I want to play all 3 bg games run but im waiting for new patch to fix lob mod first.Im patient but its making me so annoyed to wait again after i waited so long. Did someone from game developers gave any info if fix will happen and when?
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is there LoB mode fix date?
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Beamdog Future Projects - Toolset Suggestions
We have no idea what they might be planning for the future, but one aspect I would really like them to include would be a full Toolset and necessary infrastructure to be able to create servers/persistent worlds.
I have ran/built persistent worlds for NWN2, and would love to see a new medium like it for any future games. Hopefully Forgotten Realms, which would be my own preference.
A toolset of course would not be well suited to a game based on pre-drawn backgrounds like the infinity engine.
I have ran/built persistent worlds for NWN2, and would love to see a new medium like it for any future games. Hopefully Forgotten Realms, which would be my own preference.
A toolset of course would not be well suited to a game based on pre-drawn backgrounds like the infinity engine.
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BG2:EE Paper Doll different colored hands?!
So uhh... What's up with certain character's (custom NPCs) right hands being a colour from your character pallet?
Left hand is their normal skin tone, but right hand is their (I think it's the colour set for leather).
Seems to only affect characters that are using colours from the classic palette that are no longer available on the new slide-bar selection. (Bit of a problem for me as I like to use the Ice Blue/Snow White/Pure Black tones.
Left hand is their normal skin tone, but right hand is their (I think it's the colour set for leather).
Seems to only affect characters that are using colours from the classic palette that are no longer available on the new slide-bar selection. (Bit of a problem for me as I like to use the Ice Blue/Snow White/Pure Black tones.
@Dee is this supposed to happen?
Has anyone else had this particular affect of heterochromia hands? It's interesting, though not exactly fun when you use more out-landing colours.
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So what's it gonna take for Beamdog to release more BGEE soundtracks?
After many long years of desire for the music of Baldur's Gate, I now have finally gotten my fiendish little mitts on the Dragonspear sound track and the original Baldur's Gate sound track (along with the Enhanced Edition tracks). There was a window of opportunity to obtain these tracks by pre-ordering the Dragonspear expansion.
So what's it going to take to get BGEE 2 and Icewindale soundtracks? Can Beamdog make these soundtracks available for purchase? I am big on game music, especially quality music like the tracks in Baldur's Gate.
So what's it going to take to get BGEE 2 and Icewindale soundtracks? Can Beamdog make these soundtracks available for purchase? I am big on game music, especially quality music like the tracks in Baldur's Gate.
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Is there a downside for doing a duo-protagonist run of BG:EE, SoD, and BG2:EE?
I can't decide between Piro and Val'myr to run the games so I thought with the new party creator I'd do both. Is there any downside to this? I want to make Piro the lead so that she can romance either Rasaad or Anomen. I'd just do that by making sure she's in slot 1 during party creation, yes?
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Best Original Kit or Class by Beam Doggitty Dog
Which original Beamdog kit do you guys like?
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Bad decisions from NPCs
So Bloodscalp decided that it would be a good idea to ask a Cavalier to do a covert mission to take down Maevar and his rogue guild. My cavalier went in, and saw that Maevar had imprisoned and tortured and innocent man for a decade, and then asked the paladin to take part in a theft. So...the paladin threw up protection from evil, walked over, and put a sword through Maevar's gut. He didn't even wait to get evidence of the man's corruption.
What was Bloodscalp thinking when he asked a paladin to do this? How did he think that this would end? That a paladin would spend time pretending to be at thief, earning their trust, and finding evidence? It's like using a flame thrower to light a cigar. Yeah, it produces fire, but you probably don't want to get it to close to his face.
Luckily for him, said cavalier is smart and wise enough to know that killing Bloodscalp for his crimes would be counter productive. Better to, as Bloodscalp admitted, let the other guilds think that he is out for them. This would disrupt the cohesiveness of the Shadow Thieves as a whole much more effectively than killing two men would ever be.
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Anyone else have examples of where NPCs made a very foolish decision?
What was Bloodscalp thinking when he asked a paladin to do this? How did he think that this would end? That a paladin would spend time pretending to be at thief, earning their trust, and finding evidence? It's like using a flame thrower to light a cigar. Yeah, it produces fire, but you probably don't want to get it to close to his face.
Luckily for him, said cavalier is smart and wise enough to know that killing Bloodscalp for his crimes would be counter productive. Better to, as Bloodscalp admitted, let the other guilds think that he is out for them. This would disrupt the cohesiveness of the Shadow Thieves as a whole much more effectively than killing two men would ever be.
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Anyone else have examples of where NPCs made a very foolish decision?
