How to Make Custom Portraits in Baldur's Gate

Creating the Image Files

• 1

  Decide which image you would like to represent you in the game. Images scanned in from the covers of fantasy novels are a popular source.

• 2

  Open the image in your image editing software, such as Photoshop.

• 3

  Resize the image so it has the dimensions 170 by 110 pixels.

• 4

  Save the image in the bitmap format under whatever name you like, but make sure the last letter of the file name is "L" (e.g., for an image of a barbarian you might save the file as "barbarL.bmp"). This is the image that will appear when you open up the character sheet in the game.

• 5

  Select the part of this image containing your character's face, with the dimensions 60 by 38 pixels. This is the portrait that appears on the side of the screen throughout active play in the game. Copy this selection and paste it into a new image. Save the image in the bitmap format with the same name as the original file, but with an "S" at the end instead of an "L" (e.g., "barbarS.bmp").

Adding the Images to Your Game

• 6

  Create a folder named "portraits" in the main "Baldur's Gate" folder. The location of this main folder may vary depending on the choices made during installation, but by default on Windows PCs it is C:\Program Files\Black Isle\Baldur's Gate.

• 7

  Copy and paste the two image files you created into the new "portraits" folder.

• 8

  Start a new game of "Baldur's Gate."

• 9

  Choose "Custom" during the appearance section of the character creation dialog, and select the image you created earlier (this will be the larger of the two images you created: the smaller one will load automatically).