Pillars of Eternity Master Portrait Thread

[Karkarov]

Okay now that we have Beta Access I think it is time we start one Portrait Thread to rule them ALL!!!!!!  Why?  Because we now have the ability to get a clean picture of all current portraits available in the Backer Beta and discuss their merits and lack thereof.

 

Ground Rules:

1. More than likely more portraits will be added as the game nears launch and or launches so please understand this is just based on the current available portraits in the Beta as it is now.  So don't freak out if you expected 85 portraits, there may be more!
2. Don't insult other users tastes or opinions.  Art is subjective, it is totally okay for someone to think the portrait you love looks like crap and they are not stupid because they do.
3. Remember we can add custom Portraits so there is no need to get crazy if you never see the perfect one for you!

Okay so here is the image of all current in game Portraits you can use (as of 8/18/14) -

 

 

Just so you know they are numbered and ordered based on where they appear in actual game.  Top left portrait is the #1 portrait as of the writing of this post and the numbering goes from top down left to right.  So.... Discuss away!!!

 

PS: Portrait lovers.... each portrait is 210 x 330 pixels.  Just in case you wanted to know.

Edited August 19, 2014 by Karkarov

[Silent Winter]

Great - can you also check the size of the HUD portraits (bottom left of game-screen ones) - are they a separate resource or are they shrunk-down?  (handy to know if one is considering a custom portrait).

 

On-topic:

My favourites are probably the Aumaua and the Druid (both backer portraits) but I also really like most of the godlike ones.

Less enamoured with the Orlan but that's only because he looks too much like a 'noble' in that pic - hopefully there'll be more Orlan choices (for some reason that's the race I have most trouble making my own pics of)

[InsaneCommander]

I liked most of them. My favorites are the fire and water godlikes.

 

@Silent Winter The HUD portraits are 76 x 96 pixels.

[I Roll 20]

1, 16, 22, 23, 24 and 31 not up to my liking but the rest are OK. I still wish the death godlike have eyes though but that is design issue and nothing to do with the portraits.

[Grand_Commander13]

I really, really hope there are more portraits in the final version. There's just so little variation. And the moon godlike don't even have their horns in their portrait. What's up with that?

[BrokenMask]

I really, really hope there are more portraits in the final version. There's just so little variation. And the moon godlike don't even have their horns in their portrait. What's up with that?

Me too. Every race and gender combination should have at least two portraits, three portraits for everyone would be better, but I'm wishing for bare minimum at least

Edited August 19, 2014 by BrokenMask

[Karkarov]

I can't edit op anymore so here is a quick little tutorial for custom portrait guru's!
 

Each portrait is 210 x 330 pixels.  The smaller in game UI portraits are 76 x 96 pixels. 

You have to have two separate files for a custom portrait.  You can name them anything you want but they must end in either a _ or plain old space then the letters lg (for large pic) or sm (for the small one).  The primary file name must also obviously be the same so they match together.  So Bob_lg and Bob_sm will work together but if you name them Bob_lg and Bobby_sm you will have issues. 

Additionally on format....  yes, PNG files work, and the in game default pics are in fact in PNG format.  I have only tried using 72 ppi images so I don't know if that is restricted feel free to experiment but that is really plenty.  Also yes, custom portraits already work even in the beta.

 

File path (at least for Steam) is:  steam/steamapps/common/Pillars of Eternity - Public Beta/PillarsofEternity_Data/data/art/gui/portraits/player/(female or male)/

 

Obviously the public beta part will drop in the real game.  Ordering is pretty simple... Male portraits appear in game before female and they are ordered based on alphabetical order in the folder.  All default portraits either start with the word male or female so finding your custom one in the list should be easy.  Here is a pic of one I threw together in a hot minute just to show it in game.

 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2014 by Karkarov

[I Roll 20]

Can we have a female death godlike just the like the one in the portrait? In-game one looks bad, see insanecommander's avatar.

Edited August 19, 2014 by I Roll 20

[Deraldin]

Can we have a female death godlike just the like the one in the portrait? In-game one looks bad, see insanecommander's avatar.