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Baldur's Gate Bedtime Stories
877. You've been telling your six and five year old boys the story of Baldur's Gate as a bedtime story and when you get home from work, the six year old shows you this:
from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/3nw8ic/ive_been_telling_my_six_and_five_year_old_boys/
P.S. kambalder - kobold, gnaler - gnoll (swedish)
This inspired me to do the same with my kids. I've decided to share with you all how it is going.
My son is 5 years old, my daughter is 3 years old. I started off by having my boy design Charname. Here is what he came up with.
Name: Gorgia
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
Equipment: Sword and "lightning shield"
So I started off with candlekeep and Gorion, letting my boy design the character. I described it as a castle filled with books where Gorgia and his father lived. Then one day, his father...well, you know that part of the story. So they run away and come across "a big man, covered in armor. Seven feet tall! The big man has two ogres with him." I then recite the dialogue from memory, because all of us can.
As I do this my boy has his eyes wide and is listening intently. I don't dwell on the part where Gorion dies, instead just saying that the armored man won and Gorgia ran away. I then bring in Imoen, Gorgia's sister. My girl bubbles with excitement at this, and likes that she has a bow. Well, or just likes that there is a sister involved. She is sitting on my lap, but has to get off to talk excitedly about...something. Her pronunciation isn't too good.
So I tell them what Gorion's letter says, about how there are friends in the Friendly Arm Inn, another castle. I ask my boy what Gorgia does. He tells me that Gorgia goes to the Friendly Arm Inn to meet his friends.
So Gorgia meets Khalid and Jaheria, hereafter called 'his friends.' So his friends tell Gorgia that because he is so strong and has practiced with swords (good timing, given that I just bought my boy a toy sword and shield) that he should use it to go help people. My boy informs me that Gorgia indeed does want to go help people. So 'his friends' tell Gorgia about the problems in the Nashkel mines.
I stop here to ask my boy if he knows what a mine is. I end up explaining it to him, and getting him to the point where he understands why making the metal break is bad. He tells me that Gorgia will go help.
I say that is enough for this night and my boyo insists that I keep telling the story. So...we go on.
Gorgia gets to the mine and I tell him that the owner of the mine says: "So you want to take a look at me mine, do ya? Well, I'll give you one day. But I warn you! People who go into that mine, they don't come out. And I don't know why. It is really dark down there. Are you sure that you want to go in"
My boyo tells me that Gorgia runs away.
I tell the boyo that Gorgia has a sword and lightning shield and that his sister has a bow, and that they should help people. So Gorgia gathers his courage and goes down.
They get ambushed by kobolds. As the arrows come in, hitting Gorgia's shield I hit the bed, making it shake. I describe how his sister uses her bow to shoot he kobolds. My girl is quite happy at this.
Now, I ask my boy who he thinks is behind this. His response? "A green piggy." (He is an Angry Bird fanatic)
Ok, I can work with this. So Mulhay is green. That makes everyone happy. I go through the dialogue and Gorgia decides to trust Mulhay and to read the letters. My boy is quite surprised when Mulhay betrays him. It is a good thing that Gorgia has this 'lightning shield', which he uses to beat Mulhay down and take his letters.
So...score one for the good guys.
I try to stop the story there and to get them to bed, but my girl is excited and the boyo refuses to let me go, asking me to keep telling him the story.
So Gorgia tracks down the green man's friend, a wizard, to find out why Mulhay was poisoning the metal (yes, I know it should be ore, but there is already enough info here for a 5 year old). The wizard threatens Mulhay. And what comes of this?
Gorgia hits the wizard and knocks out his eye.
His sister shoots the wizard and knocks off his leg.
Good thing that combat was described for me! Saves me the effort, I suppose. So the wizard tells Gorgia that someone was paying him and the green man to poison the metal and that there were other people stealing all of the other metal, so no one could have it.
I then had to explain to the boy the economics of stealing all of the metal so you can sell your own for a higher price. I ended up explaining it using pizza as an example. It was easier.
When this was done, the boy said that the wizard is now Gorgia's friend. As such, the wizard has his eye and leg back. I ask the boy why the wizard is Gorgia's friend. There was a small pause. Apparently Gorgia gave the wizard a new wand, so now they are friends. Ok, I'll go with it.
I tell the boyo that we are ending it there. He refuses again and demands that I keep going. I am firm this time. I give him and his sister a kiss and a hug and say that we'll go on tomorrow night.
(For anyone who is wondering why the boyo gets more attention here, it is because my girly is only 3. So just mentioning the sister is enough for her. I gave her choices, but it always meant her going off on a tangent which doesn't fit into any of the above. As such, the boyo gets to be Charname).
And that, thus far, is what happens when a 5 year old gets to be Charname in Baldur's Gate.
