I did a portrait pack for Icewind Dale 2 and would love to do one for ToEE, but I'm afraid it won't be easy On IWD2 all I had to do was some cropping and resizing, but for ToEE I still don't understand some technical issues behind the images... alpha borders, etc?! Any chance someone could write a simple "Making Custom Portraits for dummies" guide? TIA, Binary
in photoshop if you haven't already done so, download the custom portrait.zip from chris glenn's site (or this one or atari forums if they have it) then if you're using photoshop just resize the image you have to 130*150, copy it then paste it into the custom_portrait_big.tga file merge down you should now have your image at 130*150 with an alpha channel save as NAME_big.tga, save alpha channels, 32 bit open custom_portrait_small.tga crop your image to what you want then repeat the process for the unselectable image (*_grey.tga) you can desaturate the image (ctrl+shift+u) or draw a big cross on the pic it doesn't matter really edit the portraits.mes to include your pics following the formula there AFAIK a max of 5 pics per race is allowed? i just rem out the ones i dont use however so i cant confirm that this is how i do it, hope it helps there was a pwizard file around here but ive never tried it
Re: in photoshop Here's my problem number one... I have no alpha channel. And even if I try adding one, when I "save as..." and attempt to save it as TGA it won't let me save the alpha channel, it says "can only save as copy" or something Problem number two is that the _GREY images don't display. I made them simply a copy of the others, but they still don't display (I get an icon of a mouse cursor instead). Errrr... help?
copying and pasting your image into the ones that come with the zip shouldn't affect the alpha channel. if save-as doesn't seem to work, don't do it. just flatten and save. that should preserve the alpha channel which ought to already be present in the default file. then rename the file outside of photoshop. also, don't make your grey images by image->mode->grayscale. use image->adjust->desaturate instead.
You might also try Jasc Paintshop Pro 8.x I have Photoshop Elements and Alpha Channeling in this is a P.I.T.A. I do not care for Photoshop full as I am not a guru and just edit a few Digi-cam pics from time to time. PSP 8.x works great when you save your image as uncompressed 24 bit TGA. I have about 20 custom portraits atm and have not ahd a single CTD or other issue stemming from portrait problems. Just a note - if you bork the custom portraits, you can CTD when opening someone's inventory, not that I have experience with such thigns Best of Luck with your pics. If I get fired up later I will post my portrait pack and .mes file for your possible enjoyment. - T
I've found that using my trusty Graphic Workshop I could do exactly the same images (and no need to fiddle with alpha channels and stuff), and in a way that I'm already used to. So expect a Dorian Cleavenger portrait pack soon!
