===[TASK]=== Improve hero portraits

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

I'll be honest. While @Sundiata's portraits and Rossi's are "better", it doesn't help the game to have 3 or 4  "better" portraits if all of the other portraits look completely different. Know what I mean?  That's the last I'll say on that score. lol

Edited July 29, 2020 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

1 minute ago, m7600 said:

If it's any consolation @wowgetoffyourcellphone, you can use my portraits for Delenda Est if you want all of them in the same style 

You better believe it.  

[Genava55]

On 7/26/2020 at 3:45 AM, m7600 said:

Fixed what @Loki1950 pointed out in regards to Cunobelin's potrait, and I scaled it up a bit as well.

Also, I'm including here the Gaul hero Vercingetorix.
The tools, as always, are: MakeHuman, Blender, Gimp.

Nice job. It is a shame we didn't have proper Celtic heroes yet as a reference for you.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

14 minutes ago, m7600 said:

@Sundiata hope you don't mind this sacrilege

I did the same thing for Amanirenas!

Can I have that background texture? 

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Edited July 30, 2020 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[Sundiata]

Just now, m7600 said:

My only concern is that @VictorRossi and @Sundiata might want to kill us for intervening their portraits XD

Don't worry, I butcher other people's artworks as a hobby  

Personally I'm not in favor of replacing any existing hand painted hero artwork in the vanilla game though. 

[Stan`]

So maybe let's focus on the missing ones, then see about the rest ?

[Stan`]

43 minutes ago, m7600 said:

Yeah, but I'll just continue this over at the Delenda Est forum, just so that I don't step on any toes by redoing the ones that already exist or have been proposed by other people. For example, someone else made a portrait of Iphicrates in this thread. I don't know if you're going to use that one or not, but I made my own version of it for Delenda Est. I'll attach the link below. Like I said, if Wildfire wants to use any of these, great. If not, no problem.

As you wish You're not stepping on anyone toes by offering alternatives

[Nescio]

Generally I like consistency. However, for hero portraits specifically, I think it's far more important they look good, are recognizable, and stand out. I would strongly recommend against basing hero portraits on actors in game; to me all soldiers look rather similar (possibly because I always play maximally zoomed out). I like the Boudicca and Nastasen portraits, not because their high detail, but because of the contrast between background and portrait; moreover, their bright background really differentiates them from the icons of other entities. As such, I recommend giving all hero portraits, or at least each hero of a civ, a clearly differently coloured background.

[Nescio]

@Stan`, when adding new portraits to the public mod, could you add folders under art/textures/ui/session/portraits/units/, one for each civ, as is already the case in actors/units/ ? Ideally each actor would have its own icon, so subfolders could help keeping things manageable, and have matching file names.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

4 hours ago, Nescio said:

@Stan`, when adding new portraits to the public mod, could you add folders under art/textures/ui/session/portraits/units/, one for each civ, as is already the case in actors/units/ ? Ideally each actor would have its own icon, so subfolders could help keeping things manageable, and have matching file names.

Are the new folders going to be "mace" or "macedonians"? 

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

4 hours ago, m7600 said:

I agree, but I was told to do the opposite of that : P (but that's why I decided to continue this over at the Delenda Est forum)

In general they can match the actors, but if you want to add artistic flair, then that's good.  

[Lion.Kanzen]

[Lion.Kanzen]

I am making some montages with 3D plus 2D techniques to create Cornelius Scipio.

first i'm looking for compositions.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

On 02/12/2021 at 4:33 AM, Lion.Kanzen said:

Ambioccular.

[Lion.Kanzen]

1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Ambioccular.

It's not really finished 

in fact I was trying a montage with the help of faceapp.

 

 

How can you understand the look came out strange product of artificial intelligence.

As  you can figurate I can't rely on someone else's work entirely to do the arstistic work.

 

I am interested in having the correct face, with the correct helmet, in the composition that best suit better.

 

And this just for reference.

But I'm thinking better to work the face in 3D and add a texture to it, then correct it.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Lion.Kanzen

[kul]

Does Cleopatra still doesnt have a potrait after all this time? Considering how popular she is, I'd figure someone must've made something for her by now. May I take a crack at it? Are the ingame model final enough for the basis of her appearance? (aka in Egyptian style wig and regalia)

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

35 minutes ago, kul said:

Does Cleopatra still doesnt have a potrait after all this time? Considering how popular she is, I'd figure someone must've made something for her by now. May I take a crack at it? Are the ingame model final enough for the basis of her appearance? (aka in Egyptian style wig and regalia)

Yes, please take a crack at it! This is what Delenda Est uses, but it's taken from Age of Mythology and is unusable in the base game. But Cleopatra did fashion herself as a new Isis, so a regal/Isis head dress wouldn't be out of the question.

 

I will say that most references show her with "simpler" attire, probably looking more like this most of the time, but what's the fun in that?