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Best editor created unique builds?
Your best uniquely edited build that you could only make with an editor. Go.
Mine was an Assassin/beserker![:)]( ":)")
Mine was an Assassin/beserker
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What are your favourite dialouge and banters?
Please share screenshots of your favourite dialouges and banters from Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights 2. (Also, if not apparent, please specify the context of the scene.)
I need these for reasons >.>
K, thanks.
Also, please put all Siege of Dragonspear stuff in spoiler tags since a good chunk of people here didn't get to finish that one yet.
I need these for reasons >.>
K, thanks.
Also, please put all Siege of Dragonspear stuff in spoiler tags since a good chunk of people here didn't get to finish that one yet.
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How tips on mitigating damage?
Ok, So I'm currently on Chapter 9 on SoD, and Minsc who is my main tank is suffering so many critical hits from enemies in the area, and mainly because they're scoring so many critical hits. Either they have 10% to crit, which with a large number of enemies, does add up. Or, they have such a high number of attacks per round.
I find myself having to use up my entire day's worth of healing on each encounter and Minsc only has 1x Armour of Faith, and Jaheira 1x Ironskin which again. Is useful for one encounter.
Am I supposed to have to stop and rest, after every single encounter? To me, that breaks the immersion.![:/]( ":/")
I find myself having to use up my entire day's worth of healing on each encounter and Minsc only has 1x Armour of Faith, and Jaheira 1x Ironskin which again. Is useful for one encounter.
Am I supposed to have to stop and rest, after every single encounter? To me, that breaks the immersion.
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Come share your odd gaming habits! What do you refuse to do in BG? What wierd ideas do you love?
It seems like a lot of people like to make their games more "realistic" or more "awesome!" by creating their own rules or play-styles. Many people refuse to use certain tactics, or like to adopt some odd, unorthodox techniques for roleplaying reasons. Many others like to sacrifice POWER! for STYLE . Other times people do things or refuse to do things because it would be out of character (like refuse to case Animate Dead with cute little Aerie like @Dragonspear ). Others, like @belgarathmth don't enjoy using bags of holding or switching/carrying copious amounts of items because they think it breaks immersion.
So I thought I'd start a thread where everyone can share their oddities! A chance to share your ideas and eccentricities.
Okay, I'll start.
I never backstab with quarterstaves, because I think sneaking around then poking someone looks lame!
Who's next?
So I thought I'd start a thread where everyone can share their oddities! A chance to share your ideas and eccentricities.
Okay, I'll start.
I never backstab with quarterstaves, because I think sneaking around then poking someone looks lame!
Who's next?
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Druid shapeshift enchantment
Hi!
I read a lots of in this forum, that the druid shapeshifting forms are useless. Beacause not scale with level and cant hit any stronger foes. I think it will be somewhat help if the shapeshifting forms weapons enchantment will be +6. So they can be hit any enemies. Like the melf minor meteors or totemic druid spirit animals. Just the enchantment level, without thac0 or damage bonuses. I think it wont be unbalnced, but what is your opinion ?
I read a lots of in this forum, that the druid shapeshifting forms are useless. Beacause not scale with level and cant hit any stronger foes. I think it will be somewhat help if the shapeshifting forms weapons enchantment will be +6. So they can be hit any enemies. Like the melf minor meteors or totemic druid spirit animals. Just the enchantment level, without thac0 or damage bonuses. I think it wont be unbalnced, but what is your opinion ?
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No change and release management at Beamdog?
Got this mail from support today:
"Unfortunately, only Steam has the option of reverting to the previous version. You would of had to not update the game to stay at 1.3 on the clients. As a note we are working on fixes based on the feedback that has been given.
We could give you the Steam Keys, however as you said you would not want them/use them.
Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance."
So, basically, what Beamdog support is saying that they do not keep backup of their own files and programs, and that the only way if one has problems with Beamdog's products after 2.0 is to contact someone else.
Which begs the question: is there no change and release management at Beamdog?
"Unfortunately, only Steam has the option of reverting to the previous version. You would of had to not update the game to stay at 1.3 on the clients. As a note we are working on fixes based on the feedback that has been given.
We could give you the Steam Keys, however as you said you would not want them/use them.
Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance."
So, basically, what Beamdog support is saying that they do not keep backup of their own files and programs, and that the only way if one has problems with Beamdog's products after 2.0 is to contact someone else.
Which begs the question: is there no change and release management at Beamdog?
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Neverwinter Nights In Relation To Baldur's Gate
Is Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 pretty much a sequel to BG1 and BG2 in the sense that they are in the same "universe" (i.e. canon and connected to one another?). I understand NVN supposedly references events in the BG games but wasn't sure.
