Live Action Unit Cards and Portraits

**Osceola** · July 14, 2007, 10:21 PM

You read right.

An idea that sprang to mind, and I'm working hard at it as we speak!

Basically I'm going to be replacing the pictures of units on their cards (in campaign and when you right click on their icon in the battle map) with a picture of it's counter part in a live action movie.

Sounds a bit undoable with the selection of movies? Not really! I got to thinking and basically you can pretty much do any unit. Well sorta, but I've seen ALOT of medieval-ish movies (some obscure) and I have netflix, so I can get any I wont for my project.

Even on units where it would seem undoable, you can still do it, an example is the Sarmatian cavalry in King Arthur (in full armour) perfect for Kataphraktoi.

Teutonic Knights from Kryzcacy, artillery from a few Polish movies I've seen through netflix, Mongols from Musa the Warrior and Nomad, Aztecs from Apocolypto, Highlanders from Braveheart..

And then countless documentaries!

Must go, I gotta go dig through DVD's and start screen capping. I'll have my first previews up tomorrow..

**kelvintyk** · July 14, 2007, 11:12 PM

Would that affect performance on battle map?

**Mike13531** · July 15, 2007, 08:34 AM

i don't think so, cause that's got nothing to do with the maps.
Hey, what about character portraits?? I've been waiting for someone to create some of those.

**Osceola** · July 15, 2007, 11:04 AM

Thats why the word "Portraits" is in the topic title!

**Mike13531** · July 15, 2007, 01:16 PM

just making sure,

, awesome ! i'll be looking forward to your updates then. Anyways, you should make a compatible version with SS?? since your probably gonna be playing it too.

**Osceola** · July 15, 2007, 01:43 PM

I geuss, but I'm not really a modder, I'm just making the pictures and portraits for now in Photoshop, I'll have to figure out how to implement them, but I figure someone will be attracted to help once I get my first pics out.

**CtrlAltDe1337** · July 15, 2007, 01:56 PM

Aren't images from movies copywrited if you are taking them as a screenshot from the movie?

**Osceola** · July 15, 2007, 02:05 PM

Well in that case you'd best not be making wallpapers.. which is basically all I'm doing.

**Mike13531** · July 17, 2007, 06:37 AM

so? any updates, cao?

**Inhuman One** · July 17, 2007, 02:56 PM

Now this is something I would like to see. I personly think the portraits of generals all look pretty much the same. Variety is needed here.

Perhaps background characters from movies could be used for this since the main characters of movies would obviously have a name which goes with the portrait.

In Kingdom of Heaven, Braveheart, King Arthur, and similar movies there are alot of knights and other characters that would be perfect for portraits in the background.

I saw a clear presence of the HRE in the kingdom of heaven, their flags and shields were clearly seen. this could be used for them perhaps.

**Mike13531** · July 20, 2007, 10:34 PM

Hey cao, any updates?

**Osceola** · July 21, 2007, 02:14 AM

Originally Posted by Inhuman One

Now this is something I would like to see. I personly think the portraits of generals all look pretty much the same. Variety is needed here.

Perhaps background characters from movies could be used for this since the main characters of movies would obviously have a name which goes with the portrait.

In Kingdom of Heaven, Braveheart, King Arthur, and similar movies there are alot of knights and other characters that would be perfect for portraits in the background.

I saw a clear presence of the HRE in the kingdom of heaven, their flags and shields were clearly seen. this could be used for them perhaps.

Thanks for the help on that last bit! And your exactly right I planned on using the "background" pics quite a bit.

Also theres an English knight in the movie "Timeline" which looks VERY much like an HRE guy.

To flesh out some details..

I'll be using KoH extensively for Islamic factions, in fact it's almost my only source really, so if anyone knows bout good Medieval Middle East movies, let me know!

I'll be using Braveheart of course for plenty of Scots units, but King Arthur for Irish units, kerns for example.

I'll try to figure out a way to make use of XIII Warrior, suggestions appreciated.

Also I've got a great little obscure 1985 movie called Flesh & Blood that will be great for Rennissance-esque German units. The main characters are all Landsknechts.

Now I'am having some trouble though. Hardest faction yet is Ottoman Turks. Earlier Turks are simple, I'll be using that movie Nomad for them, but Ottoman as in Jannissary's are harder.

Byzantines will also be difficult, appreciate suggestions!

Oh and I had an idea for an Assassin portrait.. while watching Braveheart for ideas I took a snapshot of that scene where William Wallace walks into the British fort in an English surcoat and punches the general in the face. I think that would be perfect for an Assassin portrait!

As for Islamic assassins... I'll prolly just use ninjas. ;p

Anyways I'll layout what factions I need help with:

(Late) Turks

Spain

Russia

Denmark

**Inhuman One** · July 21, 2007, 05:30 AM

ah I thought of a few more.

The 13th warrior would be perfect for danish portraits.

In Gladiator you might find some useable portraits for islamic factions since the robes they wear in the medieval period dont differ much from the roman period. you might not need to use ninja's then. If you want robed faces you could look at lord of the rings, the hasharim have their faces conceiled and seem to be of middle eastern origin. Great for islamic assasins and spies.

I heard about an old movie about El Cid but I never saw it, if the costumes are good it could be a good source for spain though.

I cant think of a single medieval movie that involves russians though, but maybe some background characters of movies could be used for it that look like they could be russian?

Priests, cardinals and such shouldnt be hard to find since their robes havent changed much through time so many movies could be a source for that.

**Mike13531** · July 21, 2007, 02:24 PM

use KoH for turks too, especially the guy Orlando Bloom released

**Inhuman One** · July 22, 2007, 07:22 AM

that guy would be too recognizeable. I say go for the captains and such that you see around Salladin and the guy he released. There are penty around. And if a simple soldier has a good face to use, you cant see its a soldier on the portrait.

**Mike13531** · July 22, 2007, 01:10 PM

or that Imam around Saladin would also be nice

**Inhuman One** · July 30, 2007, 05:53 AM

any word on how the project is going?

**The Good** · July 30, 2007, 05:55 PM

I'm looking closely at this thread too, Inhuman One. It seems that this thread was forgotten for a few days.

**Mike13531** · July 30, 2007, 06:28 PM

ya man , everyone who started the portrait project ends up quiting. It's weird tho, i thought a lot more people would be interested

**jermagon** · July 31, 2007, 12:36 PM

Muslim Arab portraits.

I got these pics from historical Syrian tv series and arabic movies,hope they are usable.
http://rapidshare.com/files/46171184/portraits.rar.html