Edited February 16, 2022 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[Lion.Kanzen]

1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Yes, please take a crack at it! This is what Delenda Est uses, but it's taken from Age of Mythology and is unusable in the base game. But Cleopatra did fashion herself as a new Isis, so a regal/Isis head dress wouldn't be out of the question.

 

I will say that most references show her with "simpler" attire, probably looking more like this most of the time, but what's the fun in that?

A mix between both to evade copyright.

I suggested the clothes in another post.

[Lion.Kanzen]

[Lion.Kanzen]

reddish hair is a trend of that time.

the source is an online women's magazine so please excuse the way it's written.

 

Quoting:

For example, several mummies of Egyptian pharaohs were found to have hair with reddish pigments. Among them was Ramesses II (c. 1303 BC to 1213 BC), often referred to as ‘Ramesses the Great’, who was regarded as the most powerful and celebrated pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. Oh yes, gingers rule.

 

 

Around 500BC, redheads were first mentioned in literature by the Greek poet Xenophanes. In his work, he described how back then, people typically created their gods in their own image and therefore the Thracian Gods had blue eyes and red hair.

 

Furthermore, many Thracian graves had the inscription ‘Rufus’, meaning redhead, with Thracian often depicted as having red hair, too.

 

Next, in around 400BC, Herodotus described how the Budni, a large and powerful nation, all had bright red hair and deep blue eyes.

 

And today, when you visit the Acropolis museum in Athens, you will find several statues of ginger women on display. In ancient times, the hair of female statues was mostly painted red, as the Greeks loved the colour red. True, this could be due to the fact that limited paint colours were available back then.

 

However, it is also said that ginger hair was admired in Ancient Greece, because it was associated with honour and courage.

 

For example, Homer’s Iliad describes Menelaus and Achilles, both heroes in Ancient Greece, as redheads. He also mentions Menelaus’ wife, Helen of Troy, in both his Iliad and the Odyssey as having a ginge tinge. Helen of Troy was said to be the daughter of Zeus and Leda and is described in Greek mythology as the most beautiful woman in the world.

 

Furthermore, Aphrodite, the ancient God of love, beauty, sexuality and fertility was said to possess the MC1R gene as well.

 

On the other hand, it is said that the ancient Greeks thought that redheads turned into vampires when they died.

 

Also, with slaves in ancient Greek and Roman times often being imported from northern territories, red wigs were given to actors depicting slaves in Greek and Roman theatre. Still, it is sometimes said that redheaded slaves were more expensive in ancient Rome, as they were often thought to bring good luck.

 

However, the Egyptians believed that redheads were unlucky and should therefore be sacrificed – in this case, buried alive – to the God Osiris to end the bad luck.

 

Contrarily, it is occasionally mentioned that red hair was in fashion in Alexandria during Cleopatra’s time, possibly because Cleopatra was a redhead herself.

 

As you can see, historical information about redheads contains many contradictions and varies greatly across different cultures and countries.

 

Perceptions of redheads possibly fluctuated over time, just like today. Either way, we can safely state that, redheads drew a lot of attention in ancient times, and they probably always will 

https://gingerparrot.co.uk/the-ancient-history-of-redheads-and-ginger-hair/

 

Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, was not from Egypt. She belonged to the Macedonian Greek dynasty, which ruled Egypt from about 323 BCE until 30 BCE.

 

According to classical author Plutarch, Cleopatra though not an Egyptian, learned the Egyptian language for political reasons, also styled herself as one of the most important ancient Egyptian goddesses, Isis.

 

Her nationality is a topic of National Controversy. Despite her being the ruler of Egypt, she was not its National. She belonged to the renowned Plotemaic Dynasty, and her ancestors were Makedonian Greek from the Kingdom of Makedonia located in Northern Greece.

 

It was a trend or, rather, say, a culture in her family that no one would marry anyone out from their dynasty. They would only marry someone belonging to Greek royal families, so her family tree is a single straight line like a ladder.

 

Cleopatra was born to Plotemaios XII Auletes, who had several wives. He has had many children from all of her wives, so it is hard to tell the actual mother of Cleopatra. 

 

The actual truth about Cleopatra is still not found with proof, so the fact about her actual mother is also unknown.

However, Strabon of Amaseia, a Greek Writer has mentioned that of all the daughters of Ptolemaios XII, only the eldest daughter was legitimate. Her name was Berenike. So, if this statement is true, all other children were illegitimate, including Cleopatra.

 

There are a few speculations about how she looked and mainly about her physical size. Some movies and paintings including the movie Cleopatra ( 1963 ) have been portraying her to be with a well-built physique with a great height.

 

Greek biographer Ploutarchos of Chaironeia writes an incident about how Cleopatra and Julius Caesar met. The story mentioned helps us to know or assume the actual size of Cleopatra.