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I MAY have found how to fix Legacy of Bhaal bug
So the slider as we know after reloading messes up everything on area. I went to fiddle with EE keeper and in "Global variables" tab there are few settings that need to be changed in order for this to work. After save gets corrupted BD_ACH_DIFFICULTY , BD_NIGHTMARE_MODE and GAMEDIFFICULTY are changed. If you just edit those 3 variables to;
BD_ACH_DIFFICULTY=2 ,
BD_NIGHTMARE_MODE=1 ,
GAMEDIFFICULTY=7
it fixes it. I did some testing, But I'm still not sure. Provoked some fights, deaths loads , and it works. If anyone can help me and confirm this, that will be great news!
BD_ACH_DIFFICULTY=2 ,
BD_NIGHTMARE_MODE=1 ,
GAMEDIFFICULTY=7
it fixes it. I did some testing, But I'm still not sure. Provoked some fights, deaths loads , and it works. If anyone can help me and confirm this, that will be great news!
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Fighter/Cleric/Thief?
Is there anyway to make this a Class by myself? I know you can make Kits through Near Infinity and tweak certain things, but is it at all possible to make F/C/T, or is there a Mod anywhere that puts F/C/T into the game?
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Multiplayer Achievements
Will it ever be made possible for people beside the host to unlock achievements in a multiplayer game?
Me and my friends would like to get bgee+xpac+bgee2 and do them together but me and one other friend tried and he did not get them.
Me and my friends would like to get bgee+xpac+bgee2 and do them together but me and one other friend tried and he did not get them.
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So when are we...
going to represent Intersex within the setting of Baldur's Gate?
Since, ya'know, we're all for equality, equal opportunities and representation here at Beamdog.
Since, ya'know, we're all for equality, equal opportunities and representation here at Beamdog.
Edit: To prevent any further confusion or any ill-feelings towards this Thread;
If I need to give out a briefing on what Intersex is, I will happily do such to be rid of any confusion.
I'm honestly not trying to add or manipulate the controversy at hand to gain some kind of popularity on the discussion. If anything, this is the best time to ask what people's opinions on an Intersexed character being involved would be, for my own personal curiosity and nothing more. Hence why this is a simple poll and not intentionally designed to spawn another Saga. I am wholeheartedly just interested to see what people's stance on an Intersex fantasy character being involved in the Forgotten Realms.
If it does spawn one, then I can only apologise that people want to take it there as I honestly do not want too.
Admittedly, yes, I am poking a minor amount of fun at the controversy, and I can be seen doing as such on different threads and the Forums in general; that much is very blatantly obvious.
The answers don't mean anything of what my goal with this poll is, they are simply there to attempt to account for everyone's views, whether it be a misunderstanding or not. It was not designed in mind to make people assume this Thread was in league with anything else.
I'm honestly not trying to add or manipulate the controversy at hand to gain some kind of popularity on the discussion. If anything, this is the best time to ask what people's opinions on an Intersexed character being involved would be, for my own personal curiosity and nothing more. Hence why this is a simple poll and not intentionally designed to spawn another Saga. I am wholeheartedly just interested to see what people's stance on an Intersex fantasy character being involved in the Forgotten Realms.
If it does spawn one, then I can only apologise that people want to take it there as I honestly do not want too.
Admittedly, yes, I am poking a minor amount of fun at the controversy, and I can be seen doing as such on different threads and the Forums in general; that much is very blatantly obvious.
The answers don't mean anything of what my goal with this poll is, they are simply there to attempt to account for everyone's views, whether it be a misunderstanding or not. It was not designed in mind to make people assume this Thread was in league with anything else.
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Sycamirage's Ultimate Guide to Baldurize Your Portrait
Hello folks.
Let me introduce for you my familiar Sycamirage. She will show you a tutorial about baldurizing a portrait picture.
Before you start into modifying other people's work, keep in mind this.
![image]()
Sycamirage Posts: 19:51AM
Note, this is not a thread about how to use custom portraits (one which is already available for You) in the game. For that there are discussions here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/36241/heres-how-to-use-custom-portraits-in-iwdee/p1
The purpose of this thread is something different, something more.
You ever wondered about how to make those fancy custom portraits, what You find on professional artist's site like Isandir or Artastrophe?
You would like to baldurize your own portrait?
You are in the right place! I will show You, how to do this magic!
If You search for custom portraits on the web you can find many. And i mean MANY. You can spend your remaining life browsing for portraits on the web for your next character.
There are many artists, who are making custom portraits. Some are trying to follow the original style of the BG portraits, like @Isandir (link above), others follow their own style like @jakaminski for example.
