Huge opportunity

[Undeadprotoss]

Okay guys, we have something truly amazing on our hands. Blizzard just released a contest for fan-made portraits to make it into the final game of SC:RM. You can read all about it here: https://starcraft.com/en-us/articles/20937024

The top 10 winners get a Starcraft remastered T-shirt and the top 5 get a signed copy of the remaster. Of course, the absolute best portraits are actually put into the game by the team. Slight note, the portrait must be static and not animated.

[Visions of Khas]

Eee! On it!

[Robear]

Yup. Each person gets to submit 3 portraits, so I figure I'll do one for each race. VoK, you gonna do 3 protoss with SC1-style skin and markings? :P

[Undeadprotoss]

What programs do you guys use for this? i've never done art before but I'll be damned if I don't try now.

[Robear]

You can use any digital painting program. Photoshop is the industry standard and what I use at work, but GIMP (https://www.gimp.org/) is free and has all the tools you could possible need for this kind of digital painting. I actually like it a lot. And other free programs like paint.net (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint.net) (ironically their url isn't paint.net lol). Photoshop is the norm though.

The only slight barrier to entry is that it's definitely easier to do digital painting with a tablet, for both the ease of drawing and also for pressure sensitivity, which you can map to things like opacity of your digital brushstroke or whatever. It's definitely possible to do art without one (like, Samwise Didier mentions he did that Brood War Dark Archon art (http://samwisedidier.deviantart.com/art/StarCraft-Dark-Archon-450376033) back in the day completely with a mouse), just harder. I actually edited and colored a lot of the SC to scale drawings in GIMP on a laptop trackpad because I was out and about working on them... But I did start with scanned pencil drawings for those.

Some early versions of the remastered portraits got released at extremely high resolution back when they were announcing it, and so you can zoom in to see the digital brushstrokes in the picture. It's good to work at a super high resolution and then scale it down to their final dimensions after you're done, just in case you want to make little adjustments or want to scale up or zoom in on part of it, you'd be screwed if you started at low res.

http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/lichter/SCR/Wraith.jpg

Then for the final animated portraits in the game they're like 2.5D animated. For at least some of them it looks like they projected the digital art onto simplistic 3D models so then they can animate the head turning and stuff, but you could also do the mouths and backgrounds moving and lighting effects and stuff in 2D animation software these days.
(Here's the final wraith, it's decent enough)
(https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starcraft/images/2/28/Wraith_SCR_HeadAnim.gif/revision/latest?cb=20170728222701)

For this contest they only want the still image version. So maybe they'll animate them themselves, or (much more probably) these portraits will just be static bnet profile pictures, the way the ones in SC2 are. Good luck!

[Gradius]

^---was wondering how that was done.

[Visions of Khas]

Ever look at the original StarCraft character portraits and think, “'Pft, I can do better?” Well, now’s your chance!
Lads, I think we've got a mole.


VoK, you gonna do 3 protoss with SC1-style skin and markings? :P


Hell yeah, and so should you!

Naw, I'm actually leaning in the same direction you are. I'd love to take a stab at a terran soldier with heavy cybernetics, or a new zerg phenotype.

[sandwich_bird]

like, Samwise Didier mentions he did that Brood War Dark Archon art back in the day completely with a mouse

wtf, that's very impressive. Say what you want about the guy, gotta admit he got skills.

[Zoar]

was gonna pop in and post that up too, whoever made the Aldaris potrait I saw floating around needs to submit that one it kicks ass

[Visions of Khas]

Ugh, I think I already know who won (https://www.artstation.com/artist/tardieujulie).

That's just not fair. :(

[Robear]

I mean, yeah, ok, that is pretty phenomenal, and I'm not at that level yet. But I actually don't think that level of detail is necessarily something they're looking for, though it might sway the community voters. Since they linked their new battlenet profile pages as the example of where these portraits will be used, having them look good at small resolution as well (like ~80px) should be as important as having them look good close up.

http://i.imgur.com/MjqMhdF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QUM2TXP.jpg

I mean... that guy's also looks fantastic small... but slightly less intimidating/unachievable... slightly.

[Visions of Khas]

I mean... that guy's also looks fantastic small... but slightly less intimidating/unachievable... slightly.

Are you kidding me? That looks amazing! I love the delicate work with shadows; the subtle shading and sfumato are gorgeous, bringing some poignant beauty to a gritty hyperrealsm. Worse comes to worse, up the contrast a bit.

[Robear]

I didn't have time to be super original so here's how my Zerg entry is going. Just a boring ol' classic Hydralisk.

http://i.imgur.com/fsJlelQ.jpg

And scaled down more:

http://i.imgur.com/7QjhBtg.jpg

Hopefully can finish the other 2 tomorrow.

[Robear]

Not sure if I'll be able to finish the Protoss one. 23 hours remain. Here's where the Terran's at right now, and the Zerg. Gogogo!

http://i.imgur.com/OhSXjQc.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/2fsFy3J.jpg

[Gradius]

The Terran marine looks like a medieval renaissance drawing.

[Visions of Khas]

A black chick in marine armor? SJW!! Jk I like it, man. I'd think there'd be more diversity than we've seen in Koprulu.