 

According to that writing, Cleopatra was hiding on a carpet when she first met Julius Caesar in around 47 BC. If this is to be true, we can say that she was not a tall woman but rather a tiny one. Otherwise, she would have fit in a rolled carpet.

Her physical appearance, including the color of her hair, is also an issue of debate. Few of the movies have portrayed her with dark black hair with bangs ( Cleopatra- 1963 ). Whereas some portray her hair to be blonde.

 

 

However, an old statue of her shows her with red, frizzy hair with a melon hairstyle and her signature cloth diadem on her head.

 

Some paintings show her with black color, and some portray her without the diadem; some images are with a very low neckline dress and bare shoulders- which is most probably not acceptable during that period.

 

There are some other portrayals of him, but they show her as a goddess who cannot be taken as the actual portrayal of Cleopatra.

The closest depiction could be seen in one of the houses in the Roman City of Herculaneum, which dates to the 1st Century AD. This painting of hers shows a pale skin tone. Since it is one of the oldest depictions of hers, it is considered to be the most relevant one.

 

However, the closest a movie or a show can display the accurate portrayal of Cleopatra in Rome. The role of Cleopatra is done by the English actress Lyndsey Marshal and made by HBO. 

 

Unlike other movies and shows, Rome portrays Cleopatra with a large, hooked nose and a comparatively short height of about 5 feet. She is also shown putting her in melon style with a dress similar to the statue of her. 

 

Also, her relationship with Mark Antony is portrayed in a realistic manner where they are believed to have fallen in love at first sight. It is rather similar to the story depicted by Shakespeare.

 

Despite many similarities, there are quite a few differences in this show. First, one is the low neckline of the outfit she is shown wearing. They have not used the signature diadem, which symbolized Cleopatra’s position as Queen of Egypt. Lastly, she is also shown wearing a necklace that is never seen in any of her statues or ancient depictions.

 

https://historyten.com/ancient-egypt/what-did-cleopatra-really-look-like/

Scholars identify Cleopatra as having been essentially of Greek ancestry with some Persian and Sogdian Iranian ancestry, based on the fact that her Macedonian Greek family (the Ptolemaic dynasty) had intermarried with the Seleucid dynasty.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Michael Grant states that Cleopatra probably had not a drop of Egyptian blood and that she "would have described herself as Greek."[16] Duane W. Roller notes that "there is absolutely no evidence" that Cleopatra was racially black African as claimed by what he dismisses as generally not "credible scholarly sources."[17]

 

Cleopatra's official coinage (which she would have approved) and the three portrait busts of her considered authentic by scholars (which match her coins) portray Cleopatra as a Greek woman in style.[18][19][20][21][22] Polo writes that Cleopatra's coinage present her image with certainty and asserts that the sculpted portrait of the "Berlin Cleopatra" head is confirmed as having a similar profile.[19] Roman frescoes in Pompeii and Herculaneum similar to the Vatican and Berlin marble sculptures have been identified as possible portraits of the queen based on comparable facial features and royal iconography.

 

In 2009, a BBC documentary speculated that Cleopatra might have been part North African. This was based largely on the examination of a headless skeleton of a female child in a 20 BCE tomb in Ephesus (modern Turkey), together with the old notes and photographs of the now-missing skull. The remains were hypothesized to be those of Arsinoe IV, half-sister to Cleopatra,[23][24] and conjecture based on discredited processes suggested that the remains belonged to a girl whose "race" may have been "North African". This claim is rejected by scholars, based on the remains being impossible to identify as Arsinoe, the race of the remains being impossible to identify at all, the fact that the remains belonged to a child much younger than Arsinoe when she died, and the fact that Arsinoe and Cleopatra shared the same father Ptolemy XII Auletes but had different mothers.[25][26][27][28]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_race_controversy

 

[kul]

What I had so far. I'm somewhat tied to her being hooked nosed, and the inbreeding might have gave her slight ugliness that can be hidden well enough with stylized bust, but I also realized that, she looks quite haggish here lol. Especially her jawlines which I havent touch well. I'll keep working on it, primarily trying to make her younger looking, but still had those unique atributes. I should've check this thread sooner and just use those 3d models that I'd liked as a base, since those are pretty much my ideal image of her.

Incoporated some of that 3D render above into the ref and I think I'm on the right track and doesnt have to start anew, so this is the base. I just went with something basic of that Isis headress since that pic also had the ref on how to draw the shine. Thanks for the support so far.

 

Edited February 17, 2022 by kul
Newer image progress.

[Stan`]

Keep it up!

[real_tabasco_sauce]

19 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Furthermore, Aphrodite, the ancient God of love, beauty, sexuality and fertility was said to possess the MC1R gene as well.

this has to be generated there's no way an actual human wrote this XD.

[Lion.Kanzen]

6 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

this has to be generated there's no way an actual human wrote this XD.

That was really weird to read.  girly fashion magazine.