Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Mad_Jack Jul 21, 2008 2:47:19	I was out taking pictures of birds the other day, and didn't realize what I'd taken a pic of until after I got home... :D ][/url] Even better than those Bigfoot photos, huh?
#2 encara Jul 21, 2008 8:58:27	Conclusive proof. But seriously, that is pretty awesome
#3 Mad_Jack Jul 21, 2008 11:00:05	It's actually a picture of a hawk or turkey vulture I took recently. It looked so much like a dragon with a really short tail that I couldn't resist tweaking it a bit - I made the neck and tail a bit longer and voila! :D One of my other hobbies used to be digitally modifying pictures, putting elf ears or wings on webpics of supermodels and such, so it only took a few seconds to do...
#4 the_shaman Jul 21, 2008 11:12:17	Guys, can't you recognize a cockatrice when you see one? Geez
#5 Mad_Jack Jul 21, 2008 11:15:48	Guys, can't you recognize a cockatrice when you see one? Geez Hm... ya know, you may be right - my camera turned to stone right after I took that picture... :D
#6 Pippa Jul 21, 2008 11:21:14	That's nothing. I sighted Mordenkainen when I was in Venice last year. He's pretending to run a restaurant.
#7 encara Jul 21, 2008 11:41:36	I really hope we aren't living in Greyhawk.... >.<
#8 pigknight Jul 21, 2008 12:40:56	[snip] One of my other hobbies used to be digitally modifying pictures, putting elf ears or wings on webpics of supermodels and such, so it only took a few seconds to do... Seriously?
#9 Pippa Jul 21, 2008 13:18:22	God bless the wonders of Photoshop (and specifically the liquify filter)! ... I could make a convincing gnome out of all of you! Trying to drowify someone is bound to look horrible though.
#10 Mad_Jack Jul 21, 2008 14:21:45	I use Corel Photopaint 8, which isn't quite up to the same speed as Photoshop, but still does the job. If you know what you're doing, you can pull off some amazing stuff even with something simple like MSPaint. For this pic, it was literally a matter of opening up the pic in the program, selecting the size/shape of the stylus and the opacity, sampling the color of the bird, and clicking about five dozen times... It took about as long to change the picture as it did to upload it and post it here. Actually drawing on a pic is a lot faster than cutting/pasting elements of other pictures into something... For that, you need huge amounts of base material in order to find just the right lighting and angle to assemble the pieces so they mesh together well. This one below was about two or three hours of work altogether, I think... I changed her eye color, elf-ed her ear, and gave her some eyeshadow and makeup. It's really all about knowing how to get your program to do what you want. I'm nowhere close to being good at it, compared to a lot of the stuff I've seen around on the net. And turning somebody into a drow is a major pain in the arse - when you shift the colors on three-dimensional objects like hair and skin, it tends to flatten out and lose highlights. Like on this sea elf... Most of the time spent on it was redoing the highlights and shadows.
#11 defender_of_odintyr Jul 21, 2008 15:04:02	its really blury and far off, it must be true! but seriously nice picture!
#12 Pippa Jul 21, 2008 15:23:57	If you're a DM, Mad_Jack, you players must love you for this.
#13 Mad_Jack Jul 21, 2008 16:04:52	If you're a DM, Mad_Jack, you players must love you for this. Well, not so much with players, since I haven't run a game in years, but some of my friends who also play have had me take pics of them in certain poses so I could put their face or their favorite sword into a piece of fantasy art. Over on the Neverwinter Nights forums there are a fair number of pictures of celebrities that people have turned into character avatars like that. Between this and converting/painting minis, there's always somebody that wants me to do something, lol.
#14 Pippa Jul 21, 2008 18:18:14	Over on the Neverwinter Nights forums there are a fair number of pictures of celebrities that people have turned into character avatars like that. Eh, I once rigged a picture of Drew Barrymore to look like my character. It's part of the obsession of our group to create a 'cast' for our adventures... You could say our group now consists of Drew Barrymore, Jessica Biel, Natalie Portman and Jaye Davidson (used to be Cillian Murphey).
#15 Mad_Jack Jul 22, 2008 1:20:16	Drew Barrymore?
#16 Pippa Jul 22, 2008 12:35:46	Drew Barrymore.
#17 b4_life Jul 22, 2008 18:55:05	Elves don't have eyelids, pfft.
#18 theninjad Jul 22, 2008 22:27:47	Elves don't have eyelids, pfft. But...oh...oh dear god...HOW DID I NEVER REALIZE THIS?!?
#19 GMforPowergamers Jul 22, 2008 22:51:41	some one should set up a web page with all of these 'character snapshots'
#20 Mad_Jack Jul 22, 2008 23:12:27	Drew Barrymore. Very cool. I like the eyes.
#21 Pippa Jul 23, 2008 7:48:23	Thanks! Trademarked. And yes, seeing more 'character snapshots' would be so cool. I forgot to mention: the npc casting is maybe even funnier to do. We had Christian Bale as the vengeful elf turning traitor on the party, we ran into Alexander Siddig (AKA doctor Bashir) as a Mulhorandi Prince and I got to fling BBEG Arnold Vosloo (Imothep from 'the Mummy') in a boiling lake. Ouch. And we've been considering Tony Jay as a voice-actor for a big green dragon. But I said it once and I'll say it again - drow are im-pos-si-ble.