You've got three options for your head. Pick the one you prefer.

 

Edited August 19, 2014 by Deraldin

[I Roll 20]

The other 2 looks great! I want to play a godlike on my first play you see, the death variation, it'd be interesting to see how the world react to them! That's why I keep going on about them

[InsaneCommander]

I'm pretty sure they will include those variations. They are simply too cool to be left out.

[ashtonw]

I sure hope there will be more because right now they're kind of lacking in racial diversity... 

 

I think some are bad and some are great. My favorites are the moon godlikes and the dude nature godlike.

[Zwiebelchen]

Is it just me or does anyone feel that the art style is really inconsistent? Yes, I know that a lot of them might not be finalized yet (check out the last two pictures of the third row... I think the left one there is the finalized version and the right one is the unfinished version), but still, we have at least 3 totally different art styles here:

 

1) sketchy, comic-style like the one on the top left corner.

2) A little bit blurry photo-esque-paintovers like the one on the top-right (I guess those are the backer portraits)

3) crisp, stylized photo-esque-paintovers (second row, second from the right).

 

I feel that the third type looks the best. I love the second from the right in row 2 and row 3 a lot. Those are my favorites so far, aside from the fire & death godlikes that look totally badass.

 

 

I mean ... I don't really care about the portraits really, as I am going to use my own anyway, but shouldn't the art style look a little bit more consistent in terms of portraits? Especially if you decide to use the story companions... I hope at least those have a consistent art style.

[Co0n]

Still dont like the inconsistency between the portraits.

One does have a background, the others dont. some are a lot more detailed / look less scetchy. Please rework all of them!

[I Roll 20]

Redo? They'd probably remove the background from the Druid portrait. The only one that has a background and one of the nicer ones :D

[Sarog]

We need to more dwarf and aumaua options. But I'm satisfied with Mr. Heroic-Chin-Holding-Man for my starting human paladin,

[salo]

I think they look pretty cool, and I really dig modular portraits (worked like a charm in Shadowrun Returns). I wouldn't mind a couple more, but that feels like something that will trickle in in the future. Besides, people have been generating and uploading their own since -98, so it's not like there is a shortage.

[Sacred_Path]

I kinda dig the female Orlan. In an artistic kind of way.

 

However, we need more rotund/ emaciated/ otherwise roughed up looking characters. This isn't Dress Up Simulator.

[Fearabbit]

The male Nature Godlike is simply gorgeous. I wish every portrait was done in that style. I like all the different art styles (with one or two exceptions), but I really hate that they're inconsistent... and if I could choose they'd all look like the male Nature Godlike.

 

By the way... don't know about you but I think it's important to have the same amount of portraits for each ethnicity as well as gender... which is kind of a problem. Let's say each race has two distinct looking ethnicities, while Godlike have 4 ethnicities... that's 14 ethnicities. Two genders makes 28 different character types even if we ignore classes, demeanors and looks.

I'd say four different portraits for each of these is minimum, which would put us at 112 portraits.

 

112 portraits just so that when you play a darkskinned human, you still have trouble choosing a good-looking portrait because there are only four of them.

[jivex5k]

I dig the portraits. 

[I Roll 20]

The male Nature Godlike is simply gorgeous.

He looks like he's wearing some flowers in his hair, bro. Swap that for 'shrooms and I'll agree with you.

[Shallow]

The portraits desperately lack a uniform style, I like each individual style used, but with the artstyles being so varied it just feels like someone imported various portraits from a bunch of different games.

[deserk]

Needs more dwarf portraits. I mean there's just one there.

Edited August 19, 2014 by deserk

[Lychnidos]

1, 16, 22, 23, 24 and 31 not up to my liking but the rest are OK.

 

Same here, those seem to clash the most with the others.

[Raamo]

I like them all to different degrees, but I wish the side views would be a little more at an angle.

 

They do remind me a ton of Baldur's gate - the nostalgia is strong.