The watercolor-style portraits

[kingofabox]

As long as the companions and other important characters get those beautiful portraits from poe1 I'm on board. I agree the water color portraits don't hold a candle to the companion portraits or icewind dale portraits. I'm assuming this is the only affordable way for them to get every quest giver one, which I love the idea. Here's hoping a later stretch goal gives all important npc's the higher quality portraits. 

[Archaven]

There are also hunderds of portraits we can find online which look very similar to PoE's style. Now, if watercolor portraits will be used in conversations for every companion, we basically won't be able to use external portraits, because only our PC won't have one. I do hope they will reconsider that or at least make it optional. Of course you can argue that it's not a big deal, but those small things can make or break immersion.

 

+1. i whole heartedly agree. it seems like this time around the visuals are more "cartoony" than the first PoE and now with that "water color" portraits goal. i'm getting worried at this point TBH.

[Archaven]

 

But isn't it a bit strange when in a discussion you have both kinds of portraits? I don't think they compliment each other, do they?

 

The player character and companions will have their own watercolor style portraits that will be utilized in this UI. We all agree it looked very odd to have the fully painted portraits alongside the NPC portraits.

 

 

I seriously dislike this. It's like BG1 -> BG2 all over again. I prefer portraits from BG1 more than BG2.

[Aramintai]

I don't think I like this addition as it clashes with normal protagonist's and companions' portraits. What if I use (as I'm sure many other people as well) a custom portrait? How can I make a watercolor version of it for the dialogue? If you really set on doing this either paint all NPC's portraits normally or make some options in the game to choose what type of portrait (normal or watercolor) will be used in dialogue by the protagonist AND companions.

[Archaven]

I don't think I like this addition as it clashes with normal protagonist's and companions' portraits. What if I use (as I'm sure many other people as well) a custom portrait? How can I make a watercolor version of it for the dialogue? If you really set on doing this either paint all NPC's portraits normally or make some options in the game to choose what type of portrait (normal or watercolor) will be used in dialogue by the protagonist AND companions.

 

I would rather that the stretch goal they come out with more quality painted NPCs portrait than watercolor. But then again, the reason for a "water-colored" PC and NPC portrait could very closely match the visual artistic direction of the overall game. In other words where i most feared, it has became "more cartoony" than being more realistic. It's like what people complained about Diablo 3 art direction over the original Diablo 1 feel and settings.

[Leferd]

 

 

But isn't it a bit strange when in a discussion you have both kinds of portraits? I don't think they compliment each other, do they?

 

 

The player character and companions will have their own watercolor style portraits that will be utilized in this UI. We all agree it looked very odd to have the fully painted portraits alongside the NPC portraits.

 

I seriously dislike this. It's like BG1 -> BG2 all over again. I prefer portraits from BG1 more than BG2.

Mike Sass made the portraits for The BG series. He went away from the BG1 style because they were actually modeled by Bioware employees. The internet was mean and made fun of their looks. So he changed them up for BG2. Improvements in my opinion.

 

But the IWD/IWD2 portraits by Jason Manley and Justin Sweet are the gold standard.

[Rabain]

I like the idea of the watercolour portraits. I appreciate the desire to add more faces to the game.  However I can't help but feel that what a lot of these portraits lack is a background colour. Even if it was just a green or blue smudge it would help a lot to place the face in the picture.  Currently the pictures are a little too much like mugshots.  A background colour would give them depth.

[Quillon]

In my experience the playday after we tested the NPC portraits was a lot more memorable than the playday before

 

When you say playday I'm picturing something like:

 

 

Is that how it is?

 

Booooo! Buncha immature people making Pillars 2!

[IndiraLightfoot]

Here are the images:

 

While I do like them and I really want to see unique NPC portraits, I reckon they introduce a new cartoonish portrait tone to the game. It feels a bit like Tintin or something. I think it would be a mistake for this kind of game.

I'd actually prefer if the portraits were done in the same sketchy and "serious" style as the one used for image slide encounters that look like those 80's choose your adventure kind of books:

 

And the same kind of "serious" graphics are used in the in-game monster manual, as it were:

 

The more I ponder over this, the more adamant I get. Heck, take a peek at my avatar portrait. That kind of style would be fine, not even a need for multicolour stuff. The sepia background should of course be kept.

Edited February 1, 2017 by IndiraLightfoot

[LordCrash]

If anything, PoE needs to get even more serious. The normal standards for seriousness are not serious enough for a seriously serious game like PoE...

 

Oh, and of course serious serious means nothing else than pure and always dominating grim cold and grim dark. Avoid any bright colors, making the whole game in black and white or, making a small concession here, sepia would actually be truly serious so rather go for that.  Also avoid the depiction of happy or - God beware - even funny characters at all costs. Everything that looks even slightly cartoonish or fun is for small kids alone, serious adults don't have fun, they only ponder on abstract philosophical questions and they enjoy being depressed all the time.

 

 

/irony off

 

 

[IndiraLightfoot]

Haha! Yeah, grim dark FTW!

 

No, but seriously, I'm more concerned about keeping a coherent look for the game, and these watercolour portraits add a new out-of-whack element. It could work, if they were in keeping with the rest of the art, but I haven't seen evidence of that yet. In essence, you could have those sketchy drawings I'm on about portraying a super-goofy laughing jester, if you want.

