Create Your Own Unique Character with a Custom Portrait in Pillars of Eternity

How to Create a Custom Portrait for Your Character in Pillars of Eternity

Pillars of Eternity is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive. It was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on March 26, 2015. The game is a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, along with Planescape: Torment.

pillars of eternity portrait maker

The game takes place in the fantasy world of Eora, mainly inside the nation of Dyrwood. The infants in the Dyrwood are plagued by a recent phenomenon in which they become "hollowborn" upon birth, meaning they are born with no soul. During the beginning of the game, the protagonist experiences an awakening of power due to a disastrous supernatural event, discovering they are a "Watcher": a person who can see past lives and interact with souls. The objective of the game is to find out what caused their awakening and how to solve the hollowborn problem.

One of the features of Pillars of Eternity is the ability to create your own character, choosing from six different races, eleven different classes, various attributes, skills, talents, and abilities. You can also customize your character's appearance, voice, and name. One of the most important aspects of your character's appearance is their portrait, which is a small drawing of their face that is used for the player character and other members of their party. The portrait is displayed on the character sheet, the user interface elements, and during dialogues with non-player characters (NPCs) or interactive objects.

While the game offers a variety of unique portraits to choose from during character creation, you might want to create your own custom portrait for your character, to make them more personal and distinctive. Creating a custom portrait is not very difficult, but it does require some basic image editing skills and knowledge of the game's file structure. In this article, I will guide you through the steps of making and installing your own custom portrait, as well as provide some examples of portrait mods that you can download and use.

Step 1: Find an image that you like and crop it to fit the portrait dimensions

The first step is to find an image that you like and want to use as your character's portrait. You can use any image that you have on your computer or find online, as long as it is not copyrighted or offensive. You can also use artwork designed for other famous video games or directly from artwork created by artists like Luis Royo.

Once you have your image, you need to crop it to fit the portrait dimensions. The game uses two separate PNG files for any given portrait, implementing the different image sizes used by the game. The two image sizes are:

• Large (210 x 330 pixels), seen on character sheets.

• Small (76 x 96 pixels), seen in the UI elements like the party bar.

You can use any image editor such as Paint.net, Adobe Photoshop or GIMP to crop your image. You can also use online tools like Custom Portrait Generator for Baldur's Gate, which allows you to upload your image and crop it automatically according to the game's dimensions.

When cropping your image, make sure that it shows your character's face clearly and fits within the frame. You can also adjust the brightness, contrast, color, and other effects to make your image look better.

Step 2: Resize and rename the image files according to the game's requirements

The next step is to resize and rename the image files according to the game's requirements. The game uses a specific naming convention for the portrait files, which is based on the character's race, gender, and class. The naming convention is as follows:

• For large portraits: [race]_[gender]_[class]_lg.png

• For small portraits: [race]_[gender]_[class]_sm.png

For example, if your character is a male human fighter, the portrait files should be named human_male_fighter_lg.png and human_male_fighter_sm.png.

The possible values for the race, gender, and class variables are:

Race

Gender

Class

human

male

barbarian

aumaua

female

chanter

dwarf

cipher

elf

druid

godlike

fighter

orlan

monk

paladin

priest

ranger

rogue

wizard

You can use any image editor or online tool to resize your image files to the correct dimensions. Make sure that the aspect ratio is preserved and the quality is not compromised. You can also use the Custom Portrait Generator for Baldur's Gate to resize your image files automatically.

Step 3: Copy the image files into the appropriate folders in the game's directory

The third step is to copy the image files into the appropriate folders in the game's directory. The game's directory is where the game files are stored on your computer. The location of the game's directory depends on how you installed the game and which platform you are using. For example, if you installed the game through Steam on Windows, the game's directory might be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Pillars of Eternity.

Once you have located the game's directory, you need to find the folders where the portrait files are stored. There are two folders that you need to copy your image files into:

• PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\art\gui\portraits\player\male for male characters.

• PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\art\gui\portraits\player\female for female characters.

Simply paste your image files into the corresponding folder, depending on your character's gender. You can also create subfolders within these folders to organize your portrait files better. For example, you can create a subfolder named custom and put your custom portrait files there.

Step 4: Select your custom portrait in the character creation screen or when hiring a new adventurer

The final step is to select your custom portrait in the character creation screen or when hiring a new adventurer. The character creation screen is where you create your character at the beginning of the game, choosing their race, class, attributes, skills, talents, abilities, appearance, voice, and name. The hiring screen is where you hire a new adventurer at an inn or tavern, creating a new character that joins your party.

In both screens, you will see a list of portraits that you can choose from for your character. You can scroll through the list using the arrows on the left and right sides of the screen. You will also see a button labeled Custom at the bottom of the list. Clicking on this button will show you all the custom portrait files that you have copied into the game's directory. You can select any of them for your character by clicking on them.

Once you have selected your custom portrait, you can proceed with the rest of the character creation or hiring process as normal. You will see your custom portrait displayed on your character sheet, UI elements, and dialogues throughout the game.

Conclusion

Creating a custom portrait for your character in Pillars of Eternity is a fun and easy way to personalize and enhance your gaming experience. You can use any image that you like and crop it, resize it, rename it, and copy it into the game's directory following some simple steps. You can also download and use some of the amazing portrait mods that other players have created and shared online.

Here are some tips and resources for finding more portrait mods:

• Browse through Nexus Mods, Mod DB, or Steam Workshop, which are some of the most popular websites for downloading mods for various video games, including Pillars of Eternity.

• Search for keywords like "portrait", "custom", "character", or "face" to find relevant mods.

• Read the mod descriptions carefully and follow any instructions or requirements for installing and using them.

• Check out some of these examples of portrait mods that I found online:

• Pillars of Eternity Portraits by Luis Royo: A collection of 30 portraits based on artwork by Luis Royo, a Spanish artist known for his fantasy and science fiction illustrations.

• Pillars of Eternity Portraits by ZeddicusZulZorander: A collection of 50 portraits based on artwork from various sources, including Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Witcher, and more.

• Pillars of Eternity Portraits by Luridel: A collection of 40 portraits based on artwork from various sources, including Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, and more.

I hope you enjoyed this article and learned how to create a custom portrait for your character in Pillars of Eternity. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below. Happy gaming!

FAQs

Q: Can I use custom portraits for NPCs or companions?

A: Yes, you can. You just need to find the portrait files for the NPCs or companions that you want to change, and replace them with your custom portrait files. You can find the portrait files for the NPCs or companions in the same folders as the player portraits, but with different names. For example, the portrait files for Aloth, one of the companions, are named aloth_lg.png and aloth_sm.png.

Q: Can I use custom portraits for different game modes or difficulties?

A: Yes, you can. Your custom portrait files will work for any game mode or difficulty that you choose. You can also use different custom portraits for different save files or characters.

Q: Can I use custom portraits for different versions or expansions of the game?

A: Yes, you can. Your custom portrait files will work for any version or expansion of the game that you have installed. However, some expansions might add new portraits or change the existing ones, so you might need to update your custom portrait files accordingly.

Q: Can I use custom portraits for multiplayer or online play?

A: Yes, you can. Your custom portrait files will work for multiplayer or online play as well. However, other players might not be able to see your custom portrait unless they have the same files on their computer.

Q: Can I share my custom portrait files with other players?

A: Yes, you can. You can share your custom portrait files with other players by uploading them to websites like Nexus Mods, Mod DB, or Steam Workshop. You can also share them by sending them via email, social media, or other platforms. However, make sure that you have permission from the original artist or source of the image before sharing it. dcd2dc6462