Portrait Packs for Monsters?

[Legacy_tenor_general]

               

In getting all the creatures together for my Cormyr: The Forest Kingdom project, I've run into a snag.  It's entirely related to my deep personal flaw of perfectionism.  

 

I absolutely can not stand the portraits available for many of the monsters, especially those made from screenshots of the models.  I feel like this is something someone else would have had an issue with in the past, and wanted to put the question to the community before replicating any previously done work.  I also did a search on the vault and didn't find much other than some kind of cartoony portraits also found in CEP.

 

Have there ever been any portrait packs for monsters done in the past?  If not, is anyone aware of a database of more realistic pictures of monsters that could be used (with GIMP touchups) to make a set of portraits?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Sachie]

               

I created one for elementals but plan to redo them at some point.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               

I was going to suggest drakonis.org, but right now there's nothing there except a text emoticon, which doesn't bode well.

 

Maybe search Google Images for each monster (with the setting Search Tools > Usage Rights > Labelled for Non-Commercial Reuse).

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_rjshae]

               

Quality portraits of that nature are not easy to come by, at least if you have scruples about the copyright law. Unfortunately, in this case the fair use law probably doesn't apply, so you can't just use smaller, clipped images. Even a derivative image can be on shaky grounds unless you've applied your own artistic personality to the image and made it substantially different. In the past when I've needed an illustration of that nature, I've gone to sites like elfwood.com, found an image I like, then asked the artist nicely if I could make use of their image for fully credited, non-commercial purposes. Another potential source is deviantart.com. Some artists are willing, especially if the image is intended as a portfolio work. '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_tenor_general]

               

Thanks for the suggestions all; we've decided to go with modifying screenshots from in-game with filters and touchups to make portraits which all match stylistically.  Like much of the rest of our server's materials, we'll probably be releasing the portrait packs on the vault in case others could make use of them.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_rjshae]

               

I wonder how well Blender could be made to work as a portrait generator? I.e. import the character model using Neverblender, insert a background plane, apply surface smoothing, normal mapping, and various lighting effects and shadows, then do a render pass. I've seen some very remarkable renders from skilled Blender artists.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_tenor_general]

               

That's also a good idea.