what I've found, securing permissions from 'little' people tends to be troublesome and costly - they would likely demand they be listed in credits somewhere (like in the main menu or something, lol) if they consented at all.

 

Yeah, copyright laws are very nuanced as far as that goes, from what I can gather. If you were to compose an opera, we wouldn't automatically be entitled to use it just because we weren't making money on it. Has to do with right to exclusivity, publication, reproduction, etc. Anything that infringes on your potential to profit from your work is copyright infringement.