Oh, i hope you know the original artist of the BG portraits? He is Mark Sass, and here is his site: http://sassart.com/
Trent tell us here , how Mike did the original portraits. Also here You can see, who is who on the BG1 portraits.
@AndreaColombo and @Isandir even contact Mike and ask him how he did the vanilla pics:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/533742#Comment_533742
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/72226/#Comment_72226
But You would like to make your own portrait.
Yes?
Of course yes, this is what You were looking for, this is why You came here for the first place...
And i will show You!
Now if I would truly lazy
Ok, i promised to show You myself. I'll do it, just for You. Here:
There are persons for whom it's harder, and there are for whom it's easier.
If You don't have the time, You are hungry or thirsty, distracted by RL stuff or just tired, it's possible, that You should postpone the portrait making for another time.
It's a good idea to listen to your favourite music, while You work.
I provide some example for the various quality, to help deciding if yours is good enough.
Too much light:
![image]()
Too much darkness:
![image]()
Too few color:
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Too much writing:
![image]()
Maybe it's possible to baldurize the above pictures too, but You can make your work a lot easier, when you get one with better quality. Sometimes You can be so fortunate, that You have available a pic with full details, and You just have to make a few touch to make it fit into the game!
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The key properties of a good starting base picture for the portrait (let it call the BG rules):
Big resolution
Good lightning
What character would You like your portrait to be?
A mage?
![image]()
![image]()
![image]()
A sorcerer?
![image]()
![image]()
A bard?
![image]()
![image]()
A rogue?
![citizenx]()
![image]()
![image]()
A ranger?
![image]()
A cleric?
![image]()
Also, You must decide in what style would You like to make your picture.
BG1, BG2 and IWD all use different portrait style.
I usually go for BG2 style.
Two of my attempts to reach something like IWD style:
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You can choose another, totally different style too, of course.
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I use Photoshop, and only have (limited) knowledge from that program, so if You use other method, You can't learn much more from this tutorial.
I know.
Lame.
So You have the good quality picture to work with, and You have a concept what You would like to do with it.
This tutorial is already long wided, so i will not explain all the details of using Photoshop, there are plenty of good help on the web.
First we will create the arrangement of the portrait.
Put the original picture in PS, and duplicate it's layer already. I use to make a copy from the layer i work with, when i reach another work phase. Also save your progression in multiple files. (Or save not, if You are a hardcore player, and want to do a no-reload run.)
We picked the pic:
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The coception is to make a gnome mummy from this one. I totally have no idea at this time, how i'll manage this, so yay! Exciting!
I always insert one vanilla portrait beside mine, to have an idea, what i would like to reach, what will be the area, what on i will work.
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I give it some transparency:
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and resize the vanilla bg portrait for my selected picture size (will downsize the finished picture at the end). You may have to rotate and warp the selected portrait for better fit the BG portrait style. Head size, the distance of the eyes and mouth eye distance are good reference points.
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Let's see, how the cropped image look like!
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Nice!
You can go back to a previous state in the history:
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Next we will search for some source material for the mummy part of the character. I think i just try to google "mummy".
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Hmmm... Maybe bandaged head? (Note: be careful what you search on google, You may find more than You want)
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Ok. What will we actually use from these?
We shall see.
Put the pics in.
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After that, i go through the various pictures, cut, scale and warp them, or edit with other way, if neccesary.
You can make your work easier, if you use some elements of the original BG portraits (armors, robes, jewels, other accesories).
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Great. Now we have two problems. (Not counting, that at this point i doubt that there will be an useable portrait from this ever.) One is the glasses: we should get rid of them with clone stamp, or get something more fantasy-like instead of them. Or maybe both?
![]()
Nice. Not obviously good, but acceptable.
Our next problem is the butterknife. It's lefted out, when we crop the picture to the proper size. We will try to do some magic, and conjure the knife in the frame.
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Let's see, how it looks cropped:
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Crazy! Which is good in case of a gnome mummy. Yes?
Some final additional details to fill out the empty spaces:
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And we finished the arrangement with this. We can go foreward to:
But first i make a frame for this, containing Jan's original, and the would be mummy gnome portrait.
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Oh, i forgot to scatter him face! I recommend to make own layers for the eyes, hair, mouth facial hair and for what what else You want. We not necessarily need them later, but better if we have them.
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For hair i just use some oil paint filter, and some shading, if needed.
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For the face make it more lighter first, then do the tiresome work of smoothing it with mixer brush. This is one of the most important step to reach the "baldurized feeling". First with bigger size:
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Then with smaller and smaller:
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(I must mention here, that this picture is pretty blurry and low resolution, i highly recommend to pick a better one than this. I hope it will just doable.)