I haven't had time to work on any portraits, unfortunately. Good luck Robear!! :D

[Robear]

Haha, I don't even consider it 'more' diversity. There are obviously black men around, from the original cinematics to major characters like Duran, Warfield, Tosh and Reigel. I'm guessing women probably exist too lol. And I've always figured Umoja's colonists were largely black given their choice of a Swahili name. Don't think the Protoss is gonna make it, but maybe I'll pull a hail mary. :(

[Undeadprotoss]

Haha, I don't even consider it 'more' diversity. There are obviously black men around, from the original cinematics to major characters like Duran, Warfield, Tosh and Reigel. I'm guessing women probably exist too lol. And I've always figured Umoja's colonists were largely black given their choice of a Swahili name. Don't think the Protoss is gonna make it, but maybe I'll pull a hail mary. :(

WE'RE ROOTING FOR YA ROBEAR! Those past two portraits were freaking amazing, can't wait to see the Protoss one and I hope you finish on time.

[Robear]

Thanks for the support! I'll definitely do something, won't give up.

Here's what I'm calling the final marine and hydralisk, just cause I'm out of time. On to Protoss!

http://i.imgur.com/iYSPPyN.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/2fsFy3J.jpg

I'm actually really happy with the marine as a painting, but if you scale it down further the face gets muddled, whereas the hydralisk, while a bit more basic, is more recognizable even when tiny. I don't really expect to win, but I'm still happy.

[drakolobo]

Thanks for the support! I'll definitely do something, won't give up.

Here's what I'm calling the final marine and hydralisk, just cause I'm out of time. On to Protoss!

http://i.imgur.com/iYSPPyN.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/2fsFy3J.jpg

I'm actually really happy with the marine as a painting, but if you scale it down further the face gets muddled, whereas the hydralisk, while a bit more basic, is more recognizable even when tiny. I don't really expect to win, but I'm still happy.

terran is good

hydralisk not for me, maybe if was more mrjack aniversary hidralisk tith more definition
http://media.blizzard.com/sc2/media/wallpapers/wall027/wall027-1920x1080.jpg

[Robear]

Welp, the finalists have been selected (https://starcraft.com/en-us/articles/21025649), go vote for your favorites.

[Visions of Khas]

Welp, the finalists have been selected, go vote for your favorites.

What the hell. I've seen better submissions floating around out there. And they picks these? Pfft.

Sorry, Robear. :(

[GnaReffotsirk]

You think it's fine for me to post my entries here? I'd like to show them to you guys.
At least give you guys some pleasure or something.

[The_Blade]

Plz do

[GnaReffotsirk]

These are it. I think you guys have seen the two, but the Aldaris one is new. Made it just for the contest.

I feel really sad not seeing any of them on the final list. I don't know if they got these, I haven't received any email confirmations.

[Visions of Khas]

It looks like Aldaris just tasted a lemon for the first time. XD

But these are cool, man. I especially like the Tassadar one. I think I saw a WIP on DeviantArt a while back.

[Undeadprotoss]

God damn it Gna, I'm really sorry you didn't get in, that's messed up. If it makes you feel any better, a lot of people had that issue, it was kind of a systemic problem. Yours are some of the best pieces of SC1 art I've seen in....well a long time.

I think if you posted those on the forums, people would really demand that you get put in.

[GnaReffotsirk]

God damn it Gna, I'm really sorry you didn't get in, that's messed up. If it makes you feel any better, a lot of people had that issue, it was kind of a systemic problem. Yours are some of the best pieces of SC1 art I've seen in....well a long time.

I think if you posted those on the forums, people would really demand that you get put in.

It's fine. Your appreciation, support, and enjoyment is enough for me.

I'm hoping against all hope to maybe get some attention, and possibly bring in some bread, but maybe time's not ripe yet.


edit: Okay I just posted on the forums. Can't help it. lol


It looks like Aldaris just tasted a lemon for the first time. XD

But these are cool, man. I especially like the Tassadar one. I think I saw a WIP on DeviantArt a while back.

Thanks Vok. I just can't figure out how to change the visual of the mouth thing, while keeping it there. I just can't imagine Aldaris without the bend in his mouth area. Anyway...

[Undeadprotoss]

It's fine. Your appreciation, support, and enjoyment is enough for me.

I'm hoping against all hope to maybe get some attention, and possibly bring in some bread, but maybe time's not ripe yet.


edit: Okay I just posted on the forums. Can't help it. lol



Thanks Vok. I just can't figure out how to change the visual of the mouth thing, while keeping it there. I just can't imagine Aldaris without the bend in his mouth area. Anyway...

If you started a Patreon, I would 100% donate. It's actually fairly easy to set up, and I'd glady help you.

Also, I took your post from the thread and made it into it's own topic so more people would see it.

[GnaReffotsirk]

Thanks brother.

I have a patreon but I need to learn to set it up properly. I'll focus on that now, and set it all up.

[Undeadprotoss]

Thanks brother.

I have a patreon but I need to learn to set it up properly. I'll focus on that now, and set it all up.

Awesome man. Just lmk when you do, can't wait!