Duran Duran Concert

I wanted to let you know that I will be out of town for a few days - I am going to the Duran Duran concert in Vancouver! I've been a fan for 29 years. Ever since high school, I have wanted to see them perform live.

Update: May 1, 2008

I'm back from the concert and what an amazing performance! They sounded just as good live as they did in their recorded works. They played all of my favourites like Rio, Wild Boys, Hungry Like the Wolf, Come Undone, Notorious, Sunrise, Planet Earth, Save a Prayer (all of us waving our cellphones and lighters) among many others. I was impressed with their new CD, especially the Falling Down song. The whole band seemed to be really enjoying themselves and I know I won't ever forget the concert.



Testing on the Act I of the Saga is coming along very nicely, beta testing won't be too far off...I hope! I have plenty of encounters and dialogue to still add in, but the main storyline is basically ready now.

Custom Portraits

Now that the latest versions of Neverwinter Nights 2 supports custom portraits, I've been playing around with several portraits trying to find one for each companion that matches the look and personality of their character.

I've found a few that sort of come close to what I am looking for, but some day it would be great to have a talented artist draw one for each that really brings out their personalities.

Here's a screenshot of several companions (Trent, Erik and Logan) with their latest custom portraits - subject to change if I find better alternative portraits.

Tutorial: I place all of the 128x128 .tga portrait images in the My Documents /Neverwinter Nights 2/ portraits folder and then referenced them in the toolset under the companions' property tab - under "custom portrait" without the .tga extension.

For example, Logan's portrait is logan_1.tga and I would use the text "logan_1" in the Custom Portrait slot.

A great place to get ready made portraits are at the Vault: Special thanks to Coli for his portrait packs as well as the Skullport one by Laurna.

To make your own, an excellent resource is DeviantArt.com - ask the artist's permission before using his or her work if possible. You can edit an image using Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop by cropping it to the required 128x128 size.

Update on April 16, 2008 : Here are the custom portraits (image temporarily removed) that I am using so far for the companions of A Time to Die. All credit goes towards the artists who designed each portrait - I got them off the Neverwinter Nights Vault.

I'd like to get an artist to help me redo the ones for Logan, Ming-na, and perhaps, Ganamiel. I am happy with the rest of them since they fit the personalities and looks perfectly. You can find more information on the companions of A Time to Die on this page of my blog.

Update May 1, 2008

DeviantArt.com says I am violating copyrights by posting the portraits on their site - so I am temporarily removing the portraits here too until I confirm permission from all the artists involved. Special thanks to Elysius for helping me with several of the portraits (Logan and Ming-na so far.)