Also: where is his nose, a gnome must have a nose!
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Better. After the face:
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We go through on the other layers with one of the above methods, or with the combination of them (oil paint filter, mixer brush, yada-yada...)
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And here comes the next step:
I start with the easiest part, with the background. BG2 portraits mostly have some cloudy background. On my picture turns out the green to be the dominant hue, so i'll choose some green clouds. Let's google green sky!
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Fine. Put it in the background.
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Now i'll merge the layers, and smooth the edges.
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We are near the end, but here comes the trickiest part. Adding those tiny shining and multicolored shadowy effects, what for the BG portraits are so unique and why it's hard to copy their style. Honestly, i never can do this part right. I use mixer brush, dodge and burn tools for this too.
![]()
Huh, i don't have much patient for this. Just grab the picture and put in the portrait folder!
![image]()
Let's see my progression:
![image]()
![citizenx]()
![image]()
The summary is: with enough practice even someone with a lack of skill like me can make acceptable portraits.
And here ends this tutorial. Have fun!
Let me introduce for you my familiar Sycamirage. She will show you a tutorial about baldurizing a portrait picture.
Before you start into modifying other people's work, keep in mind this.
Sycamirage Posts: 19:51AMNote, this is not a thread about how to use custom portraits (one which is already available for You) in the game. For that there are discussions here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/36241/heres-how-to-use-custom-portraits-in-iwdee/p1
The purpose of this thread is something different, something more.
You ever wondered about how to make those fancy custom portraits, what You find on professional artist's site like Isandir or Artastrophe?
You would like to baldurize your own portrait?
You are in the right place! I will show You, how to do this magic!
If You search for custom portraits on the web you can find many. And i mean MANY. You can spend your remaining life browsing for portraits on the web for your next character.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/13507/paintbg-for-all-bg-platforms/p1
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/44895/custom-npc-portraits-masterthread-spoilers-obviously#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/49653/know-thy-selfie-updated-with-new-portraits/p1
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/38652/your-favourite-portrait/p1
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/39151/portraits-for-baldurs-gate-from-might-magic-heroes-vi-and-now-from-might-magic-heroes-vii-too#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/43813/asian-portraits-for-bg-the-nobunagas-ambition-sphere-of-influence-pack#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/31633/beards#latest
http://portraitcity.blackwyrmlair.net/
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/41704/custom-pc-npc-portraits#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/5339/alternate-npc-and-pc-portraits-just-because-p/p1
http://www.karwal.dk/portraitportal/
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/32948/search-for-the-karwal-portraits
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/57831-phaeres-npc-portrait-pack-v4-a-mod-from-phaere-and-rastor/
http://modlist.pocketplane.net/index.php?ax=list&cat_id=72
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/21387/by-far-the-best-baldurized-portraits-ive-seen-so-far-can-you-top-it
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/428404/#Comment_428404
http://portraits.chosenofmystra.net/index2.html
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/44895/custom-npc-portraits-masterthread-spoilers-obviously#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/49653/know-thy-selfie-updated-with-new-portraits/p1
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/38652/your-favourite-portrait/p1
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/39151/portraits-for-baldurs-gate-from-might-magic-heroes-vi-and-now-from-might-magic-heroes-vii-too#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/43813/asian-portraits-for-bg-the-nobunagas-ambition-sphere-of-influence-pack#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/31633/beards#latest
http://portraitcity.blackwyrmlair.net/
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/41704/custom-pc-npc-portraits#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/5339/alternate-npc-and-pc-portraits-just-because-p/p1
http://www.karwal.dk/portraitportal/
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/32948/search-for-the-karwal-portraits
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/57831-phaeres-npc-portrait-pack-v4-a-mod-from-phaere-and-rastor/
http://modlist.pocketplane.net/index.php?ax=list&cat_id=72
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/21387/by-far-the-best-baldurized-portraits-ive-seen-so-far-can-you-top-it
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/428404/#Comment_428404
http://portraits.chosenofmystra.net/index2.html
There are many artists, who are making custom portraits. Some are trying to follow the original style of the BG portraits, like @Isandir (link above), others follow their own style like @jakaminski for example.
