bTomfoolery

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity Demotion would still entail wicked scrubbing, but the bastard would deserve it. Think they have steel wool down in Avernum? Josefo's art is really really good. Being a very amateur artist I can't hope to make my art nearly that awesome. However, I shall trek on under the banner of my original intentions of simply imitating Andrew Hunter's style with my own twist. It's what I'm capable of, and if I were to stop doing art every time I saw someone better than myself, I'd have never gotten past drawing stick figures. This discussion of darker/lighter imagery in Avernum is quite interesting to me. Certainly Jeff has his own vision of the Avernum world. At the same time, each of us players have our own visions. As you can tell by my art, I'm influenced by Andrews portraits (and those old trait illustrations Phil did that haven't been around in a while). I view the world as, perhaps a lower fantasy (that doesn't really show through in my highish fantasy art but...that's just my style) but at the same time having a light hearted feel as indicated by my numerous conversations with farm animals I've had in the games. http://i39.tinypic.com/2iudcmp.jpg At the same time, it's easy to see how a game with a strong theme of oppression and literal darkness (being forced to live quite literally under everyone else) can imply darker imagery in others. One of the reasons I love Avernum so much is that it partially emulates a tabletop gaming experience, and this ability to infer details about the visual style of the game fits that perfectly.

It's been a while. Without being apologetic about how slowly I'm doing this (you guys have been really nice about that :3) here's a small update. Progress on G229 is a bit weird. I took the fluffy vs hairy advice and removed what I had with the intention of replacing it but I never got around to that and after completing most of the coloring, moved on to the next portrait (with the intention to come back, of course). Quarter ends Wednesday so we'll see if I can get these done then (with other one(s) too I hope) http://bogbear.com/mod_data/AvernumArtEvolved/G229furless.png I took a different approach to G222. I always used to think it's in-game sprite (specifically in Avernum 3) was really cool so I decided to incorporate the singlet/sleeve...thing from the sprite into the portrait. I need to lengthen his legs slightly and redraw his boots. Perhaps tighten his pants a little bit. http://bogbear.com/mod_data/AvernumArtEvolved/G222.png

Haven't posted in a few days, haven't been working on this (as) much (as I should) either. http://bogbear.com/mod_data/AvernumArtEvolved/G229lineart.png Basically 'done' with the lineart. There are a few things I want to fix about it before I consider myself finished with it, but right now I want to get to coloring before I spend too much time tweaking the image, partly so I get a better idea of what needs to be changed, partly because I want something shiny looking to show everyone! Too bad I'm quite lazy and haven't been devoting enough of my free time to this. Interesting (to me) to note that only one of the portraits features a weapon in it. It's not something I've just notice, this is just the first time I found it particularly interesting. It may provide a descision to be made on whether or not I feel it's redesign should have a bow (to keep with it's original design) or if it should lose the bow to help it fit in more with the rest of the completely unarmed portraits.

That's interesting. I personally have not used Slith or Nephil in my parties until 6, I had a Nephil Archer before but I usually stuck to all humans. Now I know that I need to dedicate as much time to developing the designs for those races as I will for the humans.

While I work on this, can I get some people involved by asking which four portraits you generally use when creating a party in Avernum? If there is no real set of four you choose from, just list the ones you use the most. I don't really foresee how this will change anything I do, but I think it would be interesting if not useful information in general. Perhaps you could just list the portraits you think are coolest, and what you like most about them, and the portraits you dislike, and what you think could be changed about them. I certainly have my own views and preferences in this but if there are any strong feelings in any way about something that must to stay or should probably go, that will definitely have an effect on the choices I make in designing these portraits. http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/4746/g229littleupdate.png A negligible update. I know, I sure talk a lot for someone who's provided such little real content. I'll try harder, I swear! (right leg looks bad, I should probably fix that, don't worry about the face either) In an ideal world, I'll be able to get a preliminary sketch up one day, get the completed line art up the next (or work on another sketch whilst the design is discussed) and have the coloring done that same day or the next. In a perfect world my art will be flawless the first time around...oh how I wish this world could be perfect!

Originally Posted By: GrimeHead I very much like the idea of evolved avatars for the game. And your art looks well suited to the series. I looked through the rest of your website. Nice little peices of graphics. But you're right, that belt has to go. One of the big reasons I think that the original portraits are so great is that they manage to communicate a lot of information while being rather simplistic. I can only speak for myself in this case, but when playing the game, I found myself almost filling in the details in their outfits myself, mentally. They utilized large, defining shapes rather than filling the image up with a lot of visual noise. I want to continue that style in my own art, certainly I plan on giving them more detail than the originals, but at the same time I want to be careful of not overdoing it. The belt was an example of two bad things. It was a bit too Asian to be completely honest, it's not a design that belongs in Avernum. It also was a bit too complex, not in comparison to most art out there, but it did provide a bit too much meaningless visual noise that unbalanced the focus of the picture. http://bogbear.com/mod_data/AvernumArtEvolved/G229update.png Hopefully the end product (of this entire project will be something that everyone is at least content with. Right now my progress is going quite slow. I am currently heading straight on into (what I intend to be, for now at least) the last quarter of my college experience and the work definitely feels that way as I approach the end of this quarter. The very last thing I want to do right now is abandon this project, so bear with me if the project does slow down a bit. This project is a big priority for me, but some things will come before it. Seems like a horrible way to start it off, I could have probably held off before making a few complete examples, but oh well. I still look forward to any and all comments this community has to offer!

