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What are your favorite portrait artstyles?

Which one of these do you like?


  • Total voters
    101

octavius

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For some days I was worried that nobody would post this.
 

PEACH

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Jan 22, 2017
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285
Don't really have any general style preference, it largely depends on how it's executed and whether it fits the look and feel of the game. 3D Renders are generally the only ones I'm not very fond of.

In terms of specific games I'll echo the sentiment that AoD/Dungeon Rats have the best portraits though I have a soft spot for MM6 and Bloodnet

5-iD01N6oXzKy67.png
 

DemonKing

Arcane
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Dec 5, 2003
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5,958
There is quite a shift in portrait art style going from BG1 to BG2 (for the worse), so grouping them together doesn't really work for me.

One thing that I miss is animated portraits. They used to be quite common (Lands of Lore, Might and Magic, Planescape: Torment, etc.), but they've been virtually non-existent in RPG's since the 90's/early 2000's.

main_small.jpg

Agreed - those games were great - Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore, Wizardry 8 all had wonderfully animated portraits.

Can anyone think of another game since that has done the same?
 

zeitgeist

Magister
Joined
Aug 12, 2010
Messages
1,444
Realistic-Stylized (but preferably done in pixel art).

Most importantly, portraits need to be archetypal (not to be confused with generic) in the context of the gameworld - for example IWD portraits do this very well, whereas BG1/2 portraits look more like someone's original characters do not steal.

One thing I severely dislike is a combination of 2D portraits and 3D models, when there are highly detailed portraits that you can't even remotely recreate in the 3D character creation.

Off the top of my head, here are some games I remember liking the portraits from (and some that I even made avatars from a long time ago): Chaos Engine, Dune, BloodNet, Perihelion, Front Mission, Newcomer, Gemfire, Ogre Battle/Tactics, JA2, Wizardry (later games, including the SNES version of 6).
 

Nerevar

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Make the Codex Great Again! Pathfinder: Wrath
Wiz 8 had my favorite kind of portraits. Ones that are animated and react to status effects.
 

Kev Inkline

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A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Off the top of my head, here are some games I remember liking the portraits from (and some that I even made avatars from a long time ago): Chaos Engine, Dune, BloodNet, Perihelion, Front Mission, Newcomer, Gemfire, Ogre Battle/Tactics, JA2, Wizardry (later games, including the SNES version of 6).

:positive:
 

Jacob

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
tK58Ldbl.png


Is this game anime or not? The other characters looks like anime but this one isn't.
 

Darkzone

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Sep 4, 2013
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Realistic - Believable: portraits attempt to be realistic, but also look like they fit into the setting instead of looking like people from a Rennaisance fair.

Age of Decadence is a fantastic example: characters look straight out of a movie, realistic but with good expressions that make them feel part of the world.

ss_0025165ac7a34ba9adc7cdce6cdd7493cb33601e.jpg
Funny but it just struck me just recently how much i like this portraits, without seeing this thread.

I still can't tell what was going through Numenera team's mind when settling on portrait art style and designs, but at some point side cut was deemed vital.

2s1ty74.jpg
Side cut for a woman is a sign of mental health problems and physical instability. And this is based on my very long experience from the punk gothic szene.
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
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The Iron Tower Studio portraits are the single best portraits in the entire cRPG Genre. Period.

Mainly because they actually portray the actual characters in the game.

There is no other Developer that can actually pull this off currently, for cRPG's.
 

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