Other artists:
http://enkida.deviantart.com/gallery/33798575/Baldur-s-Gate-Portraits
http://neunerx.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://nixxical.deviantart.com/
http://peachplums.deviantart.com/gallery/26839256/Baldur-s-Gate-Style-Portraits
http://syntia13.deviantart.com/gallery/39769184/Baldur-s-Gate
http://sqwid.deviantart.com/gallery/
@LadyEibhilinRhett : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/11112/baldurs-gate-adorable-edition-alt-style-portrait-pack-wip-of-portraits-complete-5-94/p1
@Tola_Zagniy : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/499447/#Comment_499447
@Astafas : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/39651/new-portrait-for-neera/p1 and https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/15991/you-and-your-pc#latest
@EntropyXII : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/19032/exii-baldurs-gate-portrait-pack#latest
http://enkida.deviantart.com/gallery/33798575/Baldur-s-Gate-Portraits
http://neunerx.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://nixxical.deviantart.com/
http://peachplums.deviantart.com/gallery/26839256/Baldur-s-Gate-Style-Portraits
http://syntia13.deviantart.com/gallery/39769184/Baldur-s-Gate
http://sqwid.deviantart.com/gallery/
@LadyEibhilinRhett : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/11112/baldurs-gate-adorable-edition-alt-style-portrait-pack-wip-of-portraits-complete-5-94/p1
@Tola_Zagniy : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/499447/#Comment_499447
@Astafas : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/39651/new-portrait-for-neera/p1 and https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/15991/you-and-your-pc#latest
@EntropyXII : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/19032/exii-baldurs-gate-portrait-pack#latest
Oh, i hope you know the original artist of the BG portraits? He is Mark Sass, and here is his site: http://sassart.com/
and here is his deviantart profile:
http://mike-sass.deviantart.com/
And an interview with him: http://gamerati.com/interview-mike-sass-balders-gate/
http://mike-sass.deviantart.com/
And an interview with him: http://gamerati.com/interview-mike-sass-balders-gate/
Trent tell us here , how Mike did the original portraits. Also here You can see, who is who on the BG1 portraits.
@AndreaColombo and @Isandir even contact Mike and ask him how he did the vanilla pics:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/533742#Comment_533742
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/72226/#Comment_72226
But You would like to make your own portrait.
Yes?
Of course yes, this is what You were looking for, this is why You came here for the first place...
And i will show You!
How to baldurize your portrait!
If You are truly lazy , and You just would like to crop/resize a picture You can use @NoTra 's CUSTOM PORTRAIT GENERATOR: http://www.notra.fr/portrait.phpNow if I would truly lazy
I am
I would just link other tutorials, what other persons made with greater skill, than what i posess.Tutorial by Karwal:
http://www.karwal.dk/portraitportal/tutorial_frame.htm
Tutorial by @Enkida:
http://enkida.deviantart.com/art/WIP-Ellesime-process-tutorial-1-279968917
Painting tutorial by @EntropyXII
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/19473/tutorial-painting-a-bg-style-portrait/p1
Instructions by @Isandir
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/445183/#Comment_445183
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/427756/#Comment_427756
Instructions from @Astafas
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/445152/#Comment_445152
This two for completionists sake:
https://www.docdroid.net/DmQ1gMz/how-to-baldurize-portraits-pdf-.pdf.html
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/15603-fw-art-competition-tutorial-thread/ (this one lack's the pictures sadly)
http://www.karwal.dk/portraitportal/tutorial_frame.htm
Tutorial by @Enkida:
http://enkida.deviantart.com/art/WIP-Ellesime-process-tutorial-1-279968917
Painting tutorial by @EntropyXII
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/19473/tutorial-painting-a-bg-style-portrait/p1
Instructions by @Isandir
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/445183/#Comment_445183
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/427756/#Comment_427756
Instructions from @Astafas
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/445152/#Comment_445152
This two for completionists sake:
https://www.docdroid.net/DmQ1gMz/how-to-baldurize-portraits-pdf-.pdf.html
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/15603-fw-art-competition-tutorial-thread/ (this one lack's the pictures sadly)
Ok, i promised to show You myself. I'll do it, just for You. Here:
Six Easy Step to Baldurize your Picture!
Step Zero: Get in the Mood!
An important step, mostly forgotten.There are persons for whom it's harder, and there are for whom it's easier.
If You don't have the time, You are hungry or thirsty, distracted by RL stuff or just tired, it's possible, that You should postpone the portrait making for another time.
It's a good idea to listen to your favourite music, while You work.
First step: Choose Well!
One of the most important thing, what You have to do if You would like to make a baldurized picture of someone, is to obtain a good quality picture.I provide some example for the various quality, to help deciding if yours is good enough.
Too much light:
Too much darkness:
Too few color:
Too much writing:
Maybe it's possible to baldurize the above pictures too, but You can make your work a lot easier, when you get one with better quality. Sometimes You can be so fortunate, that You have available a pic with full details, and You just have to make a few touch to make it fit into the game!
The key properties of a good starting base picture for the portrait (let it call the BG rules):
Big resolution
Good lightning
Step two: Class and Style
The next question is:What character would You like your portrait to be?
A mage?
