With the inconsistency of the beta portraits, it's really got me worried about the companion portraits. I can live with the different art styles of the chargen portraits as long as the companion portraits remain consistent.
 

This thread is a request to OE to make the rest of the the companion portraits the same art style as these two amazing portraits.

 

Do you guys agree or disagree? Discuss.

In their current state, the portraits are unacceptable. The style is all over the place. For example, Baldur's Gate II did portraits way better and that game is 14 years old. If PoE is going to be the 2014 spiritual successor to the IE games, the portraits need to be more coherent/uniform, and there needs to be a whole lot more of them. Obsidian should have their portrait artists conform to one style.

 

And to the people saying "oh you can just import your own": Forcing players to browse deviantART for portraits to import can't be the standard solution. The game needs to offer a decent amount of quality portraits for every race/gender/class combination.

Edited September 2, 201411 yr by Guest01

Kaz will be doing a pass on all portraits for consistency.

Thank you, that was my main gripe with the backer beta.

Edited September 2, 201411 yr by Seari

Baldur's Gate II did portraits way better

 

If I had a gun, with two bullets, and was in a room with Hitler, bin Laden, and whoever made the BGII portraits, I would shoot whoever made the BGII portraits twice.

I'm not too worried about this, I'll likely install BG and IWD portrait packs and the consistency will be all over the place.

 

 

Baldur's Gate II did portraits way better

If I had a gun, with two bullets, and was in a room with Hitler, bin Laden, and whoever made the BGII portraits, I would shoot whoever made the BGII portraits twice.

Mike Sass drew the portraits for both BG and BG2.

Yea I really didn't like very many of the portraits in BGII. They were incredibly 90s  in a bad way. IWD II on the other hand...

Take that back, you pieces of filth.

 

But I have to admit that some BG1 portraits are superior.

 

Yea I really didn't like very many of the portraits in BGII. They were incredibly 90s  in a bad way. IWD II on the other hand...

 

Didn't IWD2 reuse a bunch (all?) the IWD1 portraits?

 

Yea I really didn't like very many of the portraits in BGII. They were incredibly 90s  in a bad way. IWD II on the other hand...

 

Didn't IWD2 reuse a bunch (all?) the IWD1 portraits?

 

 

And? They were great whether they were reused or not.

Take that back, you pieces of filth.

 

But I have to admit that some BG1 portraits are superior.

They're all scarry looking.

 

 If PoE is going to be the 2014 spiritual successor to the IE games, the portraits need to be more coherent/uniform, and there needs to be a whole lot more of them. 

Second time I've posted since I was going to stop, but I couldn't have predicted some one would say something as silly as this.

 

The IE games did not have incredibly consistent or even very many portraits per game. BG1/BG2 only had few portraits that weren't companions in the game. Importing your own was the expected solution. That's why the game stresses that you can import them yourself.

 

Not to mention that Torment didn't even provide extra portraits. When invoking what would or would not make poe an IE "spiritual successor" try to at least invoke something that was actually in them. Many portraits and consistent art style weren't.

Edited September 2, 201411 yr by Namutree

 

 

Yea I really didn't like very many of the portraits in BGII. They were incredibly 90s  in a bad way. IWD II on the other hand...

 

Didn't IWD2 reuse a bunch (all?) the IWD1 portraits?

 

 

And? They were great whether they were reused or not.

 

 

Not saying they aren't, but it seems a bit lazy.

 

Caveat: I don't actually remember how many were reused. I'll have to check later.

 

Not saying they aren't, but it seems a bit lazy.

 

Caveat: I don't actually remember how many were reused. I'll have to check later.

 

 

I just checked, a lot of them were.

Look at the warmth, the depth, the character the Baldur's Gate portraits convey.

 

         

 

         

I hate that Jaheira portrait so much, I don't even know why.

Look at the warmth, the depth, the character the Baldur's Gate portraits convey.

 

         

 

         

 

I like BG1's portraits better than BG2's and even redo the NPC's with BG1 when I play BG2...

 

That said it was the same guy who did both of them....so he was likely given a direction on how they were supposed to look and IMO they look darker/more depressing....and yet somehow still more cartoony in  BG2...

I hate that Jaheira portrait so much, I don't even know why.

 

Well, it is Jaheira, after all.

The BG portraits used real life models from which Sass drew likeness from. Many of whom were early Bio devs btw. However, the old Black Isle community were merciless on critiquing how these some of these characters looked, which probably wasn't very good on the self esteem of many of the models/Bio Devs. So for BG2, Sass essentially stylized the portraits and didn't use life models.

Edwin portrait from bg1 is my favorite, and I hate the bg2 derpy looking one.

 

 

Baldur's Gate II did portraits way better

If I had a gun, with two bullets, and was in a room with Hitler, bin Laden, and whoever made the BGII portraits, I would shoot whoever made the BGII portraits twice.

Don't know if I'd go that far, but I thought the BGII portraits were pretty rubbish as well.

If I had a gun, with two bullets, and was in a room with Hitler, bin Laden, and whoever made the BGII portraits, I would shoot whoever made the BGII portraits twice.

 

Admittedly it would be a bit of a waste to shoot dead people. Although capital punishment for offenses against taste is taking it a bit far...

Always used my own portraits catalog so while I do enjoy good new portraits and appreciate that a lot of people will use the base ones, what really strikes me from what I've seen is the portrait selection screen as it is now.

 

I can only guess (hope!) that there WILL be a way to actually browse through your files, with a good preview system, and pick the one you want from your hard drive directly (ie: improved IE portrait selection system) because a "next/previous" button when I got a library of hundreds portraits is not gonna cut it

I enjoyed the BG portraits alot. They're so well made. To me the BG 2 portraits are so tied to their npc, that I can't really judge them out of that context. Except for Keldorn. I didn't care much for him, but the portrait is so cool. 

That said, Kaz has done an amazing job on the two portraits we've seen. New game, new faces, new people to care for. Looking forward to it. ^_^

Edited September 3, 201411 yr by TheisEjsing