Originally Posted By: Spidweb Phil Foglio didn't do that art. Andrew Hunter did. Ah, that's an embarassing mistake on my part. I only ever knew that Phil Foglio did work on the game, I hadn't even considered the possibility that someone else might have as well. Originally Posted By: Spidweb I wanted to get all of those portraits redone for Avernum 6, but I ran into artist trouble. Not everything that happens is because of my choice. To be entirely honest, I am quite glad they remained the same. Not only did it give me the opportunity (or perhaps, drive) to start this project of mine, but it also just works. The portraits are iconic to the game I think. Which is why I want to pay tribute to them rather than simply replacing them for the sake of having something new. Originally Posted By: Spidweb That said, I am interested in getting them redone, and I have money. Drop me a note at spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. - Jeff Vogel That is an enticing offer. However, for now I'd like to test the waters and try to get an idea of how this will all turn out. Contributing in any way to something you've done is a dream of mine, so your offer is greatly appreciated.

Good evening, gentlemen. I'd like to start off by stating that, while this thread isn't specifically about Avernum 6, I feel that it pertains more to Avernum 6 than any other board. This is an idea I've had for quite some time. Ever since getting about 1/4th of the way into my first Avernum game (Avernum 3, for anyone interested). Here's the plan; I intend to draw updated versions of every portrait available in Avernum 6. The game saw all new art in every department but the one I most wanted to see updated (not to say I am unhappy with how good Avernum 6 looks). As fond as I am of Mr. Foglio's Hunter's portrait art, I am, honestly, a bit tired of seeing it in every one of the Avernum games. At the same time, the fact that it has been in every game makes it so iconic (in my opinion) that simply creating all new character art wouldn't feel right. That is why, for my project, I plan on drawing heavily from Phil's Andrew's original art. http://bogbear.com/mod_data/AvernumArtEvolved/G229.png Here is a bit of a messy sketch illustrating what I plan on doing. My host was offline for a decent portion of today; If it ever is again, view the image here. http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/6582/g229.png To be entirely honest, I don't think I'll ever get around to finishing this project. Twenty Five portraits is a lot. However, it's something I really want to do. So if I've got this community's support, then I'll certainly be willing to take a hearty stab at it. Right now, what I want to know is; what you think of the project, Do you think you'd use this if I finish it? I'd also like comments and critiques on my preliminary sketches before I work on my final drafts of the portraits. While this is mostly a flight of fancy for me and my own tastes will be the strongest influence on how the images turn out, I can't see myself doing all this work just to have it be despised by the community I am making it for. My art will definitely be a lot closer to High Fantasy than Phil's Andrew's original art, and perhaps moreso than Avernum is meant to be, but that style fits both my taste and what I am good at drawing, so I wouldn't expect that to change, as horrifically untrue to Jeff's vision it may be. Speaking of deviating from the originals, how much of a travesty would it be if I gave both the Nephilim and the Slith portraits a bit more variety in their outfits? The Nephilim especially seem to have a recurring theme of loin clothism. Certainly not to the extent of giving them all decidedly human attire, but just, more than leaving them all in their undies. That's about all for now, I look forward to any and all replies. Also; if this is the wrong board for this thread there will be no hard feelings over it's relocation. edit: that plate on his stomach needs to change.

This isn't quite related to the OP's question, but it is related to the search for the Avernum.dat file. I too had the problem of not being able to find the Avernum.dat file no matter how hard I looked, and I could not find an answer to this on the forums. I ended up solving my problem with a casual case of "I wonder what this button does", and I figured I'd post my findings here, in-case there is anyone else here that is having this problem (/will have this problem) and can't find a satisfactory answer anywhere else. There is a button underneath the a folder's address bar (the /data folder in this case) called Compatability Files which is where, at least on my computer, the various Avernum.dat files are stored. As far as I can tell, even doing a full search of your computer does not bring up this folder or any of the files in it. Hopefully this information can help some people.

(Pardon the double post, I was expecting someone else to have posted by now) The tutorial isn't quite complete yet, by which I mean, all of the information is there, and the tutorial is, by all means, usable, but it's not quite up to my standards, and there were some unforeseen image errors caused by my use of blogger. Otherwise, feel free to use it as it is. http://btomfoolery.blogspot.com/2009/08/custom-avernum-portraits.html I'll be fixing a lot of the problems that I have with it tomorrow, I procrastinated on making it today which is the true cause of most of the problems with it, so hopefully spending more time on it will clean it up nicely. I'd appreciate comments and criticisms on it, I'd like it to be as easy to follow and useful as possible to everyone.

The techniques used in the tutorial are fairly standard, they should apply to other image editing software like GIMP. Just, the specifics will be decidedly Photoshop. I plan on posting it some time today.

I'm actually working on a short tutorial for photoshop on how to easily make a custom portrait (with an emphasis on making the portrait looks like it belongs in the game) for Avernum with little effort and no artistic skills, if anyone's interested

I noticed that the character portraits have all remained the same. Perhaps I may devote some of my time to updating these as a sort of fan project, I've always wanted to do that, perhaps this new graphical engine is a good opportunity to do so. Anti-aliasing yeah!

Is there a list somewhere that contains the exact effects of Traits and special abilities (like Berserk)? I find myself wary when choosing traits since I don't know exactly what they'll be doing. I've checked the manual and sites like Silver's maps to no avail. Perhaps people familiar with Blades might know the modifiers? I don't have any experience using BoA so I don't know how deep into the game system it goes. Any help would be very appreciated, thanks in advanced. This from someone who chose Completely Inept and Brittle Bones for his archer because he thought it would be funny, just to watch his level shoot up to twice that of the rest of the team and managed to be an essential member of the team.

Thanks for the suggestion, I was probably going to end up getting A1 and 2 anyways, didn't realize how much money I'd be saving by getting them all together. Y'all saved me some dollarz.