Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Let's make Minthara Great Again

I mean in the old one she had a vibe like Drow Joan Jett or something. Or, I don't know, I guess she might still be a Drow Pat Benatar Heartbreaker with those glam eyes now, but then they went and changed her hair too? Just kinda loses it in the overall impression for me. Even with more of the absolute neck tat showing, she somehow seems way less hard. She looked boss before and metal, now she looks all middle management casual friday and easy listening. Down to the pressed collar lol

The new armor looks like a rough draft version of the armor from before. You can see how the collar texture seems all muddled now, and the rings and belting looks all like cardboard. Even the cut seems like it hasn't been tailored. It's all boxy in the arms now. Maybe they did change the torso model, but I think its just the armor set. The trim where the arms connect to the torso, It makes her arms look twice as wide, and her spine like its in a totally different position in all these standing shots. The gestural sweep is different now making it feel like she has a different posture or a different build. The effect was created mainly by shadows, and different tangent lines, and color contrast rather than the underdrawing of the model, which is what seeing the new one makes clear to me.

The contours especially around her head, they look more cartoonish in the new version, because they are almost all hard edges now. Before the edges were broken up by cast shadows, or else the hair was breaking them up, or the makeup was breaking them up, or they were lost in the darker colors and values of her old clothing.

Hard edges flatten an image, even 3d images like the ones we're looking at. They got rid of the lost edges and soft edges, especially noticeable now around the ears and neck and so the result is that the total image loses depth. The clothing color choice exacerbates this further, by using tones that don't set up nearly as much contrast. All the colors bleed into each other in our heads, making the overall impression tonally warmer, which is not really what you want for a villain.

Remake the armor, but try it in black. Like with black trim instead of red. Or black belting instead of brown. I think the results would be much stronger. They chose a really poor red too, its garish next her skin tone and the browns. If her armor was going to be red, that's like the most boring red they could have chosen. It was better in purple. It would be best in black.

Watch how quickly the whole impression then shifts and throws the makeup and everything else in a different light again. They should dial her get up, so it can play into the rest of her design. Black armor would be the easiest way to make everyone applaud whatever ends up happening with the face. Especially if the PC could loot it from her! Easy win