I'm discussing whether this new style fits the game, and atm, I'm in doubt.

 

P.S. I merrily backed DoS, so there are other CRPGs available, where the cartoonish style is more prominent, and where "Huh-huh, nudge-nudge"-jokes are standard, but I'm not sure Obsidian intends to approach that style for PoE2.

Edited February 1, 2017 by IndiraLightfoot

[LordCrash]

I'm discussing whether this new style fits the game, and atm, I'm in doubt.

 

Well, let's wait and see. It's not some backer-created content but something coming from within Obsidian, from the actual artists working on the game. If anybody, they can guarantee a visually consistent experience. But yeah, I agree with you that if they find our further along the development process that the watercolor stuff won't work out the way they envisioned it they should cut it again. I'm not that fond of making it a stretch goal. It should rather have been something they test internally, iterative properly and decide upon closer to release.

 

 

Anyway, in a much more general perspective, I'd personally like the PoE series to become a BIT less serious and grim cold and more personal and down-to-earth. Maybe these portraits could push the franchise just a little bit in this direction without breaking any consistency. I don't expect or want something like Original Sin (to make that clear) but that doesn't mean that everything in PoE needs to be that heavy-handed and overly dramatic.

Edited February 1, 2017 by LordCrash

[Varana]

I'm still wondering a bit why water colour should suddenly be "cartoonish" (not all art is cartoons ), but whatever.

For a better impression, though, those example pics should be scaled down a lot - you won't see them at this size, usually (or at all). And seeing that they're the ones making the game, including UI and all other art, I do think that "does that fit into the general mood and style of the game" is a question they did consider at some point. :D

[Marinus]

found an old tumbler post of josh with some portraits that look like the watercolor ones

 they look sweet, link down here

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNhoM7ug7Kd/

[Sonntam]

Watercolor portraits are okay, but I think I like the lineart without color more than with color.

[Leferd]

I am positively in favor of these watercolors. It makes the base game much nicer according to their own artistic aesthetics.

 

Not Obsidian's problem If folks want to use their own custom portraits and aren't happy with the clash in styles.

[LordCrash]

It would be really cool if they had something like a filter that could be used on any traditional portrait. I mean, there are a ton of picture filters for software like Photoshop, so why not a "PoE watercolor" filter that is implemented into the game? That way external portraits might not be a big issue after all.

Edited February 1, 2017 by LordCrash

[Ganrich]

I am positively in favor of these watercolors. It makes the base game much nicer according to their own artistic aesthetics.

Not Obsidian's problem If folks want to use their own custom portraits and aren't happy with the clash in styles.

Without seeing ANY final UI art we can't say these portraits don't fit the game's art style either. They wouldn't look right bootstrapped to PoE1's native UI, but I'm sure there are probably some changes in color tones and design from the original game. I like them, and will continue to like them until I see how they fit in the UI functionally and artistically.

[Karkarov]

No, but seriously, I'm more concerned about keeping a coherent look for the game, and these watercolour portraits add a new out-of-whack element. It could work, if they were in keeping with the rest of the art, but I haven't seen evidence of that yet.

Except you have seen evidence to suggest it is consistent... right there in the fig page.

 

uh... link to pic cause I post it in thread for some reason?

 

Remember, the portraits will be for your character sheet and such.  The watercolors will be for conversations or scripted encounters.

[Amentep]

I think its a great idea, I'm still curious of whether a user added portrait will have the ability to have a user added 'watercolor'

[LLaney]

 

In my experience the playday after we tested the NPC portraits was a lot more memorable than the playday before

 

When you say playday I'm picturing something like:

 

 

Is that how it is?

 

Booooo! Buncha immature people making Pillars 2!

 

 

I can only speak for my office, but ~mmmaybe~

[Gromnir]

the way we look at stretch goals, we ask self to consider if the goal were the final goal for the campaign, and the goal were not attained, how bad would we feel.

 

meh.

 

nice and all, but...

 

meh.

 

keep in mind, we do like the watercolor portraits.  am thinking they is gonna add a distinct look to the game, but if this were the last goal and we came up $50,000 short, we wouldn't be broken up 'bout the funding fail.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[IndiraLightfoot]

Feargus,developer:

M

 The plan is to have the watercolor images be used across all dialogs, but not in inventory or the character screen. I just talked to Adam, and we are going to think about a toggle in options where you an choose to always use your character screen portrait.

 

Feb 1, 2017 | 10:49 PM

 

I like this, the more toggle options, the better.

[Ulicus]

I'm not overly excited by the idea, really. I appreciate the rationale -- and there's nothing wrong with the examples we've been shown -- but I'd prefer a single visual style spread across the Very Important characters and the less important characters doing without. As was the case in the first game.

That being said, it's not a deal breaker, and I'm sure I'd get used to it.


 

[Silent Winter]

I'd like an easy to use (ie drop images in an override folder) way of giving/replacing these pics.  That way I can use them or replace them with a different style / add to NPCs that don't have them.  Did that a lot using override folder (and DLTCEP for those who didn't have portraits already) for Baldur's Gate.