A sorcerer?
A bard?
A rogue?
A ranger?
A cleric?
Also, You must decide in what style would You like to make your picture.
BG1, BG2 and IWD all use different portrait style.
I usually go for BG2 style.
Two of my attempts to reach something like IWD style:
You can choose another, totally different style too, of course.
Step Three: Pick Your Method!
You will need a program, or some other tools to do the actual job.I use Photoshop, and only have (limited) knowledge from that program, so if You use other method, You can't learn much more from this tutorial.
I know.
Lame.
Step Four: Start the Real Work!
Huh. It was exhausting to reach this point, congratulation, if You managed it with intact sanity!So You have the good quality picture to work with, and You have a concept what You would like to do with it.
This tutorial is already long wided, so i will not explain all the details of using Photoshop, there are plenty of good help on the web.
just google it.
First we will create the arrangement of the portrait.
Put the original picture in PS, and duplicate it's layer already. I use to make a copy from the layer i work with, when i reach another work phase. Also save your progression in multiple files. (Or save not, if You are a hardcore player, and want to do a no-reload run.)
We picked the pic:
The coception is to make a gnome mummy from this one. I totally have no idea at this time, how i'll manage this, so yay! Exciting!
I always insert one vanilla portrait beside mine, to have an idea, what i would like to reach, what will be the area, what on i will work.
I give it some transparency:
and resize the vanilla bg portrait for my selected picture size (will downsize the finished picture at the end). You may have to rotate and warp the selected portrait for better fit the BG portrait style. Head size, the distance of the eyes and mouth eye distance are good reference points.
Let's see, how the cropped image look like!
Nice!
You can go back to a previous state in the history:
Next we will search for some source material for the mummy part of the character. I think i just try to google "mummy".
Hmmm... Maybe bandaged head? (Note: be careful what you search on google, You may find more than You want)
Ok. What will we actually use from these?
We shall see.
Put the pics in.
After that, i go through the various pictures, cut, scale and warp them, or edit with other way, if neccesary.
You can make your work easier, if you use some elements of the original BG portraits (armors, robes, jewels, other accesories).
Great. Now we have two problems. (Not counting, that at this point i doubt that there will be an useable portrait from this ever.) One is the glasses: we should get rid of them with clone stamp, or get something more fantasy-like instead of them. Or maybe both?
Nice. Not obviously good, but acceptable.
Our next problem is the butterknife. It's lefted out, when we crop the picture to the proper size. We will try to do some magic, and conjure the knife in the frame.
Let's see, how it looks cropped:
Crazy! Which is good in case of a gnome mummy. Yes?
Some final additional details to fill out the empty spaces:
And we finished the arrangement with this. We can go foreward to:
Step Five: Fine tuning
We have some layers and we would like to blend them together. For this we edit their brightness/contrast, vibrance, hue/saturation, color balance and shadow/highlight adjustments. I'll also use the burn and dodge tool, and the mixer brush tool for local editing.But first i make a frame for this, containing Jan's original, and the would be mummy gnome portrait.
Oh, i forgot to scatter him face! I recommend to make own layers for the eyes, hair, mouth facial hair and for what what else You want. We not necessarily need them later, but better if we have them.
For hair i just use some oil paint filter, and some shading, if needed.
For the face make it more lighter first, then do the tiresome work of smoothing it with mixer brush. This is one of the most important step to reach the "baldurized feeling". First with bigger size:
Then with smaller and smaller:
(I must mention here, that this picture is pretty blurry and low resolution, i highly recommend to pick a better one than this. I hope it will just doable.)
Also: where is his nose, a gnome must have a nose!
Better. After the face:
We go through on the other layers with one of the above methods, or with the combination of them (oil paint filter, mixer brush, yada-yada...)
And here comes the next step:
Step Six: Lightning
In the sixth step we will merge all the layers together, add some background and give additional shadows and lights to the picture.I start with the easiest part, with the background. BG2 portraits mostly have some cloudy background. On my picture turns out the green to be the dominant hue, so i'll choose some green clouds. Let's google green sky!
Fine. Put it in the background.
Now i'll merge the layers, and smooth the edges.
We are near the end, but here comes the trickiest part. Adding those tiny shining and multicolored shadowy effects, what for the BG portraits are so unique and why it's hard to copy their style. Honestly, i never can do this part right. I use mixer brush, dodge and burn tools for this too.
Final Step: Учиться, учиться и учиться.
And if you want to learn something, you have to practice it. Maybe i had to say practice make perfect, but the above quote from Lenin is just cooler.Let's see my progression:
The summary is: with enough practice even someone with a lack of skill like me can make acceptable portraits.
And here ends this tutorial. Have fun!
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